I thank thee oh Lord saith David that thou hast heard the voice of my weeping Where note weeping hath a voice And as musicke upon the waters sounds farther and more harmoniously than upon the Land So Prayers joyned with Tears cry louder in Gods eares and make sweeter musicke then when teares are absent When Antipater had written a large letter against Alexanders Mother unto Alexander the King answered him Dost thou not know that one teare from my Mother will wash away all her faults So it is with God A penitent teare is an undeniable Embassador An object look't upon when it is in the water seemes bigger than when it is out of the water Let us looke upon Irelands misery through the water of our teares and this will represent it in its due proportion Let us weepe because we cannot weepe let our hearts weepe because our eyes cannot weep To move your hearts a little more suffer mee to propound three examples 1. The example of Abraham who was so zealous for the preservation of Sodome that by an humble importunity he brought God down to these terms that if there had beene ten Wheat-ears in Sodome all the Tares should have been spared for these ten mens sake And when God was gone from Abraham he continued so solicitous for the good or Sodome that as Luther thinks he could not sleepe all night I am sure the Scripture saith He gate up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord and he looked toward Sodom to see what was become of his Prayers If Abraham did thus much for Sodome for wicked Sodome ought not you to be much more zealous for the Protestants in Ireland who professe the same faith and are under the same Government with us in England 2. Let me offer the example of Nehemiah who though for his owne particular he was in great prosperity and in great favour at the Court yet when he heard of the afflict on and misery of the people of God at Ierusalem hee sate downe and wept and mourned and fasted and never desisted till hee had obtained leave to goe and helpe his brethren at Ierusalem 3. I shall propound the example of Hierome who was writing a Commentary upon Ezekiel but when hee heard of the besieging of Rome a place wherein he had formerly lived and of the death of many godly people he was so astonished and amazed at the newes that for many nights and dayes hee could thinke of nothing Et in captivitate Sanctorum se esse captivum putabat He thought himselfe taken captive amongst those that were taken captive I might adde the story of Phineas wife but I forbeare Let these examples be your instruction and encouragement Me thinks I heare a voice in Ireland like the voice that was heard in Rama Lamentation and weeping and great mourning Rachel weeping for her children and would not be comforted because they are not Me thinks I see do not you so also the poore people of Ireland looking out of their windows and crying out as the Mother of Sisera Why is his chariot so long in comming why tarry the wheels of his Chariot Why is aide so long delayd where are Englands bowels Me thinks I see the very flames of this great fire that is kindled in Ireland Oh let this fire melt our hard hearts into pitty and compassion I doubt not but this Bucket will draw out a great deal of water this day There is one Bucket more the last but not the least and that is the consideration of the Lord Jesus Christ His body was rent and torne for us Oh let this rend and teare our hearts that ever we should sinne against such a Christ His bloud was poured forth as a sacrifice for our sins Oh let us pour forth our tears for our offences against him Beloved in the Lord This is a day wherin we ought to make conscience to get our hearts affected with deep sorrow for sin otherwise we do but take Gods name in vain Now there is no way more powerfull to produce this effect then by going to mount Calvary and by burying our selves in the meditation of Christ crucified There is a story of an Earle called Elzearus that was much given to immoderate anger and the means he used to cure this disordered affection was by studying of Christ and of his patience in suffering the injuries and affronts that were offered unto him and he never suffered this meditation to passe from him before he found his heart transformed into the similitude of Jesus Christ Wee are all sick of a hard and stony heart and if ever we desire to be healed of this soule damning disease let us have recourse to the Lord Jesus Christ and never leave meditating of his breakings kings and woundings for us till we finde vertue comming out of Christ to break our hearts Let us pray to the great heart-maker that hee would be the heart-breaker So much for the duty of humiliation The second duty wherein wee must expresse our turning to God is Reformation Humiliation is not sufficient without Reformation It is not enough to be broken for sinne but we must also be broken from sinne As a bird cannot flie with one wing nor a man walke with one leg no more can we get to Heaven by Humiliation without Reformation Both of them conjoyned are the legs and wings by which we walk and flie to Heaven And therefore let me most earnestly exhort you to repent from sin as well as for sin The Crown we fight for this day the Garland we run for the Marke we aime at is Mercy this is our joynt suit That God would shew mercy to England and Ireland Now the way to obtaine mercy is clearly expressed Prov. 28 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have mercy This God cals for from Heaven this all the faithfull Ministers in the City preach for this day Reformation Reformation Reformation As Master Bradford at the stake cried out so do I at this time Repent O England repent repent There is a three-fold Fast a Fast from meat from mirth and from sinne The two first will not suffice without the last A beast may fast from meat The Divels fast saith Ambrose The old World as some thinke did never eate Flesh and yet they were all drowned Though we could fast till we were perfect Anatomists though we could pray and kneele till our knees were as hard as Camels knees as it is reported of Iames the brother of Christ yet all were to no purpose without this turning from sin This is jejunium magnum as Austin saith This is jejunium totius anni jejunium omnium partium This is the great and the everlasting fast to fast from sin by reformation Now this Reformation it must have two Properties vvhich are both of them mentioned in the Text 1. It must be Personall 2. It must be
easily appeare our Heavenly David though hee march never so furiously Repentance is so acceptable to God that he rewarded Ahab for his hypocriticall repentance that others by his example might be provoked to turne truely to God who knew not his repentance to be hypocriticall I have here a large field of matter for a yeare rather than a day But as a little Boat may land a man into a large Continent so a few words may suggest matter sufficient to a judicious eare for a whole lives meditation I shall not spend time in unfolding the nature of this duty of turning from sinne or in shewing the reasons why this turning is so potent to divert judgements and procure mercies this is the worke of every Sermon I will onely make one Use of exhortation for it needes application more then explication To beseech you to turne the doctrine into practice and to expresse the sincerity of your Repentance by two duties which are as the two poles upon which our turning from sinne doth move By humiliation and reformation Humiliation for sinnes past Reformation for the time to come Humiliation without Reformation is a foundation without a building Reformation without Humiliation proves often a building without a foundation Both of them together comprehend the Essentialls of this great duty which is the very quintessence of Practicall Divinity 1 Let us turne unto God by humiliation for sinnes past This day is a day of humiliation A Sabbath of weeping and mourning Wherein we should wash the feete of Christ with our teares wherein we should weepe bitterly before the Lord powre forth our hearts like water and strive who should put most teares into Gods bottle I beseech you let us turne unto God with true penitent teares drawne from the Well of a broken heart fetcht out with the backet of Gods love Let us sanctifie a fast and afflict our soules before the Lord that this day may become a day of attonement And because the Well is deepe and our hearts are very hard and some it may be want buckets to draw water withall Give mee leave to offer unto you seven buckets which will serve as seven helpes to humiliation 1. Let every man consider his owne sins which hee himselfe is guilty of Have wee not broken the holy and righteous Commandements of God a thousand times and shall not this break our hearts Have wee not broken our vowes and covenants which wee have often made with God and will not the meditation of this break our hearts God in Scripture is said to have a bagge and a bottle A bagge to put our sins in and a bottle to put our teares in Have wee not filled Gods bag with our sinnes and shall wee not now fill Gods bottle with our teares Doth it not grieve us that wee have so often grieved the Holy Spirit of God Are we not heavy laden with those sinnes with which God himself is pressed as a Cart with sheaves Is not God himself broken with our whorish hearts and will not this break our hard hearts Have wee not had yeares of sinning Oh let us have one Day of mourning Have we not trampled the bloud of Christ under our feete and shall not the bloud of this Scapegoate melt our adamantine hearts It is an excellent saying That in all the sins we commit we must not so much consider the sin that is committed as the God against whom it is committed And this will provoke us to great Humiliation for little sins as well as great sins For there is no sinne simply little There is no little God to sinne against The lest minimum spirituale the least offence is committed against an infinite God and therefore deserves infinite punishment There was no little price paid for little sins the least sinne cost the shedding of the bloud of the eternall God There is no little disobedience in a little sinne For as there is the same rotundity in a little round Ball as in a great one So there is the same disobedience against God in a little sinne as well as in a great one To dis-obey God in a little is no little dis-obedience There is no little unthankfulnesse in a little sin For the lesser the thing is in which wee offend God the greater is the unthankfulnesse that we will sin against God for so little a matter There is no little pollution and defilement in a little sin A little puddle may dirty a man as well as a great one A little Bodkin may wound a Caesar to death There is no little punishment for little sins For the wages of sin is death The wages of sin as sin and therefore of every sin A quatenus ad omne valet consequentia Non est distinguendum ubilex non distinguit And therefore let us I beseech you mourne with a great lamentation for our little oaths our idle words our omissions of good duties and defects in good duties c. Can we mourne for the losse of our estates for the death of our Children And shall we not mourne that we have lost God and the peace of a good conscience by our sins and that our hearts are so dead and dull to goodnesse Can wee cry for the stone in the bladder and not for a stony heart The stone in the bladder can but kill the body but a stony heart will cast body and soule into Hell Weepe for those diseases that will destroy soule and body for ever Wee have beene often in the valley of Hinnon sacrificing our sonnes and daughters unto Divels by their wicked educations improoving our parts and mercies to the service of the Divell Oh let us this day descend into the Valley of Bacah and let us make this Church a Bochim a place of weeping We have many church-Church-sins Sermonsins sacrament-Sacrament-sins Let us have church-Church-tears for our Church-sins A second help to humiliation is the consideration of the sinnes of the Nation wherin we live This Kingdome is an Island incompassed with three Oceans not onely with an Ocean of water but also with an Ocean of mercies no Nation more exalted in mercies and I may as truly adde with an Ocean of sinnes And that which makes our sinnes the greater is because our mercies have beene so great We have sinned under mercies we have provoked God at the Sea even the red Sea This was a great aggravation of the Israelites sin and so it is of ours Wee have sinned not onely under mercies but with our mercies wee have made a golden Calfe with the jewels of mercies which God hath bestowed upon us We have taken the Members of Christ and have made them the members of a Harlot What sin is there under the cope of Heaven whereof any Nation is guilty which we have not ingrossed to our selves Let us weepe for the beastly drunkennesse of this Nation But why do I call it beastly for generally beasts are sober It deserves
a name inferiour to beasts for so it makes a man for the time Austin saith that in his days drunkennesse was growne to that heigth as that there was no remedy against it but by calling of a Synod And in our dayes it is growne to that Gyant-like bignesse as that there is no hope of redresse but in the Parliament Woe to this Land because of this sinne this is that which will make us unable to stand before our enemies and to stagger like a drunken man For this sin God gives a Land over to the spirit of giddinesse Let us weepe for the blasphemous swearing that is in the Nation wherein if in any thing there is a pride taken in offending God for other benefit of it I know none For this sinne the land mourneth and let us mourne Weepe for the adultery and fornication which as an Epidemicall disease hath overspread the Nation Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge If man will not God will He that divorceth himselfe from his wife and joyns himselfe to a harlot God will divorce himself from such a man and divorce his mercies and blessings from him VVeepe for the covetousnes of the Nation This sinne is the root of all evill and for this sinne God will root out a Nation He that is swallowed up with earth as Corah and his company his eares stopped with earth his heart stuffed with earth God will give him earth enough when he dyes and they that love earth so immoderately are likely to have little enough of Heaven Weepe for the oppression Extortion Bribery Lying Griping Usury Cousenage and Deceit in trading These sinnes will cause a fourth Ocean to encompasse this Island and that is an Ocean of misery Let us shed teares for the innocent blood that is shed in the Land for the divellish pride that is amongst us Pride of heart pride of apparell in following the fashions of every Nation almost How justly may wee expect that God should make us slaves to that Nation whose fashions we so eagerly follow Mourne for the great prophanation of our Christian Sabbath-day how can we expect that God should give us rest in this Land if we will not give him a Sabbath a day of rest Oh let our eyes gush downe with rivers of teares Oh that our heads were fountaines of teares for the Idolatry that Land-devouring sinne of Idolatry for the superstition the Apostasie the contempt of the Gospel and of the Ministers and Ministery of it that raignes amongst us It is time for God to deprive us of Manna when we begin to be weary of it the time may come we may have Sermons few enough that neglect them so much as some doe The Confessors that fled for their Religion in Queene Maries daies acknowledged as Vrsinus relates that that great inundation of misery came justly upon them for the neglect of and unprofitablenesse under the Gospel which they had enjoyed in King Edwards dayes And if they were so severely punished for a few yeares contempt of the Gospel what a superlative degree of punishment doe we deserve that have had the Gospel of Peace and the peace of the Gospel for almost an hundred yeares and yet are so unlike the Gospel in our conversations The time would faile if I should make a catalogue of our Nationall sinnes Oh let us be one of the mourners in Sion for the abhominations of the Land that so we may be mark't out for safety And let us take this rule to perswade us Those sinnes which we know others to commit and yet mourne not for them these sins become our owne sins And therfore we may well pray with Austine Lord deliver me from other mens sinnes which for want of mourning and grieving for I have made mine owne A third bucket to draw the water of teares withall is the consideration of the great breaches that are in Church and State We are divided in minutula frustula as Austine of the Donatists Let these breaches break our hearts Let these rents rend our hard hearts For the division of England let us have great thoughts of heart A fourth helpe to humiliation is the consideration of the miseries that are like to come upon us as the woefull consequent of these breaches As our Saviour Christ when hee came neere Ierusalem and beheld the sinne of it and the desolation that was impendent over it he wept saying Oh that thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes c. So let us contemplate the sins of England and the destruction which wee may justly expect as the fruite of our sinnes and let us weepe over England and say Oh England England that killest the Prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee Oh that thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong to thy peace It is reported of Xerxes that having prepared 300000. men to fight with the Graecians and beholding so great a multitude of Souldiers hee fell a weeping out of the consideration that not one of them should remaine alive within the space of an hundred years Much more ought we to mourn when we consider the abundance of people that are in England and the abundance of sin perpetrated among us and what shall become not onely of our bodies within these few years but what shall become of our souls to all eternity A fifth Bucket is the contemplation of Germany which is now become a Golgotha a place of dead mens sculs and an Aceldama a field of bloud Some Nations are chastised with the sword Others with famine Others with the man-destroying Plague But poore Germany hath been sorely whipped with all these three iron whips at the same time and that for above twenty yeares space Oh let us make use of this Bucket and draw out water and poure it out before the Lord this day let us send up our cries to Heaven for Germany It is a signe that we are not true members of the body of Christ because we have no more fellow-feeling of the miseries of the same body A dead member hath no sense of its own misery or of the bodies distemper If wee be living members we will simpathize with the calamities of Gods people A sixth helpe to Humiliation is the consideration of the bleeding condition of Ireland I need not relate you have great reason to know it better than my selfe the inhumane barbarous Canniballisticall and super-superlative out-rages butcheries and massacres that are there committed by those bloudy Rebels Oh let us send up one teare this day as an Orator to the Throne of Grace to plead for mercy for poore Ireland This is one chiefe cause of this generall Fast to pray and weep for Ireland Help it Right Honourable Oh helpe it vvith your Prayers and Tears Tears have voices as vvell as words
ENGLANDS Looking-Glasse PRESENTED IN A Sermon Preached before the Honorable House of COMMONS At their late solemne FAST December 22. 1641. By Edmund Calamy B.D. And Preacher at Aldermanbury LONDON EZEK. 18.31 Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new Spirit Why will yee die O house of Israel Published by Order of the House LONDON Printed by I. Raworth for Chr. Meredith and are to be sold at the Crane in Pauls Churchyard 1642. To the Honourable House of COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT OBedience is a virtue of such great worth that Luther did rather desire to have grace to be obedient than power to work miracles Out of this very Principle it was that I first adventured to preach before such a grave and judicious Senate coram tam multis viris tam paucis hominibus And from the same Principle it is that I now present the Sermon to a more publike view The time allotted for the making of it was so short by reason of your more serious affairs that it might have been a sufficient Apology to excuse both the preaching and printing of it had not pure Obedience justly silenced all such Apologies And now it is printed the Sermon it self is so poor and mean that it may fitly be answered to me what Apelles once did to a Painter who having drawn many Lines in a little space of time and boasting to Apelles that he had done so much in so short a time it was replyed That he wondered that he had drawn no more But yet howsoever my humble request is That you would accept of this poor Mite this little Goats-haire which your commands like a Mid-wife have brought into the world And indeed the kinde entertainment it found in the hearing and the great acknowledgement of your Thanks farre above all expectation or desert afterwards is an abundantly sufficient incitement against all discouragement whatsoever The subject of the Sermon is of great concernment It is about the ruine and repair of Kingdoms and Nations a matter sutable for you that are the representative Body of the Kingdom Sin ruines Kingdoms When Nicephorus Phocas had built a mighty Wall about his Palace for his defense he heard a voyce in the night crying {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Though thou build'st thy walls as high as Heaven sin is within and this will easily batter down thy walls Sin is like a Traytor in our own bosomes that will open the gates to the enimy Sin weakens our hands and makes them unapt to fight Sin taketh away the courage of our hearts It was not the strength of Ai that overcame the Israelites but Achans sin Sinne causeth a great Army to be overcome by a little one The Army of the Syrians came with a small company of men and the Lord delivered a very great host into their hand because they had forsaken the Lord God of their Fathers The sins of England are the enimies of England These beleaguer our Walls and are as so many Canaanites alwayes rising up in rebellion against us But now on the contrary Repentance and Reformation repairs and upholds Kingdoms and Nations this is their Fortresse and Tower of defense their Munition Armour and Wall of Brasse to defend them Righteousnesse exalteth a Nation but sinne is a reproach to any People The Lord in mercy ruinate our sinnes and not the Nation the same Lord worke a Nationall Reformation and make you his Instruments in this great work Much hath been done by you this way already which is acknowledged in this ensuing discourse with great thankfulnesse The Lord enable you to perfect what you have begun He that is the Finisher of our faith finish this much-desired Reformation It is very observable that when God raised up Magistrates such as Nehemiah Zerubbabel and others to pity Sion that lay in the dust and to repair her breaches at the same time he raised up Prophets also such as Haggai Zechariah and others to strengthen the hands of the Magistrates and to encourage them in so noble a service and therefore it is expresly said Then the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah prophesied unto the Iews that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the Name of the God of Israel even unto them Then and not before rose up Zerubbabel and Jeshua and began to build the house of God which is at Jerusalem and with them were the Prophets of God helping them And Ezra 6.14 The Elders of the Iews builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the sonne of Iddo and they builded and finished it according to the Commandment of the God of Israel c. By both these Texts it appears that the Magistrates began and finished the reparations of Gods House by the help of the Prophets of God Suffer me therefore as divers others have done before the unworthiest of all Gods Ministers according to my duty and place to beseech and exhort you to the consummation of those blessed good things which you have begun to do for the Church of God in England And the God of all blessings blesse you and yours So prayeth Your much obliged Spirituall Servant EDMVND CALAMY A Sermon Preached at a Fast before the Honourable House of COMMONS Jerem. 18.7 8 9 10. At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them And at what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to build and to plant it If it do evill in my sight that it obey not my voyce then I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them THis Text may fitly be called a Looking glasse for England and Ireland or for any other Kingdom whatsoever wherein God Almighty declares what he can do with Nations and Kingdoms and what he will do 1. What he can do He can build and plant a Nation and he can pluck up pull down and destroy a Nation And when a Kingdom is in the depth of misery he can in an instant if he but speake the word raise it up to the top of happinesse and when it is in the heigth and Zenith of happinesse he can in another instant speake a word and throw it downe againe into an Abysse of misery 2. What he will do God will not alwayes use his Prerogative but he will first speake before he strikes he will first pronounce judgement before he executeth judgement And if that Nation against which he hath pronounced the evill of punishment turn from their evill of sin then will God repent of the evill he intended to do unto them And not only so but he will build and plant that Nation and of a barren
licence you to make your wills your laws and your lusts your gods and to commit not onely peccata but monstra that are Pessimi maximi not Optimi maximi The great Jehovah against whom you sin is greater than the greatest he bindeth Kings in chains and Nobles in lincks of iron He hath provided Tophet of old yea for the King it is provided Hell was made for great men as well as poore Observe how resolutely and emphatically the Prophet speaks yea for the King it is prepared Potentes potenter torquebuntur Ingentia beneficia ingentia vitia ingentia supplicia To whom God hath given great mercies if they abound with great vices God will inflict great punishments upon them Think of this you that trample the bloud of Christ under your feet by your prodigious oathes and by the contempt of the day worship and servants of Christ The bloud which you contemne is nobler than the noblest bloud that runs in your veins It is the bloud of the eternall God of that God before whom the great as well as the small must appear at the great day of Judgment in which terrible day the Kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men vnd the chiefe Captains and the mighty men will hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains And say to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb c. They that are here cloath'd in silk and velvet shall wish for the mountains to cover them which yet shall be but a poor shelter For the mountains melt at the presence of the Lord and the rocks rend asunder when he is angry They that made others to flye away from them as innocent Lambs from devouring Wolves shall be afraid of the wrath of the Lamb that sitteth on the Throne Great men must dye as well as others and when they are dead there is no difference between the dead bones of Philip of Macedon and other men as Diogenes told Alexander Remember the wofull Catrastophe of Herod the great Agrippa the great Pompey the great Oh let all men fear to sin against that God that removed the Assyrian Monarchy to the Persian and the Persian to the Graecian and the Graecian to the Roman That toucheth the mountains and they smoak before whom the Devils feare and tremble Oh let not our hearts be harder than the rocks worser than Devils Oh England feare the God of Heaven and earth Oh you House of Commons tremble and sin not most in the World sin and tremble not Do you tremble and sin not We are all in Gods hand as a flye in the paw of a roaring Lion as the clay in the hand of the Potter Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie are we stronger than he Consider the advantages God hath us at and our dependencies upon him and let us not dare to sin against him A Sanctuary in all distresses and dangers Let us flye to this God of power who giveth Kingdoms and taketh away kingdoms as he pleaseth The great superintendent Fly to him as to thy Ark thy Pella thy City of refuge And in our deepest miseries let us sing cheerfully the 46. Psalm as Luther was wont to do God is our refuge and strength a very present help in trouble I will not feare though the earth be moved and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea c. A divine project to secure a Nation from ruine to make this great Jehovah our friend for if God be on our side we need not feare those that are against us Deus meus omnia Tranquillus Deus tranquillat omnia And for this very purpose we are here met this day in Gods Sanctuary flying to the horns of the Altar to beseech that God who is the only Potentate King of kings and Lord of lords that only doth wonderfull things that he would be reconciled unto us that he would quiet the commotions that are in Ireland reduce the Rebels into order sheath up the sword that is there drawn and quench the flames that are there kindled That the Lord would knit the heart of our Soveraign to his people more and more and of his people to him That he would unite both Houses of Parliament that they may joyn together with one heart as one man to relieve poor Ireland and reforme England Athanasius tells us that Anthony the Monk fought against the Divell with that Text Psalm 68.1 Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him The Divell is more afraid of this Text then any other for he knows he is Gods greatest enemy and if God arise he must needes be scattered Oh let us set God on work this day to destroy the implacable enemies of his Church arise oh Lord and scatter the Irish rebells arise oh Lord and confound Antichrist and build up the walls of Ierusalem The Romans in a great distresse were driven to take the weapons out of the Temples of their Gods and to fight with them and so they overcome This is our course this day wee fight with the weapons of the Church Prayers and Teares The Spartans walls were their speares Our walls are our prayers our helpe standeth in the Name of the Lord who hath made Heaven and earth Lord speake a word and Iericho shall fall be favourable to England and Ireland Lord take away our tinne and purely purge our drosse Our trust is not in our bow nor speare Let us labour to become Gods favourites and then we have all happinesse concentred in two words The second Doctrinall conclusion Though God hath this absolute power over Kingdomes and Nations yet he seldome useth this power but first he gives warning I say he seldome useth it for I do not lay it downe as a generall rule Deus non alligat suas manus God may and doth sometimes destroy at once and give no warning Thus he dealt with the Heathen Ammonites and Idumaeans as Calvin observes but he seldome or never sends any great judgement upon his own people but first he speaks before he strikes First Verba then Verbera as it is in the Text At what instant I shall speak c. If that Nation concerning which I have pronounced c. First God pronounceth a judgement before he executeth a judgment he lightneth before he thundreth he hangs out his white Flag of mercy before his red Flag of utter defiance first he shoots off his warning Peeces before his murdering Peeces And the Reasons are 1. That all the World may take notice that all punishments and afflictions come not by chance or fortune but from the immediate hand of the great God It is he that forms the light and creates darknesse it is he that makes peace and creates evill I the Lord
Wrath. And this is Gods Methode First He threatneth before he punisheth And if his threatning anger reforme us wee shall never feele his punishing anger but if his threatnings prevaile not wee shall certainly feele his punishing anger And if neither threats nor punishments prevaile nothing remains but his condemning Wrath. Si non audies vocem misericordiae senties vocem judicij Si nonaudies primam tubam senties ultimam Si non audies Deum minantem senties punientem condemnantem What destroyed the old World but because they did not regard Noahs warning What destroyed Lots sonnes in Law but because they mocked at Lots warning 2. They will aggravate our condemnation For as a childe in the Mothers womb the longer it is in the wombe before it comes forth the bigger the childe will be and the more pain it will put the Mother unto So the longer God keeps in his wrath and is patient toward a Nation the bigger the childe of wrath will be when it comes forth and the greater will be our misery and affliction This Metaphor God himselfe useth Isaiah 42.14 I have a long time holden my peace I have been still and refrained my selfe now will I cry like a travelling woman I will destroy and devoure at once Though God hath leaden feet yet he hath iron hands The longer he is before hee strikes the heavier the blow will be when hee strikes Patience is the proper purchase of the bloud of Christ There was no patience under the first Covenant Deus non expectabat Angelos non expectabat Adamum God did not wait for the Angels nor for Adam but as soone as ever they had sinned Hee throws the one out of Paradise the other into Hell But for us sinfull sons of Adam God for Christs sake tarrieth and waiteth our conversion Oh let us not sinne against the merit of Christs bloud Read the 5c Psa. 21 22. These things thou hast done and I kept silence thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thine eyes Now consider this ye that forget God lest I tear you in peeces and there be none to deliver Let us not stop our ears from hearing these eight Voices lest God turne his words into blows and stop his eares from hearing our voices in our extremities There are two degrees of mercy in God Misericordia parva misericordia magna His little mercy and his great mercy For God to wait our conversion and to fore-warne us of evill to come this is a mercy and a great mercy in it selfe considered But it is but a little in comparison of the second mercy which is the great mercy And that is when God gives us grace to make a holy use of his patience to make his patience our salvation and to be led to repentance by it The Lord bestow this great mercy upon us The third Doctrinall conclusion That Nationall turning from evill will divert Nationall judgements and procure Nationall blessings So saith the Text If that Nation turne from their evill then will I repent and not only so but verse 9. I will build and plant it c. The Doctrine is a mercifull qualification of Gods absolute power he is so farre from using it as that he indents and covenants with every Nation If they repent I will repent Now whereas God is here said to repent it is spoken {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but it must be understood {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} God is not as man that he should repent Hee is said to repent because hee doth that which men doe when they repent I will repent That is I will turne my judgements into mercies God doth sometimes will a change but he never changeth his will God from all eternity decreed to be served in the old Testament with types and figures and in the New-Testament in spirit and truth Here was a will of achange but no change in Gods will When God is said to repent the change is in us not in God As when the Sun softneth the wax and hardneth the clay here is a different act of the Sunne but the change ariseth from the different object not from the Sunne So God from all eternity decrees to punish the impenitent and to blesse the penitent And when a Nation by Gods Almighty grace becomes penitent God turnes his punishments into blessings but the change is in the Nation not in God And now give me leave to speake my minde freely J am not come hither this day to feast your eares but to wound your hearts you must not expect elegant and fine phrases Non licet in tanta miseria disertum esse This is a day not for humane but divine eloquence Non loquor disertae sed fortia A day wherein we are to cry mightily unto God to knock aloud at Heaven gates and to extort mercy from Gods hands by a holy and acceptable violence And for my part I know not any Doctrine more sutable to worke upon your hearts and affections then this plaine conclusion That there is no other way to procure blessings from God or to turne away judgements from the Land but by turning from sinne unto God The wrath and punishments which sinne hath twisted Repentance will untwist Sinne is as a thicke Cloud stopping the Sun-shine of Gods mercy but if we turne from sinne this will melt the cloud and cause the Sonne of Righteousnesse to shine upon us Sinne it is as a Divell in the Aire to hinder our prayers from ascending but if we turne from sinne this will charme the Divell and make Satan like lightning fall downe from Heaven Sinne is like so many great peeces of Ordnance planted and charged upon high mountaines ready to shoote downe Cities and Kingdomes But if we turne from sinne this will take away the force of these Cannons and make them as Paper-shot Sinne is a wall of separation betweene God and us To turne from sinne will breake downe this wall Sinne is the great make-bate betweene God and man Sinne dissolveth Parliament unhappily Sinne puts variance betweene a King and his Subjects Sinne destroyed Rochel and the Palatinate it brought the sword into Ireland and will bring it into England unlesse we turne away from all our evill doings To turne from sinne is a key to unlock all the chests of Gods mercies It is Clavis viscerum Dei A preservative against all misery Oh the divine Rhetorique and omnipotent efficacie of Repentance This is that Raine-bow which if God seeth shining in our hearts he will never drowne our soules That starre which will bring us to Christ A repenting faith is our Sacra anchora to flye unto it is Ilex misericordiae it tyes Gods hands and charmes his wrath There is no thunder-bolt so great no wrath so furious in God but Repentance will abolish it This Abigail will
Nationall It must be personall for so saith the Text If that Nation against vvhom I have pronounced turn from their evill A malitia sua Every man hath some sinne vvhich is his peccatum in delicijs his dilectum delictum his beloved sin the sin of his constitution Let us turne from that sin vvhatsoever it is and if vve know not vvhat that sin is let us turne from every sinne and so vve shall be sure to turne from that sin This the King of Niniveh commanded that every one of his Subjects should cry mightily unto God and not onely so but every one to turne from his evill way and from the violence that is in their hands Thus must we vve must be able to say vvith David I have kept my selfe from my sin We live in times wherein there vvas never more turning Some turne like the Dogge to the vomit and like the Sow to the wallowing in the myre Some turne Atheists some Papists some Socinians some Arminians Some turne like the weather-cock which way the winde bloweth which way soever preferment goes that way they turne Many turn Neurers Many turne from Christs side to be of Antichrists side Many turne cold and Icy for God and his Church Some are like unto the Chamelion that will change it selfe into any colour but white So many will turne to be any thing but good If times turne ill they will be naught but if times turne good they will not be good But I beseech you let all us here present before the Lord this day turn sincerely unto the Lord our God from all iniquity Let us strip our selves stark naked of all the rags of the old Adam Repent of your pride dust and ashes doth better become you Repent of your gluttony and drunkennesse let weeping be your drinke and fasting your meate Repent of your swearing Condemne your selves out of your owne mouths that God may justifie you Repent of your covetousnesse If ever you expect to gaine Heaven looke not after the earth so much Repent of your Adultery that God may marry you unto himselfe and least you be married to eternall flames Repent of your security that you may live securely No way to escape damnation but by Repentance and no man that ever repented aright but did escape damnation Oh that this day might be the conversion of some sinner that they may be able to say From such a fasting day I began to turn unto God! Oh that this Fasting-day might be a Festivall-day to the Angels in Heaven who rejoyce at the conversion of a sinner Oh that some Zacheus would make restitution this day That some Prodigall childe would return to his Heavenly Father God Almighty exceedingly delights to shew mercy to a penitent sinner As a husband-man delights much in that ground that after long unfruitfulnesse proves fruitfull and calls his friends and neighbours to behold that ground As a Captain loves that Souldier that once fled away cowardly and afterwards returns and fights valiantly Even so God is wonderfully inamoured with a sinner that having once made shipwrack of a good conscience yet at last returns and swims to Heaven upon the plank of Faith and Repentance This is a notable provocation to all wretched hard-hearted sinners to turn unto God by true Repentance God is so farre from refusing you that he rejoyceth in your conversion and is more ready to receive you then you are to come And I may safely adde That in some sense God delights more in a penitent Prodigall then in one of his righteous children As the good Shepheard rejoyced more in his lost sheep then in his 99. sheep And the good Woman in her lost groat And the good Father in his lost sonne more then in the sonne that went not astray It is true that Innocency of life is better simply and absolutely considered than Repentance And it is more to be desired to live without sin than to have grace to repent after sin As a whole Garment is better than a rent Garment and yet a rent Garment may be so handsomely pieced together that there shall be little difference between that and a whole Garment A penitent sinner that feelingly apprehends the great mercy of God in pardoning so great a sinner as he was the sense of this distinguishing love of God towards him raiseth up his heart to a higher pitch of zeal and enables him to draw neer to God with more affection and fervently to be more tender of sin and to do and suffer more for God many times than those that are more righteous than he is As suppose two men at Sea the one comes safely to shore without danger the other escapes to shore not without great hazard and perill of life He that comes without hazard hath more cause simply to be thankfull yet ordinarily he that had the greater danger out of sense of his danger will return more praise than the other Saint Paul laboured more than all the other Apostles because he was a greater sinner than all the other Apostles and had obtained greater mercy Therefore Mary Magdalen loved much because much was forgiven her We never reade that the blessed Virgin ever came to wash the Feet of Christ with her tears But Mary Magdalen a great sinner she did it and she comes first to the Sepulcher and afterwards as some report she spent 30. yeers in Gallia Narbonensi in weeping for her sins Gregory brings the example of David who after he had obtained pardon for murdering Vriah and committing adultery with Bathsheba fell a longing after the water of Bethlehem But when the water was brought He poured it forth before the Lord and would not drink of it because it hazarded the lives of his men Observe how tender of sin David was after his Repentance He that before had spilt innocent blood is now troubled in conscience for putting the lives of his men in jeopardy He that before longed for another mans wife doth now repent for desiring another mans water Bernard brings the example of Peter who before his denyall considently told Christ Though all forsook him yet he would not Yet afterwards when he had repented of his denying of Christ he was so tender that when Christ purposedly asked him three times Lovest thou me more than these he answers not comparatively as before but positively Onely Lord thou knowest I love thee And this is another provocation to exhort all sinners to lay hold upon this holy Anchor this wrath-charming Repentance Come all ye prodigall children all ye lost sheep that have gone astray Behold your Heavenly Father is not onely ready but joyfull to receive you and if rightly understood more joyfull than in his faithfull Children Was there ever mercy like to this Oh that we had hearts to embrace it And the greater any man is in estate and parts the more honour God shall have if such a man will turn to God this day Great men are
Oh that your lives might shine forth in holines after this day and that it may be with you as it was with Hezekiah when he and all his people kept the Passeover together the first thing they did before the killing of the Passeover was the taking away all the Altars that were at Ierusalem and casting them into the brook Kidron And when the Passeover was finished all Israel that were present went out to the Cities of Iudah and brake the Images in peeces and cut down the groves and threw down the high places and the Altars out of all Iudah and Benjamin in Ephraim also and Manasseh untill they had utterly destroyed them all I speak not of any tumultuous disorderly illegall way but of an orderly and legall reformation Which I desire like this of Hezekiah may be the issue of this day The Motives are many 1. If you build Gods house God will build Houses for you as he did for the Hebrew Midwives he will blesse and prosper you Remember what the Prophet Haggai saith Is it time for you O yee to dwell in your ceiled houses and this house lye waste Now therefore thus saith the Lord consider your wayes Yee have sown much and bring in little yee eat but ye have not enough ye cloath you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes Thus saith the Lord Consider your wayes go up to the Mountain and bring Wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord c. Read also Verse 9 10 11. 2. Consider what Mordecai said unto Esther Think not with thy self that thou shalt escape in the Kings house more then all the Iews for if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Iews from another place But thou and thy Fathers House shall be destroyed And who knoweth whether thou art come to the Kingdom for such a time as this As Ierome said concerning the day of judgement That whether he did eat or drink or whatsoever he did he did alwayes hear the voice of the Arch-Angel Arise yee dead and come to judgement So doe I desire that you would at all times and in all places remember and consider this soul-awakening speech of Mordecai and Esther 3. Consider the famous examples of Ezra Nehemiah and Zerubbabel what care and pains they took for the rebuilding not only of the Walls but also of the Temple of Ierusalem It is not enough to set the State in tune but you must remember to repair the Temple also Be not afraid of Tobiah Sanballat or of any other enemy Who art thou O great Mountain Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain A Parliament-man must be like Athanasius who was Magnes Adamas A Loadstone and an Adamant A Loadstone by his affable carriage and courteous behaviour drawing all men to the love of him But in the cause of God he was as an Adamant untameable and unconquerable 4. If we reform and turn God will turn If we turn from the evill of our sins God will turn from the evill of his judgements Tertullian speaks of himself That he was born to nothing else but to Repentance An excellent saying for every one to lay to heart The first Text that ever Iohn Baptist preached on was Repentance The first that ever Christ preached on was Repentance And the first thing that Christ commanded his Apostles to preach was Repentance God himself hath consecrated Repentance by his own example saith Tertullian Dedicavit poenitentiam in semetipso He repenteth to teach us to repent This is that which God not only commands and entreateth but sweareth that he would have us to do Happy we for whose sake God swears but most unhappy if we beleeve not God when he swears and if we live not as we beleeve Will a nationall reformation certainly divert Gods judgements from a Nation Did not Iosiah reform and yet it is expressely said That notwithstanding this Reformation Yet the Lord turned not from the fiercenesse of his great wrath wherewith his anger was kindled against Iudah because of all the provocations that Manasses had provoked him withall 1. A nationall reformation will certainly deliver us from everlasting misery 2. It is Gods ordinary way for the removeall of temporall judgements There is no instance fully against it but this of Iosiah but to this it may be replyed that Iosiahs reformation in reference to the multitude was hypocriticall and therefore it did only prorogue and adjourn but not totally remove Gods wrath That it was so in regard of the people appears Ierem. 3. 10. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart but fainedly saith the Lord A sincere Nationall turning will certainly divert Nationall Judgements and procure Nationall Blessings If we will not turn reform and repent of our sins God will repent with a new kinde of repentance he will not repent of the evill but repent that he hath repented of the evill he will repent of the good wherewith he said he would benefit us And this leads me to the fourth Doctrinall Conclusion Doctrine 4. That when God begins to build and plant a Nation if that Nation do evill in Gods sight God will unbuild pluck up and repent of the good he intended to do unto it This is a point of great concernment expressely set down in the tenth verse It is certain that God hath begun to build and plant this Nation and he hath made you his Instruments Right Honourable in this great work We reade Zechary 1.19 of four horns which scattered Iudah and Ierusalem By these four horns are meant all the enemies of Gods people that are alwayes pushing at them and goring of them And verse 20 we reade of four Carpenters whom God raised up to fray away these horns Such Carpenters have you been unto us You have knockt off all those horns wherewith the fat Buls of Bashan pushed at us You have endeavoured to under-prop the House of this Kingdom and to keep it from falling You have stubb'd up many unprofitable Trees and taken away at least in your endeavours many rotten posts you have removed a great deal of rubbidge You have been our Ebedmelech's to release our Ieremies out of the Dungeon Indeed you have done marvellous things blessed be the Name of the Lord And we have cause to be enlarged in much thankfulnesse though you never have opportunity to do more for us Ezra blessed God that had given them a little reviving in their bondage A man that hath been for many yeers in a dark Dungeon will rejoyce exceedingly for a little crevise of light though never so little We have been in the Dungeon of despair and we blesse God for the
little crevise of light let in by your means We have lien among the pots inter ollas fuliginosas sullied with filth and there is a crevise of hope in the Valley of Achor that we shall be as the wings of a Dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold And though this childe of hope be but yet an Embrio We will not despise the day of little things When Ezra had laid the foundation of the Temple there was great joy and rejoycing We doubt not but there is a foundation laid of better times and such a foundation which shall never be taken away The Lord recompence all the pains you have taken upon you and yours And yet let me adde one word as a parenthesis that Nehemiah after all his good services he had done for the Church sub-joyns these words Remember me O my God concerning this and spare me he begs pardon for his noble work of Reformation Blessed be God here is hope of a faire building and of a most beautifull Paradise if things succeed as they have begun But now marke the Doctrine When God begins to build and plant if that Nation do evill God will un-build what he hath built pluck up what he hath planted He will repent of the good c. For you must know that God repents as well of his mercies as of his judgements When God had made Saul King and he proved stubborne and disobedient God repented that ever he made him King When God saw that the wickednesse of the old World was great upon earth He was grieved at the very heart and repented that ever he made man When David was bringing home the Arke with great pompe because it was not brought home in due order and because of Vzzah's sin God repented of what he was doing and the Arke stayed in the middle way When the people of Israel were come out of Egypt and very neere Canaan because they brought an evill report upon the Land of Canaan and murmured The Lord repents of what he had done and carries them backe againe forty years journey through the vast howling Wildernesse Reason 1. Because Gods Covenant with a nation is conditionall It is quamdiu se benè gesserit If that Nation obey my voice then wil I build it and plant it but if it disobey my voice then will I pluck it up pull it down and destroy it The Lord is with you while ye be with him and if ye seek him he will be found of you but if you forsake him he will forsake you If you do wickedly you shall perish both you and your King 2. Because that sinne is so pernicious to a that where sinne rules there God and his mercy will not abide Sinne takes away the favour of God by which all Nations subsist And if Gods favour be gone all is gone Sinne dissolves the very Joynts and Sinews of a Nation Religion maintains and upholds Kingdoms The Trojans had their Palladium as long as that was safe they were safe The Romans had their Ancile as long as that was kept they were secure The Israelites had their Ark as long as that was sure there was a defense upon Mount Zion Pure and undefiled Religion is the Palladium the Ancile the Ark to preserve Kingdoms But sinne betrayeth Religion into the hands of superstition and idolatry Sinne is a Serpent in the bosome a thief in the house poyson at the stomack a sword at the very heart of a Nation If the Serpent be in the bosome it will bite if a thief in the house he will steal if poyson in the stomack it will pain us if a sword at the heart it will kill us Use Hence we may learn what the reason is of the great delay in the Reformation of the Church why the childe of Reformation sticks in the Birth why the hand of mercy begins to be pulled in and why many observers of the times begin to fear that this is not as yet the appointed time wherein God will have mercy upon Sion I am very confident that the fault is not in you to whom I speak but it is laid down 2 Chron. 20. 33. Howbeit the high places were not taken away for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their Fathers The people of the Land would not bear a thorow Reformation I deny not but that the Land in which we live is a Land of uprightnesse As many amongst us truely religious as in any place in the world of the like bignesse But yet the Bulk of our people are wicked and their hearts are not as yet prepared to the yoke of the Lord Oderunt vincula pietatis They are unreformed themselves and it is no wonder they are so opposite to a thorow Reformation It may be said of many amongst us as Ieremy did once say of his people The Prophets prophesie falsly and the Priests bear rule by their means and my people love to have it so and what will ye do in the end thereof Now it is this sin of the Land that weakens your hands and divides you sometimes one from another and keeps you from perfecting this great work of Reformation And I conceive no way better to remedy this than by sending a faithfull and painfull Ministery thorowout the Kingdom For if you will be pleased to observe you will finde that those places which are rud'st and most ignorant most irregular and where the least Preaching hath been are the greatest enemies to Reformation This is a work worth of serious consideration The Lord stir up your hearts to consider it and open your eyes also clearly to perceive that there are more with you then against you and that when God reformes a Nation he doth not finde us prepared but he makes us prepared When God sheweth mercy to a Nation there goeth power with the mercy to heal the Nation Ezek. 36. 24 25 26 27 28. If when a Nation doth evill in Gods sight God will repent of the good he intended c. Let us repent of our evils committed against God that he may not repent of the good he intends to do unto us Chuse which you will If we repent God will repent of the evill c. If we repent not God will repent of the good c. And suffer me to tell you That when God begins to draw back his mercies from a Nation that Nation is in a wofull plight God repented that he made the old World And what followed The next news you hear is they were all drowned He repented that he had made Saul King and the next news we hear is That he was rejected from being King He repented that he had brought the Israelites out of Egypt and thereupon he carries them back again and swears that not one of them should enter into Canaan but that all their carkases should perish in the Wildernesse It is