And when the storm was just ready to fall,* their own historian tells us, a voice was heard in the temple, saying, Migremus hinc. Let us go hence. 'Which voice f Tacitus also mentions in his
* annals, affirming it to be more than a human voice, telling them
* God was departing, and that it was accompanied with a rushing
* noise, as of persons going out. These were extraordinary warn-
* ings.' The like signs have been given to divers other nations, by dreadful eclipses of the heavenly bodies, portentous comets, earth- gualrs, and other signs of judgment.
Now, though we have no ground to expect such extraordinary warnings, yet we have the most apparent and certain signs of ap- proaching calamities ; after which, if they surprize us, the fault must lie in our own inexcusable negligence ; for we have a standing rule to govern ourselves in this matter, and that is this ; * When the same
* Josephus de bello Jud. lib. 7. cap. 2.
t Audita mojor humana vox excedere DeoSy simul inserts motus excedentium. Tacitua, lib. 21.
THE BEST WORK IX THE WORST TIMEf?. 15
< sins are found in one nation, which have brought down the wrai ' of God upon another nation, it is an evident sign of judgment at^
* the door; for God is unchangeable, just, and holy, 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.' Upon this very ground it was that the apostle warned the Corinthians, by the example of the Israelites, whose sins had ruined them in the wilder- ness, 1 Cor. X. 6. " Now these things were our examples, to the in- " tent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted."" As if he should say. Look upon those dead bodies which are, as it were, cast up upon the scripture-shore for a warning to you : Follow not the same course, lest you meet in the same curse ; if you tread the same paths, expect the same punishment. God is as righteous now as he was then : he hates, and will punish sin in you as much as he did in them.
Let us therefore consider what those provocations were, that has- tened the wrath of God upon his own Israel, a people that were nigh and dear unto him : a people upon whom he spent as much of the riches of his patience, as upon any people in the world ; that so we may reckon whereabout we are at this day, and what is like to be the lot of this sinful and provoking generation ; and we shall find, by the consent of all the prophets, that these sins were the immediate forerunners, and proper causes of their overthrow.
First, The great corruption of God's worship among them kin- dled his wrath, and hastened their ruin, Psal. cvi. 39, 40, 41, 42. " They were defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with " their own inventions ; therefore was the wrath of God kindled " against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheri- " tance, and he gave them into the hand of the heathen, and they " that hated them ruled over them ; their enemies also oppressed " them, and they were brought into subjection under their hand.'"* They that Avill not bear the golden yoke of Christ, shall be galled with the iron yoke of men : nothing more provokes the anger of God than the adulterating of his worship; a man will bear a thousand infirmities in the wife of his bosom, but unfaithfulness in the mar- riage-covenant breaks his heart. After the manner of men, so abused and grieved, the Lord expresseth himself, Ezek. vi. 9- " I am " broken with their whorish heart, which have departed from me, " and with their eyes that go a whoring after their idols." Men cannot invent a surer and speedier way to their own ruin, than to bring their own inventions into God's worship.
Secondly, Incorrigible obstinacy and impenitcncy, under gentler strokes and lesser judgments, make way for utter ruin and desolation, Amos iv. from the 6th to the 12th verse. Scarcity, mildews, pesti- lence, and sword, had been tried upon them, but without effect ; for the remnant that escaped those judgments (although plucked as so
1^ ' PREPAKATIONS FOR SUFFERINGS ; OR,
rsany brands out of the fire, in which their fellow sinners perished) were not reformed b}' those gentler and 7ftoderated judgments.
Thirdly^ Stupidity and senselessness of God's hand, and the tokens of his anger, were provoking causes and forerunners of their national desolation ; they neither saw the hand of God when it was lifted up, nor humbled themselves under it when it was laid on ; the hand of God is then said to be lifted up, when the providences of God pre- pare and posture themselves for our affliction. When the clouds of judgment gather over our heads, and grow blacker and blacker, as theirs did upon them, and do upon us at this day, but they took no notice of it, Isa. xxvi. 11. " Lord, when thy hand is lifted up, they '' will not see;"' and (which is the height of stupidity) they all re- mained senseless and regardless, when the hand of God was laid upon them, Isa. xlii. 24, 25. " Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to *' the robbers ? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned ? *' for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient " to his law. Therefore he hath poured upon them the fury of his " ano-er, and the strength of battle; and it hath set him on fire round " about, yet he knew not ; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to « heart.''
O prodigious sottishness ! It was not some small drops of God's an- ger, but the Jury of' his anger ; not some lighter skirmish of his judg- inents with them, but the strength of battle : It was not some particu- lar streke upon single persons or families, but it set him onfre round about, a general conflagration ; yet all this would not awaken them.
Fourthly, The persecution of God's faithful ministers and people were another sin that procured, and a sign that foretold the destruc- tion of their nation, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 15, 16. " And the Lord God " of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, " and sending ; because he had compassion on his people, and on his " dwelling-place ; but 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, who desired to wor- ship God according to his own prescription ; but a snare was laid for them in Mizpah, and a net spread for them upon Tabor, Hos. v. 1. and this hastened judgment towards them : Mizpah and Tabor were places lying in the way betwixt Samaria and Jerusalem, where the true worship of God was : and in those places spies were set by the priests to observe and infoi-m against them ; so that it became very hazardous to attend the pure and incorrupt worship of God, which quickly hastened on their ruin.