And when their city and temple were to be destroyed by the Romans, how plainly did Christ foretel them of it by his own mouth ! I^uke xix. 43, 44. " Thine enemies shall cast a trench " about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every " side, and lay thee even with the ground, and thy children witli- " in thee, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another ; " because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." Jose- phus * also tells us, that a little before the execution of this judg-
• Joseph, de Belt. Jud. lib. vii. cap. -2, Tacit. Annal. lib. xxi.
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ment upon them, a voice was heard in the temple, Migremus hinCj i. e. Let us go hence ; which voice Tacitus also in his annals, mentions, Audita mqjoi' hurnana voce, excedere Deos, simul ingenus motus excedcntivm. It was more than a human voice, telling them God wae departing from them, and withal there was heard the rushing noise, as of some that were going out of the temple.
And as there were extraordinary premonitions of approaching judgments, by revelation to the prophets of old, and signs from heaven, so there are still standing and ordinary rules by which the world may be admonished of God's judgments before they come upon them.
And the general rule, by which men may discern the indigna- tion of God before it comes, is this,
*^* When the same provocations and evils are found in one nation, rchich have brought dozen the wrath of God upon another natio7i ; this is an evident sign of God's judgment at the door. For God is unchangeably holy and just, and will not favour that in one people, which he hath punished in another ; nor bless that in one age, which he hath cursed in another. And therefore that which hath been a sign of judgment to one, must be so to all.
Here it is that the carcases of those sinners whose sins had cast them away, are, as it were, cast upon the scripture shore, for a warning to all others that they steer not the same ill course they did : 1 Cor. x. 9. " Now these things were our examples." The Israelites are made examples to us, plainly intimating, that if we tread the same path, we must expect the same punishment. Let us therefore consider what were the evils that provoked God's judgments against his ancient people, whom he was so loth to give up, Hos. xi. 8. and so long ere he did give up, Jer. xv. 9. and we shall find, by the concurrent accounts that the prophets give,
1. That God's worship among men was generally mixed and corrupted with their own inventions ; for so it is said, Psal. cvi. 40, 41. " Thev went a whoring after their own inventions." And this so inflamed the wrath of God, who is a jealous God, and ten- der over his own honour, that he abhorred his own inheritance ; yea, he expresses himself as a man doth, wliose lieart is broken by the unfaithfulness of his wife, Ezek. vi. 9. Upon this account his professing people became the generation of his wrath, Jer. vii. 29, 30.
2. Incorrigible obstinacy under gentler correction, Amos iv. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Scarcity, mildews, pestilence, and sword, had been upon them ; and stil] those that remained, though saved as a brand out of the fire, in which their fellow-sinners perished, would not retiu'n to God ; and this hastened on the general ruin, ver. \% This presages the ruin of nations indeed.
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3. Stupidity and senselessness of God's hand was a sad omen, and cause of that people's ruin; so Isa. xxvi. 10, 11. " Lord when " thy hand is lifted up, they will not see," No, nor yet when his hand is laid on, Isa. xlii. 24, 25. It is not some small drop of God's anger that passes without observation, but the furij of his anger; not some liglU slcirmish of his judgments with them, but the strength of battle: not in a corner upon some particular person, or family, but that which set him on fire round about; yet all this could not awaken them. " He hath poured upon him the fury of " his anger, and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on " fire round about, yet he knew it not, and it burned him, yet " he laid it not to heart.'' Prodigious stupidity ! to be in the midst of flames, yea, to be seized by them, and destroyed sooner than awakened. So you find again in Hos. vii. 9. " Gray hairs " were here and there upon Ephraim, yet he knew it not." Youth and age are easily distinguished, and gray hairs do plainly distinguish them, being the plain tokens of a declining state, yet they took no notice of them. Such stupidity is evermore the forerunner of misery.
4. Persecution of God's faithful ministers and people, was another forerunning sign of their ruin, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 16*. " They " mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and " misused his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against *' his people, till there was no remedy." There were also a number of upright souls among them, that desired to worship God according to his own prescription, but a snare was laid for them in Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor ; and therefore was judgment towards that people, Hos. v. 1. Mizpah and Tabor were places in the way lying betwixt Samaria and Jerusalem, where the true worship of God was, and there was informers or spies set by the priest, to intercept such as would venture to serve God at Jerusalem, according to his own prescription ; this also foreboded the judgments of God upon that nation.
5. The decay of the life and power of godliness among them plainly foreshewed their ruin at hand, Hos. iv. 18. Their drink is sour : where, under the 7tietaphor of dead and sour drink, which hath lost its spirit, and is become flat, their formal, heartless, and perfunctory duties are severely taxed and condemned.
6. To conclude, the mutual animosities and feuds among that professing people, evidently shewed judgment to be at the door. Hos. ix. 7. " Tlie days of visitation are come, the days of " recompence are come ; Israel shall know it : the prophet is a fool, " the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, " and the great hatred." This great hatred was one of the greatest
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