how careless and negligent Christian Princes are grown as to the enlarging of Christs Kingdom and those that have made some attempts that way have gone about it with sinister designs how others had rather spend their time at home in picking and feeding Quarrels in the Church than advance the Unity of the Faith abroad and how the generality of Christians have learn'd to mind the World more than Heaven and are become lovers of Pleasures more than lovers of God and the Religion that is left among them is either mixt with Idolatry or gross Superstitions or some other notorious Abuses and is become a Carnal rather than a Spiritual Worship and a Formal rather than a Rational Service and how many of the Heathens and Mahometans exceed Christians in Vertue and Morality and how that Charity Love and Peace which was once the great Character of Christs Disciples is banished and the Seamless Coat of Christ torn in a thousand pieces and those Dissentions cherish'd maintained encouraged and how Religion is become a meer Politick thing I say he that shall consider all this will not wonder so much that there are no more Christians in the World as admire there are so many and that the greatest part of them are not consumed or led into Captivity when they abuse and so grosly abuse the best the noblest and the most excellent Religion and reproach and dishonour that God who sent his Son into the World to Reveal it thinking Surely they will reverence my Son It was Self-denial contempt of the World and invincible Patience under Injuries Stupendous Charity and very great strictness of Life that first spread the Christian Religion and the Apostles having shewn us the way we should have trod in their steps and if we had we should without all peradventure have had the same success for God works by Means and those having been the Means in the beginning of Christianity they may justly be supposed to be the genuine Means at this day and where those are neglected it 's part of VVisdom to punish Men for their wilful neglect of those Means by suffering Heathenism and Mahometanism not only to continue unmolested but to grow and advance every day more and more to the weakening of the Christian Interest for no wounds provoke so much as those which are given God in the House of his Friends as we see by Gods proceedings with the Jews both in their first and second Captivity So that notwithstanding this seeming inequality of Providence Gods VVisdom continues unspotted and we have reason to give it the highest Encomiums and Celebrations 3. The Lord reigneth Let 's not despair when either Publick or Private Calamities fall upon us God is our Refuge a present help in the time of trouble therefore will we not fear though the Earth be moved and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though the VVaters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof Ps. 46. 1. with this Psalm Pachomius is said to have chased away a Legion of Devils from his Cell and I see no reason but it may serve to support the Soul in the greatest dangers However things go God is still good to Israel to them that are of a clean heart what ever Tumults arise Go tell the Righteous saith God it shall be well with him What comfort must this be to a serious Christian though every thing goes contrary to his wishes and expectations yet he may be cofident that from those contrarieties of Providence his Soul shall be refresh'd The Prophet therefore had reason to cry Es. 50. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walks in darkness and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God From such a chearful Confidence we may promise our selves great matters for God looks upon himself as concerned to reward our extraordinary Faith with an extraordinary Providence as we see in the poor VVidow of Sarepta who had the courage to give the remainder of the Meal and Oyl she had to the man of God and was therefore miraculously supplied in the time of Famine Christ could do no mighty works in his own Countrey because of the Peoples unbelief Mark 6. 5 6. it 's our diffidence in the time of danger that makes God stay his hand and our unbelief keeps the former and latter rain of his favour from us To trust God when the Figg-Tree doth not blossom and to rely upon his goodness when the labour of the Olive doth fail is the way to see Miracles and a preparative for the richest Mercies Let come what will come upon us nothing can come but by the order and Providence of God infinitely Good and infinitely VVise And what is there that can come amiss if it come from these two Fountains If Infinite Goodness sends that which the VVorld calls Misery upon me most certainly there can be no hurt in it and if Infinite VVisdom sends it most certainly it must be best for me for if Infinite VVisdom thinks it so my shallow Understanding hath reason to submit to its most solid Judgment God denies me what I would have because he would fain give me what I should have That which he takes away may be I do not want and that Grace I stand in need of may be I cannot have without the other be taken away A Temporal Blessing sometimes stands in the way of a Spiritual one and if the lesser be taken away to make room for the greater it 's no more but what mine own VVisdom would approve of in more trivial concerns God would have me follow him not for the Loaves but for the Miracles of his Love and if to make me enamoured with him he sees it necessary to take away the Loaves it 's no more than what a VVise Physician doth to a Patient from whose Lips he takes away the pleasant Draught to make way for a more wholsom Potion The Lord reigneth Rejoyce Christian Let Israel rejoyce in him that made him and let the Children of Zion be joyful in their King Fear not thou Worm Jacob when affliction when trouble when anguish comes when the VVaves and Billows of the VVaters of Marah rise Thy God reigneth thy King watches over thee the All-sufficient God is thy refuge and thy hiding place Surely he shall deliver thee from the Snare of the Fowler and from the noisom Pestilence He shall cover thee with his Feathers and under his Wings shalt thou trust his Truth shall be thy Shield and Buckler Thou shalt not be afraid for the Terrour by Night nor for the Arrow that flieth by Day nor for the Pestilence that walks in Darkness nor for the Destruction that wasteth at Noon-day a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy Right hand but it shall not come nigh thee Nothing can hurt a good Christian for whom is
Gods Providence In the midst of CONFUSIONS Set out in a SERMON Preach'd at the Savoy January the 30. 1681. Being the Anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles I. By Anthony Horneck D. D. In the SAVOY Printed by T. N. for Samuel Lowndes and are to Sold at his Shop over against Exeter-Exchange in the Strand 1682. PSAL. XCIX Vers. I. The Lord reigneth let the People tremble WHether this Psalm was written by Moses as the Jewish Rabbins think or by some other Prophet or why this Psalm with four and twenty more is destitute of a Title when all the rest have suitable Inscriptions is not material to enquire The Psalm contains a rehearsal of Gods Wonderful Works in the Desert when he went before his People in the Wilderness when God wrought Miracles every hour and the Cloudy Pillar by Day and the other of Fire by Night like a Guardian Angel protected the Mighty Host and rendred them formidable to all Nations that heard of their Name or had notice of their Approaches or we may call it a Spur to fervent Devotion and profound Veneration of the infinite Majesty of Heaven who never leaves such Devotional Prostrations unrewarded and if sincere crowns them usually with loving Kindnesses and tender Mercies Instances whereof are given in Moses Aaron and Samuel Men who by their Prayers bowed the Heavens and made God come down and as it were forced the Almighty into pity and compassion by their Supplications To excite our Attention the Psalmist begins his Hymn with an expression great and lofty becoming the Supream Being and worthy of an Infinite Majesty In a few words he gives us the best Description of Gods Providence that reason can desire and there could be nothing more magnificent than to say of him The Lord reigneth let the People tremble That which will oblige me to deviate or vary a little from the received Translation is the ambiguity of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original which we render tremble The word in other places of Scripture stands for being tumultuous or in a rage inconfusion or in great disorder and this signification seems to me to be most proper here and to render the sense much clearer and if you ask me what that sense is I shall deliver it in this Preposition Propos. In the midst of the greatest tumults and disorders the Divine Providence is awake In the midst of the most lamentable confusions Gods management of things is orderly and regular This must necessarily be the Result of the Text if we Construe the words according to the Interpretation I have given and the words will naturally bear viz. The Lord reigneth let the People in a Commonwealth or Kingdom be never in so great disorder or confusion even then when all things seem to be turned upside down the Lord reigns by his Providence Let Heathens and Epicureans fancy that God is asleep when things go contrary to our Carnal Wishes and fond Expectations we that enjoy Gods Revelations are better taught And though the vast Ship of this inconstant World were sinking we have reason to believe that the great Pilot who sits at the Helm is broad awake and hath pregnant Reasons for the Dispensation It 's a weak Argument that God is careless because we cannot pry into the Reasons of his Actions nor can the inference be less than Childish to conclude that the Almighty enjoys his ease regardless of things below because our selves are not Omniscient We could not be Creatures if we were so and should lose our dependance upon the God above if our Wisdom did equal his or could know all the depths of his Actions Yet so great is his goodness that he hath not left himself without Witness and as mysterious as his goings in the Sanctuary seem to be he hath let his Servants know the Order of his Providence So great an advantage are the Scriptures that while Pagans like Moles grovel in the Earth unable to apprehend what is done above We like Children of Light can unfold Gods darker Proceedings and inform the World of the equality of his Ways When the ten Tribes revolted and shook off their obedience to their Liege Lord Rehoboam we may easily guess what disorders the Jewish Commonwealth then laboured under and what confusions that juncture of Affairs produced Judah fought against Israel and Israel against Judah and in both Parties without all peradventure were Discontented Men who added Fewel to the Fire and threw Brimstone into the Flame to make it soar the higher yet while the Republick lies in that Convulsion-fit God dispatches a Prophet to the Tribe of Judah Shemaiah by Name with order to tell them 1 Kings 12. 24. Thus saith the Lord ye shall not go up nor fight against your Brethren the Children of Israel return every man to his own house for this thing is from me i. e. Let no Man wonder at these Disorders for I have a Hand in them and my Providence doth manage them And to this purpose Amos brings in God speaking Am. 3. 6. Is there any evil i. e. any evil of confusion in the City and the Lord hath not done it This even Jehoram as wicked as he was could not but be sensible of and therefore when in the great Famine of Samaria People were ready to devour one another and things were come to that extremity that Women fell a dressing their own Children for their Dinner the King desperate and melancholick cries out This evil is of the Lord i. e. How dismal soever the state of things appears the Almighty hath given order for it and it 's he whose Power and Wisdom manages this Calamity But this Subject will require some elucidation and therefore I shall consider here 1. What those Disorders and Confusions are which seem to infer a carelesness of Providence 2. Why God suffers and permits such Confusions and Disorders 3. How his Providence appears in them and which way he manages these seeming Contradictions 1. What these Disorders and Confusions are which seem to infer a carelesness of Providence 1. Oppression of the Innocent and Poor such as we find among the Jews in the time of Amos and Jeremy Am. 6. 12. c. 8. 6. Jer. 7. 6. And no doubt a dismal sight it is to see the Rich invade the Poors little all without control and Great Men crush those of an Inferiour Rank by their lawless Power to see Ahab take possession of Naboth's Vineyard and Ziba because in favour with the King wrong the lame and harmless Mephibosheth to see the Widdow scorn'd because she hath no Potent Friends and the Orphan trampled on because his injurious Adversary can out-Bribe him to see a Jeremy thrown into a Dungeon because he speaks the truth and a Daniel hurled into a Lyons Den because he cannot conform to the looser Customes of the Persian Court to see an Aristides driven into Exile because of his Justice and an Alcibiades deposed from his Office because
To see them fall foul one upon another and they that might live in ease and safety like Mad Dogs bite and devour one another To see them enraged one against another upon a punctilio of State and as if their Lives were nothing worth throw them away because both Parties cannot be of the same Judgment To see them not only begin their Quarrels upon slight Occasions but pursue them unto Death and Ruine as it is an Argument of intolerable Pride and Self-conceitedness so it 's like the careless Spectator that sees the Tremendous Effects of it will wonder what 's become of Providence in such Disorders 4. Massacres When the true Religion is persecuted as a Pestilent Heresy and mighty Endeavours are used to Extirpate its Renown and Glory when Fire and Faggot become Arguments to confute it and Swords and the Gallows are made use of as the only Syllogisms to batter its Fortifications when it is not only contemned and derided but the Professors of it severely handled and those that dare be so bold as to own it put to most cruel Torments when the Floods of Ungodliness threaten to overwhelm it and the Malice of Men rises to that height that nothing will serve their turn but its Ruine and Destruction Such was the Massacre of the Jews under Antiochus when to live up to the Law of Moses was present Death and to observe Gods Statutes the readiest way to be Tortured when to believe in one God was to be broken on the Wheel and to abhor Idolatry involved the Votary in the danger of most barbarous Usage Thus was the true Religion treated in the first ten Persecutions by the Heathen Emperours when to have a Bible in the House and to be thrown to the Lyons was all one and not to offer Incense to the Heathen Gods was cause enough to be torn in pieces by Bears and Tygers when Multitudes of Christians were driven like so many Sheep to the Slaughter and the Hangmen were sooner tired with Executing than the Professours of Christ's Doctrine with the variety of their Tortures Thus the Church of Rome dealt with the Waldenses and Albigenses from the Year of Our Lord 1334. to 1340. and upward when those innocent Creatures for contradicting the Corruptions of that Church were hurled into the Fire and not to be subject to the Pope in his unlawful Decrees was counted as bad as Witchcraft when Flames were the Portion of Men that would not believe a Purgatory and a Dungeon the Reward of adhering close to the Oracles of the Holy Ghost Such was the Massacre at Paris in the Year 1572. when in one Night many thousands were Murther'd for no other reason but because they were Protestants and vast numbers of Men and Women Murthered like Beasts because they would make the Bible the only Rule of their Faith and Manners when at Rome they triumphed at the Inhumane Fact and like the Jews thought they had done God Service by sacrificing the lives of his Servants to their Rage and Malice This was the lot of the Protestants in Ireland in the Year 1641. when 200000 of them were destroy'd to make the Popish Clergy sport and Men that professed themselves to be of the Catholick Church out-did Indians and Cannibals in their Cruelty when the more Protestants a Papist killed the more he Merited and might tell the Pearls of his Crown in Heaven not by his Beads but by the number of Christs Disciples which as he thought he had sent to Hell and offered to the Devil If God takes care of any thing thinks the sensual Man it must be of the true Religion this we must conceive to be his Darling and if he hath more tender Affections for one thing than another this we must suppose is the chief Object of his sollicitude This makes most for his Honour and his Glory is advanced by nothing so much as by true and genuine Worship This therefore he must be thought to mind and cherish most and to look upon with the kindest Aspect But to see this Jewel scorned derided affronted and its lustre darkened by Clouds of Ignorance and Malice To see this Pearl broken shattered and the dust of it dispersed into the various corners of the Earth To see its Foes live great and those that touch this Apple of his Eye brave it in their pleasures To see them erect their Throne on the Necks of Gods Servants and securely trample on these supposed Favourites of Heaven what can we conclude but that either this is not the true Religion or that Providence is careless and supine in its Protection 5. Such another Disorder is Base and contemptible mens climbing up to the Thrones of Kings and displacing the true Owners and usurping their Authority When the vilest of Men are advanced to Royalty and they that were but Subjects a little before come to sit in their Lords Tribunal vvhen Persons of the Dregs of the People get up to the highest Povver and they that vvere but Scum before come to svvim like Oyl on the top and throvv dovvn Gods Anointed when a Jeroboam from Surveyor of the Kings Works rises up to be King himself and a Zimri that dvvelt in a Cottage before comes to possess himself of the Royal Palace Such vvas the sudden advance of the Famous or rather Infamous Massinello vvho from a Fisherman in a day or tvvo comes to be a Prince and from mending of Nets in a Weeks time is advanced to be more than Vice-Roy of Naples whose contemptible Condition is on a suddain changed into Adorations and his Converse with the meanest of his fellow Subjects turned into bows and cringes from the greatest of the People he that before had scarce a Dog to attend him in a few hours is followed by a Crowd and receives the Courtships and Caresses of an incredible Multitude he that knew little but Obedience a little before now Commands Armies and from a Slave comes to give Law to the proudest of the Spaniards They that before would scarce vouchsafe to look upon him now are glad of his kinder Smiles and his threats that before were accounted little more than the noise of a Hound are now dreaded more than the Almighties Thunder Such was the prodigious rise of the late Usurper whose Crimes and wonderful Successes in his Bloody Attempts have given occasion to the sad Solemnity and the Sackcloth and Ashes of this Day A Man if it be not a Crime to call him so for he outwent Devils in Hypocrisy by whose contrivance the Royal Crown fell down and with the Crown the Church and with the Church the Nations happiness a Man whose Crimes must be detested while time is measured by the intervals of Day and Night and who by his Actions hath fixed such a blot on Christianity as perhaps the Tears of many Ages cannot wipe away a Man who in pursuance of his Dreams was restless till he saw what the Evil Spirit had revealed accomplished and first poisoned
Perjury and Slain the Gibeonites And so he would not depart from his anger against the Jews because of the Sins of Manasseh 2 Kings 23. 26. where with he had provoked him to anger For Kingdoms are Bodies Politick whereof Princes are the Heads and if either Head or Body be put to streights and inconveniencies the design of Providence is fulfilled which is resolved when heinous Offences are committed in the whole one principal part should smart for the boldness that the other may take warning and though that which suffers may not be so guilty as the other yet as they sympathize together so it s seldom seen but that they do contract something or participate of one anothers Corruptions and consequently justly share in one anothers Sufferings And where the Prince suffers for the People though it 's confest the Providence is more astonishing and surprizing yet it is more Godlike and Majestick and an imitation of the Death of Jesus who consented to die for the People that the whole Nation might not be undone God never punishes a Nation as a Nation but only in this present Life for indeed that relation extends no farther when People in the next come to be judged before the great Tribunal they are not judged as a Nation but as single Persons for every one shall give an account of himself to God and therefore if God Chastises a Nation as a Nation it is only in this World and if in such Chastisements either the generality or some Principal Members suffer it s enough to answer the design of the Divine Equity which is to let the Nation see his displeasure against the cursed thing that is in the midst of them so that in this case the Almighty uses a kind of Decimation he being too pitiful and too great a lover of Humane Societies to destroy every individual especially in Ample Commonwealths wherein are more than Sixscore thousand Persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left Jon. 4. 11. But 2. As in all these Disorders and Confusions there are some who though notoriously guilty yet escape and are not so much as singed by that devouring Fire nay prosper and thrive best in such Combustions so Providence lets them go free to convince Men of Reason that there is another World where their insolence and unrighteousness shall be punished with a witness Psal. 50. 21 22 23. God gives Men a taste of his Justice here that they may not think in their hearts there is no God and yet but a taste that they may not imagine that what he doth here is all he intends to do Some Judgments he is obliged to send down now to let the World see there is a God that judges in the Earth and yet he sends not all he means to send to teach them there are far more dreadful ones to come Some careless and debauched Men he lashes here to hint to us that there is an All-seeing Eye and yet others he lets alone to assure us that there is a future and Everlasting Vengeance There is not a greater Argument of another Life than Gods being silent now and not Executing Judgement against an Evil Work speedily especially where the Crimes threaten Omnipotence and Men attempt to mingle Heaven and Earth together dare be Giants in Transgression and make Gods Patience an encouragement to their Irreligion for God being a Righteous Governour cannot but be just and since he awakes not to Vengeance here he will certainly pay the Sinner home with interest hereafter When Frederick the Emperor heard of a Nobleman in his Dominions who had run through all the Fallacious Labyrinths of Sin tasted of all its Luxuries lived the life of a Beast or of a Devil rather had spared no Woman in his lust and no Man in his anger had been Drunk and Intemperate to a prodigy yet had never had any Cross or Sickness and at last Died softly and quietly without pain or trouble with Age more than with Sickness being then above Fourscore The Intelligent Prince smote upon his Breast and said Either there is no God or after this comes a Life of Reward and Vengeance concluding peremptorily That this Man having escaped Gods Rods and Axes here must necessarily be Tormented hereafter So that Prosperous Villains are Gods Witnesses that Men do not cease to be when they Die and carry Marks about them of Gods future Vengeance God in suffering them to thrive confirmes what he hath said in his Word and their Flourishing Condition here is an item that when this Life is ended they shall be destroy'd forever which is a Truth so important and which the World is so highly concerned to know that it is in a manner necessary Impiety should be prosperous here that their strength should be firm and there should be no Bands in their Death that they should not be in trouble as other Men nor plagued like other Men that their Eyes should stand out with fatness and that they should have more than their hearts can wish since it is an infallible Argument that God hath appointed a day wherein he will render Tribulation and Anguish to every Soul that doth evil to the Jew first and also to the Gentile Rom. 2. 9. 3. Such Disorders come to convince Men that true Happiness is not to be had in this Valley of Tears but must be sought in Heaven To this end the greatest Glories in the VVorld are subject to decay and Scepters and Diademes are suffered to tumble down to shew there is a greater felicity to be gotten elsewhere To this end the greatest Calm is suffered to die into a Storm and Halcyon days into threatning VVaves and Billows to assure us the Prophet was in the right when he cryed Arise and depart for here is not your rest Mic. 2. 10. To this end Gilimer the Vandal was overcome and led in Triumph through the Streets of Constantinople To this end Andronicus from an Emperor is made a Slave and infamously dragged through Common-shores and Kennels To this end the Great Vitellius hath Dirt thrown in his Face and is haled to the Market-place to be Executed To this end the Mighty Croesus is like to fall a Sacrifice to Flames and the Sturdy Bajazet is imprisoned in a Cage King Boleslaus made a Skullion and Dionysius forced to turn Schoolmaster To this end Valerianus is Flead by the Persian Souldiers and Salted as if he had been Bacon To this end John the Twenty third though a Pope is at last constrained to eat his own Clothes and to feed upon the Flesh of his own Arms for hunger To this end Adonibezeck after the Conquest of Seventy Kings hath the extremities of his Hands and Feet cut off and all to teach Men that these outward Gaudes are vanity of vanities all is vanity And indeed the aforesaid Gilimer was so sensible of this that being after long but fruitless Resistance necessitated to yield himself to the Enemy sent to his Conqueror