Use 2. Shews that such great mercies, if not esteemed, if not improved, if abused, will end in great judgments. Woe be to that nation, that city, that person, that shall be called to an account for despising the gospel; Amos ii. 2. 'You only have I known of all the families of the earth.' What then ? Surely some great blessing is coming to that people, whom God thus knows, so owns, as to make himself known unto them. No ; but, * therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities.' However others may have some ease or mitigation in their punishments, do you expect the utmost of my wrath. Luther said, he thought hell was paved with
UNCHANGEABLE, FREE MERCY. 47
the bald sculls of friars; I know nothing of that; yet of this sure I am, that none shall have their portion so low in the nethermost hell, none shall drink so deep of the cup of God's indignation, as they, who have refused Christ in the gospel. Men will curse the day to all eternity, wherein the blessed name of Jesus Christ v/as made known unto them, if they continue to despise it. He that abuseth the choicest of mercies, shall have judgment without mercy. What can help them who reject the council of God for their good? If now England has received more culture from God, than other nations; there is more fruit expected from England, than other nations. A barren tree in the Lord's vineyard must be cut down for cumbering the ground ; the sheep of God must every ' one bear twins, and none be barren amongst them ;' Cant. iv. 2. If after all God's care and husbandry his vineyard brings forth wild grapes, he will take away the hedge, break down the wall, and lay it waste. For the pre- sent the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Eng- land, and if it be as earth, which when ' the rain falls upon it, brings forth nothing but thorns and briers, it is nigh unto cursings, and the end thereof is to be burned;' Heb. vi. 7. Men utterly and for ever neglect that ground, which they have tried their skill about, and laid out much cost upon it, if it bring not forth answerable fruits. Now here give me leave to say, and the Lord avert the evil deserved by it, that England (I mean these cities, and those other places, which since the beginning of our troubles, have enjoyed the gospel, in a more free and plentiful manner than heretofore) hath shewed itself not much to value it.
(1 .) In the time of straits, though the sound of the gospel passed through all our streets, our villages enjoying them who preached peace, and brought glad tidings of good things, so that neither we, nor our fathers, nor our father's fathers, ever saw the like before us ; though manna fell round about our tents every day ; yet as though all were lost, and we had nothing, manna was loathed as light bread, the presence of Christ made not recompense for the loss of our swine ; men had rather be again in Egypt, than hazard a pilgrimage in the wilderness. If there be any here, that ever entertained thoughts to give up the worship of God to superstition, his churches to tyranny, and the doctrine of the gospel to epis-
48 A VISION' OF
copal corruptions, in the pressing of any troubles, let them now give God the glory, and be ashamed of their own hearts, lest it be bitterness in the end.
(2.) In the time of prosperity, by our fierce contentions about mint and cummin, whilst the weightier things of the gospel have been undervalued, languishing about unprofit- able questions, &c. but I shall not touch this wound lest it bleed.
Use 3. For exhortation, that every one of us, in whose hand there is any thing, would set in for the help of those parts of this island that as yet sit in darkness, yea, in the shadow of death, and have none to hold out the bread of life to their fainting souls. Doth not Wales cry, and the North cry, yea, and the West cry. Come and help us? We are yet in a worse bondage, than any by your means we have been delivered from; if you leave us thus, all your protection will but yield us a more free and jovial passage to the chambers of death. Ah, little do the inhabitants of Goshen know, whilst they are contending about the bounds of their pas- ture, what darkness there is in other places of the land; how their poor starved souls would be glad of the crumbs that fall from our tables. O that God would stir up the hearts
(1.) Of ministers, to cast off all by-respects, and to flee to those places, where, in all probability, the harvest would be great, and the labourers are few or none at all. I have read of a heretic that swam over a great river in a frost to scatter his errors; the old Jewish, and now popish pharisees, com- pass sea and land to make proselytes ; the merchants trade not into more countries, than the factors of Rome. do, to gain souls to his holiness. East and west, far and wide, do these locusts spread themselves, not without hazard of their lives, as well as the loss of their souls, to scatter their super- stitions ; only the preachers of the everlasting gospel seem to have lost their zeal. O that there were the same mind in us that was in Jesus Christ, who counted it his meat and drink, to do his Father's will, in gaining souls !