1 Fuller, Church History, B. ix. s. n.—G. " ' Counterpart.'— G.
THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 25
faithful ministers of Jesus Christ you are. 0 sirs, do not you know that the Holy Scriptures, that never spoke treason nor sedition, do clearly evidence that an ignorant, profane, scandalous, superstitious, insuffi- cient, and soul-flattering clergy are the greatest pest, plague, affliction, judgment, &c., that can befall a people, as you may easily see by com- paring these scriptures together — Micah ii. 11 ; Isa. xxx. 10, 11 ; Jer.- V. 31 ; Lam. ii. 14 ; Isa. ix. 16 ; Ezek. iii. 18 ; Jer. xxiii. 9, 18 ; Ezek. xiii. 22 ; Jer. vi. 14, and xxvii. 14, 16 ; 1 Thes. v. 3 ; Jer. xiv. 13-16; Isa. xxviii. 7, 8; Ezek. xxxiv. throughout; Kom. ii. 21-24. Other judgments, as sword, famine, pestilence, burning fevers, agues, &€., cannot separate between God and men's souls ; for men may have very sweet and high communion with Grod under the sorest of those judgments. Other afflictions and judgments may spring from the fatherly love of God, and from a gracious design of good to his people : Kev. iii. 19 ; Prov. iii. 11 ; Heb. xii. 5-8 ; Ps. Ixxxix. 30, 35 ; Job vii. 17, 18 ; but this is a sad fruit of God's judicial anger and severe indignation against a people. Other judgments often issue in men's seeking of the Lord, and in men's returning to the Lord. Isa. xxvi. 16, 17; Hosea v. 14, 15, compared with chap. vi. 1-3, and chap. ii. 6, 7 ; but this judgment frequently issues in men's for- saking of the Lord, and in their running from God, and in their walk- ing contrary to God, and in the hardening of them against God, and in an everlasting shutting of them out from the presence of the Lord : as you may see by comparing of these scriptures together — Mat. xv. 14 ; Luke vi. 39 ; 1 Thes. v. 3 ; 2 Thes. i. 7-10 ; Mat. xxiii. 13. Do not you know that where there is no vision, the people perish ? Prov. xxix. 18: i^")H)\ that is here rendered pertsA, is from 3^13, that signifies to be made naked, to be made bare and uncovered. They are made naked as soldiers are among the shot and weapons of their enemies, when their armour is not on their backs ; or they are naked as people that are stripped of their garments, and exposed to perish by cold in the winter, or to be scorched or roasted by heat in the summer ; or they are naked, i.e., they are made the objects of shame and con- tempt to all that look upon them : or they are made naked, that is, of the grace, blessing, and protection of God : or they are naked, that is, say others, they are forsaken and cast off ; for every one forsakes and casts off naked persons, they will have nothing to do with them, Exod. xxxii. 25. Others render the words thus, ' The people will keep holy- day, they will have nothing to do but to weep and wail, or they will do nothing that is good.' Others thus, ' The people shall be stripped naked, they shall be left as a city without walls, exposed to the fury of the enemy, as a body without clothes, open to wind and weather.' Others carry it thus, ' The people shall be discovered ; it will then appear what is within, whether grace or sin ; it will then be discovered what pantings, breathings, hungerings, and longings there be in souls after God, and Christ, and holiness, and ordinances,' &c. Pagnine thus, ' The people will grow barbarous, rebellious, &c., as experience in all ages hath fully demonstrated.' Others thus, ' The people shall be of no esteem, of no repute ; nobody will prize them, nobody will value them, nobody will regard them ; men set no price, no value upon
26 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.
naked persons.' Others thus, ' The people shall be dispersed, scattered, shivered and shattered ; ' and this in all ages hath been too apparent. Others thus, ' They shall be drawn away with errors : they shall either be starved, or else poisoned with God-dishonouring, Christ-denying, scripture-debasing, conscience-wasting, life-polluting, and soul-damn- ing opinions.' It is concluded on all hands, that it shall go ill, very ill, with that people that want vision, that want serious, sincere, faithful, and powerful preaching ; for where there is no vision, no serious, sin- cere, faithful, and powerful preaching, there the people perish certainly, undoubtedly, there they go tumbling to hell thick and threefold ; and this is evident in the text, ' Where there is no vision, the people perish.' He doth not say they may perish, but they do perish; or they are in danger of perishing, but they do certainly perish. Where there is no serious, conscientious, faithful, powerful preaching, there the people grow abominably wicked, as woeful experience tells us : and what the issue of that will be, you may see in Ps. ix. 17, ' The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God ; ' or as the Hebrew hath it, the wicked shall be turned into into hell, that is, they shall certainly be turned into hell ; yea, they shall be turned into the nethermost hell, into the lowest dungeon in hell. See Ps. xi. 6.
Where vision fails, there men perish iem/porally ; when vision, when preaching ceased among the Jews, oh the dreadful calamities and miseries that came upon that people ! how soon did God burn up all their outward comforts, contentments, and enjoyments on every hand, 2 Chron. xv. 3, 5, 6, compared with chap. xiii. 9-11, and chap, xxxvi. 15 seq. ; Mat. xxiii. 37, 38. They shut their eyes against all that light that Christ and his apostles brought amongst them : and what was the issue of this ? Why, about forty years after Christ's ascension, the Komans came and took away their city, and sold thirty of them a-penny, as Josephus writes, &c. ; and ever since that time, which is above sixteen hundred years ago,i they have been scattered as dung over the face of the whole earth.
Where vision fails, there men perish totally : both the bodies and the souls of men perish, where serious, conscientious preaching fails ; Hosea iv. 6, ' My people are destroyed for want of knowledge." The Chaldee rendereth it, they are besotted, and so fitted for destruction. The Papists say that ignorance is the mother of devotion ; but this text tells us that it is the mother of destruction. The heathens were wont to say that if their god Jupiter would destroy one, he would first besot him. So these people were first besotted, and then destroyed, Kom. vi. 16-19.
Where vision fails, there the people perish insensibly and unex- pectedly. They flatter themselves that God is made up all of mercy, and will not believe but they shall go to heaven, till they awake with everlasting flames about their ears, as you may see in Sodom and Go- morrah.
Where vision fails, there men perish suddenly : in a moment they go down to hell. Job xxi. 13-15. As the travail of a woman comes suddenly upon her when she least expects it, so everlasting pains and torments come suddenly upon poor sinners when they least expect them,
1 Brooks's date being 1662.— G.