Sermons Preached on Several Occasions, Sermon 8
SERMON VIII. Ser. VIII.ABPreached at GUILD-HALL Chappel. JUNE 9. 1671.C
MATTHEW XXI. XLIII.
Therefore say I unto you, the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.D
THE time was now very near approaching, wherein the Son of God was to suffer an accursed death by the hands of ungrateful men: and to let them see that he laid no impossible command upon men when he bid them aMatth. 5. 44.Elove their enemies, he expresses the truest kindness himself towards those who designed his destruction. For what can be imagined greater towards such, whose malice was like to end in nothing short of their own ruine, than by representing to them the evils they must suffer, to disswade Athem from that, which they intended to do? But if neither the sense of their future miseries, nor their present sins will at all abate their fury or asswage their malice, nothing is then left for kindness to shew it self by, but by lamenting their folly, bemoaning their obstinacy, and praying God to have pity upon them, who have so little upon themselves. And all these were very remarkable in the carriage of our Blessed Saviour towards his most implacable enemies: he had taken care to instruct them by his doctrine; to convince them by his miracles, to oblige them by the first offers of the greatest mercy; but all these Bthings had no other effect upon them, than to heighten their malice, increase their rage, and make them more impatient till they had destroyed him. But their stupidity made him more sensible of their folly, and their obstinacy stirred up his compassion towards them, in so much that the nearer he approached to his own sufferings, the greater sense he expressed of theirs. For he was no sooner come within view of that bloody City, wherein he was within few days to suffer by, as well as for the sins of men; but his compassion breaks forth, not only by his weeping over it; but by that passionate expression, which is Cabrupt only by the force of his grief: aLuke 19. 41, 42.If thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are bid from thine eyes. And when he was within the City, he could not mention the desolation which was to come upon it for all the righteous blood which had been spilt there, but he presently subjoyns, bMatth. 23. 37.O Hierusalem, Hierusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy Children together, as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not? what words Dcould more emphatically express the love and tenderness of Christ towards his greatest enemies than these do? especially considering that he knew how busie they were in contriving his sufferings, while he was so passionately lamenting theirs. And when their malice had done its utmost upon him, and they saw him hanging upon the Cross and ready to yield up his last breath, he imploys the remainder of it in begging pardon for them, in those pathetical words cLuke 21. 34.Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. By all which we see, that what punishments soever the Jewish nation underwent afterwards Efor the great sin of crucifying the Lord of life, were no effect of meer revenge from him upon them, but the just judgement of God which they had drawn upon themselves by their own obstinacy and wilful blindness.
And that they might not think themselves surprised, when Athe dreadful effects of Gods anger should seize upon them, our Saviour as he drew nearer to the time of his sufferings gives them more frequent and serious warnings of the sad consequence of their incorrigibleness under all the means of cure which had been used among them. For they were so far from being amended by them, that they not only despised the remedy, but the Physitians too; (as though that were a small thing) they beat, they wound, they kill those who came to cure them: but as if it had not been enough to have done these things to servants, (to let the world see how dangerous it is to attempt the Bcure of incorrigible sinners) when God sent his own Son to them, expecting they should reverence him, they find a peculiar reason for taking him out of the way, aV. 38.for then the inheritance would be their own. But so miserably do sinners miscarry in their designs for their advantage, that those things which they build their hopes the most upon prove the most fatal and pernicious to them: When these persons thought themselves sure of the inheritance by killing the Son, that very sin of theirs, not only put them out of possession, but out of the hopes of recovering what interest they had in it before. For Cupon this it is that our Saviour here saith in the words of the Text, Therefore say I unto you, that the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
Which words, are the application which our Saviour makes of the foregoing parable concerning the vineyard, which it seems the Chief Priests and Pharisees, did not apprehend themselves to be concerned in, till he brought the application of it so close to them; so that then they find they had condemned themselves, when they so readily passed so severe a sentence Dupon those husbandmen, who had so ill requited the Lord of the Vineyard for all the care he had taken about it, that instead of sending him the fruits of it, they abuse his messengers, and at last murther his Son. When therefore Christ asks them, bV. 40.When the Lord therefore of the Vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They thought the case so plain, that they never take time to consider, or go forth to advise upon it, but bring in a present answer upon the evidence of the fact. cV. 41.They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his Vineyard Eto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Little did they think what a dreadful sentence they passed upon themselves and their own nation in these words: little did they think that hereby they condemned their Temple to be burned, their City to be destroyed, their Country to Abe ruined, their Nation to be Vagabonds over the face of the earth; little did they think that herein they justified God in all the miseries which they suffered afterwards, for in these words they vindicate God and condemn themselves, they acknowledge Gods Justice in the severest punishments he should inflict upon such obstinate wretches. Our Saviour having gained this confession from them, and so made it impossible for them to start back in charging God with injustice in punishing them; he now applies it to themselves in these words, which I suppose, ought immediately to follow the 41. verse. BTherefore say I unto you the Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, &c. Wherein we have,
1. The greatest judgement which can ever befal a people, which is the taking away the Kingdom of God from them.
2. The greatest mercy can ever be vouchsafed to a nation, which is Gods giving his Kingdom to it. And give it to a nation, &c.
In the judgement we consider the cause of it, therefore say I unto you, &c. which is either, more general as referring to all going before, and so it makes the taking away the CKingdom of God to be the just punishment of an incorrigible people, or more particular as referring to the sin of the Jews in crucifying Christ, and so it makes the guilt of that sin to be the cause of all the miseries, which that nation hath undergone since that time.
In the later part we may consider the terms upon which God either gives or continues his Kingdom to a nation, and that is, bringing forth the fruits thereof.
We consider the former with a particular respect to the state of the Jewish nation. And therein, 1. The greatness of Dtheir judgement implyed in those words the Kingdom of God, &c. 2. The particular reason of that judgement which was crucifying the Son of God.
1. The greatness of the judgement which befel the Jewish nation after imbruing their hands in the blood of Christ. And that will appear if we take the Kingdom of God in that double notion in which it was taken at that time. 1. It was taken by the Jews themselves for some peculiar and temporal blessings, which those who enjoyed it had above all other people. 2. It was taken by our Saviour for a clearer manisestation Eof the will of God to the world, and the consequence of that in the hearts of good men; and all the spiritual blessings which do attend it. So that the taking away the Kingdom of God from them must needs be the heaviest judgement which could befal a people, since it implies in it, the taking away all Athe greatest temporal and spiritual blessings.
1. We take it in the notion the Jews themselves had of it; and in this sense we shall make it evident that the Kingdom of God hath been taken from that people in accomplishment of this prediction of our Saviour. For they imagined the Kingdom of God among them to consist in these things especially, Deliverance from their enemies, A flourishing state, The upholding their Religion in Honour, chiefly in the pompous worship of the Temple. Now if instead of these things, they were exposed to the fury of their enemies so as never Bany nation besides them were, if their whole Polity was destroyed so as the very face of Government hath ever since been taken from them; if their Religion hath been so far from being upheld, that the practice of it hath been rendred impossible by the destruction of the Temple, and the consequences of it, then the Jews themselves cannot but say, that in their own sense the Kingdom of God hath been taken from them.
1. They make the Kingdom of God to consist in a deliverance of them from their enemies. For this was their great quarrel at our Saviour that he should pretend to bring the CKingdom of God among them, and do nothing in order to their deliverance from the Roman Power. They either were such great admirers of the Pomp and Splendor of the world, or so sensible of their own burdens and the yoke that was upon them, that they could not be perswaded that God should design to send his Kingdom among them for any other end but their ease and liberty. They apprehended the Crown of Thorns which was put upon our Saviours head was the fittest representation of the nature of his Kingdom; for they looked upon it as the meer shew of a Kingdom, but the reality was nothing but Daffliction and tribulation; and this was a doctrine they thought of all others the least needful to be preached to them, who complained so much of what they underwent already. They took it for the greatest contradiction to talk of a Kingdom among them, as long as they were in subjection to the Roman Governors. But if Jesus of Nazareth had raised an army in defence of their liberty, and had destroyed the Romans, they would never have enquired farther concerning Prophesies, or Miracles, this had been instead of all others to them, and then they would willingly have given him that title, which Ewas set up only in derision as the Elogium of his Cross, Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iews: But we see how justly God dealt with them soon after, when they crucified the Son of God because he preached another Kingdom than they dream'd of, God suffers this very pretence of a temporal Kingdom to Abe the occasion of the ruine of the whole Nation. For upon that it was that they denied subjection to the Romans, for they were for no other Kingdom but only Gods, (foreign, to acknowledge no other King but God, was the pretence of the War:) upon which arose that desperate Faction of the Zealots, who like so many Firebrands scattered up and down among them, soon put the whole Nation into Flames. And from this time there never was a more Tragical story either acted or written than that is of the miseries which this people underwent. For if ever there were the marks of divine Bvengeance seen in the ruine of a Nation, they were in that. For they were so far from hearkning to the counsel of their wisest men, that the first thing they made sure of, was the destruction of them. Wisdom was but another name for Treason among them: and there needed no other evidence to take away the lives of any but to say that they were rich and wise. When they had thus secured themselves (as they thought) against the danger of too much Wisdom, by the removal of all such, who at least did not counterfeit madness and folly by joyning with them; then they began to suspect one another, Cand three Factions at once break forth at Hierusalem, who seem'd to be afraid the Romans should not destroy them fast enough, for in the several parts of the City where they were, they were continually killing one another: and never joyned together but when they saw the Romans approaching their Walls, least they should take that work out of each others hands. By all means they were resolved to endure a seige, and as a preparative for that, they burnt up all the stores almost of provision which were among them: whence ensued a most dreadful Ios. foreign l. 6. c. 11. p. 932.famine, so great, that it was thought reason enough to take Daway the life of a man, because he looked better than his neighbours, they thereby suspecting he had some concealed provisions. They brake into the houses of such whom they imagined to be eating, and if they found them so, they either forced the meat out of their mouths, or choaked them with attempting to do it. It was no news then for a Woman to forget her sucking Child, so as not to have compassion upon the Son of her Womb: for the story is remarkable in aLib. 7. c. 8.Iosephus, of a Mother that not only eat part of her Son, who sucked at her breast, but when the smell had tempted some to Ebreak in upon her and take part with her, and were struck with horror at the sight of it, What, saith she, will you shew your selves more tender than a Woman, or more compassionate than a Mother! It was no news to see Parents and Children destroying one another for a piece of bread, to see the streets Aand tops of houses covered with the bodies of those who dropt down for want of food, in so much that the stench of their carcases soon brought a Plague among them: which and the Famine raged together with that violence, that when there was no possibility of burying their dead, they threw them over the Walls of the City, and Titus beholding the incredible numbers of them lift up his hands to Heaven and cryed foreign, that it was none of his doing. For he used all possible means to prevent the ruine of the City and Temple as well as the destruction of the People: but all to no Bpurpose, for now the time of Gods vengeance was come, yea the full time of his wrath was come. So that Titus often confessed, he never saw such an instance of divine vengeance upon a people, that when their Enemies designed to save them, they were resolved to destroy themselves. And aPhilost. v. Apollo…. l. 6. cap. 14.Philostratus tells us, that when the neighbour Provinces offered Titus a Crown, in token of his conquest of Iudaea, he utterly refused it with this saying, that he had nothing to do in the glory of that action, for he was only the instrument of Gods vengeance upon the Iews. Which we may easily believe, if Cwe consider almost the incredible number of those who were destroyed at that time, 1100000 reckoned in that number in the time of eight months siege, and 90000 carried away captive, which might have been thought incredible, but for one circumstance, which is mentioned by their own Historian, that at the time of the siege Hierusalem was filled with Jews coming from all parts to the solemnity of the Passover, where they were shut up asin a Prison: and their Prison made their place of Execution. Yea so prodigious were the calamities which besel this people not only at Hierusalem, but at Caesarea, Antioch, DScythopolis, Alexandria and almost all the Cities of Syria, that Eliazer, one of the heads of the Faction, when he saw they could not hold out against the Romans at Massada, perswaded them all to kill one another by this argument bIos. p. 990.that it was now apparent that God from the beginning of the War had designed their destruction, and they had better be the executioners of his vengeance themselves than suffer the Romans to be so. Upon which they all miserably destroyed each other: who were the last who opposed the Roman Power.E
What shall we say then to these things? Have we any ground to suspect the truth of the story as either made by Christians in hatred of the Jews, or improved mightily to their disadvantage? Not so certainly, when all the circumstances are related by Jewish and Roman Writers, who had no kindness Aat all for Christians. Or shall we say there was nothing extraordinary in all this, but that the Jews were a wild and seditious people that destroyed themselves and their nation? but it is evident they were not always so; they had been a people that had flourished with the reputation of wisdom and conduct, and had great success against their enemies. And the Romans themselves at this time acknowledged they never saw a people of a more invincible spirit and less afraid of dying than these were. But all this turned to their greater prejudice; and they who had been so famous in former ages for miraculous Bdeliverances from the power of their enemies, were now not only given up into their hands, but into those which were far more cruel, which were their own. What then can we imagine should make so great an alteration in the State of their affairs now, but that God was their friend then and their enemy now? He gave then success beyond their Counsels, and without preparation; now he blasts all their designs, divides their counsels, and makes their contrivances end in their speedier ruine. Now they felt the effect of what God had threatned long before, aHos. 9 12.Woe be unto you when I depart from you. Now Ctheir strength, their wisdom, their peace, their honour, their safety were all departed from them. Whereby we see how much the welfare of a Nation depends upon Gods Favour and that no other security is comparable to that of true Religion. The Nation of the Jews, was for all that we know never more numerous, than at this time, never more resolute and couragious to venture their lives, never better provided of fortified Towns and strong places of retreat and all provisions for War; but there was a hand writing upon the Wall against them, Mene, Tekel, Peres, God had weighed them in the ballance and Dfound them too light, he divides their Nation and removes his Kingdom from them and leaves them to an utter desolation. Neither can we say this was some present infatuation upon them, for ever since all their attempts for recovering their own land, have but increased their miseries and made their condition worse than before. Witness that great attempt under Barchocebas in the time of Adrian, in which the Jews themselves say there perished double the number of what came out of Egypt i. e. above 1200000 men. After which they were not only wholly banished their land, but forbid so much as to look on Ethe place where the Temple had stood, and were fain to purchase at a dear rate, the liberty of weeping over it; bHie…o…. in Zeph. 1.ut qui quondam emerant sanguinem Christi, emant lachrymas suas; as St. Hierom speaks; i. e. that they who had bought the blood of Christ were now fain to buy their own tears. It would be Aendless to pursue the miseries of this wretched people in all ages ever since; the slavery, disgrace, universal contempt, the frequent banishments, confiscations of estates, constant oppressions which they have laboured under. So that from that time to this, they have scarce had any estates, but never any Country which they could call their own. So that St. Augustin hath truly said, aAug. in Psal. 58.the curse of Cain is upon them, for they are vagabonds in the earth, they have a mark upon them, so that they are not destroyed and yet are in continual fear of being so. God seems to preserve that miserable Nation in being, to be Ba constant warning to all others, to let them see what a difference in the same people the Favour or Displeasure of God can make, and how severe the judgements of God are upon those who are obstinate and disobedient.
2. They make the Kingdom of God to consist in the flourishing of their State, or that Polity which God established among them. He was himself once their immediate Governour and therefore it might be properly call'd his Kingdom: and after they had Kings of their own their plenty and prosperity did so much depend on the kindness of heaven to them, that Call the days of their flourishing condition might be justly attributed to a more than ordinary providence that watched over them. For if we consider how small in comparison the extent and compass of the whole land of Iudea was, being as Saint Hierom saith, (who knew it well,) but 160. miles in length from Dan to Beersheba, and 46. in bredth from Ioppa to Bethlehem; if we consider likewise the vast number of its inhabitants, there being at b1 Chron. 15. 5, 6.Davids numbering the people 1500000. fighting men who ought not to be reckoned above a 4th part of the whole, and Benjamin and Levi not taken Din, if we add to these, the many rocks, mountains and deserts in this small country, and that every 7. years the most fertile places must lye fallow, we may justly wonder how all this number of people should prosper so much in so narrow a territory. For although we ought not to measure the rules of Eastern diet by those of our Northern Climates, and it be withall true that the number of people add both to the riches and plenty of it, and that the fertile places of that land were so almost to a miracle, yet considering their scarcity of rain and their Sabbatical years, we must have recourse to an immediate Ecare of heaven which provided for all their necessities and filled their stores to so great abundance that c1 Kings 5. 11.Solomon gave to King Hiram every year 20000. measures of wheat, and twenty measures of oyl: every one of which contained about 30. bushels. And God himself had particularly promised to Agive them the former and the latter rain, and that they might have no occasion to complain of their Sabbatical years aLev. 25. 21.every sixth year should afford them fruit for 3. years. By which we see their plenty depended not so much upon the fat of their land, as upon the dew and blessing of heaven. And if we farther consider them as environed about with enemies on every side, such as were numerous and powerful, implacable and subtle, it is a perpetual wonder (considering the constitution of the Jewish nation) that they should not be destroyed by them. For all the the males being obliged strictly by the Law Bto go up three times a year to Hierusalem (we should think against all rules of Policy to leave the country naked) it seem's incredible that their enemies should not over-run the Country, and destroy their Wives and Children at that time. But all their security was in the promise which God had made; bExod. 34. 24.neither shall any man desire thy land, when thou shall go up to appear before the Lord thy God thrice in the year. And to let us see that obedience to God is the best security against the greatest dangers, we never read of any invasion of that Country in one of those times, nor of any miseries they suffer'd Cthen; till the last and fatal destruction of Hierusalem when God had taken away his Kingdom from them. And with that, their whole Polity fell; for never since have they been able to maintain so much as the face of Government living in subjection, if not in slavery in all parts of the world. So that whether we mean the succession of power in Iudahs tribe, or the seat of power in the whole nation, or the distinction and superiority of that tribe above the rest, by the Scepter which was not cGen. 49. 10.to depart from Iudah till Shiloh came; we are sure in every one of these senses, it is long since departed from it. For neither Dhave any of the Posterity of David had any power over them, nor was it possible they should, considering that all Government is taken from them, and the very distinction of tribes is lost among them, they having never had any certain Genealogies since the destruction of the Temple. I know what vaine hopes, and foolish fancies, and incredible stories they have among them; of some supreme power, which they have in some part of the world but they know not where. Sometimes, they talk of their mighty numbers at Bagdad, and the officers of their own nation which are set over Ethem: but had they not so in Egypt, and were they ever the less in captivity there? Sometimes they boast of their Schools in those Eastern parts, such as Pombeditha, Sura, and Neharda, and the authority the Rabbins have over them; but this is just as the Orator said of Dionysius the Tyrant of ASyracuse, that he loved Government so well, that when he was not suffered to govern men there, he went to govern boys at Corinth, aCic. Tusc. 3.usque eò imperio carere non poterat. But these are tolerable in comparison with the incredible fictions of the 4. Tribes in the East, hemm'd in by a vast and unpassable ridge of mountains on every side, but when the famous Sabbatical River runs, which for 6. days bear's all before it with a mighty torrent, and carries stones of such incredible bigness that there is no passing over it: but because the admirable nature of that River is, bEldad. Danita apud Buxtorf. v. Sabbation. Praef. in Cos…. l'Empereur in Benjam. p. 206. 207.that it keeps the Sabbath and Drests all that day, we might have thought it had been possible to have had some entercourse with them on that day; but to prevent this they tell us, that as the water goes off, flames of fire come in the place of it and hinder all access to them. But these are things which a man must be a Iew first before he can believe: and what will not they believe rather than Christ is the Son of God! For cSpes Israel. sect. 19. p. 64.Manasse ben Israel hath had the confidence in this age to say that the sand taken out of the Sabbatical River and preserved in a Tube doth constantly move for 6. days, and rests punctually from the beginning of the Sabbath Cto the end of it. Which is the less to be wondred at since in all his book of the hope of Israel, he eagerly contends for the incredible fiction of Montezini of the flourishing condition of the Jews at this day in some parts of America; but the Salvo is translated thither too, for there is a mighty River which hinders any from access to them. By all which we see how vain all their attempts are to preserve any reputation of that power and Government wherein they made so great a part of the Kingdom of God among them to consist.
3. That which they thought gave them the greatest title to Dthe being Gods peculiar people, was the solemn worship of him at the Temple. But what is become of all the glory of that now? where are all the pompous Ceremonies, the numerous sacrifices, the magnificent and solemn Feasts, which were to be constantly observed there? how is it then possible for them to observe the Religion now which God commanded them; since he likewise forbid the doing these things any where, but in the Place which himself should appoint. So that they are under an unavoidable necessity of breaking their Law; if they do them not, they break the Law which commands them to be done, Eif they do them, they break the Law which forbids the doing them in any other place but at the Temple at Hierusalem. And this I am apt to think, was one of the greatest grounds among them after the destruction of the Temple of their setting up traditions above the written Law; for finding Ait impossible to keep the written Law, if they could gain to themselves the Authority of interpreting it, they were not much concerned for the Law it self. And this is one of the strongest holds of their infidelity at this day. For otherwise we might in reason have thought, that their infidelity would have been buried in the ashes of their Temple; when they had such plain predictions that the Messias was to come during the second Temple, that the prediction of Christ concerning the destruction of this Temple was so exactly fulfilled, that all attemps for the rebuilding of it were vain and fruitless. Of all which Bnone promissed so fair as that in Iulians time, who out of spight to the Christians, and particularly with a design to contradict the prophecy of our Saviour gave all encouragement to the Iews to build it, he provided at his own charge all materials for it, and gave command to the Governour of the Province to take particular care in it; and the Jews with great joy and readiness set about it; but when they began to search the ground in order to the laying the Foundations, the earth round about trembles with a horrible earthquake, and the flames of a sudden break out, which not only consumed the undertakers Cbut a great multitude of spectators, and the materials prepared for the building: In so much that an universal astonishment seized upon them, and the rest had rather leave their work, than be consumed by it. This we have delivered to us; not by persons at a great distance of time from it, but by such who lived in the same age. aOrat. 2. c. Iud.foreign, we are all witnesses, (saith St. Chrysost.) of the truth of these things; not by one or two, but the concurrent Testimony of the writers of that age. Not only by bChrys. in Matth. hom. 4. in Act. hom. 41. Nazian. Orat. 2. in Iulian. Ambr. Ep. 29. Theod. Impr. Russia. l. 1. c. 38. 39. Socrat. l. 3. c. 20. Sozom. l 5. c. 22. Theod. l. 3. c. 17. Amm. Marcell. Hist. l. 23. init.St. Chrysost. But Gregorius Nazianzenus, Ambrose, Ruffinus, Socrates, Sozomen, DTheodoret. And lest all these should be suspected of partiality, because Christians, we desire no more to be believed concerning it, than what is recorded by Ammianus Marcellinus a Heathen Historian of that time, who was a souldier under Iulian in his last expedition, and he asserts the substance of what I have said before. And what a strange difference do we now find in the building of a third and a second Temple? In the former, though they met with many troubles and difficulties, yet God carried them through all and prospered their endeavours with great success. Now they had all humane encouragements Eand God only opposes them, and makes them desist with the loss of their workmen and materials, and perpetual dishonour to themselves, for attempting to fight against God in building him a Temple against his will. From which we see that in all the senses the Jews understood the Kingdom Aof God, it was remarkably taken from them within so many years after Christ the true Passover was slain by them, as had passed from their first Passover after their going out of Aegypt to their entrance into Canaan.
The difficulty will be far less and the concernment not so great as to the Jews, to prove that the Kingdom of God in the sense our Saviour meant it for the Power of the Gospel, was taken from them. For the event it self is a clear proof of it. In stead of that therefore I shall now prove that this taking away the Kingdom of God from them, was the effect of their sin in crucifying BChrist. Therefore I say &c. To make this clear I shall proceed by these following steps.
1. That it is acknowledged by the Jews themselves that these great calamities have happened to them for some extraordinary sins. For to these they impute the destruction of the City and Temple, their oppressions and miseries ever since, and the deferring the coming of the Messias. For some of them have confessed aTit. Sanhed. c. 11. sect. 31.that all the terms prefixed for the coming of the Messias are past long ago but that God provoked by their great sins hath thus long deferred his appearance, and suffered Cthem in the mean while to lye under such great calamities.
2. The sin ought to be looked on as so much greater by how much heavier and longer this punishment hath been, than any inflicted upon them before. For if God did in former captivities punish them for their sins, when they were brought back again into their own land after 70. years; we must conclude that this is a sin of a higher nature which hath not been expiated by 1600. years captivity and dispersion.
3. The Jews have not suffered these calamities for the same sins for which they suffered before. For then God charged Dthem with Idolatry as the great provoking sin; and it is very observable that the Jews were never freer from the suspicion of this sin than under the second Temple, and particularly near their destruction. They generally pretended a mighty zeal for their Law, and especially opposed the least tendency to Idolatry; in so much that they would not suffer the Roman Ensigns to be advanced among them because of the Images that were upon them; and all the History of that time tells us of the frequent contests they had with the Roman Governours about these things: and ever since that time they have been perfect haters Eof Idolatry, and none of the least hindrances of their embracing Christianity hath been the infinite scandal which hath been given them by the Roman Church in that particular.
4. It must be some sin, which their Fathers committed and continues yet unrepented of by them to this day. Their Fathers Acommitting it, was the meritorious cause of the first punishment, their Children not repenting of it, is the cause why that judgement lies still so heavy upon them. And now what sin can we imagine this to be, but putting to death the true Messias; which they will acknowledge themselves to be a sin that deserves all the miseries they have undergone; and it is apparent that in all this long captivity they never have had the heart to repent of the sin of crucifying Christ, other sins they confess and say they heartily repent of, but why then hath not God accepted of their repentance and brought them back into Btheir own Land; according to the promises he long since made unto their Fathers? Which is a certain argument it is some sin as yet unrepented of by them which continues them under all their sufferings; and what can this be but that horrid sin of putting to death the son of God, with that dreadful imprecation which to this day hath its force upon them His blood be upon us and our Children? and this sin they are so far from repenting of, that they still justify their Fathers in what they did, and Blaspheme Christ to this day in their prayers, where they think they may do it with safety. And to all this we may add Cthat the ensuing calamities were exactly soretold by that Christ whom they crucified, and if no other argument would convince them that he was at least a Prophet, yet the punctual accomplishment of all his predictions ought to do it: as will appear by comparing aMatt. 24. 3.Matth. 24. With the series of the story. And it is observable that the very place where our Saviour foretold these things viz. the Mount of Olives, was the first wherein the Roman Army encamped before Hierusalem. And as they had crucified the Son of God, and put the Lord of glory to open shame, mocking and deriding him in his sufferings; so when the DRomans came to revenge his quarrel upon them, they took the captive Jews and crucified them openly in the view of the City, 500. oft-times in a day, foreign in different forms for sport sake as bIoseph. foreign. l. 6. c. 12.Iosephus tells us who was then in the Roman camp; and withal adds, their numbers were so great that these was no room left for the crosses to stand, or wood enough to make crosses of. And they who had bought the blood of the Son of God for 30. pieces of silver had this sin of theirs severely punished, when such multitudes of the Jews (2000 in one night) had their bowels ript up by the ERoman Souldiers in hopes to have found the gold and silver there, which they were supposed to have swallowed. And what greater argument can we have to believe that such judgements fell upon them upon the account of their sin in crucifying Christ, than that they were so punctually foretold so long before, Aand had all things so exactly answering in the accomplishment of them? For when Christ spake those things the Jews thought their destruction as incredible as that he was the Messias; but what greater evidence could there be to them that he was so, than that God did so severely avenge his blood upon them, and continues to do it for their unbelief and impenitency to this very day.
But it may be some will say, what are all these things to us, we are none of those who crucified Christ or justify the doing it; Thanks be to God, the Kingdom of God is not taken from us, Bbut we enjoy what was taken from them. To which I answer. If we really were what we pretend to be, these things are of great consequence to be considered by us.
1. For is it nothing to us to have so great an argument of the truth of our Religion, as the sufferings of the Jews to this day is for the sin of crucifying Christ? As often as we think of them we ought to consider the danger of infidelity, and the heavy judgements which that brings upon a people. We may take some estimate of the wrath of God against that sin, by the desolation of the Country, and the miseries of the inhabitants Cof it. When you think it a small sin to despise the Son of God, to revile his doctrine, and reproach his miracles, consider then what the Jews have suffered for these sins. As long as they continue a people in the world, they are the living monuments of the Vengeance of God upon an incorrigible and unbelieving nation. And it may be one of the ends of Gods dispersing them almost among all nations, that as often as they see and despise them, they may have a care of those sins which have made them a byword and reproach among men, who once were a nation beloved of God and feared by men. See what it is to Ddespise the offers of grace, to reproach and ill use the Messengers of it who have no other errand but to perswade men to accept that Grace and bring forth the fruits thereof. See what it is for men to be slaves to their own lusts, which makes them not only neglect their own truest interest but that of their nation too. If that had not been the fundamental miscarriage of the rulers of the Jewish nation at the time of our Saviour, they would most readily have entertained him and saved their land from ruine. See what it is for a people to be high in conceit of themselves and to presume upon Gods favour Etowards them. For there never was a nation more self opinionated as to their wisdom, goodness, and interest with God than the Jews were when they began their war: and the confidence of this made them think it long till they had destroyed themselves. See what it is to be once engaged too far in a bad cause, Ahow hard it is though they suffer never so much for it afterwards, for them to repent of it. We might have thought the Jews when they had seen the destruction of Ierusalem would have come off from their obstinacy; but how very few in comparison from that time to this, have sincerely repented of the sins of their Fore-fathers in the death of Christ. See how hard a matter it is to conquer the prejudices of education, and to condemn the most unjust actions of those when we come to understanding, whom from our infancy we had in veneration. For it is in great measure because they were their Ancestors, that Bthe Jews to this day are so hardly convinced they could be guilty of so soul a sin as crucifying the Messias.
2. Is it nothing to us what they have suffered, who enjoy the greatest blessings we have, by their means, and upon the same terms which they did. For to them at first were committed the Oracles of God, we enjoy all the excellent and sacred records of ancient times from them, all the prophecies of the men whom God raised up and inspired from time to time among them. By their means we converse with those great persons, Moses, David, Solomon and others, and understand their Cwisdom and piety by the writings which at this day we enjoy. By them we have conveyed to us, all the particular prophesies which relate to the Messias, which point out the Tribe, the place, the time, the very person he was to be born of. By their means we are able to consute their infidelity, and to confirm our own faith. Therefore we have some common concernment with them, and ought on that account to be sensible of their miseries. Is it nothing then to you that God hath dealt so severely with them, from whom you derive so great a part of your Religion? But if that be nothing, consider the Dterms upon which you enjoy these mercies you have; and they are as the latter clause of the text assures us, no other than the bringing forth the fruits thereof. If we prove as obstinate and incorrigible as they, God may justly punish us, as he hath done them. It is but a Vineyard that God lets us, it is no inheritance; God expects our improvement and giving him the fruits of it, or else he may justly take it away from us and give it to other Husbandmen. Let us never flatter our selves in thinking it impossible God should make us as miserable and contemptible a people as he hath done the Jews; but we may Ebe miserable enough and yet fall short of them. Have we any such promises of his favour as they had? how great were their priviledges while they stood in favour with God above all other nations in world? aRom. 9. 4, 5.But we see, though they were the first and the natural branches, they are broken off by unbelief, Aand we stand by faith. Nothing then can be more reasonable than the exhortation of the Apostle, aRom. 11. 20.be not high minded but fear. Boast not of your present priviledges; despise not those who are broken of, for consider, if God spared not the natural branches, we ought to take heed, lest he also spare V. 21.not us.
3. Is it nothing to us what the Jews suffer, since our sins are in some senses more aggravated than theirs were? For though there can be no just excuse made for their wilful blindness, yet there may be much less made for ours. For what Bthey did against him was when he appeared in the weakness of humane flesh, in a very mean and low condition, before the great confirmation of our faith, by his resurrection from the dead; But our contempt of Christ is much more unpardonable, not only after that, but the miraculous consequences of it, and the spreading and continuance of his doctrine in the world, after the multitudes of Martyrs and the glorious. Triumphs of our Religion over all the attempts of the persecutors and betrayers of it; after the solemn vows of our Baptism in his name, and frequent addresses to God by him, and celebrating the memory Cof his death and passion. What can be more mean, and ungrateful, what can shew more folly and weakness than after all these to esteem the blood of Christ no otherwise than as of a common malefactor, or at least to live as if we so esteemed it? Nay we may add to all this, after so severe an instance of Gods vengeance already upon the Jews; which ought to increase our care, and will therefore aggravate our sin. What the Jews did they did as open and professed enemies, what we do we do as false and perfidious friends, and let any man judge which is the greater crime, to assault an enemy, or to betray a DFriend.
4. Can this be nothing to us who have so many of those Symptoms upon us which were the fore-runners of their desolation? Not as though I came hither like the son of Anani in the Jewish story, who of a sudden, 4. years before the war, cryed out in the Temple, a voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the 4. Winds, Woe to Jerusalem, Woe to the Temple, Woe to all this people, and this he continued crying saith Iosephus for 7. years and 5. months, till at last being upon the Walls of the City, he cryed Woe to my self also, Eand immediately a stone come out from one of the Roman Engines and dispatched him. God forbid we should be so near a desolation as they were then; but yet our Symptoms are bad, and without our repentance and amendment God knows what they may end in. There were these following remarkable forerunners Aof desolation in the Jewish state, I am afraid we are too much concerned in.
1. A strange degeneracy of all sorts of men from the vertues of their Ancestors. This Iosephus often mentions and complains of and that there was no sort of men free; from the highest to the meanest, they had all degenerated not only from what they ought to be, but from what their Ancestors were. And there can be nothing which bodes worse to a people than this doth; for the decay of vertue is really the loss of strength and interest. And if this be not among us at this day in one Bsense, it must be in another, or else there would never be such general complaints of it as there are. It is hard to say that there hath ever been an Age, wherein vice, such as the very Heathens abhorred, hath been more confident and daring than in this; wherein so many have not barely left vertue, but have bid defiance to it; and are ashamed of their Baptism for nothing so much as because therein they renounced the Devil and all his works; These are the Zealots in wickedness as the Jews were in faction. The flaming sword, the voice in the Temple, the terrible Earthquakes, were not greater Prodigies in nature Camong them, than men are in Morality among us, nor sadder presages of future miseries.
2. A general stupidity and inapprehensiveness of common danger: every one had a mighty zeal for his little party and faction he was engaged in, and would venture his life for that, never considering that by this means there was no more left to do, for the Romans, but to stand by and see them destroy one another. I pray God that may be never said of the Romans in another sense concerning this Church of ours. We cannot but be sensible how much they are pleased at our divisions and Dthey have always hay and stubble enough, not only to build with, but thereby to add fuel to our flames. How happy should we be if we could once lay aside our petty animosities and all mind the true interest of our Church and the security of the Protestant Religion by it, which ought to be dearer to to us than our lives! But that is our misery, that our divisions in Religion have made us not more contemptible, than ridiculous to forrain nations, and it puzleth the wisest among our selves to find out expedients to keep us from ruining one of the best Churches of the Christian world.E
3. An Atheistical contempt of Religion: for Iosephus who was apt enough to flatter his Country-men; tells us there never was aL. 5. c. 16.foreign a more Atheistical Generation of men than at that time, the leaders of the factions were; for they contemned the Laws of men and mocked at the Laws of Aof God; aL. 5. c. 2. P. 887.and derided the Prophetick Oracles as fabulous impostures: they would allow no difference of sacred and prophane, for they would drink the wine of the sacrifices promiscuously, and anoint their heads commonly with the sacred oyl; in a word they owned no distinction of good and evil, bP. 986.but thought the greatest wickedness to be good to them. To say there is such a Generation of men among us, is to foretel our ruine more certainly than Comets and the most dreadful presages do: For this is a sort of madness which seldom seizes upon a people, but when they are past cure, and therefore Bare near their end.
4. Spiritual pride. This was very remarkable in the people of the Jews, in a time when they had as little reason for it, as any people in the world. They still looked on themselves as Gods chosen and peculiar people, his darlings and his delight, and thought that Gods honour and interest in the world were mightily concerned in their preservation. If they should be destroyed, they could not imagine what God would do for a people to serve him; for all but themselves they looked on with a very scornful pity, and thought that God hated them because Cthey did. They had the purity of his ordinances, in his house of prayer; and the society of the faithful among themselves: whereas all others they thought, served God only with their own inventions, or placed their Religion in dull morality. They were the people who maintained his cause, and ventured their lives and estates for it, and therefore God was bound in faithfulness to defend them, and he must deny himself if he did destroy them. It seems strange to us, that a people rejected by God for their horrible Hypocrisie, should claim such an interest in him, when they were marked out for destruction by him; Dbut such is the bewitching nature of spiritual pride and Hypocrisie, that it infatuates the minds of men to their ruin; and flatters them with their interest in the Promises, till God makes good his threatenings and destroys them. Never any people thought they had a richer stock of promises to live on than they; ancient promises, to Abraham Isaac and Iacob, full promises, of favour, protection, and deliverance from enemies; particular promises made to them and to no other people in the world. Besides these, they had mighty experiences of Gods kindness towards them, undoubted experiences, Enot depending on the deceitful workings of fancy; but seen in very strange and wonderful deliverances; frequent experiences, throughout the whole History of their nation: and peculiar experiences being such vouchsafements to them, which God communicated to none but his chosen people. Add to these, Athat they had at this time a wonderful zeal for the true worship of God as they thought; they regarded no persecution or opposition, but thought it their glory and honour to sacrifice themselves for the cause of God and his people. And yet all this while, God was the greatest enemy they had; and all their pretences signified nothing to him who saw their unsusserable pride and loathsome Hypocrisie through those thin vails they had drawn over them, to deceive the less observing sort of men by. Other sins that are open and publick God preserves the Authority of his Laws by punishing of them, but these Bspiritual sins of pride and Hypocrisie, he not only vindicates his Authority over the consciences of men, but the infiniteness, of his wisdom and knowledge in their discovery, and his love to Integrity and inward holiness in the punishment of them. And therefore these sins are more especially odious to God as incroaching upon his highest and most peculiar attributes; thence he is said to resist the proud, as though he made an attempt upon God himself; and he loaths the Hypocrite in heart, as one that mocks God as well as deceives men. The first tendency to the destruction of this nation of the Jews was the Cprevalency of the Pharisaical temper among them, which was a compound of pride and Hypocrisie; and when the field was over-run with these tares, it was then time for God to put in his sickle and cut them down. God forbid, that our Church and the Protestant Religion in it should be in danger of destruction, for that would be a judgement beyond fire and sword and plague, and any thing we have yet smarted by; that would be the taking away the Kingdom of God from us, and setting up the Kingdom of darkness, that would be not only a punishment to our own Age, but the heaviest curse next to renouncing DChristianity, we could entail upon posterity. But however though God in mercy may design better things for us, we cannot be sufficiently apprehensive of our danger, not so much from the business of our enemies, as those bad Symptoms we find among our selves. When there is such monstrous pride and ingratitude among many who pretend to a purer worship of God than is established by Law, as though there were little or no difference between the Government of Moses and Aaron and the bondage of Egypt. O England, England what will the Pride and unthankfulness of those who profess Religion Ebring thee to! Will men still prefer their own reputation or the interest of a small party of Zealots, before the common concernments of our faith and Religion? O that we did know at least in this our day, the things that belong to our peace! but let it never be said that they are hid from our eyes. But if Aour common enemy should enter in at the breaches we have made among our selves, then men may wish, they had sooner known the difference between the reasonable commands of our own Church, and the intolerable Tyranny of a forrain and usurped power: between the soft and gentle hands of a mother, and the Iron sinews of an Executioner; between the utmost rigour of our Laws, and the least of an Inquisition. If ingratitude were all, yet that were a sin high enough to provoke God to make our condition worse than it is, but to what a strange height of spiritual pride are those arrived, who ingross Ball true god iness to themselves? as though it were not possible among us to go to heaven and to Church together. As though Christ had no Church for 1500. years and more, wherein not one person can be named who thought it unlawful to pray by a prescribed form. As though men could not love God and pray sincerely to him, that valued the peace and order of the Church above the heats and conceptions of their own brains. Where differences proceed meerly from ignorance and weakness, they are less dangerous to themselves or others: but where there is so much impatience of reproof, such contempt Cof superiours, such uncharitable censures of other men, such invincible prejudices and stiffeness of humour, such scorn and reproach cast upon the publick worship among us; What can such things spring from but a root of bitterness and spiritual pride? I speak not these things to widen our differences or increase our animosities they are too large and too great already, nor to condemn any humble and modest dissenters from us; but I despair ever to see our divisions healed, till Religion be brought from the Fancies to the hearts of men; and till men instead of mystical notions and unacccountable experiences, Din stead of mis-applying promises and misunderstanding the spirit of prayer, instead of judging of themselves by mistaken signs of Grace, set themselves to the practice of humility, selfdenial, meekness, patience, charity, obedience and a holy life and look on these as the greatest duties and most distinguishing characters of true Christianity. And in doing of these there shall not only be a great reward in the life to come; but in spight of all opposition from Atheism, profaneness, or superstition, we may see our divisions cured and the Kingdom of God, which is a Kingdom of peace and holiness to abide and Eflourish among us.