cut downe he flyeth also as a shadow and continueth not Wherefore a Esa 2.22 cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accounted of that ye should put your trust in him XIIII Must we not trust in men which are living and which are with us to helpe us Much lesse should we trust in them which are dead b cles 9.6 Their love their hatred their envy to mee to thee severally is now perished neither have they any more portion for ever in any thing that is done under the Sunne c Iob 14.21 Their sonnes come to honour and they know it not they are brought low but they perceive it not of them I except not those even those blessed soules which enjoy a perfect felicitie in the vision of God for d Rev. 14.13 they rest from their labours and e Esa 57.1 are taken away from that which is evill their felicitie consisting in this that their minds are filled with the perfect knowledge of God their hearts with his love and all the powers of their soule are ravished with a perpetuall meditation and contemplation of his infinite goodnesse which is never distracted with the disquieting cares of things which goe to and fro in this valley of miseries and world of vanitie XV. In whom then shall we trust In whom but in the Lord f Psal 128.8 9. It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in Princes David speaking of the forefathers of Gods people saith of them g Psal 22.4 Our fathers trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them Of himselfe hee saith h Psal 4.9 I will both lay mee downe in peace and sleepe for thou LORD onely makest mee dwell in safety Thou onely not Abraham Isaac Iacob not any Angell any Archangell not any living among men i Psal 18.27 28. Thou wilt save the afflicted people but wilt bring downe high looks Thou wilt light my candle the LORD my God will lighten my darknes And therefore k Psal 25.15 mine eyes are ever towards the LORD not towards the Saints nor the Angels for he shall plucke my feet out of the net l Psal 42.11 he is the health of my countenance the helpe whereunto l Psal 42.11 looke and my God m Psal 73.25 whom have I in heaven and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee And therefore hee saith againe n Psal 121.1 2. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hilles from whence cometh my helpe Say not that these hills are the Angells or Saints for headdeth My helpe cometh from the LORD which made heaven and earth from the LORD alone o Psal 62.11 12. God hath spoken once twice have I heard this that power belongeth unto God also unto thee O LORD belongeth mercy Power and mercy two qualities required in our Redeemer Deliverer and Saviour and belonging to God alone who may deliver us because power is his will deliver us because mercy also is his p Psal 46.1 God is our refuge and strength a very present helpe in trouble Therefore let worldlings q Psal 20.7 trust in their chariots and in their horses let Papists trust in Saints in Angels in Monks cowles in merits we will remember the Name of the LORD our God that we may be blessed For r Ierem. 17.7 blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD and whose hope the LORD is XVI Let us onely take heede that wee bee of those whom the Lord delivereth Å¿ Pro. 13.10 The Name of the LORD is a strong tower The righteous runneth unto it and is safe The righteous man hath many evills but the LORD delivereth HIM I taught you in my first Sermon the characters and true markes of a righteous man If when thou art afflicted thou saiest with David that t Psal 9.9 10. the LORD will be a refuge for the oppressed a refuge in times of trouble consider and marke well how hee describeth these oppressed to whom the Lord is a refuge Read these words following And they that know thy Name will put their trust in thee for thou LORD hast not forsaken them that seeke thee I have seen many in their affliction bragging of Gods predestination and saying that Gods Elect cannot perish That which they say is true for Gods Angell forewarning Daniel of the great troubles wherewith the Church was to be vexed by the Tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes said unto him v Dan. 12.1 At that time thy people shall bee delivered every one that shall be found written in the booke And ye reade in the Revelation that x Rev. 20.15 whosoever was not found written in the booke of life was cast into the lake of fire as also on the other side that those onely enter into the holy City y Rev. 21.27 which are written in the Lambes booke of life But this predestination is hid in the unsearchable secrecy of Gods breast and many bragge of it which have no part in it Therefore David will have us to enter into our owne breasts and to search there the markes of our predestination which God hath shut up in the unmeasurable and infinite depth of his own breast a Rom. 8.30 for whom he did predestinate them he also called giving them an effectuall and sanctifying knowledge of his most blessed and holy Name so that when he saith to them b Zech. 13.9 Thou art my people they answer presently The LORD is my God This is to know God and to seeke God and David saith that the Lord is a refuge to the oppressed which know his Name and seek him This is the knowledge of faith which taketh the blood of the Lambe of God and c Heb. 12.24 1. Pet 1.2 besprinkleth our soules with it that k Exod. 12.13 as when God saw the blood of the Paschall Lambe upon the houses where the IsrAelites were he passed over them and the plague was not upon them when he smote all the first borne in the land of Egypt so hee delivers us from the hands of our enemies and the evils of this life and of the life to come by the vertue of that blood according to the promise l Zec. 9.11 As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water This faith m Act. 15.9 puristeth the hearts it is the mother of uprightnesse and sinceritie before God in the performance of all duties of the first and second Table and therefore if thou lookest for Gods deliverance cleanse thy heart in such sort that thou may bee able to say with David n Psal 7.10 11. My defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart for God iudgeth the righteous and God is angry every day against the wicked o 1. Tim. 1 5. From this knowledge and faith
THE RIGHTEOVS MANS EVILS AND THE LORDS DELIVERANCES By GILBERT PRIMEROSE Minister of the French Church of London PSAL. 129.2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet they have not prevayled against mee LONDON Printed by H. L. for Nathanael Newberry and are to be sold at the signe of the Starre in Popes-head Alley Anno 1625. TO THE RIGHT NOBLE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND RIGHT RELIgious Lord IAMES MARQVESS of HAMMILTON Earle of Arran and Cambridge Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter Counsellor of the Kings most honourable privie Councell in both Realmes of England and Scotland Lord Great Steward of his Majesties houshold c. RIGHT HONOVRABLE WHat reading of holy Scripture and of Ecclesiasticall stories what experience hath taught mee of the Righteous mans Evils and the Lords deliverances that I preached to my Church at London in nine Sermons which in this booke I have dedicated to your Honour as an acknowledgement of the heroicall and Christian vertues which shine in your most Noble and Honourable person and as an homage due to them not as having any worthinesse and excellencie from their author whereby he should presume to offer them to such a Lord in whom all things excell in worth and shine in a most eminent degree of excellencie In Empires Kingdomes States Cities Families wee read and see the truth of the Oracle which said to ATTALVS King of Bithinia THOU AND THY SON NOT THE SONS OF THY SON His Maiestie who now holdeth the raines of this peaceable and flourishing kingdome is the onely King knowne in the world by stories who can reckon neere two thousand yeeres since his roiall Ancestors of whom he is lincally descended wore Crownes and Scepters In France they thinke it much if a man can prove his Nobilitie by foure Descents Since three hundred and odde yeeres that SIR GILBERT HAMMILTON came from England to Scotland was there advanced to all titles and degrees of honours of dignities of greatnesse among the most noble and honourable of the Realme by the HEROS of those dayes and King without peere ROBERT BRVCE who had knowne in England the antiquitie of his noble house and of all men then living could best iudge of his courage martiall actes and deserts and being preferred there to the mariage of the onely Daughter to my Lord Earle of Murray the Kings Nephew by his Princely Sister became the Stocke of the illustrious Race of the HAMMILTONS in Scotland whereof your Honour is the golden head how many Descents how many generations may be reckoned The fables tell of BELLEROPHON how after he had done many feates of armes not so much by his owne wisdome and strength as by the helpe of his winged Horse called PEGASVS he waxed proud and attempting with the same wings to mount up to heaven was flung to the earth and brake his leg whereby they teach us in a mysticall sense that many after they have beene borne upon the wings of their Princes favour and thereby have done good services conceive too ambitious and proud hopes and as if favour were desert aspiring to ascend into heaven to exalt their Throne above the rest of the starres and to be like unto their Maker are cut downe to the ground in an instant where all their pompe is laid in a grave of shame and dishonour as the Scripture speaketh of the King of Babylon under the name of LVCIFER In all the ancient stories hardly shall we finde any great man whose predecessors or himselfe have not beene stained with the blot of rebellion against their Soveraignes or of some negligence of their dutie towards them But your Honours forefathers had ever their affections so addicted to our Kings that King IAMES the third with the consent of the States and applause of the whole Realme thought them worthy to be rewarded with the mariage of his onely and deare Sister whom he gave in wedlocke to IAMES Lord Hammilton of whom your Lordship is come by many lineall successions This proximitie of blood to our Kings hath ever beene to your Ancesters and to your owne selfe a most attractive Adamant drawing and tying inseparably your hearts desires wills affections duties and services to their will and desires in all innocencie and uprightnesse according to Gods commandement the practice whereof is the stay of the State and the maintainer of peace in the Church and Common-weale FEARE GOD AND THE KING AND MEDDLE NOT WITH FACTIOVS MEN. So that this may be the Poesie of the Cognizance of your Honours most ancient and honourable Family FIDEET OBSEQVIO Of this fidelitie of these long profitable and acceptable services to our Kings continued in your Lordships familie from generation to generation and most effectually confirmed by your owne generous wise and good cariage in the Court and in the State the Kings Maiestie is a most glorious witnesse and a most magnificent rewarder For that affection which his Maiestie sheweth to your Honour those Dignities wherewith hee hath honoured you namely this last of LORD STEWARD of his royall House what are they but publike testimonies of the continuation of your good faithfull and well liked services to his Maiesties Royall person to our most excellent and hopefull Prince his Royall and onely Sonne and to the states of both kingdomes In the Court you are to his Maiestie that which IOSEPH was to PHARAO King of Egypt OBADIAH to ACHAB King of Israel MORDECAI to AHASVERVS King of Persia and ELIAKIM to whom God gave the key of the house of DAVID to the good King EZECHIAH and most like unto THEODORVS in the Court of VALENS Emperour of the Orient who being come of a most ancient and noble stocke and well brought up from the Cradle was not inferiour to any of the Imperiall Court in modestie wisedome erudition and good carriage ever seemed better than the charges and places whereunto he was advanced and was the onely man whose tongue was never licentiously unbridled never spake without consideration and foresight yea was never shut through feare of danger or hope of preferment and therefore was equally loved of great and small as your Lp. for the same vertues is much respected and loved of all states and degrees in both nations For by Gods speciall and rare blessing you carry your selfe in all your demeanour at Court and abroad so wisely that I may boldly affirme that to none if not to you doth belong that rare and wonderfull praise which Cicero giveth to BRVTVS and Marcellin to PRETEXTATVS saying that they did no thing to please yet whatsoever they did pleased and that other which all men gave to ANTHEMIVS Governour to the religious Emperour ARCADIVS HE SEEMED TO BE WISE AND SO HE WAS. The Royall Prophet David saith most truly in the twelfth Psalme that wicked men walke on every side when rascals are exalted among the sonnes of men Then DAVID fleeth and DOEG triumpheth But innocencie is protected oppression is repressed the states flourish
9. Eusebius who was an eye witnesse of these dolefull spectacles reporteth Then the persecution was so eager that in one moneth it consumed seventeene thousand Christians whereby yee may judge what havock and murther was made of them in tenne yeares together that it lasted being fostered by the divisions which were in the Church and secret treacheries of false brethren whereof Dioclesian the tyrant took occasion to undoe our Religion and had utterly overthrowne it if God had not opposed to his wicked sleights and raging furie the sword of Constantine the Great first redresser of the Church and defender of the true faith i Socrat. hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 10.11.13 Iulian the Apostate depriving the Christians of all dignities promotions and honours forbidding by severe edicts their children to be taught in humane letters and received into the publike Schooles impoverishing them with great fines and exactions of money above their power did more harme to the Church in one yeare than Dioclesian did in tenne by his bloodie persecutions though his one yeares Empire was not innocent of Christian blood Who can expresse how manie Christians were put to death by the Emperours who were infected with the most abominable heresie of Arius I overpasse imprisonments relegations banishments which were called favours courtesies and workes of mercie by the tyrants for k Pro. 12.10 the tender mercies of the wicked are cruell I omit the drowning the hanging the mangling the rosting the broyling on Gridirons the scorching the burning with fire those who all the night were frozen with cold and a thousand moe cruell tortures whereby the Emperours and their people bent their minds to smother the Christian Religion as Herod sought to kill Christ in the cradle 16. In vaine goe we to seeke in antiquity examples of monstrous cruelties against the true Christians when the last age wherein our fathers and restorers of the true Christian Religion lived affordeth to us an huge number which cannot be numbred If yee have read the storie of the Albigenses ye shall finde there how some of them were not burnt but rosted faire and softly that they might feele their death some were burned quicke some tormented after a strange manner by beetles and such like wormes which laide upon their navills and covered with a dish gnawed their bellies and boaring them through even into their intralls caused to these poore creatures a languishing but a most sensible and dolorous death All the faithfull of Merindoll were murthered upon an arrest or decree of the Parliament of Aix in Province Fortie five of their wives which were great with child were shut up in a barne and burnt there thirty others were torne in pieces by the first Presidents commandement and the little children as they were thrust out of their wombes trampled and made to breathe in their first before they had leasure to breathe in their first ayre Florent Venot after that he was a great while racked in an engine sharpe-topped at the lower end which they called Chausse d' Hypocras was made an unchristian shew in the middest of a bone-fire to the Christian King at his first entrie into the Capitall towne of his realme Nicolaus Nail was first basted with hot scalding oyle and lead and afterwards burnt quicke The Tennis-Court-keeper of Avignon was kept in a cage hanging in the great street by night at the cold ayre by day at the burning heate of the sunne and so vexed a long time either singing Psalmes to God more harmoniously than the Nightingale or reprooving the superstitions and idolatries of the people which gazed upon him In the booke of Martyrs ye may read how Iohn Hooper Doctor in Divinitie was burnt at three times how Thomas Noris and a Priest with him was led bare-footed upon briars and thornes from the prison unto the place appointed for their execution that in them might be fulfilled the Prophesie of Hosea l Hos 2.6 Behold I will hedge up thy way with thornes how sundry were stiffe and frozen with extreame cold in the night and the next day after sent to the fire how the Arch-bishop of Canterbury did with-hold all kind of meat and drink from his prisoners while they starved and dyed of hunger If I should relate unto you the Tragicall Massacres of France in the yeare of Christ 1572. the slaughtering of an hundred thousand men and women like beasts the rocking of little babes a-sleepe with present death the stilling and pacifying of them with mercilesse destruction the incestuous defyling of chaste Virgins the despightfull using of grave Matrons the pittilesse regarding of old age the welcoming of infants as they came out of their murthered mothers wombs with sword and fire the pulling of others from the milke of their mothers breasts to sucke them with their owne blood If I should set out in true colours the principall townes of that great kingdome as they were then what should ye heare but blaspheming but roaring in the one part but weeping but lamenting but crying to heaven for mercy and helpe on the other What should'ye see but fire swords murder blood-shed dead carcases but roaring lyons but firie dragons but rayenous wolves but m 2. Kin. 8. v. 12. Hazael and his Courtiers killing slaying murthering young and old dashing little children ripping up women with child but great rivers stained and surrounded with innocent blood If I should but draw unto you the first lines of the calamities of the Palatinate and of the late desolation of the Churches of France if I should speake unto you of honest women first misused in that which is their most precious jewell and then murdered or blowne up in the ayre with gun-powder thrust and stopped in their wombes of young Virgins disguised in mens apparell with doublet breeches the Lackeys cap upon their close shaven heads the dagger upon their loynes and constrained to follow the armies neither daring neither knowing to whom to make their mone of sucklings pulled violently from their mothers breasts and murdered before the faces of their doubly-desolate parents of some of them throwne in the aire and received upon the points of pykes for a sport of others upon a wager who should cast them farthest off flung into the waters when the poore innocents were laughing upon their murderers and playing with their beards of many moe sold to these couseners which we are accustomed to call Egyptians at eighteene pence a peece of men and women inthralled to the Mahumetans for a little summe of money as it is written n Psal 44. v. 12. Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price In a word if I should but report what things I have heard read or seene your minds would quake your hearts would start backe with sorrow neither should ye finde teares enow to bewaile nor I words sufficient to display and unfold unto you the crushing and bruising of Ioseph 17. Therefore let us lay
betwixt man and beastes as betwixt the serpent and man the like disagreement and farre greater is betwixt the righteous and the wicked man for p Pro. 29.27 an uniust man is an abomination to the iust and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked These contrary inclinations had their beginning with the world and shall not have an end untill the worlds end God is justice and righteousnesse it selfe and the divell professed enmity against him from the beginning What wonder then if he bee an enemy to the righteous man who is but Gods creature As soone as man was created he seduced and supplanted him Then God proclaimed unreconcileable warre betweene them saying to the divell who was shrowded under the shape of a serpent q Gen 3.15 I will put enmity betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seede and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele The serpents seed is the brood of wicked men which have beene from the beginning namely those which persecute the Gospell The seede of the woman is our Lord Iesus Christ with the whole band of righteous men Iohn saw a battel in heaven r Rev. 12.17 Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his Angells Iesus Christ who onely is this Michael because he onely is like unto God and his Angels and Saints fought against the divell and all the hellish rabble of wicked men and of divells like unto himselfe There is no manifest cause knowne of the Antipathies and contrarietie of dispositions which are in nature but the causes of disagreement betweene the righteous and unrighteous man are knowne They flow from contrary springs and therefore their affections their actions their effects their ends are contrary Are not God and the divell enemies The wicked man Å¿ 1. Ioh. 3.8 is of the divell the righteous man t Ver 9. is borne of God Hence it is that the children beare out their fathers quarrell the wicked is hud-winked with ignorance v Ioh. 16.3 He knoweth no the Father nor the Sonne neither will hee know them x Psal 36.3 he will not learne to be wise that he may doe good y Ioh. 17.8 The righteous man knoweth surely that Christ is come out from the Father and beleeveth that the Father hath sent him a Rom 8 5 The wicked is after the flesh and therefore he minds the things of the flesh The righteous being after the spirit minds the things of the spirit The wicked mans workes are b Gal. 5.19 20 21. the workes of the flesh which are these Adultery fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse idolatry witcheraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkennesse reuilings and such like The righteous mans works are c Ve. 22 23 the fruits of the spirit that is to wit Love ioy peace long suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance Where there is so great a contrarietie and repugnancie of affections of actions of workes what wonder if there be great enmitie The righteous man is light in the Lord and d Ioh. 3.20 every man that doth evill hateth the light neither commeth to the light lest his deedes should bee discovered for that cause hee hateth the righteous man as the Pharisees hated Iesus Christ because hee reprooved them of their vices The righteous man likewise hateth the wicked e Psal 139.21 22. Doe I not hate them O Lord saith David that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies When heat and cold moisture and drought hardnesse and softnesse light and darknesse shall leaue off to bee at variance then then shall the righteous and wicked man ioyne hands and enter into confederacy one with another f 2. Cor. 6.14 15 16. for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what communion hath light with darknesse and what concord hath Christ with Beliall and what part hath he that beleeveth with an Infidell and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idolls In this discord there is this notable difference that the righteous man hateth rather the vice than the person of the wicked and seeketh by prayers to God by exhortations admonitions good examples to convert him whereas the wicked hateth both the vertues and the person of the righteous and seeketh to destroy him III. From thence it is that assoone as a man begins to apply his mind and heart unto righteousnesse Satan and the wicked world conspire to undoe him for like as g Dan. 3.16 17 18. Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the forme of his visage was changed against Shadrac Meshac and Habednego when to his face they refused to fall downe and worship the image which he had made and commanded that the furnace wherein they were to bee cast should bee kindled seuen times more than it was wont to be heat even so assoon as a man begins to draw his neck out of Satans coller to shunne the company of wicked men to draw neere unto God by repentance and newnesse of life and to register his name in the Church booke that he may be saved in the communion of the Saints Satan sets all his malice on a flame to devoure him and the wicked rush upon him with bill and claw to teare him in peeces For as theeves breake not into an house where there is nothing but straw hay stubble but onely into such places where there is gold silver precious stones and rich furniture so the divell and his limbes heede not rascals and scurvie fellowes but if any man bee a worshipper of God and doth his will they lye in waite secretly as a Lyon in his denne they hide the snare in his way they crouch they stoope to catch him into their net As soone as Christ was borne h Mat. 2.16 Herod became out of his wits seeking to slay him to teach us that as soon as we become Christians by a spirituall birth wee shall not have want of Herods to seeke our lives As soone as the i Rev. 12.3 c. red dragon saw rhe woman with child travelling in her birth and ready to be delivered hee stood before her that he might devoure her childe as soon as it was borne but her child being caught up unto God and she taking her selfe to her wings to save her life by flying into the wildernes he cast out of his mouth a floud of water to drowne her What was this vision but a type of the Church against whom the divell stirreth up a world of wicked men as so many waves of an overflowing river to swallow her up when after a long barrennesse she conceiveth againe and brings foorth children to God Then ye heare nothing amongst those blood thirstie butchers but crying k Ier. 11 19 Let us destroy the tree with the