Thirty-Six Sermons, Collection of sermons 1 · Group of sermons 2 · Sermon 2
AD POPULUM.
The Second Sermon.
At Grantham Linc. Feb. 27. 1620.
3 KINGS 21. 29.
—because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.—
I Will not so far either distrust your Memories, or straiten1. my self of Time for the delivery of what I am now purposed to speak; as to make any large Repetition of the Particulars which were observ'd the last time from the consideration of Ahab's Person and Condition, (who was but an Hypocrite) taken joyntly with his present Carriage, together with the Occasion and Success thereof. He was humbled: It was the Voice of God by his Prophet that humbled him. Upon his humbling God adjourneth his Punishment. From all which was noted, first, That there might be even in Hypocrites an Outward formal Humiliation; secondly, the Power and Efficacy of the Word of God able to humble an Oppressing Ahab; thirdly, the boundless Mercy of God, in not suffering the Outward formal Humiliation of an ungodly Hypocrite to pass altogether unrewarded. All this the last time; by occasion of those first Clauses in the Verse, [Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not—] We are now next to consider of the Great Favour, which it pleased God to shew to Ahab upon his humiliation; what it was, and wherein it consisted. It was the Removal, (at least for a time; that is, the suspension) of an heavy judgment denounced against Ahab and his house most deservedly for his bloody and execrable oppression; [Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.]
The Evil which God now promiseth he will not bring [I will not bring 2.the evil in his days,] is that which in vers. 21. he had threatned he would bring upon Ahab and upon his house, [aVers. 21, &c. hic. Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel; and will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the Son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the Son of Abijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.] A great Judgment and an heavy: But the greater the Judgment is, when it is deserved and threatned; the greater the mercy is, if it be afterwards forborn; as some of this was. But whatsoever becometh of the Iudgment, here we see is Mercy good store. God who is bEph. 2. 4.rich in mercy, and delighteth to be stiled cDeus miserationum. Neh. 9. 31.the God of mercies, and the d2 Cor. 1. 3.Father of mercies, abundantly manifesteth his mercy, in dealing thus graciously with one that deserved it so little. Here is mercy, in but threatning the punishment, when he might have inflicted it; and more mercy in not inflicting the punishment when he had threatned it. Here is mercy first in suspending the punishment, [I will not bring the evil:] and mercy again, in suspending it for so long a time: [I will not bring the evil in his days.] Of these two points we shall entreat at this time: and first and principally, of the former.
[I will not bring the evil.] It is no new thing to them, that have read3. the sacred Stories with Observation, to see God, when men are humbled at his threatnings, to revoke them, eChrysost. in Gen. hom. 25. & alibi s…pe.foreign, saith Chrysostom more than once: this is ever Gods manner, when men change their deeds, to change his doom; when they renounce their sins, to recal his sentence: when they repent of the evil they have done against him, to fJon. 3. 10.Repent of the evil he had said he would do against them. Search the Scriptures, and say if things run not thus, as in the most ordinary course: God commandeth, and Man disobeyeth: Man disobeyeth, and God threatneth: God threatneth, and man repenteth: Man repenteth, and God forbeareth. gGen. 20. 3.Abimelech, thou art but a dead man, because of the woman which thou hast taken! but Abimelech restoreth the Prophet his Wife untouched, and God spareth him, and he dieth not. Hezekiah, make thy Will, and hEsa. 38. 1. 5.Put thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live!▪ but Hezekiah turneth to the Wall, and prayeth, and weepeth, and God addeth to his days fifteen years. Nineveh, prepare for desolation; for now but iJor. 3. 4, 10.forty days and Nineveh shall be destroyed: but Nineveh fasted, and prayed, and repented; and Nineveh stood after more than forty years twice told. Generally, God never yet threatned any punishment upon person or place: but if they repented, he either withheld it, or deferred it, or abated it, or sweetned it to them: for the most part proportionably to the truth and measure of their repentance, but howsoever always so far forth as in his infinite wisdom he hath thought good: some way or other, he ever remitted somewhat of that severity and rigour, wherein he threatned it.
A course which God hath in some sort bound himself unto, and which he often and openly professeth he will hold. Two remarkable testimonies (among sundry other) shall suffice us to have proposed at this time, for the clear and full evidencing hereof. The one in Ier. 18. 7, 8. [At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation, and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up, and pull down, and to destroy; If that Nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.] The other in Ezek. 33. 13, 14. [When I say to the wicked▪ Thou shalt surely die, if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; If the wicked restore the pledge, give again that he hath robbed, walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.] And every where in the Prophets, after Denunciations of Judgment follow Exhortations to repentance: which were bootless, if Repentance should not either prevent them or adjourn them, or lessen them.
You see God both practiseth and professeth this course: neither of5. which can seem strange to us, if we duly consider, either his readiness to shew mercy, or the true End of his Threatnings. We have partly already touched at the greatness of his mercy. To shew compassion, and to forgive, that is the thing wherein he most of all delighteth; and therefore he doth arripere ansam, take all advantage as it were, and lay hold on every occasion to do that: but to punish, and take vengeance, is kEsay 28. 21.opu… alienum, as some expound that in Esay 28. his strange work, his strange act, a thing he taketh no pleasure in. lEzek. 33. 11.Vivo nolo—in Ezek. 33. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, &c. As the Bee laboureth busily all the day long, and seeketh to every flower, and to every weed for Honey; but stingeth not once, unless she be ill provoked: so God bestirreth himself, and his bowels yern within him, to shew compassion, mHos. 6. 4.[Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? O Iudah, how shall I intreat thee? nEzek. 18. 31. & 33. 11.Why will ye die, O ye house of Israel? oJer. 5. 1.Run to and fro through the streets of Ierusalem, and seek if you can find a man, but a man, that I may pardon it.] But vengeance cometh on heavily and unwillingly, and draweth a sigh from him; [pEsay 1. 24. He… consolabor! Ah I must, I see there is no remedy, I must ease me of mine adversaries, and be avenged of mine enemies; qMatt. 23. 27.Oh Ierusalem, Ierusalem, that killest the Prophets—how oft would I, &c. rOsee 11. 8.How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?—my heart is turned within me; my repentings are kindled together.] So is our God sPsal. 103. 8.slow to anger, and loth to strike [tOvid. 1. de Pont. 3. Quique dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox:] but plenteous in mercy, as David describeth him in Psal. 103. Never was a man truly and inwardly humbled, but God in the riches of his special mercy, truly pardoned him: never was man so much as but outwardly humbled, as Ahab here, but God in his common and general mercy, more or less forbare him.
Secondly, the end of Gods Threatnings also confirmeth this point. For, doth he threaten evil, think ye, because he is resolved to inflict it? Nothing less: rather, to the contrary, he therefore threatneth it, that we by our repentance may prevent it, and so he may not inflict it? uChrys. in Gen. hom. 25. foreign. Nazianz. Non praedixit, ut veniat, sed ne veniat. Hieron. in Ezek. 33.foreign, saith S. Chrysostom: he foretelleth what he will bring upon us, for this very purpose, that he may not bring it upon us; and warneth before he striketh, to make us careful to avoid the stroke. In the ancient Roman State and Discipline, the manner was, before they made war upon any people, first to send xSee Dionys. Halicarn. lib. 2. Antiq. Liv. 1. Dec. 1▪ Cic. 1▪ de Offic.Heralds to proclaim it, (Bellum indicere ne inferrent) to the end, that if they would make their peace by submission, they might prevent the war, nor so only, but be written also in albo amicorum, enrolled as their friends and Confederates, So God sendeth his Heralds the Prophets, to threaten vengeance against sinners: not thereby to drive them from hope of Mercy, but to draw them to repentance and humiliation; whereby they may not only turn away the vengeance threatned, but also (if they perform them unfeignedly, and with upright hearts) interest themselves farther in his favour and love. Nor is it to be accounted among the least of Gods Mercies, when he might in his just displeasure overwhelm us in the very Act of our sins, as yNum. 25. 8.Zimri and Cosbi were run thorow in the very Act of filthiness; and as z2 Sam. 6. 7.Uzzah, and aActs 5. 5, 10.Ananias and Sapphira, and some few others whom God picked out to shew exemplary judgment upon, were strucken dead upon the sudden for their transgressions: When God might in justice deal with the same rigour against us all; I say, it is not the least of his Mercies, that he forbeareth and forewarneth, and foretelleth and threatneth us before he punish; that bforeign Chrysost. in Gen. hom. 25.if we will take any warning, he may do better to us than he hath said, and not bring upon us what he hath threatned.
A Point very useful and comfortable: if it be not derogatory to God's Truth. Let us therefore first clear that, and then proceed to the Uses. If God thus revoke his Threatnings, it seemeth he either before meant not what he spake, when he threatned; or else after when he revoketh, repenteth of what he meant; either of which to imagine, far be it from every Christian heart; since the one maketh God a dissembler, the other a changling; the one chargeth him with falshood, the other with lightness. And yet the7. Scriptures sometimes speak of God, as if he cGen. 6. 6. Psal. 95. 10.grieved for what he did, or dGen. 6. 6. 1 Sam. 15. 11. Jer. 18. 8. Amos 7. 3, 6. Jon. 3. 10.repented of what he spake, or altered what he had purposed: and for the most part, such like affections are given him in such places, as endeavour to set forth to the most life his great mercy and kindness to sinful mankind. We all know, we cannot indeed give God any greater glory than the glory of his Mercy: yet must know withal, that God is not so needy of means to work out his own glory, as that he should be forced to redeem the glory of his Mercy, with the forfeiture either of his Truth or Steadfastness. We are therefore to lay this as a firm ground and infallible, that our God is both truly Unchangeable, and unchangeably True, eNum. 23. 19. 1 Sam. 15. 29.The strength of Israel is not as man, that he should lye; nor as the son of man, that he should repent: his words are not f2 Cor. 1. 19, 20.Yea and Nay, neither doth he use lightness. But his words are, Yea and Amen; and himself gHeb. 13. 8.yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever: hMat. 24. 35.Heaven and Earth may pass away, yea, shall pass away; but not the least iforeign. Mat. 5. 18.tittle of God's Words shall pass away unfulfilled. kPsal. 102. 26, 27.They may wax old as a Garment, and as a Vesture he shall change them, and they shall be changed; but he is the same, and his years fail not: neither do his Purposes fail, nor his Promises fail, nor his Threatnings fail, nor any of his Words fail. Let Heaven, and Earth, and Hell, and Angel, and Man, and Devil, and all change: still lMal. 3. 6.Ego Deus, & non mutor; God he is the Lord of all, and he changeth not.
As for those Phrases then of Repenting, Grieving, &c. which are spoken8. of God in the Scriptures; that mforeign. Chrys. in Gen. hom. 3. So also Ibid. hom. 15, & 26, & 60. and in Psalm 6. and passim.foreign, whereof St. Chrysostom so often speaketh, salveth them. God speaketh to us; and therefore speaketh as we use to speak, and frameth his language to our nPro captu nostro, non pro suo statu. Bernard. l. 5. de Confid. ad Eugen.dulness, and teacheth us by oforeign. Chrysost. in Psalm 8.our own phrases what he would have us learn: as Nurses talk half syllables, and pforeignlipse out broken language to young children. But what is so spoken foreign, of God, after the manner of men; must yet be understood foreign, so as befitteth the Majesty and perfection of his Divine Nature. When he repenteth, then we are not so to conceive it, as if God qNunquam primi consilii Deos poenitet. Senec. 6. de benef. 23.changed his mind, or altered any thing of his everlasting purpose and counsel, either in substance or circumstances: it only rQuod dicit (Poenitentiam again) intelligitur metaphoricè dictum; nam homines, quando non implent quid comminati sunt, poenitere videntur. Aquin. 1. quaest. 19. 7. ad 2.importeth, that he now doth not that; which, so far as we could reasonably conjecture by his words, or works, or our deserts, or otherwise, seemed to us to have been his purpose to have done.
This for the Phrases: but yet the main doubt for the Thing it▪9 self standeth uncleared. Abimelech and Hezekiah shall die, and yet Abimelech and Hezekiah shall not die; Nineveh shall be destroyed, and yet Nineveh shall not be destroyed; I will bring evil upon Ahab's house, and yet I will not bring it: is not this Yea and Nay? is not this a plain Contradiction? How is there not here a plain change of Gods will? If not for substance; because the things were at length performed, yet at least in circumstance; because they were not performed at those times, and in that manner, as they were threatned and foretold. That wretched Miscreant Vorstius, instead of untying this knot, cutteth it: who, to maintain Pelagian Conclusions from blasphemous Principles, trembleth not to affirm, sVorst de Deo.In parte aliqua divini decreti sieri aliquam mutationem; that there may be some change made in some part of Gods decree. An assertion unbeseeming an ingenuous Pagan; and to be for ever abhorred and held accursed by every soul that professeth it self Christian. Admit this once: and let Man, yea and the Devil too, be true, and only God a lyar. Leave we him therefore to the judgment of that great God, whom he hath blasphemed; and seek we better satisfaction. That of Aquinas and the Schoolmen, is true, but subtil: that God doth sometimes tAquin. 1. qu. 19. 17.Velle mutationem, though he doth never Mutare voluntatem; that though he never changeth his will, yet he sometimes willeth a change. That of uCum exterius mutari videtur sententia consilium non mutatur; quia de unaquaque re immutabiliter intus constituitur, quicquid foris mutabiliter agitur. Gregor. in Moral. 10.Gregory is plainer, and no less true, Mutat Deus sententiam, non consilium; God sometimes changeth the sentence which he hath denounced, but never the Counsel which he hath decreed. Others, otherwise: diversmen conceiving the same answer for substance, in divers and different terms.
That which is plainest, and giveth fullest satisfaction, and whereinto the answers of Gregory and Aquinas, and the rest, (as many as have spoken with any truth and pertinency to the point) in the last resolution fall; is briefly this. In the whole course of Scripture, Gods Threatnings (and so his Promises too,) have ever a Condition annexed unto them in10. Gods Purpose: which though it be not ever, (indeed but seldom) expressed; yet is it ever included, and so to be understood. All Gods Promises, how absolutely soever expressed, are made sub conditione Obedientiae: and all his Threatnings (how absolutely soever expressed) sub conditione Impoenitentiae. And these Conditions, viz. of continuing in Obedience in all Promises; and of continuing in Impenitency, in all Threatnings, are to be understood of course; whether they be expressed, or not. This is plain from those two famous places before cited, Ier. 18. & Ezek. 33. xJer. 18. 7, 8. See Chrysost. hom. 5. ad pop. Antioch. fusè & pulchrè.When I say to the wicked▪ Thou shalt surely die; if the wicked turn from his sin, &c. he shall surely live, he shall not die. Where Almighty God plainly teacheth us, that we ought so to conceive of all his Threatnings, be they never so peremptorily set down, (as what more peremptory than this, Thou shalt surely die?) as that he may reserve to himself a power of Revocation in case the Parties threatned repent. The Examples make it plain. Abimelech shall die for taking Sarah: understand it; unless he restore her. Forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed: understand it with this Reservation; unless they repent. And so of all the rest.
But why is not that Clause expressed then? may some demand. I answer:11. first, it needeth not; secondly, it booteth not. First, it needeth not. For God having in Ierem. 18. and Ezek. 33. and elsewhere, instructed us in the general, that all his Threatnings are to be understood with such clauses and conditions, and reservations; it is needless to repeat them in every particular: As amongst Christian men, who acknowledge God's Providence to rule in all things, and to dispose of all Actions and Events; it is needless in every speech de futuro contingenti to express this clause [if God will;] we will go to such or such a place, or do such or such a thing, if God will: because we readily conceive it, as a clause, which either is, or should be understood in every such speech, as Saint yJam. 4. 15.Iames requireth. And so in many Promises amongst men, this clause though not expressed, is yet allowed of course, and to common intendment understood, [Rebus sic stantibus; things standing and continuing as now they are▪] so as if a man make a Promise absolutely, without expressing that or any other like clause of Limitation or Exception, if in the interim some such unexpected Accident befal, as maketh that either he cannot or may not do what he had promised; we may not in right reason charge such a man with breach of Promise, if he perform not all he promised: because the foresaid Clause, though not expressed, is yet presumed to have been intended by the promiser. And that God's Threatnings, as de jure they ought to be by us when we hear them, so de facto they were understood by him when he made them, with a secret clause of reservation and exception in case of Repentance; appeareth by the usual practice of many upon such threatnings, and the use they made of them. The Ninevites when Ionah preached destruction within forty days, without any express clause of Repentance; yet understood it so: else had it been in vain for them to have repented at all, out of an hope of preventing the judgment by their repentance; as their speeches shew they did. zJonah 3. 9.For who can tell, say they, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not! The like may be said of Abimelech, Hezekiah, and others: and of Ahab in this place.
Again as it is sometimes needless, so it is always bootless, to express this12. Clause of Repentance in the Threatnings of God. The expressing of it can do little good; secure ones will repent never the sooner for it: But it may do much harm; secure ones may thereby put themselves in fairer hope of forbearance, and so linger their repentance till it be too late. Beloved, it is admirable to observe foreign, God's gracious courses, which he useth for the calling of men to repentance. In this particularity whereof we now speak, see how his aPsal. 85. 10.Mercy and Truth are met together and do most lovingly embrace each other. Where he spareth in the end, it is most certain he ever meant to spare bDeus perseveravit in proposito suo, misereri volens ab initio. Hieron. in Jon. 3.from the beginning: but that his everlasting purpose is part of his secret counsel, and unrevealed will; which as we cannot learn; so we may not seek to know, till the event declare it. Now to bring this his secret purpose about, he must work those men to repentance, whom he hath thus everlastingly purposed to spare: else his Justice should become unquestionable, in finally sparing the impenitent. Amongst other means to work men to Repentance, this is one, to cforeign. Chrys. hom. 5. ad pop. Antioch.threaten them with such Judgments, as their sins have deserved: which threatning the more terrible it is, the more likely it is to be effectual; and the more peremptory▪ it is, the more terrible it is. So then God, to bring those men to Repentance whom he meaneth to spare, in his Word and by his Messengers denounceth against them such Iudgments as their sins have deserved, and as his Iustice, without their Repentance, would bring upon them; denounceth them I say absolutely and in a peremptory form, without any express Clause of Reservation or Exception, the more to terrifie and affright them, and to cast them down to the deeper acknowledgment of his Justice and their own unworthiness: which are yet to be understood conditionally; and interpreted with reservation and exception of Repentance.
You have heard Evidence enough to acquit God's Truth; and do by13. this time, I doubt not, perceive how, as in all other things, so in the revoking of his Threatnings, God's Mercy and his Truth go hand in hand together. Let us now see what profitable inferences may be raised hence for our use. The sum of all we have said, is but this. God's Threatnings are terrible, but yet conditional: and if he spare to execute them, when we are humbled by them; it is a glorious illustration of his Mercy, but without the least impeachment of his Truth. Here is something for the Distressed, something for the Secure, something for All to learn.
First, for the Distressed, Consider this, and take comfort; all you that14. dEsa. 61. 3.mourn in Sion, and groan under the weight of God's heavy displeasure, and the fearful expectation of those bitter Curses and Iudgments, which he hath threatned against sin. Why do you spend your strength and spirit, in gazing with broad eyes altogether on Gods Iustice or Truth? take them off a little, and refresh them, by fastening them another while upon his Mercy. Consider not only what he threatneth: but consider withal why he threatneth; it is, that you may repent: and withal how he threatneth; it is, unless you repent. He threatneth to cast down indeed: but into Humiliation, not into Despair. He shooteth out his Arrows, even bitter words: but as e1 Sam. 20. 21.Ionathan's Arrows, for warning, not for destruction. Think not he aimeth so much at thy punishment when he threatneth: alas, if that were the thing he sought, he could lay on load enough fforeign. Chrysost, in Gen. hom. 25. Nemo punire desiderans, quod facturus est comminatur. Hier. in Jon. 3.without words: No, it is thy amendment he aimeth at, and seeketh therein: and therefore holdeth not his tongue, that if thou wilt take it for a warning, he may hold his hand. If the Father do but threaten the Child, when the Rod lyeth by him; it is very likely he meaneth not to correct him for that time, but only to make him the more careful to obey, and the more fearful to offend, for the time to come. Canst thou gather hope from the chiding of thy Earthly Father, and wilt thou find no comfort in the chidings and threatnings of thy Heavenly Father? whose bowels of tender compassion to usward are so much larger, than any Earthly Parents can be; by how much himself the gHeb. 12. 9.Father of spirits is greater than those fathers of our flesh. Yea, but who am I, will some disconsolate soul say, that I should make Gods Threatnings void? or what my Repentance, that it should cancel the Oracles of Truth, or reverse the Sentence of the eternal Judge? Poor distressed soul, that thus disputest against thine own peace, but seest not the while the unfathomed depth of Gods Mercy, and the wonderful dispensations of his Truth. Know that his Threatnings are not made void, or of none effect, when thou by thy Repentance stayest the execution of them; yea rather then are they of all other times most effectual: for then do they most of all accomplish their proper End, and the thing for which they were intended, in thy Amendment. Neither let his Truth make thee despair; but remember that the tenor of all his most peremptory threatnings, runneth with an implicit reservation and Conditional Exception of Repentance: which condition if thou on thy part faithfully perform, the Judgment shall be turned away, and yet God's Truth no whit impaired. This for the Distressed.
Now for the Secure. Moses in Deut. 29. speaketh of a certain hDeut. 29. 18, 19.Root 15.that beareth Gall and Wormwood; that blesseth it self when God curseth; and standeth unmoved when God threatneth. Here is an Axe for that Root; to hew it in pieces: and unless iMatth. 7. 19.it bring forth better fruit, to cleave it out for the fire. If therebe any sprigs or spurns of that Root here; let them also consider what hath been said, and tremble. Consider this I say and tremble, all you that make a mock at God, and at his Word, and imagine that all his Threatnings are but Bruta fulmina, empty cracks, and Powder without shot; because sundry of them have fallen to the ground, and not done the hurt they made shew of. But know whosoever thou art that thus abusest the Mercy, and despisest the Truth of God; that as his Mercy never did, so his Truth shall never fail. Thou sayest some of his Threatnings have done no harm: I say as much too; and his mercy be blessed for it: but what is that to secure thee? If any where God's Threatnings did no harm, and wrought no destruction; it was there only where they did good, and wrought Repentance. If they have turned thee from thy sins, as they have done some others; there is hope thou mayest turn them away from thee, as some others have done. But if they have done no good upon thee in working thy Repentance; certainly they hang over thee to do thee harm, and to work thy destruction. Gods Threatnings are in this respect as all his other words are, sure and stedfast; and such as kEsa. 52. 11.Shall never return void, but accomplish that for which they were sent: if not the one way, then without all doubt the other. If they do not humble thee, they must overwhelm thee; if they work not thy Conversion, they will thy Ruine. As some strong Physick, that either mendeth or endeth the Patient; so are these. And therefore when judgments are denounced; resolve quickly, off or on: Here is all the choice that is left thee; either Repent, or Suffer. There is a generation of men, that (as Moses complaineth) lDeut. 29. 19.When they hear the words of Gods curse, bless themselves in their hearts, and say they shall have peace, though they walk in the imagination of their own hearts; that (as Saint Paul complaineth) mRom. 2▪ 4.Despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long suffering, not taking knowledge that the goodness of God would lead them to repentance; that (as Saint Peter complaineth) n2 Pet. 3. 3, 4.Walk after their own lusts, and scoffingly just at Gods judgments, saying; Where is the promise of his coming? But let such secure and carnal scoffers be assured, that howsoever others speed, they shall never go unpunished: Whatsoever becometh of God's Threatnings against others, certainly they shall fall heavy upon them. They that have taught us their conditions, Moses, and Paul, and Peter, have taught us also their punishments. Moses telleth such a one, however others are dealt with, that yet nDeut. 29. 20.the Lord will not spare him; but the anger of the Lord and his jealousie shall smoke against that man, and all the Curses that are written in God's Book, shall light upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his Name from under heaven. St. Paul telleth such men▪ That by despising the riches of his goodness and forbearance, they do but oRom. 2. 5.treasure up unto themselves wrath against the great day of wrath, and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Saint Peter telleth them▪ howsoever(o) 2 Pet. 2. 3. they not only sleep, but snort in deep security, That yet (p) their judgment of long time sleepeth not, and their damnation foreign, not so much as slumbreth. Do thou then take heed, whoever thou art, and whatsoever thou dost, that thou abuse not the Mercy of God; and to divorce it from his Truth, is to abuse it. If when God threatneth, thou layest aside his Truth, and presumest on his bare Mercy; when he punisheth, take heed he do not cry quittance with thee, by laying aside his Mercy, and manifesting his bare Truth. God is qPsal. 145.8patient and merciful. Patience will bear much, Mercy forbear much; but being scorned, provoked, and dared, rFuror fit laesa saepius patientia.Patience it self turneth furious, and Mercy it self cruel. It is Mercy that threatneth, it is Iustice that punisheth. Mercy hath the first turn, and if by Faith and Repentance we lay timely hold of it, we may keep it for ever, and (revenging) Iustice shall have nothing to do with us. But if, careless and secure, we slip the opportunity, and neglect the time of Mercy; the next turn belongeth to Iustice, which will render Iudgment without Mercy, to them that forgat God, and despised his Mercy. That, for the Secure.
Now, thirdly, and generally, for All. What God hath joyned together, 16.let no man put asunder. God hath purposely in his threats joyned and tempered Mercy and Truth together, that we might take them together, and profit by them together. sAuson. Epig. 10.Dividat haec si quis, faciunt discreta venenum; Antidotum sumet, qui sociata bibet: as he spake of the two poisons. Either of these single, though not through any malignant quality in themselves, (God forbid we should think so) yet through the corrupt temperature of our Souls, becometh rank and deadly Poison to us. Take Mercy without Truth, as a cold Poison it benummeth us, and maketh us stupid with careless security. Take Truth without Mercy, as a hot Poison it scaldeth us, and scorcheth us in the flames of restless Despair. Take both together, and mix them well, as hot and cold Poisons, fitly tempered by the skill of the Apothecary, become medicinable, so are God's Mercy and Truth restorative to the Soul. The consideration of his Truth humbleth us; without it, we would be fearless: the consideration of his Mercy supporteth us; without it, we would be hopeless. Truth begetteth Fear and Repentance; Mercy, Faith and Hope: and these two, Faith and Repentance, keep the soul even, and upright, and steddy, as the ballast and sail do the ship, that for all the rough waves and weather that encountereth her in the troublesom sea of this World, she miscarrieth not, but arriveth safe and joyful in the Haven where she would be. Faith without Repentance, is not Faith, but Presumption; like a Ship all Sail, and no ballast, that tippeth over with every blast; and Repentance without Faith, is not Repentance, but Despair; like a Ship all ballast, and no Sail, which sinketh with her own weight. What is it then we are to do, to turn away God's Wrath from us, and to escape the Iudgments he threatneth against us? even this. As in his Comminations he joyneth Mercy and Truth together, so are we in our Humiliations to joyn Faith and Repentance together. His threatnings are true, let us not presume of forbearance; but fear, since he hath threatned, that unless we repent, he will strike us. Yet his threatnings are but conditional, let us not despair of forbearance; but hope, although he hath threatened, that yet if we repent he will spare us. That is the course which the godly, guided by the direction of his holy Spirit, have ever truly and sincerely held, and found it ever comfortable to assure them of sound peace, and reconciliation with God. That is the course which the very Hypocrites, from the suggestion of natural Conscience, have sometimes offered at, as far as Nature (enlightened, but unrenewed) could lead them; and found it effectual to procure them, at the least, some forbearance of threatned Judgments, or abatement of temporal evils, from God.
Thus have you heard three Uses made of God's mercy in revoking,17. joyned with his truth in performing what he threatneth. One, to chear up the distressed, that he despair not when God threatneth: another, to shake up the secure, that he dispise not, when God threatneth: a third, to quicken up all, that they believe and repent, when God threatneth. There is yet another general Use to be made hereof; which, though it be not directly proper to the present Argument, yet I cannot willingly pass without a little touching at it; and that is, to instruct us for the understanding of God's Promises. For contraries (as Promises and Threatnings are) being of the like kind and reason either with other, do mutually give and take light either to and from other. God's Threatnings are true, and stedfast, his Promises are so too, [tTit. 1. 2. promisit qui non mentitur Deus; which God that cannot lye, hath promised, saith the Apostle in one place; and in another, u2 Cor. 1. 20.All the Promises of God are Yea and Amen:] and where in a third place he speaketh of xHeb. 6. 18.two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lye; his Promise is one of those two. The Promises then of God are true, as his Threatnings are. Now look on those Threatnings again, which we have already found to be true, but withal, conditional, and such as must be ever understood with a clause of reservation or exception. It is so also in the Promises of God; they are true, but yet conditional, and so they must ever be understood with a conditional clause. The exception there to be understood, is Repentance; and the Condition here, Obedience. What God threatneth to do unto us, absolutely in words, the meaning is, he will do it, unless we repent and amend: and what he promiseth to do for us, absolutely in words, the meaning is, he will do it, if we believe and obey. And for so much as this Clause is to be understood of course in all God's Promises, we may not charge him with breach of Promise, though after he do not really perform that to us, which the letter of his Promise did import, if we break the condition, and obey not.
Wouldst thou know then, how thou art to entertain God's Promises, 18.and with what assurance to expect them? I answer, With a confident and obedient heart. Confident, because he is true, that hath promised; Obedient, because that is the condition under which he hath promised. Here is a curb then for those mens Presumption, who living in sin, and continuing in disobedience, dare yet lay claim to the good Promises of God. If such men ever had any seeming interest in Gods Promises; the interest they had, they had but by Contract and Covenant; and that Covenant, whether either of the two it was, Law or Gospel, it was conditional. The Covenant of the Law wholly, and à priori, conditional; yLuk. 10. 28.Hoc fac & vives, Do this and live: and the Covenant of the Gospel too, after a sort, and à posteriori, Conditional; Crede & vives, believe and live. If then they have broken the Conditions of both Covenants, and do neither Believe, nor Do what is required; they have, by their Unbelief and Disobedience, forfeited all that seeming interest they had in those Promises. God's Promises then, though they be the very main supporters of our Christian Faith and Hope, to as many of us, as whose Consciences can witness unto us a sincere desire and endeavour of performing that Obedience we have covenanted; yet are they to be embraced even by such of us, with a reverend fear and trembling at our own unworthiness. But as for the unclean, and filthy, and polluted; those zMatth. 6. 6.Swine and Dogs, that delight in sin and disobedience, and every abomination; they may set their hearts at rest for these matters, they have neither part nor fellowship in any of the sweet Promises of God. Let dirty a2 Pet. 2. 22.Swine wallow in their own filth, these rich bMatth. 6. 6.Pearls are not for them, they are too precious: let hungry c2 Pet. 2. 22.Dogs glut themselves with their own vomit, the dMatth. 15. 26.Childrens bread is not for them, it is too delicious. Let him that will be filthy eRev. 22. 11.be filthy still: the Promises of God are holy things, and belong to none but those that are holy, and desire to be holy still. For our selves, in a word; let us hope that a Promise being left us, if with Faith, and Obedience, and Patience, we wait for it, we shall in due time receive it: but withal, fHeb. 4. 1.let us fear, (as the Apostle exhorteth, Heb. 4.) lest a Promise being left us, through disobedience or unbelief, any of us should seem to come short of it.
Thus much of the former thing proposed; the magnifying of God's19. Mercy, and the clearing of his Truth in the revocation and suspension of threatned Iudgments, by occasion of these words [I will not bring the evil.] There is yet a Circumstance remaining of this general part of my Text, which would not be forgotten; it is the extent of time, for the suspending of the Judgment [I will not bring the evil in his days.] Something I would speak of it too, by your patience; it shall not be much, because the season is sharp, and I have not much sand to spend; I will not bring the evil in his days. The Judgment denounced against Ahab's house, was in the end executed upon it, as appeareth in the sequel of the story, and especially from those words of Iehu (who was himself the Instrument raised up by the Lord, and used for that Execution) in 4 King. 10. [g4 King. 10. 10. Know that there shall fall to the earth nothing of the word of the Lord, which the Lord spake concerning the house of Ahab; for the Lord hath done that which he spake by his servant Elijah;] which were enough, (if there were nothing else to be said) to justifie God's truth in this one particular. That which Ahab gained by his humiliation, was only the deferring of it for this time; I will not bring the evil in his days. As if God had said, This wretched King hath provoked me, and pulled down a Curse from me upon his house, which it were but just to bring upon him and it without farther delay; yet because he made not a scoff at my Prophet, but took my words something to heart, and was humbled by them, he shall not say, but I will deal mercifully with him, and beyond his merit; as ill as he deserveth it, I will do him this favour, I will not bring the Evil that is determined against his house, in his days.
The thing I would observe hence, is, That when God hath determined 20.a Iudgment upon any People, Family, or Place, it is his great mercy to us, if he do not let us live to see it. It cannot but be a great grief (I say not now to a religious, but even to any soul) that hath not quite cast off all natural affection, to fore-think, and fore-know the future Calamities of his Country and Kindred hHerodot. in Polyth. Valer. Max. 9. 13.Xerxes could not forbear weeping, beholding his huge Army that followed him, only to think, that within some few scores of years so many thousands of proper men would be all dead and rotten; and yet that a thing that must needs have happened by the necessity of Nature, if no sad Accident, or common Calamity should hasten the Accomplishment of it. The Declination of a Common-wealth, and the Funeral of a Kingdom, foreseen in the general corruption of manners, and Decay of Discipline, (the most certain Symptoms of a tottering State) have fetched Tears from the Eyes, and Blood from the Hearts of heathen Men zealously affected to their Country: How much more grief then must it needs be to them that acknowledge the true God, not only to foreknow the extraordinary Plagues, and Miseries, and Calamities which shall befal their Posterity? but also to fore-read in them God's fierce wrath, and heavy displeasure, and bitter vengeance, against their own sins, and the sins of their Posterity? Our blessed Saviour, though himself without Sin, and so no way accessary to the procuring of the evils that should ensue, could not yet but iLuke 19. 41.weep over the City of Ierusalem, when he beheld the present security, and the future ruine thereof.
A Grief it is then to know these things shall happen; but some Happiness 21.withal, and to be acknowledged as a great Favour from God, to be assured that we shall never see them. It is no small Mercy in him, it is no small Comfort to us, if either he take us away before his Judgments come, or keep his Judgments away till we be gone. When God had told Abraham, in Gen. 15. that his kGen. 15. 13, 15.Seed should be a Stranger in a Land that was not theirs, meaning Egypt, where they should be kept under, and afflicted 400 years, lest the good Patriarch should have been swallowed up with grief at it, he comforteth him, as with a Promise of a glorious deliverance at the last, so with a Promise also of Prosperity to his own person, and for his own time, [But thou shalt go to thy Fathers in peace, and shalt be buried in a good old age, vers. 15.] In Esay. 39. when Hezekiah heard from the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, that all the lEsay. 39. 6, 8.treasures in the Lord's house should be carried into Babylon, and that his Sons, whom he should beget, should be taken away, and made Eunuchs in the Palace of the King of Babylon; he submitted himself (as it became him to do) to the sentence of God, and comforted himself with this, that yet there should be Peace and Truth in his days, vers. 8. In 4 Kings 22. when Huldah had prophesied of the m4 Kings 22. 16, 20.evil that God would bring upon the City of Ierusalem, and the whole Land of Iudah; in the Name of the Lord she pronounceth this as a Courtesie from the Lord unto good King Iosiah, [Because they Heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thy self—Behold therefore I will gather thee unto thy Fathers, and thou shalt be gathered unto thy Grave in Peace, and thine eyes shall not see all the evil, which I will bring upon this place,] verse last.
Indeed every man should have, and every good man hath an honest care 22.of Posterity, would rejoice to see things setled well for them, would grieve to see things likely to go ill with them. That common speech which was so frequent with nDio. lib. 57.Tiberius, was monstrous, and not oIlla vox scelerata atque inhumana. Cic. 3. de finib. Vox magna & detestabilis. Senec. 2. de Clement. 2.savouring of common humanity, pEverso juvat orbe mori. Dictum Ruffini apud Claudian.foreign, When I am gone, let Heaven and Earth be jumbled again into their old Chaos; but he that mended it, with qNero apud Sueton. in Nerone, cap. 38.foreign, yea, (saith he) whilst I live; seemeth to have renounced all that was man in him. Aristotle hath taught us better what reason taught him, that rArist. 1. Ethic. 11.res posterorum pertinent ad defunctos, the good or evil of those that come after us, doth more than nothing concern us, when we are dead and gone. This is true: but yet sTerent. Andr. 4. 1.proximus egomet mi, though it were the speech of a Shark in the Comedy, will bear a good Construction. Every man is tforeignnearest to himself, and that Charity which looketh abroad, and seeketh not only her own, yet beginneth at home, and seeketh first her own. Whence it is, that a godly man, as he hath just cause to grieve for Posterities sake, if they must feel God's Judgments, so he hath good cause to rejoice for his own sake, if he shall escape them; and he is no less to take knowledge of God's Mercy in sparing him, than of his Iustice in striking them.
This Point is useful many ways: I will touch but some of them, and23. that very briefly. First, here is one Comfort, among many other, against the bitterness of temporal Death. If God cut thee off in the midst of thy days, and best of thy strength; if Death turn thee pale, before Age have turned thee gray; if the flower be plucked off, before it begin to wither; grudge not at thy Lot therein, but meet God's Messenger chearfully, and imbrace him thankfully; it may be, God hath some great work in hand, from which he meaneth to save thee. It may be, he sendeth death to thee, as he sent his uGen. 19. 16, 17.Angel to Lot, to pluck thee out of the midst of a froward and crooked generation, and so to snatch thee away, left a worse thing than death should happen unto thee. Cast not therefore a lodning eye back upon Sodom, neither desire to linger in the plain, (it is but a valley of tears, and misery,) but upto the mountain from whence cometh thy salvation, lest some evil overtake thee. Possibly, that which thou thinkest an untimely death, may be to thee a double advantage; a great advantage in ushering thee so early into God's glorious presence, and some advantage too, in plucking thee so seasonably from God's imminent Iudgments. It is a favour to be xNon meherculè quenquam audio hoc anno ereptum, qui mihi non à Diis immortalibus ereptus ex his miseriis, & ex iniquissimâ conditione vitae videretur. Cic. 5. Epist. 16. Fuit hoc luctuosum suis, acerbum patriae, grave …onis omnibus; sed ii tamen Rempubl. casus secuti sunt, ut mihi non erepta L. Crasso à Diis immortalibus, vita, sed donata mors esse videretur. Non vidit flagrantem, &c. Id. 3. de Orat. Fortunatus illius [Hortensii] exitus, qui ea non vidit cum fierent, quae praevidit futura—sed illum videtur felicitas ipsius quâ semper ▪est usus, ab iis miseriis quae consecutae sunt, morte vindicasse, Id. in Bruto.taken away betimes, when evil is determined upon those that are left.
Secondly, here is a Warning for us, to take Consideration of the24. loss of good or useful Men; and to fear, when they are going from us, that some evil is coming towards us. The Prophet complaineth of the too great and general neglect hereof in histime; [yEsay. 57. 1. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come, Esa. 57.] When God sendeth his zGen. 19, 16.Angel to pluck out his righteous Lots, what may Sodom expect but fire and brimstone to be rained down upon them? When he plucketh up the fairest and choicest flowers in his garden, and croppeth off the tops of the goodliest Poppies; who can think other, than that he meaneth to lay his Garden waste, and to turn it into a wild Wilderness? when he undermineth the main Pillars of the House, taketh away the very Props and Butteresses of Church and Common-weal; sweepeth away religious Princes, wise Senators, zealous Magistrates, painful Ministers, men of eminent Ranks, Gifts, or Example: Who can be secure, that either Church or Common-weal shall aPeriturae …rbis, aut malorum imminentium, vel futurae labis, hoc primum indicium est, si decidant veri consultores—Ambros. de Cain & Abel, c. 3.stand up long, and not totter at least, if not fall? God in Mercy taketh such away from the evil to come: we in wisdom should look for evil to come, when God taketh such away.
Thirdly, here is Instruction for Worldlings, to make much of those25. few godly ones that live among them; for they are the very Pawns of their Peace, and the Pledges of their security. Think not, ye filthy Sodomites, it is for your own sakes, that ye have been spared so long; know to whom you are beholden: This Fellow bGen. 19. 9.that came in to sojourn among you, this Stranger, this Lot, whom you so hate, and malign, and disquiet, he it is that hath bailed you hitherto, and given you Protection. Despise not God's Patience and Long▪suffering, ye prophane ones; neither bless your selves in your ungodly ways, neither say, We prosper, though we walk in the Lusts of our Hearts: This and thus we have done, and nothing have been done to us, God holdeth his hand, and holdeth his Tongue at us; surely cPsal. 50. 21.he is such a one as our selves. Learn; O ye Despisers, that if God thus forbear you, it is not at all for your own sakes, or because he careth not to punish evil doers; no, he hath a little remnant, a little dLuke 12. 13.flock, a little handful of his own among you; a eRev. 3. 4.few names that have given themselves unto him, and call upon him daily for mercy upon the Land, and that fEzek. 9. 4.weep and mourn in secret, and upon their beds, for your Abominations, whom you hate, and despise, and persecute, and defame, and account as the very Scum of the People, and the refuse and off-scouring of all things, to whom yet you owe your Preservation. Surely if it were not for some godly Iehoshaphat or other, whose g4 King. 3. 14.Presence God regardeth among you; if it were not for some zealous Moses or other, that hPsal. 106. 23.standeth in the gap for you, God's wrath had entred in upon you long ere this, as a mighty breach of water, and as an overflowing deluge overwhelmed you; and you had been swept away as with the iEsay. 14. 23.Besom of Destruction, and devoured as stubble before the fire. It is kJob 22. 30.the innocent that delivereth the Land, and reprieveth it from Destruction, when the Sentence of Desolation is pronounced against it; and it is delivered by the pureness of his hands. O the goodness of our God! that would have spared the five Cities of the Salt-Sea, if among so many thousands of beastly and filthy Persons there had been found but lGen. 18. 32.Ten righteous ones, and that was for each City, but two Persons; nay, that would have pardoned Ierusalem, if in all the mJ…r. 5. 1.Streets and broad places thereof, replenished with a World of Idolaters, and Swearers, and Adulterers, and Oppressors, there had been found but one single man, that executed Iudgment, and sought the truth from his heart. But, Oh the madness of the men of this foolish World withal! who seek to do them most Mischief of all others, who of all others seek to do them most good; thirsting most after their Destruction, who are the chiefest Instruments of their preservation. O foolish and mad World! if thou hast but wit enough, yet, yet, to hug and to make much of that little flock, the hostages of thy Peace, and the earnest of thy tranquillity if thou wouldest but nLuke 19. 42.know, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! Thou art yet happy, that God hath a remnant in thee; and if thou knewest how to make use of this happiness, at least in this thy day, by honouring their persons, by procuring their safety and welfare, by following their examples, by praying for their continuance, thou mightest be still, and more, and ever happy. But if these things, that belong unto thy peace, be now hidden from thine eyes; if these men, that prolong thy peace, and prorogue thy destruction, be now despised in thy heart, in this day of thy peace, God is just, thou knowest not how soon they may be taken from thee; and though he do not bring the evil upon thee in their days, when they are gone, thou knowest not how soon Vengeance may overtake thee, and oPsal. 50. 22.then shall he tear thee in pieces, and there shall be none left to deliver thee.
I have now done. Beseech we God the Father of mercies, for his dear26. Son Jesus Christ his sake, to shed his Holy Spirit into our hearts, that by his good Blessing upon us, that which hath been presently delivered agreeably to his holy Truth and Word, may take root downwards in our hearts, and bring forth fruit upwards in our lives and conversations; and so to assist us ever with his Grace, that we may with humble confidence lay hold on his Mercies, with chearful reverence tremble at his Iudgments, by unfeigned Repentance turn from us what he hath threatned, and by unwearied Obedience assure unto us what he hath promised. To which Holy Father, Son, and Spirit, three Persons▪ and, &c.