Mal.3.14. Doct. Ye have faid, it is in vain to ferve God, and what profit is it that We have kept his Ordinances, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of boasts.get But they that feared the Lord fpake often one to another: that is, encouraged one another, and it is faid, the Lord hearkned and heard it, &c. 3 The effect of this fear: That I might reft in the day of troublene This alfo fheweth that this fear of the Church was not feparated from faith, for it is entertained of purpose to fettle the heart, and to give it reft in the day of trouble. I cannot but often remember that fweet faying of Auftine: Medicina eft quod pateris, thy fuffering is the Phyfick, for the Phyfick that we take to purg the ill humours of the body, doth make the body more fick for the time, and fo do the chastisements of God. The fear of judgment threatned, is more pain to the children of God, then the fenfe of the judgment inflicted. It is a note of the juft, that they rejoyce in tribulations, yet you fee they fear tribulations before they come, which fhews that the bitterneffe of that cup, is more in the cause then in the effect. The righteous in thefe threatnings do behold God in dif pleasure, themselves in the guilt of provocation, and nothing goeth fo neer the heart of a godly man, as that his God fhould take any unkindneffe at him, for in his favour is life. To help this, when God threatneth, the juft man feareth, and that fear doth both remember him of the occafion of this judgment, and composeth him to repentance of his fin, and to prayer, to divert it, or to patience in it. Hear joyned with faith, prepareth us for peace and reft in the day of trouble.send anger An admirable work it is of wifedome and mercy to extract rest out of fear, but to him that brought light out of darkness, nothing is impoffible, more to give reft in the day of trouble, when the foul refufeth comfort, and even begins to take a kind of pride in the fulneffe of miferie, and faith,videte fi dolor, ficut dolor mens. I Because 1 Because these inward convulfions of the hid man of the Reaf.1. heart are joyned evermore in the godly, with an hatred of the fin that deserved them, for from hence ariseth this confession; Peccavi. di ecɔou all hoifon do ensa.proni ed & S Obferve it in fob, he did not ask, Quid patior? but Quid fa- Reaf.2. ciam tibi? so it worketh in us a care and confcience of obedience hereafter, 191 It alfo difcerneth an iffue out of trouble, for where fear Reas.3. doth not overgrow, there is a fweet apprehenfion of joy in the end as the Apostle faith afterward it yieldeth,The peaceable Heb.12.11 fruit of righteoufnele, unto them which are exercized thereby. Wherefore, lift up the hands that hang down, and the feeble knees. Usex. Make streight paths for your feet, left that which is tame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be beateda mne bob bar. The way is there defcribed. Follow peace with all men, and hoFineffe, without which no man shall see the Lord, Look diligently, lost any may fall from the grace of God, left any root of bitternesse springing up in you trouble you. Out of this whole paffage, you may obferve a fweet defcription of a full repentance. Here is the law of God, revealing both finne and the judgment due to it, called here, the hearing of the voyce of God. 2 Here is the conscience agonized with the fear of Gods judgments. Maob nołusty 3 Here is the fruit and benefit thereof, even peace and reft n the day of trouble, L 3 Here is lowing in tears, and reaping in joy, rather it is Sun thine in a tempeft, for the outward man is fhaken, and the flesh fuffereth, but the juft do fay with the ever blessed Virgina (TA My spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour. Impii non fic, not so with the wicked: for God hath faid it, that there shall be no peace at the last to them, but as the raging of the angry fea, which cafteth up nothing but foam and dard: boD ai botzetao lewe, l 2 Themiferies of the land. o svol sí' This is defcribed fully. dirt. I In Boct. 9 30 1 In the agent. 2 In the patient.ai do 'rul The aprimus motor, the fuprean agent, God. ir Lait field to compratables aThe olive. Yo con lib side In their Cattell yr Such as feed abroad BagIn dbredt 22 Suchras are ftalled Concerning the agent Supream, God. 3 The fame hand that gave them poffeffion of that good land, doth now remove them thence, here is Mutatio dextra. It is a thing notable that God is ever in Scripture described to us conftant, yesterday and to day, and the fame for ever, without variableneffe, or fo much as a fhadow of alteration, yet in his government of the world, he fometimes giveth, and fometimes be taketh away: fometimes he filleth, and fometimes he emptieth. ·oonsteqor liul #to non ha Reaf. 1. The reafon hereof is partly in our felves, for as our obedience and fervice of him, doth both gain and affure to us aff good things, as himfelf telleth us. If you confent and obey, you shall eat the good things of the land moiuluoo ula ai staří s Ifa.1.19, 20. མའ So our difobedience and tranfgreffion doth lofe us all these things, as he addeth. If you refuse and rebell, you shall be devoured with the fword: for the mouth of the Lord hath fpoken it. Reaf.2. -Partly it is in God, for his mercy in giving, must not destroy his uftice in punishing of evill doers; for if it be a righteous Thef.1.6 thing with Godto recompence tribulation to them that trou ble us, it must needs be as righteous to recompence tribulati on, to them that trouble him. It is an heavy complaint that God made of this people. I have nourished and brought up dren, and they have rebelled against messi vignobl Ifai.1.2. chil It is well obferved in God that he is primus in amore, & per ftremus in odio: he loveth us before we can feek his face, and we are tender in fight, before weknow the right hand from the left, left, as in the cafe of Nineveh, God pleaded with fonab for the infants. But God never forfaketh us, till we firft forfake him, not then, if there be but animus revertendi, he is patient and longfuffering, but when we come once to two evils. To forfake him the Fountain of living waters, and to dig to our felves cifterns of our own making, then he can no lʊnger forbear, when we grow A finfull nation, a people laden with iniquity, a feed of evill do Ifai.1.4. ers, children that are corrupters, forfaking the Lord, provoking the Holy One of Ifrael to anger, going away backward. No wonder, If he make our Countrey defolate, burn our Cities 7. with fire, let frangers devour our land in our prefence, and lay it defolate, as overthrown by strangers. Where we are guilty to our felves of provocation, of the Use 1. Lord against us, we have cause to lay all the blame upon our felves, and to fay; we have gone away from thee, and have not hearkned to thy voice, therefore art thon difpleafed with us... Seeing the Juftice of God doth fet him against us, we are álfo to acquite him of any hard measure towards us,and to say, just art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments o But efpecially,this ftirreth us up to divert this wrath to come, for to that purpose God giveth warning by threatnings, not in judgment to punish and torment us, before our time, with the fear of them,and after in their time with the fenfe of them,but to admonish us to fly from the anger to come; for Jeremy was fent on this very meffage to this people, and he threatned them from God, as Habakkuk here doth, yet with this caution of repentance. For feremie being required by King Zedekiah to enquire of the Lord concerning Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babel, If the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderfull works that bee will go from us. Jeremie through the whole Chapter refolveth him, that God is purpofed to deliver his people and their Land, into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar, yet in the next Chapter he bring Aaaa eth 3 Jer.21.2. Jer.12.1. 3 4 5 Doct. eth this comfortable meffage, from God to the King. Thus, faith the Lord, go down to the King of Judah, and speak there this word. And fay, bear the Word of the Lord, O King of Judah, that fittest upon the throne of David, thou and thy fervants, and the people that enter in by these gates. Thus, faith the Lord, execute you judgment and righteoufnelle, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppreffour, and do no wrong, do no violence to the ft ranger, the Fatherleffe, nor the widow, neither fhed innocent blond in this place. For if you do this thing indeed, then there fhall enter in by the gates of this house, Kings fitting for David upon his throne, riding in Chariots, and on horses, he and his fervants, and his people. But if ye will not hear these words, I wear by my felf, faith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation, &c. This declareth that the threatnings of God when he menaceth our fins with judgments, are like fonathans arrows, fhot rather to give us warning then to hurt us. 9.5 Which admon heth us, that whenfoever any fear fuürpri zeth us of wrath to come upon our land, either in the corruption of our religion, or in the perturbation of our peace, or in the fear of falf friends that may kiffe and betray, or in the dearth and fearcity of the neceffaries of life, in any, in all these fears the change of our ways, the repentance of our fins, the amendment of our lives, will ever make our peace with our God, and turn away these threatned and feared evils from us, for godlineffe hath the promises both of this life, and of that which is to comeoy diabo 2 Let us confider the inftruments in this action called 19. Dubistroops. The armies of the Chaldeans, by which Ifrael is to be punished, are the troops of God. God owns them, as Jeremiah telleth Zedechiah; Thus, faith Jer. 21.4,5 the Lord God of Ifrael, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war, that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the King of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans which befiege you without the wals, |