Cyrus Isai 45.4 Nihil minus vulgo creduum fuit quam illius Monarchae ruina cencussum suisse orbent ut in patriam redirent Judaei qui tunc abjectissimi erant in hominum oculis Calv. I have sirnamed thee though thou hast not known me and I girded thee though thou hast not known me He did not know who set him on work he took notice of nothing but his own ends the enlargement of his own Empire He thought he was his own man As when God sent Israel into Captivity the Babylonian Tyrant minded nothing but his own lusts his pride and his cruelty his ambition and covetousnesse and yet he was but Gods Rod and Staff to beat and correct his hypocriticall and rebellious children Isai 10.5,6 O Assyrian the rod of mine anger c. Verse 7. Howbeit he meaneth not so neither doth his heart think so but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off Nations not a few So when he brought them out of Babylon Cyrus thinks he goes upon his own errand howbeit God tells him For Jacob my servants sake and Israel mine elect I have even called thee by Name The Nations and their Kings and Emperours are doing Gods work and the Churches work when they think not of it God sends them and they think they go about their own businesse Fourth branch Hence also We may see upon 〈◊〉 â—isadvantage the enemies of the Church be they never so 〈◊〉 and potent come to make war with the Saints They come to fight with a generation great in Gods eyes his favourites before whom God contemns the Nations and despiseth the persons of Kings and Emperours Psal 105. Verse 15. When they went from one Nation to another and from one Kingdom to another people sc From Egypt to Canaan Vers 14. He suffered no man to do them wrong but rebuked Kings for their sakes Vers 15. Saying Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm A Text which Kings and Potentates shall know that they and their Parasites have mistaken and abused when God shall write the true and sad interpretation thereof in their blood for his despised peoples sake Truely When Princes and their people combine and conspire to come from afar with their united forces to battle with the Church it is but many times to bring their own Throats to be cut to save the people of God the labour of longer marches and harder sieges Consult at your leisure these two famous places Josh 11.1,2,3,4,5 with verses 19 20. and Mich. 4.11,12,13 Fifthly This Doctrine takes away all ground of boasting and contention about the Instruments which God useth in bringing down the strength and pride of the enemy There is this observation lapt up in the bowels of it sc That God gives not victories alwayes for their sakes that fight the battles of the Church but for the Churches sake whose battles under the Lord of Hosts they are Cyrus here goes up to Babylon hath notable and wonderfull successes it was not for his sake he knew not upon what service he went but for Israels sake For your sake I have sent to Babylon I speak not this to obscure and eclipse the praise of any whose fidelity and valour in the dangerous and daring undertakings of this later age have deserved as highly from this Nation as ever any did since the foundations of this Kingdom were laid Judges 5.9 No My heart is toward the worthies of Israel that offered themselves willingly among the people Praise ye the Lord. I speak it onely to this end that people may not lay more upon acts of providence then they will bear I speak it to the same end that the Apostle layes in his Caution about faithfull Ministers of the Gospel 1 Cor. 4.6 That you be not puffed up for one against another That that which is undoubtedly matter of joy and thankfulnesse to all might not through the corruption of our natures and the wilinesse of the tempter be turned into an occasion of pride and contention to any That that may not divide us which rightly improved might be an happy means to reconcile and unite us Jere. 9.24 He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Second Use Exhortation Hath God in the great turnings of States and Kingdoms upside down in breaking Monarchies and Kingdoms and all the Malignant powers of the earth an eye to his Church respect to his people Doth God do these great things for his Churches sake For his peoples sake See then how much we stand engaged to God this day Hath not God my Brethren done as much for England as ever he did for Israel Hath not God for Englands sake sent to Babylon and brought down all their Barres You may please to observe That ever after Israel was in Babylon all the enemies of the Church to the end of the world are called Assyrians as Mich. 5.5 This man speaking of Christ shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our Land c. Revel 14.8 and 16.19 and 17.5 and 18.2,10 And Babylonians especially Rome with all the Antichristian enemies of the Church they are called Babylon Rome is Babylon and all the Popish and Antichristian multitude are Babylonians which now in these three Kingdoms have taken up Arms against Christ his Government and people and what a sad thing is it my Brethren to see our King in the head of an Army of Babylonians refusing as it were to be called the King of England Scotland and Ireland and chusing rather to be called the King of Babylon c. This is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation The Lord us help to mourn for it in our secret Chambers But now I say hath not God in a great measure fulfill'd my Text upon our Babylonish enemies in bringing down their Barres take them in which of the senses you will abovementioned take them with Sanches for Impedimenta c. The Impediments and Remora's which lay in the way of Reformation and Deliverance of Gods people out of that Romish bondage wherein they and the Ordinances were taken Captive for though we were not in Babylon yet Babylon was in the midst of us Rome was among us though we were not in Rome Prelacy and the Prelaticall Clergy Priests and Jesuites Ceremonies and Service-Book Star-Chambers and High-Commission Court with all the appurtenances These were mighty impediments and obstructions in the way of Reformation and Deliverance and God hath mightily brought them down Take Bariach with Jerome for principes populi God hath pretty well brought them down too The Malignant Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom have known to their cost what it is to oppose God and rise up against Christ would they see the hand of God now it is lifted up Next to the Bishops and Popish Clergy of the Land they have been the greatest scorners and opposers of Reformaon and active Incendiaries in this combustion the flames whereof have
Darling his Beloved in whom his soul delights and God looks upon his redeemed through Christ and his soul is delighted in them also Ephes 1.6 He hath made us accepted in the Beloved After he hath bestowed a Christ upon them he thinks nothing too good or too much for their sake He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things After he hath redeemed them from eternall death with the Blood of his Son he will not stick to redeem them from temporall Destruction with the blood of his and their enemies I will give men for thee and people for thy life For his Name His Name is called upon his people Isa 43.6 Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth Isa 43.7 7. Every one that is called by my Name for I have created him for my glory c. Their name is called upon God and Gods Name is called upon them If they perish his Name suffers his Glory suffers they bear his Name which is his Glory and therefore Joshua took the advantage of this argument when he pleaded for Israel Josh 7.9 What wilt thou do to thy great Name q. d. Though Israel deserves to suffer thy Name doth not deserve to suffer in saving Israel thou shalt preserve thine own Name and upon these terms God is resolved to save them Isa 48. 9. For my Names sake I will defer mine anger and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not off 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with silver c. 11. For mine own sake even for mine own sake I will do it for how should my Name be polluted and I will not give my glory to another God destroys the enemie for his peoples sake because he hath loved and chosen them for his own sake his Names sake And thus I have shewed you the sense and meaning of this expression For your sake and the spring and fountain of that sense And this shall suffice for the Doctrinall part of my Text I come now to the Vse and Application Vses And there are but two Uses I will speak to 1. Information 2. Exhortation Vse It may serve first to inform us and that in divers particulars 1. Branch of Information First To discover to us the difference of mercies Some mercies you see there be which God bestows on his people for their sake Deliverances from and victories over their enemies God subdues and destroyes Armies and Countreys and Nations before them and all this he doth for his peoples sake he hath respect to them in such works as these be But some works there be which God doth onely for his own sake such as are Predestination Ephes 1.5 Having predestinated us to the Adoption of Children to himself according to the good pleasure of his will To himself and the good pleasure of his will The good pleasure of his will the ground and to himself the end Justification Tit. 3.7 Justified by his grace no other ingredient goes into Justification by way of Motive but onely Free-grace Isai 43.25 So Pardon of sin which is a part of Justification I even even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake and so their everlasting salvation Ephes 2.5 By grace ye are saved In these mercies the people of God come not in so much as by way of motive much lesse by way of merit But God doth these meerly and immediately for his own sake The reason of this difference is because these temporall mercies and deliverances finde them the people of God but election justification c. make them the people of God those finde them qualified persons these bestow these qualifications upon them And therefore learn to distinguish of mercies and to prize and put in for your share in those mercies which purely and unmixtly are in and from and for and to himself Isai 55.3 The sure mercies of David Second branch of Information See and admire the love of God to his Church and people They were taken out of the same pit and hewn out of the same rock with the rest of the world they had all one Father and Mother and yet see what a difference God makes between them Surely as much as he makes between men and the beasts of the earth he gives them as bread to his people to feed upon he makes them as sacrifices for the expiation of his wrath towards his people when his wrath goes forth armed as it were against his people he commands it to turn aside and satisfie it self with the blood of mighty Nations and great ones of the world that rise up against the Church He makes them but as the Rams to be sacrificed to divine Justice in the room of his Isaacs And if this be such an honour What is it then that he gave his own onely Son not the Creature but the Creator Heb. 1.3 Isai 53.6 Rom. 8.32 John 6.55 The brightnesse of his glory and the expresse form of his person to be a Sacrifice of Expiation a Propitiation to be as it were a devotum Caput upon which he layes the iniquities of all his Elect to deliver him up to death for them and then to give his Body and Blood to be their spirituall meat and drink to life eternall Here is love indeed Love above all expression above all admiration John 3.26 So God loved the world c. Oh labour to get interest in this Love and you are made for ever Thirdly Take notice how vainly and ignorantly the Philosophers and other wisemen of the world have discoursed of the Rise and Ruine of the Nations and Kingdoms of the world They have dreamt of the periods of Monarchies and States Vid. Victor Strigel Aphoris Polit. Johan a Cokier Aphorism Polit. The 〈◊〉 whereof some make 50 some 100 some 300 the 〈◊〉 500 yeers the great Astrologers have consulted the Stars and the Influences and Houses of the Heavens But they have not consulted the God of the Stars the Maker and Upholder of Heaven and Earth They have not consulted Gods Oracles where this great Mystery is revealed and the Reasons and Causes of all these alterations and confusions that befall the great and mighty Empires and Dominions of the World discovered to the sons of men namely the deliverance and enlargement of the Church and therein the propagation and exaltation of the Kingdom of his dear Son the Lord Jesus Christ the great end of ends they have been ignorant of The wayes of God they have known And as blinde and ignorant are the Kings and Nations of the world who while they make war one with another pull down and destroy each other as here the Medes and Persians come to conquer and subdue the Babylonian Empire little know or consider who sets them on work as God speaks to
of Murder Hos 1. Jehu writes service God writes murder Jehu sets down zeal God sets down blood and all because he did the Lords work in the pursuit of his own base and sinfull ends and interests O that you would shake off these Vipers from your hands and hearts If you will not shake them off God will shake you off If you will not shake these out of your bosoms God will shake you out of his 3. If you will do any thing for the Lords sake do this Set up his Son upon his Throne you cannot do any thing which the Lord will take more kindly at your hands For the Father hath committed all Judgement i. e. all Gov rnment unto the Son that men may honour the Son as they honour the Father I am perswaded had this been done sooner England had not now been to have been delivered Jer. 10.7 Revel 15.3 He is King of Nations and King of Saints As King of Nations he hath a Temporall Kingdom and Government over the world now he is in heaven though he exercised not such a Kingdom while he was on earth Matth. 28.18 1 Cor. 15.25,27 the Father having now given to him all power both in heaven and earth and the Rule and Regiment of this Kingdom he hath committed to Monarchies Aristocracies or Democracies as the severall combinations and associations of the people shall between themselves think good to elect and erect God leaves people to their own liberty in this case Submit your selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake for the Lords sake 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gr. Schol. Civilis gubernationis dispositio Beza The Greek reads it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To every humane Creation Civill Government in the kindes or species of it is as it were but the creature of man because men may chuse what kinde of Government they shall finde most advantagious to publike peace and welfare But Christ is also the King of Saints As he hath an inward and Spirituall Government in the Conscience which is onely his Throne so he hath an outward Kingdom which he doth visibly exercise in his Church Which doth consist of these Particulars 1. In that he conquers and subdues a people to himself who are visible subjects of this Kingdom 2. In that he gives Laws and Statutes to this people distinct from all the Laws and Statutes of all the Kingdoms and Republiques in the world as the Church acknowledgeth Isa 33.22 The Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Law-giver the Lord is our King c. 3. In that he appoints and constitutes speciall Officers in this Church not onely to promulge these Laws but to govern his people according to them â—… Matth. 28.19 Acts 20.28 Rom. 12.8 1 Cor. 12.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyterorum ordinem declarat qui disciplinae Politiae Ecclesiastica custodes erant Go teach all Nations Feed the flock whereof the holy Ghost hath made you overseers He that ruleth with diligence And God hath set in his Church Governments The spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets 1 Cor. 14.32 4. In that he hath commanded all the people and subjects of this Kingdom to be obedient in the Lord unto these Officers Heb. 13.7 Remember them that have the rule over you c. and Vers 17. Obey them that have the rule over you Who doth he mean here the Civill Magistrate No for it is added Which have spoken to you the Word of God and They watch for your souls c. 5. In that Christ hath appointed penalties to be inflicted upon the stubborn and disobedient proper to this Government Matth. 18.17 Let him be to thee as an Heathen c. and put away from among your selves that wicked person c. Now therefore since the Lord Jesus is King of Nations and King of Saints set him up as both in both his Kingdoms and Governments and do it thorowly and do it specdily 1. Do it thorowly Would you have a thorow Deliverance studie a thorow Reformation of Church and State Think not renowned Nobles and Patriots of doing the work of Reformation by degrees and piecemeal It will be Christs Honour and your Advantage to let your Reformation come forth as full and honourable at first as may be O it will strike the more fear and awe into the hearts of people it will be your honour in the eyes of your own people and strangers abroad who will certainly say O what Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for surely Reformation is the great thing which the Saints this day in England and in the three Kingdoms have prayed for And what Nation is there so great that hath Statutes and Judgements so righteous as all that Law of Reformation is which Englands Parliament have set up But now let your Reformation be poor and mean and low at first such as wicked men may sit securely under you discourage kill the hearts of the godly that have been praying for you and expecting a Reformation from you encourage the common people to trample upon your Reformation and the Ministery and render your selves cheap and contemptible to all the reformed Churches who do certainly stand at a gaze upon Englands Parliament and Assembly expecting not onely that you should follow them but that you should hold forth to all the Christian world the most full purest and glorious Reformation that hath been since the Churches have begun to shake off the yoke of Antichristian Bondage You have done admirably in the destructive and purging part of Reformation with Hezekiah 2 Chron. 24.15,26 You have brought out the uncleannesse that was found in the Temple of the Lord. You have pulled up every plant which by our heavenly Father hath not planted and taken out of his Kingdom whatsoever did offend and the Lord blesse you for it Now therefore that your work and your blessing may be compleat studie to be answerable in the positive and erective part of Reformation that as you have left nothing that Jesus Christ would have removed so there may want nothing that Jesus Christ would have set up in this New Model of Church-Government Heb. 8.5 See that ye do all things according to the patern so shall it be your honour as it was Moses Heb. 3.2 To be faithfull to him that appointed him in all his House Do thorowly that Christ may not be an underling in his own House 2. Do it speedily Tell me I beseech you what have you got by Delays Who hath been a gainer by them Not Jesus Christ not you not the work of Reformation I know none that have gained by these unhappie Obstructions but Heresie profanenesse division and in all these the devil You cannot but know how it is in the Citie and it would make
as it were a propitiatory Sacrifice for their Countrey and Nation Such was M. Curtius among the Romans who in the time of a great casm or opening of the Earth in Rome cast himself into the Gulf to appease the angry deity However this was a blinde and unwarrantable superstition among the Heathen yet the Text may allude to it I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Saba for thee That is when Sennacherib made his Expedition against Judah and Jerusalem to destroy and lay it waste Cyril ego effeci ut pro Judaea Sennacheribo objiceretur Ethiopia Egyptus Saba quasi victima piacularis loco Judeae ab eo mactanda I caused him to return from Judah and Jerusalem and I diverted his Expedition upon Ethiopia and Egypt and gave them as piacular Sacrifices to be offered up to divine Justice instead of Jerusalem I gave Egypt for thy ransom And thus God did once and again as I might shew you had I time out of Isai 37.9,37 prophesied of Isa 20.4 According to that of the Proverbs 11.8 The righteous is delivered out of trouble and the wicked cometh in his stead Gods people are the Isaac spared and rescued when even the knife is at their throat and the wicked the enemies of the Church as the Ram caught by the horns and sacrificed in their stead So here Israel delivered out of Captivity and the Babylonians sacrificed in their room to Divine Justice and God reconciled to Israel Feci commutationem tuam Egyptum Isa 43.4 And to this purpose the Septuagint read it I have given Egypt c. by way of exchange for thee And so the Text reads on I will give men for thee and people for thy life This may be the first sense For thee or for thy sake 2. For thee In commodum tuum In liberationem tuam I have sent Cyrus to Babylon for thee that is for thy good for thy enlargement and deliverance out of Captivity to serve thee as Isai 45.13 He shall let go my captives c. 3. But yet further for thee may imply respect had by God in sending Cyrus to Babylon to his people though not by way of merit yet by way of motive and that in a fourfold respect 1. The love he bears to their persons God hath an high esteem of his people So he tells them in the fourth verse of this Chapter Isa 43.4 Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life So God loves his people that rather then they shall miscarry Nations and people shall go to confusion Psal 116.15 Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his Saints Yea so precious that God accounts the world no better then the first Chaos unlesse he have a people of his own to dwell in it Isa 45.18 For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens God himself that formed the earth and made it he established it he created it not in vain he formed it to be inhabited It is an argument whereby God comforts his people That he will save his Israel vers 17. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord c. What security Heaven and Earth both were lost if Israel be not saved He created it not in vain It is in vain such is Gods love if he have not an Israel to inhabite it 2. The love the Lord bears to their prayers Look in what language the Church prays Isa 63.17 Isa 63.17 Return for thy servants sake the tribes of thine inheritance in the same God answers them here For your sake have I sent to Babylon So runs the promise Isa 65.24 Before they call I will answer and while they are yet speaking I will hear Hezekiahs prayers are an hook in the nostrils and a bridle in the lips of the Babylonish Plunderer Isa 37.25 c. compared with vers 29. I tell The Saints of the Most High God can pray down Empires and Kingdoms and the Towers and Castles and Walls of the proudest enemies It is safer standing before the mouth of a Canon then before the prayers of the Saints The Queen of the Scots You know who feared the prayers of Knox more then all the Forces of England Indeed the prayers of the Saints are the plagues of the world It is observable Revel 8.3,4,5 that Censer which received the prayers of the Saints emptied forth fire and voices and thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes c. that which went up Prayer comes down plagues No wonder since Christ is so taken with the prayers of his Church that by his good will he would never have the sound of that Musick out of his ears Oh my Dove that art art in the clefts of the rock in the secret places of the stairs let me see thy countenance and hear thy voice For sweet is thy voice c. 3. The Relation wherein the Saints stand towards God takes much upon his heart Servants Sons Daughters Friends the Spouse of Christ Why what will not a man do for these Relations sake And will not the great God much more engage himself for his people which stand in this Relation to him since he is the Fountain of all that love and fidelity which fills these Relations among men 4. The Image of God is stampt upon them and therefore he doth such great things for their sake Heb. 1.3 cum Ephes 4.24 Coloss 3.10 As Christ is the Image of God so the Saints are the Image of Christ insomuch that you may hear God saying unto them Zech. 2.8 He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye In these respects God may be said to do all these things for his peoples sake sc For the love he bears to their Persons Prayers Relation Image And yet all these may be resolved into an higher fountain out of which all these do flow and it is fourfold also I will but name them 1. For free graces sake as in that Proclamation Exod. 33.19 I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy 2. For his Covenants sake Psal 105.8 He hath remembred his Covenant for ever the word which he commanded to a thousand generations Psal 106.45 Psal 111.5 And he remembred for them his Covenant He hath given meat to them that fear him he will ever be mindfull of his Covenant God looks upon his Covenant and then accounts it but his engagement to do great things for his people 3. For his Christs sake So Daniel prayed when he wrestled with God for this very mercy which here God promiseth Dan. 9.17 Deliverance out of Captivitie O our God hear the prayer of thy servant and his supplications and cause thy face to shine upon thy Sanctuary which is desolate for the Lords sake Isa 49.8,9 42.1 Matth. 3.17 Christ is his Fathers