The thing most material, with which I will end, is this :
Doct. That God, after loin/ patience, hath jiidi/nicuts to come on people ; and it should ho the part of people to loiow whoi the ji(di/inent is coming.
There is a season when God will forhear no longer in this world. ' They know not the judgment of the Lord.' The meaning is not, in hell, though that may come in : that is implied in all ; but ' they know not the ^Judgment of the Lord,* that is, they know not the judgments that are coming. When judgments are coming, God opens the hearts and understandings of his people to know them ; as there is an instinct in the creatures to know when there will be hard weather.
Quest. But how shall we know when a judgment is near hand ?
Ans. 1. IJij comparing the sins irith the judgments. If there be such sins that such judgments are threatened for, then as the thread followeth the needle, and the shadow the body, so those judgments follow such and such courses. For God hath knit and linked these together. All the power in the world and hell cannot unlink them, sin and judgment ; judgment either correcting us to amendment, or confounding us to perdition. God, there- fore, having threatened in the Scriptures such judgments to such sins ; if we live in such and such sins, we may look for such judgments. Thus a wise man, by laying things together, the sins with the judgments, though he cannot tell the particular, yet he may know that some heavy judgment is at hand.
2. Again, There is a nearer way to know a judgment, u'hen it hath seized on us in part already. He that is not brutish and sottish, and drunk with cares and sensuality, must needs know a judgment when it is already inflicted, when part of the house is on fire. We see judgment hath seized now on the places where we live, and therefore we cannot be ignorant of it.
3. Again, We may know it hg the example of others. God keeps his old walks. Therefore it is said, ' As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be when the Son of man comes : they were eating, and drinking, and marry- ing, and knew not till the flood came and took them away,' Mat. xxiv. 38, 39. God will be like himself, if sinners be like themselves. lie will not change, if they change not ; but will deal alike with them in his judgments, as he hath dealt with others. What ground have we to hope for immunity more than others ? We may rather expect it less, because we have their examples ; and so they wanted those examples to teach them which we have. In Jer. vii. 12, saith God, ' Consider, look to Shiloh, and see what I did there : so will I do to you.' So likewise the judgments on Jerusalem are a fearful spectacle for us. These and other examples may help us to judge of our condition in regard of approaching judgments.
4. Again, General securitg is a great sign of some judgment coming. In the days of Noah, there was a general sensual security. Notwithstanding the prophet foretold them of the deluge, they were eating, &c., and knew not till the flood came and took them away. So likewise, if we cat, and drink, and marry, and build, and be negligent and careless of making our peace with God, especially when warning is given us, it is a sign that some judgment, either personal on ourselves, or generally on the place we live in, will come upon us. There is never more cause of fear, than when there is least fear. The reason is, want of fear springs from infidelity, for faith stirs up fearfulness and care to please God : ' By faith Noah, moved with
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fear,' or reverence, ' builJed the ark,' Heb. xi. 7. It proceeds from infi- delity, not to be afraid when there is cause. Again, where there is no fear, there is no care. So the root of the want of fear is infidehty, and the spring that comes from it is carelessness, which always goes before destruction. When men care not what becomes of them : if God be pleased, so it is ; if judgment come, so it is ; the care* is taken. * When men thus say. Peace, peace, then cometh destruction.' It is a terrible thing for a state or a city, or a particular person, to be careless ; for the life of a Christian it is a watching, as well as a warring, condition. He must be alway on his guard. Therefore he must not be careless, ' and say. Peace, when God speaks no peace.'
5. Again, We may know that some'judgment is coming, hy the universaUtij and generaUtij of sin, when it spreads over all. When there is a general infection of sin, we may well fear the infection of the air. Sin hath infected the souls of men ; therefore no wonder if God, in the plague, have a hand in infecting their bodies. We see here, before the prophet threatened this destruction, there was a generality of sin. In the 10th verse of this chap- ter, he cries out against the covetousness and false dealing of the priests and prophets, and men of all estates. And so also chapter v. ver. 4, ' The poor they were naught :' they were poor in grace and goodness, as well as in condition. Then saith he, ' I will see if there be any goodness in the great ones : I will get me to the great men.' Ver. 5, &c., ' They have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God ; but they have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.' When poor and rich, great and small, when all are sottish and brutish, ' when all flesh had corrupted their ways,' Gen. vi. 12, as it was before the flood, then judgment must needs come. Surely generality of sin makes way for generality of judgment. As the deluge of sin made way for the deluge of water, so the overflow of sin will make way for a flood of fire. God will one day purge the world with fire.