Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A28659
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A doore of hope, also holy and loyall activity two treatises delivered in severall sermons, in Excester / by Iohn Bond ...; Doore of hope
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Bond, John, 1612-1676.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B3569; ESTC R23253
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104,423
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165
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the Lord would pardon that the Law would punish and that all good Christians and Loyall Subjects would complain of this rotten and totering faction 2. COMFORT Let our hearts be towards the governours of our Israel Vse 2 that offered and doe offer themselves willingly among the people Judg. 5. v. 9. blesse ye the Lord. i.e. Let us blesse the God of Spirits for raising the spirits of all such as have put forth their hands to this plow yea let us honour and cherish them as precious and publike spirits Brethren it is said of good in generall Quo communius eô melius by how much the more common by so much the better and therfore a publike is the best of spirits for it is a common one Yea such a soule me thinks comes neare unto the nature of Angels For are they not all ministring spirits Heb 1. v. 14. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation So publike spirits are like them or like the Sun and Starrs those heavenly worlds of light which doe travell chiefly for the use and benefit of others And therefore to such persons themselves let me say Great shall be your reward in Heaven Mat. 5. v. 1â— In earth perhaps you may sometimes meet with cold comforts and bad requitals but in Heaven doubtlesse your publike spirits shall procure unto you eminent places of glory as our Saviour promised to his Disciples for their self-denyall and activity Mat. 19. v. 28. yee also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Two Objections commonly there are with which the men of the world and our owne timerous infirmities doe hit such men in the teeth Perill and Poverty I shall present you with an incouragement and preservative against both Consider but the Lords Protection and Providence over all such publike and active spirits and for both these in one example look seriously upon Elijah That he was a man very famous for his publike active spirit no man that beleeves Scripture can deny it or if one should 1 King 17.18 19 c. ver 1. ver 3. 9. ver 42. Cap. 19. v. 3. yet the whole History of his life would invincibly prove it In which observe briefly 1. His Travels From Tishbe to Samaria from Samaria to the river Cherith from Cherith to Sarephath from Sarephath to Mount Carmell from Mount Carmell he runneth like a page to Jezreel from Iezreel to Beersheba thence a daies journy into the wildernesse hence to Horeb and from Horeb who knows whither For he is sent to annoynt Hazael Iehu and Elisha It even tires our eyes to trace him in the History In short if I may beleeve my Geographer all the travels of this active Prophet were one thousand thirty and three Dutch miles and of our English foure times as many above foure thousand in all 2. Besides his travels all on foot for I reade not that he did â—ide Note his couragious and adventurous actions He had an Ahab and a Jezebel and about eight hundred false Prophets to deale withal and yet observe how wonderfully the Lord preserveth him both from Perill and Poverty 1. From Perill I mean of death his preservation was manifold King Ahab did hunt for him over all the world thereabouts 1 King 18.10 As the Lord liveth saith Obadiah there is no Nation nor Kingdome whether my Lord hath not sent to seeke thee and when they said he is not there he tooke an oath of the Kingdome c. but yet the Lord hid him that while and in the Kingsowne Dominions afterwards he doth appeare and hath but a cold welcome from Ahab ver 17. Art thou he that troubleth Israel But the Prophet doth not abate him an ace as wee say and yet comes he off in the end of that Chapter with the death of eight hundred and fifty false Prophets Againe besides Ahab he had a Jezebel also to cope withall 1 Kin. 19.2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying so let the gods doe to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time She was a Queen and she vowed his death but yet she proves both too weake and forsworne at last yea her threatning is the intelligence that preserveth the Prophet In a word this active man of God lived to see Ahab slaine by the Syrians the prophets of Baal and of the groves rooted out and at last was so farre from dying a violent death that he never properly dyed at all but was translated to Heaven alive in a fiery Chariot and after his translation 2 King 2. 2 Kin. 9.10 both Iehoram the sonne of Ahab with his whole posterity were cut off and Jezebel was eaten of Doggs Feare not therefore ô all ye holy and loyall active spirits whither Magistrates Gen. 15.1 Ministers or private Christians the Lord himselfe is your buckler and your exceeding great reward and in his might one aealous Elijah is an over-match for eight hundred Baalites speake therefore and doe valiantly not fearing the faces of men Ob. But they may mistake or wrest my words An. Brethren suppose there were now an hundred Bandites with in these wals every one with his paper or table-booke yea and that they stood behind the pillars out of sight as that catch-pole Clearke in the Acts and Monnments that tooke notes behinde the Hangings Suppose all this and much more danger yet the Lord can 1. Change their hearts even in that act and catch those catchers as the Father was caught 2. At least he can dash their Notes and confound their languages 3. Yea and take them off in their owne play as Baals prophets were twice taken off by Elijah and by Iehus 1 Kin. 18.4 2 Kin. 10.25 Indeed if any man could prove unto me that Satan and his instruments were too wise or too hard for God then I should conceive that there were cause for your holy publike active spirits to be in feare but so long as we know the quite contrary to be expresse Scripture be we valiant and venturous for the truth The Lord hath said it the Lord he hath said it 1 Cor. 10.25 The foolishnesse of God is wiser than men and the weakenesse of God is stronger then men Thus the Lord was Elijahs buckler and kept him from danger 2. And from want and Poverty too did God preserve him 3. Obiect When we prosse men to be of publike and active spirits this is another grand Objection ò 't is the way to be undone Sol. But marke farther God was also Elijahs great reward at least hee was a competent maintenance still unto him How likely was he to have starved at the brooke Châ—rith There he had drinke indeed water but no meate therefore the devouring Ravens shall feed him morning and evening 1 Kin. 17.3 ver 4 6. But now that he hath recovered meat loâ—
and that more wayes then one for by this meanes 1. They doe become more bold and audacious in their evills according to that of the Preacher Eccles 8. v. 11. Because sentence against an evill worke is not executed speedily I may put in thorowly therefore the heart of the sonnes of men is fully set in them to doe evill or at least the enemies doe hereby grow more subtill and cautious if not more impudent As a I ox that hath once broken the snare or ginne it will cost you double art paynes and patience to get him upon that advantage againe So if once the Enemies can escape such a scowring they will worke more wisely ever afterward and tenne to one if ere you take them so fairely upon the hyp in future times 2. But chiefely such short sparring as we say doth make the Enemies more fierce cruell and malicious against all the Reforming party for ever afterward When Moses and Aaron did attempt and begin the Redemption and Deliverance of Israel out of Aegypt and that they had made but an entrance upon the worke Exo. 5. v. 1. 3 they had but broken the ice with Pharaoh concerning letting the people goe Lo then for a time it is farre worse with the poore Hebrewes then ever before for the tale of their brick is doubled straw is denyed them and insteed thereof stripes are layed upon them Suppose now that those two great Deliverers Moses and Aaron had left the worke in this plight had they not bin rather enemies then friends to Israel in so doing But once more Suppose that the Aegyptians had recovered the Israelites back againe Exod. 14. when they pursued them to the red-Sea Oh then what triple tusks of bricks with Scorpions instead of rodds would they have layed upon them To illustrate this poynt a little more cleerely Suppose a hunter or Woodman in shooting of a Stagg or Wilde-Boare doth not strike it dead in the place but onely wounds it is not then the shooter himselfe in as much danger as the game is it not time for him presently to fly for his owne life for feare least the bleeding beast doth fall upon him Or once more Suppose that a Priest or Levite of old when he had a Bull or Bullock tyed to the hornes of the Altar suppose I say that he had given it such a faint blow upon the head as might onely have amazed the furious beast and caused him to breake the cordes had it not then bin high time for the man to looke to himselfe for feare least the Sacrifice should have offered up the Priest We know that the Philistines brought downe Sampson very low Judg. 16. ver 19. ver 21. for they did shave off the locks of his head and with them his strength they did put out his Eyes and bound him with fetters of brasse and he did grinde in the prison house A man would have thought that this enemy of theirs had bin sufficiently disabled from hurting them for ever after but the case was otherwise ver 22. for in time the haire of his head began to grow againe and at last when they made but a play-game of him ver 25. ver 28. ver â—0 he was at once avenged of them for his two eyes Yea he pulled downe that house-full of the Philistines at one plucke so that the dead which he slew at his death were more then they which he slew in his life Therefore there is no good trusting of shaven blind bound and imprisoned Sampsons their haire may grow againe and then woe to the other side if ever they recover hold fast in the pillars of the house In short whosoever doeth not strike home in cases of great Reformations and publike acts of Justice he doth but irritate the enemy to the extreme perill of himselfe I doe here remember that speech of Goliah unto David and may well allude unto it Chuse you out a man for you saith he and let him come downe to me if he be able to fight with me and to kill me 1 Sam. 17.8 9. then will we be your servants but if I prevaile against him then shall ye be our servants and serve us The like words me thinks I heare founding from the mouth of every grand-delinquent and from each mighty Anti-Reformist amongst us at this time If the Reformers be now able to match and vanquish us then we must be servants for ever but if our party can at this time prevaile kill and conquer them then all is ours and they shall be our perpetuall servants and serve us And hence I suppose doe spring all those divellish Treasons and hellish Machinations of the Adversaries in all the three Kingdomes ever since the beginning of this Parliament Irish Scottish and English Rebellions Treasons and Conspirasies The enemies are busie like their father the Divell because their time is short Now or never therefore let the holy and loyall side bestirre themselves too even in their owne defence And to set on this point yet more closely we may allude in this case unto that speech of our Saviour concerning the re-entry of the uncleane spirit Mat. 12. v. 43. When the uncleane spirit is gone out of a man he walketh thorough dry places ver 44. seeking rest and finding none then he saith I will returne into my house from whence I came out and when he is come ver 45. he findeth it empty swept and garnished Then goeth he and taketh with himselfe seven other spirits more wicked then himselfe and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse then the first The States Ecclesiasticall and Civill in this Kingdome were not long since pestered and in part possessed with divers bad members which were unto us like so many uncleane spirits some of these have bin lately dispossessed I meane by flight imprisonment death so that at present we doe walke through dry places that is in better wayes seeking rest and a thorow Reformation but if now we finde none then then let us be sure that those Cacodemons evill spirits may returne againe and take with themselves many other spirits more wicked then themselves and if possible enter in and dwell here and the last state of this Nation shall then be worse then the first The Lord grant that it be not even so unto this Generation In briefe my Brethren let me speake it as effectually as I doe now faithfully say it The Blessed Reformers and their Adherents doe at this time as they say hold a Wolfe by the eares By the Wolfe I doe understand all Papists and Delinquents if they chance to let goe this ravenous beast he may turne againe and all to rent them if they hold it there for longer time this also may be perilous A third way yet remaineth and that is to be sure and swift 5. Finally Such short-shooting may much redound or at least be objected