Thomas Hall's Supplement: The Epistle Dedicatory

A ‘woiiD spoken in season Is much commended by the -wisest of men, Pror. xv. 23, and xxr. 11. Yea, It is made one of Christ’s excellencies, that he had “the tongue of the learned,” that he should “know hovr to speak a word in season,” Isa. 1. 4. Such words are not only profitable, but also powerful, and carry abundance of convincing strength’and force with them, Job vi. 25. This, principally, has imboldened me to dedicate this treatise to you. Had I searched for five verses throughout the whole Bible, I could hardly have found five together (all things considered) more suitable and seasonable for the present times.

In them we have an alarm for the drowsy, a corrosive for the impenitent, a cordial for the penitent, and many quickening considei’ations to move us all to a speedy preparing to meet om- God in a way of unfeigned humiliation, before the decree bring forth, and the fierce anger of the Lord seize upon us.

Here we may see Ephraim’s dignity, and Ephraim’s downfal, and those sins which helped to bring him do^Ti; and in him we may read England’s condition. The Lord has made us his Ephraim, he has laid his right hand upon us, he has made us the head of the tribes, he has set us above, when for our sins he might long since have laid us in the dust. Ephraim’s sins were Ephraim’s ruin; and if those sins be found in England which were found in him, what can we expect but the like judgments? for God Is the same to the same sinners. If Samaria’s sins be found in London, London must look for Samaria’s judgments. God wHl not spare sin, wherever he finds it, be it In city or country. Sin has brought do-mi greater cities than yours; as they had thek times of rising, so of ruining; as of building, so of burning: witness Nineveh, No, Tyre, Babylon, and Jerusalem, sin has made them all a desolation. For my own part, I shall never expect that city or state should prosper, till God’s church prosper; or that our houses should continue, when God’s house lies waste; all oiu- buildings will be but NTods and Babels, that Is, unsettlement and confusion, till God’s house be settled and exalted amongst us. Hag. i. 4 — 11. The sins of England I fear more than all the enemies in the world. It is not Spain or Italy, it is not France or Turkey, that I fear; though all nations should compass us about, yet, were we but an obedient people, I should not doubt but that In the name of the Lord we should destroy them. But it is the atheism, heresy, blasphemy, security, impenitency, apostacy, profanation of holy things, formality, hj-pocrlsy, unrighteousness, division, and contempt of the gospel; these, even these, are the enemies that I fear; and If any thing destroy us, It Is these abominations that reign amongst us. “Be thou instructed,” therefore, O England, and thou, O London, the chief city thereof, lest the Lord’s “soul depart from thee,” and thou be made “desolate, a land not inhabited,” Jer. vi. 8. God has borne long with our provocations, but he will not always bear, but will at last reconcile his patience with the fierceness of his fury. Let not therefore Satan delude any, as if these were but some melancholy conceits, some fearful fancies, or vain prognostications of some lying asti-ologers; but know, that these are certain assertions, grounded upon the infallible word of God, whose threatenlngs, as well as promises, are like to silver, that has been seven times purified, and thoroughly tried, Psal. xii. 6.

True, we have many privileges that others want, but no privileges can preserve an impenitent people fi-om ruin: Jerusalem was highly privileged, and had the choicest preaching, a little before its do-mifal. The sins of a city and nation may be so gi-eat, that though Noah, Job, and Daniel (three men that could do verj- much with God, Ezek. xlv. 14) should stand before the Lord for them, yet they shall not prevail for a hardened, apostatizing people. Where such spiritual judgments go before, temporal judgments always follow, Isa. vi. 9 — 12. Sinning is worse than sufiering; better see a people bleeding, than blaspheming; for by our sufferings God is glorified, but by our sins he is dishonoured. 2 p

6^8 THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

We are a people that are much for liberty, we cannot endure a yoke; no, though it be Christ’s easy yoke, yet we will not have him to reign over us; we will not serve him with gladness and singleness of heart in the abundance of all things, and therefore he may justly make us serve our enemies in the want of all things, Deut. xxviii. 47, 48. And as we are all for liberty, so he may justly proclaim a liberty for us to the sword, pestilence, and famine, Jer. xxxiv. 17.

God has humbled many in your great city, by sickness, poverty, and decay of trading, &c.; but have you been made humble thereby? He has sent the choicest of his ministers amongst you, and fed you (in a spiritual sense) with the finest of the wheat; but have you answered God’s cost and care? and are you bettered by all his dispensations to you? Have you heard the voice of the rod, and who hath appointed it? or have you not rather fallen away more and more, and grown worse and worse? if so, how can you expect peace, when your apostacies and spiritual fornications are so many? 2 Kings ix. 17, 18.

But it is not for me to counsel you, who have so many li-ing and dead counsellors at hand; I shall therefore betake myself to prayer, desiring that the good-will of Him that dwelt in the bush may dwell amongst you, that he would be for walls and bulwarks to you, and your glory in the midst of you; that he, by the Spirit of fii’c and of burning, would purge out of you every thing that oflfends, that your scum of blasphemy, heresy, hypocrisy, unrighteousness, &c., may no longer abide in you, but that the name of your gi-eat and famous city may for ever “le Jehovah Shammah, The Lord is there. This is and shall be the prayer of

Your servant in the Lord,

THOMAS HALL.

Kins Norton, Nov. 17, 1659.