the life present 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come The manner how it worketh this assurance is 1. It assureth us that there is a life eternal for that is an article of Christian Faith the close and sweet conclusion of our Creed 2. It assureth us that we are they who shall by the free gift of God be made heirs of this heavenly Kingdom reposita est mihi corona justitiae 3. It applieth all the promises of God to those several graces in us Thus I mourne therefore I shall be comforted I am pure in heart being washed in the blood of Christ Therefore I shall see God I hunger after righteousnesse ergo satisfied I love God ergo all things work together for my good I beleive ergo I shall be saved 4. It assureth our perseverance to the end in our love and obedience yea Faith assureth our faith to us For beleiving in the Author is beleiving in the finisher of our Faith 5. It stayeth us in expectation of the fruit of our Faith that though the Vision do tarry yet we think it not long to waite for the performance of it Having heard of the excellent use of Faith you cannot but observe the reason why Sathan doth aime all his fiery darts at our Faith because all our obedience and righteousnesse and holinesse is quickened and strengthened by Faith without which it is impossible to please God There is nothing in a Christian man that so much provoketh Sathan against him as his Faith For Faith keepeth us from being devoured of this roaring Lyon Therefore two assault we must provide for 1. Sathans labour to keep us from getting this sheild of Faith 2. His sound care when we have gotten it to rob and spoil us of it 1. Assault Sathan knowing that our Faith makes us too strong for him and quencheth all his fiery darts doth therefore all he can to keep us from the means by which Faith is increased in us That is from hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament from meditation from prayer and as often as you find your selves tempted to neglect these know it to be Sathans malice against you to keep you from Faith The brest-plate of righteousnesse without a sheild of Faith is not sufficient to keep off the fiery darts of Sathan from wounding us but Faith quencheth them They therefore that live in the love and in the use of those means may comfort themselves that Sathan shall not be able to hinder them from obtaining a comfortable vegetation and growing up in Faith 2. Assault And whereas he laboureth to wrest our Faith from us we shall find that both his cunning and strength will fail him for saving Faith cannot be lost To establish our Faith let us know that imperfect Faith may be a sound and true Faith for we cannot attain to perfection in this life but if we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 we may have boldnesse with God For as Christ prayed for Peter that his Faith might not fail so he prayeth for his whole Church even for all that shall beleive in him through his Word Joh 17.26 that the love wherewith the Father hâ—th loved him may be in them and he in them Which love will keep us that we fall not off quite from him We are not denyed the use of riches honours or lawful pleasures these be ornaments and comforts of life but we cannot live by them they perish in the using of them Our obedience and good works are the fruits of Faith we live by Faith Faith lives in obedience for without works Faith is dead Did we but know the unvaluable price of Faith we would seek it more then all other things and like the Merchant in the Parable Mat. 13 44 we would part with all we have to purchase Faith I conclude with St. Bern. Dicamus fidem vitem virtutes palmites Botrum opus devotionem vinum Our vine yarder hath bestowed much digging and planting and composing and fensing upon this Vine let it put forth and let the clusters call it fruitful and let the Vine please both God and men Now that we have searched this gracious mine of comfort and found the rich vein which maketh us able to live both here and hereafter Let me admonish you what is objected against the Doctrine delivered out of this place Ribera a learned Iesuite when he cometh to this Text in his full commentary upon this Prophet saith Incidimus in locum qui est lapis offensionis duabus domibus Israelis hoc est orthodoxis haereticis qui recesserunt à domo David It greives the Church of Rome that we have so clear a Text in th is Prophet and that so much urged in the Epistles of the Apostles for our justification by Faith alone and Ribera is much deceived if he mean us under the tittle of haeretiques for this place is no offence to us It is the most comfortable doctrine that we can embrace nothing doth more set forth the excellency of Faith nothing doth more assure to us our eternal life Fain would Ribera have shifted off the clear evidence of this place with this illusion that the Prophets meaning is this The just man that is the man that desireth to be just shall live the life of grace by the Faith whith he hath in Christ Jesus We understand that a man is justified only by Faith and that without the Law as the Apostle doth also teach And it were a poor comfort to the Church in their distresse to tell them that the just man should live by his Faith except the Lord in that promise did assure them the comforts not only of the naturall but of the spirituall and eternal life Neither would the Apostle urge this Text but with these contents For exexamine the places where these words are urged and it wil appear The Apostle professeth Rom. 1.17 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ c. For therein is the righteousnesse of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written Justus ex fide vivet the just shall live by his faith The Gospel is said to reveal the righteousnesse of God he cannot mean the essential righteousnesse by which God is justice it self in his divine nature but he doth understand that righteousnesse of which the Apostle speaketh who is made unto us wisdom Righteousnesse c. that is Christ our Righteousnesse and this is called the grace of God which bringeth salvation This is revealed now in the cleare light of the Gospel in real performance which was before exhibited in visions and dreams and types and ceremonies whilst the veyle was up It is revealed from faith to faith As Origen and Chrysostome truly enough but not enough fully Ex side veteris testimonii in fidem novi as Ambrose Ex fide Dei promittentis in fidem hominis credentis But most fully Ex fide incipiente in
it and putteth us to silence but if the glory of God be that we seek and aime at the more God heareth our prayers and granteth our requests the more he enflameth our zeal and even as it were transformes us into prayer and what better motive can we give of Christs so frequent so durant prayers then this I know that thou hearest mee alwayes Now because long and frequent prayers are a wearynesse to the flesh the flesh is no good friend to this exercise and we do find our selves in no exercise of Religion more tempted then in this for this cause watching and fasting are so often joyned with prayer as the best means to disable the rebell flesh from resisting Doctr. God sometimes suspendeth the successe of the prayers of his servants There is a case wherein God will not hear at all though Moses Samuel Noah Daniel Job do pray to him In some cases God will hear but not yet for he that keepeth the times and seasons in his own power knoweth best when it is fittest for him to hear And that was the case of this prayer God did 1. give them yet more time to repent and seek his face that he might preserve them and sent his Prophets to them to reclaime them 2. He did expect if not the conversion of them by fair means then that after the full taste of the fruits of his patience they might by the rod be brought to him when he should change his righthand Mutatio dexterae 3. Or he did expect the filling up of the measure of their sins that they might have no plea to excuse their ungraciousnesse 4. He forbore to stirre up the Prophet so much the more to this importunity that it might be seen that not only their sins but the Prophets prayers had awaked vengeance 5. To declare how acceptable a sacrifice prayer is he will delay us that we may pray for with such sacrifices God is pleased but if we withdraw our selves Gods soul will have no pleasure in us Let no man think the worse of this holy service of God because he presently feeleth not the successe thereof but as the woman of Canaan would not be put off by the Disciples or by Christ himself Math. 15.22 so that both her request was granted and her faith commended If we remember our Saviours limitation all will be well Eather if thou wilt let us set those bounds to our prayers 1. What thou wilt 2. In what measure 3. When thou wilt 4. In what manner sicut tu vis As thou wilt Vers 3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity and cause mee to behold grievance for spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention 4. Therefore the Law is slacked and judgement doth never go forth for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous therefore wrong judgment proceedeth 2. HE contesteth with God for shewing to him the sins of the people vers 3 4. For the opening of that Text Why dost thou shew me iniquity 1. That it is not his own curious search to look into his brethren I do not say so scrutinously as the Hypocrite in the Gospel who with a beam in his own eye could yet discerne a moat in his brothers eye no not to behold their grosse iniquity He did not look upon his brethren like an informer to see what fault he could finde in them to complain of he had something else to do he saith that God shewed him the iniquity of his brethren So he freeth himself of suspicion of malice and evil affection to his brethren For there may bee malice in looking into the vices of brethren though it pretend desire of Reformation 2. This cleareth the Prophet that he is not as one of them no partner with them in their iniquity seeing they that live in the society of evil practise and do not communicate with the evil in evil cannot behold the evil the object is too near them or gone out of sight 3. It sheweth that God doth not only himself take notice of the evils that men do but he acquainteth his Prophets and Ministers therewith which he doth to that end that he may prove their fidelity to him whether they will discharge their duty to him and their people to whom they are sent in telling the house of Jacob their sins and in labouring to bring them to the knowledge thereof that they may repent It followeth Thou dost cause me to behold grievance Psal 51.8 Wherein he resurmeth what he hath spoken before and rhethorically amplifieth it for it is one thing to shew another to cause him to behold This is an effectuall demonstration as the Prophet David doth pray Make me to hear joy and gladnesse God hath sent his Gospel which is the voyce of joy in the tabernacles of the righteous all the world over have they not heard Their sound is gone out into all the world and their word to the ends of the earth But that is not enough except God do cause us to hear the same We preach this Gospel of peace and we shew unto men their righteousnesse that is Viam Iustitiae how they may be justified in the sight of God We declare unto men their sins and shew them how the Law of God is broken but if God do not cause our hearts to behold this if God do not turne their eyes into themselves and into their own wayes to see them we spend our strength in vaine the scorner goeth away from Church and wipeth his mouth as the harlot in the Proverbs and saith this is nothing to me because God doth not make his heart smite him for it God doth not cause him to behold God doth not open our eyes to see our sins for our selves only that we may declare them but for you that we may give you warning of the anger to come And what did God shew him 1. Iniquity that is the unjust dealing of the people one with another as it after followeth 2. Greivance either the Greivance which that unrighteousnesse doth bring upon their brethren or the greivance wherewith the righteous soul of the Prophet is vexed day by day in seeing and hearing the evil conversation of them to whom he is sent For spoiling and violence are before me 1. Here is Spoyling that is robbing one another invading one anothers goods and lands and that done in the common-wealth of the Jewes where God himself was so carefull to establish the right of propriety in several that he divided the land himself to every Tribe their part and by a judicial Law set every man his bounds taught every man to be content with his own The common-wealth cannot long last in prosperity where this spoiling is in practise whether it be by corruption of the Magistrate stopping the course of justice or by the covetousnesse of the private man taking advantages to make his brother a prey This is commonly the worme of peace for when
feedeth nothing but ill humours to overthrow the contemperament of the complexions That is If it feed the sanguine only and so maintain all kind of wantonnesse pride and vanity If it feed only choler and so support tyranny and violence Or if it support only Melancholy it feedeth sullen and busie projecting wit Or if it feed fleame it sustaineth idlenesse if it do not nourish the temperament of these humours in the body it feedeth diseases and destroyeth the body Thus was the Common-wealth of the Jewes at this time diseased and only the choler was fed which brought forth greivance spoyling violence strife So riches became the faculties of evil doing and power was the mother and nurse of violence Our lesson therefore is Vse if we love the state of the Common-wealth in which we live and would have the body thrive of which we are members we must observe the lawes of Christian charity and common-justice Justitia tua suum cuique tribuit charitas tua tuum we must do all men right and know our own from another mans and we must distribute to the necessities of our brethren that there be no complaining in our streets the elder must labour by good councell and good examples to support the younger the younger by their strength and labour to give subvention and help to the elder each to know their own and to think nothing theirs which is not lawfully gotten Let us remember the severe prohibition of the Law which not only bindeth our hearts and affections saying Thou shalt not steal nec actu nec affectu neither in act nor in desire but it restraineth our very first thoughts and motions of the minde Thou shalt not covet any that is thy neighbours Let us remember how much violence and spoyling and greivance and strife displeaseth God and let our brother dwell in peace by us let us not so much as look upon our brethren with an evil eye to envy their thriving or with a covetous desire to enrich our selves with their spoiles We see the danger of this Common-wealth of the Jewes because of their oppression and we see the remedy-here used to complain thereof to God therefore if we with Solomon Turne and consider all the oppressions that are wrought under the Sun Eccles 4.1 and behold the tears of the oppressed and none comforteth them and the strength is of the hand that oppresseth them and none comforteth them I know no remedy that we have but our prayer to God for he only is the refuge of the afflicted If the Minister complain that he cannot be entertained to execute the Priests office without Simoniacall contracts or being in the execution of the same cannot keep the tythes and profits of his place from spoile and depredation If the Souldier complain that in time of peace he is despised If the Merchant be hindred in his commerce the husbandman over-racked in his rent the labourer either not found work or not payed their wages If the common man be exhausted by impositions and exactions and the rich man milked by borrowings Whilest the most idle and uprofitable mothes of the common-wealth and the rust of peace doth devour all and build their nests on high full of the spoiles of their brethren These things tells us that they that are dead in the Lord are happie as Solomon saith they hear not the voice of the oppressour and they shall not see the evil which this crying sin shall bring upon the living For you shall see that God heareth the complaints of his holy ones and visiteth the land that transgresseth in these things The corruption of Religion even the contempt thereof is complained of The Law of God slacked weakened despised Doctr. It is a diseased and a desperate state where Religion is contemned and where the Law of God is not cared for 1. The cause is Reason because we hold nothing temporall in this life by any other right then upon condition of our obedience to the Law and Will of God If thou consent and obey Isa 1.19 thou shalt eat the good things of the land But if yee refuse and rebell Vers 20. ye shall be devoured with the sword Moses repeating the Law of the ten Commandments to the people Deut. 5.2 calleth it the Covenant which the Lord made with them in Horeb and the conditions of the Covenant were these Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you Vers 32. you shall not turne aside to the right hand nor to the left You shall walk in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you Vers 33. that ye may live and that it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your dayes in the land which ye shall possesse The very introduction into the Law I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage sheweth why God delivereth us from the hands of our enemies that we may serve him and that we may thrive and prosper in his service Therefore where the Law is slacked and Religion set at nought the despisers thereof have no lawfull interest in any thing that they possesse but are intruders and usurpers and such as encroach upon Gods rights without any plea of right they are robbers of the just to whom the earth is given and with whom only the Covenant of God is made The Psalmist sayeth Blessed are the undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 who walk in the way of the Lord. The idle speculations of secular wise men and the corrupt affections of carnall men have sought felicity in other wayes but have not found it The way of Religion and keeping the Law of God never failed any man for though the faithfull man be not justified by his obedience and keeping of the Law yet the faith of the man is so justified as St. James saith shew me thy faith by thy works The way of temporal fulnesse â—ath misâ—led many and corrupted the very Jews of Gods people for why did they oppresse and spoyle and greive and contend with their brethren but to mend their own heap and riches are not but for use By riches they might have their hearts desire in any thing here below they might buy it out Every one observeth the way of his time if he see that there bee no way of rising or thriving in the world but by such a mediation the whole addresse is that way and that means is wholly studied If a man see that there is nothing to be had without mony for mony any thing then mony is his whole study quaerenda pecunia primum And sure if men did see that nothing but vertue and Religion and the fear of God did preferre men and sufficient worth for the place that they seek men would study vertue and honesty and all those parts which might make them worthy of what they seek But it is no matter
them whom God doth use as his rods in this execution 1. By whom by the Chaldaeans These are described 1. By their own fitnesse for their designe 2. By their Praparation to accomplish it 3. By their intention in it 2. How far the punishment shall extend 1. To a full Conquest 2. To a proud triumph 3. What shall become of them 1. They shall change their mind 2. They shall offend in imputing their victories to their own idols 1. By whom God shall punish the Jews 1. Of their fitnesse for this execution they are described to us by these notations 1. They are bitter 2. They are hasty 3. They are dreadfull 4. They are wilful 1. Bitter in their harsh and cruel natures 2. Hasty in their participation and speed 3. Dreadful in their power and strength 4. Wilful in taking their own ways for their judgement and dignity proceedeth from themselves To be bitter and slow gives warning to resist and affordeth the benefits of time a great friend to defence To be bitter and hasty and weak is but a lightning a flash and away To be bitter and hasty are dreadful but to admit advice gives time of breathing but when the nature is inflamed with bitternesse and the action is accelerated with haste and fortified with strength and followed with wilfulnesse this makes up a full danger especially where God setteth such a work These be evil affections in this People prove their minds set upon mischief yet God maketh rods of these twigges and whips of these cords to punish the sins of his own People The point of doctrine here is That God can make good use of the vices of men Doctr. and can make wicked men serve him as the instruments of his will as Augustine Deus bonus utitur malis necessariis bene Civ dei 18 So Mr. Calvin judiciously observeth in the text Hec quidem non fuerunt laudanda in Chaldaeis amarulentia furor sed potest deus haec vitia convertere in optimum finem St. Augustine treating of the prosemination of the Gospel and the quick spreading thereof hath two chapâ—ers to our purpose cap. 50. In the 50. he sheweth Per passiones praedicantium illustrior facta est Praedicatio by the sufferings of Preachers preaching is made the more famous In the 51. Per dissentiones hareticorum fides Catholica roboratur by the dissentions of hereticks the Catholik faith is strengthned He is so full to this purpose to shew what good God works out of evil that I cannot suppresse his words Inimici ecclesiae quolibet errore caecentur si accipiunt potestatem Corporaliter affligendi exercent ejus patientiam Si tantummodo malè sentiendo adversantur exercent ejus sapientiam Vt diligantur exercent ejus benevolentiam But when the Church of God grows foule and when People of God forsake God and go in their own ways then God useth the wicked ad vindictam then as David saith the wicked are the sword of the Lord. Ps 17.13 And that is the reason why God doth suffer so many evils in the world because they be his rods to chasten evil Even in this example Ieremie the Prophet of the Lord doth threaten the same judgment The Chaldaeans shall fight against this city and take it and burn it with fire Jer. 37.8 Thus saith the Lord deceive not your selves saying the Chaldaeans shall depart from us for they shall not depart For though you had smitten the whole army of the Chaldaeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men amongst them yet they should rise up every man in his tent and burn the city with fire Thus God doth Cap. 1. because he will declare his owne perfection of wisedome and goodnesse that he can work good out of evil and dispose the very vices of men to good And thus the examples of foule sinnes in our brethren do move us 1. To a loathing thereof as we read the Lacedemonians would make their slaves drunk and then shew them to their children to make them loath drunkennesse and all that have the feare of God when they see and heare the evil conversation and evil and profane words of the wicked they behold in them the ugly face of sinne and are touched at the heart with a detestation of the same 2. They move us to charity 1. Charitas incipiens at our selves to take warning by their example that we when we see a thief do not turn to him nor be Partakers with the adulterers To make us set a guard upon our whole life a zealous purpose to eschew evil To use the means for our preservation from evil which are hearing and meditation in the law of God and frequent and fervent Prayer 2. Charitas proficiens to pray God for our brethren that he would direct their paths forgive their sins and mend their lives and preserve others from being corrupted by their evill example 2. God bringeth forth the effects of his own good will Reas 2 out of the ministry of the vices of men to declare his true justice in punishing sinne by sinne that sinners may see that they serve for rods one to whip another of them whereas the just do not cannot hurt one another for all evil is noxious holinesse is humble God declareth himself King and supream Lord of the earth herein Reas 3 for as David saith fecit quicquid voluit he hath done what ever he will He will not let either the sinner that acteth or Satan that suggesteth evil to have the managing thereof for howsoever it seemeth that they serve their own turns therein he will dispose their evil to his own proper ends and they shall unwillingly work for him though both the bent of the suggestion of Satan and the promise of the intention of the sinner and the fewel of the affection and the whole force of the action be diverted against him So Josephs brethren full of envie to him sold him into Egypt What a charity did God work out of it so the Jews for envy pursued Christ to the Crosse all the godly fare the better for the good which was effected by it Israel is here punished by the Chaldaeans and God maketh use of these bryars and thorns to prick and goare his People he suffereth them to be carried into captivity All the force of Satan and his instruments prevail no farther against the Church then for correction and burning out the drosse God doth still do all things for the best The consideration where of serveth 1. To pacifie us against evils Vse and to lay that storme which either humane passion or inordinate zeal may stirre up against sinne and sinners though that all punishment in its nature be evil yet God may work good of it and the Son of God saith Resist not evill let it have its course and expect Gods end in at You see how much Habakkuk was troubled at the sins of the Iews how he did even
chide with God for his patience and remissenesse toward them you see from thence it is a burthen to man to beare the impieties of their brethren and to behold their uncharitablenesse and therefore it is lawful to complain to God of such and to awake his justice against them And here in Gods answer you see that God can make use of men of evil natures and ungodly lips to execute his will Observe the faults of these Chaldaeans 1. Idolatrous therefore Religion and the whole worship of God and the house of his worship and the Priests and the Ministers of it were like to pay for it Woful is that state that giveth any way to idolatry to enter into it for Amaziah cannot endure Amos to prophecy near the King 2. Fierce and cruel and therefore no mercy to be expected where they may use the sword 3. Proud and imperious so that to serve them was the basest vassalage that might be Such a nation as this will always make a good sharp rod to scourge the Church when it rebelleth against God And let that Land into which such a nation doth come either in a storme by force or in a calme by treaty to have power therein perswade it self that God ows it a whipping and will not be long in debt But in all fears and smart let the comfort of this doctrine season our hearts that God doth use the evils that be in men well and all things shall come to the best to them that feare God Let us remember our lesson let us live in the learning and practice of it feare God and keep his Commandements and let Satan do his worst and let the Catholick Bishop and the Chaldaeans his idolatrous cruel and proud sonnes use either their wit or strength against us si Deus pro nobis if God be for us all is well These thorns shall bear us grapes and these thistles figs We had need to consider that in all machinations and actions of mâ—s chief against the Church there is also the right hand of the most high dextera excelsi let us take heed that we do not sinne too boldly with that Rather let us await the good issue that his holy will shall produce for all things do work together for our good if we do fear and serve him 2. This serveth to soften that hard Doctrine of our Saviours Vse 2 which goeth so much against the heart of flesh and bloud to blesse those that curse and persecute us and to pray for those that hate us to love our enemies for seeing all their actions be governed and disposed by the providence of God who loveth us so well that he spared not his own Son but gave him unto death for us we may promise our selves good out of all evils that they imagine of execute against us There be two things which must be considered in our enemies to quicken this charity 1. The person of our enemy which teareth though much defaced the image of God and is the same nature with us flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone which we must not hate nor wish ill to 2. The imployment of God in his actions which do offend us for we see that God stirreth him and setreth him awork and manageth the whole operation to his own purpose Therefore think not our Saviours Precept an hard saying who commandeth charity even to an enemie and love to such as hate us For even in the injuries they do to their brethren they do service to God Yet is not God author of the evil done but of the good exracted out of that evil and applyed to the benefite of his Church 2. Their preparation to accomplish this Will of God 1. In their own persons 1. Terrible 2. Wilfull 2. In their military forces 1. Their horses 1. Feirce 2. Speedy 2. Their riders 1. Numerous 2. Speedy 3. Cruell 1. For their own persons no doubt but they should bring with them all the appearance of danger and horrour that might be that God might cast the fear of them upon the Jews that is number choice of souldiers strength of armes 2. For the forces here named horses trained up to the field flesht in bloud with horsemen to manage that feircenesse to the destruction of the Jew This is their preparation wherein we are taught that When God undertaketh to do a work he accommodateth all fit means for a full execution Doctr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all things work together for when he beginneth he will also make an end You all know that God hath no need of means to execute his Will his Will is a law to his creature Yet he chooseth in his great wisedom by visible and sensible means to chasten the rebellion of the Jews that his ways may be know upon earth even the wayes of his judgments that the earth may stand in awe of him God would have his Church know that if he once take displeasure against them he hath the command of armies to fight against them for he is LORD of Hoasts Men partners with them of the same nature shall be fearfull and terrible to them they shall lay aside all humanity and shall arme themselves with malice and cruelty to destroy them they shaall see that God can put mettal into them and into their horses and make all their military provisions mortal to destroy them for who is so great a God as our God Edom had made peace as you heard out of Obadiah with his neighbour nations yet the men of his confederacie put a wound under him Let us not trust our peace with all the world especially with them whose religion is a warrant to them to break with us when they see an advantage Let us make and keep peace with our God and put our sins to silence which cry out for judgments against us for if he be on our side we need not feare the arme of flesh the horse and the rider too will fall fail as in the example of Israel he hath a red sea a judgment of vengeance to follow them one shall chase a thousand A thousand shall fall on thy side and ten thousand at thy right band but shall not come near thee There is Psal 91.7 there can be no danger to them that have the God of Jacob for their refuge When armies fight his battels they are terrible and dreadful when he is on our side there are more with us then against us The name of the Chaldaeans their fiercenesse their hasty violence their number their horses their riders their whole Preparation for warre do all borrow terrour from ego excitabo I will stir up it is God that setteth them a work which putteth this mettal into them Let me learn of the Apostle Saint Paul to apply this terrour to the common use of all those that are despisers of the threatnings of God Beware therefore least that come upon you which is spoken of by the Prophets Acts
by the wings of God we do understand divine Protection sic cum audimus manus operationem pedes praesentiam oculos visionem faciem justitiam brachium potentiam So by hands divine operation by feet Presence by eye vision by face Iustice by hands divine Power And to shew that neque solus neither alone nec prior nor first he is of this opinion he citeth Saint Hierome Saint Gregory Nazianzen St. Ambrose St. Athanasius all of the same judgment And surely because this errour is yet in the minds of many simple and ignorant people of the world it will be fit that you do learn that when you do either give thanks to God or pray or think on God you do not conceive him in your thoughts in any such manner but as he hath revealed himself to us in his word God is a spirit eternal immortal invisible infinite in Wisedome Justice Holinesse Power Mercy Goodnesse Seeing and foreseeing all things doing whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth and in all deep places governing all things by the word of his power Moses who searched as deep into this sacred and secret mystery of God found that the face of God that is his heavenly nature could not be seen only his back-parts that is the effects of his attributes might be seen No doubt God took that occasion in Moses to teach the Church how they should conceive him in their thoughts Thou shalt see my back-parts Ex 33.23 Gregor Nyslene We must follow after God for he goeth before us and guideth us as David He teacheth the way that we should chuse Qui autem sequitur non faciem sed tergum aspicit Procopius Invisibilia dei videntur ex creatione For we must remember how tender God was of appearing in any forme which might have been represented in picture or sculpture for fear of idolatry Take yee therefore good heed unto your selves for yee saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Hored Deut. 4.15 out of the midst of the fire Least ye corrupt your selves Vers 16. and make you a graven image the similitude of any figure c. Neither is it necessary for adoration that we do assigne any set figure to God in our thoughts seeing every one of us doth believe that he hath a living soule in him whereby all the parts of the body are both directed and enabled in their several offices yet no man can conceive any set forme or similitude wherunto it may be resembled 2. Another figurative speech here is where the Prophet calleth these eyes of God pure eyes for wickednes and evil cannot defile the sight it is said of the fair eye of heaven that it shineth upon the just and unjust And David saith that God seeth all the thoughts of mans heart why he then seeth much vanity and much iniquity But those are called pure eyes which do behold nothing that is evil to approve it in it selfe to abet it in our brother to imitate it in our selves and in this sense the eyes of God are said to be pure that is abhorring sin Again the Purity of Gods eyes doth import the clear judgment of God which is of such penetration as nothing can conceal it self from him in which sense David saith The Lord is in his holy Temple the Lords Throne is in heaven Ps 11.14 his eyes behold his eye lids try the children of men upon which words Saint Augustine saith that there is apertio and opertio oculorum dei an opening and a covering of Gods eyes He is said to see with his eyes when he declareth himself to see and take notice of any thing but he doth try with his eye-lids when he maketh as though he slept and considered not winking for a time at the iniquities of men Our lesson from this double figure of speech is That God is a severe searcher and punisher of sinne Doct. for search he trieth the hearts râ—ins for punishment judgment begins at his own house this certain rule of truth we must lay hold beleive that the Justice truth of God can't fail the whole course of Scripture the experience of all times doth make this good The sin of the Angels that kept not their first estate was soon found out and punished the first news we hear of them was that one of them was a tempter and deceived our first Parents There was a light shining in darknesse which the darknesse comprehended not The Manichees seeing the devil went so early against God thought and taught that there were two principia two beginnings one good God the Author of all good another evil God the Author of all evil not knowing the fall of the Angels and the mischief that they attempted against God after their fall But they were the first example of the severe vengeance of God Of whom Saint Iude saith And the Angels which kept not their first estate but left their own habitation Jude 6. he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darknesse unto the judgement of the last day And for our first Parents the pure eyes of God saw their nakednesse after their fall and came himself into the garden in the coole of the day and convinced the Delinquents and examined the fault and gave judgment against them all and presently executed that judgment The Cain when his sin was yet but in the bud at the first putting forth thereof in the casting down of his countenance was called to account for it God disputing the matter with him and after when he came to the execution of his abominable wickednesse God again well examined the evidence convicted the Prisoner and brought him to confession of his fault and banished him from his presence In all these examples God was a speedy and a severe Judge as was fit for terrour in the beginning but after he grew more remisse and as the Apostle saith The long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing 1 Pet. 3.20 So that God declared himself patient and long-suffering who had before shewed and revealed his severe Justice that the terrour of his righteousnesse might discourage sin and yet his gentle forbearance might invite to repentance Therefore throughout the whole course of holy Scripture we have examples of both sorts both of quick vengeance and of favourable sufferance that God may be known both to be just and merciful The reason whereof is 1. That the danger might breed terrour for who can promise himself mercy when our just God may and doth take such quick vengeance Remember Lots wife that she was Lots wife whom God favoured that the Angel pulled her out of Sodom to hasten her from their judgment that her offence was no more then looking back whether out of curiosity to see what God would do to Sodome or out of unbelief doubting the truth of the threatning or out of love to the place or
very earth for their enemies to go over them and this is the punishment of their pride for Pride must have a fall and these towring fouls of the ayre must be turned into creeping worms of the earth 2. They have no ruler over them this is here set forth as a point of especial note to expresse the unhapinesse of a People to be without a ruler and therefore Anabaptists are wise polititians that would have no Magistrate but the punishment of the Iews is just that they should be without a ruler Because they did so much abuse Authority and rule that the very Seat of judgement were corrupted the wicked is Plaintiffe and the godly defendant The wicked compasseth about the righteous therefore wrong judgement proceedeth Better no rulers at all then such as David describeth Thou seest a thief and thou consentest with him a Companion of thieves whose Iustice is like that on Sarisbury plain Deliver thy purse Perchance on both sides But rule and Magistracy is the ordinance of God as St. Paul teacheth and God by his subordinate rulers on earth carrieth a sword and not in vain without this as when there was no King in Israel every man doth what seemeth good in his own eyes Which doth utterly destroy the body not only disfigure the face of a Common-wealth 5. Observe also here the outrage of the ungodly when they finde any way open for their violence Note 5 for they come in like a floud that hath made it self way through the weak banks and deluge all Here is Angle and Net and Dragge as before The wicked compasseth about the righteous which way shall the righteous escape As if aman did fly from a Lyon and a Beare met him or went into an house and leaned his hand on a wall and a Serpent bit him Amos 5 19 This made David so earnest with God not to fall into the hands of man There is nothing more cruel then a multitude of ungodly men that have no fear of God before their eyes Certum est insilvis inter spelaea ferarum malle pati the teeth of these dogs the hornes of these buls of Basan the hornes of these Unicornes the tusks of these wild Boars the pawes of these Lyons and Bears are mentioned in Scripture often to expresse the the fury and outrage of the wicked As Edom cried in the day of Jerusalem Rase it Ps 11.3 If the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do Judge now is it not a great grievance to see and feel the force and fury of the wicked carry all before them and neither their own conscience nor the lawes of men restrain them and God sit still look on and hold his peace this is that which grieves the Prophet to the heart But God that seeth it hath pure eyes and hath a right hand that will finde out all his enemies Amos will tell us that God hath his Angle too and his Net and his Dragge I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar Amos 9.1 and he said I will slay the last of them with the sword he that fleeth of them shall not fly away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered Though they dig into hell there shall my hand take them though they climb up into heaven thence will I bring them down And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottome of the sea thence will I command the Serpent and he shall bite them And though they go into captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them I will set mine eyes upon them for evill and not for good Let us not be discouraged for the Wiseman saith comfortably to us If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province Eccl. 5.8 marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they Our Common-wealth grew foul the hand of the oppressor was stretched out and they that pretended to be the Physitians of the diseases of this State gave it a potion of deadly wine that it grew sick and drawing on even to death the hearts of true Patriots failed them The poor cried out the rich could not say of that which he possessed Haec mea sunt these are mine seats of justice instead of judgment yeelded wormwood ecce clamor and behold a cry even the loud voyce of grievances But God awaked as one out of sleep and what the angle of the Magistrate and the net of the King could not take the drag of the Parliament is now cast out to fetch it in and we have gracious promises that we shall see Religion better established and Justice better administred the moths that fretted our garments destroyed the Caterpillar the Canker-worm and the Palmer-worme the Projectors of our times that devoured the fruits of the earth and drew the breasts of the Common-wealth dry into their own vessels both detected and punished yea that we shall see Ierusalem in prosperity all our days it is the musick of the voyces of both Houses of the Parliament and he that is rector Chori the Mr. of the Quire doth set for them both Let Peace be within thy wals and plenteousnesse within thy Palaces This fils our mouths with laughter and our tongues with singing The Keeper of Israel is awake and hath not been an idle Spectator of those tragedies that have been acted here amongst us he hath but tarried a time till the abominable wickednesse of the sons of Belial was found worthy to be punished One note more remaineth The Prophet doth find that all this evil doth not come upon the Jews by chance Note 6 by the malice of Satan or the proud covertous cruelty of the Chaldaeans for he faith to God Thou makest men as the fishes of the sea Here is the hand of God and the counsell of God in all this And God taketh it upon himself as you have heard before Behold yee among the heathen Vers 5. and regard and wonder marveilously For I will work a work in your days which you will not believe Lo I raise up the Chaldaeans c. For though sin brought in punishment Vers 6. yet Gods Justice is the Author of all evils of this kind and the inflicter of punishment Tu domine fecisti saith the Psalmist Thou Lord hast done it And I have taught you that the wisedome and goodnesse of God can make use of evil men for the correction of his Church They be ingredients in the dose that God giveth to his diseased People to purge them Therefore let not our hearts fret at those rods which have no strength to use themselves but rather stoop to the right hand of God who manageth them for our castigation We have no fence against these judgments but a good
is of fear Sol. To this I answer let not us dispute the Will of God or search beyond that which is revealed if God have revealed his Will to us that must be our guide That revealed will hath threatned nothing in us but sin and sin carrieth two rods about it shame and feare There be two things in a regenerate Elect man 1. A Conscience of his sin 2. Faith in the promises of God through Christ So long as we do live we do carry about us Corpus peccati the body of sin and as that doth shake and weaken faith so doth it confirme and strengthen fear 1. We are taught from hence to believe the Word of God Vse 1 the Apostle saith He is faithful that hath promised The faithful servants of God have this promise I will not leave thee nor forsake thee David believes him in convalle umbr aemortis non timebo in the valley of the shadow of death I will not fear Job believes him Though he kill me I will trust in him David believes verily when he smarts I shall see the goodnesse of God in the land of the living It is a sweet content of the inward man when the conscience pleads not guilty to the love of sin though our infirmities miscarry us often that we may say with Nehemiah Remember me O Lord concerning this and blot not out the loving kindnesse that I shewed to thy house and to the officers thereof Neh. 13.14 and with Ezekiah Remember Lord now I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth Is 38.3 and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight But it followeth And Hezekiah wept sore If he were so good a man why did he weep if not so good why did he boast Surely we carry all our good amongst a multitude of infirmities and therefore we cannot rejoyce in our own integrity with a perfect and full joy yet is it a sweet repose to the heart when God giveth us peace of conscience from the dominion of sin So on the other side believe God threatning impenitent sinners with his judgments for he is wise to see the sins of the ungodly he is holy to hate them he is just to judge them and he is Omnipotent to punish them Let me give one instance The third Commandment in the first Table of the law saith Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain what needs any more 1. Put these two one against another Thou The Lord thy God 2. Consider what the law concerns Gods name wherein standeth His glory Our help 3. What is forbidden taking it in vaine and we pray Sanctificetur let it be hallowed But where all this will not serve yet this is murus ahenus a brazen wall one would think God doth make yet another fence about his name an hedge of thornes The Lord will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vaine The Lawes of God be unreversible decrees heaven and earth shall passe ere one of these words shall sink or lose strength Yet the blasphemer feareth nothing that is a crying sinne in this land not the houses only the streets and high wayes resound the dishonour of Gods name this sin is grown incorrigible The Land mourneth because of oaths Hoc dicunt omnes ante Alpha Beta puellae And beleeve God who cannot lye He will not hold him guiltlesse that taketh his name in vain Thus we may make use of this doctrine to restraine if not overcome and to destroy the dominion if not the being of sinne in us 2. For the better rectifying of our judgments and reformation of our lives Vse 2 let us observe the consonancy of Gods practice in the world with the truth of his word he hath declared himself an hater of evill and do we not see daily examples of his judgements upon wicked men how ill they prosper in their estates what shame and disgrace and losse of all that they have unrighteously gotten cometh upon them how their posterity smarteth according to that threatning in the second Commandment God bringing the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and visiting it to the third and fourth generation of them that hate him that we may say Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall Whence cometh all this but from the constant truth of Gods unreversible decrees because the word is gone out of his mouth and though the ungodly do not beleeve it though it be told them Verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth in the earth We may say of our times as Hecuba did of hers Non unquam tulit documenta fo rs majora quà m fragili loco starent superbi for We live in the schoole of discipline and the rod of correction is not only shewed but used with a strong hand that all men may fear to be unrighteous we have not only Vigorem verborum the vigor of words chiding sin in our ministry of the word but rigorem verberum the rigor of stripes in the administration of justice never did any age bring both fuller examples of terror then we have heard with our ears and seen with our eyes for the wisdome of Gods decrees and the word of Gods truth is justified in our sight therefore seeing sentence executed upon evil works let the hearts of the sons of men be wholly set in them to do evil 3. Let us consider the vaine confidence of the ungodly Vse 3 and compare it with the constant truth of the decrees and word of God Isay expresseth it fully Ye have said we have made a Covenant with death Isa 28.15 and with hell are we at agreement when the over-flowing scourge shall passe through it shall not come to us for we have made lyes our refuge and under falsehood have we hid our selves They are answered and confounded The bed is shorter then a man can stretch himself on it Vers 20. and the covering narrower then he can wrap himself in it He that is to lodge so uneasily cannot say I will lay me downe in peace and take my rest The Chaldeans invade the Church they kill and take possession and divide the prey they oppose better and more righteous men then themselves their trust is in their strength and riches and power Nec leves metuunt Deos. What care they who weeps so they laugh or who bleeds so they sleep in a whole skin who dies so they live They trust in lying vanities Solomon saith Eccl. 8.12 Though a sinner do evill an hundred times and his dayes his prolonged yet surely I know it shall be well with them that feare God Vers 13. which feare before him But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his dayes which are a shadow because he feareth not before God God hath made an Act against them their judgment is sealed they
have nothing but vanity and lyes to support their staggering and reeling estate of temporal felicity God is not in all their wayes nor the direction of God to manage them and therefore not the protection of God to defend them he leads them into temptation but he doth not deliver them from evill But God is a Rock for foundation and a Castle for defence to all such as put their trust in him 3. The patient expectation which he requireth in the Prophet for the peformance of this promise Though it tarry wait for it We must not not think long to tarry the Lords leasure Doctr. it is the Prophets rule He that beleeveth shall not make haste Isa 28.16 Ps 37.34 and it is Davids precept Wait on the Lord and keep his way And we have Jobs example All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait The promise of the Messiah was made in Paradise The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent This was the Gospel that God himself preached to the Serpent and all the sacrifices of the old law and all the Prophecies of former ages and all the Types in the Old Testament were Commentaries upon this text the Fathers in all ages of the Church before Christ rested on this the Apostle saith of them These all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them a far off and were perswaded of them Heb. 11.13 and embraced them 1. Because this doth best fit the constant decree of God that we do rest in it Reas 1 for it were in vaine for us to serve a God whom we might not trust and upon whose word we could not build assurance It is the Apostles rest Scio cui credidi I know whom I have beleeved 2. Because this doth best declare our faith Reas 2 for faith being of things not seen in themselves the Apostle saith here we see in a glasse faith is a Christian mans Prospective through which he beholdeth all things far off as if they were near at hand 3. Because this is an exercise of our patience Reas 3 for ye have need of patience Heb. 10.36 that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise For yet a little while Vers 37. and he that shall come will come and will not tarry 4. This also doth exercise our hope Reas 4 for hope is nourished and fed with future objects as sense is with present and hope hath that wise forecast that as soon as the seed is cast into the ground hope is at work to gather in the harvest Rejoyce in hope Saint Bernard doth teach us to make use of this doctrine Vse of awaiting Gods leasure for first he layeth a good foundation Tua considero in quibus tota spes mea consistit 1. Charitatem adoptionis 2. Veritatem promissionis 3. Potestatem redditionis upon this he buildeth Dicit fides parata sunt magna inexcogitabilia bona à Deo fidelibus suis Dicit spes mihi illa servantur Dicit charitas curro ego ad illa We must be very tender how we do invade the royalties of God Christ saith that his Father hath kept the times and seasons in his own power he will have the alone managing of them They that cannot tarry the Lords leasure do commonly fall into one of these two evils 1. Either they murmure impatiently at God and quarrel his delay as Israel did when they came out of Egypt 2. Or else they seek unlawful means to accomplish their desires so the woman of Endor gets customers Against these Jam. 1.4 Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing This work is thus perfected 1. Let us not be too busie to search into the wayes of God to know things to come It pleased God before the coming of Christ in the flesh to reveale much of his purpose concerning the time to come by the ministry of his Prophets and the Devill finding men taken with this desire of the knowledg of future events did erect his oracles whose giddy and dubious predictions did so infatuate the world that few did undertake any matter of moment without consulting the oracle the Devill grew rich by the offerings and presents that were given him for divination when the successe sorted and he lost nothing of reputation or belief when it failed because all his oracles were of ambiguous sense for to carry if need were contrary constructions And it is a thing admirable which the wisdome of observation hath recorded to the honour of Christ that at his coming into the world all oracles grew speechlesse to shew that he that should dissolve the works of the Devill was come The head of this Serpent being now by his coming bruised the way to establish our hearts is to rest in the Lord and not to be too busie with the Key of his Closet and to content our selves with so much knowledge of things to come as either 1. The wisdome of foresight may read in the volume of reasonable discourse 2. Or the faith of Gods holy ones may read in the written word of holy Scripture 3 Or the judgment of those Sholars of nature may finde by searching the great book of the creatures for these open things are for us and here qui potest capere capiat he that can let him receive it It hath been the fault of many that they have so anxiously discrutiated themselves with the solicitous inquisition of the future that they have too much neglected the present and desiring to know what God would do for them hereafter both themselves lose the sense and God the thanks of that good that he was then doing God hath his wayes and his paths where his footsteps are not seen 2. Let us take the word of God for his promise and threatnings whatsoever appearances do put in to counterswade In the case of my text The oppressed Church must tarry they have two promises One of their own deliverance and restauration Another of their enemies confusion and ruine God hath promised both yet against this promise the Church which hears of comfort feels smart and their threatned enemies rejoyce and divide their spoyle the assurance is God cannot lye and repentance is hid from his eyes Why should man desire better assurance then the word of God to fix and establish his heart seeing al things had their being from the word and no man now in being doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God 3. To perfect our patience that we may wait the Lords leisure we must beforehand consider that the Vision may tarry the promises of God which shall be fulfilled in their fulnesse of time may be foretold long before Christ was promised in Paradise some do think the first day of the world to man i. e. in the day of mans creation the eve of the first Sabbath but he was
a life which else were a death for the wicked are dead in trespasses and sins so Christ saith let the dead bury their dead and the wanton widdows are said to be dead even whilest they live But by faith our natural life hath life put into it as the Apostle saith And the life which I now live in the flesh Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And surely this comfort must be applied in my text so though not so only to cheer the natural life of the distressed Jews against the many oppressions of the Chaldaeans that their faith in the promise of God must be their life as David saith I had verily fainted but that I believed to see the goodnesse of God in the land of the living There faith preserved the natural life of David 2. This includeth also a spiritual life which is the conjunction of our soule with God by Jesus Christ for what doth quicken us but our faith for by faith Christ dwelleth in us and by faith we are rooted and grounded in him Eph. 3.17 Col. 2 7. 3. This includeth an eternal life for how do we come to be where Christ is but by faith Christ first testifieth of the faith of his Church then he prayeth Father I will that they which thou hast given me may be with me that they may behold the glory that I had with thee c. They that overcome this world do overcome it by faith and such as have this faith do grow boysterous and violent They take the Kingdome of God perforce And this perchance gave occasion to the various lection some reading in the present vivit doth live some in the future vivet shall live some understanding the natural and spiritual only others only the eternal life But I understand the promise extended as the Apostle saith to both for godlinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come This sheweth what is meant here by faith not the historical faith by which we understand what the Will of God is Not a temporary faith which trusteth in God for a time and after falleth off from him Not the faith of miracles which even some wicked Persons whom Christ will not know at the day of judgement had Not the faith of hypocrites which seemeth and is not but a justifying and saving faith For we must live by the same faith here by which we must be saved hereafter And this faith is called the ground of things hoped for Cicero defineth the Latine word fides of fiat for it implieth performance Saint Augustine of the word fides saith Duae syllabae sonant Fides prima à facto secunda à dicto which may have a double construction 1. With reference to God for his dictum doth assure factum and that is our fides 2. With reference to us for as Augustine saith fac quod dicis credis do what thou sayst and thou beleevest I will not conceal from you the dissection of this word Fides as a witty Ancient hath anatomized it into five several letters by which he collecteth the ingredients which must meet in a saving faith 1. F implyeth facere to do as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. Not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be justified And Christ saith Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord Mat. 7. shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven but he that doth the Will of my father which it in heaven For a man must not be of the number of them who confesse God with their mouths and deny him in their works 2. I this importeth Integritatem Integrity which doth expresse it selfe in believing all the Articles of Christian faith for that faith which is not entire doth not hold fast and there is no trusting to it 3. D that implyeth Dilectionem love Gal. 5. for our faith must work through love And Saint Bernard saith Mors fidei est separatio charitatis faith without love is dead And again he saith ut vivat fides tua fidem tuam dilectio animet And in the schoole that faith which is not joyned with love is called fides informis an unformed faith It is St. Augustines saying Cum dilectione fides est Christiani sine dilectione fides est daemonis For we find that the devils confest Christ Confitebantur saith Saint Augustine Daemones Christum credendo non diligendo fidem habebant charitatem non habebant 4. E implyeth Expressè expressedly for it is not sufficient to retain faith in the heart but we must also strive to expresse it two wayes 1. In the fruits of faith good life 2. In the outward profession as the Apostle doth joyne them together With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue he confesseth to salvation Rom. 10. Against those Nicodemites which come to Christ by night and all those who think it enough to reserve the heart for God though their outward deportment be fashioned to the time and place and persons where when and with whom they do live 5. S. which standeth for Semper alwayes which doth express perseverance for it is no true faith if it do not hold out to the end Let us now put all together a true faith must be entire working alwayes by love so that men may see our good works and glorifie God which is in heaven In a word the faith here mentioned is an holy apprehension and a bold application of the favour of God to his Church in the mediation and merits of Jesus Christ by whom we do beleeve that God is in Christ reconciling us to himself and the just man doth live by this faith De verbis hactenus The words thus cleared we come now to the division of this text It containeth an Antithesis wherein two contraries are set in opposition one against the other 1. The man that is lifted up 2. The just man 1. Of the first he saith non recta est anima ejus his soule is not upright 2. Of the second he saith ex fide vivet he shall live by faith In the first I note two things 1. His notation Elevatus lifted up 2. His censure Non recta est anima his soule is not upright 1. His notation Elevatus This is a thing that God loves not for it it said God resisteth the proud that is the point of doctrine in this place God taketh offence at such as are lifted up Doct. It was the fall of the Angels that kept not their first estate ero similis altissimo It was the fall of man Behold man is become like one of us knowing good and evill Some think this part of the text meant of Nebuchadnezzar the proud King whose heart was so big swolne with his great victories that in the ruffe of self opinion he ascribed all to himself and therefore was turned to graze as in the story of Daniels prophecie
we read Remember the fearful quarrel of Christ with Capernaum And thou Capernaum which art exalted to heaven Luk. 10.15 shalt be thrust downe to hell It is one of the works of the preaching of the Gospel I may call it one of the miracles of the power of our ministry Every mountain and hill shall be brought low Chrysost Elatos superbos nomine montis denunciat Luk. 3.5 he cals the proud by the name of a mountain the early and the later rain that falleth on them doth slip off and fall into the under vallies and the vallies as the Psalmist saith do abound with corne The power of the Word extendeth to the humiliation of many that are lifted up for it revealeth unto us Christ without whom we can do nothing without whom no man cometh to the Father And this leaves us nothing to lift us up I have spoken of this sin out of the former chapter where the Chaldeans proud of their victories do rejoyce and ascribe the glory thereof to themselves And from the mouth of an heathen man Artabanus the Uncle of King Xerxes I take it Herodit Polymnia gaudet Deus eminentissima quaeque deprimere his reason Quia Deus neminem alium quà m seipsum sinit magnifice de se sentire Yea sometimes we finde when God doth owe a man a shrewd turn he will lift him up himself that he may throw him downe as David complaineth Thou hast lifted me up and cast me downe But the lifting up here understood is the pride of heart which maketh men to esteem of themselves above all that is in them such are their own Parasites and the Wiseman saith there is more hope of a foole then one of these In this Argument I went so farre in the former chapter as to teach you two things 1. To decline this as a disease 2. To embrace the remedies against it 8. Reasons I gave against it to perswade declining of it 1. It trespasseth primum magnum mandatum legis the first and great Commandment of the Law c. 2. Connumerat nos filiis Sathanae patri fil superb 3. Exterminat charitatem voluntas Dominium exercet 4. Subjicit nos opposicioni divinae Deus resistit superbis 5. Tollit à nobis talentum dum nostra quaerimus 6. Male nos decet poore and proud 7. Nullum vitium Sathanae magis placet 8. Superbus ingratus and so omnia dixeris The remedies 1. Serious consideration of our selves 2. Studious searching in the word of God 3. Putting our selves often in the sight of God 4. Frequent casting up the favours of God to us 5. Earnest and devout prayer This is a slie and cunning insinuation of Satan to lift us up in our own opinion there is a tang of our hereditary corruption that runnes in the same channel with our blood we are all apt enough to value our selves above the lone price Few of the mind of Agur the son of Jakeh I am more brutish then any man Few of the mind of Saint Paul Of whom I am cheif It is a great victory that a man hath gotten of himself if he be once able to keep himself under for whether we do encrease in outward goods or spiritual graces we shall have much ado to avoid this sin 2. The censure Non est recta anima ejus This Physitian doth search the disease to the bottome he finds where the fault is the soule is naught the inward man is corrupt And if the light that is in us be darknesse how great is that darknesse It is the searcher of hearts and reines that findeth this fault who but he can examine and try the inward man We see what bodie what complexion what stature man hath we may see what honours he attaineth in the world how he encreaseth goods what delights a man useth for recreation we cannet see what souls men have rectas an obliquas But if we see and observe men proud and lifted up high in their own opinion we see there is cause of fear that they have not rectas animas right souls And though the judgment of our brethren belong not to us yet let us judge our selves by this for if we do finde in our selves an elevation above our pitch Doctr. that either the opinion of our wisdome and strength or riches or honours or friends do swell us it is a certain Symptome of a diseased soul 1. Because this lifting up doth dislodge God from the soul he will not dwell with a proud man he hath so declared himself Reas 1 For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose name is holy I dwell in the hight and holy place Isa 57.15 with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble to revive the spirit of the contrite ones Now as Augustine saith Vita corporis anima vita animae Deus If he say to our soul I have no delight in thee we may complain in pace mea amaritudo our soul is sick even to the death 2. Because this pride of life which lifteth us up Reas 2 is not able to keep us up for the elevation of our souls is like the violent casting up of an heavy body into the aire which will fall down againe with its own weight Jam. 1.14 it is a mans own lust that draweth and driveth and forceth him up And if Satan do put his help to it to lift us up he will be the first that will put hand to the casting of us down again When he had lifted up Christ to the pinnacle of the Temple the next temptation was Cast thy self down 3. Because this pride of life filleth the soul so full of it self that there is no roome for the spiritual graces of God to dwell there Reas 3 Christ lodged in a stable quia non erat locus in diversorio 4. Because as the eating of somethings doth put the mouth out of taste that it cannot relish wholesome food Reas 4 so the pleasing of the souls palate with the lushious sweetnesse of temporal vanities doth make the soul out of taste with the bread of life that wholesome dyet which should keep our souls in health Let us make profit of this Doctrine Vse 1. Let it be the main and cheif care and study and endevour of our whole life to get and keep animam rectam an upright soule To keep your accompts strait to keep your estate upright to keep your body in health by a regular observation thereof to keep your interest in the love of your freinds all those be lawful cares of life and this is an incumbent duty which obligeth and engageth all men but let not these cares swallow us up and devour our whole life These things perish in the very using of them The soul of every man that is the man if that be not kept upright What profit will it be to a man to winne all
The Author We must go to him from whom every good and perfect gift doth proceed to seek faith Here I must admonish you that faith is given without seeking at first for it is a free gift and it is the glory of God I am found of them that sought me not Do not think that the gift of faith is acquired that is freely given but the encrease of our faith is acquired by means I prove it thus The spirit of God is given in the wombe it is given to infants therefore faith is also given for the spirit is never unfruitful and faith is one of the fruits of the spirit And the Apostles said unto the Lord encrease our faith The grace of God which moveth in the generation of them that fear the Lord is the seed of all vertues and first of faith the mother vertue which issueth all the rest that is given early And the gift of faith doth so lie hid in the Elect of God that themselves know not of it till God be pleased not to put his sonne into them but to reveal his Sonne in them This magnifieth the free grace of God and teacheth us to say It is so father because thy good pleasure is such And this excludeth all boasting on our part seeing we have it of meer and free gift And it ascribeth the glory of all to God 2. The means to get faith These as I have said do not lay the foundation of faith in us that is the free gift of God but these means do advance the building they do help to encrease our faith I will referre you to one place to declare to you the acquisition of more faith And a certain woman named Lydia Act. 16.14 a Seller of Purple of the city of Thyatyra which worshipped God heard us whose heart God opened that she attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul And when she was baptized and her houshold she besought us Vers 15. saying if ye have judged me faithful to the Lord c. Observe the whole passage 1. Here was a woman living in an honest and lawful vocation She was a seller of Purple 2. Here were some beginnings of faith in her For she worshipped God 3. The outward means to increase her faith She heard us 4. The inward means The Lord opened her heart after which followeth 1. More attention to Paul 2. Baptism 3. A Desire to be esteemed faithful 4. Hospitality she welcomed her teachers So that for the encreasing of faith she heard the word and the more she believed the more attentively she heard and for confirming of faith she was baptized Faith cometh by hearing for how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard Here let me admonish you 1. But when I say by the word with the Apostle I do understand and would be understood to speak of the Word not as it is the voice of a mortal man nor as it is a dead letter but as the spirit doth speak to us in the Word For this the Apostle biddeth us Be swift to hear it concerns us much but that you may see that faith is not begotten in us by hearing hearing doth us no good without faith and we must have a grain of faith to season our hearing or else our hearing will adde nothing to our faith The word preached did not profit them Hebr. 4.2 not being mixed with faith in them that heard it So do we see some at first poure water into a Pumpe to set it a work that it may yield water plenteously for faith poured into our hearing doth make our hearing bring forth more faith And so in Prayer Fulgentius saith of faith Incipit infundi ut incipiat posci A man cannot have faith without asking neither can he aske it without faith 2. When I name the word for a means to beget an increase of faith I mean the written word to exclude all unwritten traditions and all written legends which the tel-tale Church of Rome hath coyned to gull the swallowing credulity of the misled ignorants that is the books of Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament of which the Apostle saith They are able to make a man wise to salvation and perfect throughly perfect to every good work 3. When I name the word a means of faith I must mean the Word understood by us for the Eunuch learns nothing of Isaiah the Prophet by reading him without understanding And I wonder that ever the Church of Rome could so befool and infatuate the judgements of men to believe that either hearing a forme of service or praying in a strange tongue could carry any validity in them except they did conceive or do believe that such hearing and praying have power of incantation Therefore there is required A translation of the word into our natural language or some other that we understand if we understand not the original And herein I must stirre you up to a thankful consideration of their profitable labours who have taken pains to translate the Bible to English for the common benefit of you all that you may read the Scriptures and exercise your selves in the study of them and examine the doctrines that you hear by them Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers who put such a thing as this into the heart of our Kings Majesty to set this work afoot and to see it finished Herein also I must commend unto you the easinesse and perspicuity of Scripture for if God had not left the way of salvation open but had shut it up in such clouds of obscurity that we must needs have a guide to light us the way to the lanthorn why would David have called the Word it selfe A Lanthorne to our feet Therefore let no man be discouraged from his own private studying of Scriptures for feare of their hardnesse It is no better then idlenesse and shuffling to say the Scriptures are too deep for me I will not meddle with them Christ commandeth Search the Scriptures is he not Antichrist that saith do not thou shalt not search I say and believe that the Word only read over by us or to us without the help of any Comment or Sermon or Exposition of it is a Lanthorne and giveth light to the simple Much more the Word with good Commentaries and written Expositions Much more the Word preached by learned and judicious Preachers which know how to divide the same aright those be called fellow-labourers with God Angels of God the salt of the earth the light of the world and even Saviours of men and because of their labour in the Word and oversight of the People honour double honour is allowed to them by the Apostle Saint Paul This point is of great use 1. To us that are Ministers of the Word for it layeth a necessity upon us and wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel I am sure the Apostle putteth it home to Timothy I charge thee before
hateful to God and therefore no friend to man He might have suspected the forbidden fruit to have had some poysonous quality when God said quâ die comederis morte morieris but he knew by that full knowledge that he had of the creatures that it was good and wholsome for meat But the more we honour God in the perfection of his creation the more we dishonour man in the precipitation of his fall surely he stumbled not he fell not for want of light he fell in the day as it will after follow But much of this knowledge survived his innocency and no doubt but the Angels that fell had and have much more knowledge then men now have 2. His holinesse was also compleat for that Maker is not author imperfecti operis of an imperfect work he did nothing but it was bonum valde very good surely I doubt not to affirme that there was as full and as great perfection of holinesse and righteousnesse in Adam in the state of his innocencie as was in Jesus Christ for God was well pleased in them both The difference was this Adam was a meer creature and his height of honour was the image of his Maker but Christ was man not united by way of similitude with the image of God but by way of personal union with the nature of the Godhead so that Adams holinesse was changable but Christs holinesse was not This holinesse and righteousnesse consisted in a sincere purity of the creature within himself and in a totall conformity to the will of God The exaltation of Gods favour to him went no higher so high it did go Adam might have kept him so to this day and for ever if he would The reason of this mutability in the state of man was because he was made of earth which was made of nothing and therefore could not participate of the immutability of God as it did of his goodnesse and holinesse Considering man thus in his state of innocency we shall finde that all Adams posterity was then in him and in his person was the whole nature of mankinde so that the whole nature either stood or fell in him and was either in his standing to hold the innocency of creation or in his fall to lose the same By this light we see the goodnesse and love and wisdome of God in the creation of man and here is the ground laid of his justice also for there is no necessity laid upon man that he must fall and being thus set up he cannot break but by his own ill husbandry of the talent of grace that is given to him for what would he have more God may say of this Vine what could I have done more to it then I did he may be eternally and unchangably happy if he will 2. The misery of our fall and therein 1. How we may know it 2. What it is 1. Whow we may know it It is properly the work of the Law to declare to man how miserable he is so saith the Apostle Rom. 7.7 I knew not sin but by the Law for I had not known lust except the Law had said non concupisces Thou shalt not covet Therefore to work faith in us the spirit of God doth preach the Law to the conscience and teacheth us to examine and try our wayes by the Law not literally as they of old did whom Christ reproveth but according to the full scope of the Law which aimeth not at the boughs and exuberant branches of sin but is an axe laid to the root thereof and telleth us how miscrable we are declaring 2. What this misery is 1. In the infection 2 In the wages 1. In the infection Thus the Law declareth us guilty 1. In original sinne 2. In sinnes of omission 3. In sinnes of evil motion 4. In sinnes of evil affection 5. In sinnes of evil action 1. In original sin The Law declareth Adam a transgressour and therein a corrupter not only of his own person but of the whole nature of mankind because having Free will to have kept the good estate in which he was created by prevarication of the Law he fell from the chief good and thereby infected and polluted his posterity so that ever since no clean thing could derive it self from that which is unclean This sin hath produced these effects in man 1. The image of God is much blemished in him for insteed of that full knowledge which he had he reteineth only some principles which be called the law of God written in the heart which do serve to make a man without excuse in the day of his judgment because he cannot deny but that he knew a Godhead and knew good and evill in some measure Video meliora proboque For the invisible things of God his eternal power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world Rom. 1.19 being considered in his works And that law Do as thou wouldest be done to serveth us to distinguish between good and evill in many things So though there be a totall privation of our light yet is there a dark cloud overshadowing us For now the naturall man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.14 neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Not that we are sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves 2 Cor. 3.5 2. And from hence it cometh that we mistake our way often and that is not always the nearest and best way that is the fairest and broadest and most trodden Pro. 14.12 There is away that seemeth good in the eyes of men but the end thereof is death For the wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God Rom. 8.7 for it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be 2. The image of God in the Will 1. There followeth a natural inclination rather to evil then to good and men naturally do bestow their wits rather to project evil then good for the minde and conscience is defiled Tit. 1.15 Eph. 4.17 For there is naturally a vanity in the understanding So it may be said They are wise to do evill but to do well they have no knowledge Jer. 4.22 2. In the Will the image of God is blemished For we shall find in our selves a reluctation against God all the service of God naturally doth bring a wearinesse upon us and nothing doth terrify so much with fear of difficulty as good works This is called Originall sin because it runneth in the same stream with our bloud and we derive it from our faulty progenitours which the Apostle calleth The sin that hangeth so fast on Heb. 12.1 Rom. 7.7 Saint Paul calleth it peccatum habitans in me sinne dwelling in me Corpus peccati Lex membrorum Concupiscentia And the whole corruption of man deriveth it self from this head so that we are born by nature children of wrath for who can draw that which is clean from that
then should keep thee from this remedy 1. Consider that there is no man in better case then thou by nature for all have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God 2. Confider that this remedy is without thy self if it were of thy self thou hadst cause to distaste it but it is the free offer of Gods grace to thee 3. Consider that the giver of the Remedy is the giver of faith also by which the remedy is apprehended and applyed and if thou do not feel this faith in thy self do not judge thy self void of it for there may be and is faith often where is no feeling thereof 4. Tarry the Lords leasure as before wait for the vision will not lye How long lay the poore man at the Poole of Bethesda and though still hindered yet was he not without hope We must not part the truth of God and his justice and mercy for the truth of God bindeth both the threatnings of his judgement and the truth of his mercy Thus is the faith of the Elect given and nourished in us 2. How our faith may be proved Because there may be a shew and seeming of faith where the true substance thereof is wanting the best way to try our faith is by the true touchstone for as gold is tried by the touch so faith which is much more precious then gold that perisheth hath a proper touchstone to try it 1 Pet. 1.7 1. That is the conscience of man within for that doth declare to himself his faith 2. That is good conversation and godly life for that doth declare our faith to men 1. A good Conscience For being justified by faith we have peace toward God Rom. 5. This peace a wicked man cannot have Non est pax impio saith God No peace to the wicked Against this is a double objection 1. Many wicked men have quiet hearts and aile nothing Object they are not humbled like other men they are not poured from vessel to vessel therefore their sent remaineth in them The effect of true peace is joy in the Holy Ghost Sol. The wicked mans joy is not such it is but a flash it is neitâ—â—â—â—ound for when any tryal cometh it faileth neither is â—t 〈…〉 for it perisheth in time neither is it growing and increâ—â—â—â—g neither is it excusing 2. Many of the best of Gods servants have their minds troubled and suffer great distresses in their conscience for sinne Object 2 yea such a winter there is upon their souls that they feel not any life of grace at all in them True but observe from whence this ariseth Sol. even from the warre of the spirit against the flesh the world and the devil in which conflict often times the spirit is daunted and dismayed for a season but there is ever joy in tribulations and joy arising and growing out of sorrowes whereas the hearts of them that have not Faith dye in them And this fire is from heaven the covering of it with oppressions doth make it burn so much the hotter and the strring of it up with temptations doth make it shine the clearer so that peace of conscience is a sure signe of a good Faith 2. Another touch-stone for this gold this Faith is an evidence of godly conversation to approve our selves to God and man both by doing all the duties of a godly life and avoyding the contrary This is the only work of Faith in us 1. The pit whence we draw this water of life is deep the bucket by which we fetch it up is Faith for whatsoever desire or strength we have or endeavour to live godly it is an extraction drawn by our Faith from Jesus Christ I live by Faith in the same God 2. Faith only doth assure to us the loving kindnesse of God God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son c. Ecce quantam charitatem what eye shall behold this but the eye of Faith 3. Faith worketh love that is it breedeth a correspondence between Christ and us for the beleeving soul assured of Christs love to it doth cast about within it self quid rependam and finding nothing to recompence that love it seeketh how God may be pleased and walketh in that way so neer as he can So it is said of the faithful that they walk with God and they answer every temptation to evill as Joseph did How shall I do this and sin agaâ—â—â—â—â—â—d Or if by infiâ—â—â— â—hey fall they cry God mercy and they groan and grieâ—â—â—â—hin themselves that they cannot performe better service to God Thus we love God 1 Joh. 4.19 Luk. 7 47. because he loved us first And Christ said Many sins are forgiven her quia dilexit multum This is a fruit of the Holy Ghost shed abroad in our hearts by faith Observe it when faith doth lie concealed in us that our selves cannot discern it yet may we discern in our selves our love of God and of such as love God and this proves Gods love to us for we could not love him except he loved us first 4. Faith maketh us sincere for it is the notation of our faith it is called faith unfained and Christ saith Blessed be the pure in heart faith purifieth the heart as the Apostle saith These are not the generation of them that are pure in their own eyes of which Solomon spake but the other of which David his father spake Haec est generatio quaerentium faciem tuam Seeing there cannot be perfectio operis the perfection of works God is pleased if there be puritas cordis purity of heart 2 Cor. 1.12 which the Apostle calleth Simplicitie and godly purenesse And that is known by these signes 1. If a man be humbled in true contrition for sins which he knoweth himself guilty of and hath no peace in his heart till he hath comfort in his conscience that God hath forgiven them 2. If he consider his own weaknesse so farre as to acknowledge that he committeth many sins that he knoweth not and prayeth earnestly and often with David à secretis meis munda me cleanse me from my secret sins 3. If he finde in his heart a present strife of his spirit against the flesh wrastling with his own corruptions and not suffering sin to reign in his mortal body leading him captive to the Law of sinne 4. If he finde him watchful to prayer and fasting and watching and all exercises of mortification striving to bring his body in subjection to the law of God 5. If he be willing to hide the word of God in his heart to arme him against Satans temptations as Christ did with scriptum est it is written 6. If he finde a desire of perseverance therein to the end which is discerned by his spiritual growth from grace to grace bringing forth more fruit even in age as Christ testifieth of the Church of Thyatira more at the last then at the first Rev. 2.19 For he that beleeveth in
gold that is tried will be divided from the drosse and that drosse deserveth a melting If the punishment be for example know that God will never give so ill example as to punish an innocent If men do like men in execution of Gods judgments know that God knows why he suffereth them so to do for he searcheth the hearts and reins Thus many condemned to death by the law according to probable evidence professe their innocency at their death yet can finde in the book of their conscience evidence enough to condemne them worthy of death for something else The use of all is seeing God is just and punisheth not but where he findeth sin stand in awe sinne not Vse do your best to keep from the infection lest you come under the dominion of sinne abstaine from all appearance of evill from the occasions and means of offence resist Satan quench not the spirit that should help your infirmities redeem the time in which you should do good and strive to enter into that rest Thus doing what punishment soever we suffer it is rather the visitation of peace then the rod of fury and God will turn it to our good The punishment here threatned 1. Just reprehension shall not all these take up a parable against them and say woe to him that encreaseth that which is not his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I remember the question of our Saviour to his Disciples Whom say men what I the Son of man am It is wisdome for any private man more for a great State to enquire what fame it hath abroad The wisdome of State is such as one government hath an eye to another I speak not only of confederate Nations which have lidger eyes in each others Common-wealth but even of enemy-states and such as stand neither in termes of hostility nor in termes of confederacy they have their secret intelligence and thus they know and judge each of other Nebuchadnezzar was a most potent Prince yet his neighbours did not approve his wisdome they did condemne his violence and cry out wo be to him I understand this to be a great punishment to this mighty King to be justly condemned for injustice and to deserve the curse of his neighbouring Nations For extremes do ever carry the evill words and the evill wishes of all that love vertue and they cry woe to him that encreaseth greedily and covetously that which is not his and woe to him that wasteth prodigally that which is not his The wisdome of policie doth hold violence and oppression hateful in great Princes and it calleth them pusillanimous and idle that will not stirre in the just defence of their own But there is sapientia saeculi hujus the wisdome of this world which calleth all his own which he can compasse directly or indirectly justly or unjustly which Saint Paul doth call enmity with God just Princes are tender in that pursuit holding that axiome of Caesar irreligious and unjust Si jus violandum regni causa And therefore sapientia quae est desuper the wisdome from above cryeth hand off invade not usurp not aliena jura other mens rights be content with thine own for woe be to him that increaseth non sua that which is none of his own Princes that manage the sword of justice which is gladius Dei the sword of God must be tender how they draw that sword against God that committed it to them and every attempt that their power maketh for that which is not theirs doth arme it self against God Mr. Calvine observeth well Manent aliqua in cordibus hominum Justitiae aequitatis principa ideo consensus gentium est quaedam vox naturae there abideth in the hearts of men certaine principles of justice therefore the consent of Nations is a certain voyce of nature Those Princes that care not what Nations do think and speak of them but pursue their own ends against the streame and tyde of Jus naturale natural right do run themselves upon the just reprehension of other States which wise and religious Princes do labour to avoid 1. Because the private conscience in these publike persons can have no inward peace where publike equity is violated 2. Because the old rule of justice is built upon the divine equity of nature and confirmed by experience of time that Male parta facilè dilabantur evill gotten goods soon consume 3. Because all that love this jus naturale will soon finde both will and means to resist encroachments fearing their own particular as all hands work to quench a fire But what cares Nebuchadnezzar or Alexander or Iulius Caesar so they may adde Kingdom to Kingdom and what cares his holinesse of Rome so that he may be Universal Bishop what other Kings and Bishops say of them To make this point profitable to our selves for we speak to private persons The Rule is general All that encrease their own private estate by oppression and injustice multiplying that which is not theirs making prize of all that they can extort from their brethren buying them out of house and home wearying them with suits of molestation spending the strength of their bodies with immoderate labours at so short wages as will not sustaine them with things necessary Such though their power do bear them out in their unjustice yet do they undergo the hard opinion and censure of all that love righteousnesse and they do bear the burthen of many curses Let them lay this to heart and take it for a punishment from the hand of God 2. The Derision Taunted What do these men but lade themselves with thick clay This also may passe for a sharp punishment Kings and great persons are not priviledged from the tooth of a Satyre from the keene edge of an Epigram from the bold affront of a libel We live in the age of fresh and quick wits wherein it is not an easie thing for eminent persons to do evill and to escape tongue smiting and wit blasting pens and pencils a hand up to blazon great ones and their actions and inferiour persons want not eyes upon them to behold them nor censures to judge them nor rods to whip them I must not draw from this place any authority to legitimate contumelies and disgraces and that which we call breaking of bitter jests upon another selling our salt cheap 1. Therefore understand that bitter Taunts Satyrs and Libels may be evill and unlawful and yet God may make a good use of them to lash and scourge those that deserve ill and they that are so girded and jerkt shall do well to do as David did to confesse that God sent Shimei to curse and as for Shimei he shall see that God will finde a time to pay him too That this is a punishment sent from the hand of God we have full evidence from the witnesse of Holy Scripture even in this case The Prophet Isay threatneth the Chaldeans with this judgement Thou shalt take up this Proverb the Margent
readeth This taunting speech against the King of Babel How hath the oppressor ceased the golden City ceased c. You see in derision she is called the golden City Isa 14.4 And after All they shall speak and say unto thee Vers 10. Art thou also become weak as we art thou also become like unto us How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer Vers 12. c. Thus the great glory of the mighty Monarchy is become ludibrium vulgi fabula mundi the scoffe of the vulgar and the tale of the world So Jeremy declareth that this shall be one part of the punishment of Babylon she shall be laughed to scorne read at your leasures the 50. and 51. of Ieremy Amongst many salt and sharp taunts spent upon Babel this is one for a taste Babylon is suddenly fallen Jer. 51.8 and destroyed howle for her take balm for her paine if she may be healed It is Davids phrase But thou O Lord shall laugh at them Psal 59 8. thou shalt have all the heathen in derision It was no small part of the passion of Jesus Christ the subsannations and scornful derisions of his enemies they made sport with him as the Philistims did with Sampson Thou that couldest build the Temple Come down c. It pleaseth God sometimes to suffer his good servants to be tongue â—â—â—itten as we see in the example of David and of Jeremy and Job and others And we have many examples of his permission of it in the punishment of the wicked This doth not justifie contumelies or make libels and scandalous derisions lawful but it declareth them to be the rods of God Therefore let men tender their reputations and do that which is right in their places be they high or lo that they may not deserve ill of the times in which they live that they may have good report of all men and of the truth it self Amongst other things which by way of caution we may take warning of 1. Let them that would live out of the danger of scorne and derision apply themselves to glorify God in their bodies and in their souls and to honour him for God hath spoken it He that honoureth me him will I honour 1 Sam. 2.30 but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 2. Let such take care that they be no despisers of their brethren that they sit not in the chaire of the scornful for the wages of the scorner is scorne and they that trust in themselves and despise others go away from the sight of God unjustified Can pride have a fall and the lookers on not laugh them to scorne 3. Let such keep a good tongue in their own heads for many fair pretenders of Religion and outward professors are as long as Pambo in Eusebius taking out of that lesson from David Servabo circa os meum capistrum ne peccem lingua I will set a watch c. It was in fashion while that they that sought as they pretended Reformation of the Church sought it in the way of libelling and breaking jests upon the Prelates and Malignants of the Church But St. James telleth us That if any among us seem to be religious Jam. 1.26 and refraineth not his tongue that mans religion is in vain 4. Let such take out the lesson of the Apostle Cor. 4.6 Let their speach alway be with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man This is the seasoning of wisdom from above which being the breath of the holy Ghost which is the spirit of meeknesse doth rather put the burthens of our brethren upon us in Christian compassion then heap burthens upon them in spight and disdain 2. Yet I do not determine all sharp and satyrical tartnesse of speach unlawful the acrimonie of a taunt hath sometimes due place and it may be some of the fire from Gods own Altar when they do not proceed from anger envy desire of revenge vaine ostentation of wit flattery of others whom it may please pride of our own hearts When Adam had transgressed and God had laid his curse upon him God said Behold the man is become like one of us to know good and evill Gen. 3.22 St Augustine saith Verba sunt insultantis quòd non solùm factus fuerit qualis esse voluit sed nec illud quod factus fuerat conservavit God derideth the folly of man fallen away from him It is said of Eliah And it came to passe at noon that Eliah awaked them 1 Reg 18.27 and said cry aloud for he is a God either he is talking or he is pursuing or hee is in a journey or peradventure hee sleepeth and must bee awakeed So the Prophet Isaiah plays upon the Idolmakers and Idolaters as if he had one of our Papists in hand For he sets a man upon the stage having cut down a tree He burneth part of it in the fire Is 44.16 with part thereof he eateth flesh he rosteth rost and is satisfied yea he warmeth himself and sayeth Aha I am warme I have seen the fire And the residue thereof he maketh a god Vers 17. even his graven image he falleth down to it and worshippeth it and prayeth to it and saith deliver me for thou art my god You see what sport the Prophet maketh with Idolaters and sure he had the Spirit of God The Apocryphal book of Baruch 6. chap. is a very pleasant bitternesse against Idols and Idolaters Surely this example in my Text is justifiable for it taxeth the covetous oppressours of the earth for fools that take so much pain and do so much wrong to load themselves with thick clay But is it not an injury to Almighty God Object to set no higher price and to give no better tittle to the richest of all mettels that which God himself was pleased should be used in the choice vessels and ornaments of his own house then thus to indignifie it I answer Sol. the Prophet doth not indignifie the creature but as God said to man Pulvis es thou art dust and he told him true out of what materials the frame of his body was built so it is no disgrace to gold to call it thick clay it being no other in the matter of it And howsoever good use may be made of these outward riches yet are they never to be esteemed for themselves but for their use which if men on earth could once understand and beleive they would not set their hearts upon them Saint Peter calleth them Corruptible things 1 Pet. 1.18 1 Tim. 6.57 Saint Paul calleth them Vncertain riches Every man is easily drawn to study and labour to the getting of this burthen and so insatiable in desire that few say with Esau I have enough There is a singular wisdom in the use of riches which few do seek because they do not understand for what this thick clay serveth In the Latine phrase all those
my People have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters Jer. 2.13 and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water Again this Take heed least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 The heart that distrusteth in God departeth from him therefore he saith it is a People that do erre in their hearts because they have not known my ways The corruption then is in the heart for if that did love truly it would trust God wholly for where we love faithfully we trust boldly But the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 That answereth his question Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Infidelity is the root of all evils in us for we cannot fear any threatning where we do not believe any danger We cannot hope for any benefit where we do not believe any promise for infidelity doth take away all wise do me from us This makes us to withdraw our selves from the Lord and it is a note of the wicked man neither is God in all his wayes Thus saith the Lord Jer. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert Vers 6. and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parched places in the wildernesse in a salt land and not inhabited Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord Vers 7. and whose hope the Lord is For he shall be a tree planted by the waters Vers 8. and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leafe shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yeilding fruit I need not say more of this Argument Here is reason enough given why you should commit your way to the Lord why you should cast your care upon him why you should not leave him to trust to your selves David saith He made us and not we our selves he saw us imperfect in the wombe he fashioned us Thy hands have made me and fashioned me he took me from the Wombe He addeth Vpon thee have I depended ever since I hung upon the breasts of my mother When we are hungry he giveth bread that strengthneth mans heart When we had not wit and understanding to shift for our selves who fed and cloathed and preserved us then surely his hand is not shortned but his arme is stretched out still Suppose that without him we could get bread Man liveth not by bread only Suppose that without him we could sowe much seed It is only he that giveth increase Let us observe the examples of Gods judgments upon such as forsake God and trust their money or their friends or corrupt means to preserve them One day telleth another The Chaldaeans trust not in God their own net is their god their own yarn is their idol they kisse their own hands But fear yee the Lord all his Saints and trust in him for he never faileth them that trust in him I have blamed some for buying and selling on the Sabbah They have answered that they are poor and are forced to it to help to feed them Is not this infidelity they dare not trust God for their meat they dare trust to their own ways against the precise Commandment of God Unlawful recreations on the Sabbath are so defended poor labouring men that work all the six days must have some time to refresh themselves But I would fain know by what indulgence they may dispense with the law of the Sabbath God hath bidden thee to remember to keep the whole day holy if thy recreations be holy thou keepest the law if unholy thou breakest it When some are detected of fraud and theft their plea is their necessity Here is a root of infidelity for doth God lay a necessity upon any man to break his law He hath laid on thee a necessity of labour if that will not do he hath given the rich charge of thee The truth is that this root of infidelity doth yet remain in the hearts of most of us and is the cause of all the sins that are committed For the light of the Gospel doth shine much more clear now then ever it did in this land and the knowledge of the truth is more spred then ever before here Yet never was there greater corruption of manners nor more cunning shifts devised for the advancing of mens particulars The crying sins of the Jews Injuries done between man and man Corruption and contempt of Religion Corruption of Justice To all these our land doth plead guilty Where 's the fault Have you not heard have you not been taught the ways of the Lord have you not been admonish't of your duty have you not been chidden and threatned for these things hath not the seal of Gods judgments written within and without with lamentations mourning and wo been opened and read to you Hath not God rained examples thick of his justice and judgment against high and low for these things why then is not this amended There is a root of infidelity we do not we dare not trust God and from hence comes 1. In some Atheisme they live without God in the world 2. In others Epicurisme they live all to delight 3. In others temporizing and following and serving men 4. In others heresie embracing their own opinions 5. In others Apostacy from religion and faith 6. In others hypocrisie seeming what they are not 7. In most carnal security not caring for threatnings 8. In many wilful ignorance not caring for the knowledge of God But thou man and woman of God fly these things know the Lord the more thou knowest him the more thou lovest him the more thou servest him the more thou trustest him and the more he blesseth thee 2. Ambition that he may set his nest on high Ambition is a limbe of pride and it is well set forth in my text it is a building of a nest on high it is but a nest that the ambitious man doth set up but he would have it high to overlook all yet that doth not make it safe for there be clouds that can carry fire from below to consume it and there is lightning from above to inflame it and there is tempests and strong winds to shake it And the axe is laid to the root of the tree in which the nest is built and with the fall of that tree the nest comes to the ground The highest tree for a subject to build his nest in is the favour of the Prince yet David saith Trust not in Princes for there is no help in them their breath departeth they return to the earth and their thoughts perish It may be that he that fitteth next in the
is the fence about it and prosperity the demesnes belonging to it And the guard of Angels pitch their ten t s round about it This house is built upon a rock yet it must endure the winds and waves 3. This hath deceived many for they have thought unrighteousnesse the better and safer way because they have seen the wicked flourishing and spreading like to a green bay-tree Job disturbeth them in their ruffe and glory and fulnesse and fatnesse Their houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them It goeth pleasantly for two or three Verses but vers 13. in a moment they go down to the grave Job 20.9 It is an admirable wisdom that Job hath recorded to direct our observation of such Lo their good is not in their hand They are not masters of their happy estate which he proveth Vers 16. How oft is the candle of the wicked put out it is but a candle and it is put out often for God distributeth sorrowes in his anger God is angry he doth not cover them over with sorrows and and overwhelme them with woe here but he distributes sorrow giving them some lucida intervalla This varnish and paint and guilding Vers 17. of unrighteousnesse with temporal happinesse doth make it deceive many A brutish man knoweth not Psal 92.6 neither doth a fool understand this When the wicked spring as the grasse and all the workers of iniquity flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever Who would have thought it every man saith when he seeth pride have a fall no for the Psalmist saith Thy thought are very deep Here God himself declareth that ambition shall end in shame and the candle of the wicked when it is put out will end in a foule and stinking smoak 4. This admisheth and exhorteth all that love their houses and study their own honour to seek it in the way of piety and charity let such serve God let them not neglect the Lords house the Lords day the Lords Table let them suffer their brethren to dwell in peace by them and to grow up with them and to be the better for them It is not the riches that we leave behind us to our heirs that doth build our house but that we bestow well to the honour of God and the good of our brethren where we live You shall see it in our Saviours sentence I was hungry and you fed me Matth. 25.35 I was naked and ye cloathed me c. Not the meat that we do eat our selves nor the cloathes that we do wear out selves nor the mony and land that we demise to our posterity maketh us friends in the day of the Lord but what we dispose A worthy Citizen of our City that had been his own steward of his goods and disposed them to many charitable uses was his own Poet for his Epitaph and caused this line among others to be insculped on his grave That I gave that I have Which calls to my remembrance a story that I read in Peraldus Bishop of Lyons in France How a great Lord thinking his tenant somewhat too rich and meaning to share with him required of him a true inventory of his estate and what his wealth was He answered it was in all 600 crowns it was objected that he dissembled his estate such a grange such a house such a farm and many other things of good value belonging to him were not named he answered Illa non sunt mea sed Domini mei qui quando voluerit potest ea accipere sed quod dedi pro Deo in manus pauperum in salvâ custodiâ posui it a quod nullus potest mihi illud auferre These are not mine but my Lords who when he please may take them from me but what I have for God given to the poor I have laid that in safe custody so as none is able to take that from me The riches wherewith we honour God do build our house always provided that they be riches well gotten for if charity have been violated in the getting of wealth the charity of giving it away to the poor will not redeem the breach of justice Justice must ever go before charity in the dispensation of our goods First Suum cuique to every one his own then Tuum thy own so Zachaeus He beganne at reddo I restore and from thence went to do I give 2. Punishment And hast sinned against thy soul The meaning as I take it is that all this evil shall one day smart upon the soul of the Chaldeans The doctrine is Doctr. All sins committed against the law of God are done against the souls of them that commit them The committers of sin are of two sorts 1. The Elect 2. The Reprobate The Elect sin against their souls 1. Culpa In the fault 2. Poena In the punishment 1. Propter culpam In regard of the fault 1. Because every sin that a man committeth doth defile the soul and polluteth the temple where the holy Ghost should dwel so that Christ saith to every soul except I wash thee thou hast no part with me 2. Because every sin that a man committeth doth hinder the influence of grace and maketh the soul the more uncapable of light and heat from the Son of righteousnesse For every sin is an eclipse of that Sun which is thus proved 1. In our hearing of the word if we be either like the high way where the seed is lost quite Mat. 13.3 or like the stony ground where the seed cannot take root or like the thorny ground where it may take root and spring up but is choaked in the growth the good seed never cometh to an harvest Our sins must be removed to make the soil good and fruitful 2. In our prayer If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear me Psa 66.18 3. In our receiving the Sacrament 1 Cor. ii 29. If I eat and drink unworthily I eat and drink damnation 4. In almes If I do it to be seen of men I lose my reward Mat. 6.1 For I have it here Sin is leaven it corrupteth the whole soul of man and maketh it a trespasser in all that it doth so that the elect man in respect of his fault doth sinne against his own soul and defileth it 2. Propter poenam In respect of the punishment 1. Because it bringeth forth guilt of conscience which maketh us confounded and ashamed in our selves so that we dare not lift up our eyes to heaven nor look our God in the face whose mercy we have abused whose anger we have provoked whose goodnesse we have offended 2. Because sin maketh matter of sorrow in the soul of the offendor and a godly sorrow troubleth and disquieteth the soul within us In that case was Job Peccavi quid faciam tibi quòd feci I have sinned Job 7.20 what shall I do unto thee 3. Because the
day and night and thou shalt have none assurance of thy life In the morning thou shalt say would God it were even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart which thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see Here is unquietnesse even upon the bed of rest the reason is given Isa 28.20 For the bed is shorter then a man can stretch himself on it and the Covering narrower then he can wrap himself in it For there is no Peace to the wicked man It is one of Satans suggestions that the way of righteousnesse is painful and denieth a man the content of his heart And from hence arise these flattering temptations Shall I labour and travel all my days to sustain my life with mine own pains when a little violence will strip my neighbour out of all that he hath gotten together and make it mine own Shall I make conscience of an oath or a lye when it may get me more wealth in an houre then my labour shall earne in a year Shall I work my self when I may make prize of the labours of other men and drink down merrily the sweat of others brows Shall I sit low and be despised in the world when I may lay my neighbours on heaps under me and raise up my self upon their ruines Shall I undergo the charge of a family and the care of posterity when rich gifts and fair words may subdue change of beauties to my welcome desires and lusts of the flesh Shall I expect a slow and lingring advancement by the worth of vertue in the service of God when I see the servants of Mammon carry all honours and preferments before them Shall I be humble when I see the proud happy Mal. 3.15 shall I live a godly life when they that work wickednesse are built Let us here observe how these wicked ones do work to compasse their ends they labour in the very fire the fire of hell The Way of Peace they have not known 2. The next point casteth up the account of their gettings and it is anoughts a meer Cypher in Arithmetick Vanity very Vanity Is it riches then is it a thing corruptible it is a thing uncertain and little of it is for use and what profit hath the Possessor thereof in the surplusage but the beholding thereof with his eye When a man considers his wealth gotten by oppression and injury how can he but think it may be so lost as it was gotten Is it the favour of Princes and great men True they be gods upon earth but they die like men at last and they change their minds often before they die One day Haman rides about in Pompe he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mordecay waiteth at the lane gate another day Mordecay is set upon the Kings beast and Haman leadeth the horse and proclaimeth him honourable and the next day Haman is hanged and Mordecai rules all under the King Is it honour that thou labourest for that also is vanity Honour is in honorante as Aristotle saith it is very unhappy for a man to have his honour without himself his pride within him and his happinesse without him Wise Salomon that had all temporal felicitie in the fullest measure and all of the gift of God yet called all those things Vanity of Vanities I will shut up this point in the words of David Doubtlesse man walketh in a shadow and disquieteth himself in vain Ps 39.6 3. Is it not of the Lord Many crosse betydings befall the ungodly and they never observe who opposeth them It is the Lord that bringeth all the labours of the ungodly to losse and vanity that when they come to thrash their crop of travel in the world they find nothing but strawe and chaffe To expresse his power to do this he is here called the God of Hosts for all things serve him and he resisteth the proud he and his Hosts He layeth their honours in the dust he disperseth their riches and giveth them to the poor he spoiled them of all their treasures he that exalted them made them low he that gave to them taketh away They had need be made to see this therefore he saith Nonne ecce à Domino hoc is it not of the Lord In the time of the Persecutions under the bloody Emperours if at any time they succeeded not in their wars they cried Christiani ad furcas ad leones Christians to the gallows to the lyons they saw not the hand of God against them this makes Balaam smite his Asse he seeth not Gods Angel In the processe of humane affairs they that go on in these sins which God himself threatneth with woe though they find these sins profitable and to afford them large revenews that they live plentifully upon the wages of unrighteousnesse yet have they many crosses in their ways many great losses they sustain these they impute to second causes and lay great blame upon those whom they do oppresse because they stand not to it whilst oppression grindeth them they observe not the hand of God against them yet saith God Is it not of the Lord of Hosts that they weary themselves for very vanity It is a great matter to know who it is that protecteth his servants that crosseth the designes of their enemies David prayeth for Gods saving help to them and That they may know that this is thy hand Ps 109 27 that thou Lord hast done it For let all offenders in this kind of oppression and indeed in all kinds of bold and presumptuous sins know that they sin with an high hand They are a People that provoke God to anger continually to his face Isa 65.3 if you observe the text well you will find two things in it and they are two great judgments and both of the Lord. 1. Is it not of the Lord of Hostes that the People shall labour in the very fire and shall weary themselves 2. Is it not of the Lord of Hosts that the People shall labour for very vanity For the hand of God is in both for their punishment both in putting them to extreme labour and in turning all their labour into vanity He asketh the question as if he should say Come now and let us reason together to what do you impute it that this People take such pains and prosper so ill do you not perceive that Gods hand is in it and that I the Lord do undo all that they do 1. It is of the Lord that they labour in the fire For God saith Ego creo malum labour and travel is the curse of man the wages of sin In labore vesceris in sudore vultus Here is fire that melteth and dissolveth us into water All the pains that is taken here on earth to do evil is of the Lord. 1. In respect of the strength and wit used therein for in him we live and move he planted
the eare c. 2. In respect of his permission for he hath chains to bind up Satan and his instruments and he can carry snares when he will to catch sinners This is not approbation but toleration for a time 3. It is of the Lord in respect of his will for he scourgeth a man with his own sins in just judgement and letteth the wicked wear out themselves with extreme labours for their punishment Whereas if he have a favour to any he cals upon them It is vain for you to rise up early Ps 127.2 to sit up late to eat the bread of sorrows for he giveth his beloved sleep And our Saviour saith Nolite sollicitiesse Be ye not careful But the Aegyptians shall gather Jewels of silver Ex. 14.25 and Jewels of gold together it is of the Lord and they shall pursue Israel into the sea and to make them work he took off their charet wheels that they drave them heavily 2. It is of the Lord that all their labour is lost For the Jewels of Gold and Jewels of silver which the Aegyptians have gathered the Israelites shall carry away And they and their chariots which they have driven long shall all be covered with the sea The Prophet putteth them together Thou shalt sow but thou shalt not reap Mic. 6.15 thou shalt tread the Olives but shalt not annoint thee with the oyle and sweet wine but thou shalt not drink wine For God professeth it I will walk contrary unto you Lev. 26 24 and punish you seven times for your sins It is a great wisedome in our labour to consider whither God be with us and walk with us or walk contrary to us Isa 57.2 For if we fear God and walk in his ways we are said to walk with God But if we do that which is evil in his sight and covet an evil covetousnesse to build our nests and to gather riches by unlawful means such as God in his word hath forbidden we shall see and find that God will walk contrary to us To proud man shall find that when he is at the highest God can cast him down The extortioner shall find that no bonds nor statutes will hold his debtors they will say we will break these bonds and cast away these cords from us The wanton shall find that the sins of his youth shall ake in the bones of his age and they that sow in wickednesse shall reap in shame There be many that meet with grievous inconveniencies in their life manifold crosses in their health in their friends in their children in the affairs of life especially such as concern their estate and they do not observe two things most of all to be heeded 1. That God walketh contrary to them and crosseth them 2. The cause why God doth so Here it is plain that these crosses are of the Lord and the Lord himself revealeth the cause and giveth account of his judgments for pride and covetousnesse c. Observe how the Prince of darknesse hath blinded our eyes 1. The sins that bring in profit and make the pot seeth 1. Suggest though Moses and his Prophets Christ and his Apostles do tell them that they are sins and such as lead the offenders to hell they will not believe them all against their profit but cry as the Ephesians did for Diana Great is Mammon this is called The deceitfulnesse of Riches Mat. 13.22 O Who hath bewitched the heart of man that he should value his soul for which Christ died at so low a rate that he will sell it for corruptible things So St. Peter cals and silver Forasmuch as yee know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as gold and silver 1 Pet. 1.18 2. These sins be thought little sins where they be confest 2 Suggest because they make a man able to make God some part of amends in almes and good works so the oppressour of his brethren turneth his oppressions into sacrifices as if oppressions of injury could be sacrifices of righteousnesse This suggestion seemeth supported by the words of Christ Give almes of such things as you have Luc. 11.41 and behold all things are clean to you So that he which hath congested wealth by oppression shall purifie all his goods by giving almes of part thereof They mistake our Saviour there observe him well he found the Pharisees faulty in this sinne here threatned with judgment for their outside was a fair Profession of Religion their inside was full of rapine and wickednesse 1. Our Saviour opposeth almes against rapine rapine corrupteth all the goods that we possesse even the fruits of our honest labours in our callings the fruits of our inheritance from our Parents goods unlawfully gotten from our brethren against the law and word of God do make all unclean they defile all and bring a rust and canker upon our treasure but charity by distribution of almes doth purifie and keep clean all our wealth 2. This charity must have matter to work upon and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is such things as are in our power we may give no almes de alieno of what is anothers and there is nothing in our power to dispose of but what we may rightly call our own this utterly despaireth the hope of the oppressor that he may make a sacrifice of his rapines And farther whereas the custome of gathering wealth by injury which robbeth our brethren doth passe it over lightly as a small sinne let me tell you that ill-gotten goods do bring such a sin upon a man as cannot be purged but with two Pills 1. Unfained repentance 2. Just restitution Observe it in Zachaeus he joyned charity and restitution his charity was of his own goods Dimidium bonorum meorum Luk. 19.8 It is theft what soever is not Gods gift and nothing is the gift of God but what is warrantable by the law and word of God For this a man that feareth God will rather be Gods Lazarus and beg crumbs then the Devils Dives and fair deliciously 3. The oppressors of their brethren that live at ease 3 Suggest and rest in plenty and surfet drinking the sweat of their brethrens faces and to use the phrase of David drinking the blood of their brethren when any crosse or losse betideth them because they observe some formal customary profession and practice of Religion they smooth it over with this comfort that God doth exercise the patience of his servants in this life with some tryals To whom I say take heed be not deceived take not that for an exercise of thy patience which is a punishment of thy sin 1. Thou mistakest God he is not thy friend but is contrary to thee 2. Thou mistakest thy self thou callest thee the servant of God no Mammon is thy God for thou goest against the word of God to gather wealth It is but a false worship that thou givest to God God loves
the Sunne shined on those that have made sport to behold men drunk or otherwise have made the most of it to their shame and disgrace amongst men who in the just punishment of their uncharitablenesse have themselves fallen into the same sin of drunkennesse and thereby have borne a shame and scandal to their profession this is Gods justice upon them they did not consider themselves they knew not the strength of the temptation they knew not their own weaknesse The greatest Professors of Religion are commonly the severest judges of their brethren for their zeale against sin and for the glory of God doth fill them with hatred of evill Yet let such consider themselves for if God see that their zeal begin once to burne up their charity he will leave them to themselves awhile and they shall see quo semine nati what they are For let all men know that the evill Angels are as much at Gods commandment as the good for omnia illi serviunt all things serve him and as it is said He will give his angels charge over thee so it is said likewise He cast upon them the fiercenesse of his anger Ps 78.49 wrath and indignation and terriblenes by sending evil Angels among them As we have the ministry of good Angels sent unto them that shall be heirs of salvation So God sendeth evill Angels also not only to Saul and to the false Prophets of Ahab but even to Adam in Paradise God sent him and to St. Paul the Angel of Satan These evill Angels sometimes come with suggestions to sin to try our strength that we may know how weak we are and somtimes they prevaile with Gods children that they may stand upon their guard and keep better watch But for the ungodly of the earth they emplunge them in the same sin that they do cause others to commit that the same disgrace and shame which they have done to their neighbour may reflect upon themselves Some have been so afraid of making God the author of evill because it is said Tradidit eos Deus God hath delivered them up that they have understood the Apostle to speak of that God who is called deus saeculi hujus the god of this world as the Manichees saw so much evill done and knew not how to free God from guiltinesse of it they therefore made duo principia two beginnings But that needs not It is likely that such a Father as is personated in the parable of the Prodigal could not but observe in the education of his son how thrifty he was like to prove yet such a father giving the portion of his goods which is a childs part to such a son and letting him take his journey into a far country is not accessary to his riotous living Augustine saith that the heart of man is harned by God Non impartiendo malitiam sed non largiendo gratiam not by instilling any malice but not giving grace He seeth the Chaldeans take delight in making men drunk ut nuditatem videant he letteth go the hold he hath of them for a time and leaveth them to themselves and that which was their sport is now their fault and their shame I say therefore againe consider your selves When thou seest a drunkard shaming himself as these here did consider whose light shineth in thy understanding to shew thee how foul a sinne that is consider that that is not enough for all drunkards know that drunkennesse is a sin consider whose grace it is that establisheth thy heart and keepeth thee from committing the same sin Insult not over thy brother deride him not discover him not to increase his shame rejoyce not against him rather bewaile his sin with the tears of thy soul seek by the spirit of meeknesse to restore him advise him friendly chide him lovingly For if thou who professest a severe life and to make conscience of thy wayes shouldest fall into this sin thy selfe thou wouldest not only shame thy person but thy profession also And indeed thou carriest about thee corpus peccati a body of sin thou hast the matter and stuffe of all sins within thee if grace do not aide and assist thee Lastly let me admonish you if any of you by occasion are over-taken at any time with this fault be of Davids mind Let the righteous smite me suffer a gentle chiding from your friends that love you and hate that evill in you Take it for a favour of God and think that it is he that speaketh to you in that reprehension Hearken not to those that flatter you in your sins Alexander in a drunken fit slew Clitus his beloved friend and faithful Counsellor Insteed of reproving his fault even then when he was fit to be wrought upon being sensible of it he had three flatterers Anaxarchus Aristander Calisthenes Anaxarchus an Epicurean Philosopher he told him that it was no matter he was a King and he might do what he list Aristander a Stoick Philosopher told him that it was not fault but fate that killed Clitus Calisthenes a Courtier sought to heale the soare with sweet words That is not the way to bring us to amendment of our evils a gentle discreet reprehension well taken will pierce the heart and fill it with comfort John the Baptist quis praenunciavit vobis ut fugeritis ab ira ventura who hath done you such a favour to prevent such a danger 3. Why doth God inflict punishment God giveth a reason of his severe proceeding against the Babylonians the violence of Lebanon and the spoyle of beasts which made them afraid and for the violence of the land c. Shewing that their cruelty to man and beast had provoked God against them to punish all their sins their pride covertousnes and drunkennesse You have heard of their cruelty at large before to men their very Cities were built with blood The Apostle saith Hath God care of oxen Here you see that God used the beasts of Lebanon for a terror to the enemy and now he declareth himself an avenger also of their quarrel because of the cruell spoyle that the Chaldeans did make amongst the beasts of Gods people God gave man Lordship over the beasts of the field he made him a lord to rule them not a tyrant to destroy them One saith upon those words of Solomon Pro. 12.10 a just man regardeth the life of his beast that seeing God hath put the beasts of the field in subjection to man that he must shew himself a lord 1. In pascendo providing necessary food for them 2. In parcendo using them favourably 3. In patiendo bearing with them in their kind 4. In compatiendo relieving them in their griefs 5. In compescendo restreining them from hurt 6. In conservando preserving them all we can This was the sinne of the Chaldeans they were destroyers and sought not only the ruine of the people of the land but the destruction also of their cattel that the meanes of living
canit By singing prayed and by praying sung So the 70 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But Tremelius and Junius read Oratio Habak Prophetae secundum odas mixtas That is not accommodated to any set kind of verse but mixt of sundry kinds And so they do not understand the word Sigionoth to be the the name of the instrument upon which it was sung but the name of the verse into which their prayer is digested As the Greeks and Latines had their severall kinds of verses Heroick Iambick Asclepediake Phaluciake and such like I cannot better expresse this to the understanding of the weakest judgment then by referring you to the varieties of verse in our English Psalmes that we sing in the Church for if they were all composed in one kind of verse they might all be sung to one tune Some have their set tunes and admit no other because they are of a severall kind of verse So I take it that this Sigionoth was the name of that kind of verse in which this Psalme was written Thus much of the words of the title The things which we may make profit of in this title are these 1 That the Prophet composeth a prayer for his own use and for the use of the people in captivity 2 That he putteth this prayer into a song or psalme Concerning the first The contemplation of the Justice of God in punishing the sins of his Church Doct. of the vengeance of God revenging the quarrels of his Church and of the mercy of God in healing the wounds of his Church and restoring it again to health doth give the Faithfull occasion to resort to God by prayer The reason is because these things well considered that God is just and mercifull do breed in us Fear and Faith which being well mingled in us cannot chuse but break forth into prayer Fear discerning the danger of his power wisely and Faith laying hold on the hand of his mercy strongly For howsoever Fear be an effect of weaknesse yet doth it serve to good use in the fitting of us to prayer because 1 Fear breedeth humility which is necessary in prayer as St. James adresseth Cast down your selves before the Lord and St. Peter Jam. 4.10 1 Pet. 5.6 Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God And howsoever the proud despise humility as too base a vertue for heroick and generous spirits St. Peter commendeth it for a speciall ornament Deck your selves inwardly in lowlinesse of mind 1 Pet. 5.5 That feare which is in the reprobate doth drive them quite away from God but the fear of the elect brings them to his hand and casteth them at his feet the Publican full of fear yet it had not power to keep him from the Temple nor from prayer rather because he feared he came to Church to pray 2 Fear breedeth in us a desire to approve our selves to God and keepeth us in awe setting both our sins always in our own sight and our selves in the sight of God which sheweth what need we have to fly to him 3 Fear doth serve for a spur to put us on and to mend our pace that we may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 run the way of Gods Commandements For men run for fear With this fear is joyned faith which layeth hold on the comfortable promises of God and so filleth us with the love of him that we resolve under the shadow of his wings we shall be safe This also doth break forth into prayer as the Prophet saith I believed therefore did I speake Fear directed by Faith will soon finde the face of God For fear humbleth us faith directeth this humiliation to the mighty hand of God Fear makes us ful of desire faith directeth our desire to God Fear makes us runne faith sheweth us the face of God and biddeth us runne thither and thus the contemplation of Gods justice and mercy doth fill the heart with zeale and the spirit of supplications as in this present example The Church seeth God remisse in forbearing them it feeleth God sharp in punishing them it discerneth him just in avenging them and it is promised mercy and favour in delivering them therefore the Prophet teacheth them to pray We are taught to think on these things 1 Vse which may move us to seek the face of our God and that is a work for the soul when it keepeth a Sabbath of rest unto the service of God as appeareth in the Psalme Psal 92. for the day wherein the Church doth consider the justice and mercie of God Our idle and wandring thoughts runne all the world over in vain imaginations we could not bestow them better then in sweet contemplation of the works of God here in the government of the World We are taught also when we behold these things to pray to God for prayer being a conference with God we cannot offend him in any thing that we shall say out of fear and faith This duty is by God commanded he hath directed it he hath promised his Spirit to helpe us in it hee hath made many promises to them that use it aright and it is here prescribed as a sovereign remedy against affliction to use it for it is fitted for the use of the Church in captivity in Babylon This prayer being made for the use of the Church 2 Doct. as we have said we are taught That the afflictions of this life cannot separate the society of the faithful but that even in exile they will assemble together to do service to their God and therein also to comfort one another 1 The reason is in respect of themselves the faithfull are one body and the ligaments and bonds of their communion are love and peace therefore much water cannot put out this fire of charity neither can the flouds drown it so afflictions are in Scripture resembled in flouds and waters 2 In regard of the service they know it to be a debt from them an honour to God and though each of them in severall may do it yet when a Congregation meeteth together their conjoyned zeal is like a bonefire for every ones zeal enflameth another What needed the faithful else to seek out corners and private places to assemble in in the times of persecution for their devotion if single and severall persons had been either so fervent in it self or so acceptable with God so that before persecution ceased they began to build Oratories for their meetings Therefore Vse though some do separate from our society others tarry with us to disturbe our peace some cry out against the use of our Churches let us thank God that we have liberty of Religion and places to meet in to serve our God and let us not neglect the society of the Church Ecce quà m bonum quà m jucundum Behold how good and pleasant a thing it is to see one holy congregation set upon God by prayer This prayer made for the use of the Church doth teach
svavity of matter and order as is often involved in tropes and figurative and parabolicall Phrases so that all readers of holy Scripture finde the poeticall parts of the Bible exceeding difficult more then the historicall and morall Now where most cost is bestowed of search to finde out the meaning of the holy ghost and most delight is reaped it being found that doth tarry by us better and we hold it with strongest retention This pleaseth God well that we hide his word in our hearts that we do not runne it out in a leake This doctrine of the holy use of Poetry in the worship and service of God serveth Vse 1 To stir us up to affect the best gifts of all in Gods worship if there be any way more excellent then others to use that in our prayers and thanksgivings and prayses of our God I remember what David said to Araunah the Jebusite when he offered to give him his threshing floore to erect an altar upon it for God I will not offer a burnt Offering to the Lord my God 2 Sam. 24.24 of that which cost me nothing Let it cost us the highest straine of our invention the lowdest extension of the voice the earnestest intention of the heart we have nothing good enough for him all we have is of him let it be all for him and for the advancement of his glory 2 Seeing this kind of exercise of Hymns and Psalmes hath been by Gods holy Servants consecrated to the worship of God let us bestow our wit and inventions that way not in devising Satyres to gird and lash our Brethren not in amorous and wanton evaporations of our lustfull affections not in base flattery of the corrupt times and soothing of ungodly persons not in broaching and venting uselesse fictions the scumme and froth of idle and unsanctified brains but let our wits and pens be exercised in glorifying of our God and our readings rather bestowed in the Psalmes and Hymns of holy Scripture then in the vain and artlesse dull and brainlesse Ballads and Poems which fly abroad amongst us and devoure precious time which should be better spent and transport affections which should bend their strength to Gods service 2 I consider that this song of Habakkuk was directed to the Musician to be fitted to the stringed instruments so to be not onely sung but played in the meetings of the Church from whence I collect That Church-musique hath the honour of antiquity and of holy use also I need not prove this out of the old Testament for the examples grow so thick there that he hath read little in the Old Testament that hath not informed himselfe of the Churches use and practise therein We have Myriams consort Exod. 15.20 There were Timbrels and Dances all the women came out after them We have Jephthaes Daughters consort Judg. 11.34 meeting her victorious Father with Timbrels and Dances We have Davids full example in the Tabernable Solomons constitution for the full Musique of the Temple If any object that these be those old things which are done away but now all things are made new those were but shadows and ceremonies serving onely for those times but now antiquate and abolisht Let me tell them that in the time of the Gospell where the Church hath more cause of joy then ever it had before we can give no cause to abate any thing of Gods worship Who can deny but that the first tydings of the birth of Christ was proclaimed by an Angell and the Proclamation was seconded by a Quire of heavenly Souldiers even a multitude of them the whole consort of heaven praising God The Anthume which they sung is upon record in the living Book of the Gospell Gloria in excelsis Luke 2.14 Ob. But yet the singing and Musick of instruments in the time of the Law were shawdows of things to come at the coming whereof they must cease whereof then were they shadows It is answered of the inward and spirituall joy of the faithfull for the coming of the Messiah Sol. Had not then the faithfull before Christ this inward and spirituall joy and why should we which have it more in the inward man expresse it lesse in the outward worship Ps 48.10 David saith According to thy name so is thy praise to the ends of the earth Christ saith I have manifested thy name to them that thou gavest me doth it not follow well where there is manifestum nomen there should be manifesta laus The Church use to prayse God with instruments of Musick the Church hath more cause to prayse God since the coming of Christ then before why should any thing not repealed and forbidden to be used be neglected to manifest Gods prayse Ob. But all things in the Church must be done to edification Musick doth not edifie Sol. Then was it never of lawfull use in the Church and David and Solomon did ill to bring it into the Tabernacle and the Temple and the Church did as ill to contiune it if it be without edification But if ever it seemed for edification why not now as well as ever it is the same God that is now served whom they worshipped and as Augustine Tempora variata sunt fides vna times vary but faith is one how where and when did Musick loose that honour that use in the Church of God Ob. But it spendeth time which were much better bestowed in hearing the Word of God preached Sol. I answer it was used when much more was to be done in the Church then we have now to do and they thought it not tedious They had many Sacrifices to offer and the time spent in prayer and hearing of the word yet they use it Ob. But popish superstition hath so defiled it that it is not now fit to receive it in our Christian Churches Sol. I finde that our fathers before the coming of Christ were not so squeamish to like their own holy worship the worse because Idolaters did use some of their formes of worship for Nebuchadnezzar made a golden image and that was worshipped with all kinde of stil and loud Musick yet that did not defile the holy worship of the Church It is a dangerous rule of religion to menage it by opposition they are not all opera Diaboli workes of the Devill which the devill doth for you know that he confest Christ which many Scribes and Pharisees did not They that condemne all that popish superstition hath also abused may want a candle to light them to bed I professe sincerly I cannot see but that the same motives that bgan to bring in Musick into the Church may hold it there still for any thing that I can see 1 In respect of God to glorifie him in the best manner that we can by any gifts of art or nature And Musick being one of them we see how much it hath decayed and how much Students in that excellent art have been discouraged from that
but in the fields and amidst their military preparations when their tents were pitcht as it were in readinesse to give battail which is a Rhethoricall amplification of the greatnesse of their terrour My observation from this place in this The power of God shewed in the terror of the wicked doth prove that there is a God Doctr. and therefore no people on earth can be altogether ignorant of the God-head Why should the tents of Cushan be in affliction Why should the curtains of Midian tremble but that the fear of the Lord is upon them God daunteth and dismayeth them It was one of Gods promises to his people Ye are to pass through the coasts of your brethren the children of Esau which dwell in Sen and they shall be afraid of you Deu. 2.4 This deliverance of Israel from Egypt was a most memorable act of Gods power and made his name great in all the earth it followeth He i.e. Esau knoweth thy walkings through the great wilderness these forty years Vâ—r. 7. the Lord thy God hath been with thee thou hast lacked nothing Rahab that entertained the Spies whom Joshua sent to view the Land of Canaan saved them from the dangerous pursuite of the messengers of the King of Jericho and she said to them I know the Lord hath given you the Land and that your terror is fallen upon us Josh 2.9 and that all the Inhabitants of the Land melt because of it For we heard how the Lord dried up the waters of the Red Sea for you when he came out of Egypt and what you did to the two Kings of the Amorites on the other side Jordan Sihon and Og whom ye destroyed utterly And assoon as we heard these things our hearts did melt neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you for the Lord your God he is God above in Heaven and in Earth beneath And this is the right way to make God known to the wicked and ungodly of the earth From thence came that prayer of David Put them in fear O Lord that they may know themselves to be but men Psa 9.20 The fear of God vvill smite them vvith such terrour that they shall not have hear to stirre against him So it is said that God is known by executing his judgments Reason Rom. 2.5 For as the Apostle saith the very naturall man hath the work of the law written in his heart The lavv vvritten in the heart of every man is a generall principle both of truth in the understanding vvhich affirmeth a divine nature and of avve in the affections to make him feared And this lavv is not idle but it vvorketh for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vvork of the lavv And this is the true cause vvhy there is no peace at all to the vvicked man because he hath the lavv of nature vvorking vvithin him vvhich is against him and he hath not the lavv of grace to lay the storms vvhich the law of nature raiseth From hence it commeth that the wicked flyeth when no man pursueth as Solomon saith and he feareth where no fear is and Tully could say that all the poeticall fictions of the furies which disquieted men so much were but the pinchings and convulsions of mens guilty consciences who when they had done evill knew that they had broken the law written in their hearts and then feared the power which they saw above them armed with vengeance against evill doers St. Paul teacheth us the use of this point Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power Vse Rom. 31.3 do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same Where doing that which is good hath a double reward for it quiteth fear and it crowneth us with praise Me thinks that this consideration of the reward should stirre us up to say What shall we do that we may work the works of God John 6.28 29. Then will Christ tell us This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith in Christ taketh away this terrour of the Lord as the Aoostle saith we knowing the terrour of the Lord do perswade men and what is the thing to which the Apostles doe perswade but to reconciliation with God through Christ so that when we preach faith to you wee preach peace even as the Apostle saith peace to them that are neer peace to them are far off and the God of peace sendeth his Son the peace of his Church with the Gospell of peace Wee are taught here that the welfare of the Church is the grief and vexation of her enemies 2 Doct. Cushan and Midian are afflicted and in a cold fit when they hear what God doth for Israel So did the Aegyptians repine at the prosperity of Israel in Aegypt they said Behold the children of Israel are more and mightier then we Exod. 1.10 Come let us deal wisely with them lest they multiply c. You see vvhat the vvorld thinks of their plots against the Church of God they think they do vvisely vvhen they vex the Church this is that wisedome which the Apostle doth call carnall sensuall and divelish And these be the wifemen of which it is said ubi sapiens where is the wiseman and God hath made the wisedome of the world foolishnesse The reason of this opposition is given by our Saviour the world hateth you because you are not of the world Reas 1 and I have chosen you out of the world and for this they weep at the joy of the Church they joy at their weeping the Prophets complaint Truth faileth and he that departeth from evill maketh himself a prey Isa 59.15 So David But mine enemies they are lively they are strong Psal 38.19 and they that hate wrong fully are multiplyed They also that render evill for good are mine adversaries Verse 20. because I follow the thing that good is They began betimes for Cain slue his brother 1 Joh. 3.12 Ratio rationis and wherefore slue he him because his own works were evil his brothers righteous I can easily bring you to the head of these bitter waters so soon as Adam had fallen from grace when God kept his first assise upon earth and convented and arraigned the transgressours the man the woman and the serpent he revealed his eternall counsell of election and reprobation and put a difference between the seed and seed the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent Which is not onely to be understood of the unreconciliable enmity that is between Christ and the Devill For Christ was the seed of the woman quia solus ita semen mulieris non etiam vâ—ri semen sit But hee meant therein that enmity vvhich should be betvvixt the elect vvho are the seed of the vvoman by naturall generation and the holy seed by spirituall regeneration so called Semen sanctum and the seed of the
Church of Rome lent her help to this nefarious Treason for there was here 1 The seal of Catholique Confession 2 The bond of a Catholique Oath 3 The Vow by a Catholique Sacrament 4 The indiction of Catholique prayers to be used for the prosperous success of the Catholique cause in England But I may be short in the Catastrophe of this whole danger as God was sudden in his exceeding great mercies to us The nets were broken and we escaped as a whole neast of Birds from the hands of the fowler Never was there day wherein God did so great things for this Land as on that day never did the Sun shine in more perfect strength upon this Church then on that day which God crowned with our deliverance 1 It was and is a good use of this mercy to fil our mouthes with laughter and our tongues with joy but that must not be all 2 We must tell the people what things he hath done and once a year at least we must say this is the day that the Lord hath made exultemus laetemur and his praise must be in our mouthes we must give unto the Lord the glory due to his name and praise him according to his excellent greatnesse 3 But that is not all wee must being delivered from the hands of our enemies serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the days of our life and remember that if we do wickedly we shall perish we and our King 4 But that is not all we must pray also for the peace of our Jerusalem for we shall prosper if we love it for our brethren and companions sake in the common faith we must wish it now prosperity for the house of Gods sake we must seek to do it good 6 But this is not all we must cast out the bond-woman and her son that is the superstition of the blondy Church of Rome I may safely perswade thus far every one of us out of his own heart and thus farre we may go without our selves to let our light shine before men that in our light they may see light The Minister may go further for he hath the warrant of a lawfull calling to reprove the works of darknesse openly and to convince heresies and to warne men to take heed of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees The Magistrate may go further to execute the just laws of our land upon such and let him see to it that he bear not the sword of God in vain The sovereign Defender of the Faith amongst us beareth that high title which is proper to all godly Kings to this end accomptable to none but God for his vice-gerency herein Verse 8. Was the Lord displeased against the rivers was thine anger against the rivers was thy wrath against the sea that thou didst ride upon thy horses or thy chariot of Salvation NOvv he procedeth to commemorate the vvonderfull things that declared God a friend to his people in their safe conduct to the land of promise 1 The power of God shewed in the waters 1 he made a passage for his Israel through the red sea as on dry land to bring them out of Aegypt 2 He made a passage through Jordan the river turned back and gave them way to passe over into the land of promise The words of my text are easie Doth any man conceive that God did take any spleen at the river of Jordan that he drove it back or that he was angry with the sea that he made dry land to appear surely God was not moved thereto from any fury against the creatures which keep their course according to his appointments And he saith that God did ride upon his horses poetically and figuratively expressing God in state riding on as the Psalmist saith prosperously And he calleth the protection of God the charâ—oâ—s of salvation because God took them up to him to preserve them Verse 9. And this is well expounded in the next words in a new figure Verse 9 Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oaths of the tribes even thy word Selah Verse 9. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers For here by the bow of God is meant the armour wherewith with God is furnished for the defence of his Church This bow is therefore said to be made quite naked because then God declared that all the wonders which he did in the division of the waters of the red sea and of Jordan were wrought for the preservation of his Church This bow he always had that is this strength for his Church but then he made it so naked that the Aegyptians cryed let us fly from Israel and the tents of Cushan were afflicted and the curtains of Midian trembled to see this bow of the Lord. Abraham saw this bow but in the case for it was under promise the Patriarchs saw it somewhat neerer hand but yet not uncased in the deliverance from Aegypt it began to be drawn out in the possession of the land of Canaan it was made quite naked and this was done According to the oaths of the tribes even thy word that is All this was done that thou mightest make good thy word whereby thou hadst sworn to give this land to the tribes the oath of God was sworn to Abraham as Zechariah remembreth it To perform the mercy promised to our fathers Luke 1.72 73. and to remember his holy Covenant The oath which he sware to our father Abraham Selah is a rest for meditation for admiration it is a confession of the goodnesse of God Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers This was another of Gods water-works Tremelius and Junius read thus flumina diffidisti terrae and so it is no more but what before he said more plainly exprest that he clave the waters to make way for passage And to omit the various opinions of men concerning this wonderfull work of God I think it hath speciall reference to that story where the people of Israel upon the way almost perishing with thirst numb 20.11 and therefore murmuring Moses struck the rock which by the commandement he should onely have spoken to and the waters gushed out and cut themselves a channell which here is called cleaving of the earth with rivers Here was a double miracle one in giving the water out of the rock whence formerly none have issued another in the continuance of this full stream running along the way of their journey in the wilderness to supply them so the Psalmist saith He brought streames also out of the rock Psal 78.16 and caused waters to run down like rivers These words do contein three parts 1 The wonders which God shewed in the waters 2 The motive that induced him 3 The argument drawn from hence 1 The wonders here mentioned are three 1 He nameth the last as freshest in memorie the division of the waters of Jordan to give way to the passage of Israel into the promised land 2 He nameth
into the red sea The most that we read of Moses concerning any art in naturall Philosophy is that Moses was brought up in all the wisedome of the Aegyptians and no man thinketh that he got all their wisedome from them how then did not the wisedome of the Aegyptians at time serve the Aegyptians themselves when this was done 6 Another memorable miracle of this passage was that before all Israel had recovered the further shore the same passage was safe to Israel and pernitious and fatall to the Aegyptians which appeared 1 Because God did not let the waters come together to hinder the Aegyptians pursuit but kept them divided till they vvere all within the verge of the sea for this God could have done as it after follovveth 2 That to hinder their journey of pursuit God turned the pillar of Cloud behind Israel between them and the Aegyptians so that Israel led the vvay by a clear light the Aegyptians follovved them in the dark 3 That their chariot vvheels vvere smitten off in the night so that they drove uneasily 4 That the vvaters came together upon their consultation to return and drovvned them all before all the children of Israel had recovered the further shore 7 The last memorable wonder was the casting up of the bodies of the Egyptians upon the further shore which Israel had recovered and whereon they pitched to make good the word of Moses you shall see them no more that is living to terrifie you thus Israel saw what God had done for them and their eyes had it desire against their enemies All these be things worth remembring 3 He addeth another wonderful mercy in cleaving the earth with rivers which hath reference as you have heard to Numb 20.11 In which 1 It is wonderfull that God hearing the murmur of his people for want of water had not punished their sin with present death but did choose rather to give them their hearts desire and to satisfie them with water 2 That he made the rock to yield them water which did not naturally but by vertue of his word 3 That it should have been done so easily as by a word of Moses that it was done so easily as by twice smiting 4 That those waters did follow the hoast to relieve it all the way of their journey till they had other supply as also the Manna did till they came to come in Canaan so these waters ran into no sea 5 That these rivers dryed up after Israel and no shew of any river ever since vvhere these vvaters ran in dry places to shevv vvho ordained that stream and for whom Though God hath had his praise for all the things before yet they desire Canticum novum a new song Here and here it is work for the rector Chori 2 The motive that induced God to do all this for his people 1 Affirm exprest in two things internus motor 1 His desire of the preservation of his Israel For he did ride upon his Horses and Chariots of salvation Pharaoh followed Israel into the red Sea on horses and in chariots these were the horses and chariots of destruction God took off their wheels and they failed in their speed But God went forth with salvation Israel could not but see in all these wonderfull works of God that God was for them 1 In their setting forth to bring them out of the house of bondage even through the sea 2 In the way of their journey to quench their thirst in the dry and unwatered wilderness 3 At their journeys end to open them a passage into the promised land through Jordan Israel is a type of the Catholique Church of God on earth and their passage from Egypt to Canaan is a type of our passage from the wombe to heaven and God is the same his Church is as dear to him as ever it was and he hath taken upon him the care of it He is called by Job The preserver of men especially of his elect Here are onely mentioned three of the most eminent wonders of God there were many more which David repeated Psal 105 106. All these were the effects of the free favour of God to his people Ps 106.21 whereby he got the name of a Saviour And thâ— Psalmist prayeth Remember me Ps 106.4 O Lord with the favour that thou bearest to thy people O visit me with thy saluation This was a singular favour for he saith also Non fecit taliter he did not so to any Nation That I may see the good of thy chosen Verse 5. that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine inheritance For this favour of God to his Church is a speciall grace above his universall protection This it is that the Spouse of Christ doth pray for Set me as a seal on thy heart Cant. 8.6 and as a Signet upon thine arm That wish of the Church then was thus and is now an Article of Faith that prayer was then and now is our Creed But much more evidently hath this eternall love of God to his Church in Christ Jesus shewed it self since Christ our Saviour was made manifest in the flesh and much more hath it extended and dilated it self since he was believed on of the Gentiles and preached to the world For when God once had fitted him with a body and therewith had given him a heart like ours and such an arm as we have and such hands it hath been more discerned how we were set as a seal upon that heart how we are worne upon that arm how we are ingraven in the Palms of those hands For that heart was pierced with a spear those hands were nailed to the Crosse and these be the stamps and Characters of his love to us And as the affection of love is noted to be most vehement in a woman as David doth imply when he bewailed Jonathans death Thy love to me was wonderfull passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 so our Saviour to take upon him this affection in the dearest tenderness and most intense measure and degree is said to be made of a woman and she a Virgin And that sin might not corrupt this affection Ga. 4.4 or harden the heart He was conceive by the Holy Ghost The Church doth well to remember this interest that God gave them in this land for there out suck they no small advantage This calls God the God of Israel and it cals Israel Gods peculiar people this doth spread the wings of this Hen over all her Chickens and gathereth them together under the same it makes them roome in the bosome of God 2 Another motive vvas the oaths of the tribes even Gods Word that is the covenant of God made vvith Abraham and his seed for so the Psalmist doth expresse it He hath remembred his Covenant for ever Ps 105.8 the word that he commanded to a thousand generations Which Covenant he made with
unto their horses and their chariots how hee made the water of the Rea Sea to over-flow them Rahab could tell the Spies Josh â— 11.12 We have heard how the Lord dryed up the water of the Red Sea for you Assoon as we heard our hearts did melt neither did there remain any courage in any man because of you Thy way is in the Sea and thy path in the great waters Ps 77.19 and thy footsteps are not seen Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron Verse 20. Therefore it is a fabulous relation of Paulus Orosius who reporteth it as an addition to this wonder that the trace of the Chariot wheels was in his days to be seen on the sands of the Red Sea at every ebbe and that if they were defaced yet they renewed again But David saith that the footsteps of this passage were not seen and we need not add any thing to the miracles of God to make them more miraculous David again remembreth it saying He divided the Sea and caused them to passe thorough Psal 78.13 53. and hee made the waters to stand on an heap The Sea over-whelmed their enemies He rebuked the Red Sea also and it was dryed up Ps 106.9 so he led them thorough the depths as through a Wilderness The waters covered their enemies so that there was not one of them left When Israel came out of Aegypt Ps 114.1.3.5 c. The Sea saw that and fled What ailed thee ô Sea that thou fleddest He divided the Red Sea into parts Ps 136.13 Verse 15. â— He overthrew Pharach and his hoast in the Red Sea Art not thou it that hath dryed up the Sea Isai 51.10 the waters of the great deep that hath made the depths of the Sea a way for the ransomed to pass over Many more are the mentions of this miracle in the book of God and here we finde it in this Psalme doubly repeated Which teacheth us that Gods extraordinary mercies must be often remembred Doct. For we must consider our God two wayes 1 Quà Deus as God and so he is to be worshipped cultu latriae propter Deum for his own sake though we could live without him Though he do hide his face from us and heap up his judgments on us as Job saith Job 7.20 though he maketh us as his mark to shâ—ot at though all his arrows do stick fast in us 2 Quà benefactor as a benefactor and that also two ways 1 Propter opus providentiae for his work of providence whereby he is to us a gratious God and merciful father taking his Church to himself and gathering it under his wings shielding it against the Sun by day and against the Moon by night 2 Propter opera privilegiata for his priviledged works especially favours of mercie quando non facit taliter For the first all our life especially the Sabbath is designed to the worship and service of God for the same the second of his extraordinary works doth exact of us singular commemoration by themselves and therefore Abulensis saith Omnia festa quae Deus instituit observanda à Judaeis fiebant ad recordationem beneficiorum ejus Now the school saith well that latria is not totaliter determinata to these or these times or ceremonies or occasions but that we may worship God alwayes quà Deus as God upon speciall occasions quà Benefactor as Benefactor And so the Jews kept the memoriall of their deliverance from Egypt in their anniversary celebration of the Passeover and of their dwelling in tents in the feast of Tabernacles And of their deliverance from Haman in their feast of Purim And the Germane Protestants do keep a Christian Jubilee every 50 year for their deliverance from the darknesse of Popery and their ejection of the Pope Wherein our Church as much beholding to God for the same benefit as they doth come short of them in matter of thankfulnesse to God for the expulsion of that man of sin from us We have three Commemorations enjoyned us by high authority the one is ortus auspicia so of all it was called the initium regni the beginning of the reigne of our Sovereign whom God sent to settle the religion and peace with his glorious predecessour Queen Elizabeth had so happily and so valiantly brought in and mainteined during her whole reign and by the providence of God we enjoy it to this day Another is the remembrance of his Majesties deliverance from the treason of the Gowries in Scotland before his reign here as it were his reserving of him for us The third is the commemoration of the admirable goodnesse of God to our land in the bloudy treason of the Papists the mortall enemies of our religion and peace in their powder-plot But this often remembrance of the mercy of God to Israel in the red sea upbraids our forgetfulnesse of that 88 sea mercy which God shewed to our land in our deliverance from the Spanish intended invasion in the times of hostility between Spain and England and though the established peace between these two Kingdomes have laid aside open wars yet let God be no loser in the glory due to his name for that deliverance I will adde another reason Reas 2 why this passage of Israel through the red sea is so oft remembred in Scripture twice in this Psalme of Habakkuk which I gather from the Apostle St. Paul Moreover Brethren I would not have you ignorant 1 Cor. 1â— â— how that all our Fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea And were all baptized unto Moses in the sea Ver. 2. and in the cloud For this was memorable not onely in the history of the thing done but in the mystery also of the signification thereof You see by this Apostle that this is a memorable thing and he would not have us ignorant of it if we know it he would not have us forget it there is continual use of it in the Church even so long as baptisme continueth therein For that is the scope of the Apostle in the beginning of that Chapter to shew that the Church of the Jews as they had Sacraments of their own Circumcision and the Lords Passeover so had they types and figures of our two Sacraments also The type and representation of our Baptisme was their passage through the red sea The type of our Lords Supper was the water out of the rock and Manna But they and we do all receive the same spirituall meat and drink that is Christ So that this passage over the red sea doth figure our Baptisme here is Moses the Minister of the Sacrament here are Israelites the receivers of it and here is water the element and the cloud the sign of Gods presence here is Israel that is the persons baptized preserved in these waters and here is King Pharoah and his hoasts that is Satan and our hereditary
judgments they are For Reas 2 1 he is so quick sighted to discerne our sins that he seeth all nothing can be hidden from him but all lyeth open and naked to his sight 2 Hee is so wise to weigh the sins that we commit putting into the scales the incitements and temptations the circumstances of time person place number even the very affection wherewith sin is committed 3 He is so just as not to impute more sin to us then we have committed not to abate any of that we have mis-done 4 He is so holy as not to abide or appear the least evill for he is a God that hateth iniquity 5 He is so powerfull as to avenge it with his judgment and he hath all sorts of instruments of vengeance to punish sinne 6 He is Ubiquitarie as that no remove can avoyd him his presence filleth all places 7 He is so true of his word that heaven and earth shall passe but no part of his Word shall fail till all be fulfilled 8 He is one that cannot repent of any thing that he peremptorily decreeth All these things do declare that there is great cause to fear when he threatneth The Apostle teacheth us the use of this point Vse Româ— 3.3 wilt thou not then be afraid of the power do that which is good then shall thou have praise of the same This is the way to make us seek the face of God the first sinners fled from the presence of God behind the trees in the garden Adam confessed to God Gen. 3.10 I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid A good life is a good fence against fear Solomon saith the righhteous is bold as a lyon Perfect love casteth out fear for perfect love is â—â—e fâ—â—filling of the law where our love falleth short there fear filleth the empty and void room The voyce of the Lord is comfortable and his words are sweet to those that fear him he will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints Psal 85.8 But let them not turn again to folly So David resolves there I will hear what the Lord will speak It is a plain sign that all is not well with us when the voyce of God doth cast us into fear when we are afraid to hear the Word preached when just reproofs of our sins are unwelcome to us and anger us and make us think the worse of our Minister that chideth and threatneth us A good life and a well governed conversation doth not fear the voyce of God the Word of God is the light which God hath set up in his Church to guide her feet in the wayes of peace they that do evill hate the light and will not come neer it lest their-works should be reproved the children of the light resort to it and call upon God search my reins and my heart and see if there be any way of wickednesse in me This fear of the Church is not joyned either with obstinacy against God or murmuring at his judgments or despair of his mercy it is that fear which is one of the effects of a godly sorrow and it is one of the documents to true repentance it is the hammer and mallet of God wherewith he bruiseth us and breaketh us that we may be truly humbled under his almighty hand it is that fear which the spirit of bondage suggesteth which is not a grace of God in us Rom. 8.15 but a punishment of God upon us and we would fain be without it it is the fear of servants and not of sons yet God useth it as a means to bring us home to him again when we like sheep have gone astray and therefore the prodigall to re-enter himself into his fathers house prayed fac me unum ex mercenariis make me as one of thy hired servants it may be that fear which in the school is called Initialis which re-entreth us into the service of God and keepeth us in awe it is ut ilis but not sufficiens and we would be glad to be delivered out of it that we might serve God without fear in holinesse and righteousnesse For so the Apostle doth recompt it a favour to the Romans Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of adoption 2 The fear it self This fear was great both in the inward man and in the outward it was that fear of which David spake to God saying of the heathen put them in fear O Lord that they may know themselves to be but men And David himself was soundly shaken with it as his complaint sheweth My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgments Psal 119.120 And we finde the best of the faithfull servants of God subject to this fear and it is cleer in my text that it may be joyned with faith For after this cold fit of fear you shall see the faith of the Church to quicken it again The elect of God are shaken with fear 1 Because they are great Students in the Law of God Doct. Reas 1 for that is a speciall mark of a righteous man he doth exercise himself in the Law of God day and night And wheresoever the law is wisely understood and applyed rightly there fear doth arise for so long as we are under the Law we are under a School-master and as the Apostle doth say a child differeth very little from a servant you know when a young man came to Christ to ask him the way to heaven Christ referred him to the Law and the keeping thereof That is our first lesson it follows so in the mission of our Redeemer he was made of a woman made subject to the Law The law sheweth us how much we are in Gods debt and you may note it in the parable of the good Mr. in the gospel 1 He called his servant to accompt and cast up the debt 2 Then he put him to it to pay it 3 When he saw him willing but unable then he forgave it God calleth us by the light of the Law by the sight of our sins our sins are debts when we see them how can we choose but together vvith them behold the danger of them and the vvrath due to them this cannot be done vvithout fear even great horrour and dejection The thief that vvas converted upon the crosse when he had but a little time he made an example of great mercy the onely example in all the Book of God of so late a conversion yet in that short time he began at the Lavv of God and said to his fellovv We indeed are justly punished for we receive the due rewards of our deeds Lu. 2341. And after that he sought grace this Lavv vvas the Schoolmaster that brought him to Christ saying Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome for Until we compare our selves with the law of righteousness we cannot know how unjust wee are and what need we
have of a Saviour We may see it in our first parents vvho no sooner had sinned but they hid themselves from God because they savv their fault by the light of the Lavv vvhich they had transgressed This fear bringeth us to repentance Reas 2 it putteth our sins in our sight and setteth before our eys the vvrath to come so the generation of vipers vvere first put in fear by vvarning given them of the anger to come and upon that foundation he buildeth his doctrine of repentance ferte ergò fructus dignos poenitentia bring forth therefore fruits vvorthy of repentance it is time to amend vvhen sin standeth at the door that is the vvages of sin to punish all or some nevv temptation to sin to make it more fear vvill tell us that time is pretious vve must lose none of it from our true repentance and conversion to God 3 This fear serveth for caution against the time to come Reas 3 for piscis ictus sapit one that hath been once soundly shaken with a strong fit of this fear will be the more weary to declâ—ne and avoid it another time For there is nothing that so much agonizeth the soul and body of man as the sense and conscience of the wrath of God 4 It is one of the arguments as you have heard Reas 4 by which we do prove certain great Articles of faith as 1 It proveth that there is a God for that power which the conscience of man doth fear as an avenger of evill is God 2 It proveth the resurrection of the body for as the Apostle saith if in this life onely we have hope so we may say if for this life onely we have fear it can be no great matter for the judgments of God cannot take sufficient vengeance of sin here 3 It proveth the finall judgment for all the afflictions of a temporall life are but the fore-unner of the last judgment But here it is objected that this may wel hold in the reprobate Quaest but to see this earth-quake of trembling in the Church and amongst the holy ones of God as it is here described this seemeth too hard a portion for Gods beloved chosen ones To this I answer that judgment beginneth at the house of God and the righteous are hardly saved Sol. they that have no other hell but in this terrour of the Lord here do most smart in this world and there is great reason for it 1 In respect of God to shew him no accepter of the persons of men but an equall hater of evill in all that commit it as David saith If I regard wickednesse in my heart God will not hear me 2 In respect of the sin committed by his chosen that God may declare the danger of it for terrour to others and his justice in avenging it that men may fear and do no more so 3 In respect of the wicked that they may have example of fear in the smart of others to bring them to the obedience and service of God This doth serve Vse 1 first for exhortation to stir us up to consider our God in the way of his judgments and to bethink us what evill may hang over our heads for sin the Church hath ever found this a profitable course In the way of thy judgments Isai 26 8. ô Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee The profit that groweth hence is there confest by the Church When thy judgments are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousnesse This doth serve to put difference Vse 2 between the children of God and the children of this world for the ungodly are not afraid of the hand of God but the sinner contemneth but the righteous layeth it to his heart so saith the Church Lord when thy hand is lifted up they wil not see Verse II. Vse 3. but they shall see and be ashamed This also serveth for consolation of the Church for let them not be too much dejected with consideration either of Gods revealed wrath or their own just fear no though their fear do shake and stagger their very faith for a time for God will not forsake them unto despair but will let some of the beams of grace shine even through the clouds of fear to comfort them David felt it Psal 56.3 and confest it saying What time I am afraid I will trust in thee See how they grow together fear and faith But this is objected as an argument against that doctrine of the assurance of salvation Ob. that a child of God may have in this life for it is urged Can a man that standeth assured of the favour of God to him in Christ Jesus be so shaken with fear as the Church here confesseth We answer 1 That fear of temporall smart in this life is naturall Sol. and may be in the sons of God it was in the Sonne of God Jesus Christ and it may be without sin and the elect although they fear the judgments of God on earth yet they doubt not but that their names are written in heaven 2 That fear is not against faith which is quick and sensible of the wrath and judgments of God it is Cos fidei the Whetstone of faith it puts a better edg upon it and serves to teach us to lay so much the faster hold upon Jesus Christ Courage either to resist an evill ingruent without a right knowledg of it or to bear an evill incumbent without a right understanding both of the Authour of it the cause of it or the end of it or the measure of it is not courage but stupidity But when we do rightly know God to lay his hand on us for sin or hear him threaten us with the rod is it not time to fear and to pray with Jeremie Be not a terrour to me Jer. 17.17 for thou art my hope in the day of evill 3 Fear and faith go together in respect of the temporall judgments of God because the threatnings of temporall judgments are not always peremptory but oft-times conditionall therefore the King of Niniveh proclaiming a generall Fast and repentance in Niniveh had this encouragement Jonah 3.9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not God himself hath put us into this comfort At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation Jer. 18.7 and concerning a Kingdome to pluck up and to pull down and to destroy it If that nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evill I will repent of the evill that I thought to do unto them So that this fear of the temporall judgments of God doth no way weaken the faithfull assurance that we have conceived of eternall salvation rather it strengtheneth it yea the more that we either tast or fear the punishing hand of God here the more do we
tellus these trees do not grow in all lands our land though rich and plenteous is no fit soil for these trees They served for food and they are of speciall note for in the parable of Jotham When the trees went to choose them a King â—â—dg 9.8 they came first to the olive tree and said reign thou over us they went next to the fig-tree and then to the vine The Olive saith shall I leave my fatnesse wherewith by me they honour God and man The fig-tree saith should I forsake my sweetnesse and my good fruit The vine saith should I leave my wine which cheareth God and man You see of how excellent use these fruits were two of them used in the speciall service of God Oil and Wine and often is the Land of Canaan praised for fruitfulnesse in respect of these trees growing there which every soil doth not yield they are all of excellent use both for food and medicine and David saith of Wine that it maketh glad the heart of man of Oile that it maketh him have a cheerfull countenance The failing of these which the soil did naturally bring forth doth shew that God had called in his blessing which he gave to that land for the true nature of every soil is the Word of Gods blessing which once called in a fruitfull land is made barren and a populous countrey is soon turned into a desert But this is not all not onely God will smite the land in these excellent fruits which are for food but as Jeremie threatneth They shall cut down the choice Cedars Jer. 22.7 and cast them into the fire trees for building The reason whereof we may finde in the first of our parents Reason who no sooner had sinned but God accursed the earth for their sakes So that we may say as the Church doth in this Psalme Was thy wrath against the trees of the land that thou smotest them not so but against the sins and sinners of the land This further appeareth in the common ground for it followeth the fields shall yield no meat Bread is the staffe of life God threatneth to break the staffe of bread So he bad Ezechiel prophecy Son of man I will break the staffe of bread in Jerusalem Ezâ—k 4.16 and they shall eat their bread by weight and with care God hath many ways to perform this judgment either by taking away his blessing from the earth that it shall not bring forth bread for the use of man Thus he maketh a fruitfull land barren or he can hold in the early and the later rain that it shall not fall to moisten the earth as in the time of Aggaeus the Prophet Ye looked for much and lo Ag. 1 9 10 it came too little The heaven over you is staied from dew and the earth under you is staied from her fruit Yea God when he pleaseth can drown the fruits of the earth with too much rain and destroy the crop and when he hath shewed us plenty upon the ground hee can deceive the hope of the husbandman and make a thin harvest When we have gathered in our crop he can blow upon it and destroy it in the barn he hath his judgments in store ready to be executed upon sinners We have tasted of this rod for how did God crown the former year with plenty and how unthankfully was it entertained of many what complaint did we hear of the cheapness of Corn not able to yield the rackt rents of their ground to the labouring husbandmen to satisfie the greedy Landlord And God heard from heaven how heavy his plentifull hand was to many and he hath since shut it up and turned our plenty into dearth and now he heareth another cry of the poor their labours will scarce give them bread to eat Yet another woe the cattell fail both in the fields and in the stals fat and lean beasts the enemy destroyeth them and the barrenness of the land affordeth them no food when God gave man Lordship over all sheep and Oxen and over all the beasts of the field he did not devolve his prerogative dominion upon man but reserved his royall supremacy over them and a power of resumption that if man neglected his service these creatures in their kinds should fail him You behold in this whole passage a miserable face of a land with which God is fallen out the very foil is accursed for the peoples sakes the people either perish by the sword or go into captivity or tarrie to serve the enemy in the land The full Cities the glorious buildings therein either demolisht and laid even with the ground or inhabited by strangers You have heard before what sins have brought these evils upon this pleasant land Corruption in common conversation between man and man Corruption in religion and the service of God Corruption administration of Justice And so free as our land is from these sins so far are these judgments off from us But if either the present times or times to come are or shall be guilty of these heinous sins I think we may boldly say that God is holy now as ever he was to hate them and the committers of them and as wise as ever he was to discern them and as just as ever he was to punish them We know that these sins carried Gods people into a strange land where they had not the heart to sing the songs of the Lord. God best knows why but we see a great part of the Protestant reformed Church at this time bleeding under the sword or flying from the hand or standing upon their guard against the power of strong opposition and by the mercy of God we are lookers on and their smart is not yet shared amongst us but if Canaan were thus smitten both in the soil and fruit and beasts thereof and most in the inhabitants of it If our brethren professours with us of the same Religion do in our dayes suffer so many vexations we had need study holinesse of life and put more fire into our zeal of Religion and make the ballance of Justice even lest we drink of the same cup of bitternesse The Jews returned again to their land from their captivity they had the face of it renewed they had their Temple rebuilt Religion re-planted and then they relapsed to their former sins and in Christs time Christ was bound and Barrabaâ— was set loose And not long after the Jews went into a dispersion wherein they have continued almost one thousand six hundred years God be mercifull to us to preserve us from their sins and from their punishments that our trees may bring forth their blossoms and their fruits in their seasons that our land may bring forth encrease that our Oxen may be strong to labour that there be no invasion no leading into captivity and no complaining in our streets Amen Amen Verse 18 Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord Hâ—b 3.18 I will joy in the God of
prostitute strumpet to the shame of their Religion he that hath begun will also in time make an end and he that beginneth to lose estimation at home will hardly either encrease or maintein it abroad Who are papists or affected popishly amongst us for the most part but such as are ignorant of holy Scriptures or such as corrupt and pervert them for the revelation doth point out Antichrist as the finger of John did Christ with This is he it calleth Rome Babylon and sheweth us the fall thereof and the cheerfull rising of the true Church to light and glory In all those dangers that the Church of God runneth the comfort here expressed in the Lord stays the heart thereof with flagons and comforteth it with apples for his love is a banner to it The parts of this text are three 1 The hope of the afflicted Church 2 The ground of this hope and comfort 3 The dedication of this Psalm 1 The hope of the afflicted Church Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. You know that joy dilateth the heart and giveth it sea-room in the stormy and tempestuous state of trouble joy is a thing that every soul affecteth we desire many days to see good we are apt with Solomon to try our hearts with joy This is welcome to them that live here on earth which is convallis lachrymarum a valley of tears wherein the story of our whole life is written upon a scroul on both sides filled with lamentations mourning and wo and our Saviour saith Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted We have so many causes of mourning that whether we look to our selves the occasions of our own woe or to our sorrows the fruitfull spawn of our breeding sins the naturall and proper effects of our own corruptions we have from both matter of grief and provocation of sorrow 1 Pro nobis for our selves for what we suffer 2 In nobis in our selves for that we do deserve Therefore we must not seek joy in our selves for then we shall weep as Rachel for her children because they are not The joy of the Church is in the Lord. Plerumquè in ipsis piis fletibus gaudii claritas erumpit and then it is when man forsaketh all comforts and findeth that Gregor Bonum est adhaerere Deo semper when a man unmindeth all other comforts This as Augustine saith est gaudium quod non datur impiis sed eis qui te gratis colunt quorum gaudium tu ipse es ipsa est beata vita gaudere de te propter te ipsa est non est alia All you then who have found sorrow and heavinesse by the due consideration of those evils which you have committed and of those holy duties which you have omitted and of those punishments which you have justly suffered come hither and learn how to rejoyce forget that which is behind remember Lots wife look not back to the beguiling delights of the bewitching and flattering world look before you to the Lord for hee is the Authour he is the Mediatour he will be the finisher of your joy gaudium vestrum nemo tollet a vobis and your joy no man shall take from you Joy not in greatnesse and high place or in riches in the fruit of the womb in the extent of your lands in the favours of Princes in the full sea of temporall happinesse they that suffer in all these things do finde joy in the Lord. Reasons why in the Lord. 1 They that joy in the Lord rest in the Lord and cast all their care upon him they pray fiat voluntas tua thy will be done and they are content with it and they are thankfull for it when it is done neither relucting at the doing of it nor repining and finding fault when they see it performed They say with old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 Isa 39.8 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good and with Hezechiah good is the Word of the Lord. And therefore the Lord is the same to them whether he be offerens opening his hand and giving or auferens stretching out his hand to strip and divest them of all that he hath as he was to Job 2 They that rejoyce in the Lord rejoyce in nothing otherwise then as a means and faculty to serve the Lord. And so we may rejoyce in honours which do put our good example more in sight that others may behold our good works and glorifie God So we may rejoyce in authority and power over others if we use it to the winning of others to the service of our God to the coertion of evill doers and the reward of the good So may we rejoyce in riches if we use them as means to advance the Law of God and to expresse our charity to the needy All this is joy in the Lord that God trusteth us with the dispensation of these outward things and the applying of them to his service 3 They that rejoyce in the Lord rejoyce because God is Lord so David The Lord is King the earth may be glad of it for Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. This is the Jubilation of the Church Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us Isa 25.9 this is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation that do thus acknowledge him their Lord and are glad that they live under his government Isai 26.8 The desire of their souls is to his name and to the remembrance of him For when thy judgments are in the world the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousnesse O Lord our God other lords have ruled us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name This was the joy of the Church here professed in the midst of extream sorrows There cannot be a better signe to know this true spirituall joy from all other false seemings and blandations of joy 1 Signe then the lasting thereof for the candle of the wicked shall be put out but God is a Sun and a shield to his Church Joy in all other things is but a sojourner and tarrieth but a small time but when once it fastneth upon God it saith Here will I dwell for ever for I have a delight herein This joy hath none of the fears that other joys have to make us doubt the losing of it it hath none of the impediments to stop the way to it that other joys have It hath none of the sorrows that other joys have to commedle with it It hath none of the miseries that conclude all other joys to determine it Therefore as the Apostle admonisheth Vse rejoyce always in the Lord again I say rejoyce Rejoyce when thou aboundest rejoyce also when thou wantest full and empty when thou givest alms and when thou receivest alms it is a more blessed thing to give it is also a blessed thing to receive in health
in their deportation and return 3 Under the title of Hindes feet I contein the mercy of expedition whereby they are delivered from their captivity in Babylon 4 Under the title of walking upon high places the mercy of restitution to their own land and of constitution and establishing of them in their land The just live and are supported by faith apprehending these full mercies 1 Of Salvation The Church of God hath need of salvation and therefore great cause to rejoyce in it 1 In respect of her spirituall enemies for your adversary the Devill goeth about like a roaring lyon seeking to devour saith the Apostle These spirituall enemies do assault the Church 1 Out of their own malignity and envy to man and to this purpose the powers and principalities of darknesse do go always armed both with temptations to corrupt them and with fiery darts of provocations to destroy them for this it is that Satan goeth and cometh to survey the earth and to pry and search where he may fasten any hold where he may gripe so St. Bernard saith Hostes indefessi nos assiduè oppugnant modò apertè modò fraudulentèr he gives this reason Invidet humano generi quia praevidet horum Deum futurum 2 By way of commission for God doth employ Devils in the Church amongst his holy ones both for probation of their faith for exercise of their patience for preservation of them in humility for punishment of their sin for sweetning to them the hopes and quickening their desires of a better life and for the polishing and burnishing of their example that others that be lookers on may know before hand that this life to a just man is militia a warfare and they that will joyn with the Church must know before they put their hand to the plough what hazards they must run lest they look back and make their sin more then it was by apostasie departing away from the living God It is cleer in Jobs example that Satan had commission from God himself to try the faith and love and patience and humility of Job and to make him an example And as clear it is which the Psalmist saith of Isratl when they started aside from God Psal 78.21 that a fire was kindled in Jacob and anger came up against Israel and in these executions God doth uphold the ministery and service of evill angels as he did against his enemies the Egyptians of whom it is so said He cast upon them the fiercenesse of his wrath Verse 49. anger and indignation and trouble by sending evill angels amongst them St. Paul confesseth that least he should be too much exalted with that Metaphysicall rapture above measure 2 Cor. 12.7 There was given me a thorn in the flesh the messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure Thus in respect of spirituall enemies without us we have need of a salvation the rather because our own corruptions within us are false to us and ready to joyn with Satan against us 2 In respect of humane opposition for the regiment and Kingdom of Christ is thus assigned to him Be thou ruler in the midst of thine enemies David doth well expresse this For they have consulted together with one consent Psal 83.5 they are confederate against thee The tabernacles of Edom and the Ishmaelites of Moab and the Hagarenes Gebal and Ammon and Amalek the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre Ashur also is joyned with them they have hâ—lpen the children of Lot Here is no mention of this sweeping broom of Babylon that comes in the Reer of this march and carrieth them clean away Christendom hath for many years suffered from the Turke whose invasions encroach upon the bounds thereof and gain ground of it daily And even within our selves the Pope and all the friends of his Hierarchie do hate and persecute so much of the true Protestant Church as they either can or dare attempt and the earth hath nothing to shew more bloudy and cruell then the Spanish Inquisition nothing more cunning and dangerously plotting then the society of Jesuits so that in respect of humane opposition there is great need of a salvation 3 In respect of the punishments deserved for sin for what Nation hath so kept in their sins to themselves that wee have not found means to impart them even into the Church Solomon could not take a wife out of Egypt but his wisdom proved too weak a fence against the temptation to Idolatry Nehemiah presseth this example Did not Solomon King of Israel sin by these things yet among many Nations was there not a King like him who was beloved of his God and God made him King over all Israel nevertheless even him did out-landish women cause to sin The children of Israel could not eat of the fat and fruits of the land of Goshen to relieve their famine but they were mingled with the Egyptians and learned their works and worshipped their gods Therefore in regard of their many and great sins they needed salvation These sins endangered their heavenly hopes for the wages thereof is death This Doctrine may turn to great profit to us 1 If wee apply our selves to the means Vsâ— by which wee may apprehend this salvation For this generall apprehension of Gods mercy in Christ which the most part of common professors trust to will never justifie any man in the sight of God except 1 He be by the law of God brought to a sight and sense to a confession and acknowledgment of all his sins 2 To a true sorrow and mortification of the flesh for them 3 To a serious deprecation of the wrath of God due to them in the justice of God 4 To amendment of life ruled and governed by the holy Word of God rightly understood 5 To a faithfull application of the sufficient merits of Jesus Christ to our selves which faith doth so root and ground us in Christ that wee become one with him so that wee may lay the burthen of our sins upon him and put the robe of his holy righteousness upon us For so doing we may rejoyce in our salvation as his free gift to us and as our full acquitall and discharge from all our sins before God So that the ignorant person that liveth in darkness not knowing the mystery of his salvation And the blinded Papist who trusteth either to the power of his own free will or to the merit of his own works or righteousnesse or to the mediation of Saints and Angels or the mother of our Lord to propitiate on his behalf or that trusteth to the Popes indulgence and pardon of all his sins Or that believeth to have salvation by the dispensation of the Church treasure the supererogate works of over-doers that have done more then the Law of God hath required of them Also the unconscionably prophane that go on in their sins without check of the inward man their hearts never smiting them for that
to keep him from attaining the perfection thereof So Eve deceived her self for when God gave her Issachar her fift son Ge 30.18 she said God hath given me my hire because I have given my maiden to my husband Wherein she deceived her self for by adding one wife more to the number of Jacobs Wives she did violate the state of matrimony vvhich in the institution vvas in these words I will make him a help meet for him not helps and so Adam understood it Gen. 2.24 for he said A man shall forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his wife not wives and they shall be one flesh Which lest the friends of Poligamie might understand of many wives Christ citing this place addeth by vvay of interpretation And they twaine shall be one flesh Mat. 10.8 So Saint Paul understood it Mat. 19.5 1 Cor. 6.16 two shall be one flesh So the Prophet Malachy understood it for charging his people with this sin of breach of Wedlock he speaketh as to one man Thou hast dealt treacherously against the Wife of thy youth Mal. 2.14 yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy Covenant And did not he make one yet had he the excellency of spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed So that this giving of her maid to her husband was no good service done to God that she should expect wages it was rather a trespass of vvedlock hovvsoever it pleased God to dispense vvith it in the fathers of former ages but our rule is quomodo fuit in principio hovv vvas it at the beginning for vve knovv that he vvho had abundance of spirit could have created many Wives for Adam if he had thought it fit and then for the encrease of the seed of man and the speedy peopling of the vvorld there vvas more need of Poligamy then vvas ever since I urge the fallacy here Non causa pro causa So Micah vvhen he had made him gods and gotten a Priest into his house flattered himself Now I know that the Lord will do me good Judg. 17.13 seeing I have a Levite to my Priest This vvas Idolatry one of the greatest provocations of God to anger that could be yet he vvould flatter himself that this vvould turn a cause of his vvel-doing These three examples do sufficiently open our sense to perceive the cunning of this fallacious suggestion in ourselves The Doctrine of merit vvhich the Church of Rome teacheth is a naturall Doctrine as God said to Cain If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted it is true that God accepteth even vveak services from us but as vve say it is more of his courtesie then our deserving if vve call it vvages that he giveth us in revvard vve over-ween our ovvn vvorks And this is a special sin vvhervvith God doth punish the sins of the ungodly in the Church of Rome the seat of Antichrist as the Apostle plainly describeth it God shall send them strong delusions 2 Thes 2.11 that they should believe a lye They believe that to be the cause of their salvation that is not The reason of this Doctrine Reason Why vve must fasten upon the true cause of Gods favour to us is Because faith not rightly grounded is not faith but presumption True faith can find no rest but in the assurance of Gods goodnesse to us God doth many favours to the vvicked here in this life vvhich he doth not for any love that he beareth to them but for the use that he maketh of them to vvhip and scourge others by them as for example God to Ezekiel Son of man Eze 29.18 Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel caused his Army to serve a great service against Tyrus every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled yet had he no wages nor his Army for Tyrus for the service that he had served against it Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and he shall take her multitude and take her spoile and take her prey and it shall be the wages for his Army Because they wrought for me 1â— saith the Lord God Here is the King of Babylon doubly rewarded with successe and victory against Tyrus with the possession and spoile of Egypt not for any favour that God did bear to the King of Babylon but to punish the iniquity of Tyrus and of Egypt Let not Nebuchaduezzar boast of the favor of the Lord that he set him a work and paid him his wages the sins of these ungodly people not the goodness of God to the King of Babylon did all this We see daily that the vvicked do compasse about the righteous the poor Church of God bleedeth in many places of Christendome the enemy proscribeth imprisoneth beheadeth hangeth cutteth out the tongues smiteth off the hands of Gods faithfull Servants and deviseth nevv tortures to make death more terrible and more painfull This svvelleth the enemies of God vvith pride and they impute all this successe against the Church of God to the love of God tovvard them and the justice of their cause is mainteined by the Jesuits abetments and acclamations But thus did Babylon prevail against Gods ovvn Israel for a time the distressed part of the Church vvhich groaneth under these burthens doth not hang the head for this They knovv that their sins have deserved these rods they have had the light and have not vvalked vvorthy of that light therefore is this evill come upon them yet let them take courage and say Why beastest thou thy self in mischief thou mighty man Psal 52. â— the goodnesse of God endureth continually there is our Selah the rest of our musique this is the joy of the Churches harvest And great is the profit of this point Vse 1 1 When vve have found the true cause of Gods favours to be in himself and not in us we may assure our selves that his mercy endureth for ever for his gifts and calling are without repentance 2 A greater comfort then this is that godlinesse hath not onely the promise of this life but of the life to come also 3 We may rise in comfort a degree higher to assure our selves that this favour of God will give us our fruit unto holinesse for these go together Gods love to us and our comfort and hope in him for this fruit Rom. 6.22 as the Apostle joyneth them Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father 2 Thes 2.16.17 which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good help through grace Comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work This blessing of the Apostle doth shew that when the love of God is setled there followeth grace and expressure of his favour that bringeth forth inward consolation of the spirit present good hope for the time to come an establishing of the heart in holinesse This I name as the
highest step of our exaltation because this repairs in us the image of God which is his holinesse and the true children of God do value this above their eternall life For let us see wherein the weight of the blessing and cursing of sheep and goats doth lye It is not the gift of eternall life that is our happinesse in heauen but as David saith in his favour is life if a damned soul should be admitted to the fruition of all the pleasures of eternall life without the favour of God heaven would be hell to him It is not the dark and horrid house of woe that maketh a soul miserable in hell but Gods displeasure ite maledicti if an elect soul could be cast thither and retein the favour of God hell would be an heaven to him and his joy could not all the Devils of hell take from him his night would be turned into day The Angels sinned in heaven and in the place of joy lost Gods favour The soul of the Son of God was in hell and hell was an heaven to it because God was with him in the valley of the shadow of death and left not his soul in hell he took him from the nethermost hell 3 Doctrine The truth of God is a good ground For faith gathered from Gods oath to the tribes even his word he addeth Selah to shevv that vve may safely rest there The reason is because The Word of God is a sure word and those things wherein men fail are not incident to him 1 Whereas men do promise or swear rashly and without consideration as David did when he swore that he would not leave one of the house of Nahall to make water against a wall God cannot fail that way because he doth all things with stable truth and according to the counsail of his will 2 Men do sometimes vow and swear things utterly unlawfull and most wicked as Herod did to Herodias daughter to give her whatsoever she demanded of him which included the life of John Baptist So there were many that swore they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul our God cannot fail so far he loveth righteousnesse neither shall any evill dwell with him 3 Whereas many promise and swear what they mean not ever to perform as Jacobs Sons in the Covenant that they made of confederacy with Hamor the Son of Shechem the Apostle saith Our God cannot lie 4 Whereas many amongst men do swear and promise that vvhich they are never able to perform therein like the Devil who said to Christ Omnia hac tibi dabo all these will I give thee God herein cannot faile for hee is omnipotent and he doth whatsoever he wil in heaven and earth in abyssis So then if the Word of God be gone out of his mouth we may build faith upon it for heaven and earth may and shall passe away so shal not one jod of the Word of God 5 Times may change with men and he that was rich and able to make good his word may suddenly be poor and break and fail but God is without variablenesse or shadow of alteration all times are in his hand and power This serveth for confirmation of faith Vse 1 for such use the Apostle doth make of it who speaking of the Decree and Oath of God saith That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye Hâ—b 6.18 we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us By this faith the just liveth in Babylon and in the weakness of their temporall estate they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus they lay hand upon the hope set before them in the word Jonah saith They that follow lying vanities do forsake their own mercie Vana salus hominis vain is the help of man they that go down to Egypt for help have their woe threatned An horse is but a vain thing to help a man Princes are the sons of men there is no help in them the word of God faileth none At that Word Abraham will leave his own Country and go he cares not he enquires not whether At that Word Abraham will go three days journy to kill Isaac with his own hands and will never dispute how the promise of God shall be performed That in Isaac his seed should be blessed At that Word Peter will let fall his net against all rules of fishing and he will forsake the Ship to come to Christ upon the Sea by the warrant of that Word The promises of God to his Church and his threatnings of sin recorded in the living Book of his word are not antiquate no age shall ever superannate them or put them out of full force and vertue What if good persons and good causes do suffer oppression the Poet is a Divine in that case Non si male noster olim sic erit informes hyenes reducit Jupiter idem summovit after foul weather comes fair though it be ill with us now it will not be always What if enemies of Religion and Moaths of Common-wealths do flourish and prosper and have all things at will let it not trouble David and Job both of them saw as fair a Sun-shine shut up in a dark cloud and a world of foul weather following 2 This tendernesse in God of his word and oath 2 Vse doth serve for example to teach us to make conscience of our promises and oaths and we may urge the Argument as the Apostle doth If God so loved us we ought also to love one another So If God be carefull to keep his promise and oath with us we ought also to do the like with our brethren Here arise two Quaeries 1 Whether it be lawfull to swear at all 2 Whether all oaths must be kept 1 An liciat jurare is it lawfull to swear An oath is a calling of God to witnesse in such things as cannot otherwise be assured and it is of tvvo sorts 1 Assertorie when we do call God to witnesse against our souls if we affirm not the truth in this case the awe of Gods Majestie is thought to be such a rule of the conscience that no man will dare to violate the religion of an oath 2 Promissary When vve do engage the honour of God for the truth of our purpose to performe vvhat vve promise and vve cast our selves upon his just judgement if vve be either deceitful in our promise or unfaithful in our performance This may ansvver the first Quaere for this doth declare that an oath doth serve 1 For the glory of God 2 For the good of our Brethren 1 The glory of God for it shevveth him 1 To be present amongst us and privy to our ways 2 To be a God of Truth 3 To be a God of justice to punish unfaithfulnesse 2 It sheweth that we by sin have lost our credit and therefore God doth engage himself for such as swear aright