[1.] Security, not fearing of deserved wrath; when we see a judgment in its causes, and a storm while the cloud is but a-gathering. The welfare of a nation is not to be measured by outward probabilities, but the sentence of the word. Tlie face of providence speaketh not the intentions of Cod so much as the course of his justice according to the covenant : Heb. xi. 7, ' Noah being warned of God of things not seen,' &c. To appearance there was no such thing as a flood coming ; all things continued according to the stated course of nature ; but of a sudden the mouth of the great deep opened, and the windows of heaven ; and' the merry world was overtaken and overwhelmed with a flood. And so it is usually in God's judicial proceedings. Men are secure, and feast themselves with hopes of temporal felicity, till God's wrath breaketh in of a sudden. We are not to look to the present face of things, but the word. Now, while God is a great way off, we should labour to make peace with him. As Josiah trembled when the law was read ; we do not read of any danger and actual disturbance to the nation.
[2.] Carnal confidence. When our first and chief business is with God, it is a sign we little mind carnal props. Arms, ships, treasures, wise counsels, how soon can God blow upon them ! Trusting in the arm of flesh is much talked of in the world, and little understood by many. They have a gross notion of it, and only confine it to praise and idolising of instruments. The true notion of it is, when a people hope, by their own wisdom, power, and strength, to carry on their matters against God or without God. Against God, when they think their power shall bear them out in unjust actions ; without God, when they think to establish a nation by their own carnal shifts, and without taking up the controversy between God and them. The case is expressly spoken to in Jer. iv. 14. ' 0 Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved ; how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ? ' Vain thoughts are not taken in their full latitude, as imply- ing all the corruption of the thoughts ; but hopes of succour and safety from their force of arms, or the wisdom of their counsels and mutual agreement, without humiliation, repentance, and reformation. So that, if we do not prepare and set ourselves to make all sure with God, we do but deceive ourselves.
Use 1. To press you to consider England's danger, that you may more effectually mind England's duty.
1. England's danger. Possibly you may think that the nation is upon the mending hand, and that we have wrestled out of many diffi- culties. Now it is comfortable, if any have these hopes, to say as the
A FAST SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENT. 33
propliet in a like case, Jer. xxviii. 5, ' Amen ; the Lord do so, the Lord perform thy words which thou hast prophesied.' However if the threatening be unseasonable, the duty is not. But alas ! the times do not look upon all with a like face. Surely there is a cause for God to be angry. We have had our judgments and our deliverances ; we are but as a brand plucked out of the burning ; but is not the Lord's hand stretched out still ? Are we not now under the rebukes of his provid- ence, by the Lord's blasting our designs abroad, by our distractions at home, enemies arming against us, and the friends of Sion full of jealousies and fears ? Are the foundations so well settled that we have no cause to think of preparing to meet the Lord ? Other prepara- tions do well, but this should be regarded in the first place. Have we not many spiritual judgments upon us ; which of all are most dreadful ? The storm is not broken in upon us indeed, we do not hear the alarm of war, nor see garments rolled in blood ; but is not the moth of intes- tine confusions and dissensions eating out the staff and the stay? Do not these shoals of libertines, that are every day increasing in numbers, power and malice, call upon us to inquire after the reasons of the Lord's wrath .^ Lord, why art thou angry with thine heritage? Surely to any discerning eye there is enough of danger. God seemeth to say, Thus will I do unto you ; though he doth not tell us from what corner the storm shall blow, nor what kind of vengeance he hath in store for us, nor whence it shall arise. We do not know what is in the womb of providence, or how far the prerogative of free grace may interpose in our behalf, whether England shall be made a theatre of mercy, or a field of blood, but though we do not know what God hath decreed, we may soon know what England hath deserved ; and that is enough to quicken us to humiliation. Shall I trouble you, 1 will not say with a few melancholy thoughts, but serious observations, to awaken us out of our security ?