Sermons, preached partly before His Majesty at White-Hall and partly before Anne Dutchess of York, at the chappel at St. James / by Henry Killigrew ...

The Eleventh Sermon. (Book 11)

AMOS iii.2.

You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth, therefore will I punish you for all your ini∣quities.

THIS Expression of God's [knowing] a Thing or Person, is taken in Scripture in several Senses. Sometimes it is meant literally and in propriety of Speech, of the Knowledge of mere Perception and Discerning; as when David says, Thou knowest my thoughts long before: and S^t John, God is greater than our hearts, and Knoweth all things, i. e. perceiveth and discerneth all things. Sometimes again it is taken Figuratively, not for mere Perceiving or Understanding a thing, but for the Owning, Approving, Favouring, Blessing of it, or the like: because these follow upon God's percei∣ving a Good thing. Thou hast Known my Soul in

adversity, says the Psalmist, i. e. Own'd, protected, and delivered it. Again, the Lord Knoweth the way of the Righteous, and the way of the Ungodly shall perish. Knoweth their way, i. e. prospereth, blesseth, and will not suffer it to miscarry like that of the Ungodly.

And this last Way did God Know Israel above all the Families of the Earth: for he knew them not only with a Perceptive Knowledge, so as he Knows equally all the Nations of the World, but Owned, favoured, and was beneficial to them. As the Sun beholds some Countries with a more bounteous Aspect than others, not only shedding on them Light and common Influences, but enriching them with the No∣blest Plants, Minerals, and Precious Stones: Or as he is feign'd by the Poets to have beheld Thessaly, when he was in love with Daphne,

—& terrâ figit in unâ Quos mundo debet oculos—

he fixt his Eyes on one particular Soil, which ought to have cheered the Universe. So God, as if he had been Enamoured on Israel of all the Nations of the Earth, set his Heart on them alone, to the seeming Contempt of all beside, he revealed himself to them in a more Especial Manner, made a Covenant with them, gave them Laws, and heaped Blessings upon them, vouchsafed to be their King and Governour in his own Person, conducted, fed, protected them by by Wonderful and Supernatural Means; and where∣as he governed the other Nations by his Ordinary Invisible Power (as if he had erected a New Provi∣dence in the World for them) he brought all things to pass in their behalf by Miracles. And thus though

by Nature Israel was no better than other Nations, by his Grace and Favour God made them Excel them.

But then though it be the highest Advantage, To be Known by God after a particular and Extraordinary Manner, yet if a People shew themselves not worthy of it, it ceases to be an Advantage; nay it turns to their greater Evil. 'Tis not enough therefore, that men are known by God, to make them happy, but God must also be known by them, they must understand his Will, what is pleasing and displeasing to him, and hold a reciprocal Correspondence with him by Faith, Love and Obedience. For as S^t Peter says of Apo∣states, It had been better for them, not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than after they have known it, to turn from the holy Commandment: So it had been better for Israel if they had not been the Fa∣vourites of God, than after their being so, by their Sins to lose that Grace; for Sins against Favour are greater than Sins against a Commandment; Men in this Case being not only Disobedient, but Ungrate∣ful; and whereas God would possibly have past by the Offences of less Obliged Persons, he will call such as these to a strict account; what he would have pardoned in the Heathen, that were Strangers to him, he will punish in his own People, whom he has known by so many Great and Distinguishing Benefits. You only have I known of all the Families of the Earth, therefore will I punish you for all your Iniquities.

The Words afford us this Proposition or Observa∣tion, That whatever People God blesses above o∣thers, if they shew themselves Ungrateful by sinning against him, he will punish them above others. Which Proposition I shall handle after this man∣ner:

I. Prove and confirm the Truth of it, that it is in∣deed so. And

II. Shew the Reason and Equity of it, why it should be so.

I. To clear and confirm the Proposition.

Sin, as soon as it is committed, is followed by Pu∣nishment, except prevented by Repentance; Punish∣ment follows it, I say, sometimes with Slow, but al∣ways with Sure Paces, till it over-takes it; Venge∣ance attends it, as the Gaoler in some Countries does Malefactors, who is bound in the same Chain with them: Or is coupled to it as the After-Birth is to the Birth: For as in Natural Productions, after the Birth of the Creature, there is a second Birth or Protrusi∣on; so there is in the bringing-forth of Sin, it is no sooner produced in the World, but there succeeds a Title to Punishment so close upon it, as if it came from the same Womb. If thou dost Evil, says God to Cain, Sin lyeth at the Door, i. e. the Punishment of Sin is at hand to seize thee: and says our Lord, in regard of mens proneness to Wickedness, It is ne∣cessary that Offences should come, but then also that 'twas as necessary, That upon them Woes should come: and the Scripture makes it a piece of Injustice to detain them, no less than a Sin, to spare Sin. The Wages of Sin is Death, says S^t Paul: and as when the Wages of a Labourer or the Pay of a Souldier is detained, a Mutiny or Clamour is raised: so when Punishment, the Wages of Sin, is with-held, a Cry is sent up to Heaven, and God's Justice is continually sollicited, till Guilt receive its due Reward.

This, indeed, to the Men of this World is the primum incredibile, one of the most Incredible Do∣ctrines

that is taught: they see not the Link, which by God's appointment, couples Sin and Punishment, and because the Act of Sin is transient, and Venge∣ance deferred, they conceive the Guilt, and the Bitterness of Death contracted by it, are also tran∣sient; and that they can confute the whole Hypothe∣sis from their own Experience; they having not only run on in Disobedience for many Years together, but encreased their Wickedness, as well as continued in it; proceeded from sinning with fear, to sin with presumption; from offending God, to the affronting him; from breaking his Laws, to the deriding of his Worship, and the denying of his Deity; and yet, say they, we have found none of that Vengeance that is spoken of, no, not the least Disturbance in our E∣vil Ways. But is it then no Vengeance, to let a Sinner run on in the Ways of Perdition without any Check? Is the Blindness and Darkness of the Soul, and Hard∣ness of the Heart, no Judgment? Is the falling from the Condition of a Man, to that of a Beast, the despising all things Spiritual and Noble, and finding no relish but in things sensual and Brutish, no Judg∣ment? Is God's giving them up thus to a Reprobate Mind and Vile Affections, condemning them to love Necessarily and Finally, what they have so long lo∣ved Perversely and Wilfully, no Judgment? Is the visible trailing after them in this manner the Chain of Damnation, and going on singing and dancing to Hell, without apprehending the least Evil, no Judg∣ment? What Sadder Arrest can there be of God's Wrath, than such an Exemption from it? What Plague or Punishment sent upon Less Offending Sin∣ners half so dreadful, as the Calm and Peace which these boast of? But let it be as these Men imagine, that all these things we speak of are Dreams, that

Obdurateness and Insensibility in Sinning is no Punish∣ment, and that nothing deserves the Name of Venge∣ance, but what is Corporal Loss of Life or Liberty, de∣privation of Health, Estate, and the like. How do these know they shall escape these Evils? Those of this Way are for the most part Young, or in the Strength of their Days, and perhaps God has determined be∣fore they depart hence to make them as Eminent Ex∣amples of his Wrath, as they have been of Disobe∣dience.

I should think my Hour well bestowed, to re∣move this one Practical Dangerous Errour, to open mens eyes, that they may be convinced, That Sin is a Serpent that does insidiare calcaneo, lye in the Path, and mortally bite the Heel of the Sinner; and that he runs not on faster in the Ways of Disobedience, than he does in those of Destruction: but it is not my Business at this time, the Proposition which I am to prove, concerns not the Punishment of Sin Abso∣lutely considered, but Comparatively, viz. That Sin in some Persons or People is more heinous, and more se∣verely punished, than in others; that where God has conferr'd more Signal and Illustrious Favours, there he punishes Sin with more Signal and Exemplary Venge∣ance; and his foregoing Bounty despised, adds Weight to his future Severity.

And this Truth is written in so Great Characters, and so legible through the Whole Series of the Chro∣nicle of Scripture, even from the Creation, that I shall not need so much to prove the Proposition, as to refresh your Memories, by setting before you things already known. The first Man of our Race was the first miserable Example of this Truth; and he that first brought Sin into the World, first also left the Confirmation to us of the Fatal Consequence of

it, when committed against an Extraordinary Grace. Adam was created after God's own Likeness, in per∣fect Righteousness and Holiness, and not only with the Knowledge of his Laws, but with a Power and Ability to keep them; he was made to Excel all Sub∣lunary Creatures, and had Dominion given him over them; he was plac'd in a furnish'd World, fruitful without Labour, delightful without Satiety; and the Continuance of this his Felicity was put into his own hands, he was not Subject to Death, Infirmities, or Misfortunes, like his Posterity: nay, 'twas in his power not only to have Prolong'd his Felicity to all Eternity, but to have Improv'd it. Greater Favours God could not conferr on Flesh and Bloud, on a Creature lower than the Angels. But whither tended the Collation of all these Benefits, when Adam rebelled against God? Only to his great∣er Misery, the Punishment of his Transgression was as Eminent as his Priviledges and Graces had been; his ensuing Calamity, as his foregoing Prosperity. The day thou eatest of the forbidden Tree, says God, thou shalt dye the Death. What Death? All manner of Deaths, Death Temporal, Death Spiritual, Death Eternal; Death to Nature, Death to Grace, Death to Glory! The Sin was but Single, but the Punishment inflicted was Three-fold: like a Stroke with a Tri∣dent, which makes a Triple Wound; and the Blow fell not only on himself, but on all his Posterity. Never any Sin since his had the like Recompence of Reward; because none since Adam could sin against so much Bounty.

I shall give you but one Instance more. We know by how Strange and Unexpected a Favour Saul was promoted to the Throne of Israel, who being sent in quest of his Father's Asses, found a Kingdom; God

advancing him above all his People in Honour, more than he Excelled them in Stature. But he pro∣ving after this Ungrateful and disobedient to the Commandment of God, falling no less than thrice into that Common Fatal Errour of Faithless Princes, to relye on Humane Policy, more than on the Divine Support: on the Favour of the People, than on the Favour of God; and seeking to establish his Kingdom by Bloud and Sacriledge, ra∣ther than by Innocence and Justice; as if the Power that gave him a Throne could not uphold him in it; God's Indignation against him was as Great, as his Prevarications had been. And then what did all his antecedent Favours profit him, but to enhance his following Punishment? Which was such, as when we read it, we cannot chuse but pity, though it were the Lord's doing. For he rejected Saul, as he was rejected by him; he withdrew his Holy Spirit from him, and sent an Evil Spirit to vex him in the room of it, a Spirit of Jealousie and Frenzy, which periodically possest him, and clouded all his Felicity and Glory; disinherited his Posterity, dethroned, in a manner, himself while he was yet alive, by causing another to be anointed King in his days. And after he had suffered him thus to survive a few Years a dreadful Spectacle of the Divine Wrath, he stirr'd-up the Philistines against him, and when their Host ap∣peared, and he most needed it, bereaved him of his Kingly Courage and Magnanimity, refused to direct or answer him by his Oracles. In which distressed and disconsolate State, all Heavenly Comfort being silent, and Saul's guilty Conscience only loud and clamorous, over-whelmed with Sorrow and Despair, under a Disguise and the Covert of the Night, with two Attendants only, he repaired to a poor Witches

Cell to enquire the Fortune of his Life and Kingdom, and where God met him, as I may say, also in Dis∣guise, made use of the Witches delusive Arts, to give him a Real Prediction of his near-approaching Over∣throw, and inglorious Death: So that partly bro∣ken with Sorrow, and partly weakned through Hun∣ger, he fell into a Swoun, and was sustained by the Bread and Counsel of the Silly Woman, the next day putting a Period to his Life and Miseries. What In∣vention of Romance, or Fiction of Poetry can pa∣rallel the Calamity of this once so Glorious and He∣roick King? And if any ask, Why was all this? how came the patient Spirit of the God of Mercy to turn into Fury, like that of the Person he punish'd? Be∣cause the Sin of Saul was not only a Sin against God, but against a Benefactor; and the wonderful Bounty God had shewed in bringing him to the Throne, pull'd upon his Ingratitude and Infidelity this won∣derful Severity and Displeasure.

And as this is God's Dealing with Particular Per∣sons, so 'tis the same with Whole Nations: Of which we shall not need a further Example, than that before us of Israel. In the foregoing Chapter the Prophet denounces God's Judgments against the Neighbour∣ing Kingdoms for their Sins. For three Transgressions and for four, says he, God will punish Damascus, and chiefly for their Cruelty. For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Gaza, and again for their Cruelty. For three Transgressions and for four God will punish Tyre, because they kept not their Brotherly Love. And so on against the rest: But when he comes in the last place to Israel and to Judah, their Trans∣gressions being not inferior to those of the Gentiles, he intimates that heavier Judgments were laid up in Store for them, and that they should not escape so

easily as the others; he casts their Ingratitude for their former Benefits into the burden of their Guilt; their forgetfulness of God's bringing them out of Egypt wich a high hand, and destroying the Nations before them; his raising up their Sons and Daughters to be Prophets, and their Young men to be Nazarites. Shall the People that have not known God be judged for their Sins, and shall not those to whom he has reveal∣ed his Laws and his Righteousness, on whom he has heaped his Blessings, be judged more severely? He that knoweth his Masters Will, says our Lord, and doth it not, shall be beaten with many Stripes. As the Hea∣then therefore were chastised for their Offences, Israel was utterly ruined and Un-nationed.

And this was not only God's proceeding under the Law, but 'tis the same still under the Gospel: For he has Known or favoured Believers in Christ, not only above the Gentiles, but even above the Jews them∣selves; and if Judah be trod down, and the Temple destroyed for the Sins and Ingratitude of that People, the seven Churches in Asia lye under a Sadder Deso∣lation at this Day for their Disobedience to Christ, Travellers being scarce able to discern so much as the Places where they stood. These Examples of God's Wrath both on Single Persons and whole Nations, teach us this Lesson, That 'tis never so dangerous to offend against God, as when he has been Gracious to us; his former Benefits being so far from priviledg∣ing any to transgress, that he is sure to punish those most, he has done most for. But 'tis not enough to shew the quod sit, the Truth of the Proposition, that it is so; I proceed in the next place to shew the cur sit, the Reason, Equity, and Merit of it, why it should be so.

The Reason why it should be so.

This Position, That God punishes with heavier Judg∣ments, those whom he has chosen to fix his Favours on, if they offend against him, than others; seems to have something in it contrary to the Nature and Dispositi∣on of Men, who are apt to delight in the Persons, on whom they have placed their Benefits; to love the Creatures of their Advancing, no less than those of their Begetting: So S^t Augustine affirms the like Disposition is found in God; who, speaking of his Rewards to Men, says, Coronat opera sua, non merita nostra, God crowns his own Gifts and Graces, not any Merit he finds in us: and Moses makes it a Plea for his Mercy to Israel, that he would not destroy them, after he had done them so much Good; alledg∣ing his former Bounty, as a Motive, for his Pardon and Forgiveness.

In satisfaction to this, I answer: We must consider in God's Benefits to men not only his Love, but the Purpose of his Love; he confers his Gifts upon us with a Design to make us more holy Persons, and for the Favours he bestows he looks for a Return of O∣bedience and Righteousness on our part; and where he fails of this Return, he does not only cease to give, but hates in a manner his Gifts, and destroys them for the Parties sake on whom they were be∣stowed. Says S^t Paul, Ephes. 1.3. God has blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ, (and why?) that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love. But then if this Design be defeated and made void, and we are not holy and without blame before him in love, we may assure our selves, that all his purpo∣sed Bounty is also made void; and that is hated which

is loved; thought fit to be destroyed, that was in∣tended to be built; and the rather, because it was not found fit to be built.

There are three things which are observed to pro∣voke Anger and Indignation in the most Patient. First, An affront to a Mans Person: all vilifying and despising, as Aristotle, the best Describer of Passions, says, being a just Cause of Choler. Secondly, The Loss of a Mans Labour: as when a Professor of some Curious Art arrives to great Perfection in it, and reaps no Advantage by it; is Excellent, but yet not∣withstanding Poor and Neglected; ravishes all (for Example, with his Musick or Poetry) and wants Bread: this will make him hate his Muse, and break his Strings, reek his Revenge upon the Instrument of his Profession, because he cannot reach his unfortu∣nate Profession it self. Thirdly, The Loss of a Mans Love and Good-Will exasperates him more than all the rest, and turns his Kindness into Fury. Neglect of Worth, and Personal Contempt, though they be deep∣ly resented, yet they touch not so to the Quick, as the Contempt of Affection, for indeed the Contempt of Af∣fection includes in it both the Contempt of the Worth, and of the Person; and he that despises a mans Love, despises all that he has, and all that he is. But what then must the Provocation be, when all these Causes concur? as they do, when either a Nation, or a Sin∣gle Person returns God Disobedience after he has shewed them his Extraordinary Mercies and Favours.

For, First, His Person is affronted; Regard is not had to the Great God of Heaven and Earth conde∣scending to do Good to his own Sinful Creatures; and the Greater the Person is, the Greater is the Con∣tempt, and consequently the Greater Anger and E∣vil Effects of it, Revenge and Punishment, may be

expected. Says S^t Paul, Of how much Sorer Punish∣ment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy, who has trod under foot the Son of God? viz. than he that has only trod Moses under his feet?

Secondly, God loses his Labour on such Persons, and that enrages him yet more: he likens Israel to a Vineyard, on which he had bestow'd great Cost and Husbandry; fenced, and gathered out the Stones, and planted it with a Choice Vine: but after all, when he lookt for Grapes, behold, it brought forth Wild Grapes! Grapes which instead of delighting the Taste, set the Teeth on Edge! What does he do therefore upon so unexpected a Frustration and disap∣pointment of his Hopes? Why, as a Person much In∣censed, shews many times a Wild and Frantick Beha∣viour; so God puts on a seeming Transport and Fu∣ry, breaks out into a Tragical Song to vent his In∣dignation. I will sing, says he, a Song of my Beloved touching my Vineyard—in which he utters both his Displeasure and his purposed Revenge. The Issue of God's Labour lost upon a People, can be no less than the Perdition or Loss of those People; First, He complains, but after that, lest he should seem to be Master'd or Mock'd by his own Creatures, he sends Destruction and Desolation on them.

Thirdly, His Love and Kindness is despised, which provokes his Anger above all the rest. When God has shew'd Singular Goodness and Mercy to a Nation, e∣minently delivered them, or otherwise Blessed and prospered them, and they return him nothing but contempt and Neglect, disregard his Laws and violate his Commandments, esteem his Worship a Burden, and his Service a Slavery; reflect upon their late In∣felicities and Deliverances as the Common Vicissitudes of the World, or only as False, or more Wary and

Masterly Steps made by themselves in Points of Poli∣cy. Thus, like Israel, sacrificing to their own Net, and burning Incense to their Drag: Or as another Prophet representeth them; ascribing all the Good things they received from God, to the Idols of Ca∣naan, to Baal, and Moloch, and the Queen of Hea∣ven: So these ascribe to Chance or Fortune, to Good and Bad Seasons, to Humane Prudence or Folly, all their Prosperity and Adversity, and not to Divine Providence. When, I say, the Goodness of God is thus injured, his Benefits over-seen or denied, his Judgments contemned, his Righteousness hated, and his Deity set at naught, what wonder is it, if his Love be also turned into Detestation and Hatred. When Men hate, they wish the Person hated may perish; they wish it, I say, because their Power does not al∣ways answer their Anger: but God, to whom it is as easie to destroy, as to be angry; when he hates, he sends certain Ruine and Destruction on the Offen∣ders; he punishes with the same Facility, as he says in my Text—I will punish you for all your iniqui∣ties.

And now to hang our Ancestors Picture in our Gallery, if I may so allude, to set the Actions of Is∣rael by ours, that we may draw some Instructions from them, I could almost wish that this Proposition, (Whatever People God has blessed above others, if they sin against him, he will also punish above others) were not so great a Truth, so Ominously it sounds: For if there be a Nation upon the Earth that God has Known, i. e. distinguish'd by his Singular and Signal Favours from all others, it is this of ours: S^t Paul reckons it among the highest Priviledges of Israel, that they had the Ora∣cles of God; though we may say of them, they were Oracles indeed, if their Darkness be compared with

the Clear Light of the Gospel revealed to us; Christ was preached to them, and not preached; but if to any of us he be hid, 'tis through wilful and affected blindness, and, as the Apostle says, He is hid only to those that perish. And when through the Inundation of Bar∣barians and Ignorance, and the worse Inundation of Corrupt Manners, Errours and Superstition over-spread the Face of the whole Christian World: upon the first Dawning again of the Light of the Gospel, and the shaking off of this Darkness, while the Abominations of Rome were yet seen and detested by all Discerning and Conscientious Believers, and the Fermentation of the Truth in mens hearts was not settled again upon the Lees of Secular Policy and Interest, we were res∣cued by God's Goodness from the Yoke of Anti-Christ. But not to look back to the Benefits of remote Ages, but only to those we our selves have been immediate Partakers of, and are accountable for. What Mercy was ever more Glorious than the Restauration of our King and Church in these our Days, not to name our later, though Signal and Illustrious Deliverances?

But as God has known us in all our Distresses and Adversities, and wrought such Miracles of Mercy for us, how have we received them? What Miracles of Thanksgivings and Duty have we returned to him? We have wrought Miracles indeed, but Miracles in an Untoward Sense, Miracles of Impiety and Ingra∣titude. As God restored our King and Kingdom to their former Splendour and Glory, and all of us to our forfeited Peace and Prosperity: multitudes have endeavoured, by their Atheistical Opinions, to de∣pose God from his Kingdom in Heaven, and Govern∣ment over the World. As God brought us out of the Saddest and Darkest Night of Adversity, into the bright Sun-shine of Felicity, by a Power and

Goodness like that by which he brought Light out of Darkness at the Creation: there are those that have turned Light into Darkness, i. e. denied and obscured all the Light of Divine Truth and Revela∣tion: again, that have turned Darkness into Light, made the Sins of Darkness become Sins of Light and Noon-day; those Sins which were reproachful and crept into Corners in all Ages, to be of Credit and Reputation in this. These, together with the ren∣dering things Venerable and Sacred, ridiculous and contemptible, are the Miracles of these times! Saint Peter says, In the last days shall come Scoffers, walking after their own Lusts. These two Sins, Walking after their own Lusts, and Scoffing at things Holy, go toge∣ther: and 'tis no wonder that this dissolute and pro∣fligate Age should mock at Religion and at all things Serious; mock at their Reason, and degrade it below their Sense; mock at the Immortality of their Souls, and level themselves with the Beasts; mock the King∣dom of Heaven into a Dream, and the Torments of Hell into a Fable; the Creation of the World into a piece of Non-sence and Impossibility; and why? Because 'tis more rational to believe the Doctrine of Atoms? that the orderly and beautiful Frame of Hea∣ven and Earth, and all that is in them, were produced by the casual shuffling together of I know not what little Particles, than by the Contrivance of an Infi∣nitely Wise and Powerful God? Or again, that the World was from all Eternity, and that Men and all o∣ther Creatures grew at first, like Plants, out of the Earth, and the like, rather than that they were crea∣ted? No certainly, these things are not so easie to be conceived and digested by Reason, as the Doctrines that are rejected: but the most Monstrous Opinions are easier to be embrac'd by Wicked men, than such

Truths as cannot be held, together with their Vicious Lives; as the Apostle says, They live without God in the World, and they cannot endure to hear, that he made it, and will judge it; that their Bodies should dye, and their Souls survive; their Pleasures come to an End, and their Guilt remain; that there should be a Resurrection to Punishment, and not for the Execution of their Lusts. Julian the Apostate, to ju∣stifie his revolt from the Faith, said of the Gospel, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, I have perused it, I have understood it, I have despised it. Alas, if he had approved it, he must have condemned himself; if he had acknowledged the Gospel to be Divine, and the Way to Bliss, he must have confess'd himself a Mon∣ster, and the most Accursed of Mankind. But that which is so great a Prodigy, is, that the least Night or Darkness of Atheism should be seen in this King∣dom, where the Gospel shines in its Meridian; that Apostasie should be found, where so many glorious Manifestations of God's Power and Goodness are found! We have heard, that the Ungratefully Wick∣ed, the Wicked after much Good done for them, are in greater Danger of God's Wrath and Displeasure, than the Simply Disobedient. What then can we expect our Portion should be, when after so many Unparallell'd Benefits, we have shew'd our selves not only Unthankful, but Atheistical? not only Trans∣gressors of God's Laws, but Renouncers of them? Says our Prophet, Verse the 5^th, Will a Lion roar in the Forest, when he has no Prey? i. e. will he roar to no purpose, when nothing provoketh him, when he designs nothing by it? So when God threatens Sin∣ners, does he mean nothing? are the Dreadful De∣nunciations of his Judgments mere Empty Noise? Again, in the Verse before my Text, says the Pro∣phet,

Can two walk together except they be agreed? i. e. can it be expected, that God should go along with men, and bless them, unless they be righteous? that he should Favour them, if they live in Rebellion against him? If we will not have God our Enemy, after he has been our Friend; and therefore our E∣nemy, because he has been our Friend; if we will not have him send Evils on us, because he has sent Blessings on us so long in vain: we must rise in our Duty to him, as he exceeds in his Mercies to us; im∣prove in our Obedience, as he enlarges in his Boun∣ty: And then he will adde Grace to Grace, and Blessing to Blessing, till he has brought us to the Per∣fect State of Blessedness, even to the Unspeakable Joys and Glory of his Heavenly Kingdom. Whi∣ther God of his infinite Mercy through our Lord Je∣sus Christ bring us all. To whom be ascribed all Ho∣nour, Glory, &c.