A SCOURGE To the REBELLIOUS OR A SERMON Preached at the Parish Church of St. Antholin, in the City of London June the 28th. 1685. By Steph. Willoughby, M. A. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Mal. 4.1. Pax bello potior. Entered according to ORDER. LONDON, Printed by D. Mallet, for the Author, MDCLXXXV The Epistle DEDICATORY, To the Right Reverend Father in God, Thomas Lrod Bishop of Lincoln. My Lord, I need not tell the World of your unwearied Diligence, to find out a Blessed Name in the Book of Life, that herald's your Praises above the Wings of Common Fame, and sets you in a degree of Glory there; neither need I trouble you with any other Apology for what I have done than even the for lost Estate of our divided Isle; the hideous Noise of a Rebellion blackens the Land with dread, lest Apostasy, or the Invasion of a revived Julian should disturb the Peace of our Zion; and though Ruin threaten my welfair in this distractted Age; yet I declare, I had rather follow Presbytery to the Gibbet, than be a Mourner at the Funeral Solemnity of Episcopacy to the Grave. I confess indeed my Oblation might have deserved better Entertainment, if it had the management of a riper Wit: But I'll beg of all men to believe that my Genius feeds upon Pulse and Water, though I fear they will allow me no more favour than usually men do to those whom the Press makes Common; I'll submit to Providence; and your Lordship's Candour, in the perusal of my little Book; and if it should render you any Satisfaction next to God's Glory, I have gained my only end, & that as the Almighty hath given an Ability to suchan exemplary piece of Piety as you; so that you may be a continual Succour to all the languishing Members of an Holy Jesus, until the day shall come, when sorrow shall be no more; but Triumph and Bliss the Period of your Mortal Race, is the Hearty Prayer of your Lordship's Most Faithful Servant, and Obedient Son, S. Willoughby. A SCOURGE to the REBELLIOUS Or a SERMON Preached At the Parish Church of St. Antholin. on the 28th. of June, 1685. Jonah. 2.4. Yet Forty Days and Nineuch shall be overthrown. NOthing can favour a Christian in his journey to an immortal Canaan while he courts the false pleasures of a fading World the best whereof decays in the bud, and dies when they begin to be: The example is every Sinner, but particularly the man in Paradise, that was baited with an Apple, and hooked in, to a state of dying: Hence the Apostle may seem to have alluded in his Epistle to the Romans what fruit had you in those things; whereof you are now ashamed? for the end of those things is Death. Such were the Ninevites in my Text, to whom a learned Orator, Jonah, the holy Prophet, came, pressing Repentance with the threats of Ruin; Nineveh shall be overthrown, * Jonah 3.5.7. so the people believed God, and proclaimed an universal Fast; The Marble Palace, and the Clay Cottage were hung in Sackcloth, and sat in Ashes, lest Nineveh should be overthrown. In which Words observe, 1. A Prediction, with a Limitation. Yet Forty Days. 2. A Denunciation of Desolation. Nineveh shall be overthrown. Whence these following Doctrines do arise, 1. That Sin brings Judgement. 2. That God usually warns all the Rebels of Heaven, of their approaching danger; as a method he takes to avert a final Destruction beyond the Grave. 3ly. That it is not the outward bravery of an Earthly Sphere, not the Pomp and Pageantry of a sading World, that can guard us, if we sin, from the frowns of Heaven; or shield us from the Fatal Blow; For Nineveh, though outwardly adorned with gallantry, yet being inwardly blackened with deformity; therefore exactis quadraginta diebus, Nineveh delebitur. Yet forty Days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 1st. That Sin brings Judgement. Sin, and Sorrow, Irreligion, and the Scourge do meet in Families or Villages, Towns or Provinces, Cities or Commonwealths: When the first beats the Drum for Battle the last gins the March, and leaves the sinner in a Field of Blood: For as by one man Sin entered into the World, and Death by Sin; so Death passed upon all men, * Rom. 5.4. for that all have sinned. This is the Harbinger of Ruin, and the Forerunner of a dreadful Day, when the unregenerate shall pass the Gates of Death, and tremble at the Bar of Judgement; when all the miscarriages that ever have been committed in the darkest Corners of the Land, shall appear before God and Angels; * Joel 3.16. Then the Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, the Heavens and the Earth shall shake: Sin is the Fountain, Gild and Punishment are the streams; that's the Cause, this is the Effect. Now all we that aim at the Haven of an Eternal Rest must pass by that Scylla, and this Charybdis; for says Solomon: * Pru. 6.7. Can a man take Fire in his bosom and his not be burned? which implys that there is no sin without sorrow; nay, destruction certainly follows, unless Heavens assisting Grace reform our Lives, and conform our Obedience, to all the Precepts of an holy Jesus. But desolation follows Sin from the one part of the Earth unto the other; it ransacks the corners and crannies of a sinful Land: * Psal. 107.34. The Almighty turneth Revers into a Wilderness, and Water-spring into a dry Ground; a fruitful Land into Barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein * Josh. 7.29. 'Twas Achan's sin that brought him under the burden of a painful End. God will pour out his Wrath upon the Families that call not upon his Name: * Hos. 9.11. This made Ephraim's Glory flee away from the Birth-Womb and Conception: This made Sodom and Gomorah fuel for Divine Vengeance in a dreadful burning. Here Sin enters the Gates and Ruin throws down the Bulwarks and Strong-holds; demolishes the lofty Fabrics, and makes the poor sinners Captives to the scorching Flames * Amos 1.2. This make the Habitation of the Shepherds mourn, and the top of Carmel whither. Hence it plainly appears that Sin brings Judgement: but for the further Prosecution of my present undertaking, let us consider, 1st. After what manner doth the Almighty afflict mankind for sin? I Answer. By how many methods we take to sin, by so many ways God is able to send his Judgements sometimes by Water; thus an universal Deluge once came upon an unrepenting World, and brought perdition in a raging Wave. Thus he overwhelmed Pharaoh, and all his Host in the Red Sea: He hath Hailstones to kill the Amorites and * 2 Kings 19 ver. 35. Angels, one of which will, destroy in one Night, an hundred, fourscore and five thousand of the Host of the Assyrians: the Earth is the Lord's, and all that therein is; he hath made it open its jaws to swallow up Corah, and his fellow Rebels. Lice, Frogs, and Flies, were the Egyptian Plagues; sometimes by a Civil War, with seuds and disorder in their own dwellings: thus, when the Amonites had destroyed the Inhabitants of Mount Seir, they at last preyed upon one another, whilst the Earth was bedewed with Blood, overspread with the relics of the spoil. The Almighty's Wisdom is not limited to one particular way: His ways are in the Seas, his paths are in the deep Waters; * Job. 28.7.8. The Vultur's Eye hath not seen them, the Lion's Whelp hath not trodden them, nor the fierce Lion passed by them; therefore we may add a Note of Admiration with the Apostle. * Rom. 11.33 O, the depth of the Riches, both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God How unsearchable are his Judgements, and his ways past finding out? 2ly. The time when? When the Sins of the people are ripe: therefore God told Ibraham, that his Seed should not, possess the Amorites land till the fourth Generation; and the Reason was given this, (viz.) Because the Iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. 3ly. What are the sins that are most destructive to a Nation, or a Kingdom? such indeed, are all the Breaches of the Moral Law; and therefore for breach of Covenant God threatened Judah: * Jer. 22.6, 7, 8. Thus saith the Lord unto the King's House of Judah; thou art Gilead unto me, and the Head of Lebanon, yet surely I will make thee a Wilderness and Cities that are not inhabited; I will prepare destroyers against thee; many Nations shall pass by this City, and shall say, wherefore hath the Lord done this, to this City? then shall they answer, because they have forsaken the Covenant of the Lord. But, I shall confine myself to those that are most common, and therefore seem to be most destructive here. First, Swearing. An Oath (says the Apostle) is the end of all strife, and there is scarce found any other means, or, to be sure, none to be compared with this, to determine Controversies between man and man; without which, no Justice can appear to be; no humane Society can stand: 'Tis twofold, either Assertory or Promisory: Now 'tis a grievous sin, when men shall make use of the Name of God, either lightly or wantonly, or to bind an Argument, and make it a Period to a Lye. Or, 2ly. If a man hath no regard to his absolute Necessity, but wilfully acts contrary to his Promise made, ratified and confirmed by Oath; then he renders abuses to the sacred Name of Majesty, vilifies and contemns Omnipotency, and incurs a severe penalty annexed to, and denounced against the breach of this moral Precept: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. And when men are once arrived to such a height of wickedness as to make this customary (breathing out Blasphemy, as if they intent to infect the Air and poison succeeding Generations with their Plagues and Damning) what remains, but that their own Curses shall return again? for God will not hold them guiltless that take his Name in vain; and the * Zech. 5.3.4. flying Roll shall torment them, etc. This makes a Nation sorrow; for * Jer. 23.10 because of swearing, the Land mourneth. 2. Pride. The lofty Mountains shall be barren, when the lower Valleys are laden and enriched with store. God resisteth the Proud and giveth grace to the Humble; Shame is her handmaid that waits upon her to the gates of ruin; * Prov. 11.7. For when Pride cometh, then cometh Shame: and 'tis observed that the Mistress always walks before her Attendants, * Prov. 16.18. So Pride goes before Destruction; and an haughty Spirit before a fall. 3ly. Carnal Security. When men are lulled asleep on the lap of a carnal Security, and lie snoring upon a bed of Time, without any regard to a furture Being; like the indulgeing * Sardanupalus; Ede, bibe lude post mortem mula volupi Epicure, that took his repasts in the present Tense, and would have no joys beyond the Grave: 'Tis then high time, if ever, to shake off such a drousiness, lest it prove a Lethargy unto an eternal slumber Such was the cuse of the man in the Gospel, Who though he had heaped up treasures for many years, yet the same Night in which he though he had been most secure in the entry munt of his worldly Goods, his foul was nequired of him; then what were those things which he had possessed. And such are the common vanities of our depraved Age, that allure poor Souls with their flattering smiles, and counterfeit delights, until they tickle them to Death. Therefore says our Saviour, love not the World, nor the things of the World; for whoso loveth the World, the love of the Father is not in him. Why then do we slumber out our days in this transitory Sphere, among such vanities, that only lead down to the Chambers of Death? Knowing that even it must be dissolved as well as we; the Sun shall be darkened, and the Moon shall withdraw her shining; the Stars shall fall, and the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken; all most become a prepared Mass and a funeral Pile for the Breath of the Lords displeasure, that like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle Tophet: Tho' Sentence against an Evil Work is not executed speedily why should the Hearts of the Sons of men, be fally set to do wickedly? But let such Security have an early Summons, * Isa. 30.33. For such shall know while they say, Jud. 81 7. peace, peace, sudden destruction a shall come upon them, as upon a Woman in travess and they shall not escape. But, 4ly. And lastly Division, or breach of Uniformity is another National, overturningand Soul-destroying sin. One asked a Thessalian, who were most welcome to his Countrymen? He answered, they who were most peaceable and declined War. Now that the breach of Uniformity is a Soul-destroying and National overturning sin, will appear under a twofold Consideration. 1. In that it is directly contrary to the welfare of the Church, and secondly to State too. As for the first. Herein all will pretend to one common Faith, and yet engross all the Heresies of past Ages, and study inventions to find out more: All are extremely wrapped up in their own persuasions, impatient to hear of any error that belongs to them; zealous to enthrone their judgements, and prefer their fantasies to pass into public Ordinances and become the established forms of Religion here: Nay, there is scarce an Heresy but will pretend to some Antiquity to authorise its Being. (a) Euseb. lib. 3. cap. 33. Thus the Millenaries fetch theirs from Papias. (b) August. count. Donat. Tom. 7. lib 2. p. 396. The Anabaptists from Agrippinus. (c) Epiph. Har. 62. p. 513. The Socinians are as Old as Sabellius. And these Reprobatarians from Simon Magus and the Manichees. But so directly doth Schism oppose the welfare of our Church, * Lam. 1.2. That her tears hang sore upon her cheeks because of it. Hence it is that she complains, Her friends have dealt treacherously with her and that amongst all her Lovers she hath few to comfort her; * Illa te aiù portavit in utero, aiù aluit etc. Higher Ep. 47. she that once bore them in her own Bowels, and nourished them in her own Womb, and even courts them now with a sweet harmony to return again; she that delights in no Throne save that of Bliss, in no Attendants but men, Tongued like Angels, Winged like Eagles, and hearted like Doves; now sings Lachrimae for her lost Delinquents, her Priests sigh, and her Virgins mourn, so that we may say with St. Hierom * Quis unquam mortalium juxta viperam securos somnos capit, quae etsi non percutiat, certe solicitat. Epiph. 47. who can sleep secure that bordereth so upon the Viper? who if he sting not surely solicits and endangereth out seduction. Now the first pretence that our Dissenters had was to seek only the liberty of their own Consciences: but now nothing more than the Sovereignty over other men's, in a Damnable Rebellion a Rebellion that wants an Argument to justify its Being; do they fight for the Protestant Religion? that's kept secure from their invasion, by the overruling providence of Heaven, and wanteth nothing save only the Conformity of those that would destroy it. Is Religion grounded on those Precepts which our blessed Jesus left behind? So are all the Articles of our Faith; no Diminution nor Addition; and as for those few remain which they approve not of, we only borrow from he best of men, who lived in the time when a bishop and a Martyr were both one, Hence it is, that they who interrupt the peace of a true Religion by nourishing a Faction (if they own a God) might acknowledge that they disobey his voice, when he saith, follow peace and holiness; and what follows but the total exclusion of immortal joys, without which peace no man shall see the Lord: And how far from peace are the present Opposers of our Zion? who defile the Press with unworthy Pens, and ravish the Pulpit with profane Tongues. Our blessed Lord tells us of a sort of People among the Jews, called Pharisees, who took away the Key of Knowledge, locked up the Law, and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; * Mat. 23.13. that their Proselytes could as soon enter the Secreta Jehovae, the privacies of Heaven, as the Presence Chamber of God's revealed Will: and such are (by a Geneva Translation) the present opposers of our quiet; they lead Captive silly Women laden with their sins, lock up the Kingdom of Heaven by their obstinacy, and all the hopes of future joys by resisting Supremacy; * Rom. 13. for whoso resisteth the Power, resisteth the Ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive unto themselves Damnation. Now if this be the way that leadeth unto life, the path in which the Redeemed of the Lord do walk, then farewell Heaven and Religion too. But Secondly. This is a National-overturning sin, and therefore prejudicial to State too. Our Saviour faith, If a Kingdom be divided against itself, that Kingdom cannot stand. But Division is the greater sin when it strikes at the root of that Government which is established by such laws as Justice and Modesty can possibly requir; such as have abated the Royal deuce for the interest of them that will be at peace; and what is the issue of this Division, but Distraction in a Common Wealth? Hence Feuds and Discords, Detestations and Revile do arise. The Son dishonours his Father, and the Daughter arises against her Mother, * Mich. 8.5, 6. Brother delivers up Brother to death, * Mat. 10.21. and the Father the Son, and the Children arise against their Parents, and cause them to be put to Death; * Luk. 12.52. five in one house are divided, three against two, and two against three. Hence it is that the Rich become Poor, and they that were once of a low Degree, would pride it in the Feathers of other Birds: Even when the spoilers come upon high places, * Ec. 10.6, 7. Reloycing and Lamentations do both attend the bloody Victories in a Civil War; and as Division is sinful, so our Conquests and Triumphs are mournful; for by how much greater is the spoil, so much less is our Acquaintance here, and much of that blood which we draw from others, is part of that which runneth in our own Veins: Thus the Lord doth Fan us as with a Fan in the Gates of our land; bereave us of our Children, our Widows are increased above the sand of the Seas, and the spoiler at Noon is brought upon us, and all because we have sinned against him. But who are the Actors in this bloody Tragedy? * Gen. 49.7. Cursed be their Anger for it is fierce, and their Wrath for it is cruel. This once brought sorrow to the Greeks, as Nestor said of the strife betwixt Agamemnon and Achilles: Hom. i'll. lib. 1. Plutrach calls it the Wound and Plague, and Socrates the Axe and Sword, Basil the Rottenness and Rust, and Chrysostom the Moth and Canker of the Soul. * Object. Anger may be in some measure allowable, if it be in the behalf of God, and the defence of Goodness: Only as * Exod. 32. Moses was wroth with Israel for their Idolatry, * Numb. 16.15. with Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, for their Conspiracy; * 1 Sam. 19.14. As Elias against Israel, for their Apostasy; and as * Jer. 6.11. Jeremiah was against the Jews for their Impiety: But Anger amongst us is another thing, the Coal is blown up; and the Land is in a combustion now. He whom the Lord hath sent to Crown the Earth with Peace, and the Land with Fatness, is disturbed in his own Throne: Malignants knock at his Royal Gates. He that strengthens the Realm, and fortifies Dominions with a standing Army, to secure us from the Invasion of Foreign Enemies, cannot be at rest for his homebred Rebels; but they, like ambitious Phaaeton would mount the Fiery Chariot, drawn with Fury and Revenge, and ramble through our British Spheres, that they who followed, might wade in Blood. But he that sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed. And this shall suffice concerning the first Doctrine, viz. That Sin brings Judgement. I proceed to the second. Viz. That God usually warns all the Rebels of Heaven of their approaching danger, as a Method he takes to avert a final ruin beyond the Grave. Now that the Almighty's Arm is not stretched out for the Punishment of Evil Doers, without an early Summons to repent, that Iniquity may not be their ruin, appears from the words I have hitherto insisted on, where there is first a Prediction: Yet Forty Days. 2ly. A Desolation: Nineveh shall be overthrown. Such is God's Patience to frail Mortality, * Pet. 3.20. that he spared the Old World with long-suffering in the Days of Noah, * Ps. 95.10. and provoking Israel Forty Years. Forty Years long was I grieved with this Generation; and Rebellious Nineveh, Forty Days. But if the hearts of men be so obdurate, that they will not turn before a Tamen, or a remarkable Warning come; then God will whet his Sword, he hath bend his Bow, prepared his Arrows, Instruments of Death, against his Persecutors. Now the Almighty is said to warn all the Rebels of Heaven, etc. 1st. By his Ministers; such was Jonah to Nineveh, and Noah to the Old World: He gave them Commission to cry aloud, and spare not; to lift up their Voice like a Trumpet, to tell the People their Sins. * Ezek. 3.18, 19, 20 21. Son of man, saith the Lord, I have made thee a Watchman unto the House of Israel; therefore hear the Word at my mouth, and give them warning from me, when I say to the Wicked, thou shalt surely Die, and thou givest him not warning to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his Iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. And if the obstinacy of sinners be such that they bring not forth Fruit meet for Repentance: Then let the Ministers of God denounce Judgement; * Hos. 6.7. and Isa. 3.11. For I have hewn them saith the Lord, by the Prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: Woe unto the wicked, it shall be ill with him, for thereward of his hands shall be given him. But 2ly. The Almighty warns a People by calling the Faithful to their long home. At their departure, 'tis time that a whole Land should mourn, for a dismal desolation is at hand: They being the Props and Pillars, Horsemen and the Chariots of Israel, Walls and Bulwarks, both of Church and State, To stand as Moses in the Gap, to turn away God's wrathful Indignation. Such is the prevailing Efficacy that attends the Ministry, that Eliphaz the Temanite said of Job, * Joh. 4.4. Thy words have upholden him that is falling, and thou hast strengthened the feeble Knees: The wicked are spared from destruction, because of the intercession of these holy ones: I deny not, but these may be taken away in a common Calamity. But had there been Fifty Righteous in Sodom; nay, if there had lacked Five of the Number; if there had been but Forty Five; take Five from that; if there had been but Forty there; nay, twice Ten more; if there had been but Twenty there; (yet Ten more;) if there had been but Ten there; Sodom would not have been laid waste in Ashes: * Gen. 18.32. For says God, I will not destroy it for Ten sake. So tenderly affected is the Lord with good men, that he will hear their Prayers for the Wicked: * Numb. 25. For thus saith the Lord, Phinehas the Son of Eleazar, the Son of Aaron the Priest, hath turned my wrath away from the Children of Israel (While he was zealous for my sake among them) that I consumed not the Children of Israel in my jealousy. Hence it appears, that the dissolution of good men, is a prelude to our dissolation, and a timely warning to all unrepenting Sinners. 3ly. God usually warns a People by some remarkable Judgement, visiting our Offences with a Rod, and our sins with Scourges, speaking unto us in this Language, that we may speedily return from our wickedness, lest a worse Judgement fall upon us; for our Saviour saith, * Luk. 13.5 Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. The Almighty warns us. Reas. 1 1. That all mankind may discern that neither Joy nor Misery hath any dependence on either Chance or Fortune; but all things both in Heaven and Earth are guided by an overruling hand: I form the Light, says God, and create Darkness, Isa. 4, 5.7. I make Peace, and create Evil; I the Lord do all these things. Reas. 2 2ly. He warns a People with threats of Death, that we, by a newness of Life, might live to die, and die to live for ever; and herein is the manifestation of his Patience, and long-sufferings to the Sons of men: As I live saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the Death of the wicked, but that they turn from their Evil ways and live; and he graciously indents with his departing people: Turn ye, turn ye, from your Evil ways; for why will ye die, O House of Israel? Again, * Ezek. 33.11. My people, says God, are bend to Backsliding from me, but how shall I give thee up Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me; my repentings are kindled together. I should now insist upon the third Reason, which is, Reas. 3 3ly. t That man may have nothing to say in his own defence when Judgement is pronounced against him; but Righteous art thou O Lord, and true are thy Judgements. Doct. 3 But I shall proceed to speak briefly of the third Proposition, viz. * That it is not the outward bravery of an Earthly Sphere, not the Pomp and Pageantry of a fading world, that can guard us (if we sin) from the Frowns of Heaven, or shield us from the Fatal Blow. What, if Nineveh had the best Situation for the Salubrity of Air, and Fertility of Ground, yet had sin remained Forty Days longer, and even Nineveh had been destroyed; her stately Structures could not privilege her from Ruin, nor her strongest holds from Destruction; nor could all her Embellished Arts tempt or allure the angry Angel to withdraw his resolute Arme. Suppose this to have been the World's Wonder, or the Princes amongst all Nations under Heaven: Yet Forty Days, and sin would have leveled her with the Dust, and laid all her Pomp and Glory in the Grave. Suppose this City had been surrounded with the Walls of Brass, and circled round with Trenches, whose Bottoms were lower than three times the Alps are high; yet even they could not beat back the Heaven's revenging blow, and the Reason may be given. Reas. 1 1. To manifest to the World, that God is no respecter of Persons; but that Judgement * Job. 34.9. is as equal at the Palace Gates of Princes, as at the Cottage Doors of the meanest Peasants; the lofty Pine and the tall Cedar; the Bramble and the Shrub are all one: But in every Nation, Act. 10.34.35. Colos. 3.25. 2 Cron. 19.7 he that feareth him, and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him, and he that doth wrong, shall receive for the wrong that he hath done, and there is no respect of Persons. Reas. 2 2ly. That God's Wisdom, Power, Justice, and an Odium against sin, may the more appear; this made the Ninevites discern their approaching Ruin; Then they cried mightily unto God, yea, they turned every one from his evil way; who can tell say they, but that God may turn from his Anger, Jonah. 3.9, 10. and we not perish. And 'tis said that God saw their works, and repent of the evil that be had said he would do unto them, and did it not. But to conclude by way of Use and Application. Use 1 1st. Doth Sin bring Judgement? Then this may serve to justify God in all his Proceed against this Nation: As Jacob said of his Son joseph's Coat; an evil beast hath devoured him: So may we say of our Sins, for they are the Grand Devourers both of Church and State; we had been at peace with one another, had not our sins, the troublers of our Israel challenged the Almighty into Martial Arms, for impietas ad arma vocat, and the dread we have of a final Ruin, openly proclaims hic fuit iniquitas; hic hostilitas; that here hath been some reigning and damning Sins; for here hath lived the Atheist, and the debauched good Fellow; the sensual and the secure Man; the Oppressor and the Godly Hypocrite; the Unjust and Violent; the Profane and Ignorant; a Plundering Achan, and an Oppressing Ahab; a Covetous Nabal, and a Fratricidious Cain; a Backbiting Ziba, and a Cursing Shimei; a Scoffing Cham, and a Profane Esau. Thus we have drank Iniquity like water, and declined Sin, throughout all the Cases. In the Nominative, by Profaneness. In the Genitive, by Pride. In the Dative, by a Carnal Security. In the Accusative, by Hypocrisy. In the Vocative, by an Insurrection. In the Ablative, by a Damnable Rebellion. I should have left a Case for Destruction too, but that comes in the Plural Number. First, To all ye wretchedly Profane, * Ezek 5.4. Ezek. 28.16. and therefore says God, I will bring up a Company upon them, and will give them to be removed, and spoiled, Heb. 12.19. Ezek. 23.42.47. and the Company shall stone them with Stones, and dispatch them with their Swords, and they shall slay their Sons and their Daughters, and burn up their Houses with Fire. 2ly. To all ye that are proud, God will deck himself with Majesty, and array himself with glory; he will cast abroad the Rage of his Wrath and behold every one that is proud and abase him. 3ly. To all ye that are carnally secure. Thus the secure People of * Laish were awakened, Jud. 18 27, 28. when the Edge of the Danites Sword came upon them, and when they burned the City with Fire. 4ly To all ye Hypocrites. * Your hopes shall perish, Job. 8.13. and ye shall not come into the presence of the Lord. * Woe unto you Hypocrites, Mat. 23.14. for ye devour Widows Houses, and for a pretence make long Prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater Damnation 5ly. To all ye that make Insurrection. Thus Judgement fell upon the fair Metropolis of the Dissenting Jews, Jerusalem hath been a City hurtful unto Kings; and because they have moved Sedition within the same, therefore was this City destroyed; hid me from the gathering together of the froward and from the Insurrection of the Wicked Doers. 6ly. and lastly, to all ye Rebels. There is a near affinity between an Insurrection and a Rebellion; the first being the seed, the last the harvest: for grant Schism to be sown in a Conventicle, and you may presently reap a Rebellion in a Common Wealth. Isa. 30.1. But woe to the Rebellious Children who take Council, but not of me, and that cover with a covering, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin. Such are the fearful aggravations of England's miscarriages, that we have sinned against mercies, and many great deliverances; against Truth and all Goodnss; these shadow our Gospel-land with Clouds and thick darkness, and obscure the path that leadeth unto Life that few there be who find it. Hence it was that Britain, like the Land of Egypt, even as the Garden of the Lord, became once a second Rama, where in many Rachaels' wept for their slain Infants and would not be comforted because they were not; and it is even now just with the Almighty that Rebels be made Instruments of our Ruin, and Voyals of Vengeance to our mourning Isle. Changing our Cornets of Peace and Joy into Trumpets of War and Sorrow; our Pens into Pikes, and our Maces into Swords: They like Samson, value not their own Destruction; therefore are come to Engrave the History of a Rebellion with the Sword, and with such Ink, as Draco's Laws were wrote in Blood. Use 2 2ly. Is this the top of our Terrene perfection to have our Coat of Or, & Conversation Sable, to be graced with the name of Piety, and yet disgraced with Infirmities, & charged with a load of Gild, where is our Repentance? When we lie under the burden of a Griping Conscience or the heavy pressure of Gods, displeasure, when we are under any temptation, or in danger of falling into any sin. In a word; when any Judgement, whether Spiritual or Temporal, threatens our ruin; 'tis then time, that the Guilty should cry aloud with a hearty sorrow for sin, Save Lord, or we perish; and why should we distrust, but that the same God that hath given us a Being, and protected us from our Births, to this Moment, will also give us a sincere Repentance, beat back our Enemies, and guide our Feet into the way of Peace? for we know he hath a return for the wandering Shulamite, and a Kiss for the home-come Prodigal. The Psalmist once lay under the frowns of heaven, and was shrouded with a cloudy Day, when from Adultery he fell into Blood and Wounds; he killed Vriah the Hittite with the Sword of the Children of Ammon, though Nathan said thou art the Man and shalt surely die, yet, such is the Lord's Mercy, that after Repentance comes Pardon. Says David I have sinned against the Lord; then says the holy Prophet, the Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die: Joy then to the repenting sinner, to him that has clipped the Wings of Faith, and dashed in pieces the Comforts of his saving hopes, and turned God's Glory to Dishonour: for says the Apostle, * such were some of you, meaning the Corinthians. But ye are washed but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, by the Spirit of our God: To this End, the Blessed Blood of the Paschal Lamb was once spilled that our Scarlet Sins might change their deepest Dye, and be made as white as Snow; even such as brought him from his Throne and nailed him to the cursed Tree: by his blood he hath cancelled all obligations and made us heirs of an eternal inheritance: This is the fountain of Mercy, that flows continually to refresh the drooping Spirits of afflicted Souls, * Where the Spirit and the Bride says come, and he that is a thirst come, * and let whosoever will, come and take of the Water of Life freely. From this Fountain, the Redeemed of the Lord return, and come with singing unto Zion. But 3ly. and lastly Let us herein admire God's Love, that he warns us, before he smites us, Yet Forty Days, etc. his Love, insnatching our Britain from the Jaws of Death and staving off Destruction from our Habitations here. When Sodom burned, Lot took Sanctuary in a little Village, and when Jerusalem was laid waste, some few Inhabitants had a Pella too. Sing O Heavens, and rejoice O Earth, that our Zoar is yet the house of God and the Gate of Heaven; thither, thither, will we flee and be at rest, For God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed, God shall help her, & that right early. O come let us sing unto the Lord, let us hearty rejoice in the strength of our Salvation, that our Land is not yet soaked with Blood, nor our dust with the Fatness of the slain; that Monarchy triumphs yet above Anarchy, and Shields the Throne from Cruelty and Usurpation, and our Zion from Destruction; that Episcopacy is yet the Cherub that guards the Paradise of God from all Invaders, landed on our Christian Shore: but least an over indulging Care of securing our outward Peace, should seem to lessen our Christian Charity, and tempt us to a loss of that within; let us send (as we are taught) humble beseeches unto God, that in his own good time he would bind up the breaches, delineate the blemishes, and raise up the lapsed Reputation of his divided Spouse; and all for the honour, as well as merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour. To whom with the Father, etc. Amen. FINIS.