Gods Anger and Mans Comfort, Sermon 1
GOD'S ANGER, AND MAN'S COMFORT.
TWO SERMONS, Preached and Published BY THO. ADAMS
LONDON, Printed by Tho Maxey, for SAMUEL MAN, at the signe of the SWAN in Paul's Church-yard, 1652.
TO The Most HONOURABLE, and CHARITABLE BENEFACTORS,
Whom God hath honoured for his Almoners, And, Sanctified to be his Dispensers of the fruits of Charity and Mercy To Mee, In this my necessitous and decrepit Old age, I humbly PRESENT This Testimony of my Thankfulnesse: WITH My incessant Apprecations to the Father of all Mercies, to reward them for it in this life, and to crown their Souls with everlasting Joy and Glory, in the life to come, Through JESUS CHRIST our Lord.
Amen.
THO. ADAMS.
GOD'S ANGER.
PSALM 80. ver. 4.
O Lord God of hostes, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth?
IT hath been said of Warre, that it is Malum, an evill, but it may be Necessarium, a necessary evill. It is good sometimes to hunt the Wolfe, though it is better to fodder the Sheep. They speake of a drowning man, Etiam ad Novaculam, that he will rather take hold of a knife, then of nothing. A very coward will catch the edge of a naked sword, to save his life; though it cut his fingers. Man being cast out of Paradise, and that Paradise guarded with a sword in the hand of a Cherub, durst not attempt a re-entry, because he was guilty. But Commonwealths that have lost any part of their Territories, or just Priviledges, by forraign invasion, and hostile violence, may justly venture upon the sword, and fairly hope for a recovery, because they are innocent; & hanc picem amolire gladio. Irene signifies Peace; Yet the Turke could sacrifice his beuteous Irene to the God of Warr. If Warr in it self were utterly unlawfull, God would never have accepted this Title, The Lord of hostes. Yet in this stile he takes such delight, that he is oftner called the God of hoasts in the former Testament, then by any other Title. In those two prophesies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, it is given him no lesse then an hundred and thirty times.
All creatures are mustered, and trained, put into garison, or brought forth into the field by his command. Which way can we look besides his Armies? If upward into heaven, there is a band of Souldiers; even a aLuk. 2. 13.multitude of the heavenly host praising God. If to the lower heavens, there are a band of Souldiers: it bGen. 2. 1.was universa militia coeli, to which those Idolaters burnt incense. On the earth, not only men are martialled to his service; so Israel was called the host of the living God: but even the brute Creatures are ranged in arrayes. So God did levy a band of flyes against the Egyptians; and a band of frogs that marched into their bedchambers. He cPro. 30. 37.hath troops of locusts, and armies of caterpillers. Not only the chariots and horsemen of heaven, to defend his Prophet, but even the basest, the most indocible, and despicable creatures, wherewith to confound his enemies. If Goliah stalke forth to defile the God of Israel, he shall be confuted with a pebble. If Herod swells up to a God, God will set his vermine upon him, and all the Kings guard cannot save him from them. You have heard of r…s that could not be beaten off, till they had destroyed that covetous Prelate, and of a flie that killed Pope Adrian. God hath more ways to punish, then hee hath creatures.
This Lord God of hostes is not properly a title of Creation, but of providence. All creatures have their existence from God, as their Maker: and so have they also their order from him, as their Governour. It referrs not so much to their being, as to their martialling; not to their naturall, but militant estate: Nor only as creatures do they owe him for their making, but as they are souldiers, for their managing. Their order is Warlike, and they serve under the colours of the Almighty. So that here, God would be respected, not as a Creator; but as a Generall. His anger therefore seems so much the more fearfull, as it is presented to us under so great a Title; The Lord God of hostes is angry. They talke of Tamberlain, that hee could daunt his enemies, with the very look of his countenance: oh then what terrour dwells in the countenance of an offended God? The reprobates shall call to the rocks to hide them dRev. 6. 16.from the wrath of the Lamb: If Ira Agni, the wrath of the Lamb doth so affright them, how terrible is Ira Leonis, the wrath of the Lyon? It may justly trouble us all to hear, that the Lord God of hostes is angry: in the sense wherof the Prophet breaks forth here into this expostulation; O Lord God of hostes, how long wilt thou be angry with thy people that prayeth? Wherein we have these five propositions, or inferencies naturally arising out of the text.
1. That God may bee angry; for that is manifestly implyed in the Text; He is angry.
2. That his anger may last a great while: O Lord, how long wilt thou be angry?
3. That his anger may extend to the whole nation: how long wilt thou be angry with the people, all the people
4. That his anger may fall upon his owne people, even his peculiar and chosen flock; How long wilt thou be angry with thy people?
5. That his anger may dwel upon them in their devotions, and not be removed by their very prayers. How long wilt thou be angry with the people that prayeth? Yea, against their prayer?
Now God is never angry without a cause: he is no froward God, of no techy and pettish nature: a cause there must be, or he would neverbe angry. There can be no cause but sin; we never read that God was angry for any thing else. Some he hath corrected without respect unto sin, as he did Job: but he was never angry with any man, but for the sin of that man. It is the sin of the people that hath thus grieved God, and it is the anger of God that hath thus grieved the people. Sin must be supposed to run along with his anger throughout the text, as the eclyptick line does thorow the Zodiake.
1. If it were not for sin, God would not be angry.
2. If it were not for the continuance of sin, he would not be so long angry.
3. If it were not for the universality of sinne, he would not be angry with the whole people.
4. If it were not for the unnaturall ingratitude of sinne, he would not be angry with his own people.
5. If it were not for the base hypocrisie of sin, he would not be angry with his people that prayeth.
Thus then the argument lies fair and plain before us.
1 It is sin that makes God angry.
2 It is the continuance of sin that makes him long angry.
3 It is the generalty of sin that makes him angry with the whole people.
4. It is the unthankfulness of sin, or the sin of unthankfulnesse, that makes him angry with his owne people.
5. Lastly, it is the hypocrisie of sin, or the sin of hypocrisie, that makes him so long angry with his people that prayeth.
1. We provoke him by our rebellions, and he is angry.
2. We continue our provocations against him, and he is long angry.
3. Wee provoke him universally, and so he is angry with us all; not with some offenders here and there, but with the whole people.
4. We provoke him by our un kindnesse; for whom he hath done so much good, and upon whom hee hath heaped so many blessings; and so hee is angry with his own people.
5. Lastly, we provoke him by our dissimulations; approaching to him with our lips, and keeping back our hearts: we pray un to him, and yet live against him: we call upon his Name, and rebell against his will: and so he is angry, and long angry, and long angry with the whole people, and long angry with his own people, and long angry with his people that prayeth.
1. God may be angry, and sin is the cause of his anger; thats the first Proposition. Man may be angry without sin, not without perturbation: God is angry without either preturbation or sin. His anger is in his nature, not by anthropopathie, but properly; being his corrective Justice, or vindicative Justice. Iratus videtur, quia tunquam iratus operatur. Our anger is an impotent passion: His a most clear, free, and just operation. By this affection in our selves, wee may guesse at the perfection that is in God. The dissolute securitans think that God doth but smile at the absurdities of men; that ludit in humanis: that their drunkennesse and adulteries rather make him merry then angry. Like some carnall father, that laughs at the ridiculous behaviour of his children … to whom their wanton speeches and actions are but a pleasure; and in which he rather encourageth, then chides. ePsal. 2. 4.Indeed, God is said to Laugh; He that sits in heaven laughs them to scorn: but woe be to the men at whose fooleries God laughs. It is a dissembling falshood in man, to smile and betray, as Judas began his trechery with a kisse: Such are likened to those bottled windy drinks, that laugh in a mans face, and cut his throat. But this laughter in God, argues not so much what he does, as what they suffer; when by frustrating their sinfull purposes, he exposeth them to contempt and scorne. Dei ridere, est hominem ludibrio exponere. If a little ant creeping out of a molehill, should march forth, and proffer to wrastle a fall with a gyant, there were yet some proportion in this challenge: but there is none of a finite power to an infinite. Audacious sinners, that dare provoke the Lord of hostes! What are all the Armies and Forces of Tyrants, to oppose the omnipotent God? fRev. 19. 18.He will make a feast of them, for the fowles of the Aire, whom he invites to the flesh of Captains, and to the flesh of Kings. Let earth and hell conspire, let there be a confederate band of men and divels; how easily can he command the one to their dust, the other to their chains? What power have they of either motion or being, but from him against whom they fight? Our God is a consuming fire; and he will consume them not only in anger, but in laughter. The Catastrophe of all rebellion is but the Sarcasmos or bitter scorn of God.
There is no lesse difference between Gods anger and his favour, then between death and life; death in the most dismall horrour; and life in the most comfortable sweetnesse of it. gPsa 30. 5.In his favour there is life: death in his anger; hPs. 90. 9.for when thou art angry, all our days are gone. There is great light given to contraries by their comparison: look first a little upon the favour of God: iPs. 36. 7.Oh how excellent is thy loving kindnesse, O Lord? Thy Saints shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of thy house, and thou wilt make them to drink of the river of thy pleasures. What followes upon his favour, but satisfaction, and peace, and joy, and eternall life? When the deluge of water had defaced that great book of Nature, Noah had a copy of every kind of Creature with him in that famous Library, the Arke: out of which they were reprinted to the world. So he that hath the favour of God in the Arke of the Covenant, hath the Originall copy of all blessings: if they could all have perished, yet so they might be restor'd. God is the best Store-house, the best treasury: O happy men that have their estates laid up there! Though friends, goods, and life forsake us, yet if Gods gracious countenance shine upon us, that wil be life, and goods, and friends unto us. These benefits and comforts flow from his favour.
But alas, how terrible is his anger? He hath scourged some in very mercy, till they have smarted under his rod. Job complaines, that the terrours of God do fight against him. And David says, Job. 6. 4. Ps. 88. 15. 16.From my youth up thy terrours have I suffered with a troubled mind. If he will do thus much in love, what shall be the judgments of his wrath! If he hath drawn blood of his dear ones, what shall be the plague of wilfull sinners! If this be the rod of his children, what are the scorpions provided for his enemies! what comfort can any find in all the prosperous fortunes upon earth, with whom God is angry in Heaven? If that mighty Pagan could apprehend this, he would finde small safety in his guard of Janisaries, and lesse pleasure in his brutish Seraglio's. It is a vain conceit of that Potentate, who refusing the name of Pius, would be called Foelix; Happy, not Godly. But there can bee no felicity without Gods blessing, and he will not blesse, where he is not blessed. But Sylla, sirnamed Foelix, accounted it not the least part of his fortunes, that Metellus sirnamed Pius was his friend. Piety is the best friend to Felicity, though Felicity doth not alwayes befriend Piety.
That is but a wretched prosperity, upon which God looks in anger. If the Sun were wanting, it would be night, for all the Starrs: If God frown upon a man; for all the glittering honors of this world, he sits, in the shadow of death. Let him bee never so rich in lands and waters; yet his springs have lost their sweetnesse, his vines their fruitfulnesse, his gold hath lost the colour, his precious stones their value and lustre: I mean, the vertue and comfort of all these are gone away with the favour of God. If our house were paved with a floor of gold, and walled with pearls and Diamonds, and yet the roof wide open to the violence of heaven, would these shelter us from storms and tempest? Would we be so lodged in cold winter nights? Or were our house roofed with Cedar, and the walls hung with arras, yet if the floore be rotten, and under it a bottomlesse pit, could we sleep in quiet? There can be no safety when God is angry: his wrath may come thundring from heaven, and suddenly sink rebellious sinners into hell; and then where is all their honour? When their mortall part lies in the dishonourable dust, and their immortall part suffers in unextinguishable fire.
Thus terrible is the anger of God: now what is he angry withall, but sinne? That is the perpetuall make-bate betwixt God and us; the fuel of the fire of his indignation. Your iniquities have separated between you and your God. For this cause Isa. 59. 2.he looks upon us as a stranger, yea as an enemy. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy spirit: therefore Isa. 63. 10,he was turned to be their Enemy, and he fought against them. But they rebelled: mans occasion of offending God, is but a But, a nothing, no cause at all: Gods occasion of being angry with men, is a therefore, a cause sufficient, and that cause is sin. Search the holy Book all over, and you shall never find God angry but for sinne. Nor doth the flame of his wrath break out upon every sin; but when sin grows impudent and past shame. We were wont to say, that veritas non quae rit angulos: but now, vit…um non quaerit angulos: It doth that in a bravery, with which the false Prophet was threatned, that he should do in fear; a1 King. 22. 25▪it runs from Chamber to Chamber, from house to house, not to hide it self, but to boast it self. We so provoke the Lord, that we do not only anger him, but are angry with him. If the winds do not blow, and the raine fall, as wee would have it; if any thing falls out crosse to our desires, we even vexe at God himself; as if he were bound to wait upon our humours. No marvell if God be angry with us, when we dare be angry with him: by murmuring at his actions, and calling his providence into question. bJon. 4. 4.Doest thou well to be angry, O man? No, it is exceeding ill, and dangerous. We may tremble to think that the pot should fall out with the potter, and man be angry with his Maker. It is the meretricious and shamelesse forehead of sinne that angers God: And in this anger wee here finde him, but let us not so leave him: and yet the next point tells us that his wrath is not suddenly pacified:
2. He may be long angry: that's the second Proposition. Usque quò Domine? It is not for a fit, like some flash of powder, but may burne long. cPsal. 79 5.How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry? for ever? And shall thy Jealousie burne like fire? d2 Sam. 21. 1.He visits his own Israel with a long dearth: During all those three years of drought and scarctiy, Gods Altar smoaked with daily sacrifices, and Heaven was solicited with continuall prayers; yet still he was angry: and why may not David complaine, in this Psalme, of that famine? Wee are not at the first sensible of common evills: in Warr, Dearth, or Pestilence, wee thinke onelyonly of shifting for our selves, or finding out convenient refuges, (like Foxes in a storm, that runne to the next burroughs) and study not how to remove the publick Judgements. But the continuance of an affliction sends us to God, and calls upon us to ask for a reckoning. An evil that is suddenly gone, is as suddenly forgotten: as men strucken in their sleep, cannot quickly find themselves: so the blow doth rather astoinsh us, then teach us. But when the burden lies long upon us, we will at last complaine of the weight, and seek to ease our selves.
Indeed, there be some sinners more insensible, more insensate then beasts: if we finde the hungryest ox feeding in the meddow, and cannot with many pricks of the goad make him remove from his place, we wonder at his stupiditie. Yet the insatiate world-affecters, though God not only affright them with menaces, but even afflict them with many scourges, cannot be gotten from their covetous practises. So long as they can by any means grow wealthy, they will not beleeve that God is angry with them. As if there were none ePsa. 73. 7.that have more then heart could wish; yet live all this while in the sphere of Gods Indignation. We can read Gods wrath in a storme, not in a calme yet … may be most angry, when he least expresseth it. fEzek. 16. 42.My Jealousie shall depart from thee, and I will be no more angry with thee: Oh that is the height of his displeasure … gJer. 14. 13.The Prophet speaks of a true Peace: True, were a needlesse epithet, if there were not a false peace in carnall hearts. How fondly doth the secure sinner flatter himself, in the conceit of his own happinesse? All is well at home: he quarrels not with himselfe, for he denies himselfe no sensuall pleasure. God quarrells not with him, he feels no checks of a chiding conscience, he sees no frowns of an angry Judge: nothing but prosperity shines upon him. He sees no difference in the face of heaven, whatsoever he does, or says: the same entertainment is given to his blasphemies, as to his prayers. Sure, he thinks himself in Gods books above other men. And so he is indeed; in Gods book of debts, in Gods book of arrerages, in his book of Judgments: so he is farr in Gods books. He owes such men a payment, and they shall have it. Alas, this is not the sinners peace, but stupidity: not the Makers favour, but his fury. All this while he is very angry, though he suspends the execution of his wrath. Thus long sin lies like a sleeping bandog at the door of their hearts: They look upon the cur as if he would never wake: or if he did, yet as if hewere so chained, & clogged, & muzled, that he could never hurt them. But when once God rowzeth him, then have at their throats: then they shal feel what it is to have lived so long in the anger of a God: When the Almighty shall put himself into the fearfull formes of vengeance, and the everlasting gulph of fire shal open to receive them into intolerable burnings; the mercilesse divels seising on their guilty souls, and afflicting them with incessant torments.
It is some favour, when we have the respite to cry, How long, Lord, wilt thou be angry with us? He is not throughly angry with us, when he suffers us to breath forth this expostulation. There is some hope of remedy, when we once complain of our sicknesse. It is not change of climate, but change of dyet, that recovers us: when we grow to forbear the surfets of sin, there is a fair possibility of comfort. Yet God may be long angry, and long continue sensible testimonies of his anger. hPs 92. 10.Forty years long was I grieved with this Generation. He had smitten Israel with divers punishments, and threatned them with with more grievous calamities; that iPs. 9. 17. 21.every man should eat the flesh of his own arme; Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh; and they both against Judah: And yet he had not done with them, his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still. Davids pestilence of three dayes, was a storm soone blown over, though it were bitter for the time: Gods displeasure hath dwelt longer upon us.
But how then doth the Prophet say, that he retaineth not anger? Well enough: for he never retaineth it on… moment longer, then we retaine the cause of it: So soon as ever we cease sinning against him, he ceaseth to be angry with us. After Davids humiliation and sacrifice, the Angell struck not one blow more with the sword of pestilence. He measures out the length of his anger by the continuance of our rebellions. So that if we expostulate with him, Lord how long wilt thou be angry with us? He replies, O ye sons of men, how long will you be rebellious against me? Let us not look that the Lord should begin first; that his pardon should prevent our repentance. There is great reason, he that hath done the offence, should be first in making the peace. Every day we expect comfort from God, and every day God expects conversion from us. Every week we look for some abatement in the bils, and every week God looks for some abatement of our sins, for some amendment of our lives. So long as we continue guilty, it is in vain to cry, O Lord, how long wilt thou be angry? Our hard hearts are not yet broken with remorse: alas, what should be done to break them? lPsa. 29. 5.The voyce of the Lord breaketh the Cedars: he mPsa. 18. 7.breaketh the mountains: he breaketh nIsa 64. 1.the heavens, he o1 Kin. 19. 11.breaketh the stones; and yet his word cannot break our hearts. But if he cannot break us with the rod of Affliction, he will breake us with a rod of iron, and pPsa. 2 9.dash us in pieces like a Potters vessel.
God is long patient before he grows angry; why should he not be long angry before he be appeased? He is not easily provoked, why should he be so easily pacified? yet so propense to mercy is our gracious Father, that the fire which was long a kindling, is soon quenched: His anger, that is not blown into a flame without many and long continued sins, is yet put out with a few penitent tears. When our houses are burning, it were but foolish to cry out, we are undone, alas the fire rageth; and we all the while forbear to cast on water. The Usque quo of Gods anger waits for the Quousque of our repentance. He will not give over-striking, till we fall a weeping: and we may do well to weep before him, for (sure) we did ill to sin against him. His anger doth now long offend us, but our wickednesses did farr longer offend him. We have provoked him many yeares; and shall not his wrath burn many days? Still it flameth: let us make hast to bring our buckets of water, filled at the cisternes of our eyes, and derived from the fountaine of our hearts, to quench it. Let no hands be wanting to this businesse: for if some bring in the water of tears, whiles others cast in the fewell of sins, this fire will burn still. But from the higehst to the lowest let us come in with repentance: and that all of us, even the whole people: for so far Gods wrath extendeth.
3. He may be angry with the whole people; which is the third proposition. He hath been angry with a whole family, with a whole Army, with a whole City, with a whole Country, with the whole earth. With a whole family: so he cursed the house of q1 Kin. 14. 10. 11Jeroboam: that him that dyeth in the City, the dogs shall eat, and him that dyeth in the field, shall the fowls of the aire eat. rPs. 37. 36.With a whole army; so he slew of Sennacheribi host in one night 185 thousand. With a whole city; so the city of Jericho was cursed with an universal desolation, never to be reedified without the ruine of the builder. Josh. 6. 17. 21.With a whole country; So Saul was charged to destroy Amalek; man and woman, infant and suckling, 1 Sam. 15 3.sheep and oxen, and all that belonged to them. With the whole earth; whenit was become corrupt, Gen. 6. 12.he drowned it with a floud. Yet observe how God hath qualified his wrath; with his hand of favour snatching some out of his hand of anger. When he 1 Kin. 14. 13. Josh. 6. 17.cursed the whole Family of Jeroboam, he excepted Abijah. When he doomed to death, the whole City of Jericho, he excepted the family of Rahab. When his wrath burned Sodom, he excepted the family of Lot. When his anger drowned the whole world in a deluge, yet his mercy excepted Noah, and his octonary houshold. But his anger is very grievous, when it extends to the whole people. Throught he Isa. 9. 19.wrath of the Lord of hostes, the land is darkned, &c.
What makes him thus universally angry with us, but the universalitie of our sins against him? when the passengers ask: Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great City? Answer is made, Because Jer. 22. 8. 9.they forsooke the Covenant of the Lord, and worshipped other Gods. To such a fearfull height may the sins of the children bring the mother, that that Church which now enjoyes such abundance of truth and peace, may be poisoned with heresie, and wounded with schisme, and suffer an utter direliction. The whole people is guilty of sin, and why for their sins may not God be angry with the whole people? Yea, and long angry too: for it will be very long before that fault will be amended, which hath so long been committed.
God came to low conditions in the behalfe of Sodome: Abraham brought him down to ten. He came to lower conditions in the behalfe of Gen. 18. 32.Jerusalem; he brought himself down to one: See Jer. 5. 1.if you can find a man, if there be any that seeketh the truth in the whole Citie, and I will pardon it. O how epidemicall is that wickednesse, where not one escapeth the corruption? We have found the Lord angry enough with a whole people, for the sin of one man. Lord, hath one man sinned, and wilt thou be wroth with the whole Congregation? Num. 16. 22.No, Gods vengeance, when it is the hottest, makes difference of offenders: and knows to distinguish betwixt the heads of a faction, and the traine. Though neither be faultlesse, yet the one is plagued, the other pardoned. Depart from the tents of these wicked men, lest you be consumed in their sins. So soon as the innocent are severed, the guilty perish. One Achan sins, all Israel suffers. One David sins in pride, seventy thousand Josh 7. 11.of his subjects suffer in the plague. One Saul slew the Gibeonites, three years dearth lies upon the 2 Sam. 21. 1.Israelites for it. The blood of those Canaanites shed against Covenant, almost forty years before, by the then King, is now called for of the whole people. They had all sins enough, but God fixeth his eye of anger upon this. Every sin hath a tongue, but that of blood outcryes them all: And if Justice do not revenge the murder of one, God will require it of the whole nation. When seven of Sauls sons were hanged up, God was intreated 2 Sam. 21 14for the land. Then shall the clouds drop fatnesse, and the earth run forth into plenty: Then do the valleys stand thick with corn, land the Psa. 65. 12.little hills rejoyce on every side. Some drops of blood shed in Justice, procure large showers from heaven. A few carcases laid in their graves, are a rich compost to the earth. There can be no peace, where blood cryes unheard, unregarded: but when it is expiated by the blood of the offenders, there will bee a cessation of Judgements. Phinehas executed judgment, and the pl…gue Pal. 106 30.ceased. One contrary is ever cured by another: take away the cause, and the effect will cease. Prayer is very powerfull, but doing of Justice more availeable. The whole Congregation were at their prayers, and those prayers were steeped in tears; yet still the plague raged, and Gods anger continued. But when Phinehas had run those two adulterers through with his Javelin, in the Nam. 25. 8.act of their sin; the plague was stayed. So blessed a thing is it for any nation, that Justice is impartially executed.
Thus the universality of sin calls for the universality of repentance, or else it will provoke Gods anger to strike us with universall judgements. If the whole people be guilty, the whole people must fall to deprecation. Such was the Nivites repentance, every man turning from Jon. 3. 8.his evill ways. We have sinned, even the whole nation: and as if we had not sins enough of our own, we borrow of our neighbours. What nation under heaven do we trade withall, from whom the sinnes of that Nation are not brought hither? And those are merchandizes that might be well spared. Are we all in the transgression, and do we lay the burden of repentance upon some few? If we expostulate with God, Lord hath one man sinned, and wilt thou be wrath with the whole Congregation? May he not more Num. 16. 22.justly expostulate with us; Hath the whole Congregation sinned, and is it enough for one man to repent? Is the whole garment fowle, and must only the skirts be washed? Is the whole building ruinous, and do we think it a sufficient reparation to patch up one corner of it? No, the plaister of our repentance must be fully as large as the orifice of our wickednesse; or we cannot be healed. But stil God wil be angry with us, yea though we were his own people: For,
4. God may be angry with his own people; which is the fourth proposition. aPsa. 89. 33I will visit their sins with a rod, and their iniquity with scourges; but my mercy I will not utterly take from them. Though he do not take his mercy from them, yet he may be angry with them. He is our father, and never did Father in sweeter terms entertaine the dearest treasures of his blood, then God doth us, when he vouchsafes to call us His people: yet did you never see a father angry with his child? Indeed there is great difference between that wrath of God which is toward his own people, and that which bCol. 3. 6.comes upon the children of disobedience. They differ three ways.
1. In respect of continuance: his anger upon reprobates is eternall; not extinguished with their bloods, but pursuing them from earth to hell. To his people it is but temporary, it lasts but a moment: cPsal. 30. 5.weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. dPsal: 103. 9.He will not alwayes chide, nor will he keep his anger for ever. When he was very angry with his Idolatrous Israel, eExo. 32. 11.Moses does but put him in mind that they were his own people, and he was pacified. fIsa. 54. 8.For a moment in a little wrath, he hides his face from us. gMic. 7. 8.Rejoyce not against me, O mine enemy; for though I fall, I shall rise again. But for the wicked, hJohn 3. 36.his wrath abideth on them.
2. In respect of the measure: It is milder towards his own people, then to others. For the unrighteous, he proportions his Judgements, not to their strengths, but to their deserts: For his own people, he proportions his corrections, not to their deserts, but to their strengths. For the former, he minds not what they can beare by their powers, but what they have deserved by their sinnes. For the other, he considers not what their sinnes deserve, but what their Spirits can sustaine. His most bitter wrath to his own people, is always sweetned with his mercy. iPia 99. 8.Thou wast a God that forgavest them, though thou tookest vengeance of their inventions. He brings a scourge in one hand, and a pardon in the other: and while he draws blood of the flesh, he forgives the soul.
3. In regard of the end. lRom. 9. 22.The wicked are the vessels of wrath: and as their sin makes them fit for Gods anger, so his anger makes them sit for destruction. But for his own people; m1 Cor. 11. 32They are chastened of the Lord, that they might not be condemned with the world. Whether he inflict upon them punishments for sinne, or suffer them to fall into sin for punishments, yet all shall work to their good. nHeb. 12. 11.his corrections are but medicines, bringing forth the quiet fruit of righteousnesse. He lets them fall into some hainous crime, but it is to waken their repentance. Small spots upon a garment are not minded; we seldome are so curious as to wash out them. But when a great spot comes, a fowle staine, we then scower and elense it, to get out that; and so wee get out all the little spots too. Sinnes of a lesser size never trouble us; we mind not the washing out of them with our sorrowfull tears: But when a great sin comes, and disquiets the conscience, then repentance, that old landresse is called for: and in that lardar we wash out both the great offence, and all the rest. So God suffers us to fall into some grosse and grievous sinne, as a father suffers his little child to burne his finger in the flame, that his whole body may not fall into the fire.
All these differences are exprest by the Prophet, Isaiah. 1. Forthe time▪ oIsa. 28. 24Doth the ploughman plough all the day to sow? God doth not continue ploughing all day long furrows upon our backs, but when he hath broken up the fallow grounds of our hearts, he thensowes in the seed of his comforts. 2. For the measure; rIsa. 27 7.Hath he plagued Israel, as he hath plagued the enemies of Israel? He sinites his Israel in the branches, and in the bunches; cuts down some of her superfluous boughes, and plucks off clusters of her rotten grapes: But the wicked he smites at the very root. 3. For the end; sIsa. 27. 9.The fornace of his wrath shall but purge away our drosse, and make us pure metall, fit for the stampe of his owne Image.
Yet for all this, God hath been grievously angry with his own people: Yea, their sins anger him most of all; because together with wickednesse, there is unkindnesse. As dearly as he loves them, their sinnes may provoke him. Our interest in God is so far from excusing our iniquities, that it aggravates them. Of all others, the transgression of his own people shall not passe unpunished. The nearer we are to him, the nearer do our offences touch him; as a man more takes to heart a discourtesie done by a friend, then a great injury by a stranger. Pagans may blaspheme, and bezzle, and defile the marriage-bed, and yet God let them alone: but he will not endure these sinnes in his own people. The more hee loves us, the greater should our love be to him: now love and unkindnesse cannot stand together. If we revolt from our Maker, as Absolom thought Hushai had renounced David, may he not justly expostulate with us, Is this thy Kindnesse to thy friend? there is no such irksome disobedience, as where God looks for service. tJohn 1. 11.He came unto his own, and his own received him not: O, that could not chuse but trouble him. As Demades said to Philip King of Macedon, and at a time when he well deserved it; Cùm fortuna tibi Agamemnonis personam imposuerit, nonne pudet te Thirsitem agere? When fortune hath made thee an Agamemnon, art thou not ashamed to play Thirsites? When God hath honoured us for his own people, with the noble name of Christians is it not a shame for us to play the Pagans? u Happy are the people that be in such a case, yea blessed are the people that have the Lord for their God. Yet that people may so farre anger him, that he will take away not onelyonly their temporall, but even their spirituall happinesse. Those seven Churches of Asia were Gods owne people: yet the Gospel was not fastned to their territories; as the old Romans pinnioned their goddesse Victoria, or their apish posterity doe the Catholick faith, to their own infallible Chaire. But as they had a time to breathe, so a time to expire: and so hath my fourth proposition. There is but one gradation more.
5. God may be angry with his people that prayeth. Wherein we have two main observations. First, The wonder, that God will be angry at our prayers. Secondly, the answer, which resolves the wonder; shewing why our very prayers may anger him. Either of these is back'd with three circumstances. 1. For the wonder, that God is angry with his people that prayeth.
1. All the other conclusions are easily granted: God may be angry, and angry very long, and angry with the whole people, and angry with his own people; all this because of their sins: But that he should be angry at their prayers, this is the wonder. He hath commanded us to pray, and will he be offended with us for doing his command? Angry against our prayer! He hath commended to us Prayer, as the only means to asswage his anger: and yet is hee angry at our Prayer? aPsa. 106. 30.Phinehas prayed, and his anger was pacified: bNum. 16. 15.Aaron prayed, and the plague ceased: and will he now be angry with the people that prayeth? He is a God that heareth prayer: cPsal. 65. 2.O thou that hearest prayer, to thee shall all all flesh come: and does he now reject prayer? He hath so stiled his own house; Oratorium, the house of prayer: and to them that pray unto him in his house, he hath promised peace; dHag. 2. 9.In this house will I give peace, saith the Lord of hostes. Peace and wrath are contraries: how should prayer procure peace, when God is angry at prayer? Prayer is so noble, that under it is comprehended the whole worship of God: eRom. 10. 13.Whosoever calleth on the name of the Lord, shall be saved: and yet wil God be angry at the prayer of his people? It is a great honour that God will vouchsafe to speake unto man: but a far greater honour, that man is allowed to speak unto God: the very Angels stand in admiration of it: and yet what comfort is there in that, when God is angry at the prayer of his people? What blessing is there, which our prayers cannot infeoffe us in? Wee send up Prayer to God with the same confidence, that Adoniah sent Bathsheba to Solomon, f1 Kin. 2. 17.the King will deny thee nothing: and will God bee angry at prayer? It is the onelyonly means we have to pacifie him, Prayer: and shall our Prayer anger him? Alas, what hope is left us, when God is angry at Prayer? This hath often turned away his wrath, and does it now incense his wrath? If we should not pray, he would then be angry: and when we do pray, is he angry too? What, neither way pleased? What is the reason why there is so much empty cask in Gods cellar, but for want of prayer? gJam. 4. 2.Ye have not, because ye ask not: and shall not prayer obtain favour? hJosh. 7. 8.Oh Lord, what shall I say (it was the complaint of Joshua) when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies? So, what shal we say, what shall we do, when God turneth back our prayers? Why is it called the throne of Grace, before which wee present our prayers; if that throne send forth nothing but beams of wrath? We look for grace, and a favourable audience of our petitions; but alas, what shall become of us, when God is angry at our very prayers?
2. How wonderfull is the power of prayer? iExo. 32. 10.Let me alone, saith God to Moses: who would look for such a word from God to man, as let me alone? As yet Moses had said nothing: before he opens his mouth, God prevents his importunity, as foreseeing the holy violence of prayer▪ Moses stood trembling before the Majesty of his Maker, as fearing his dire revenge: and, yet that Maker doth (after a sort) sollicite Moses for leave to revenge; let me alone. As it was afterwards said of Christ, concerning some places, that he could do no miracles there, because of their unbelief: So one would think, that God could do no Judgements here, because of Moses his faith. Let me alone; why, what can resist God? Yes, Prayer can resist him. Such is his mercy, that he hath (as it were) obliged his power, to the faith of our Prayer. He enables us to resist himselfe: Seipsum vincit. The servent prayer of the faithfull, can bind the hands of the Almighty. What is there that God can do, which Prayer cannot do? O mighty, I had almost said, Almighty Prayer! What a hand is that which can hold omnipotence? What wings are those that can overtake infinitenesse▪ Yet alas, we may now mourn over Prayer, as David did over Jonathan; l2 Sam. 1. 25.How are the mighty fallen! Prayer hath lost her force with God, vvhen God is angry with prayer. Her wings are clipt, that she cannot mount: Her bow is broken; she cannot shoot an arrow that reaches the marke. mLam. 1. 1.She is become a widow, as it was lamented over Jerusalem, desolate and solitary, that was a Princesse among the Provinces, and a Queen among the nations. She sits weeping in the dust, and hath almost forgot the use of speech. She mournes not so much for Mary's abstulerunt Dominum, for she knows vvhere to find him; as that our sins Abstulerunt Domini favorem, and she knows not how to pacifie him: And how should she, when God is angry with his people that prayeth? Where is the strength of this Samson? What is become of that power, which was wont to command heaven and earth? The visible heavens have been opened by prayer: nJam. 5. 18.so Elias brought down raine. The invisible heavens have been opened by prayer▪ so the penitent malefactor got from the Crosse into Paradise. oAct. 7. 56.So stephen saw the heavens opened, and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God, Omnia vincentem vincit. It was wont to be an especiall favourite of God; but now (alas) it is cast out of favour, for God is angry with prayer. rLam. 3. 44.Thou hast covered thy selfe with a thick cloud, that our prayer should not passe thorow. This is a wofull condition of our souls, when the Lord is angry at our prayers: when he will not hear them, not answer them, it is a cause of sadnesse in us; but much more, when he is angry with them. sEze. 8. 18.Therefore will I deale in fury: though they cry in mine ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them. This is fury indeed: Before, the ancients of Israel had said, The Lord seeth us not, he hath forsaken the earth: There they deny God eyes, and here he denyes them ears. A burning wrath; as the Originall hath it; How long wilt thou smoak against the prayer of thy people?
3. And of thy people: this encreaseth the wonder. For God to stopp his ears against the prayers of the Heathen, to reject the petitions of Idolaters, to despise a devotion done before painted blocks and Images, is no marvel. For they dishonour him in their prayers; and God will be angry with any thing that eclipseth his glory. But he does not use to slight those that serve him, and continue in his holy worship. It is strange that hee should bee angry at the prayer of his own people: Angry with them whom hee hath chosen; angry with them long, and angry with them at their very prayers. This must bee some extraordinary wrath: and so you have all the circumstances that may advance the wonder.
Now for the Answer that takes off this admiration; and satisfies us with some reasons, why God may bee angry with his people that prayeth. God is never angry at his people without a cause: and it must be a great cause that makes him angry with them in their devotions: whereof wee have three considerations.
1. There may be infirmities enough in our very Prayers, to make them unacceptable. As if they bee, 1. Exanimes, without life and soul: when the heart knowes not what the tongue utters. 2. Or Perfunctorie; for God will none of those prayers, that come out of fained lips. 3. Or Tentativae; for they that will petere tentando, tempt God in prayer, shall go without. 4. Or fluctuantes, of a wild and wandring discourse, ranging up and down; which the Apostle calls, beating the aire: as huntsmen beat the bushes, or Saul sought his fathers asses. Such prayers will not stumble upon the Kingdome of Heaven. 5. Or if they bee Praeproperae, run over in hast: as some use to choppe up their prayers, and thinke long till they have done. But they that pray in such hast, shall bee heard at leisure. 6. Or sine fiducia: the faithlesse man had as good hold his peace, as pray. Hee may babble, but prayes not: hee prayes infectually, and receives not. He may lift up his hands, but hee does not lift up his heart. OnelyOnly the prayer of the righteous availeth, and onelyonly the beleever is righteous. But the formall devotion of a faithlesse man, is not worth that crust of bread which hee askes. 7. Or sine humilitate: so the Pharisees prayer was not properly Supplicatio, but superlatio. A presumptuous Prayer profanes the Name of God, in stead of Adoring it. All, or any of these defects may marre the successe of our Prayers.
2. But such is the mercy of our God, that he will winke at many infirmities in our devotions: and does not reject the Prayer of an honest heart, because of some weaknesse in the petitioner. It must bee a greater cause then all this, that makes God angry at our prayers. In generall, it is sinne. tJoh. 9. 31.We know that God heareth not sinners: but if a man doth his will, him he heareth. uPs. 66. 18.If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer. They bee our sins that block up the passage of our prayers. It is not the vast distance between Heaven and earth, not the thick clouds, not the threefold regions, nor the sevenfold Orbes, nor the firmament of starrs, but only our sinnes, that hinder the ascent of our prayers. When you make many prayers, I will not hear you; Why? aIsa. 5. 15.Because your hands are full of blood. God will none of those petitions, that are presented to him with bloody hands. Our prayers are our bills of exchange; and they are allowed in Heaven, when they come from pious and humble hearts: But if wee bee broken in our religion, and bankrouts of grace, God will protest our bills, hee will not bee wonne with our prayers. Thus sinn is the generall cause.
3. In particular, it is the hypocrisie of sinne, or the sinne of hypocrisie, that makes God so angry with our prayers. When wee honour him with the prostration of our bodies, and sollicite him with the petitions of our lips, and yet stil dishonour him in our sinfull lives, is not this hypocrisie? When we speak before him in the Temple as suppliants, and sinne against him abroad like rebells, is not this hypocrisie? Like the outlaw, that sues to the King for a pardon, and yet resolves to live in rebellion. We will not part with our beloved sinnes, and yet begge the removall of Judgements; will not this dissimulation make God angry with our very prayers? If wee shall, Judas-like, kisse his Throne with the Devotion of our lipps, and betray his Honour with the wicked works of our hands, should he not be angry at our prayers? Wee make as if we did lift up our hands unto him, but indeed we stretch out our hands against him: if this be prayer, it is such a one as deserves anger. Fear can make the Divell himselfe fall to his prayers; bLu. 8. 28.I beseech thee, torment mee not. Another request he made, which Christ granted; but it was in wrath, not in favour. The pride of our hearts, the covetousnesse of our hands, the blasphemy of our mouthes, the uncleannesse of our lusts, the wickednesse of our lives; these make God angry with our prayers. If wee could bee throughly angry at our sinnes, God would cease to be angry at our prayers. But so long as wee run on in those sinful courses upon earth, let us look for no favourable audience from heaven. Doe good, and continue it: then pray for good, and have it. It hath been said, loquere ut te videam, speak that I may see thee: so saith God to man; Operare ut te audiam, worke that I may heare thee. If we dishonour Gods Name by our oaths and blasphemies, and upon every triviall occasion tosse it in our profane mouthes; in vaine we pray, Sanctificetur Nomen tuum, Hallowed be thy Name. If we heare the Gospel preached, and receive no instruction by it, nor give any regard or obedience to it; in vaine wee pray, Adveniat regnum tuum, thy Kingdome come. If the current of our affections and actions runs crosse to the will of God; in vain we pray, Fiat voluntas tua, Thy will be done. If we extort the bread of the poor out of their hands, or seek to live by violence or oppression; in vain we pray, Panem nostrum da nobis quotidianum, Give us this day our daily bread: For this is to attempt to have it whether God will or no: he does not give it, but we snatch it. Whiles we are indulgent to our darling sinnes, and will not part with the deare delight of our bloods, in vain we pray, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, Forgive us our trespasses. Whiles we seek to revenge our wrongs upon others, and bear malice in our hears; our Sicut nos dimittimus, As wee forgive them that trespasse against us, doth but begge for vengeance upon our own heads. All the while that we listen to the suggestions of Satan, and like the allurements of the world, and awaken our owne lusts to tempt our selves; it is but a mockery to pray, In tentationem ne nos inducas, lead us not into temptation. While we seek that which is evill, and study that which is evill, and runne with greedinesse into evill; in vaine we pray, Liber a nos à malo, Deliver us from evill. We do but flatter God, and complement with him, when we conclude with Tuum est regnam, potentia, & gloria; Thine is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory; for it is our own glory we seeks after, not his. All this cannot keep him from being angry with our prayers. So long as his people rebelleth, he wil be angry with his people that prayeth. For some Use.
If God be angry with them that pray, what will he be with them that do not pray? With them that break his laws, and never cry him mercy, with them that live in wickednesse, and never ask him forgivenesse? The ungodly call not Psa. 14 4.upon the Lord: will he not be much more angry with them? God is not in all their thoughts: but Psal. 10. 4.they are in the thoughts of God. He thinks on them with indignation, and will remember them to their cost. Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: yes, hee will Psa. 1 37. 7.remember them in the day of their destruction.
If God be sometimes angry at our prayers, how will he brooke our curses? If he beat back our petitions, how will he take vengeance on our blasphemies? Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing Jam. 3. 10.and cursing: but God will not accept of a blessing, from a mouth that is so used to cursing. If he may be so angry with a people that prayeth, what will his wrath do to a people that sweareth? Think this, ye that (if it were possible) would swear God out of his Throne, and the Judge of all the world out of his Tribunall: your very prayers are abominable: your blasphemous breaths have put a stink into all your sacrifices. That tongue is fit for nothing but flames, which so flameth with oaths and execrations. Your prayers cannot be heard, by reason of your sins: but your blasphemies shall be heard and plagued, notwithstanding your prayers. If the Instrument gives a harsh sound, there is trouble in stead of inusick: a jarring organ grates the eares, rather then delights them. Our sinues have put all our Instruments out of tune, and for them God is angry at our very prayers.
There is no way to take off his anger, but by turning from our wickednesse. If we break off our sinnes, he will leave a blessing behind Joel 2. 14.him, even a meat-offering, and a drink-offering to the Lord: he will both give, and take our sacrifice. Let us do thus, and prove him, whether Mal. 3. 10.he will not open the windows of heaven. Our repentance and righteousnesse shall open heaven, so that our prayers may goe up for a blessing, and a blessing shall come down upon our prayers. Prayer is vox fidei, as John Baptist was vox Christi: if we mourne, and do not pray, our faith hath lost her voice: and prayer without faith, is John without Christ, a voice without a word. Faith is the soul, and repentance is the life of Prayer; and a prayer without them, hath neither life nor soul. If we beleeve not, we are yet in our sinnes: if we repent not, our sinnes are yet in us: and so long as this state continueth, no wonder if God be angry with his People that prayeth. But first will I wash mine hands in innocency, and Psal. 26. 6.then will I compasse thine Altar. Then shall my Prayer be set before thee as incense; and the Ps. 141. 2.lifting up of my hands like the Evening sacrifice. When with the sword of severe and impartiall repentance, wee have cut the throate of our sins, and done execution upon our own lusts: then let us solicite heaven with our Prayers: then Pray, and speed: then come, and welcome: no Anger, but all mercy then. Then the Courtiers about the King in Heaven, make room for prayer. Then the Prince himselfe wil take prayer into his own hand, and with a gracious mediation present it to his Father. Then mittimus preces & lacrymas ad Deum legatos. Then is that Court of Audience ready to receive and answer Cypr.our Ambassadours, which bee our Prayers and Tears. Then Saint John sees twelve gates in heaven, all open, and all day open, to entertain such suitors.
This is our refuge, and that a sure one. Although the Enemy begirts a City with never so straight a siege, and stop up all the passages; yet he cannot block up the passage to Heaven: So long as that is open, and God in league with us, there may bee reliefe and succour had from thence by prayer. Faith is a better engineer then was Dadalus; and yet he could make a shift to frame wings; with which hee made an escape over those high walls, wherein he was imprisoned. Restat iter coelo, tentabimus ire. Let Pharaoh bee behind, the red sea before, the high rocks and mountaines on every side; yet Israel can find a way for all that. When there is no other way to escape danger, a Christian can go by heaven, and avoid all by prayer. As it is the heaviest malediction, Let his prayer be turned into sin: so it is a happy blessing, when our sinne Psal. 109. 7.is turned into prayer; when sinne is so done away, that prayer may take place. Then shall Jacobs ladder be never empty of Angels; our prayers ascending to heaven, and Gods blessings descending upon us. Then shall prayer disburden our hearts of all sorrowes, and God shall fill them with his sweet comforts. Then shalt we sing with chearfull voices; Blessed be the Lord, that hath not turned away our praier from him, nor his merciemercy Psal. 66. 20.from us. Amen.
FINIS.