betwixt man and beastes as betwixt the serpent and man the like disagreement and farre greater is betwixt the righteous and the wicked man for p Pro. 29.27 an uniust man is an abomination to the iust and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked These contrary inclinations had their beginning with the world and shall not have an end untill the worlds end God is justice and righteousnesse it selfe and the divell professed enmity against him from the beginning What wonder then if he bee an enemy to the righteous man who is but Gods creature As soone as man was created he seduced and supplanted him Then God proclaimed unreconcileable warre betweene them saying to the divell who was shrowded under the shape of a serpent q Gen 3.15 I will put enmity betweene thee and the woman and betweene thy seede and her seed It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele The serpents seed is the brood of wicked men which have beene from the beginning namely those which persecute the Gospell The seede of the woman is our Lord Iesus Christ with the whole band of righteous men Iohn saw a battel in heaven r Rev. 12.17 Michael and his Angels fought against the dragon and the dragon fought and his Angells Iesus Christ who onely is this Michael because he onely is like unto God and his Angels and Saints fought against the divell and all the hellish rabble of wicked men and of divells like unto himselfe There is no manifest cause knowne of the Antipathies and contrarietie of dispositions which are in nature but the causes of disagreement betweene the righteous and unrighteous man are knowne They flow from contrary springs and therefore their affections their actions their effects their ends are contrary Are not God and the divell enemies The wicked man Å¿ 1. Ioh. 3.8 is of the divell the righteous man t Ver 9. is borne of God Hence it is that the children beare out their fathers quarrell the wicked is hud-winked with ignorance v Ioh. 16.3 He knoweth no the Father nor the Sonne neither will hee know them x Psal 36.3 he will not learne to be wise that he may doe good y Ioh. 17.8 The righteous man knoweth surely that Christ is come out from the Father and beleeveth that the Father hath sent him a Rom 8 5 The wicked is after the flesh and therefore he minds the things of the flesh The righteous being after the spirit minds the things of the spirit The wicked mans workes are b Gal. 5.19 20 21. the workes of the flesh which are these Adultery fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse idolatry witcheraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkennesse reuilings and such like The righteous mans works are c Ve. 22 23 the fruits of the spirit that is to wit Love ioy peace long suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meeknesse temperance Where there is so great a contrarietie and repugnancie of affections of actions of workes what wonder if there be great enmitie The righteous man is light in the Lord and d Ioh. 3.20 every man that doth evill hateth the light neither commeth to the light lest his deedes should bee discovered for that cause hee hateth the righteous man as the Pharisees hated Iesus Christ because hee reprooved them of their vices The righteous man likewise hateth the wicked e Psal 139.21 22. Doe I not hate them O Lord saith David that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies When heat and cold moisture and drought hardnesse and softnesse light and darknesse shall leaue off to bee at variance then then shall the righteous and wicked man ioyne hands and enter into confederacy one with another f 2. Cor. 6.14 15 16. for what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what communion hath light with darknesse and what concord hath Christ with Beliall and what part hath he that beleeveth with an Infidell and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idolls In this discord there is this notable difference that the righteous man hateth rather the vice than the person of the wicked and seeketh by prayers to God by exhortations admonitions good examples to convert him whereas the wicked hateth both the vertues and the person of the righteous and seeketh to destroy him III. From thence it is that assoone as a man begins to apply his mind and heart unto righteousnesse Satan and the wicked world conspire to undoe him for like as g Dan. 3.16 17 18. Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury and the forme of his visage was changed against Shadrac Meshac and Habednego when to his face they refused to fall downe and worship the image which he had made and commanded that the furnace wherein they were to bee cast should bee kindled seuen times more than it was wont to be heat even so assoon as a man begins to draw his neck out of Satans coller to shunne the company of wicked men to draw neere unto God by repentance and newnesse of life and to register his name in the Church booke that he may be saved in the communion of the Saints Satan sets all his malice on a flame to devoure him and the wicked rush upon him with bill and claw to teare him in peeces For as theeves breake not into an house where there is nothing but straw hay stubble but onely into such places where there is gold silver precious stones and rich furniture so the divell and his limbes heede not rascals and scurvie fellowes but if any man bee a worshipper of God and doth his will they lye in waite secretly as a Lyon in his denne they hide the snare in his way they crouch they stoope to catch him into their net As soone as Christ was borne h Mat. 2.16 Herod became out of his wits seeking to slay him to teach us that as soon as we become Christians by a spirituall birth wee shall not have want of Herods to seeke our lives As soone as the i Rev. 12.3 c. red dragon saw rhe woman with child travelling in her birth and ready to be delivered hee stood before her that he might devoure her childe as soon as it was borne but her child being caught up unto God and she taking her selfe to her wings to save her life by flying into the wildernes he cast out of his mouth a floud of water to drowne her What was this vision but a type of the Church against whom the divell stirreth up a world of wicked men as so many waves of an overflowing river to swallow her up when after a long barrennesse she conceiveth againe and brings foorth children to God Then ye heare nothing amongst those blood thirstie butchers but crying k Ier. 11 19 Let us destroy the tree with the
servants by old and young The Papists saw it and wondred that the fire of persecution had not consumed but kindled and inflamed our zeale and some of them were converted So wee were corrected our devotion was increased Papists were amazed God was glorified XVIII Wherefore a Heb. 12.12 lift up the hands which hang downe and the feeble knees Though wee live here in peace yet we have no lease of peace yea in this publike peace everie one should looke for a great fight of afflictions flagging hands are not fit for the battel trembling knees cannot stand fast and upright at a meeting incounter of our enemies Let us then imitate wise prudent souldiers which in time of peace enure themselves by the exercises of war to sustaine the brunt coping of armed enemies in the day of battel When b Ps 91.7 a thousand shall fall at our side and tenne thousand at our right hand when c Rev. 12.4 the Dragon shall with his taile sweep the heavens and cast to the earth the third part of the starres when everie where yee shall see nothing but apostasies and defections of great men of wise men of Church men which are starres in the heaven of the Church stand not stil gazing upon them as d 2. Sam. 2.23 Ioabs souldiers did upon Hasael whom Abner had slaine and lost the fruit of the victorie But as e 2. Sam. 20.11 12 13. Ioabs servant removed Amaza whom Ioab had slaine out of the high way into the field cast a cloth upon him when he saw that everie one that came by him stood still and as he cryed Hee that favoureth Ioab and hee that is for David let him goe after Ioab whereupon all the people went on after Ioab to pursue after the traitor Sheba So let us remove all scandals from before our eyes and casting upon them the cloake of forgetfulnesse let us follow our Generall our Lord Iesus Christ the Prince and Captaine of the Lords Host who goeth before us fighting for the Lord our God against the Divell sinne and the world Whosoever favoureth Christ whosoever is for God let him follow Christ Let f 1. Tim. 1.18 19. us all warre a good warfare holding for shield faith and forsword the word of God not pausing on these Hymenees and Alexanders which loosing the rudder of a good conscience what wonder if they have made shipwrack of their faith yea let us tread upon their stinking carkases and trampling on the gastly examples of their lamentable revolts let us g Psal 3.14 presse toward the marke for the prince of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus That being through Gods powerfull and mercifull assistance each of us enabled to say truely with Paul h 2. Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good sight I haue finished my course I haue kept the faith wee may thereupon inferre this sweete and blessed conclusion with Paul Henceforth there is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall give mee at that day and not to mee onely but unto them also that love his appearing XIX O almightie and most gracious Father bestow this saving grace upon this thy people which is here present before thee through the all-sufficient merits of thy only and deare Sonne and our only and most powerfull Saviour Iesus Christ our Lord to whom with thee and the holy Ghost be all power all honour and all glorie for ever and ever Amen SERMON VI. Of the Lords Deliverances PSALM XXXIV XIX But the Lord delivereth him out of them all 1. THe Church compared to the Moone by reason of the vicissitude of her evils the Lords deliverances 2. Whereof there be many examples in the old Tastament 3. And in the new 4. Six principall points to be considered in the Lords deliverances 5. The deliverer of the Church is the LORD called IEHOVAH in the Heb. tongue 6. The word IEHOVAH leadeth us to the knowledge of the eternitie of Gods being and of that eternall vertue whereby he giveth being to all things and namely to his promises 7. All the qualities required in a deliverer are in the LORD 8. Thence the righteous man receiveth a most sensible and unspeakable comfort 9. God alone is the deliverer of the Church and needeth not the helpe of any 10. What is the nature of his deliverances 11. Exhortatiō not to feare men 12. Exhortation to feare God alone 13. Exhortation not to trust in men neither living 14. Nor dead though they be in heaven 15. Exhortation to trust in the Lord alone 16. Those whō the Lord delivereth are the Righteous only 17. Their righteousnesse is no cause meritorious of their deliverances 18. Notwithstanding it is a righteous thing with God to deliver them and that for three causes 19. The Lord giveth many blessings and deliverances to wicked men for righteous mens sake 20. Exhortation to righteousnesse 1. EXcellent and many are the titles wherewith the Church is adorned in holy Scripture Amongst all that wherewith shee is graced when the wise K. Salomon intitles her a Cant 6.10 faire as the Moon is the fittest to expresle her condition in this world She is faire indeed verie pleasant to behold as the Moone is Shee shineth among the people that walke in the darkenesse of ignorance as the Moone shineth in the night Her shining light is intermixed with darke staines of sinne as the bright shining light of the Moone is intermingled with blacke spots She hath her spots of her selfe as the Moone hath but b Ambr. Hexam lib 4 cap. 8. shee borroweth the light of immortalitie and of grace from the ay-during light of her brother the Lord Iesus Christ as the light of the Moone commeth from the Sunne O c Hos 139 Israel thou hast destroyed by thy selfe but in mee is thy helpe saith GOD to his Church Sinne is of ourselves destruction and death is from our sinne But d Psal 121.2 our helpe is from the Lord which made heaven and earth even from the Lord Iesus who is e Mal. 1.2 the Sun of righteousnesse f Luk. 1.78 the day spring from on high in whose wings is health g Psal 36.9 in whose light wee see light and through whose light h l. 2.15 we shine as lights in the world so that we say i Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee The Moone hath her rising and setting and in each of them her increasing her fulnesse her decreasing her disappearing for a few daies when she is in her conjunction with the Sun So the Church of Christ rising in one place goeth downe in another and wheresoever shee riseth is subject to manie variations to growing bigger and bigger to waning to disappearing Then through the violence of persecutions she is constrained to obey Gods commandement k Esa 26.20 Come my people enter thou into thy
for Christ in Christ holily with Christ wisely for Christ gloriously O how glorious before God is the death of Martyrs c Psal 116 15. Precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints but namely of his Martyrs which dye in him with him for him Weenest thou that it is but a slender glory that Christ hath chosen thee one among a thousand to be his Martyr that he will have thee to suffer not onely with him as doe all those which suffer for righteousnesse sake but also for him that as he d Ioh. 21.19 forewarned Peter by what death he should glorifie him so hee taketh thee by the hand and saith to thee Come I have picked thee out from many millions to beare witnes to the truth of my word before the great men of the earth to seale the faith thou hast in me with thy blood to honour me with thy death When c Gen. 32.6 7 8. Iacob was advertised that his brother Esau was comming to meete him and foure hundred men with him hee was greatly afraid and divided the people that were with him and the Flockes and the Heards and the Camels into two bands them he set foremost in the front of the battell f Gen. 33.2 3. the second place he gave to the hand-maides and their children the third to Lea and her children but he put Rachel and Ioseph hindermost because hee loved them best he adventureth all that he hath to save these two God doth farre otherwayes with his people he setteth foremost a little number of chosen men to whom hee hath distributed his graces in a greater scantling than to the rest them he setteth in the front to be his Martyrs and to fight against the powers of the world sparing the multitude to bee the seed-plot and nurserie of his Church IIX Who can conceive sufficiently the greatnesse of this honour g Luk. 6.23 When yeare hated excommunicated reproached put to death for the Sonne of mans sake Christ biddeth you reioyce and leape for ioy because the Prophets were used in like manner h Heb. 11.32 c. The Apostle in his epistle to the Hebrewes maketh a catalogue of many Worthies which under the Law suffered for the word of God of whom the world was not worthie that we may esteeme our selves most happy when God conformeth us to them i Iam. 5.10 11. S. Iames willeth us to take them for an example of suffering affliction of patience that as we count them happy so we may make it a part of our happinesse to bee like unto them k 1. Pet. 5.9 S. Peter will have us to know that the same afflictions are accomplished in our brethren that are in the world And S. Paul will have us to remember that by tribulations for the Gospell l 1. Thess 2.14 wee become followers of the Churches of God which is no small honour It is said in the Song of Salomon that m Cant. 4.13 the plants of the Church are an Orchard of Pomegranates A Pomegranate hath within it sundry partitions and as it were little mansions with many graines in each of them of a sweete taste and red colour orderly set one by another and all together infolded and shut up under one outward skinne which hath at the top a little round circle like a crowne A most excellent Embleme of the faithfull who are as so many graines set orderly together by the unity of one faith and by the bond of perfectnesse which is charitie having a sweet taste in the holinesse of their life and a red colour in the conformitie of bloudy persecution in the severall Churches where God hath planted them under the Catholike Church whereof the head is our Lord Iesus Christ who as he was first crowned with thornes upon earth so is he now crowned with glory in heaven IX To him must we looke principally as the grains of the Pomegranate looke upward to the head of the skinne wherein they are wrapped and according to Peters exhortation n 1. Pet. 4.12 13. reioyce when we are in the furnace for our tryall in at much as wee are partakers of Christs sufferings for o Rom. 8.28 whom God did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Sonne first in crosses for him next in crownes through him p Rom. 8.17 2. Tim. 2.11 the one and the other with him In this Realme men of good birth hold it no little honor to beare the liverie of the Kings Favourite and how much more the Kings owne liverie Shall wee not then account it a most speciall honour and glory to beare Christs liverie in whom God is well pleased and who is the King of kings to be for him made like unto him to be a curse among men for him who was a curse before God for us to dye that we may glorifie him who is dead to save us Should not the members bee ashamed to take their sports and delights under a head crowned with thornes I confesse that there is a great difference betwixt Christs sufferings and ours First hee is God and man we are but men Secondly hee was in his manhood without sinne there was never man so holy but he was a sinner Thirdly q Gal. 3.1 3. he in his torments was made a curse and drunke the full cup of Gods wrath which was so bitter to his soule that he cryed r Mat. 26.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All the Saints and Martyrs have alwaies in all their heaviest crosses beene comforted and supported of God Fourthly he suffered for the expiation of sinne and his death is the life of the world All the Martyrs ſ Rev. 7.14 15. have washed their robes and made them white in his blood therefore are they before the throne of God They have all suffered to beare witnesse that he suffered for the sinnes of the world none of them have suffered for the sins of the world t Leo. 1. epist 83 ad Palestinos Episcopos For though the death of many Saints hath beene precious in Gods eyes yet hath not the killing of any Saint beene the propitiation of the world The righteous have received but they have not given crownes and the fortitude of the faithfull hath brought forth examples of patience not gifts of righteousnesse The death of each one of them was severall neither did any by his owne end pay the debt of another considering that among thē sonnes of men Iesus Christ our Lord alone is he in whom all are crutified all are dead all buried all raised up of whom he said v Ioh. 12.32 If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me Yet in this is the conformitie of our sufferings with Christs sufferings that as when Christ suffered for our sake and in our roome we suffered in him so when we suffer for Christs sake he
our enemies our evils b Psal 138.6 Though the LORD be high yet hath he respect unto the Lowly but the proud he knoweth afarre off Almighty without a peere in heaven among the Angels in earth among the most dreadfull creatures as the Church singeth c Psal 89. 6 8 9 11 13 For who in heaven can bee compared unto the LORD Who among the sonnes of the mighty can bee likened unto the LORD OLORD God of Hosts who is a strong LORD like unto thee or to thy faithfulnesse round about thee Thou rulest the raging of the sea when the waves thereof arise thou stillest them The heavens are thine the earth also is thine As for the world and the fulnesse thereof thou hast founded them Thou hast a mighty arme strong is thy hand and high is thy right hand When wee complaine and make our moane to God d Psal 93.3 4. The flouds have lifted up O LORD the flouds have lifted up their voice the flouds lift up their waves we are taught to comfort our selves and to say The LORD who is on high is mightier than many waters yea than the mighty waves of the sea All-righteous for e Psal 103.16 the LORD executeth righteousnesse and iudgement for all that are oppressed All-good and most willing to deliver us for he is the LORD our God f Psal 50.1.7 The mighty God even the LORD hath spoken saying I am God even thy God hee is appeased to wards us he is reconciled with us through the blood of the crosse of his deare Sonne Our cause is his cause We are persecuted for righteousnesse sake Righteousnesse is the daughter of God We are persecuted for the Gospel The Gospel is his word We are persecuted for Christs sake Christ is his Sonne his deare Soone his onely Sonne I say then that he is All-wise and can All-mighty and may All-good and will deliver us Whatsoever he is hee is it to us and for us because hee is the LORD our God Hee hath delivered all our fathers predecessors g Psal 22.4 Our fathers saith David trusted in thee they trusted in thee and thou didst deliver them He will also deliver us And therefore every righteous man prayeth h Psal 106.4 Remember mee OLORD with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people O visit mee with thy salvation that I may see the good of thy chosen that I may reioice in the gladnesse of thy nation that I may glory with thine inheritance IIX Here is the comfort here is the consolation of the Church and of every righteous man in her that God heareth their prayers and delivereth them even then and namely then when they are forsaken of all men Iacob was alone when he fled from his fathers house because his brother Esau had vowed to kill him Then the Lord appeared unto him in a dreame and said unto him i Gen. 28.15 Behold I am with thee and will keepe thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee againe into the land for I will not leave thee untill I have done that which I have spoken to thee of David complaineth that k Psal 25.16 hee was desolate and afflicted yet hee seeketh comfort in the assurance of Gods assistance and saith l Psal 27.10 When my father and my mother forsake me then the LORD will take me up What extremitie was the Church brought into under the persecution of the cruell Tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes m Dan. 11 32 45. who corrupted by flatteries such as did wickedly against the covenant and afflicted those which were upright so cruelly and so puissantly that there was none to help them Then the Church prayed n Psal 74.1 O God why hast thou cast us off for ever why doth thine anger smoake against the sheepe of thy pasture Then Sion said againe o Esa 49. 14 15. The LORD bath forsaken me and my LORD hath forgotten me Then the Lord answered againe Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the sonne of her wombe yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee For then was fulfilled that Prophecy of Daniel p Dan. 12.1 At that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall be delivered every one that shall be found written in the booke Who is this Michael who like unto God who but our Lord Iesus Christ the great Prince which standeth and fighteth for his people when they can neither stand nor fight for themselves Was it not hee which cryed from heaven to Saul q Act. 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me When an hoste came from the King of Syria and compassed the Citie of Dothan where Elisha was to take him his servant was affrighted and said r 2. Kin. 6.15 16. Alas my master how shall we doe But hee answered Feare not for they that be with us are moe than they that be with them After the same manner when the king Hezekiah was brought by Senacheribs army to such a pinch that he was constrained to inclose himselfe within the walls of Ierusalem for the safetie of his life all his kingdome being taken from him and having no power to resist fortified himselfe in the Lord his God and heartned his people saying f 2. Chron. 32.7 8. Be strong and courageous bee not afraid nor dismaid for the King of Assyria nor for all the multitude that is with him for there be moe with us then with him With him is the arme of flesh but with us is the LORD our God to helpe us and to fight our battells Yee see a good and godly king see also a good and godly people And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Iuda i.e. notwithstanding their weakenesse and fewnesse they leaned upon God and were delivered S. Raul with good reason did complaine of all his followers that at his first answer before Nero t 2. Tim. 4.16 No man stood with him but all men forsooke him Was he for that destitute and left alone Notwithstanding saith he the Lord stood with me and strengthened me And therefore when he saw all the powers of hell and all the malice of the earth uncoupled after poore Christians hee defied them saying v Rom. 8.30 If God be for us who can be against us Even as David said x Psal 27.1 3. The LORD is my light and my salvation whom shall I feare The LORD is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid though an hoste should encampe against me my heart shall not feare though warre should rise against me in this will I be confident and as Iesus Christ said to his Disciples y Ioh. 16.32 Ye shall leave
be ascribed but to the most wonderfull power of God I put in this ranke the confusion and disorder which God sendeth amongst his enemies when he will deliver his people The Midianites come to fight against Israel but h Ver. 22. the LORD set every mans sword against his fellow even throughout all the host When i 2. Chron. 20.2 22 23 25. the Moabites Ammonites and Idumeans with one consent sought to destroy Iehoshaphat and his people the Lord troubled them with the spirit of division after such a manner that the Moabites and Ammonites slew and destroyed the Idumeans and after that every one helped to destroy another so that Iehoshaphat and his people had no more to doe but to goe and take away the spoyle and give thankes unto the Lord. How often by such divisions God hath saved the reformed Churches in forrein nations and namely in France we all know IX When God delivereth against the nature of meanes he will teach us that he standeth not in any need of meanes when his pleasure is to deliver And therefore now and then he delivereth without meanes k Pro. 16.7 When a mans wayes please the LORD he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him He delivered l Gen. 33.4 Iacob from Esau changing his heart and appeasing his wrath which was suddenly turned into imbracements kissing and weeping He delivered David from Saul by many meanes but when the messengers which were sent by Saul to take him prophecyed and thought no more on him what helpe of man what visible meanes were there When he preferred Ioseph in the Court of Pharao Daniel and his fellowes in the Court of Nebuchadnezzar and of Darius Nehemiah and Mordecai in the Court of Artaxerxes by what means did he it The Psalmist saith that m Psal 106 46. he made them to bee pittyed of all those that carryed them captives Hee converted Saul and of a persecuter made him a Christian of a Captaine an Apostle of a Ring-leader of most cruell and bloody Wolves a most vigilant and faithfull shepheard of Christs flocke David speaking through his owne experience saith to the man which is persecuted wrongfully n Psal 37.5 6. Commit thy way unto the LORD trust also in him and he shall bring it to passe and he shall bring foorth thy righteousnesse as the light and thy iudgements as the noone day Wee may wonder that he doth it but how he doth it who can tell How Saul knew Davids innocency we can tell o 1. Sam. 24.18 1. Sam. 26.21 because when he might he killed him not but it is wonderfull to consider by what unknowne wayes of Gods secret providence Saul fell twice into his hands Henry the third King of France spake of us at Tours as Saul spake of David and said that we were more righteous than hee because we had rewarded him good whereas he had rewarded us evill It was the wonderfull and immediate worke of GOD that hee could not bee saved but by them whose fathers hee had killed and was resolved to bee the protector of those whom he had persecuted if the Monks impoisoned knife had not cut too too soone for us the brittle thread of his mortall life God be praysed that amongst us there are no Clements no Barrauts no Chatels no Ravaillacs for p 2. Sam. 26.9 who can stretch forth his hand against the LORDS anointed and bee guiltlesse X. How often hath the Church beene afflicted stormed forsaken of all creatures destitute of all helpe of all counsell of all comfort and he he alone hath come on a sudden and both comforted and delivered her He prophecied by Daniel that under the persecution of Antiochus his people should be brought to such extremity that q Dan. 11.45 none should helpe them What then shall they perish for want of helpe It followeth in the next chapter r Dan. 12.1 And at that time shall Michael stand up the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time and at that time thy people shall bee delivered every one that shall be written in the book Who is this Michael who but our Lord Iesus Christ called elsewhere Å¿ Iosh 5.14 15. the Prince of the host of the LORD If all the Angels of heaven if all the men of the world should stand still with their armes crossed if all the creatures should with hold their helpe from us our Michael saith unto us t Mat. 28.18 20. All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth and loe I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Though he be v Phil. 2.9 10. highly exalted though he have a Name which is above every name though he x Psal 47.7 be king of all the earth and that at his Name every knee must bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth yet he is our high Priest and beareth us into the most high and inmost heavens yea weareth us as an ornament upon his shoulders and upon his breast and as the Apostle saith y Heb. 2.11 is not ashamed to call us his brethren When all things seeme to be desperate and past hope of recoverie when the faithfull are nothing but a skeliton but a carcasse a Ezech. 37.2 c. of dry bones as the people of Iuda was in the captivitie of Babylon if it please him to speak the word onely they shall come together againe bone to bone they shall live rise again and be a great Army Hee hath by his word done things greater and more wonderfull By his word he hath made heaven earth by his word he heaped plagues upon plagues while they had destroyed Pharao and his people they that are sicke cry unto him b Psal 107 7. he sendeth his word healeth them c Mat. 9.6 20 22. By his word onely he cured one sicke of the palsie and the woman diseased with an issue of blood By his word onely he quieted the winds calmed the roaring seas rendred sight and light to the blind raised the dead By his word onely he restored his people to the land of Canaan By his word he saveth the Church By his word by his onely power and good will without any visible and knowne meanes he hath given peace to the Churches of France for when we were betrayed and sold by sundry of our brethren forsaken of many pursued by a great armie he was for us and delivered us Then wee sung with thanksgiving the hundreth twenty and fourth Psalme XI There is yet another kind of deliverie which commeth immediately of God and is most wonderfull of all How he delivereth us by the ruine of our enemies how by death he giveeh us life wee shall heare in the next Sermon but that hee delivereth us when
valiant courage of Eleazar one of the principall Scribes in the dayes of the blood-thirstie Tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes i 2. Maccab. 6.21 c. He was besought by the Kings officers for the old acquaintance they had with him to bring flesh of his owne provision such as was lawfull for him to use and make as if he did eate of the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the King that in so doing he might be delivered from death and for the old friendship with them finde favour A friendly counsell if yee consider the men which gave it but if ye consider the intention of the divell who suggested it a most violent assault and craftie tentation what so sweet as life what so desirable as to save it without any reall offence what so plausible or at least more excusable than to make a shew of an evill which indeed thou doest not to shun to be made a publike shew of the evill which otherwise thou must suffer with shame and great torments Flesh and blood will say to Eleazar that in this there was no sinne The Pope which giveth dispense to the Papists of this Realme to dissemble and deny their Religion will say that it was but a veniall sinne and of the number of those which are most pardonable Eleazar led with another Spirit even with k Esa 11.3 the Spirit of the Lord which is the spirit of knowledge of wisedome of counsell of might and of the feare of the Lord saith not so but considering the holy Law made and given by God It becommeth not our age said he in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might thinke that ELEAZAR being fourescore yeeres old and tenne was now gone to a strange religion and so they through mine hypocrisie and desire to live a little time and a moment longer should be deceived by me and I get astaine to mine old age and make it abominable for though for the present time I should bee delivered from the punishment of men yet should I not escape the hand of the Almighty neyther alive nor dead wherefore now manfully changing this life I will shew my selfe such an one as mine age requireth and leave a notable example to such as be young to dye willingly and courageously for the honourable and holy lawes This seemed madnesse and despaire to his Iudges which changing the good will they bare him into hatred and their meeknesse into fury and rage let him straight wayes to the Tympan which was a most cruell kind of torture whereupon being ready to dye of the stripes which hee had received ceived he groaned and said It is manifest unto the Lord that hath the holy knowledge that whereas I might have beene delivered from death I now endure sore paines in body by being beaten but in soule am well content to suffer these things because I feare him XIV Reade also the storie of the cruell death and constancie l 2. Macc. 7 of the seven brethren and their mother at that same time the Tyrant himselfe marvelled at their courage for that neither the scourges and whips wherewith they were torne nor the cutting out of their tongues nor the mangling and maiming of all their members nor the pulling off of the skin of their heads with the haire nor the hot pannes and caldrons wherein they were fryed being yet alive could compell them against the law of God to eate swines flesh The eldest heire worthy of the prerogative of the first-borne answered to the Tyrants threats to the Hangmans whips and to all the tortures We are ready to dye rather than to transgresse the lawes of our fathers and exhorted his brethren as they exhorted him to dye manfully for the law of God And to make you know that this was not madnesse of mind but faith the second said to the King Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life but the King of the world shall raise us up which have dyed for his lawes unto everlasting life So spake the third so the fourth and the rest but the youngest was most wonderfull of all for neither could the promises of riches and honours tickle him nor the cruell torments which he had seene his brethren suffer shake his constancie but being encouraged by his most wonderfull mother he cryed to the executioners Whom wait ye for I will not obey the Kings commandement but I will obey the commandement of the law that was given unto our Fathers by Moses So they dyed so dyed last of all their marvellous mother after that she had beene to them in stead of a Levite or Priest and had exhorted and comforted them with a most excellent speech concerning the resurrection And therefore the Apostle ascribeth their victorious constancie to their faith saying Heb. 11.35 that by faith they were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection XV. The Christian Church aboundeth in such examples of most wonderfull victorie against the flesh the world and the divell In it this is to bee admired that men which may live in honor by denying Christ choose shame and dishonor preferre torments to ease sorrow to joy paine to pleasure death to life kissethe postes and other instruments of their punishments looke upon the torments with a cheerefull face runne to the fires as joyfully as worldings doe to a bridall feast and not onely rejoice but also m Rom. 53 glorie in tribulations which is the highest degree of pleasure and joy Steven stopping his eares to the murmuring of the people which like a swarme of Hornets and Waspes made a humming noise about him shutting his eyes to the stones wherewith they were armed to fell him and overcomming by faith the horrors of death n Act. 7.55 56 59 60. looked up stedfastly into heaven and seeing there the glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God cryed with a triumphing voice Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God Neither could their showting nor the stones which hayled upon him stay him to kneele downe and to call upon God both for himselfe and for them XVI If ye search the Ecclesiasticall histories of the Martyrs of the primitive Church and of ours the examples of such victories are infinite S. Ignace Bishop of Antiochia hearing the roaring of the hungry Lions and seeing them stretching foorth their clawes to teare him and opening their throats to devoure his flesh cryed with a loud voice o Iren adv heres sib 5. Because I am Christs wheat now shall I be ground with the teeth of beasts that I may bee found to bee the pure bread of God p Euseb hist Eâ—cl lib. 4. cap. 15. Policarpe Bishop of Smyrna answered to those which now intreated him with many promises now impotuned him with threats to call the Emperour My Lord and to deny Christ to bee his Lord I have served him
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with the Angels of his power We must apply this comfort to us for we shall never be without enemies But we have our warranter and protector in heaven who fore warnes us not only of their enterprises but also of their overthrow c Esa 54.15 16 17. Behold saith he they shall surely gather together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake Behold I have created the Smith that bloweth the coales in the fire and that bringeth forth an instrument for his worke And I have created the destroyer to destroy No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in iudgement shou shalt condemne This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse of me saith the Lord. IX The Church is an Anvile which hath broken in peeces many hammers Or as Zechariah saith d Zach. 12.3 it is a burdensome stone for all people all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it Where are now the foure Monarchies which persecuted the Church Hath not e Dan. 2.34 35 44 45. the stone cut out of the mountaine without hands hath not the Church of Christ the Church which is come downe from Gods holy mountaine even from heaven the Church which is not the work of any man but of God the Church which is but like a little stone in the eyes of the world hath not this little stone broken them all to peeces and consumed them like chaffe which the wind carryeth away But it is become a great mountaine which filleth the whole earth It is a spirituall kingdome which the Lord of heaven hath set up and therefore shall never bee destroyed God said to mount Seir to the people of Edom the children of Esau Because thou hast had a perpetuall hatred and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity in the time that their iniquity had an end Therefore as I live saith the Lord God Ezech. 35.5 I will prepare thee unto blood and blood shall pursue thee sith thou hast not hated blood blood shall pursue thee Have any of the Massacrers of our fathers prospered How many wonderfull judgements of God upon them and their children might I relate unto you if time could permit The gaggers have beene gagged and strangled with wormes bursting out of their stinking throates those which imbrued their hands with innocent blood have swumme in their owne blood the children of persecuters were seene begging at the doores of your fathers whom their fathers had spoiled Many pursued by the divell did runne up and downe like mad men crying that they were damned because they had persecuted the Church and shed innocent blood Then the Church sang to God g Psal 92.5 6 7 8 9 10 11. O LORD how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deepe A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a foole understand this when the wicked springs as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever but thou O LORD art most high for evermore for loe thine enemies O LORD for loe thine enemies shall perish All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered but my horne shalt thou exalt like the horne of the Vnicorne c. X. The author of the booke of Wisedome saith that h Sap. 6.5 sharpe iudgement shall be to them that be in high places And experience teacheth that the iudgements of God on them have beene most sharpe conspicuous and wonderfull i 1. King 21.19 22.38 In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth which Achab shed there they licked Achabs blood Proud k 2. King 9.35 36. Iezabel after she had slain the Prophets of the Lord was eaten by dogs Neither was there left in the family of Achab so much as a dogge that pissed against the wall In the beginning of the twenty seaventh chapter following our text the Prophet saith that l Esa 29.1 in that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and hee shall slay the dragon that is in the sea He calleth so the Kings of Assyria and of Babylon which were the most cruell subtile and venemous persecuters of his Church Consider and see how he punished them m 2. King 19. Senacharib was slaine by his owne sonnes in the house of Nisroch his God And n Herodot Euterp◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his death the Egyptians whom he had oppressed erected unto him an image of stone with this inscription Whosoever looketh upon me let him feare God His third son Esar Haddon was slaine by Merodach Baladan who transported the Empire from Nimveh in Assyria to Babylon in Chaldea o Dan 5.1 Belshazzar the first and last of Merodaches race was killed among the goblets and dishes and in the midst of his Courtiers and Concubines whilest he was blaspheming the name of God the Monarchie was by Cyrus and Darius translated to the Medes and Persians p 2. Macc. 9.9 Antiochus Epiphanes famous for his most unnaturall and barbarous cruelty against the Church of the Iewes was smitten with the incurable and remedilesse sicknesse of wormes and lice which rising up out of his bowells and all the parts of his body consumed his flesh with many and strange torments and such a stinking smell that he himselfe could not abide it Thus dying a most miserable death hee left his Realme to his children amongst whom God sent the Spirit of division and discord which left them never in peace till they were consumed one by another XI Herodées q Ioseph Antiquit. Iudaic. lib. 17. cap. 8. Idem de bello Iudaico lib. 1. ca. 21. murtherer of the children of Bethelem through the righteous judgement of God became parricide of his owne children and at last after he had been long tortured with a cholike passion and unspeakeable torments in his entrails and all disfigured with the dropsie and scurfe wherwith his whole body was spread over was gnawen by swarmes of lice and worms which bursting forth out of those parts of his body which naturall shame commanded him to hide and dolefull necessitie constrained him to discover made him a most filthy and stinking spectacle to his Courtiers and a most loathsome guest to himselfe r Ioseph Autiq. lib. 18. cap. 9. Herodés Antypas who beheaded Iohn Baptist was relegated to Lion with his incestuous wife Herodias and ended there his wicked life by a wretched and miserable death Å¿ Euseb hâ—st
g Iuvenal Sat. 2. Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna Nec pueri credunt that whatsoever was spoken of old amongst the Gentiles is written in the Scriptures is beleeved in the Church of divels of hell of everlasting torments is but a bug-beare or scare-crow to feare superstitious folkes and hold them in awe But they strive unprofitably against the streame of their owne consciences which with a roaring voice doth summon them day and night to appeare before the judgement seat of the inexorable and Almighty Iudge Of all men those feare hell most who say there is no hell The sound of a shaking leafe maketh their hearts to shake for feare when there is none to pursue them And even then when they preach to men that hell is a fable they finde a most direfull hell within themselves burning up the most secret bowells of their wretched soules Why did Iudas hang himselfe when there was none upon earth to doe him any harme if there be no hell Death was more tolerable unto him than the feare of the unestimable torments which now hee suffereth there What were r Suet in Nerone c. 46 the monstrous dreames of Nero What Å¿ Xiphilinus Epitome Dionis the hideous and most ugly ghosts of those whom he had slaine which he saw a little before his death bounding out of the earth and leaping to his throat but a warning to appeare the next day in judgement to give an account of so much Christian and innocent blood which he had most wickedly shed If there bee no judgement after this life from whence came it that t Pro copius de bello Gothico lib. 1. Theodoricke king of the Gothes Protector of the wicked heresie of the Arrians after hee had put to death the 2. worthy Senators of Rome Symmachus Boetius because they maintained the true faith could not looke upon the head of a great fish that was set upon his table crying that it was the head of Symmachus which with most horrible yawning and fierie eyes sought to devoure him That was a citing indeed for suddenly he was taken to his bed and from thence to the grave v Thuanus lib. 57. Aubig 2. tom lib. 1. The Authors of the Massacres of France could not be at quiet many dayes after that bloody Tragedy for the horrible sight of great multitudes of ugly Ravens hovering about the Louure and voyces which cryed incessantly in their eares Murther murther murther suing them to come personally before him who sitteth on the throne and before the Lambe whom they had slaine in his members 'T is a truth not onely x Audreas Liba de cruentatione Cadaverum Levinus Lemnius de occultis natura miraculis lib. 2. cap. 7. ascertained by bookes but also averred by dayly experience in all nations That if a murtherer come in sight of the person whom hee hath slain the Coarse though almost rotten and stinking will bleed and disclose him What is that bleeding but a testimony that if men will not y Psal 58.11 There is a God that iudgeth in the earth and in his owne time will be avenged of all murtherers namely of them who lay violent hands upon his deare ones Therefore when the soules under the Altar cryed for vengeance against the persecuters who had stained their hands with their innocent blood a Rev. 6.11 it was said unto them that they should rest yet for a little season untill their fellow-servants also and their brethren that should be killed as they were should be fulfilled For as God spared the b Gen. 15.16 Amorites till their iniquity was full and as the Lord said to the Scribes and Pharisees c Mat. 23.32 Fillye up the measure of your fathers because then all the righteous blood which their fathers had shed was to come upon them So the Lord hath a time appointed for the full deliverance of his Church and everlasting destruction of his enemies even the last and great day of this decaying world d 2. Thes 1.7 8 9 10 When the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with the Angels of his power in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ who shall bee punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to bee admired in all that beleeve in that day XV. Day which is a day of wrath e Zephan 1.15 a day of trouble and distresse a day of vastnesse and desolation a day of darknes and gloominesse a day of clouds and thicke darkenesse A night rather than a day yea both a day and a night A day wherein Gods judgements against all ungodly men shall shine cleerer than the noone day A night because of the place of the extreamity of the universalitie of the eternity of the effects of the paine whereunto they shall bee condemned by this thundering voice and unrecallable sentence of their righteous ludge f Mat. 25.41 Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the divell and his Angels To hell must they goe even to the darke and ugly g 1. Pet. 3.19 prison which shall be the last habitation of all ungodly sinners How pleasant how faire soever a prison be we say that there were never faire prisons And therefore what will not a man suffer rather than to goe to prison he will flee he will give all that he hath hee will runne to his friends and cry for succour h Aug. de verbis Aposto li. serm 18 Contremiscis c onturbaris pallescis c. S. Augustine saith that in his time they would flee to the Church runne to the Bishop fall downe lye wallowing at his feete cry with a pale countenance with a trembling voice My Lord I am troubled my Lord I am to be cast in prison take pitty of me relieve me So hard so unsufferable a paine doth it seeme to all men to bee in prison though it there were no other paine to be suffered but to be closed up Yea our owne houses would be hatefull unto us if our liberty of going abroad were restrained O then how huge how intolerable shall bee the torments of those bloody butchers who have shed the blood of Gods Saints like water when they shall bee cast headlong into the hellish prison which may bee most properly called i Iob 10.21 22. the land of darknesse and of the shadow of death Where there is no order and where light it selfe is darknesse O how shall they tremble how shall they cry and teare their soules when they shall bee violently throwne downe into the k Luk. 18.31 deepe and bottomlesse pit which m Aug. in 50. Homilius hom 16 â—uÌ„ sine poenitentiae remedio infoelices peccatores exceperit c. when it hath received impenitent sinners
murtherers have slain shall arise and bee received into eternall glory in the presence of their enemies with this welcome from the eternall Iudge g Mat. 25 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherite the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world O most wonderfull inheritance h Aug. Hareditas Domini nou minuitur multitudine possessorian tanta singulis quanta universis It is not diminished by the multitude of those which possesse it It is as large to every one apart as to the whole multitude together O most excellent and glorious inheritance It is a kingdome wherein our darkenesse shall bee converted into light our sorrow into ioy our trouble into peace our weaknesse into strength our dishonour into honour our ignominie into glory our misery into happinesse our death into life our patient hope into the reall enioying of all good our prayers into thanks-giving Where the heavens shall receive us the holy Angells welcome us the blessed Saints ioyne themselves unto us where our bodies being made of mortall immortall of naturall spirituall of burthensome nimble shall shine brighter than the fairest summer-day Where i 1. Cor. 15.28 God himselfe without any meanes shall bee all in all perfect and absolute knowledge to our mindes an ocean of love to our hearts soveraigne good and the blessed center of eternall rest to all our restlesse affections where he himselfe after a most wonderfull and glorious manner which cannot be imagined shall be light in our eyes melody in our eares the wished and longed-for obiect of all our senses where he saith That k Rev. 21.3 he himselfe shall be with us and be our God l Aug. de Civit Dei li. 22. capaile i. he shall be unto us all whereby we may be satisfied and whatsoever all may honestly desire life salvation meate drinke riches glory honour peace and all good Which David expressed in few words saying m Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore And againe n Psa 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I will be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse For then God shall be the end of all our desires then o Aug. idid Ipse finis evit desideriorum nostrorum qui sine fine vide bitur sine faslidio amabitur sine fatigatione laud abitur We shall see him without end wee shall love him without loathing we shall prayse him without wearying Then also our enemies shall see our glory in him and with him and as the Author of the booke of Wisedome saith p Sap. 5.2 When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible feare and shall be amazed at the strangenesse of our salvation so farre beyond all that they looked for c. XXII O then dearely beloved let us learne to discerne wisely q Mal. 3.18 betweene the righteous and the wicked betweene him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Salomon saith that r Pro. 13.9 the lampe of the wicked shall bee put out comparing wicked men to a candle which when it begins to burne giveth a faire light but endeth in stinking smoake and caligiousnesse for their end is worse than their beginning because Å¿ Iob 21.30 they are reserved to the day of destruction to the day when wrath shall be brought foorth On the other side t Psal 37.37 39 40. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace because the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD he is their strength in the time of trouble and the Lord shall helpe them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him The short dayes of mans fading and dying life me thinkes may be most conveniently compared to a stage-play wherein often Kings sonnes mount on the scaffold disguised in poore mens rags and beggers march with a stately pase attired in sumptuous robes about their greasie bodies hiding scurvie heads under crowns of gold and stretching forth a royall Scepter with scabbed hands but when the curtaines are remooved when the Tragedy is ended and the Players are stript of their borrowed apparell he that made so many vaine glorious shewes and called himselfe Hercules or Agamemnon is knowne to be poore Irus who goeth begging thorow the streetes and crackling crusts of browne bread betweene his muddie and rotten teeth and hee that was thought to be Irus is knowne to be the royall sonne of Aeacus T is even so betweene the Church and the world when v Luk. 16.19 20. Lazarus starves for hunger at the rich mans gate and the rich man jetteth in his purple and makes good cheere when x Mat. 27.39 Christ is nayled upon the crosse and his enemies stand hard by reviling him when the y Rev. 11.9 10 11 12. dead bodies of Christs two witnesses lye unburied in the streets of the great City and they that dwell upon the earth reioyce over them and thanke their gods of gold silver brasse because they have overcome them it seemes that those which are thus afflicted are but poore snakes forsaken of God and that those others which swim with content in the Ocean of worldly pleasures are Gods deare ones But when the divells shall bury the rich Glutton in the lowest pit of hell when boiling there in the lake of fire and brimstone he shall lift up his eyes and see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of the house of God drinking great draughts in the river of his pleasures when the spirit of life from God shall enter into his two witnesses when they shall rise againe stand upon their feet and ascend up to heaven when a Mat. 24.30 Iesus Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory when he shall set his sheepe on his right hand and the goates on the left when b Rev. 1.7 they which pierced him shall see him and by him shall be throwne downe into the rich Mine of eternall torments c Aug. 50. homil Homil 16. Morituri vitae morti sine sine victuri to dye there unto life and to live unto death world without when those d Sap. 5.4 5 whose life they accounted madnesse and their end disgrace shall be received into the haven of eternall securitie then then all the Bulls of Bashan shall know that al their life was but a ridiculous move-merry their pleasures but a shew their felicitie but the glympse of a shadow that those whom they had sometimes in derision and who were in their mouthes a Proverb of reproach are Gods beloved children and his most precious jewells XXIII O then where are they that thinke to overthrow the Church And when will they listen to this truth Minde they to raine downe upon the Church a deluge of
forgivenesse of sinne And such were some of you saith the Apostle 1. Cor. 6. reckoning many fins light and heavy usuall and horrible And such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified If then he say that they are sanctified let every beleever say I am holy This is not pride of one that is haughty Non est ista superbâ—â—â—â—â—â— sed confessio non ingratâ— but a confession of one that is not unthankefull for if thou say that thou art holy of thy selfe thou art proude Againe beleeving in Christ and being a member of Christ if thou say not that thou art holy thou art unthankefull For the Apostle reproving pride saith not Thou hast not but he saith 1. Cor. 4. What hast thou that thou didst not receive Thou wast not reproved for saying that thou hadst that which thou hadst not but because thou wouldest have of thy selfe that which thou hadst yea acknowledge both that thou hadst and that thou hast nothing of thy selfe to the end that thou be neither proud nor unthankefull Dic Deo tuoe Sanctus sum quia sanctifieastime quia accepi non quia habuâ— quia in dedist non quia ego meruâ— Say to thy God I am holy because thou hast sanctified me because I have received it not because I had it because thou hast given it not because I have deserved it For on the other part thou beginnest to offer an iniury to our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe For if all Christians and beleevers and all that are baptized in him have put him on as the Apostle saith Gal. 3. As many of you as have beene baptized into Christ have put on Christ if they be made members of his body and say that they are not holy they offer a wrong to the head it selfe whose members are holy Looke now where thou art and take dignitie from thy head For ye were sometimes darkenesse but now are ye light in the Lord Ephes 5. He saith Yee were sometimes darknesse but have ye remained darknesse He that enlightneth is he come that yee should remaine darkenesse or that ye should be light in him Let therefore every Christian say yea let the whole body of Christ say Let him that suffereth tribulations diverse tentations and innumerable scandals cry and say Preserve my soule because I am holy IX It is no matter what many men which are not righteous thinke and speake of themselves every foole is a wise man in his owne eyes Many beggers have kings hearts and will bragge much of their antiquitie and worthinesse of their kindred and of the glory of their riches At Athens there was a certaine man called Å¿ Athenae lib. 12. Thrasylaus who detained with a pleasant madnesse deemed that all the ships which arrived there were his and in this same towne there is a foole who thinketh verily that he is King of great Britanne If a foole think that he is wise shall a wise man call himselfe a foole If a begger say that he is rich shall a rich man say of himselfe that he is poore If a man troubled in his hypochondres imagineth that hee is King of this Island shall the King mistake himselfe and put in question whether he be King or no If an hypocrite or a wicked man crack much of his owne righteousnesse shall he whom God hath mercifully clothed with this wedding garment denie what he hath received and say to his benefactor who hath bought him Thou art not my father X. We must not weigh such men in the deceiving weights of their owne imaginations but take the true balances of Gods word and weigh them therein There you shal reade of them that which was said to Belschatsar King of Babylon t Dan. 5.27 Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting There you shall finde them set out in very darke smoakie and hellish colours both in their inside and outside v Psal 59. Their inward part is very wickednesse There is no faithfulnesse in their mouth their throat is an open sepulchre they flatter with their tongue x 2 Pet. 2.14 Their eyes are full of adultery y Ier. 5 8. They are as fed horses when they rise in the morning every one neigheth after his neighbours wife a Psal 144.8 Their right hand is a right hand of falshood b Esa 59.7 8. Their feet runne to evill and they make haste to shed innocent blood Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their paths The way of peace they know not and there is no iudgement in their goings With all this having in themselves c Deut. 29.18 19. a root bearing gall and wormewood they adde drunkennesse to thirst hardnesse of heart contempt of God to sinne d Iob 21.14 15. They say unto God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes What is the Almighty that we should serve him and what profite should we have if wee pray unto him The cause of all is e Psal 36.1 2 3 4. The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart There is no feare of God before his eyes For he flattereth himselfe in his owne eyes when his iniquity is found to be hated The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit he hath left off to be wise and to doe good He deviseth mischiefe upon his bed he setteth himselfe in a way that is not good he abhors not evill For this cause such men are called f Psal 14.4 workers of iniquity God judging of them qualifying them not according to the ill which they do but according to the ill which they are willing to do For as righteous men doe not the good which they would doe and do the evill which they would not do so they contrariwise do often the good which they would not doe and doe not all the evill which they would doe XI For being servile and base minded often thorough a slavish feare of punishment they abstaine from evill and now and then through a mercenary hope of reward they doe some good like unto the Scribes and Pharisees whom Christ cursed with many woes for their manifold sinnes and namely because g Matt. 23.25 they made cleane the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they were full of extortion and excesse Such mens works which have a goodly shew what are they else but as one of the ancient Doctors of the Latin Church called them h Splendida peccata Glorious and glistering sinnes Therefore Christ said to his Disciples i Mat. 5.20 that except their righteousnesse should exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they should in no case enter into the Kingdome of heaven Neverthelesse both hypocrites who abstaine from ill-doing through feare and i Matt. 23.5 doe all their workes to be seene of men having a k 2. Tim. 3.5 shew of godlinesse but denying the power
our fathers who were content to beleeve as the Church beleeved our good fathers who turned and whirled about so devoutly their Paternosters and mumbled them so religiously before the holy Images which these new upstart fellowes call abominable Idols had bread and drinke enough but now since prayers are made to God alone in a knowne tongue since a few unlearned rascals and out-casts of the world begin to prate most fondly of heavenly things to flirt the holy Father on the nose and call him the Antichrist to beate downe Altars to breake Images as LEON the fourth Emperour of the Orient did c. we starve for hunger and thirst and are diven to such miserie that our state cannot bee worse This was the Iewes answer to Ieremiah a Ier. 44.17 18. Wee will burne incense unto the Queene of heaven and poure out drinke offerings unto her as we have done we and our fathers our Kings and our Princes in the cities of Iudah and in the streets of Ierusalem For then had we plenty of victuals and were well and saw no evill but since we left off to burne incense to the Queene of heaven and to poure out drinke offerings unto her we have wanted all things and have beene consumed by the sword and by the famine 8 Salomon saith b Prov. 25.18 that a man that beareth false witnesse against his neighbour is a hammer a sword and a sharpe arrow he is a hammer to the hearer who yeeldeth attention unto his slandering hee casteth him with the blowes of his viperous tongue into many dangerous symptomes and perplexitles of minde as if he felled an Oxe he is a sword to his owne soule which he killeth with such artificiall lyes he is a sharpe arrow to the innocent man whom he thus slandereth shooting at his reputation a farre off to breed him harme in one thing or other for c Psal 27.12 false witnesses breathe out crueltie d Psal 64.3 4 5. They whet their tongue like a sword and shoot in stead of their arrowes bitter words that they may shoot in secret at the perfect suddenly do they shoot at him and feare not They encourage themselves in an evill matter they commune of laying snares privily they say Who shall see them From hence arise most cruell persecutions Then yee see nothing but kindling of fires but sharpning of Swords but smoothing of Pikes but cleering of Partisans but preparing of Muskets but ravenous Harpies flying into the houses and fowling the righteous mans goods Then ye heare nothing but edicts of proscription but Spoyle spoyle Ransack ransack Kill kill with all kinde of reproaches curses and execrations Then wheresoever ye shall turne your face ye shal meet with nothing but with faces inflamed with threatnings and slaughter as e Act. 9.1 2. Sauls was when he went to Damascus to bind the Disciples of the Lord ye shal mark nothing but woodnesse but outragiousnesse but a wofull sorrowfull face of all things but hell opened the Divels unchained and all their fiery malice displayed against the righteous but ravishing of goods defiling of maried women deflowring of Virgins banishing murthering exquisite punishments grievous tortures new kindes of death and which is most insupportable to an honest heart scoffing upbraiding despitefull rayling or if you will have the roll which the Apostle hath made of the righteous mans evills f Rom. 8.35 tribulation distresse persecution famine nakednesse perill sword without exception of sex without pitie towards little children and sucklings without any reverence to the gray haire and old age The Apostle speaking of the godly and righteous men which lived under the tyrannie of the Idolatrous Kings of Iuda and Israel and under the Kings of Syria and of Egypt saith that g Heb 11.36 37 38. they had tryall of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned they were sawen asunder were tempted were slaine with the sword they wandred about in sheepes skinnes and goat skinnes being destitute afflicted tormented Of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in deserts and in mountaines and in dens and caves of the earth What is deare to the righteous man in this world His goods What more deare than his goods His life What dearer to him what much more esteemed of him than his goods his life and all the world Gods glory and his owne reputation Marke in this catalogue of evils the righteous man bereft of all these things 9 The first unexpected message that the bringers of ill news reported to Iob was of the losse of all his goods the second of the unlooked-for and violent death of all his children And as if all that had beene but sport and play h Iob 2.7 the divel smote him with so many sore biles that from the sole of his foot even unto the crowne of his head there was nothing found in him but the skin of his teeth i Iob 19.12 c. His byles were so loathsome to the eyes so stinking to smell that his breath became strange to his wife his servants and those that dwelled in his house counted him for a stranger and when hee called them gave him no answer his acquaintance were estranged from him his familiar friends forgot him the men to whom hee committed his secrets abhorred him the young children despised and spake against him his familiar friends which came to comfort him gaped upon him with their mouth and adding affliction to the afflicted vexed his soule with reviling words calling him an oppressor of the poore a wicked man an hypocrite and disputed eagerly against him that the hypocrites and wicked men are the meere and onely object of afflictions yea his owne wife scorned his godlinesse and uprightnesse and mocking him with ironicall and pinching words k Iob 2.9 Doest thou still said shee retaine thine integrity Blesse God and die Besides that l Iob 7.13 when hee thought that his bed should comfort him and his couch should ease his complaint then hee was scared with dreames and terrified through visions so that he consumed like rotten wood and as a garment that is moath-eaten It seemes that God had made him an example and patterne of the manie evills wherewith the righteous are compassed and besieged on all sides 10 If ye reade the storie of Davids life ye shall judge that his owne sensible experience of the many evills which lay heads and hands together to overthrow the righteous man whereof hee speaketh in this Psalme made him to cry with griefe in another Psalme m Ps 42.7 Deep calleth unto deepe at the noyse of thy water spouts all thy waves and thy billowes are gone over me Consider n 2. Sam. 23.12 him consider o 1. Kin. 19.4 9. Elijah the Prophet consider the p 1. Mac. 1.28 29. Maccabees and all those worthy Confessors and Martyrs whom the blessed Apostle in the Epistle to the Hebrewes recommendeth to
the blessed and perpetuall memory of the Church behold them destitute of meat to fill their bellies and of honest clothing to goe abroad eye them shrowding their nakednesse basely and poorely under sheepe and goat-skinnes view them now flying to the deserts and high mountaines now hiding themselves in dens and caves of the earth to save their lives Remember q 1. Kin. 18.13 the hundred Prophets which Obadiah hid by fifties in two caves feeding them with bread and water The Saints were thus put unto the pinch when their enemies and persecuters were full-gorging themselves with their goods 11 Behold the whips and scourges wherewith r Exod. 5.13 Pharaohs mercilesse taske masters teared and rent the flesh from the bones of Gods people Were not Å¿ 1. Kin. 22.27 Micaiah and t Ier. 20.2 Ier. 37.15 16. Ieremiah the Prophets of the Lord cast into a strait prison and there fed with bread and water of affliction to starve v 1. King 21.13 Naboth was he not killed with stones for his Vineyard Was not that the hyre wherewith x 2. Chro. 24.22 Ioash the Apostat payed Zachariah son of Iehoiada the high Priest for his conservation and education and requited the kindnesse which Iehoiada had done to him y Origen in Matth. cap. 23. Isaiah was cut thorow the middle with a Saw by Manasses Iesus Christ charged the Iewes and Ierusalem with z Matt. 23.34 37. scourging killing crucifying stoning persecuting of the Prophets wise men and Scribes wichwere sent unto them How manie hellish and horrible torments found out the Tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes against the Iewes who would not leave the Law of the Lord their God Yee know a 2. Macc. 7. the story of the seven brethren and of their godly mother whom hee commanded first to be maimed then the skin to be pulled off their head with the haire and finally to be brought to the fire and fryed in a hote Caldron 12 Salomon saith truely that b Eccles 7.1 a good name is better than precious oyntment Neyther is there anie honest-hearted man but he findeth comfort in his povertie in his basenesse in all his most sharpe and pricking afflictions in death it selfe so that his reputation be kept spotlesse and that in his calamitie hee may shun to be made a mocking-stock For ye shall finde few men or women who desire to out-live their own dishonour and shame and there is no righteous man who can abide the disgracing injuries wherewith God is pierced thorow his side Neverthelesse discredit infamie shame is also the righteous mans share No affliction did nip c Iob 16.10 Iob 17 6. Iob 19 18. Iob 2.9 Iob so sensibly as when he saw himselfe to be made a laughing stock to young children a by-word of the people a Tabret before all men a Butt of reproaches to his best friends and to his owne wife d Iudg. 16.21 25. Sampson suffered patiently the pulling out of his eyes the binding of his armes and feet with fetters of brasse and the vile and toylsome grinding in the prison-house But when the Lords of the Philistins sent for him that he might make them sport and when he heard them thanking Dagon their fishie god for the affliction wherwith his God the God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry land had visited him he forgate patience and cryed to heaven for vengeance David complained of his enemies because e Psal 35.21 they opened their mouth wide against him and said Aha Aha Our eye hath seene him c But f Psal 42.10 it was a sword in his bones whilst they said daily unto him Where is thy God Then he cryes to his God g Psal 69.9 The reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me The Prophet Elisha cursed in the name of the Lord the little children who mocked him crying h 2. Kin. 2.23 24. Goe up thou bald head goe up thou bald head and called for the Beares of the wood to teare them i Lament 1.7 8. Ierusalem sighed when all that honoured her in her prosperitie despised her in her adversitie because they had seene her nakednesse and did mocke at her Sabbaths Then Ierusalem then the Church complained k Psal 79.1 2 3 4 5. O God the Heathen are come into thine inheritances thy holy Temple have they defiled they have layd Ierusalem on heapes The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meate unto the fowles of the heaven the flesh of thy Saints unto the beasts of the earth Their blood have they shed like water round about Ierusalem and there was none to bury them We are become a reproach to our neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us Then they all cryed How long LORD wilt thou be angry for ever Shall thy iealousie burn like fire But that which lay heaviest upon their hearts was l Psal 74.4 5 6 7 10. to heare Gods enemies roring in the midst of his congregations to see them set up their Ensignes for signes their armes lifting up axes upon the interlaced timber of the Sanctuary breaking downe with axes and hammers the carved worke thereof and burning it into ashes with all the Synagogues of God in the land Then they could not chuse but mourn and cry O God how long shall the adversarie reproach Shall the enemy blaspheme thy Name for ever 13 All the righteous men of the Christian Church have in all times beene tryed with these three kinds of tentations The Lord Iesus our Master and head m Matt. 8.20 had not where to lay his head Neither would his persecuters n Ioh. 19.23 suffer him to dye in the garments which he had but stript him of them leaving him nothing to hide his nakednesse The blessed Apostles the Rams and ring-leaders of Christs flock o Act. 3.6 had neyther gold nor silver but did p 1. Cor. 4.11 12. hunger and thirst and were naked and had no certaine dwelling place and laboured working with their owne hands In the primitive Church whosoever had goods were made a prey to Christs enemies and the Apostle beareth them witnesse that q Heb. 10.34 they tooke ioyfully the spoyling of their goods Many of you to whom I speake have heard your fathers relate how many quarrels were maliciously pickt against them to begger them and undoe their estates and how leaving all in Babylon as Lot did in Sodom to escape the burning thereof and save their soules they came to this blessed refuge and Sanctuary of Gods people in their shirts as Iacob passed the river Iordan and came to Laban having no other provisions and helps for his journey and peregrination but his staffe alone In these last troubles of France I who now speake to you have seene townes which before were girded with Walls fortified with Bulwarkes flanked with Turrets sowen with the seed of true Christians defaced
9. Eusebius who was an eye witnesse of these dolefull spectacles reporteth Then the persecution was so eager that in one moneth it consumed seventeene thousand Christians whereby yee may judge what havock and murther was made of them in tenne yeares together that it lasted being fostered by the divisions which were in the Church and secret treacheries of false brethren whereof Dioclesian the tyrant took occasion to undoe our Religion and had utterly overthrowne it if God had not opposed to his wicked sleights and raging furie the sword of Constantine the Great first redresser of the Church and defender of the true faith i Socrat. hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 10.11.13 Iulian the Apostate depriving the Christians of all dignities promotions and honours forbidding by severe edicts their children to be taught in humane letters and received into the publike Schooles impoverishing them with great fines and exactions of money above their power did more harme to the Church in one yeare than Dioclesian did in tenne by his bloodie persecutions though his one yeares Empire was not innocent of Christian blood Who can expresse how manie Christians were put to death by the Emperours who were infected with the most abominable heresie of Arius I overpasse imprisonments relegations banishments which were called favours courtesies and workes of mercie by the tyrants for k Pro. 12.10 the tender mercies of the wicked are cruell I omit the drowning the hanging the mangling the rosting the broyling on Gridirons the scorching the burning with fire those who all the night were frozen with cold and a thousand moe cruell tortures whereby the Emperours and their people bent their minds to smother the Christian Religion as Herod sought to kill Christ in the cradle 16. In vaine goe we to seeke in antiquity examples of monstrous cruelties against the true Christians when the last age wherein our fathers and restorers of the true Christian Religion lived affordeth to us an huge number which cannot be numbred If yee have read the storie of the Albigenses ye shall finde there how some of them were not burnt but rosted faire and softly that they might feele their death some were burned quicke some tormented after a strange manner by beetles and such like wormes which laide upon their navills and covered with a dish gnawed their bellies and boaring them through even into their intralls caused to these poore creatures a languishing but a most sensible and dolorous death All the faithfull of Merindoll were murthered upon an arrest or decree of the Parliament of Aix in Province Fortie five of their wives which were great with child were shut up in a barne and burnt there thirty others were torne in pieces by the first Presidents commandement and the little children as they were thrust out of their wombes trampled and made to breathe in their first before they had leasure to breathe in their first ayre Florent Venot after that he was a great while racked in an engine sharpe-topped at the lower end which they called Chausse d' Hypocras was made an unchristian shew in the middest of a bone-fire to the Christian King at his first entrie into the Capitall towne of his realme Nicolaus Nail was first basted with hot scalding oyle and lead and afterwards burnt quicke The Tennis-Court-keeper of Avignon was kept in a cage hanging in the great street by night at the cold ayre by day at the burning heate of the sunne and so vexed a long time either singing Psalmes to God more harmoniously than the Nightingale or reprooving the superstitions and idolatries of the people which gazed upon him In the booke of Martyrs ye may read how Iohn Hooper Doctor in Divinitie was burnt at three times how Thomas Noris and a Priest with him was led bare-footed upon briars and thornes from the prison unto the place appointed for their execution that in them might be fulfilled the Prophesie of Hosea l Hos 2.6 Behold I will hedge up thy way with thornes how sundry were stiffe and frozen with extreame cold in the night and the next day after sent to the fire how the Arch-bishop of Canterbury did with-hold all kind of meat and drink from his prisoners while they starved and dyed of hunger If I should relate unto you the Tragicall Massacres of France in the yeare of Christ 1572. the slaughtering of an hundred thousand men and women like beasts the rocking of little babes a-sleepe with present death the stilling and pacifying of them with mercilesse destruction the incestuous defyling of chaste Virgins the despightfull using of grave Matrons the pittilesse regarding of old age the welcoming of infants as they came out of their murthered mothers wombs with sword and fire the pulling of others from the milke of their mothers breasts to sucke them with their owne blood If I should set out in true colours the principall townes of that great kingdome as they were then what should ye heare but blaspheming but roaring in the one part but weeping but lamenting but crying to heaven for mercy and helpe on the other What should'ye see but fire swords murder blood-shed dead carcases but roaring lyons but firie dragons but rayenous wolves but m 2. Kin. 8. v. 12. Hazael and his Courtiers killing slaying murthering young and old dashing little children ripping up women with child but great rivers stained and surrounded with innocent blood If I should but draw unto you the first lines of the calamities of the Palatinate and of the late desolation of the Churches of France if I should speake unto you of honest women first misused in that which is their most precious jewell and then murdered or blowne up in the ayre with gun-powder thrust and stopped in their wombes of young Virgins disguised in mens apparell with doublet breeches the Lackeys cap upon their close shaven heads the dagger upon their loynes and constrained to follow the armies neither daring neither knowing to whom to make their mone of sucklings pulled violently from their mothers breasts and murdered before the faces of their doubly-desolate parents of some of them throwne in the aire and received upon the points of pykes for a sport of others upon a wager who should cast them farthest off flung into the waters when the poore innocents were laughing upon their murderers and playing with their beards of many moe sold to these couseners which we are accustomed to call Egyptians at eighteene pence a peece of men and women inthralled to the Mahumetans for a little summe of money as it is written n Psal 44. v. 12. Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price In a word if I should but report what things I have heard read or seene your minds would quake your hearts would start backe with sorrow neither should ye finde teares enow to bewaile nor I words sufficient to display and unfold unto you the crushing and bruising of Ioseph 17. Therefore let us lay
Tim. 4 14. Alexander the Copper-smith did him much evill At Rome he was presented before the bloudy Tyrant Nero whom hee calleth a ver 16.17 a Lion Then no man stood with him but all men forsook him Then his friends abandoned him and the Tyrant put him to death What the rest of the Apostles suffered by false brethren and open enemies ye may reade in the Acts and in their lives IX What the Church was to suffer after them by b Rev. 11.7 the Beast fighting against the Saints and killing them by the Whore of Babylon c Rev. 17.4 6. drunken with the bloud of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Iesus by d Rev. 20.8 Gog and Magog compassing about the beloved city S. Ioh. hath foretold in the Revelation What our Fathers what we have suffered not of the Turkes Persians Tartarians Americans and other sworne enemies of Christian Religion but of those bloody butchers which call themselves Catholicks the heavens have seen the earth which hath drunk up our blood can speak the murtherers which have shed it can bear record our owne experience can best of all testifie What policy what craft hath beene practised to undermine and wholly undoe us by our owne brethren of our owne kinred familie religion hardly would ye beleeve if I should tell it Christs prediction hath been accomplished e Luke 21.16 Yee shall bee betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolks and friends and some of you shall they cause to be put to death and yee shall bee hated of all men for my Names sake Our brethren have sold us for money as flesh is sold at the shambles and we have been lesse regarded than slaves by those which bought us whose humanity like Dracon's Lawes is printed in all Christendome with our Fathers and our blood and whose affection and loyaltie towards us is written upon the running waters What wonder then if among so many professed enemies and cunning traitors Many are the Evills of the righteous X. The Righteous considering how hee is thus besieged on all sides and hurried in all fashions by foes and friends is often overtaken with diverse thoughts and surmises more dangerous than all the externall Evils which may befall unto him Worldlings judge of God's favour to men by their prosperity and of his hatred towards them by their adversity When Abimelech King of Gerar saw Abraham thrive hee said unto him f Gen. 21.22 God is with thee in all that thou doest What he said was true but the ground whereupon hee built it was sand for g Luke 16.19 20. the rich Glutton in the Gospell thrived and Lazarus who was laid at his gate full of sores thrived not yet that gluttoÌ„ is in hell because God was not with him and Lazarus is in Abrahams bosome because God was with him The Scribes and Pharisees evill Doctors of the good Law concluded h Mat. 27.41 42. That God was not with Christ because hee delivered him not from the crosse The righteous man himselfe when his affliction is long and heavie taketh like conclusions against himselfe When the Angell of the Lord said to Gideon i Iudg. 6.12 13. The Lord is with thee thou mighty man of valour Gideon answered Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us The Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites Ye read Iobs complaints k Iob 6.4 The arrows of the Almighty are within me the poyson wherof drinketh up my spirit the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me He teareth me in his wrath l Iob 16.9 he hateth me he gnasheth upon me with his teeth m Iob 19.11 and he counteth mee unto him as one of his enemies Ye heare David crying out pittifully n Psal 22. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so farre from helping me and from the words of my roaring Ieremiah bemoaned the state of the Church after the same manner o Lam. â— 20 Wherefore doest thou forget us for ever and forsake us so long time And now in the Palatinate and now in France doe not all the faithfull mourne and cry doe we not cry with them and for them O Lord how long The wicked when God crosses them in their desires and projects are accustomed to say p Mal. 3.14 14. It is in vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of bosts And now we call the proud happy yea they that worke wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God â—e even delivered The righteous Asaph held the â—â—me speech in his great affliction and said q Psal 73.13 Verily 〈◊〉 have cleansed my heart in vaine and washed my hands 〈◊〉 innocencie Moreover these internall â—â—lls take such hold of the righteous man that he will bring Gods word which he hath beleeved in question doubt whether it be true if the Religion which he professeth be of God if the cause which he sustaineth and for which he doth undergoe so many evills be good for if it be good if it be of God why doth he not uphold it David being brought to his wits end and even to the pits brinke by Saul deemed that Gods Prophets had deceived him and said r Psal 116.11 All men are lyars What greater evill I pray you can befall a Christian man than to bring in controversie Gods providence and the perpetuall care which he hath of his Church than to thinke that godlinesse which he hath sucked with his mothers milke is but a fable a dreame an invention of man than to imagine that hitherto he hath imbraced a shadow for the body hath sought the truth in a lye hath esteemed vanity and winde to be Gods word than to frame such conceits against the honour of God and his owne salvation If such doubts come not in his mind if he beleeve that the religion which he professeth is from above that Å¿ Psal 34.15 the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry that light peace ioy salvation is sowen for the upright man it seemes unto him that he is none of that number and gathering out of the store and greatnesse of his evills most dangerous presumptions he pronounceth against himselfe That he hath beene an Hypocrite a vile reprobate and cast-away I know that such perplexities are but short symptomes to the righteous man whereof he recovereth by the powerfull assistance of Gods Spirit when as they are deadly convulsions to the wicked and wofull prefaces to a dolefull Tragedie which they shall everlastingly act and nevâ—r end yet howsoever they be short they are sensible and lye so heavie vpon the wearied soule of the righteous mâ—n that in comparison his outward evills seeme unto him â—â—ter than a feather wherewith
the wind playeth in the ayre So I have shewed you that both by externall grievances and internall griefes Many are the Evills of the Righteous XI Now the righteous man may say to the wicked as David said to Saul t 1. Sam. 24.11 Know thou and see that there is neither evill nor transgression in mine hand and I have not sinned against thee yet thou huntest my soule to take it and as v Dan. 6.22 Daniel said to Darius who had cast him into the Lyons den Before thee O King I have done no hurt For although it pertained to Christ alone to say to his adversaries x Ioh. 8.46 Which of you convinceth me of sinne yet all the righteous men may say of their persecuters that which David said of his enemies y Psal 35.7 Without cause have they hid for me their not in a pit without cause they have digged for my soule And when they pray they feare not to protest of their innocencie in that hehalfe and to say to God a Psal 58.3 4. They lye in waite for my soule the mighty are gathered against me not for my transgression nor for my sin O Lord They run and prepare themselves without my fault awake to helpe me and behold The rule of the righteous mans life is Christs commandement and example His commandement is b Mat. 5.39 42 44. Resist not evill but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheeke turne to him the other also c. Give to him that asketh thee Love your enemies blesse them that curse doe good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you The same commandement he gave by his Apostle saying c Rom. 12.21 Be not overcome of evill but overcome evill with good What he commanded that he practised in his life d 1. Pet. 2.21 22 23. He suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps who did no sinne neither was guile found in his mouth who when he was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that iudgeth righteously Yea not onely he did them no harme but also hee did them all kind of good He went about all Iudea teaching the Gospell of the kingdome of heaven healing all manner of sicknesse and all manner of disease among the people made the blind to see the deafe to heare the lame to walke cleansed the lepers raised up the dead fed by the miraculous multiplication of bread at divers times many thousand soules restored the eare to Malcus which came to take him prayed for those which crucified him and therefore asked of his enemies who tooke up stones to throw at him e Ioh. 10.32 Many good workes have I shewed you from my Father for which of those workes doe you stone me What ill did the Apostles wherefore they should bee used so cruelly They went through the whole world converting men from darknesse unto the maruellous light of the Gospell and did so many wonders amongst the people that thence f Act. 14.11 some Idolaters tooke occasion to worship them but the Iewes to perswade the people to stone them g 1. Cor. 4.11 12. Being reviled they blessed being persecuted they suffered it being defamed they intreated Much good did they to many ill they did to none Read more ancient examples of h Gen. 13.8 Abraham yeelding for peace-sake to his Nephew Lot of i Gen. 49.5 6 7. Iacob cursing his owne sonnes Simeon and Levi for their bloodie anger against the Sichemites though having a goodly shew of righteous vengeance of k 1. Sam. 25 7 8.15 16. David leading with his souldiers a most innocent life amongst Nabals heards of cattle and flocks of sheep sparing Sauls life who sought his and bringing him to this true confession l 1. Sam. 24.17 Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evill m Psal 38.12 being as a deafe man when his enemies spake mischievous things against him n Psal 35.12 13. cloathing himselfe with sackecloth humbling his soule with fasting praying most affectuously when his enemies which rewarded him evill for good were sicke If ye desire examples of the Christians carriage during ten persecutions in the space of three hundred and odde yeares o Tert. Apol. cap. 1. 37 When the people invaded them they resisted not when the Magistrate condemned them they gave thanks when the dead bodies of their brethren and kinsmen were drawn out of the rest of their graves were pulled away from the Sanctuarie of death they sought no revenge albeit they were in greater number than their enemies and might with a few little firebrands set on fire all the Townes Boroughes Villages Castles of the Empire if Christian Religion did not forbid all private men p Rom. 12.19 to avenge themselves because it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord. For this cause the holy Spirit often calleth the afflictions of the righteous Sufferings because they suffer the evill which is done unto them but they do no evil to any man wherunto also Christ hath bound them when he callth then q Mat. 10.26 Sheepe insnuating that they should be sheepe in simplicitie to never thinke any evill in innocencie to never doe any evill in patience to beare all evills meekly without grudging and murmuring in utilitie and commoditie to feede with their milk to cloath with their wooll whosoever stands in need of their helpe to doe ill unto no man r Gal. 6.10 to doe good unto all men especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith Alas alas the number of such sheepe of such righteous men how rare is it how many suffer not Å¿ 1. Pet. 3.17 1 Pet. 4.29 for well doing as Christians and righteous men but for evill doing as murtherers theeves robbers and ravenous wolves rather than sheepe how many cannot abide to suffer but thinking it a shame to packe up an injurie will needs be avenged of their enemies how many doe seeke to defend the Gospell against persecuters by burning killing murdering filling the house of innocent peasants of poore countrey folkes with orbitie desolation and mourning intending to cure one sinne with another sinne taking the way of hell to goe to heaven and thinking to defend the Gospell by unlawfull meanes which the Gospell hath condemned For it is not hee which suffereth evill but he which doth it that sinneth And therefore the true righteous man is ever a patient not an agent in evill and the wicked not onely have no cause wherfore they should hate him but have in his manifold good deedes a good cause wherefore they should love him and yet not withstanding his innocent and good carriage Many are the Evills of the Righteous XII Sometimes many blind-folded with ignorance deeme that the righteous man is the
of all crimes laide to our charge except our Iudges will confesse that in our persons when we deny our Religion they punish not high treason adulteries incests murther and a great many more crimes whereof we are dayly accused If that were iniquitie against the common wealth and the State they must needs grant that wee are guiltie of our Religion onely or rather of the onely name thereof For it is condemned when it is not knowne when it is known it is imbraced And therefore our Persecuters will not know it because they will condemne it perceiving that all those which have condemned it when they knew it not have ceased to condemne it yea professed and protected it when they knew it 5. The Emperour Traian well informed of the innocencie of Christians sent to f Plin. Secundus epist lib. 10. Epist 103. 104. Conquirendi non sunt Si deferantur arguaentur puniendi sunt Plinius Secundus Governor of Bythinia after this manner They must not be searched if they be appeached and accused they must be punished g Tert. Apol. cap. 2. O sententiam necessuate confusam c. O sentence confused with contradiction hee forbiddeth to search them as innocent he commandeth to punish them as guiltie he spareth and rageth he dissembleth and punisheth If they be guiltie why are they not searched If they be innocent why are they punished How many such decrees have beene given out against us how many Edicts of pacification have beene made with us as with honest men and forthwith how many fires kindled swords sharpened gallowses prepared against us as against malefactors Yesterday we were the stay and props of the State and must be cherished This day we are the plague and undoing of the State and must be killed Though we are this day as we were yesterday except that we strive ever to be better and shunne to decay in goodnesse or to grow worse But so it was from the beginning so it is so it shall be untill the end of the world that Many are the Evills of the Righteous XV. Not so may some say wee that live here in a peaceable and blessed nation and who as we hope are righteous men have no evills being guarded and hedged round about with Gods bountifull and mercifull protection through the daily care of our peaceable and most Religious King It is true well-beloved that h Psal 125.3 the rodde of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity Your fathers had the evills and ye possesse the good things of the land But will ye say against your selves that ye are of the number of these belly-gods which eating drinking dancing and spending merrily the short dayes of their brittle life i Amos 6.6 are not grieved with the affliction of Iosepht God forbid that ye should speake so unnaturally and so falsly against your owne soules Is it not written i Rom. 12.15 Weepe with them that weepe k Heb. 13.3 Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them which suffer adversitie as being your selves also in the body Have ye not read of l Nehem. 1.3 4. Nehe. 2.2 Nehemiah that understanding the great affliction and reproach wherein the Iewes lived after their returne to Ierusalem he wept mourned fasted and prayed with such sorrow of heart that his countenance was very sad in the Kings presence with whom he had great credit and favour Ye know that the Apostle writeth to the Hebrewes and of them that m Heb. 10.32 33. they endured a great fight of afflictions partly whilest they were made a gazing stocke both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilest they became companions of them that were so used Know you not also that Saint Paul said Who is weake and I am not weake who is offended and I burne not This is a great evidence and demonstration of the Communion of the Saints And who have given more evident demonstrations of a true sympathie and fellow-feeling of the miseries of your brethren beyond Seas than you Have yee not wept have ye not mourned have ye not fasted have ye not prayed to God for them have ye not opened your bowels and purses unto them have yee not beene much moved for their adversitie have ye not not onely according to your power but also above your power relieved their necessitie Every oppression which they suffer when it commeth to your eares is it not a racke unto you As many oppressions are they not as many tortures to your vexed soules What doth this whole Island desire with sighs and sobs but to bee at warre with Christs enemies which oppresse them that is to say to spend lives and goods for their reliefe Because as Constantius father of Constantine the Great first deliverer of the Christian Religion from the bloody persecutions of Tyrants came from great Britanne so it seemeth by the holy vehement and constant affection which God hath put in all the peoples hearts of this most flourishing Island towards their afflicted brethren beyond Seas that hee hath ordained that delivetie shall come to them from us In the meane time in what griefe in what anguish in what perplexities and vexation of mind are ye not what rivers of teares doe ye not still powre out before God what ejaculations what prayers and how fervent doye not dart towards the heavens for them Then in you also is fulfilled this most true saying Many are the Evills of the Righteous XVI Thanke God with heart and mouth for this long and blessed peace wherein ye live blesse him for his bountifull mercy whereby ye heare and see not ye feele the affliction of Ioseph and suffer not any in your owne persons and are enabled to succour Christs distressed members which have no hope after God but in the Churches of this Island Pray to God for the King by whose care ye enioy this blessednesse Pray for the increasing of our godly courageous and hopefull Prince in all Christian Princely and Majesticall gifts Pray for the flourishing peace of this State that in the neâ—ce thereof ye may have peace so If I forget thee O Ierusalem let my right hand forget it selfe n Psal 137.5 6. If I doe not remember thee let my torgue cleâ—ve to the 〈◊〉 of my mouthe If I preferre not Ierusalem above my chiefe ioy O weepe and pray unto God for his Church and be not unthankfull for his gifts be subiect to the King and to the Prince be faithfull to the Sâ—â—â—â— be obedient and loving to your teachers be innocent in your callings be modest in your behaviour be more and more bountifull to the poore so the King of Kings so the God of peace so the Spouse of the Church so the Protector of Monarchies so the father of the poore shall blesse you shield you and remaine with you for ever So be it even so be it
fruit thereof let us cut him off from the land of the living that his name may be no more remembred IV. Amongst the righteous men Satan is most incensed against those whom God pickes out from amongst the rest separates for some speciall and excellent worke in the Church or in the State For as Pirates saile by Barkes and small ships and boord Carrackes and other huge ships laden with the riches of the Orient so Satan lyeth in wait for those principally on whom God hath bestowed greatest plenty of gifts and preferred to the most eminent places in his Church As long as Iacob meddled with nothing at home Esau lived peaceably with him Sought he and obtained he his fathers blessing then Esau vowed to kill him Whilest Iesus Christ led a private life and made no shew of those treasures of heavenly graces which were hid in him the divell considered him not but when the Spirit lighted upon him in the bodily shape of adove when his Fathers voice was heard from heaven saying This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased when by the Baptisme of water and of the Spirit he was installed in the dignitie and imployment of Mediatour betwixt God and man then the divell heeded him tempred him set on foote against him as many enemies as there were men which knew him When Saul was a Pharisee exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers and a persecuter of the Church hee was much regarded and honoured of the Iewes but when of a Captaine he became an Apostle of a violent Persecuter a most zealous Preacher of a Iew a Christian of Saul Paul he became therwith a marke wherat the divell and his Angells did shoote all the venemous and fierie arrowes of their indignation What wonder then if the divell who hath ever his bow bent and ready aimeth chiefly at the Rammes and Leaders of Christs flocke hee knoweth by long experience and too too many tryalls that it is not written in vain l Zac. 13.7 Mat. 26.31 I will smite the shepheard and the sheepe of the flocke shall be scattered abroad V. Ye see then againe upon what condition ye are and name your selves Christians m Ioh. 15.19 If saith Christ ye were of the world the world would love his owne but because yee are not of the World but I have chosen you out of the World therefore the World hateth you Tribulation trouble sorrow griefe teares all the evills that the divells malice can find out are the Christian mans portion in this world His hopes are not of this life for no reward is promised unto him but in the world to come As the bird-catcher casteth a little corne before the birds and hideth the net wherewith he involves them and as the fisher covereth the fish-hooke with the mortall bait whereunto hee knoweth the fish will speedily swimme so these which mind to deceive promise alwayes pleasant things and like unto the Syrenes of the Poets they sing most sweete songs to charme the simple ones whom they go about to intrap but the venome is in the taile and hee who listeneth unto them is amazed to see how by too much credulitie he hath bin drawn upon the dangers is sunke among the shelves of stinging cares and killing evills n Gen. 3.4 5. The divell spake of nothing to Eve but of knowledge of good and evill but of immortalitie but of eternity of life but of being like unto God himselfe what-she found ye know all Ignorance death resemblance to the imposter who had deceived her was the reward of the lightnesse of her beleefe o Mat 4.8 9. The Tempter shewed to Christ all the kingdomes of the world and the glory of them and promised them all unto him so that he would fall downe and worship him p Mat. 7.15 The false Prophets come in sheepes cloathing that when oportunity shall serve they may dismember the whole flock The Papists and other Heretikes of this age couer their deadly poyson of false doctrine with the sugar of entising words and shew to those which have not their senses exercised to discerne both good and evill a golden cuppe of most delightfull and pleasant promises which when they put to their head they drinke nothing but gall and wormewood Fathers doe not so to their children they send them to the schoole give them Pedagogues and Tutors to instruct them and hold them in awe keepe them under a most seuere and rigorous discipline untill they come to mans age and be able to doe good service Then and no sooner they looke upon them with a cleere face they use them familiarly they open to them their purses they advance them to honours and dignities they make them their heires After this manner our heavenly Father at the beginning speakes to us most roughly of sorrowes and vexations hee schooles us in Christs Colledge where afflictions are our Tutors and rods our lessons q Mat 7.14 He forewarneth us that the way wherein we are to walke till we come to the pleasures which are at his right hand for evermore is narrow and spred over with thornes that the gate whereby we must enter if wee desire to enter into the kingdome of his glory is very straite and low to the end that when we finde such a way wherein there is nothing but narrownesse grinnes and bryars and such a gate wherein we cannot enter without pressing thrusting and stooping we may say one to another as it is written in the Prophet r Isa 30.21 This is the way walke yee in it whether ye turne to the right hand and whether yee turne to the left and concluding with reioycing as Iacob did in his great affliction Å¿ Gen. 8.17 This is the gate of heaven pray and say with David t Psal 118.18 19. Open to me the gates of righteousnesse I will goe into them I will praise the Lord this is the gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter VI. Flesh and blood cannot abstaine from controlling of this wise and fatherly course which Almightie God takes with his beloved children It is a strange and most uncouth thing to mans conceit that God not onely permits that his Saints which feare his Majestie which doe his will which lead among men an Angelicall life and are heaven upon earth should be thus exposed to so many calumnies vexations torments losses in commodities of this life and most dangerous tentations but also will be called the Author and cause of them all for it is he hee himselfe which asketh v Amos 3 6. Shall there be any evill in the citie and shall not the Lord doe it x Lam. 3.38 Evill and good proceede they not out of the mouth of the most High May he not represse the raging furie of our adversaries may hee not convert them all as hee did Paul If he will not convert them may he not destroy them at unawares as
of that same town any word but this Blandina I am a Christian and we do no evill When Decius persecuted the Church Babylas Bishop of Antioch Babylas led to the place of execution with his three sonnes desired that they should be first put to death to the end that he might exhort and confirme them which when hee had done his wife comforted him and after she had seen her husband and three children suffer death for Christs sake buried them together Much otherwise the Father and the Sonne with whom I was familiar The Father beseeched that he should die first that his Sonne who was a godly and learned Preacher might comfort him Then it was a wonderfull spectacle to Papists to see the Sonne at the foote of the gallowes preaching to his Father the merits of the death of Christ the vertue of his resurrection the vanitie of the world the unspeakable joyes of Paradise to heare him crying alowd Father ye cannot so soone knocke at the gate of heaven but Christ will open ye cannot so soone enter but I shall follow to hear and behold the old and venerable Father answering with a cheerefull countenance Sonne I see the heavens open and Iesus Christ at the right hand of God Then they were amazed to marke againe the young Minister forgetting himselfe and with a constant face preaching to other two which were also in the executioners hands the forgivenesse of sins the resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting To consider how constantly the foure died with what fervencie of celestial prayers they commended their spirits into Gods hands Then the chiefe of the Capuchin Monkes said to his companions Si coelum Huguenotis datur istis debetur If heaven bee given to Huguenots it is due to these men Then some Gentlemen cryed O happie religion which breeds in men a contempt of death which we dread most and a most sure hope of salvation who would not who should not fight manfully for the defence and suffer constantly for the confession of such a religion This day onely have we begun to know Christ Condemned men have been our Preachers We shall never hate Huguenotes any more XVIII Learne of all this discourse what difference there is betwixt the upright man and the hypocrite Iohn the Baptist calleth afflictions f Mat. 3.12 Gods fanne wherewith when he hath throughly purged his floore the chaffe flyeth away into the ayre and finally is burnt up with unquenchable fire but the wheate is gathered into the garner Hypocrites are chaffe lying in time of peace intermixt with the faithfull which are Gods wheat but g Psal 1.4 5. the wind of persecution driveth them away neyther can they stand in the congregation of the righteous for then there is nothing to be seene but Apostasies defections abjuring of the truth renouncing of the Gospell forsaking of all Communion with the Church Iesus Christ compareth tribulation and persecution h Mat 13.5 6 8 20 21 23. to the burning Sunne scorching the seede which hath no deepnesse of earth so that it withereth away but warming the seede which falls into good ground and making it to bring foorth fruite some an hundred fold some sixtie fold some thirtie fold The Hypocrite receiveth the word with joy but because hee hath not in himselfe the roote of an upright conscience when persecution ariseth because of word he is offended and starteth backe The righteous man is the good ground the sunne of persecution may blacken him but it cannot burne him In the most hot dayes of tribulation he is most plentious in good workes therefore the whole Church cryeth in the Canticles i Cant. 1.5 6. O ye daughters of Ierusalem I am blacke but comely k Bernar. in Cant. ser 25. Blacke in your judgement Comely in the judgement of God and Angels Blacke without l Vestro maleficio by your mischiefe for the Sunne of persecution hath looked upon me my mothers children were angry with me these good Catholikes have persecuted me Comely within m Dei beneficio through Gods benefit for n Psal 45.13 the Kings daughter is all glorious within As the tents of of Kedar as the curtaines of Salomon which are all blacke and dustie without but within are decked with most precious implements To conclude cast gold in water it keepeth its owne yellow shining cast it in the fire and melt it it becommeth brighter Cast earth in water it is by and by changed into mud cast hay in water it will suddenly rot cast earth in the fire it is instantly turned into dust and made a sport to the wind cast hay into the fire with a blaze it is made smoake and ashes So befalls it to the righteous man the hypocrite The hypocrit when he thriveth most and full-gorgeth himself with pleasures is like hay and a lumpe of earth in the water he is nothing but rottennesse and putrefaction when Gods hand is upon him he howles he despites God hee curseth him to his face and in the stirring of an eye is consumed he perisheth he vanisheth like earth and straw in the fire But the righteous man in his greatest prosperitie shineth in all godlinesse before men as gold in water and when hee is cast in the fierie furnace of tribulation he is like gold in the fire his workes then yeeld a more radiant lustre than before XIX The Lord in his mercy sanctifie us and make us throughly righteous that when the day of our tryall shall come we may be found to be fine metall and abiding the hammer the scissers and the fire may through faith and patience inherite the promises of grace peace and eternall life through the merits of our Lord Iesus Christ who o 1. Ioh. 5.20 is the true God and eternall life to whom is due and to whom let us render now and for evermore all praise honour and glory Amen SERMON V. Of the causes of the righteous mans Evills PSALM XXXIV XIX Many are the Evills of the Righteous 1. THe righteous man when hee suffereth for righteousnesse sake is honoured 2. It is a great glory to suffer for a good cause 3. Namely for God as many have done 4. To suffer for the Gospell is most glorious of all 5. Of those which suffer for the Gospell some are Confessors some Martyrs 6. What it is to be a Martyr 7. Three conditions required in a Martyr 8. The great glory of Martyrdome in that it makes the Martyrs resemble the Prophets Apostles and other Saints 9. Yea and Iesus Christ himselfe yet with foure differences 10. God afflicteth righteous men for other mens sake 1. That they may be converted 11.2 That they may bee instructed not to worship righteous men 12.3 That they may bee spurred to imitate their Christian vertues 13.4 That they may consider Gods wrath against sinne and feare 14. Finally God afflicteth the righteous man for his owne glory whereof there are many
thy nature but of the workes of thy iudgements and mercies Brethren Iearne and wonder Men speake so of God And therefore God borroweth mens phrases and as they speake of him so speaketh he of his owne selfe e Ier. 23.24 Wicked men when they spoile kill and abuse most licentiously the righteous man doe say f Psal 94.7 The LORD shall not see neither shall the God of Iacob regard it As if he were in his Closet fast asleepe or busied with other matters when they reele to and fro to doe mischiefe or as if he dwelt so farre off from them that he cannot see them What say they g Iob 22.12 13 14. Is not God in the height of heaven and behold the height of the starres how high they are how doth God know Can he iudge through the darke cloud Thicke cloudes are a covering to him that he seeth not and he walketh in the circuit of heaven For this cause God saith that seeing they thinke and speake so he will come out of his place to visit i.e. to punish the Inhabitants of the earth for their iniquitie Even as it is said when the Giants were building the Towre of Babel that h Gen. 11.5 7. the LORD came downe to see the City and the Towre which the children of men builded and said Goe to let us goe downe and there confound their language And as when he was to destroy Sodome and Gomorrha he said to Abraham i Gen. 18.21 I will goe downe now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which is come unto me and if not I will know As likewise when his time was come to take vengeance of Pharao and deliver his people he said to Moses k Exod 3.7 8. I have surely seene the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taske-masters for I know their sorrowes and I am come downe to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians When he withdraweth his care from his children and suffereth his enemies to afflict them he saith in Hosea l Hos 5.15 I will goe and returne to my place till they acknowledge their offence And then they acknowledging their owne folly cry unto him m Psal 60.1 O turne thy selfe to us againe n Psal 80.14 Returne we beseech thee ô God of hostes looke downe from heaven and behold and visit this Vine After the same manner when he destroyeth their persecuters he delivereth them and saith that he commeth out of his place to visit them them who are his children in his favour them who are his enemies and the oppressors of his children in the extremitie of his anger IV. He calleth the one and the other his visitation For o 1 Tim. 6.16 he dwelleth in the light which no man can approach unto and cannot be seene of us but by his workes which when he displayeth not we thinke and we say that he is absent But when we see and feele them then we say he is present and hath visited us As we speake of him so speaketh he of himselfe though p Act. 17.27 28. hee be not farre from every one of us for in him we live and move and have our being Or rather he teacheth us that he doth all things by rule by number and by ballance that first he takes a perfect notice of our estate and afterwards setteth his workes forward The workes whereby he visiteth us are either of mercie or of iudgement And therefore his visitations are taken in the Scriptures sometimes for his mercies sometimes for his iudgements And it is said that he visiteth us either when he giveth us conspicuous testimonies of his favour or when he punisheth us for our sinnes In the first sense it is said that q Gen. 21.1 the LORD visited Sarah as he had said which in the words following is thus explained And the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken Because he fulfilled his promise and gave a Sonne to Sarah the Scripture saith that he visited Sarah In the same sense Ioseph said to his brethren r Gen. 50.25 God will surely visite you i.e. deliver you And so is the word expounded by Zacharias in his song where he saith that ſ Luk. 1.68 God hath visited and redeemed his people Ye reade the like in the Acts where it is written that t Act 15.14 God did visite the Gentiles to take out of them a people for his Name For their calling to the light of the Gospell was their visitation When Ierusalem made light of that light Christ said that v Luk. 19.44 she knew not the time of her visitation In the second sense visitation of punishment is double The one is of love and of grace whereby God visiteth his owne deare children as he said to David x Psal 89.31 32 33. If they breake my statutes and keepe not my commandements then will I visite their transgression with the rod and their imquitie with stripes Neverthelesse my loving kindnesse will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to faile We have heard heretofore that this kinde of visitation is most usefull It is not so much y Minut. Felix Non est poena militia est Fortitudo enim infirmitatibus roboratur Et calamitas saepius disciplina virtutis est a punishment to the Church as her warfare For fortitude is corroborated by infirmities And often affliction and calamitie is the schoole and mistresse of vertue It is ever so to the Church The other commeth from Gods heavie wrath and indignation and hath for end not the correction but the destruction of the sinner As when God said that hee a Hos 1.4 would visite the blood of Iezreel upon the house of Iehu he threatned the Kings house with a totall and finall overthrow as he saith in the words following that he would cause to cease the kingdome of the house of Israel In this sense David made this prayer to God b Psal 59.5 O LORD God of hostes the God of Israel awake to visite all the heathen for he addeth by way of exposition Be not mercifull to any wicked transgressors This word is so taken in this text when the Prophet saith that the Lord commeth out of his place to visite i. e. to punish in his anger and hot displeasure Whom will he visite V. The inhabitants of the earth What Are not all men are not Gods servants inhabitants of the earth aswell as other men No men to speake properly are inhabitants of the earth For we are all tenants at the will of the great Lands Lord not owners and our life is a soiourning rather than a dwelling on earth All true beleevers acknowledge this truth and say in their prayers to God c 1 Chro. 29.15 We are strangers before thee and soiourners as were all our fathers Our dayes on the earth