The Duty of Gospel Ministers to Preserver a People from Corruption, Application 1
USE I.
A Faithful Miniſtry in a Land is a great Bleſſing. If God gives a People a good crop, if he give peace and health, they count they have received great Bleſſings: & yet they take but little notice of the mercy of God in giving a faithful Miniſtry unto them; but God reckons this a great mercy. Jer. 3.15. I will give them Paſtors after mine own heart, that ſhall feed them with knowledge & underſtanding. Amos 2.11. I raiſed up of your ſons for Prophets. They are great bleſſings on this account, that they are the Salt of the Land. If Mens Proviſions ſhould putrify for want of Salt it would be a great calamity: but if the People of the Land ſhould grow corrupt for want of a Faithful Miniſtry, that would be a far greater calamity. When they are Faithful they are a means to prevent corruption. Mal. 2.6. He walked with me in peace & equity, and did turn many away from iniquity: that is great ſervice.
1. FOR if they ſhould be corrupt they would be a great affliction one to another. When a People carry orderly and holily they will be a great comfort one to another: they will make their converſation and ſociety pleaſant and profitable, and they will dwell together in unity: Religion teaches Men to love one another; but when they are corrupt they will be as thorns in one anothers ſides, Mic. 7.4. The beſt of them is as a brier, the moſt upright is ſharper then a thorn-hedge. They will be reproaching and backbiting one another, blaſting the names of one another: Children will carry badly to Parents, and Parents to their Children; they will be injurious to one anothers Eſtates, cheating, oppreſſing, ſtealing; they will be quarrelling and fighting; they will be debauching one another; they will corrupt Mens Daughters, and Wives too; they will be plagues one to another.
2. THEN their Proſperity will do them hurt. If God beſtows plenty and ſucceſs on them, they will be taken with it, and it may be keep days of Thanksgiving: but they had better be without their Proſperity. Their bleſſings will become curſes, their meat will be their poiſon, their proſperity will make them more ſecure and hard hearted: they will flatter themſelves and take the more liberty to be wicked, they will put falſe conſtructions on the Providence of God, and take occaſion to flatter themſelves, and take the more liberty to carry looſly, they will take a liberty to be drunken, and live an effeminite life. But Jeſurun waxed fat and kicked, thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatneſs: therefore he forſook God that made him, and lightly eſteemed the rock of his ſalvation, Deut. 32.15. So they will grow more covetous, their proſperity will be like oyl to feed the flame, it had been better for them to have been kept poor and low. Prov. 1.32. The proſperity of fools ſhall deſtroy them.
3. THEY will have a great deal of Judgment. If they proſper a while it wont continue, but the wrath of God will break out like fire. God will purſue them with the tokens of his anger. When Iſrael corrupted themſelves in the Wilderneſs, the Plague came amongſt them and many fell; ſometime fiery ſerpents bit them: when they corrupted themſelves in the land of Canaan, God ſent the Meſopotamians, Moabites, Midians, Ammorites and Philiſtines upon them: and brought them into great diſtreſs, Jud. 5.8. God is a jealous God and will not let their ſins go unrevenged. God has his days of Judgment, wherein they ſhall be called to an account: and then they will cry to God and he will not hear: iniquity is a root that beareth gall and wormwood, and their ſins will coſt them dear. Job. 21.17. God diſtributeth ſorrows in his anger.
4. MULTITUDES of them will periſh. When Religion flouriſhes among a People, they don't all go to Heaven when they die: many have but a name that they live; there is chaff as well as wheat; there be fooliſh Virgins among the Wiſe. But when it is a corrupt time few are converted, the means of Grace are much blaſted; Men are minding their carnal enjoyments more than Heaven: they have great temptations, and the temptations have great power, and few of them will find their way to Heaven; there will be but a ſmall number of godly Men, they will fail much as in Sauls time. Pſal. 12.1. Help Lord for the godly man ceaſeth, for the faithful fail from among the children of men. They will depend much upon their privileges and outward ſervices; and generally as they dye they will go to hell: hell will be ſtocked with them: an evil generation, is a generation of God's wrath. So when Chriſt was here, Mat. 8.12. The children of the kingdom ſhall caſt out into outer darkneſs, there ſhall be wailing and gnaſhing of teeth.