testimonies we have also most pregnant examples In the Book of Judges chap. 9. we read that Abimelech the son of Gideon by a Concubine being assisted by a band of wicked Counsellors who were prevalent and leading men in Shechem and by the helpe of vaine and light persons which he hired to be his followers with money which they gave him did usurpe the Kingdome after the death of his father and slue his seventy brethren who had more right to reigne than hee and what a curse and plague by so doing they proved to him themselves and to their City and Countrey the event shewed for he was the Bramble in his Brother Iothams Parable and they the trees which anoynted him to be King over them and by an evill spirit which God sent between him and them they became Traytors to him and he destroyed their chiefe City slue the inhabitants beat down the walls and sowed salt in it to make it a cursed place and pursuing the rest of the people who betooke themselves for refuge to a strong Tower he had his skull broken by a stone which a woman cast upon his head and lest it should be said that a woman slue him he caused his Armour-bearer to thrust him through with his sword and so he dyed desperately and Iothams parable was verified in him and his Band of wicked Counsellors and abettors they proved to be a most pernicious and destroying plague to him and a curse to their City State and Countrey and a fire came out from him to devoure them as in that Chapter is shewed at large In the same book Chapter 20. we read that the banding together of wicked Counsellours and men of Belial in Gibeah the chief City of Benjamin proved destructive to the whole Tribe and no small plague to all Israel who lost above forty thousand men in a bloudy Civill war which by Gods Law they were bound to make and pursue against them for putting away abhominations and destroying cursed Malefactors out of Israel Those unjust Iudges and wicked Counsellors patrons of filthy abomination refused to deliver up to justice the sonnes of Belial who had most villanously abusâ—d the Levites wife unto death and by their authority stirred up all the Children of Benjamin to take up armes against all their brethren of the other Tribes who were commanded to execute justice in such cases under paine of a curse and to cut off such abhominable sinners though with great dammage and bloud-shed on their own side But in the end this proved an heavy curse to the whole Tribe which in that unjust cause which they maintained by the sword was cut off and utterly destroyed except onely five hundred men who escaped by flight unto the Rock of Rimmon and the wildernesse Saul also the first anoynted King over all Israel when God had rejected him for his disobedience gathered to himselfe a Band of wicked Counsellors corrupt Officers and Iudges and other instruments of his violence and of his cruelty to persecute David and such as favoured his righteous Cause as Doeg and others of whom the beginning of this Psalme speaks And mention is also made of them 1 Sam. 22. By them he was stirred up to pursue David his chiefe Champion against the uncircumcised Philistims the common enemies of Israel to drive him out of his Land So that for want of his helpe he was in his great straits and feares drawne to consult with the devill by the witch of Endor to the destruction of himselfe and of those his wicked followers by whose Counsells he was led For with them all his valiant Sonnes were slaine in Battaile the army of Israel routed and smitten and he himselfe so hotly pursued that he had no hope to escape and in bitternesse of anguish hee fell desperately upon his owne Sword and dyed a selfe-murtherer 1 Sam. 31. and so this wicked Band proved a curse to him and themselves and a plague to all Israel It was a Band of wicked Counsellors among whom Achitophel was president which animated Absalom to become a Traytor to King David his owne Father and to raise up in Rebellion all Israel against him which as it was an heavy plague to David and a curse to his family and Kingdome so especially to themselves for Achitophel the president hanged himselfe and the rest with Absalom were destroyed in Battaile and miserably perished The like misery did Rehoboams Band of heady Counsellours and ill-affected followers proud young men bring upon him and his Kingdome for being led and ruled by their Counsell his Kingdome was wofully rent ten Tribes forsooke him and great calamity fell upon him and upon Ierusalem the royall City which was by this rent left naked of defence and Sheshak King of Egypt robbed it and tooke away all the Treasures which Solomon left in the house of the Lord and in the Kings house all the Shield of Gold which he had made 1 Kings 12. and 2 Chron. 12. Likewise the Princes and flattering Counsellours of Ioash King of Iudah who conspired together and were authors to draw the King to Idolatry and to persecute to death the Prophet who was the sonne of that renouned Priest Jehoiadah by whom he himselfe had been saved alive nourished and set up in the Throne of the Kingdome they were most pernicious they brought a curse on the King his family and Kingdome and on themselves for they were destroyed by the small Bands of the Syrians which God for their sinnes raised up to cut them off and their great Host and the spoyle of them was sent to Damascus and the King himselfe being left by the enemies in sore diseases was slain by his owne servants and this was the plague and curse which his wicked Counsellors by whom hee was led brought on him and themselves 2 Chron. 24. we read also in the Prophesie of Ieremiah that King Zedekiah was altogether led and rulâ—d by a Band of wicked Counsellors Princes Priests and false Prophets which at length over-awed him when they had brought him into great straits Jer. 38.24 25. These were the men who persecuted Ieremiah for prophecying to them from God laid wait to catch him in his words smote him put him in the stocks and caused the King to cast him into the Dungeon What cursed men these were and what dreadfull vengeance and wrath of God followed them and their families the Prophet sheweth Ierem. 18.21 and 20.11 12. viz. That their children shall be delivered up to the sword their wives shall be widdows and a cry shall be heard from their houses Gods vengeance shall be seene on them and their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten What a plague and curse they were to the King to his sons and to his City and Kingdome the same Prophet testifieth They made him and his people reassume their dismissed Bond-servants and break the Covenant of God Ier. 34 11. Yea and the Oath of God which he made to the
Die Mercurij Januar. 29th 1644. ORdered that Sir Thomas Dacres and Master Whitacre doe from this House give thanks to Doctor Wincopp and Master Walker for the great paines they tooke in the Sermons they preached this day at the intreaty of this House at St. Margarets Westminster it being the day of publike Humiliation and to desire them to Print their Sermons and they are to have the like priviledge in printing of them as others in the like kinde usually have had H. Elsynge Cler. Parl. D. Com. I Appoynt Nathaniel Webb to Print my Sermon GEORGE WALKER A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons at their late solemne Monethly Fast Januarie 29th 1644 Wherein these foure necessary Considerations are plainly proved and demonstrated out of the holy Scriptures viz. 1. The Bands of the brethren in iniquity the pernicious Brambles the Plague and curse of a Land and Kingdome 2. All the brethren in these Bands sharpe pricks of the cursed bramble sharers in the sinne and subiect to the destruction thereof 3 The righteous kept by God from the full sense and feeling of the mischiefe which they are sharpely set and cruelly bent to bring upon them 4. The terrible sudden and totall destruction of the Bramble and every hurtfull prick thereof by Gods dreadfull storme By GEORGE WALKER Batchelor of Divinity Pastor of Iohn Evangelists London and one of the Assembly of Divines Published by Order of the House of Commons LONDON Printed by T. B. for Nathaniel Webb and are to be sold in Pauls Church-yard 1645. TO The Honourable House of COMMONS Now Assembled in PARLIAMENT Renowned Worthies WHEN I received your Message sent to me by one of Your Worthy Members that you had appoynted mee to Preach before You at the Monethly Fast then next to come mine Insufficiency a Age and Weaknesse of Body began immediately to put a just excuse â—â— my mouth But the strong obligation in which the whole Land is obliged unto You being the onely powerfull b Saviours under God of Church and State from ruine and destruction when they were allready over-runne and at the poynt to bee swallowed up by the Bands of Antichrist did silence all Excuses Besides I was afraid to incurre the blame or suspicion of ingratitude to them who had delivered me from the paw of the Lyon which thirsted after my bloud and had set mee at liberty after two yeares imprisonment and Voted a just recompence of the wrongs done to mee and a Satisfaction from mine Oppressors for all my losses and dammages by their malice sustained Which recompence through your favour and forwardnesse to relieve mee I had certainely received if the multitude of Malignant spirits then too prevalent among you but now expelled out of your Assemblie had not opposed and hindred the transmission of my Cause in due time to the Honourable House of LORDS I saw also a speciall hand of GOD in calling mee to Preach to so Honourable an Assemblie and his power and providence in frustrating and bringing to nought the Counsells and purposes of the proud persecuting Prelate of CANTERBURIE who on the same day of the VVeeke of the same moneth of the Yeare six yeares before brought mee to answer Ore tenus in the Star-Chamber with full intent to lay a heavie Censure on mee And when the truth of GOD for which I suffered did beare mee out against all his Slanders and false Accusations hee most proudly affirmed and bid me assure my selfe of it That I should never come in a Pulpit to preach any more Vpon these Considerations I did cheerefully submit my shoulders to beare this burthen though it seemed farre heavier then my strength was able to sustaine and undergoe And now Yee Worthies of GODS Israel I humbly begge this favour at Your hands that You will accept of the willingnesse of the Workman to serve You not the worth of the Service it selfe Looke upon the pure precious matter here handled chosen out of a golden Psalme of DAVID the sweet Singer of Israel not on the weake handling of it I conceived it verie seasonable for the Time and Occasion For the present Calamities by which the LORD calls us to publike and generall Fasting and Humiliation proceed from the Bands of the Brethren in Iniquitie which are so many cursed Brambles of severall sorts pestering the whole Land and stinging us with their hurtfull pricks which abound in everie Band Sect and Faction The thing for which wee seeke unto GOD by Fasting and Prayer is Deliverance of our Church and State from the mischiefe which they are sharply set to bring and inflict upon all that are Righteous and Religious in the Land This Deliverance cannot bee fully and perfectly obtained till the Lord our God bee pleased to cut downe these cursed Brambles and to ridde these three Kingdomes of them And this the LORD will doe verie speedily so soone as hee sees us made ripe for Deliverance by true unfeigned repentance and amendment of our lives For then he will take away as with a Storme and Whirle-winde not onely the great Faction of the Antichristian Papists Atheists and Malignants banded together and wageing open VVarre against us but also all the Sects of Anabaptists Antinomians Libertines and Schismaticall Separatists who by opposing the Reformation and union of our Church with the rest of the best Reformed Churches both in Doctrine and Discipline according to the written VVord of God do act strongly for Antichrist and by raising up Divisions and Distractions in the City Countrey and all our Armies doe as much as in them is to weaken us make breaches in our VValls and to lay us open and naked to the violence and furie of our open enemies All these things my Text as I have faithfully opened and expounded it doth offer to your grave and wise consideration and in this Sermon I have proved every particular by cleare testimonies out of holy Scriptures and in obedience to your command I have committed it to the Presse and here humbly present it to your Honourable Assembly with my hearty desire and prayer to God for you that by it and many other most godly and more learned Sermons which sound continually in Your cares You may take occasion to observe and note the danger in which our Land is by reason of those many Sects and Hereticks and Schismaticks which like so many cursed Brambles grow up and increase daily even to the over-spreading of the whole Kingdome which when you come to doe once seriously I doubt not but your zeale will stirre you up to curb so many of them as are curable and to cut off those that are incorrigible even such Thorns and Brambles as David describes in his last words saying The sons of Belial are all of them as Thornes thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands But the man that shall touch them must be fully fenced with Iron and the staffe of a Speare and they shall bee
King of Babylon when he set him up to be King and they hardned him by their evill Counsell to stand out against the word of the Lord untill God gave him and his sons City and Kingdome into the hands of the King of Babylon who slue his sonnes before his face then put out his eyes bound him in Chaines till he dyed tooke the City laid it waste burnt the Temple led the people captive and left the Land desolate as we read Ier. 39. But yet there was another Band and conspiracy of wicked Counsellors unjust Iudges persecutiong Rulers and ungodly Officers and other instruments of violence more pestilent and pernicious then all these who were such a plague and curse to their whole Nation that they brought the wrath of God on it to the utmost and on all their posterity untill this day that was the great Counsell of the Iewes in our Saviours dayes by which the publishing of the Gospell was desperately opposed the blessed Messiah persecuted and murthered his Apostles and Martyrs scourged imprisoned slaine and scattered as the History of the Gospell and of the Acts of the Apostles testifie For they by their pernicious Counsells and practises brought a totall destruction upon their whole nation people City and Temple so that a generall curse cleaves to their children and they have for 1600 yeares been a by-word a reproach and a hissing in all Nations where they are scattered These dreadful examples are so many lowd voyces proclaiming from God to our eares and witnessing to our hearts the truth propounded in this Doctrine viz. That every Band Company and Faction of wicked men consulting to doe mischiefe and practising against Gods Church and people are most pernicious and dangerous Brambles the plague and curse of Lands and Kingdomes I have been large in producing a multitude of examples because I would have you take notice that wicked Rulers and Kings mentioned in Scripture never wanted pernicious Counsellors nor Bands of cursed instruments to spur and drive them on to destruction and to bring a curse on their Kingdomes This is no new nor strange thing to be wondred at and to dismay and astonish us But that in times when Kings and Princes were Tyrants oppressors and back sliders from true Religion to Idolatry and had bands of wicked instruments and of men of violence at command God was so mercifull to his Nation and people of old as to reserve to himselfe a prevayling party and to put wisedome and courage into the great Counsell of the Kingdome to resist their violence to preserve Religion from ruine the people from oppression the Land from spoyling to oppose the bands of the wicked to scatter them and execute justice on them this we finde not in the Book of God in all the Histories from the first to the second Adam this is a mercy proper to the times of the Gospell and to those Nations and Kingdomes in which Christ ruleth by his holy Spirit and his Church is surely established by the word of God faithfully preached true religion is planted in the hearts of the people But now for the cursed Band of pernicious Counsellors and other agents of violence and iniquity which here I am to deale with That we may see most clearely what just cause all Nations and people have to hate abhorre and spue them out as enemies of all righteousnesse and peace and the plague and curse of the Lands states and kingdome in which they rise up and beare sway I will launch forth a little further to discover the depth of their malice how pestilent and mischievous they must needs be wheresoever they prevail and are countenanced and this I will doe by three reasons drawe First from their originall and chiefe author Secondly from their actions and practises Thirdly the unhappy events of their doing reason 1 First it is most certaine that all sons of Belial children of the Devill and seed of the old Serpent especially when a faction of them is banded together are most hurtful and dangerous to the Church and people of God and a plague and curse to the State in which they rule and have power For God hath put enmity between them and the elect seed of the woman Christ and his true members there can be no peace but perpetuall warre with them till their head be bruised and their power scattered which victory for the most part doth câ—st Christians as it did their head Christ the bruising of their heele Gen. 3.15 What a curse the sons of Eli who are called sons of Belial 1 Sam. 2.12 did bring upon the Land of Israel and on their fathers house we may read at large chap. 2.11 and chap. 4. The Arke of God could not secure them from Gods wrathfull stroak and visiting hand And I doubt not but the covetousnesse theft and treachery of Iudas who was a Devill incarnate doe discover sufficiently what mischiefe abounds in the children of the devill Now wicked Counsellors unjust Iudges and all other ungodly men banded together to lye to seduce and to worke mischiefe in their hearts are in the Scriptures proclaimed sons of Belial children of the Devill and the seed of the old Serpent So God by Moses calls them Deut. 13.13 So David in his last words and saith That they are all of them as Thornes thrust away because they cannot bee taken with hands 2 Sam. 23.6 And our Saviour tells the Iewes banded together to oppresse hurt lye slander and persecute that they are of their Father the Devill they have their originall from Hell the devill is the chiefe author of their malice and president of their conspiracy and counsell Iohn 8.44 And St. Paul calls Elimas the Sorcerer who laboured to turne Sergius Paulus from the faith the enemy of all righteousnesse the child of the Devill full of all malice and subtilty Acts 13.10 For indeed the old Serpent the Devill inspires subtelty into men suggests wicked counsells and draws them into conspiracy in evill and the more they are banded together the more hee prevailes in them and workes more mischiefe by them and therefore their originall and the author of their Counsells demonstrates them to be such as this Doctrine teacheth The second reason is drawne from their actions and practises First of all their thoughts are against the righteous for evill reason 2 Psalme 56.5 They work mischief in their hearts verse 2. of this Psalme devise it on their beds Psal. 30.4 they glory and boast in it Psalme 52.1 they consult together to cast down the righteous from his excellency they delight in lyes blesse with their mouth but curse with their heart Psal. 62.3 4. In the balance of Iustice which they hold as Iudges in their hands and under colour and pretence of judgement they weigh out the violence of their hands that is wrongs and injuries in the earth Psalme 58.2 They plot against the righteous Psalme 37.12 They lye in wait for bloud Mich 7.2 they
from abroad he sends in among us grievous Wolves in sheeps cloathing who by faire shewes of more refined Religion piety and godly life seek to insinuate themselves into your favour and under pretence of new light and tender consciences to purchase at your hands liberty to live as they list under no rule or government but every company and particular Conventicle to doe what seems good in their owne eyes without controll of any superiors others rise up dayly and speak perverse things that they may draw Desciples after them The severall Bands of Anabaptists Antinomiaur Familists Libertines and Separatists are so multiplyed that they begin to threaten and speake big words And besides these we have blasphemous Hereticks or rather Atheists who begin to gather Assemblies and to teach people that one Spirit rules in all living Creatures men and beasts and the Spirit which dwells in the Saints is no other but the same which worketh in the children of disobedience And that the Doctrine concerning the person of Christ God and man as it is preached in all Orthodox Churches is but a fiction for every man by the Spirit of new light comming into him becomes a Christ God and man in himselfe That mens souls dye as beasts doe with their bodies and live not till the day of resurrection As for hell damnation and differences of Elect men blessed and reprobate cursed they hold them to be Dreams fictions scar-crowes and idle fancies There is also a new Sect of Seekers who renounce the Scriptures as blinde guides and wait for new lights to lead them to the true Religion which as they conceive is not yet to bee found while the Temple is full of smoak and in the mean time they will seek and suspend and fasten on no Religion till the new lights appeare But such is the efficacy of Satan in all these Sects of so contrary opinions that in the maine they are not divided but all agree in this that with lyes slanders revilings and reproaches they strive to over-lade teare and rend the true Orthodox reformed Churches and spare not Christs pure redeemed flocke but by flatteries forgeries and new fangle opinions draw away many well-meaning people and steale away and destroy the sheep of his fold Now these many factions and Sects with all their favourers and abettors if any such should rise up among you they are the Bands of the wicked and the Brambles of which my Text speaks which I have in the Doctrine now in hand proved to be most pestilent and dangerous even the very curse of the land in which they get footing and increase And yee renowned Worthies as yee tender the good and welfare of your Countrey and of those who have entrusted you with defence and safety of their Religion Lawes Liberty and Lives and as God hath called you to the highest place and Court of Iudicature so let it be your first care and worke of Reformation to remove all such Brambles out of the way and because some are but green thorns or pricks seduced and drawn into the faction by the sleights and subtelty of deceivers have compassion on them and put a difference pulling them out of the fire by the hand of justice tempered with mercy and by the rod of correction but others who are men of Belial hardned in their malignity such as David in his last words resembles to Thornes thrust away because they cannot be taken with hands but the man that will touch them must be fenced with Iron and the staffe of a Speare and they shall be burnt with fire in the same place cut them downe with the sword of Iustice root them out and consume them as with fire that no root may spring againe let their mischiefe fall upon their own heads that the Land may be eased which hath a long time and doth still groane under them as under an heavy curse I doe not use this exhortation as a Spur but as an incouragement to you who are wise and of your selves willing and forward that when you are put in minde and have it set before your eyes what a plague and curse such bands of wicked men are in a laud and to what misery and mischiefe all their counsels and doings tend and what woefull events follow their cursed designes you may proceed with courage to quell scatter and destroy them never doubting but that in so doing you doe the worke of God and judge and execute justice for him and he is with you in the judgement and by cutting off such Achans you turne away his wrath from the Land Secondly this Doctrine serves for wholsome admonition to us all this day For by discovering to us the evil and mischief of wicked Counsells and what a plague and curse the Bands of the ungodly are in a Land when they are combined together to worke wickednesse in their hearts to oppresse and persecute Gods people by injustice and violence and to oppose necessary Reformation It puts us in minde of the plague curse which still presseth sore and lyeth hard and heavy upon the Kingdome at this time and of our sinnes which have procured all this evill unto us which great sinnes we have not yet subdued neither have so washed our hearts from wickednesse by true and sound repentance as to make our selves ripe for deliverance Although the Lord by our Parliament hath wrought wonderfully in scattering the bands of wicked Counsellors unjest Iudges and corrupt Officers in removing them from their Assembly and from the seats of Iustice and Courts of judicature yet they are still combined together to do mischiefe in severall parts of the Land they have raised up and doe still maintaine a most unnaturall bloudy civill warre and have brought upon us the great and sore judgement of the sword they have also subservient Bands of malignants who do work for them secretly under-hand and are ready upon every occasion to helpe forward their cursed designe we have but few garrison Townes or fortified places wherein they have not had some Band of combined Traytors plotting to betray them as we have seen in many former and late discoveries And as the whole Kingdom groaned under the pressure of those tyrannicall Courts lately dissolved so many parts of the Land are still miserably oppressed by their scattered Bands and we all sigh and groane with our oppressed brethren and have a fellow-feeling of their calamities Surely our great sinnes have pulled this plague and curse upon the Land and it is still continued because wee continue in our sinnes The unclean spirits which vex us are not to be cast out but by faithfull fervent prayers and such holy Fasts as God hath chosen and we have not kept For we have not loosed the bands of wickednesse wee have not undone the heavy burthens nor relieved the oppressed nor broken every yoke Many people in the Countrey are intollerably eaten up with free Quarter of our Souldiers and yet have as heavy taxes laid