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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89580	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, now assembled in Parliament, at their publike fast, November 17. 1640. Upon 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you, while yee bee with him: and if yee seek him, he will be found of you: but if yee forsake him, he will forsake you. / By Stephen Marshall, Batchelour in Divinity, minister of Finchingfield in Essex. Published by order of the said House.	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M776; Thomason E204_9; ESTC R212613	31,991	52

put together amounts to thus much that Gods presence in his Covenant with any people implyes that they are dearly beloved of him that hee workes all their workes for them and shields and defends them against all their enemies I come now to the Application of it wherein because I chiefely intend the next poynt the Condition of Gods presence I will briefely make two or three Collections onely which I conceive may be most seasonable and sutable to your office and to the occasion of your meeting here this day First is it so that the glory and happinesse of a nation stands in the presence of God in his Covenant Then I humbly pray you all to take notice what are the greatest Evills and who are the most desperate Traytors against the King Church and State of England at this day I doubt not but you have a multitude of complaints of Grievances presented to the Parliament house all at least pretended to be contrary to the welfare of the State give mee leave to put up one Great One and to informe you who bee the Authors of the greatest Grievances and Evills that can possibly betide the Kingdome of England even they that would rob us of our God Solomon saith A man that wasts his Father and chaseth away his mother is a miserable wretch And I know if evidence should he brought into this Honourable assembly against any one that had deprived the King of a Subject you would think him worthy of severe punishment But higher if you should light upon one that should endeavour to deprive the King and Kingdome of a wise Counsellour and States man in the multitude whereof is the safety of the Kingdome But higher yet if any should be found that had lift up his hand against his Majesty the Lords anoynted who is the breath of our nostrills if any such should be discovered would you not say of them as she said to David Let the soule of my Lord bee bound up in the bundle of life and let the Lord sting the soules of his enemies as out of the middle of a sting yea would not every true hearted subject in the Kingdome say thus also O but Honourable and beloved they that would rob us of the glory of our King and Kingdome that would take away all our happinesse and protection and prosperity that would leave us naked to our shame that wee should become a scorne and spoyle are not they worse than any of the former You will say Who is he and where is he that dares presume in his heart to doe so I pray stay for a full answer till the next poynt touching the Condition of enjoying God be unfolded in the meane time take this in part I pray God there bee none such met this day to fast and pray before the Lord Every sonne of Belial every one that is a Rebell against God every one that workes wickednesse is that wicked Haman that sells Hester and all her people to destruction If there be any such here you will give me leave being Gods Minister and your Servant to discharge my Office faithfully Should there bee but one such I say among you that are called together to bee the Repairers of the breaches to such a one let me thus speak If thou be found to bee the Achan that keepes God from going out with our armies the Jonas that art ready to cast away the ship so that there is no hope of our safety till thou be cast out if thy conscience accuse thee that thou art a child of Belial an Idolater a superstitious person a prophane Esau lay this close to thy heart how miserable and wretched a man thou art that not onely adventurest thine own soule to most certaine ruine in opposing the Lord but as another Sylla thou pluckest out thy fathers purple haire and deprivest the Kingdome of the glory of it so that it may be written upon thy Grave-stone This man was the ruine of his King and Countrie And for the Lords sake Honourable and beloved take it to heart and lay it up with you that if Gods presence be our glory then those that would robus of it are our greatest enemies Think of them all as he upon lesse ground said of the Children of Dan. You have taken away my God and what have I more And secondly let me beseech you all in this your great Nationall Councell and Assembly to take seriously into your thoughts what may be the best way of lengthening out our tranquillity Beloved all the Nations in Christendome have beene in grievous perplexities many yeares round about us wee have beene hitherto kept as another Land of Goshen where light hath still shined when all others have beene in darknesse And I know the hearts of some of you have sadly expected when God should come and erect his Iustice seat among us or give the sword a Commission against us now you are met for this very thing to provide for our welfare for the Lords sake take care to keepe him with us if he goe all goes wee can never light our Candle if this Sunne bee set wee shall never fill our Buckets if this Fountaine bee shut up All your counsells and advising will be nothing if God say I will stay no longer in England Wee shall then bee a spoyle to any enemy a few unarmed men will bee too hard for us all It is recorded of the Palladium in Troy that while that Image remained there the City was impregnable and that till the Greeks lighted on that stratagem to steale that Idoll away they could never winne the City What ever fancy there was in that you know how much it concernes us to keepe our GOD with us let your maine care bee to fixe and settle him therefore among us and then wee are safe if you let him goe we are an undone people Thirdly if Gods presence in his Covenant bee the glory and safety of a people then may all of you undertaking any service for GOD and his Glory most comfortably and securely rest on God to defend and protect you against all dangers It is no question but your enemies are mighty malicious and cunning and it may bee they are digging as deepe as Hell for Counsell to doe you mischiefe in this great way and work that you are in But while you are with God God will bee with you Are not five Sparrowes sold for a Farthing saith our Saviour Are not you more worth than all the Sparrowes in the World are you not in Gods Worke As Caleb said The Lord is with us feare not them They shall all be bread for us Goe on boldly use what providence you can to prevent dangers but comfortably remember that the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous runne to it and are safe I will conclude this with a story of Luther which he tells of a Bishop of Magdenburg A Duke of

A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons now assembled in PARLIAMENT At their publike Fast November 17. 1640. Upon 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while yee bee with him and if yee seek him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you By STEPHEN MARSHALL Batchelour in Divinity Minister of Finchingfield in ESSEX Published by Order of the said House LONDON Printed by J. Okes for SAMUEL MAN dwelling in St. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Swan 1641. A Sermon Preached before the Honourable house of Commons at their publick Fast 2 CHRON. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while yee bee with him and if yee seeke him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you THis portion of Scripture is a part of a Sermon preached to the whole body of the Kingdome of Judah and a fitter I do not know in all the Bible to be preached upon to the Representative body of a Christian State especially on a day when they are drawing nigh to God The more inexcusable should I be in adventuring to shew my weaknesse at this time in this place were I not able to call the most High to witnesse that nothing but conscience of my duty kept me with Jonah from running away from the Lords worke But Amos the herdsman must prophesie at the Kings Chappell when God commands him The speciall end of your meeting this day is to afflict your soules before God that so with Ezra you might seeke a right way for your selves and the weighty affaires of his Majesty and the whole State and the speciall errand I have to deliver from the Lord is to assure you of the same truth although in other words which Ezra told the Persian Emperour that the hand of God is upon them for good that seek him but his power and wrath against all them that forsake him viz. That God will be with you while you be with him Which Text that you may the better understand give me leave to carry you a little back and give you a plain view of the state of the Church of Iudah at that time In the dayes of Rehoboam there had beene an horrible apostasie from the purity of Gods worship Religion was very much corrupted and the forces of the Kingdome were exceedingly weakned And in Abijahs time things grew worse and worse But now when Asa being a godly man came to the Crowne he begins at the right end and makes it his first work to set upon reformation of Religion taking away the Altars of the strange Gods and the high places brake down the Images cut downe the Groves commanded Judah to seeke the Lord God of their Fathers and to doe the Law and the Commandements casting out whatsoever was a stench in the Lords nostrills and he prospered in whatsoever he put his hand unto This done hee then calls all his Nobles and Princes and Elders together and tells them that they had sought the Lord in matters of Religion and God had beene found of them and that now they should goe and fortifie the Kingdome and so they did in all the Cities and prospered But in the midst of this worke comes out Zerah the Cushite the Ethiopian or rather the Arabian Ethiopia lying beyond Egypt with an Army of a thousand thousand and three hundred Chariots it may be the greatest Army that ever you read of in any story with these he breakes in suddenly upon Asa But he humbles himselfe before God betakes himselfe to prayer tells the Lord that it was all one with him to helpe by many or few And in the Lords name hee went out to encounter with that huge Army over which the Lord gave him a glorious victory and the spoyle of the enemies Country to boote Now as they were comming backe to Hierusalem the Lord calls out Azariah the sonne of Oded to make the gratulatory Oration for their safe returne and conquest in these words that I have read and so forward to verse the eighth and so I am come to my Text In which that I may make as briefe a way as I can possibly to the matter that I shall insist upon two things are to be unfolded First the scope and intent of the Prophet and that is laid downe in the latter end of his speech Bee strong therefore and let not your hands be weake that is goe on with the good worke of Reformation of Religion wherewith you were in hand before the enemy interrupted you Secondly the arguments whereby this is pressed and they are two The first is taken from their owne present happinesse who were in Gods wayes The Lord is with you while yee are with him and if yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you The second is taken from the misery of the ten Tribes who were out of Gods way concerning whom he speaks to this effect That for a long time Israel that is the ten Tribes had bin without God without a teaching Priest and without law and as they had cast off God so God had cast off them howbeit if they would have sought to God and turned to him God would have bin found of them but they going on in the way of desperate apostasie the Lord vexed them every where in the City in the Country in the Family every where God was too strong for them as certainly God will make every one to know that he hath a hard match to encounter with that dares to beare Armes against the Lord And so from their misery hee presseth Asa and his people to go on in the right course to prevent the like for comming upon themselves This second Argument of the misery of the ten Tribes belongs not to my worke I betake my selfe therefore to the other wherein I shall spend the allotted time for this exercise namely The present happinesse of the Church of the Iewes that were in Gods way in which observe these two things First what the happinesse was that they enjoyed in these words The Lord is with you Secondly the Condition upon which they enjoyed this happinesse or the termes upon which they held it and that is First more generally propounded The Lord is with you while you are with him Secondly more particularly and exegetically expounded in the next words If yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you I begin with the first of them The present happinesse of the Church of the Iewes Iehovah is with you Where there is but one question to bee answered for the cleering of the Doctrine that I shall a while insist upon and that is what presence of God is here intended by the Prophet Iehovah is every where Whither shall I goe from thy presence Nay he is not onely present every where but he manifests

Secondly positively and affirmatively what it is It implyes these three things First to bee a holy people a Ieshurun a righteous Nation to be those that undertake the counter-part of the Covenant that as God makes himselfe over to be their God and their portion so they deliver themselves up to him as a people renewed and sanctified to become his portion That is a chiefe thing which the Scripture alwayes meaneth when it speaks a people to be with God that they must be a holy people separated from all iniquity unto God as was cleerely and largely opened in the morning Read over all the booke of God and you shall never finde that a people are said to come home to God but when they put away all their abhominations threw away all their lusts and Idolls to the Moles and to the Bats loathing and detesting themselves for them being as the Doves in the valley every one mourning for their owne iniquities fully determining and resolving never to returne to them any more And indeed if this be not done it is impossible for a people to be with God or to endure God to be with them For God is a devouring fire to wicked men and all wicked men to him are as Straw Hay Stubble and Waxe which the nearer they are brought to the fire the sooner they are devoured Therefore you shall read that the nearer wicked men have at any time beene brought to God the greater their misery And for my owne part I question not but if an ungodly man should bee lifted up into Heaven where God most manifesteth himselfe in glory he would there be most miserable Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of a Temple upon which was written No unholy thing must come neare this place This is Gods very inscription Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evill and canst not look on iniquity Look over all the Epistles in the new Testament and you shall finde that however the externall profession of Christianitie admits men to the external priviledges of Gods presence yet unlesse they be inwardly renewed and sanctified there is no being nigh to GOD Iames 4. 8. Draw nigh to God and hee will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands yee sinners and purge your hearts c. This is most cleare in that great worke of mans Redemption by Iesus Christ when God had created man holy and righteous God delighted to bee nigh unto him but so soone as iniquity was found in him there was a wall of separation built and a gulfe made that never could bee filled up till the Lord Iesus Christ by his infinite sufferings did it And when that worke is done by Christ the Lord will not communicate his Christ to any soule in the world but upon these absolute termes and God hath sworn that it shall be so that so soone as he hath delivered them and brought them neare to himselfe in calling them to participate that Redemption they should serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life This is the first thing they must bee a holy people Secondly to be with God is to be true worshippers of him maintaining the purity of his Ordinances from Idolatry and Svperstition This is abundantly proved Hos. 11. 12. Ephraim saith the Lord compasseth me One would have thought that Ephraim was neare to God when he compassed him but saith God Hee compasseth me with lies What is that with Idolatry for it is usually expressed in the Old Testament that Idols are lies and lies are put for Idols as in Isa. 49. 20. Is there not a lie in my right hand Thus Ephraim that is the ten Tribes compasseth me saith the Lord but Iudah remaines faithfull with God therefore hee ruleth with the Saints What was Iudahs faithfulnes it was her keeping of the marriage Covenant with more care when in Hezekiahs time to which the Prophet referreth Religion was reformed and advanced then Iudah was faithfull with God For the more full understanding of this second branch let me commend one observation to you concerning all the Kings of Israel and Iudah after Solomons time the Scripture sets downe a character of every one of them that all the world might know what judgment God had of them You shall finde that of all the Kings of Israel though there were some very brave men yet there is not one of them that God acknowledged to have walked with him because they were all Ieroboamites worshippers of the golden Calves And when hee speakes of any King of Iudah hee ever singles out one thing as the chiefe matter of his commendation and that is how he stood affected in poynt of Religion Such a man was upright with God the meaning is all his dayes he maintained Gods worship And yet let mee tell you some of their moralities were no better than they should be Asa in the Text was a cholericke passionate man and covetous in his old age and many other weaknesses were found in him yet because hee went through-stitch in the reformation of Religion Asa's heart was said to bee upright with God all his dayes With this God useth to cover all their infirmities as with a veile But if any of the good Kings did but halt in this poynt God hath left it upon record as a blot upon their honours therefore are they blamed if through their default the high places were not taken away though the Idolls set up in those places were removed And in the new Testament throughout all the time of Antichrists apostasie the true Church of Christ that walked with him aright are described by this Character that they are a virgin company not defiled with women that is they were never guilry of the spirituall pollutions of that Apostaticall Church of Rome This was to be with the Lamb and to follow him wheresoever he goeth That is the second to keepe close to God in his worship Thirdly to be with God is to be on Gods side to be engaged in Gods cause to appeare in those things wherein God looks that all his friends should stand for him When the Levites would know neither Father nor mother but slay every man his brother or companion or neighbour that they might avenge Gods quarrell this was to be on Gods side When Elias was zealous for God at a time wherein all the Kingdome as he thought played the Apostates when Phinehas goes with his Javelin and executes vengeance on Zimri and Cosbi when men stand in the gap when in a word a people are for God and his cause as Iehoshaphat said hee was for Ahab I am as thou art and my people as thy people My horses as thy horses and my Chariots as thy Chariots this is to bee with God And indeed if this be wanting people cannot be interpreted to bee with God because God is not acknowledged in his due place unlesse they bee for him with

they all lie in the Deck charged as the sin of the Nation till by some publicke Act the fourth Commandement bee restored to its due place and honour Thirdly goe to another branch the poynt of preaching the Word The preaching of the Word is the Scepter of Christs Kingdome the glory of a Nation the Chariot upon which life and salvation comes riding such a treasure as that any wise Merchant would sell all to buy the field wherein this Treasure lies O that God would humble England for the great abuse of this invaluable mercy What little care hath the State in general taken to provide that Christ might ride in Triumph upon his white horse that the Word of God might spread into every corner of the Land But oh the cruelty that hath beene offered to many poore Congregations in taking away the bread of Life from their mouthes without any pitty as if the starving and murthering of soules for which Iesus Christ shed his blood were a matter of no moment And oh the spoyle and havocke that hath beene made among many faithfull and painfull Ministers for such trifles as will not endure tryall in the day of the Lords appearing Could wee as in a mirrour behold the great guilt wee lye under for these things and apprehend what great wrath is kindled against the Kingdome for them how would our hearts tremble before God this day Fourthly but above all the extreame daring bold audaciousnesse of a generation of men that have adventured as much as in them lies to corrupt Gods worship that not onely rejoyce to see the Idolatrie and superstition of Rome practised by others but have dared to set their thresholds by Gods threshold and to dresse out all Gods worship according to their owne fancies things too apparent to need any further proofe It may be some may think this is no great matter and much complaint need not be made against it a few distinctions will salve all that is done to quit it from Idolatry and superstition But as Lodovicus Vives saith of the Papists in his dayes that for ought he saw they in effect gave the same reverence to their Saints which the Pagans did to their gods So I may truely say of these men that notwithstanding all their distinctions little difference is to bee found betwixt their practise and the superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome Will some say let it be granted that men have been too blame as doubtlesse multitudes have been too bold in this kind yet God forbid that we should judge so farre as to make them as odious to God as if they were the bringers of Gods wrath upon the Nation as if they were as bad as whoremongers or blasphemers or that we should offer to compare them with the grosse Idolaters of the Church of Rome God forbid such a staine should bee cast upon them Thus some men draw a fine veile over these foule enormities Good Lord that the glorious light of the Gospell in eighty two yeares should not take away this filme from the eyes of men Judge you the case you that are husbands you that have a spirit of jelousie bee yee Arbitrators betweene the Lord and this Generation and say if a wanton looke in your owne wife if a whorish dresse if the giving or receiving of love tokens if the least degrees of dalliance would not render your owne wife more abhominable to you than the knowne fornication or adultery of any other woman whatsoever Doe you not know that the Church of Christ is his Spouse Do you not know that God is more easily provoked by a people among whom hee walkes than by any other people whatsoever I beseech you lay these things to heart And let the remembrance of this day helpe you in it This day eighty two yeares agone the Lord set up the Gospell among us and tooke us to be a nation in Covenant with him Oh the progresse that some nations would have made The thankfulnesse and fruitfulnesse that some people would have attained to in so long a time but that wee should grow worse and worse in poynt of Gods worship that we should hanker after Idolatry and Superstition and fall away worse than any of our neighbours that God hath visited so severely what shall wee say when God comes to reckon with us for these things Fiftly adde the horrible prophanation of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper the promiscuous multitude every where not onely allowed but even compelled to the receiving of it Multitudes of whom know not whether Christ were a man or a woman nor how many Gods there be multitudes wallowing in all prophanenesse and licentiousnesse yet if they professe that they be no Papists almost every where they are admitted to the polluting of these reverend Mysteries as if we would compell the Lord to depart away from us And then if we should take in the third branch of ingaging ourselves in Gods cause how little zeale is there for God The wrongs and cruelties that are done to many the teares of the afflicted and oppressed and so few that will open their mouths or appeare to plead any cause which GOD will owne abundantly proclaimeth this Verily beloved were you all as innocent as Ezra was of the fact among the Iewes of the wretchednesse of the people of Israel If you did know what God looks for at your hands this day you would rent the very Caule of your hearts before the Lord and sit downe with him astonished and refuse to be comforted and wonder that GOD hath not wholly left us and delivered up our glory as a spoile and severely revenged the quarrell of his Covenant But to come nearer yet and bring it home into your owne bosomes what if you your selves bee guilty of these things You that are the flower of your Tribes the chiefe of the Thousands of England You that are lifted up above your Brethren whom GOD hath made the Head and not the Taile of the places where you live when GOD might have left you to be hewers of Wood and drawers of Water And hee hath made some of you Noblemen some Knights and Gentlemen and now called you to bee the Repairers of our breach to heale and prevent our ruine What if you your selves have a chiefe hand in these transgressions What if among you be found swearers cursers adulterers drunkards haters of Gods waies scorners of his Children and his Ordinances men who goe on in your sinfull wayes and resolve to doe so and because you are great will therefore bee children of Belial refusing to carry Gods yoake what if any such should be here The Lord of heaven forbid But if there should be any such I beseech you thinke what a Magor-mizzabib what a terrour round about you there will be when God comes to find you and to reckon with you Are you come to Fast and Pray before the Lord Doe you come to stand betwixt God and the