any thing upon them they would beare it this of old was the Genius of this Tribe but now another manner of Spirit possessed them none of all the Maritine townes nor Cities where the people are most active and fit for Negotiation went beyond or came neere to the Tribe of Issachar now I say they had learned that that makes a people happy they had wisedome and unitie they had understanding to know the times and their dutie they had many thousands of eyes to see into the true state of affaires and then they had as many thousand hands ready to execute they could presently fall upon that which belonged to them they had understanding of the times and knew not onely what themselves but what all the Country what all Israel had to doe this was the people and this strange alteration that God had made in the Spirit of this Tribe of Issachar doth afford us this excellent lesson That the Lord can at his pleasure inable and raise up the spirits of persons and people to doe worthily from whom no body would expect any thing Moses had foretold that Issachar would bee but a dull Asse but you see how the Lord had altered and raised him up to doe excellently hee went beyond all the other Tribes and God hath often done so hee takes Moses a Shepheard a man slow of speech sends him and makes him a fit man to deliver a whole nation out of bondage and captivitie at another time hee raises Gideon a private Gentleman it may bee but a Yeomans sonne from his Flayle when hee was threshing of Wheat and makes him a Captaine to route the whole Army of the Midianites and to judge his people at another time takes Saul a Private Gentlemans sonne who was seeking for his fathers Asses and makes him fit to governe a kingdome takes David a young youth from following his Ewes great with Lambe and presently enables him to cope with the Gyant Goliah and to destroy him and afterwards to bee the ruler over Gods people hee takes Amos from being a Neatheard and a gatherer of Summer fruit to bee a Prophet and to preach in the Kings Chappell takes Fishermen who were never bred in Universities and sends them into all the world with the power of the Gospel to subdue the Nations to Jesus Christ Thus the Lord hath raised up instruments and hee can easily doe it for there is a spirit in man but the inspiration which gives understanding and gifts comes onely from the Almighty the Lord hath abundance of the Spirit and powres it out where and how and in what manner hee pleaseth This may bee a great incouragement to us in all our extremities and exigents let us doe our dutie and let us never feare Gods wanting of instruments for his worke when wee are low wee presently cry out Lord by whom shall Jacob arise by whom by stones raised up to bee children and by children inabled to doe the worke of men Wee should never bee at our faiths end though sometimes wee are at our wits end let us doe our dutie and leave it to God who can easily raise up instruments to do his worke from whom wee would never expect it wee our selves have had a great deale of blessed experience of it In the beginning of our publique troubles our question was by whom shall England arise now it is thus low Wee demanded where shall wee finde Captaines and Commanders for a warre in a Nation where all men have been bred in ease and peace God hath found them and tooke Gentlemen from following their Hawkes and Dogs and Tradesmen from their shops and Husbandmen from their Ploughes to bee able to cope with the most expert Commanders in the world and now wee are at another losse now wee are demanding where shall we find Ministers for eight or ten thousand Congregations to instruct them in the way of life Feare not if God for our sinnes deny us not this mercy hee can fulfill that in the 68. Psalme The Lord will give the Word and great shall be the multitude of them that shall publish it the Lord can raise them up unexpectedly and so in all other our difficulties But this I purposely onely point at that I might not bee straightned in the second which is the singular commendations of this Tribe They were men of understanding to know the times and what Israel had to doe That it is a great and high commendation of any people especially of their Heads and Leaders to know the times in reference to their dutie These men of Issachar had understanding of the times to know what Israel had to doe this God sets downe as their high commendation in the handling of it I shall indeavour these three things First I shall interpret the meaning of it make you see what it is to know the times in reference to duties Secondly I shall indeavour to prove it out of the Scripture and illustrate the truth of it that you may see that it is a high commendation and a matter of extreme consequence and thirdly and principally I shall indeavour to make Application of it for our own good For the first What it is to know the times in reference to dutie you may please to observe that in the Scripture and in the practise of men there is found a fivefold knowledge of the times There is an Astrologicall knowledge of the times such a knowledge as the Starre-gazers do boast of a knowledg whereby a company of vaine men doe undertake out of the bookes of the Starres to tell you whatsoever God hath decreed concerning Men or States this knowledg is so condemned in other places of Scripture that none of you will imagine that this was the commendation of this Tribe Secondly There is another knowledge of the times which I may call a Diabolicall knowledge of the times whereby wicked and ungodly men do studie to improve all advantages of time to further their own lusts and wickednesses the study and knowledge of time-servers who indeavour to make the times further them in their cursed designes men who like Willowes or Bulrushes in the water will bow which way soever the streame runs and dance after the present Fiddle of the times for their owne ends I am certaine none of you think that this was the commendation of this Tribe such Temporizers Time-servers however they may for a while applaud their own wisedomes will one day know they have served but an ill Master this was farre from the Tribe of Issachar Thirdly You shall read of a Propheticall knowledge of the times that is such a knowledge as wherein the Lord by revelation doth in able some of his servants I meane the Prophets to know what shall afterwards come to passe and this kinde of knowledge though every man hath an itch after it and many doe as Nebuchadnezzar did
the Sword is not put up and in Ireland poor wretched Ireland the warre is more terrible where if we labour not to end it by sending our brethren timely succours the bloody enemy is like to come to make a new war upon us ere it be long And in the times of warre What have the heads of our Tribes to do Certainly all people in a time of warre should make it a time of mourning Ezekiel saith The Sword is furbished and drawne and made bright for slaughter should wee then make mirth Should this bee a time of jollitie and all should labour to finde out the Causes of the warre what the Sword-procuring sins are and every one to repent and turne from them But you that are our Heads are to look to these 2 Things principally First That while the warre doth last and must last that our Campes and Armies may bee in such a condition that God may not abhorre our Armies When the Host goes forth to the battail keepe thee from every evill thing And Secondly In the times of Warre you should alwayes labour after an honourable safe and just Peace peace is the end of warre Pax una triumphis One peace is worth 100 Victories and therefore you must principally addresse your selves to God who alone can give us Peace Kings and States may begin a warre but God onely must end it we may daube up a peace and get counterfeits of peace but all will bee arena sine calce Sand without lime a mortar which will not hold but as a swelling in a high wall whose breach comes suddenly Therefore remember againe and againe your work lies with the God of Peace pacifie him and hee will create peace for you Fifthly Our Times are times of Divisions such Divisions as I thinke were hardly ever knowne in the Christian World Divisions every where divisions in Parliament divisions in the Assembly divisions in the Citie divisions in State affaires but woe and alasse most of all and worst of all divisions among Gods people the Servants of God who heretofore prayed together fasted together could have been banished together now as if the curse of Simeon and Levi were fallen upon them they are divided in Jacob and scattered in Israel Manasseh is aagainst Ephraim and Ephraim against Manasseh and every one eates the flesh of his owne arme and through the wrath of the Lord the Land is darkened and infatuated by the miserable divisions of Gods owne people and these divisions are fomented encouraged and back'd by a Third il-affected party who desires that these Two like wilde beasts may teare one another and weaken one another that they may devoure them both and all this goes on thorough our sinne And truly wee are in my poore thoughts as if God had left us to bee as Moab and Ammon and Mount Seir where two stood up against one to destroy it and then the other two to destroy one another as the foolish Woman wee are pulling downe our house with our owne hands And now Honorable and Beloved in such sad uncomfortable times as these are what have the Heads of our Israel to doe what doth the Lord looke for at your hands Certainly you with others and you above all others should labour to bee our Physitians our Aesculapiusses to joine our dissever'd limbes and if it bee possible to make us one againe Noble Senators is there no way that your Wisdome can contrive to make Pacification Accommodation and Reconciliation but must wee goe on thus to ruine one another Any ordinary head may serve to embroyle things but here would bee the Master-piece of your Wisdome if you could find out a way how the envie of Ephraim and the ill will of Manasseh might cease and that Gods people might yet bee reconciled and united of one minde as farre as is possible and made of one heart in those lower things wherein they cannot bee of one minde Would God put this in your hearts that you might speedily and earnestly set about it that if there should be found any Animosities amongst your selves you would lay them down first all agree to study the Publike good and then see what you can doe to reconcile others in the Ministery in the City in the Countrey o that you could doe as Constantine did who burnt all the Libells that were presented to him from one Bishop against another and never left till hee had made peace among them O that God would both inable you and provoke you to set speedily upon this worke God and his people have their eyes upon you and expect you should imploy all your Wisdome Piety Parts and Authority to extinguish those flames which threaten speedy ruine to us all Our times are times of Reformation As they are times of sinne and errour and wrath and warre and divisions which all five are very sad so the other two are excellent our times are times of Reformation I mean they are times not onely of much Gospell light but they are times of growing and increasing light wherein the light of the Gospell spreads more and the Lord as in other parts of the world so especially amongst us seemes to bee laying out the platforme of his Temple and to set out a new edition of his Church fairer and more beautifull then ever and what have the Heads of our Tribes to doe at such a time without all question very much of it will lie upon your hands under God you have contended stifly and couragiously for our liberties and properties and to recover us from bondage and slavery and God hath been with you in it and although the kingdome doth not yet feele it and so it may bee doth not greatly thank you because in desperate diseases the cure is commonly more costly and more tedious then the disease is but I doubt when God vouchsafes a settling they will finde the fruit of what you have done for them and blesse God for you that are their healers But know I beseech you that our Religion is our most Orient Pearle and that whereupon our heart is most set and if there should bee any miscariage in it all will perish with it wee should call every thing else Ichabod if Religion miscarry all is gone and therefore to provoke you to helpe us in this thing let mee leave these two Conclusions in your bosomes First A Reformation begun and not carried on alwayes brings more wrath from God you have begun the Reformation you are engaged in it by oath and Covenant and some happy proceeding and progresse you have made in it God grant you slack not in it For youâ—l finde in the Scriptures a reformation begun and laid aside is a peoples undoing In Elijahs dayes there was a Reformation begun it fell downe and the Kingdome perished with it In Josiah's time a Reformation was begun and quickly laid aside with the death of that good King and the Kingdome was ruined presently
after it In Haggai his dayes the Reformation was begun then laid aside God presently smote them with Blasting and Mildew and would have undone them if they had not taken it up againe God lookes you should carry this work on And I adde Without setling Religion you shall never settle the Common-wealth Hee that writes a Booke of the corrupt and troubled state of the Church will hardly ever write a Booke of the quiet and setled State of the Commonwealth Christ is King of Nations and Common-wealths as well as King of Saints Now the glory of Christ is so much concerned in the matter of Religion that they shall never finde him propitious to them for their good in humane affaires who neglect him in that that is dearest to him But what have our Heads and Rulers to doe in that I feare not to say confidently that they are mistaken who say you have nothing to doe with it All the good Kings that ever I read of in the booke of God thought not onely they had to doe with it but it was their first work a Jove principium they all began with it they ever accounted the Reformation preservation propogation of Religion to be their Crown but what have you to doe I answer you must with David set your whole hearts to the house of your God really and seriously with Solomon set as many on worke as you can possibly to prepare materialls for Gods house with Jehosaphat send abroad as many faithfull Preachers as you can to goe about and instruct the people from Towne to Towne and Citie to Citie till you can get Ministers to bee setled With Nehemiah labour to build the walls of Jerusalem though in a troublesome time with a Sword in one hand and a Trowell in the other set up discipline to bee a hedge and fence to the Churches With Hezekiah labour to provide honorable maintenance for Gods house and his Ministers that young men may not bee discouraged in their studies For when young Students can see Galen and Justinian the study of the Law or Physick can give them wealth and honour and the Ministry nothing but beggery it will bee a great snare to them though the worke of the Ministry bee honorable and hath an abundant reward with God yet for want of maintenance the house of God will bee forsaken Sint Maecenates non deerunt marones Men of parts must have incouragement and in your provision for them forget not the Schooles of the Prophets remember the Universities Indeavour to carry on the worke that the beautie and power of Religion may be promoted and the Lord direct you to it Seventhly and lastly Our times are times of Deliverances the greatest deliverances that I thinke the Lord hath wrought since hee brought Israel out of Egypt such deliverances as we our selves are like men in a dreame such deliverances that there hath beene but few footsteps of ordinary Providence in them deliverances that have beene the fruit of Prayer the fruit of Covenanting the fruit of Fasting and in all these the fruit of free grace wherein the Lord hath exceeded not onely our Faith but our Prayers and hath measured out to us all that hee hath done by the shekel of the Sanctuary his own shekel that is double of ours I know you forget not the wonderfull things the Lord hath done and what have our Heads to doe at such a Time Truly all others with you but you more then all at such a time must bee carefull of these foure things First God expects when hee workes deliverances that his people should consider his workes and stand amazed at it When the Lord turned the captivitie of Zion wee were like men in a dreame our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joy The Lord say they hath done great things for us Thus let us admire his works In times of deliverance you must bee very carefull to pay your vowes the vowes that you made in the time of your low condition the vowes you made when your Selves and Liberties and Religion and the Kingdom were all like to bee buried quicke together God expects in times of deliverance to have those vowes remembred and paid consider what they were Thirdly When the Lord workes such deliverances hee expects and it will very well become the Heads of our Tribes to keepe the same lowly and humble spirit that they had while God kept them under afflictions to have their eares as much opened to good counsell when God hath exalted them as when hee abased them this is a hard lesson to learne I finde the best of all Gods servants have much failed in this particular Good David himselfe in the day of his prosperity kept not alwayes that humble spirit which hee had in his low estate nor Asa nor Uzziah nor Hezekiah and wee know the story of that famous Queen whose motto in the time of her afflictions was Tanquam ovis as a sheepe for the slaughter yet afterwards it was thought needfull to intreate that it might not bee tanquam indomita juvenca as an untamed Heifer Men are infinitely prone to bee lifted up when God enlarges them but God infinitely detesteth it and will not put it up at the hands of any Therefore I most humbly beseech you Right Honorable and Honorable and beloved let David and Solomon his sonne and Uzziah and Hezekiah bee warnings to you and doe you labour to maintaine the same lowly spirit that you had when you could keepe dayes of mourning for the sinnes of the Kingdome for your personall sinnes and Parliament sinnes such a spirit would infinitely please God And lastly In the time of deliverance God expects of those that are the Heads and Rulers of a people that every deliverance should by them bee improved to the utmost for the end for which it is given every Rod hath a voyce and calls for some dutie and every mercy and deliverance hath a voyce and calls for a dutie every victory your Armies have got and every towne hath beene surrendred every plot that hath been discovered hath some dutie written upon it which God expects you should learne All these things without question lie upon you and God doth and will expect them at your hands and what heart would not tremble to thinke how much lies upon you my soule is deepely affected with your taske more then humane strength must carry you on or you will bee impares oneri never able to goe through your work VVhat gratious man who understands this would ever pray to God in his Chamber without remembring you and your work and for you your selves O what need is there that you should call in the Payers and supplications of all Gods people to helpe you and that every one of you lay aside any businesse of your owne all self-interest and count it to be but catching of Flyes in comparison of the worke you are called to and