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left, as in the cafe of Nineveh, God pleaded with Jonah for

the infants.

But God never forfaketh us, till we firft forfake him, not then, if there be but animus revertendi, he is patient and longfuffering, but when we come once to two evils.

To forfake him the Fountain of living waters, and to dig to our felves cisterns of our own making, then he can no longer forbear, when we grow

A finfull nation, a people laden with iniquity, a feed of evill do- Ifai.1.4. ers, children that are corrupters, forfaking the Lord, provoking the Holy One of Ifrael to anger, going away backward.

No wonder, If he make our Countrey defolate, burn our Cities 7. with fire, let frangers devour our land in our prefence, and lay it defolate, as overthrown by strangers.

Where we are guilty to our felves of provocation, of the Use 1. Lord against us, we have caufe to lay all the blame upon our felves, and to fay; we have gone away from thee, and have not hearkned to thy voice, therefore art thon difpleafed with uses last Seeing the Juftice of God doth fet him against us, we are alfo to acquite him of any hard measure towards us,and to say, just art thou, O Lord, and just are thy judgments.

But efpecially,this stirreth us up to divert this wrath to come, for to that purpofe God giveth warning by threatnings, not in judgment to punish and torment us, before our time, with the fear of them,and after in their time with the fenfe of them,but to admonish us to fly from the anger to come; for Jeremy was fent on this very meffage to this people, and he threatned them from God, as Habakkuk here doth, yet with this caution of repentance. qini al rhinop en zal a For feremie being required by King Zedekiah to enquire of the Lord concerning Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babel, If the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderfull works that bee will go from us.

Jeremie through the whole Chapter refolveth him, that God is purposed to deliver his people and their Land, into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar, yet in the next Chapter he bring

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eth this comfortable meffage, from God to the King. Thus, faith the Lord, go down to the King of Judah, and speak there this word. A

And fay, bear the Word of the Lord, O King of Judah, that fittest upon the throne of David, thou and thy fervants, and the people that enter in by these gates.

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Thus, faith the Lord, execute you judgment and righteoufnesse, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the 'oppreffour, and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the Fatherleffe, nor the Widow, neither fhedinnocent blond in this place.

For if you do this thing indeed, then there shall enter in by the gates of this house, Kings fitting for David upon his throne, riding in Chariots, and on horses, he and his fervants, and his people.

But if ye will not hear these words, fwear by my felf, faith the Lord, that this house shall become a defolation, &c.

This declareth that the threatnings of God when he menaceth our fins with judgments, are like fonathans arrows, shot rather to give us warning then to hurt us.

Which admon Theth us, that whenfoever any fear furpri zeth us of wrath to come upon our land, either in the corruption of our religion, or in the perturbation of oar peace, or in the fear of falf friends that may kiffe and betray, or in the dearth and feareity of the neceffaries of life, in any, in all these fears the change of our ways, the repentance of our fins, the amendment of our lives, will ever make our peace with our God, and turn away these threatned and feared evils from us, for godlineffe hath the promifes both of this life, and of that which is to comedy ribbo

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2 Let us confider the inftruments in this action called 9 suubistroopyk

The armies of the Chaldeans, by which Ifrael is to be punifhed, are the troops of God.

God owns them, as Jeremiah telleth Zedechiah; Thus, faith Jer.21.4,5- the Lord God of Ifrael, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war, that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the King of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans which befiege you without the

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mals, and I will assemble them into the midft of this City.

And I my felf will fight against you with an out-ftretched band, and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath

So he told them before in this Prophecy.

I raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and bafty nation, which fhall Hab. 1 6. march through the breadth of the land, to poffeffe the dwelling places that are not their sa

From whence we have learnt. 154

That God ordereth this war against his people, which Do etrine we have at large handled in the Prophecy of Obadiah. We learnt also that God punifheth one evill nation by another, and thofe whom he employeth in the correction of his enemies, he protecteth and profpereth in their wars, and he is very carefull to pay them wages, as in the fervice of Egypt a gainft Tyrus, which Nebuchadnezzar did. Ebave given him the Ezek.2 Land of Egypt, for the fervice wherewith be ferved against it, be- 20. caufe they wrought for me, faith the Lord God

For God can make ufe of wicked mento ferve in his troops, for the punishing of fuch as rebell against him.

Therefore, let no man fay the Turk is an enemy to God and to Religion, he ferveth Mahomet, he is an infidell, and therefore he shall not prevail against us.

Let no man fay, the Pope is a man of Sin, and a mainteiner of Idolatry, an ufurper upon the royall prerogatives of Jefus Chrift:he advanceth himfelf above all that is called God, and is worshipped, hee is an incroacher upon the rights and honours, and power of Princes, and ufurpeth a tranfcendent jurifdiction over them, a mainteiner of treafon, and murther of Kings, a Coiner of Articles of Faith, an hider of the Word of God, a maker of counter-laws, against the Law of God: therefore neither he nor his religion fhall ever prevail against the Profeffours of the truth of God.

For if thefe fins be found in our land, which God conditio ned again in Judah, that is;

If just judgment be not executed, and righteoufneffe pra

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tifed: if the spoiled be not delivered from the hand of the preffour: if wrong be done to the stranger, the poor, the Fatherleffe, and the Widow.

Turk and Pope; Papists, and Infidels; may be gathered together into the troops of God, and employed against us, and prevail against us, for we are no better then Judah, nor deerer to God then his own people.

And if he please to punish Christendome, or the profeffours of his truth by thefe, if once they become Gods troops, they fhall profper and carry all before them.

2 The mifery in the patient: the Land of Ifrael threatned, as you hear in the trees.

Here are named the chief trees for fruit,the fig-tree,the vine, and the olive. Non omnis fert omnia tellus, these trees do not grow in all lands, our land though rich and plenteous is no fit foil for thefe trees.

They ferved for food, and they are of speciall note, for in the parable of fotham.

When the trees went to choose them a King,they came first to the olive tree, and faid, reign thou over us, they went next to the fig-tree, and then to the vine.

The Olive faith; fhall I leave my fatneffe, wherewith by me they honour God and man.

The fig-tree faith; fhould I forfake my sweetnesse and my good fruit.

The vine faith; fhould I leave my wine which cheareth God and man.

You fee of how excellent use these fruits were two of them used in the speciall fervice of God, Oil, and Wine, and often is the Land of Canaan praised for fruitfulneffe, in refpect of these trees growing there, which every foil doth not yield: they are all of excellent use both for food and medicine, and David faith of Wine, that it maketh glad the heart of man, of Oile, that it maketh him have a cheerfull countenance. The failing of thefe, which the foil did naturally bring forth, doth fhew that God had called in his bleffing, which

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he gave to that lan, for the true nature of every foil is the Word of Gods bleffing, which once called in, a fruitfull land is made barren, and a populous countrey is foon turned into a defert.

But this is not all, not onely God will fmite the land in thefe excellent fruits,which are for food, but as feremie threatneth, They shall cut down the choice Cedars, and caft them into the Jer.22.7. fire: trees for building.

The reafon whereof we may finde in the first of our parents, Reason. who no fooner had finned, but God accurfed the earth for their fakes.

So that we may fay as the Church doth in this Pfalme, Was thy wrath against the trees of the land, that thou fmoteft them? not fo, but against the fins and finners of the land. This further appeareth in the common ground, for it followeth, the fields shall yield no meat.

Bread is the ftaffe of life, God threatneth to break the ftaffe of bread. So he bad Ezechiel prophecy.

Son of man, I will break the ftaffe of bread in ferusalem, and Ezek.4.16. they shall eat their bread by weight, and with care.

God hath many ways to perform this judgment, either by taking away his bleffing from the earth, that it fhall not bring forth bread for the use of man.

Thus he maketh a fruitfull land barren, or he can hold in the early, and the later rain, that it shall not fall to moisten the earth as in the time of Aggaus the Prophet.

Te looked for much, and lo, it came too little.

The heaven over you is ftaied from dew, and the earth under you is ftaied from her fruit.

Yea, God when he pleaseth can drown the fruits of the earth with too much rain, and destroy the crop, and when he hath fhewed us plenty upon the ground, hee can deceive the hope of the husbandman, and make a thin harvest.

When we have gathered in our crop, he can blow upon it, and deftroy it in the barn, he hath his judgments in ftore, rea-' dy to be executed upon finners.

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