all the munitions in the world to the great God of Heauen and Earth b Psal 68.2 As the smoake vanisheth so doe they vanish and as the wax melteth before the fire so melt they at the breath of the Lord. The munitions of Edom they faile before him Edom the kingdome of Edom vpon which God stretched the line of vanitie and the stones of emptinesse as witnesseth the Prophet Esay Chap. 34.11 it is no more a kingdome it bringeth forth thornes in her Palaces nettles and thistles in her strong holds The munitions of Edom are vanished as smoake The munitions of Moab they faile before him Moab the kingdome of Moab had a strong staffe and beautifull rod as speaketh Ierem. Chap. 48.17 but they are broken Moab is destroyed his Cities are burnt vp his strong holds are gone The munitions of Moab are vanished as smoake The munitions of Israel faile before him Israel the kingdome of Israel was Gods peculiar and shadowed vnder the wings of his protection yet at length infected with the leprosie of sinne they were spoiled of their strong holds so saith Hoseah Chap. 10.14 A tumult shall arise among the people and all thy munitions shall be destroyed The munitions of Israel are vanished as smoake The munitions of Iudah faile before him Iudah the kingdome of Iudah great among the Nations and a Princesse among the Prouinces she is now become tributary as complaineth the Prophet Lament 1.1 The Lord hath destroyed c Lament 2.2 all the habitations of Iaacob and hath not spared he hath throwne downe in his wrath the strong holds of the daughter of Iudah he hath cast them downe to the ground The munitions of Iudah are vanâ—shed as smoake Let these few instances in the states of Edom Moab Israel and Iudah serue for proofe of my doctrine No munition can saue that city which God will haue destroyed You will remember the reason of it because there is no strength but of God and from God The vse of this doctrine is to teach vs neuer to trust in any worldly helpe but so to vse all good meanes of our defense that still we rely vpon the Lord for strength and successe thereby See Serm. 4 vpon Iames 4.10 pag. 116. Beloued in the Lord we haue learned that a horse his helpe is vaine Psal 33.17 that mans helpe is vaine Psal 60.11 that the helpe of Princes is vaine Psal 146.3 that much strength is vaine 2 Chron. 25.7 that much wealth is vaine Psal 49.6 that all worldly helpes are vaine Esai 31.1 All vnder God is vanitie Wherefore now and all othertimes let our trust be onely in the name oâ— the Lord who hath made heauen and earth Thus much of my first doctrine grounded vpon the third circumstance of this seuenth verse the circumstance of the punished No munition can saue that citie which God will haue destroyed Againe this ouerthrow of the walls of Azzah in Gods anger teacheth vs thus much It is the good blessing of God vpon a kingdome to haue walls strong holds munitions fortresses and bulwarkes for a defe se against enemies The reason is because these be the meanes which God vsually blesseth to procure outward safety The vse is to teach vs carefully to prepare such against time of trouble yet with this caution that we rest not in them but depend wholly vpon Gods blessing And here we are to powre out our soules in thankfulnesse before Almightie God for blessing this our Countrey with the strength of walls of walls by sea and walls by land by sea with ships and at land with strong holds castles and fortresses by sea and land with men of wisdome and valour to bid battell to the proudest enemie that dare aduance himselfe against vs. Confesse we with Dauid Psal 18.2 The Lord is our rocke our fortresse hee that deliuereth vs our God our strength our shield the horne of our saluation and our refuge In him we trust and d Psal 56.11 feare not what man can doe vnto vs. Yet further The fire in Gods anger deuouring the palaces of Azzah teacheth vs that God depriueth vs of a great blessing when hee taketh from vs our dwelling houses This doctrine I commended to you in my Eight Lecture vpon this prophecie The truth is experimentally made good vnto vs by that great commodity or contentment that commeth to euery one of vs by our dwelling houses The vse of this doctrine is three-fold It teacheth vs 1. To be humbled before Almighty God whensoeuer our dwelling-houses are taken from vs 2. Since wee peaceably enioy our dwelling-houses to vse them for the furtherance of Gods glory 3. To praise God continually for the comfortable vse we haue of our dwelling-houses Thus farre of the seuenth verse The eighth followeth And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod and him that holâ—â—th the scepter from Ashkelon Ashdod and Ashkelon were two chiefe Cities of Palaestina One of them as here it appeareth was the place of residence for the chiefe Ruler ouer that State To both Ashdod and Ashkelon to the inhabitants of Ashdod and the Scepter-bearer in Ashkelon to King and subiect Gods sore iudgement euen a cutting off is here threatned I will cut off the inhabitant of Ashdod Of the like iudgement in the same words you haue heard before in vers 5. threatned to the Syrians I will cut off the inhabitant of Bikeath-Auen and him that holdeth the Scepter out of Beth-eden The words I then expounded at large the briefe or summe whereof is I the Lord Iehouah will cut off will vtterly destroy and root out the inhabitant not one alone but all and euery one of the inhabitants of Ashdod one of the fiue chiefe Cities of the Philistines And I will vtterly destroy or root out him that holdeth the Scepter the Philistines their chiefe Ruler their King making his residence at Ashkelon another of the fiue Cities of Palaestina I will cut off the inhabitant of Ashdod and him that holdeth the Scepter from Ashkelon In the words I obserue as before three circumstances 1 The punisher the Lord I. 2 The punishment a cutting off I will cut off 3 The punished the inhabitants of Ashdod and the Scepter-bearer of Ashkelon By the first circumstance the Lord himselfe taking vengeance into his owne hands you may be remembred of a doctrine often commended to you in this and other Lectures It is proper to the Lord to execute vengeance vpon the wicked for their sinnes From all three circumstances of the punisher the punishment and the punished ioyntly considered we may take a profitable lesson We see that the cutting off of the inhabitants of Ashdod and of him that holdeth the Scepter from Ashkelon is the Lords proper worke The lesson which we learne from hence is No calamity or misery befalleth any one or whatsoeuer estate or degree by chance or at aduenture This doctrine I handled at large in my tenth Lecture The truth of it dependeth vpon this
vpon vs. All and euery of these true Christians will patiently vndergoe For they with their sharp-sighted eie of faith doe clearely see the Hand of God in euery of their molestations and in great contentment they take vp the words of patient Iob Chap. 2.10 Shall wee receiue good at the hand of God and not receiue euill Here let euery afflicted soule examine it selfe how it is affected with the affliction vnder which it groaneth If you esteeme of your afflictions as of God his fatherly chastisements and so endure them blessed are ye Of this blessednesse Saint Iames Chap. 1.12 doth assure you Blessed is the man that endureth tentation for when he is tried he shall receiue the crowne of life which the Lord hath promised to them that loue him Againe is it true Is there no safe being in City or Country from the hand of God when he is disposed to punish A second vse of this doctrine is to admonish vs that we labour aboue all things to obtaine Gods fauour and to abide in it so shall we be safe from the feare of euill Now for the obtaining of Gods fauour we must doe foure things We must 1. Humble our selues before God 2. Beleeue in Christ 3. Repent of our sinnes 4. Performe new obedience vnto God The time will not suffer me to enlarge these points Humiliation faith in Christ repentance and a new life these foure will be vnto you as Iacobs ladder was vnto the Angels Of that ladder you may reade Gen. 28.12 that it stood vpon the earth the top of it did reach to heauen and the Angells of God went vp it So may you by these foure Humiliation Faith Repentance and Newnesse of life as it were by so many steps and rounds of a ladder climbe vp to heauen Here you haue no continuing Citie you are but strangers and pilgrims on the earth your countrey is aboue the Celestiall Ierusalem there let your hearts be As for the afflictions vexations tribulation miseries and crosses wherewith this mortall life of yours is seasoned let them be your ioy They are sure pledges of Gods loue vnto you Euen so saith the Spirit Hebr. 12.6 Whom the Lord loueth he chastneth and he scourgeth euery sonne that he receiueth Thirdly is it true Is there no safe being in citie or countrie from the hand of God when he is disposed to punish A third vse of this doctrine is for the terrour of such as lie wallowing in the filthinesse of their sins Many there are wicked wretches who if God shall for a time deferre the punishments due vnto their sinnes are ready to thinke that God takes no notice of their sinnes These say in their heart there is no God Against these is made that challenge Psal 50.21 I hold my tongue and thâ—u thoughtest me like thy selfe I the Lord who see the secrets of all hearts I hold my tongue I did not by my iudgements punish thee for the wickednesse of thy steps I hold my tongue and thou thoughtest me like thy selfe thou thoughtest I tooke pleasure in wickednesse as thou doest but thou shalt finde and feele the contrary Strange are the effects wrought in the wicked by the mercies and long suffering of God thereby they grow worse and worse obdurate and hardned in their sinnes Yet let them be aduised for they day will come and it comes apace wherein they shall feele the heauinesse of that hand which here was turned against Ekron I will turne my hand to Ekron It followeth And the remnant of the Philistines shall perish The Philistines had their beginning from Casluchim a grand-childe of Chane the accursed issue of Noah as appeareth Gen. 10.14 They were seated in a part of the Land of Canaan the west part that which bordereth vpon the great Sea the Sea commonly called the Mediterranean Their Country was called by Ptolemee and others Palaestina and by the Greeks Phoenicia It was a part of that countrey which once was called Terra promissionis the Land of promise but now Terra Sancta the Holy Land The inhabitants in our Prophets time were professed enemies to Almighty God and his beloued Israel They thought themselues safe from ruine through the strength of their fiue Dukedomes Azzah Ashdod Ashkelon Gath and Ekron But vaine and foolish are the thoughts which possesse the wicked When the God of all truth shall giue his word for a matter shal man presume to doubt of the euent Here God sets his word vpon it that there shall be an vtter ouerthrow not onely of Azzah Ashdod Ashkelon and Ekron but of Gath also and all the villages belonging thereunto for the remnant of the Philistines shall perish saith the Lord God Ait Dominus Iehouth saith the Lord God This is the conclusion of this prophecie and it redoubleth its authoritie and credit Authoritie and credit sufficient it hath from its very front verse 6. Thus saith the Lord it is here redoubled saith the Lord God Saith the Lord God hath the Lord God said it and r 〈◊〉 23 19. shall he not doe it hath he spoken it and shall he not accomplish it The Lord Iehouâ—h the strength of Israel is not as man that he should lye not as the sonne of man that he should repent All his words yea all the titles of his words are Yea and Amen Å¿ Matth. 5.18 Heauen and earth shall perish before one iot or one tittle of his word shall escape vnfulfilled Dominus Iehouth the Lord hath said it that the remnant of the Philistines shall perish Out of doubt then must it come to passe And so is it The first blow which the Philistines receiued towards their ouerthrow after this prophecie was giuen them aboue three-score yeares after by Ezechius that good King of Iudah of whom the Prophet Esay Chap. 14.29 foretelleth the Philistines that he should be vnto them as a Cockatrice and a fiery â—â—ring Serpent This Ezechius smote the Philistines vnto Azzah and the coasts thereof from the watch-tower vnto the defensed Citie This is plaine 2 King 18.8 A second blow was giuen by Tartan one of the Captaines of Sennacherib or Sargon King of Assyria who came vp against Ashdod and tooke it This is plaine Esay 20.1 A third blow was giuen them by Pharaoh Neco and hee smote Azzah Ashkelon and other places This is it which the Prophet Ieremy saith Chap. 47.5 Baldnesse is come vpon Azzah Ashkelon is cut vp with the rest of their valleys In a word God hath from time to time raised vp his men of war in due time to extirpate and raze out the Philistines from the face of the earth that according to the tenour of this Prophecy there might be no remnant of them The remnant of the Philistines shall perish Here may we obserue a difference in Gods punishments he punisheth the reprobate and he punisheth his elect but differently the reprobate to their vtter excision and extirpation not so the elect For of them there is vpon the
tongue in the Vniuersitie of Paris is of opinion that the Amorite here and else-where is aboue all and for all mentioned because he of all was the most terrible the most mighty and the strongest The like is affirmed by Arias Montanus that learned Spaniard Amorrhaeum potissimùm appellat The Amorite he especially nameth because that Nation multitudine copijs atque potentiâ in multitude in forces and in power excelled all the rest of the Nations that were cast out before Israell Here then where the Lord hath sayd Yet destroyed I the Amorite in the Amorite we are to vnderstand also the rest of those seauen Nations which the Lord draue out from before Israel the Hittites the Girgasites and the Canaanites and the Perezzites and the Hivites and the Iebusites Seauen they were in number greater and mightier then Israell was All seauen were cast out by the Lord from before Israel and so much are we to vnderstand by this that the Lord here sayth Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them Before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint They well render the Hebrew which word for word is a faciè ipsorum from their face Mercerus sayth a conspectu eorum from their sight that is sayth he corum causâ ad eorum adventum for their sake or at their comming Albertus Magnus renders it à praesentia eorum from their presence Our English before them hits the sense The sense is God stroke such a terror into those seauen Nations the inhabitants of the land of Canaan that at the comming of the Israelites at the hearing of the name of Israel they vanished they fled away they forsooke their auncient habitations or else were suddenly slaine without much resistance Thus haue you the exposition of the first branch of this ninth verse which conteineth a generall touch of the ruine of the Amorites Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them The Israelites their vnthankefulnesse towards me is verie notorious yet haue I destroyed the Amorite before them Yet I the Lord their God who haue freed them from their bondage in Egypt and haue led them fortie yeares through the wildernesse I haue destroyed haue ouerthrowne haue driuen out haue brought to ruine The Amorite not onely the Amorites but also the rest of the Nations sixe other mightie Nations whose dwelling was in the land of Canaan all these haue I destroyed before them for their sake for Israels sake that Israel might without resistance take quiet possession of the land of Canaan the land that floweth with milke and honey The lesson which we may take from hence is this God is all in all either in the ouerthrow of his enemies or in the vpholding of his children For further proofe hereof we may haue recourse to the 15. chapter of the Booke of Exodus There Moses sings a song vnto the Lord a song of thankesgiuing wherein hee acknowledgeth the Lord to be all in all in the ouerthrow of his enemies Pharaoh and his host in the red Sea His acknowledgment is vers 6. Thy right hand O Lord is become glorious in power thy right hand O Lord hath dashed in peices the enemie In the greatnesse of thine excellencie thou hast ouerthrowne them thou sentest forth thy wrath which hath consumed them as stubble With the blast of thy nostrills the waters were gathered together the flouds stood vpright as an heape the depths were congealed in the heart of the Sea The enemie feared not to enter But thou Lord didst blow with thy wind the Sea couered them they sanke as lead in the mightie waters Who is like vnto thee O Lord Who is like thee God is all in all in the ouerthrow of his enemies He is also all in all in the vpholding of his children Moses in the same song auoucheth it vers 13. Thou Lord in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed Thou hast guided them in thy strength vnto thine holy habitation It was not their q Psal 44.3 owne sword that deliuered them neither did their owne arme saue them But the Lord He and his mercie He and his strength deliuered them God is all in all in vpholding of his children Is it thus dearely beloued Is God all in all in the ouerthrow of his enemies Then for the ouerthrow of that great Nauie called the inuincible Nauie the great Armada of Spaine which * This Sermon was preached A gust 27. 1615. twentie seauen yeares r Au. Ch. 1588. since threatned desolation to the inhabitants of this I le let God haue the glorie It was the right hand of the Lord not our vertue not our merits not our armes not our men of might but the right hand of the Lord it was that brought that great worke to passe Their ſ Exod. 15.4.5 chosen Captaines were drowned in the Sea the depth couered them they sanke into the bottome as a stone Some of them that were taken from the furie of the waues and were brought prisoners to the honourablest cittie in this land in their anguish of mind spared not to say t Letter to Mendoza pa. 17. that in all those fights which at Sea they saw Christ shewed himselfe a Lutheran Sure I am that Christ shewed himselfe to be little Englands u Psal 18.1 rocke and fortresse and strength and deliuerer Quid retribuemus What shall we render nay what can we render vnto the Lord for so great a deliuerance Let our song begin as the Psalme doth the 115. Psalme Non nobis Domine non nobis Not vnto vs Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glory for thy mercie and for thy truths sake With like affection recount we the deliuerance of our King and State from that infernall and hellish exployt of the powder treason The contriuers thereof I now name not What could they expect but vpon the least discouerie of so execrable an action to incurre an vniuersall detestation to haue all the hatred of the earth poured vpon them and theirs to be the outcasts of the Common wealth and the Maranathaes of the Church they and their names for euer to be an abhorring to all flesh Yet they so farre proceeded in that their Diabolicall machination that they were at the poynt to haue giuen the blow that blow that should haue beene the common ruine of vs all But God our God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greekes describe him Psal 9.9 A helper at opportunities in the needfull times of trouble when we were thus x Ioh. 4.35 albi ad messem white for their haruest readie to be cut downe by them then euen then did our God deliuer vs. Quid retribuemus What what shall we render nay what can we render vnto the Lord for so great a deliuerance Let our song be as before Non nobis Domine non nobis Not vnto vs Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glory for thy mercy and
almost lost our selues in these two wildernesses Etham and Shur We must make more hast through the rest I will not much more then name them The next wildernesse they came vnto was the wildernesse of l Num. 33.11 Sin Exod 16.1 After that they pitched in the wildernesse of m Vers 15. Sinai Exod. 19.1 From Sinai they came to the wildernes of Paran Num. 10.12 thence to the wildernesse of n Vers 36. Zin which is Kadesh Num. 20.1 and then to the wildernesse of o Vers 44. Moab Num. 21.11 Here at Ieabarim they finished their 38. iouraey They had foure more to make They soone made them and last of all they pitched in the plaines of Moab by Iordan nere Iericho Num. 33.48 You haue now heard of many wildernesses They are all conteined in the wildernesse mentioned in my text I led you through the wildernesse The wildernesse Not the wildernesse of Etham onely but the wildernesse of Shur too and the wildernesse of Sin and all other the wildernesses through which the Children of Israel trauailed in their way to the land of promise They were many wildernesses yet my text speaketh as of one I led you through the wildernesse So speaketh the Psalmist in that his remarkeable exhortation to giue thankes to God for particular mercies It is Psal 136.16 O giue thankes p Psal 136.1 vnto the Lord vnto the q Vers 2. God of Gods vnto the r Vers 3. Lord of Lords to him who led his people through the wildernesse So also he speaketh Psal 78.52 The Lord He guided his owne people in the wildernes like a flocke In both places you heare onely the sound of a wildernesse and yet were they wildernesses through which the Lord led and guided his people Israel Let it be our comfort God neuer forsakes his people When he hath led them through one wildernesse he will lead them through a second through a third through all He will neuer leaue them till he see them safely arriued in the place where they wish to be No expense of time can make him to relent If we shall need his protection for fortie yeares together for fortie yeares together we shall be sure of it Israel had it My text avowes it I led you fortie yeares through the wildernesse It is the third circumstance I noted in Gods protection of his people in the wildernesse the circumstance of Time Fortie yeares Fortie yeares were the people of Israel in the wildernesse From Egypt to the wildernesse of Sinai where their Å¿ Num. 33.15 Exod. 19.1 twelfth mansion was they came in seauen and fortie dayes There they continued almost a yeare From thence from the wildernesse of Sinai by many iourneys they came to mount t Num. 20.22 33.37 Hor where was their foure and thirtieth mansion in the wildernes of Zin or Cades In comming thither they spent nine and thirtie yeares There in mount Hor u Num. 20.23 33.38 Deut. 32.50 died Aaron their priest He died in the fortieth yeare after the Children of Israell were come out of the land of Egypt in the first day of the fift moneth Now had they but few iourneys to make they had but eyght to make all eyght with good successe they made in the remainder of that fortieth yeare and they pitched in the plaines of x Num. 33.48 22.1 Moab by Iordan neere Iericho where was their two and fortieth and their last mansion Well might that be their last mansion For now they had gotten the possession of the land of the Amorite which in my text is put for the end why they were brought vp out of the land of Egypt and were led fortie yeares through the wildernesse I brought you vp out of the land of Egypt and led you fortie yeares through the wildernesse To possesse the land of the Amorite HEre was the fulfilling of that promise which was long before made to Abraham The promise was first made to Abraham when from Haran he was come into the land of Canaan Gen. 12.7 Vnto thy seed will I giue this land It was renued vnto him after his returne from Egypt to the land of Canaan Gen. 13.15 All the land which thou seest to thee will I giue it and to thy seed for euer It was once more renued Gen. 15.18 Vnto thy y Gen 26.4 Deut. 34.4 seed haue I giuen this land from the riuer of Egypt vnto the great riuer the riuer Euphrates The z Gen. 15.19 Kenites and the Kenizites and the Kadmonites a Vers 20. and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaims b Vers 21. and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgasites and the Iebusites Ten sundry Nations are rehearsed whose countries are promised to the seed of Abraham Among them are the Amorites The Amorites countrey is by promise giuen to Abrahams seed and Abrahams seed in the posteritie of Iacob possessed it but some foure hundred and seauentie yeares after the promise From the promise to their going forth out of Egypt were foure hundred and thirtie yeares to which if you will adde their fortie yeares iourney in the wildernesse you haue the full number of foure hundred and seauentie yeares the space betweene the promise and the performance Abraham he beleeued the promise so many yeares before it was to take effect Great was his faith He leauing his owne countrey his kinred and his fathers house comes vnto a people who knew him not and he knew not them takes possession for that seed which he had not which in nature he was not like to haue of that land whereof hee should not haue one c Art 5.7 foote wherein his seed should not be setled for almost fiue hundred yeares after O the power of fayth It preuents time it makes future things as present If we be the true sons of Abraham and haue but one graine of his faith we haue alreadie the possession of our land of promise the celestiall Canaan though we soiourne here on earth as if we sought a countrey yet haue we it alreadie we haue it by fayth The seed of Abraham the children of Israel after their fortie yeares trauaile in the wildernesse got possession of the land of the Amorite which long before was promised vnto them It may teach vs thus much In whatsoeuer God promiseth he approueth himselfe most faithfull both in his abilitie and performances At the verie time prefixed and not before he vnchangeably performeth what he promised If so then when we are in any distresse and haue not speedie deliuerance according to our desires we must waite the Lords leasure and must expect with patience till the time come which is appointed by him for our ease and releife We must euer trust our God on his bare word we must do it with hope besides hope aboue hope against hope For the small matters of this life we must wholy relie vpon him How shall we hope to
Iudge with that he rose vp and tooke the Bible in one of his hands and struck it with the other we stand saith he before the face of this Iudge See now I am here I vse his owne words as they are set downe by Dauid Rungius in his description of the forenamed Colloquie Ecce adsum behold now I am here let the holy Spirit iudge me if he can by this Scripture let him condemne me if he can by Scripture the holy Spirit cannot iudge me by Scripture he cannot let him doe it if he can he cannot condemne me by Scripture Increpet te Deus Sathan Gretser we doubt not but that the Lord hath or will rebuke thee Dearely beloued in the Lord Schollers can tell you of Brontes Steropes Pyracmon Polyphemus and others of that rabble of Cyclops and Giants who made a head and banded themselues together to plucke Iupiter from out his throne Behold in this Iesuite Verè Cyclopicam audaciam as great impudency as euer was seen in any Cyclops face that a man by profession a Christian and among Popish Christians of the precise sect a sanctified Iesuite should challenge to a single combat God Almighty who would thinke it Some that were at the Colloquie at Worms An. 1557. haue often remembred in their common talke c Rung Colloq Ratisb Q. 2. a. a new insolent and vnheard of assertion maintained by the Papists Sacram Scripturam non esse vocem iudicis sed materiam litis that the holy Scripture is not a Iudges voiâ—e but rather the matter of strife and contention It was indeed a strange assertion and by a consâ—quent striking God himselfe the author of holy Scripture Yet you see it is by our modern Iesuits this day matched forasmuch as with their impiouâ— assertions touching holy Scripture they doe directly strike the holy Spirit It is an old saying Ex vngue Leonem A man may know a Lyon by his claw Surely let men of vnderstanding consider the audaciousnesse impudency and fury of railing with which those Iesuits beforenamed haue beene throughly replenished they must acknowledge and confesse that those Iesuits were guided by the Spirit of lyes and blasphemies You already see the readinesse of Popish Doctors to tread Scripture vnder foot and to doe it all the disgrace they can Yet giue mee leaue I beseech you by some instance to shew the same vnto you The instance which I make choise of is Gods soueraignety ouer the Kings and Kingdomes of this world q Hereof I entreated in a Sermon vpon Hos 10.7 Kings and Kingdomes are wholly and alone in the disposition of the Almighty A truth included within the generall doctrine commended by S. Paul to the Romans chap. 13.1 All powers that be are ordained of God acknowledged by Elihu Iob 34.24 God shall breake the mighty and set vp other in their stead expressed in the prayer of Daniel chap. 2.21 God taketh away Kings and setteth vp Kings proclaimed as in the Lords owne words Prou. 8.15 16. By me Kings reigne by me Princes Nobles and Iudges doe rule This truth hath 3. branches displayed in so many propositions by Lipsius in his r In Monitis Politicis politique aduertisements Lib. 1. c. 5. 1 Kings and Kingdomes are giuen by God 2 Kings and Kingdomes are taken away by God 3 Kings and Kingdomes are ordered ruled gouerned by God All three are further made good in the infallible euidence of the written word of God The first was Å¿ Regna à Deo reges dâ—ri Lipsius Mouit Polit. lib. 1. c. 5 p 24. Kings and Kingdomes are giuen by God Thus saith the Lord of Sauls successour 1 Sam. 16.1 I haue prouided me a King among the sonnes of Ischai and of the reuolt of the ten tribes in the rent of the kingdome of Israel 1 King 12.24 This thing is done by me and of the victories which Nabuchodonosor was to get ouer the King of Iudah and other his neighbour Kings the Kings of Edom of Moab of the Ammonites Trem. Ps 75.7 of Tyre of Zidon Ier. 27.6 I haue giuen all these lands into the hand of Nabuchodonosor the King of Babel my seruant It is true which we learne Psal 75.6 Aduancement is neither from the East nor from the West nor from the wildernesse Our God is iudge he alone aduanceth You see now it is plaine by holy Scripture that Kings and Kingdomes are giuen by God The second was t Regna à Deo Reges tolli Lips ib. pag 28. Kings and Kingdomes are taken away by God That Gods hand is likewise exercised in the remouall of Kings and translation of kingdomes it s well known as by the aboue-cited texts of Scripture so by diuine examples whereof I might make along recitall would I remember you out of Gen. 14. of the fall of those Kings deliuered into the hands of Abraham out of Exod. 14. and 15. of Pharaohs ouerthrow in the red sea out of Dan. 4. and 5 of Nabuchadnezzâ—r and Belshazzar his sonne dispossessed of their crownes and out of other places of the diuinely inspired word of like patterns It s plaine without any further proofe that Kings and Kingdomes are taken away by God The third was * Regna à Deo Reges tempâ—rari Lips Ibid. p. 34. Kings and Kingdomes are ordered ruled gouerned by God For proofe hereof I need no more but remember you of that which I recommended to you in the beginning of this Sermon euen of the wonderfull extent of Gods care and prouidence to the least bâ—sest things in this world as I said to a handfull of meale to a cruise of oile in a poore widowes house to the falling of sparrowes to the ground to the feeding of the birds of the aire to the caluing of hindes to the clothing of the grasse of the field to the numbring of the haires of our heads to the trickling of teares down our cheeks Shall God care for these vile and base things and shall he not much more order rule and gouerne Kings and kingdomes Now beloued in the Lord you see by the euidence of holy Scripture that Kings and kingdomes are wholy and alone in the disposition of the Almighty Giue care I beseech you while I shew you how this doctrine and the holy word of God whereon it is grounded is in popish religion neglected disgraced troden vnder foot Romes chiefest champion Cardinall Bellarmine in his fifth booke De Rom. Pontif. cap. 7. doth exempt Kings and kingdomes from the disposition of the Lord of heauen notwithstanding the eternall truth in the holy Scriptures This he doth in foure positions 1. Å¿ Bellarm. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 5. cap. 7. §. Probatur Tenentur Christiani non patisuperse Regem non Christianum si ille conetur auertere populum à fide Princes if they goe about auertere populum à fide to auert their people from the faith the faith of the Church of Rome then by the consent of
fruitfull land God turneth into barrennes for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein This one place had I troubled you with no more would haue been a pregnant and sufficient proofe of my propounded doctrine What fruit can you looke for out of barrennesse And by this one place you see that God turneth a fruitfull land into barrennesse for the wâ—ckednesse of them that dwel therein You must then acknowledge the lesson commended vnto you to be good and true namely that for the sinnes of a people God will make their Carmel to wither that for the sinnes of a people God will make best grounds to yeeld them little or no profit Now let vs see what vse we may make of this doctrine for our further instructions A first vse is to admonish such as doe dwell in delectable pleasant well watred and fruitfull places that they boast not ouermuch of their fertile and sweet possessions since there is no land so dâ—lectable to the eie or fruitfull to the purse but it may be turned into a wildernesse If for our sinnes God shall come against vs in the fiercenesse of his wrath we shall be as g Esay 1.9 Sodom and like vnto Gomorah our land shall burne with brimstone and h Deut. 29.23 salt it shall not be sowen nor shall bring forth neither shall any grasse grow therein O Lord deale not with vs after our sinnes neither reward vs according to our iniquities A second vse is to warne rich men the richer sort among you that weighing rightly the power of Almighty God by which he maketh the top of Carmel to wither turneth your fruitfull fields into barrennesse you will beware of insolencie and containe your selues in modestie and submission Know this there is no man hath a foot of ground or neuer so small a possession to dwell in but he hath it at Gods hand and vpon this condition that he keep his statutes and commandements Which if you disobey contemne and cast behinde you assure your selues your riches are none of yours you are not the right owners of them but meere vsurpers The Lord of hoasts will send an hoast of enemies against you Art thou rich in mony thou art in danger of theeues art thou plentifull in hâ—ushâ—ld stuffe thou are in danger of fire hast thou much gold the rust doth venime it and thee is thine apparell gorgious the moth will eat it hast thou store of cattell rottennesse may coÌ„sume them is thy maintenance by husbandrie blastings and mildewes will hinder thee the i â—â—câ— 1. â— palmer worm will eat thy fruits that which the palmer worme shall leaue the grashâ—pper shall eat that which the grashopper shall leaue the canker worme shall eat and that which the canker worme shall leaue the caterpiller shall eat So many and many more enemies can the Lord of hoasts send to fight against you if you hate to be reformed and cast his commandements behind you A third and the last vse of my propounded doctrine is to stirre vp my selfe and all you that heare me this day gratefully and thankfully to recount the mercifulnesse patience and long sufferance of our God Our sinnes haue deserued it at his hands that hee should make the top of our Carmel to wither that he should make our best grounds to yeeld vs little or no profit that he should smite vs with blasting and mildew that hee should make the Heauen ouer our head brasse and the Earth vnder vs yron that insteed of raine hee should giue vs aust and ashes that he should take from vs his corne his wine his wool his flax and whatsoeuer good thing else hee hath lent vs for our vse All this and much more haue our sinnes deserued and yet God withholdeth from vs his reuenging hand O the depth of the riches of the mercifulnesse patience and long sufferance of our God Yet stay ye soâ—nâ—s of Belial and imps of Hell yee wicked ones who serue vnder Satans Banner Gods mercifulnesse patience and long sufferance is to you very small advantage S. Basil treating vpon the words of the couetous rich man Luk. 12.18 those words I will pull downe my barnes and build greater tels you that God his goodnesse extended to you in your fields or elsewhere bringeth vpon you in the end the greater punishment True great Basil God his iustice goeth on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slowly and in order Long before thy time was this lesson learned in Natures schoole k Lib. 1. c. 1. Valerius Maximus who liued vnder Tiberius Caesar recounting some of the sacrileges of Dionysius clearely carried with frompes and mockeries saith Lento gradu ad vindictam sui diuina procedit ira the wrath of God proceedeth to the execution of vengeance with a remisse slow pace but euermore as he well addeth tarditatem supplicij grauitate compensat it recompenseth the slacknesse of punishment with the heauinesse thereof I will not weary your religious eares with prophane though fit sentences for this argument out of l Lib. 3. od 2. Raro antecedentem scelestum Deseruit pede poena claudo Horace m Lib. 1. cleg 9. Ah miser et si quis primo perjuria celat Sera tamen tacitis poena venit pedibus Tibullus n Lib. 3. Quis enim laesos impune putaret Esse deos Lucan o Lib. deijs qui tardè a numine corripiuntur Plutarch nor with those well knowne prouerbs Dij lenti sed certi vindices Dij lane os pedes habent Tacito pede and Cunctabundus naturâ Deus From Natures schoole I recall my selfe to the God of Nature who though in his word of eternal truth he proclaimeth himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a p Exod. 34.6 God slow to anger and is for such acknowledged by the neuer fayling testifications and reports of diuinely inspired q Nehem. 9.17 Psal 86.15 Psal 103.8 145.8 Rom. 2 4. 2. Pet. 3.9 Prophets and Apostles is notwithstanding in the same word noted to r Exod 20.6 34.7 Deut. 5.9 Ierem. 32.18 recompense the iniquity of the Fathers into the bosome of their children after them It must stand euer good Quo tardius eo grauius that the longer God is before hee punisheth hee punisheth so much the more grieuously Though for a time he bee pleased to hold his tongue and to walke as with woollen feet yet at length shall we or our posteritie find by wofull experience that he hath a rod of yron ro rule vs yea and to breake vs in peeces like potters vessels Wherefore dearely beloued in the Lord while God is pleased to withhold from vs his owne hand of Iustice to stretch ouer vs his other of Mercy to the blessing of vs in our fields in our cattle in our store let vs not be wedded to the hardnesse of our owne hearts let vs not dwell in our old sinnes nor heape new vpon them lest so we treasure vp vnto our selues wrath
Captaine and Iudge of Israel Iephte when he had iudged Israel six yeares as Iudg. 12.7 Against this city Hoseah prophesieth cap. 6.8 Gilead is a city of them that worke iniquity and is polluted with bloud Gilead or Galaad or Galeed is also a region or country called Dâ—ut 34 1. The land of Gilead possessed by the Reubenites Gadites and halfe the tribe of Manasseh as Num. 32.33 If Gilead the city be the Gilead in my text it is a figure the figure Synecdoche a part for the whole one city the Metropolitane city for the whole country If the land of Gilead bee the Gilead in my text it is a figure too the figure Metonymia the land of Gilead for the inhabitants thereof The inhabitants of the land of Gilead were Gods owne people his people Israel of the tribes of Reuben Gad and Manasseh against whom the Syrians of Damascus did so rage as that they are noted in my text to haue threshed them with threshing instruments of iron These threshing instruments are not in vse among vs. Yet will I as well as I may out of the ancient and learned describe them to you One of the Hebrew Doctors c Mercer Pagnin iâ— Lâ—â—â—t◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 R. Dauid Kimchi makes them to be planks of wood to the which on the nether side are fastned little stones to part the wheat from the huske and chaffe which cannot be the threshing instruments in this place because these were of iron Saint Hierome saith they were a kinde of waines or carts with wheeles of iron and toothed to beat out corne from the huske and to bray or bruise straw and stubble to be meat for cattle when hay is scarce Nicolaus de Lyrâ ioyneth with Saint Hierome in opinion d Iunius Some doe take these instruments to bee * Tribalis ferreis iron flailes or carres or corne carts or some such like instrument of old time in vse for the threshing out of corne Of this opinion Iunius by his translation seemeth to be and Caluin disallowes it not Here some doe â—â—â—er 〈◊〉 â—yâ—â—â—rakâ—◠〈◊〉 Gualtâ—â— â—â—â—re e Rastris ferreis f Trahis ferreis dreyes or sleddes of yron as Marinus in his Arca Noâ— â—â—ure g Rotis ferreis wheeles of yron as Theodotio and Symmachus some h Serris ferreis sawes of yron as the Septuagint and Caluin some * Auec herses de ser harrowes of yron as the French translation Whatsoeuer were the threshing instrumeÌ„ts in this place whether waines or carts or carres or dreys or sleds of yron or wheeles of yron or flailes of yron or rakes of yron or harrowes of yron or sawes of yron it is out of doubt that the holy Spirit by this kind of speech they threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of yron noteth the extreme cruelty practised by the Syrians against the people of God the Gileadites the Israelites of the tribes of Reuben Gad and Manasseh They threshed Gilead Winckleman here noteth a Metaphore or translation put by the holy Spirit to designe or signifie the notorious cruelty of the Syrian Kings vpon the Gileadites but I take it to be a proper speech of a true thing indeed acted by Hazael King of Syria against the Gileadites according to the word of God which came to Elizeus the Prophet touching Hazael 2 King 8.12 where Elizeus weeping thus speaketh vnto Hazael I know the euill that thou shalt doe vnto the children of Israel their strong cities shalt thou set on fire their young men shalt thou slay with the sword thou shalt dash their infants against the stones and rent in peeces their women with child But you will say what is this to the Gileadites I answer very much as you may see 2 King 10.33 where Hazael is said to smite the Israelites in all the coasts of Israel from Iordan Eastward euen all the land of Gilead the Gaditeâ— the Reubenits and them that were of Manasseh from Aroer which is by the riuer Arnon and Gilead and Bashan All these regions did Kng Hazael grieuously torment and bring to much woe and miserie but specially the Gileadites who therefore are twise mentioned in the fore-cited conquest of Hazael The Gileadites did Hazaell King of Aram destroy and make like dust beaten to powder 2 King 13.7 They threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of yron The like torments haue beene inflicted with the good approbation of Almightie God by King Dauid vpon the Ammonites 2. Sam. 12.31 where you shall find that King Dauid after his victorie ouer Rabbah a citie of the Ammonites carried away the Inhabitants that were therein and put them vnder sawes and vnder yron harrowes and vnder axes of yron and cast them into the tile kilne Thus did Dauid guided by Gods owne Spirit deale with the Ammonites His course was warrantable because hee was guided by Gods good Spirit whereof Hazael being destitute could not but grieuously offend God by threshing Gilead with threshing instruments of yron Dauid Gods friend dealt so with the Ammonites a people without God whereas Hazael Gods enemie dealt so with the Gileadites the people of God He threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of yron A course that God can bee content shall be taken with Moab Esai 25.10 Moab shall be threshed as straw is threshed but that his owne people Israel or any part of them as the Gileadites be thus vsed God likes it not Witnesse my text where the Lord protesteth that he will not turne Damascus that is that he will not recall the Syrians from their errour into the right way that he wil not bring them againe into his fauour that he wil leaue them to themselues because they haue threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of yron Now let vs see what lessons may bee taken from hence for our further instruction and meditation Gods dislike with Damascus for threshing Gilead with threshing instruments of yron yeeldeth vs this lesson God is neuer well pleased with too much crueltie This truth will well appeare vnto vs if we doe but consider how God hath euermore rewarded cruelty The cruell tyrant Adonibezek did cut off the thumbes and great toes of seuenty Kings and caused them to gather the crums vnder his table Iudg. 1.7 but what was his reward As he had done to those captiue Kings so did God doe to him againe The Israelites vnder the leading of their captaine Iudah tooke Adonibezek prisoner and cut off the thumbes of his hands and great toes of his feet verse the 6. Agag King of the Amalekites by his sword had made many a woman childlesse 1 Sam. 15.33 but what was his reward You may see in the same verse what Samuel said and did vnto him Samuel said As thy sword hath made women childlesse so shall thy mother be childlesse among other women and Samuel hewed Agag in peeces before the Lord in Gilgal The Babylonians were wonderfull cruell and hard hearted against the inhabitants of Ierusalem they
The people of Aram Aram registred Gen. 10.22 to be one of the sons of Sem was the father author or founder of the Aramites or Syrians a Tremellius Willet in Genes 10.22 whereof it is that the Scythians after their returne out of Asia and Syria were called Aramei Aramites Plin. lib. 6. cap. 17. This country of Aram or Syria was diuided into sundry regions 2 Sam. 10.8 You may read of Aram Soba Aram Rehob Aram Ishtob and Aram Maacah from which prouinces there went a multitude of Aramites to aid the Ammonites in their warre against King Dauid The successe of their expedition is recorded vers the 18. Dauid destroyed seuen hundred chariots of the Aramites and forty thousand horsemen So let them all perish who make head and band themselues together against the Lords annointed 2 Sam. 8.6 You may read of Aram of Damascus out of which part there went a great multitude to succour Hadadezar King of Soba against Dauid Their successe is recorded in the same place Dauid slew of the Aramites two and twentie thousand men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let them all likewise perish who make head and band themselues together against the Lords anoynted 1 Chron. 19.6 You may read of Aram Naharaim which is by interpretation Aram of the riuers that is Aram lying betweene the two great riuers Euphrates and Tigris commonly knowne by the name of b Bâ—rtrâ—m Comparat Gram. Hebr. Aram. in Praesat Mesopotamia And these Syrians gaue aid vnto the Ammonites against Dauid and were partakers in their ouerthrow Gen. 28.5 You may read of Padan Aram whither the Patriarch Iacob was by his father Isaac sent to make choice of his wife of the daughters of Laban Tremellius and Iunius in their note vpon Gen. 25.20 doe make this Padan-Aram to bee a part of Mesopotamia that part which is called by Ptolomee Ancobaritis Thus doth the holy spirit in the sacred Scriptures describe vnto vs the country of Aram in its parts Aram Soba Aram Rehob Aram Ishtob Aram Maacah Aram of Damascus Aram Naharaim and Padan Aram. Hâ—re Aram put without any adiunct to limit it to any one region may betoken all Syria diuided by our Prophet Amos in this one verse into three parts vnder the three names of Damascus Bikeath-Auen and Beth-eden as Tremellius and Iunius haue noted vnderstanding by Damascus the country adioyning the whole coast of Decapolis by Bikeath-Auen the country called Chamatha which way Syria bordereth vpon Arabia surnamed the Desart by Beth-eden the whole country of Coelesyria wherein stood the city Eden The people that is persons of all sorts not only the ruder multitude but the noble also the word is generall and containeth all Shall goe into captiuity They shall be carried away from their natiue country into a strange land in slauery and bondage Vnto Kir not vnto Cyrene c Ribera a noble city in that part of Africa which is called Pentapolis the natiue country of d Arias Montanus Callimachus the poet and Eratosthenes the historian as e Apud Drusium Ionathan and Symmachus and S. Hierome doe seeme to vnderstand and Eusebius and the author of the ordinary glosse and Winckleman doe expresly affirme but vnto Kir a city in the seigniories or dominions of the king of Assyria as the Hebrewes and best approued expositors doe auouch Tremellius and Iunius vpon the 2 Kings 16.9 doe vnderstand by this Kir that part of Media which from this captiuity was called Syromedia It was named Kir that is by interpretation a wall because it was round about compassed with the hil Zagrus as with a wall This deportation and captiuity of the Syrians was foretold by our Prophet f Anno regni Oziae 23. almost fifty yeares before it was fulfilled It was fulfilled in the dayes of Ahaz King of Iudah who sent messengers to Tiglath Pileser King of Assyria for helpe Tiglath Pileser consented vnto him went vp against Damascus tooke it slew Rezin King of Aram and curried away captiue the people of Aram into Kir Thus is the story expresly deliuered 2 King 16. Thus farre the exposition of the words The people not only the ruder multitude but the nobles also of Aram not of Damascus onely but of all Syria shall goe into captiuity shall bee carried away captiue by Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria vnto Kir a part of Media This accordingly came to passe For it could no otherwise be the Lord true in all his promises and threatnings whose words are yea and Amen he hath said it The people of Aram shall goe into captiuity vnto Kir saith the Lord. Now to the notes of instruction Here must I commend vnto you as I haue done out of the precedent clauses three circumstances the punisher the punished the punishment 1 The punisher the Lord by his instrument Tiglath-Pileser King of Assyria 2 The punished the Aramites or Syrians of all sorts the ruder and the noble 3 The punishment a deportation or carrying into captiuity This third circumstance is amplified by the place Their captiuity bondage and slauery was to be in an vnknowne strange and farre country Kir in Media From the first circumstance of the punisher the Lord of hosts imploying in his seruice the King of Assyria for the carrying away of the Aramites or Syrians into captiuity we are put in minde of a well knowne truth in diuinity Almighty God in his gouernment of the world worketh ordinarily by meanes or second causes I say ordinarily because extraordinarily he worketh sometime without meanes sometime against meanes Ordinarily he worketh by meanes And they are of two sorts Definite such as of their naturall and internall principles doe of necessity produce some certaine effects So the fire burneth the water drowneth Indefinite such as are free and accidentall agents hauing in themselues freedome of will to doe or not to doe In this ranke you may place Iosephs brethren at what time they sold him to the Ismaelites Gen. 37.28 they sold him not of necessity they might haue done otherwise In this ranke you may place Shimei for his carriage towards King Dauid 2 Sam. 16.6 His throwing of stones at the King and railing vpon him was not of necessitie he might haue done otherwise And the King of Assyria carried into captiuitie this people of Aram not of necessity hee might haue left vnto them their natiue country lands and possessions All these fire water Iosephs brethren rayling Shimei the King of Assyria and whatsoeuer else like these meanes or second causes definite or indefinite necessary or contingent are but instruments by which Almighty God in his gouernment of the world worketh ordinarily God laid waste Sodome Gomorrah and their sister Cities he did it by fire Gen. 19.24 God destroyed euery thing that was vpon the earth from man to beast to the creeping thing and to the fowle of the heauen onely was Noah saued and they that were with him in the Arke the rest he destroyed by water
the Aegyptians The Aegyptians they were but the weapons of Gods wrath wherewith he afflicted his people they were Gods weapons were they therefore to escape vnpunished No. Witnesse those ten great plagues which at length God wrought vpon them and their fearefull ouerthrow in the red sea at large set downe in the booke of Exodus from the seuenth Chapter to the end of the fourteenth This was it which God said vnto Abraham Gen. 15.13 14. Know for a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a Land that is not theirs foure hundred yeares and shall serue them and they shall intreat them euill notwithstanding the Nation whom they shall serue will I iudge Ahab the most wicked of the Kings of Israel who sold himselfe to worke wickednesse in the sight of the Lord and his accursed wife Iezebel were Gods instruments to afflict Naboth with the losse of his life and Vineyard Ahab and Iezebel were Gods instruments Were they therefore to escape vnpunished No. Witnesse both their ends the end of Ahab recorded 1 King 22 38. In the place where dogges licked the bloud of Naboth did dogges licke the bloud of Ahab also and the end of Iezabel registred the 2 Kings 9.35 Shee was eaten vp with dogges all sauing her skull her feet and the palmes of her hands It was a part of Daniel his afflictions to be cast into the den of Lions His accusers vnto Darius were the instruments of his affliction These his accusers were the Lords instruments for this businesse Were they therefore to escape vnpunished No. Their fearefull end is set downe Dan. 6.24 By the Commandement of King Darius they with their wiues and children were cast into the den of Lions the Lions had the mastery of them and brake all their bones in peeces ere euer they came to the ground of the den The time will not suffer me to recall to your remembrances all the iudgements of God of this qualitie written downe in the Register of Gods workes his holy Word how and what he rendred to g Ester 7.10 Haman to h 2 Kings 19.35 37. Sennacherib to i Ierem. 36.29 Ioachim to the k Ierem. 49.2 Ammonites to the l Ierem. 49.9 51.20 Chaldeans to the m Ezech. 35.2 Idumeans and other wicked worldlings for their hard measure offered to his children though they were therein his owne instruments The afore-mentioned instances of the Aegyptians of Ahab and his wife Iezebel and of Daniel his accusers may serue for the declaration of my propounded doctrine Though the Lord doe vse his enemies as instruments to correct his owne seruants and children yet will he in his due time ouerthrow those his enemies with a large measure of his iudgements The reason hereof is because Gods iustice cannot let them escape vnpunished Saint Paul expresseth it 2 Thess 1.6 It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you Let this be our comfort whensoeuer the wicked shall rage against vs. For hereby are we assured when the Lord shall shew himselfe from heauen with his mightie Angells in flaming fire that then to the wicked whose behauiour towards the godly is proud and despiteous he will render vengeance and punish them with euerlasting perdition Saint Peter to make vs stedfast in this comfort disputeth this point Ep. 1. chap. 4.17 The point he proueth by an argument drawne à minori inferring from a truth to carnall mens vnderstanding lesse probable a truth of greater probabilitie Iudgement saith he beginneth at the house of God If it first begin at vs what shall be the end of them which obey not the Gospell of God And if the righteous scarsly be saued where shall the vngodly and the sinner appeare Our Sauiours words Luk. 23.31 doe containe a like argument If they doe these things to a greene tree what shall he done to the dry To like purpose in Ierem. 25.29 saith the Lord of Hoasts Loe I begin to plague the city where my name is called vpon and shall you goe free Yee shall not goe free Hitherto I referre also one other text Esai 10.12 where it is said that God when he hath done and dispatched all his worke vpon Mount Sion will visit the fruit of the proud heart of the King of Assyria the meaning of the place is that God when he hath sufficiently chastised and corrected those of his owne house his beloued children will turne his sword against the scorners of his Maiestie When God hath serued his owne turne by the wicked then comes their turne also howsoeuer for a while they flourish in hope to escape Gods hand and to abide vnpunished yet will God in due time well enough finde them out to pay them double The vses of this doctrine I can but point at One is to admonish vs that we spite not any of the wicked who now doe liue in rest because their turne to be punished must come and faile not The further it is put off from them the heauier in the end it will fall vpon them A second vse is to teach vs patience in afflictions for as much as God will shortly cause the cup to passe from vs to our aduersaries But say he will not Yet neuerthelesse are we to possesse our soules in patience reioycing and giuing thankes to God who hath made vs worthy not only to beleeue in him but also to suffer for his sake For we haue learned Act. 14.22 That through many afflictions we must enter into the kingdome of God c. The Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs which were not only reuiled and scourged but also beheaded cut in peeces drowned in water consumed in fire by other tyrannicall deuices cruelly put to death they all by this way receiued the manifest token of their happy and blessed estate and entred into the kingdome of God And we vndoubtedly know 2 Cor. 5.1 Tâ—at if our earthly house of this tabernacle be destroyed we haue a building of God an house not made with hands but eternall in the heauens Thus farre of my second circumstance the circumstance of the punished the Aramites professed enemies vnto God yet by him employed in the correction of his owne children the Israelites are here themselues punished My doctrine was Though the Lord doe vse his enemies as instruments to correct his owne seruants and children yet will be in due time ouerthrow those his enemies with a large measure of his iudgements The third circumstance is the punishment a going into captiuity amplified by the place This captiuitie bondage and slauery was to be in an vnknowne strange and a farre countrey Kir in Media The people of Aram shall goe into captiuitie vnto Kir The doctrine is For the sinne of a Land God oftentimes sendeth away the inhabitants into captiuitie Captiuitie to be an effect or punishment of sinne King Salomon in his prayer made to the Lord at his consecration or dedication of the Temple 1 King 8.46
the sixt commandement wherein you are forbidden to doe murther Wherefore beloued in the Lord put you on the tender bowels of mercy and compassion let cruelty be farre from you My exhortation vnto you and conclusion of this point shall be in the words of S. Paul Coloss 3.12 13. Now as the elect of God holy and beloued put on tender mercy kindnesse humblenesse of minde meeknesse long suffering forbearing one another and forgiuing one another if any man haue a quarrell to another as Christ forgaue you euen so doe yee These words of my text They haue ript vp women with childe of Gilead doe yeeld vs another profitable doctrine They that is the children of Ammon professed enemies to God and godlinesse haue raged against the Gileadites Iacobs posterity the lot and portion of Gods inheritance euen to the ripping vp of their women with childe The doctrine is God often humbleth his chosen children vnder the rod of the wicked This truth appeareth in Lot sore pressed vpon by the Sodomites Gen. 19.9 in the Israelites hardly dealt with by the Egyptians Exod. 1.11 in the seuenty brethren sonnes of Ierubbaal persecuted by Abimelech most of them to the death Iudg. 9.5 in Ieremie twice euill intreated first beaten and put in the stockes by Pashure Ierem. 20.2 and a second time beaten and imprisoned by Zedechias his Nobles chap. 37.15 in the three children cast into the fiery furnace by Nabuchodonosor Dan. 3.21 Many like examples might bee extracted out of Gods holy reg ster for proofe of this point which also may be made further to appeare vnto you in those bloudy persecutions after Christ his death by the Roman Emperours who deuised strange torments to keepe downe religion and religious professours men and women They plucked off their skinnes quicke they beared out their eyes with wimbles they broyled them aliue on gredirons they scalded them in boyling liquors they enclosed them in barrels through which great nailes were driuen and therein they tumbled them downe mountaines till their owne bloud so cruelly drawne out had stifled and choaked them in the barrels womens brests were seared off with burning irons their bodies were rent and their ioynts racked Sundry other and as strange kindes of torments were endured by the faithfull in the time of the ten first persecutions in the primitiue Church This is it which S. Peter hath Epist 1. chap. 4. vers 17. The time is come that iudgement must begin at the house of God Yet let not the faithfull hereat be discouraged It is for their good Iob an vpright and a iust man one that feared God and eschewed euill vpon his experience of the afflictions which he endured vnder the rod of Gods correction chap. 5.17 saith Behold blessed is the man whom God correcteth therfore refuse not thou the chastening of the Almighty For he maketh the wound and bindeth it vp he smiteth and his hands make whole And thus from my doctrine I proceed to the vses I will but point at them Is it true beloued Doth God often humble his chosen children vnder the rod of the wicked It may first shew vs how great Gods anger is for sinne that he punisheth it so seuerely euen in his dearest children and thereby may worke in vs a loathing hatred and detestation of sinne Neuer more need than now to smite our brests and pray with the Publicane O God be mercifull vnto vs sinners Secondly it may teach vs not to measure the fauour of God towards our selues or others by the aduersities or crosses of this life Here we see that the women of Gilead of the race of Israel Gods owne lot and inheritance were most barbarously and cruelly ript vp by the Ammonites Yet are we not to doubt but that Gods fauour was great towards them euen in this seuere punishment Thirdly it may make vs powre out our soules in thankfulnesse before Almighty God for our present estate and condition It is not with vs as in the dayes of Gilead wee are not threshed with threshing instruments of iron our women with childe are not ript vp Our daies are the daies of peace our King is a King of peace Peace is in our ports peace in all our borders and peace within our wals l Psal 144.12 Our sonnes doe grow vp as yâ—ung plants our daughters are as the polished corners of the temple Our garners are full and plenteous with all manner of store Our sheepe bring forth thousands and ten thousands Our oxen are strong to labour Here is no inuasion no leading into captiuitie no complaining in our streets Are not the people happy that are in such a case Yes saith the Psalmist Psal 144.15 Happy are the people that are in such a case The case you see is ours The God of peace which maketh an m Psal 46.10 end of warre in all the world and breaketh the bow and knappeth the speares asunder and burneth the chariots with fire he doth now protect vs from warre and slaughter Quid rependemus What shall we render vnto the Lord for all his benefits towards vs We will take the cup of saluation and praise his holy name O our soules praise the Lord for hee onely maketh vs to dwell in safetie Thus farre of the cruell fact of the Ammonites in ripping vp the women with childe of Gilead This their fact is amplified by the end wherefore they did it They haue ript vp the women with childe of Gilead that they might enlarge their border That they might enlarge their border What could such crueltie against innocent and harmelesse women further them to the attaining of such an end Verie much For hereby it might come to passe that there should not be any off-spring of the Gileadites to inherit and possâ—sse the land so might the land without any resistance become the possession of the Ammonites This is by a propheticall contestation touched Ier. 49.1 Vnto the children of Ammon thus saith the Lord Hath Israel no sonnes or hath he no heires Why then hâ—th their King possessed Gad and his people dwelt in his Cities So might this our Prophet Amos here contest and make complaint Hath Gilead no sonnes Hath Gilead no heires Why then haue the Ammonites possessed Gilead Why haue they dwelt in the cities of Gilead The answer is plaine out of my Text The Ammonites haue ript vp the womâ—n with childe of Gilead they haue left them no sonnes no heires And so they possessed the land of Gilead so haue they enlarged their borders Wee see now the meaning of our Prophet He obiecteth to the Ammonites not only that they did cruelly rip vp the women with childe in Gilead but also that they did it for this end that they might enlarge their borders The Doctrine is That nation which is not content with her owne borders but inuadeth her neighbour countries sinneth grieuously The Ethnickes of old taught but in Natures schoole did hold it for a wicked act detestable and inexpiable to
Let vs rather make our humble conâ—ession with King Nabuchodonosor Dan. 4.34 35. that the Most High liueth for euer that his power is an euerlasting power and his Kingdome from generation to generation that all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing to him that according to his will he worketh in the armie of Heauen and in the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand nor say vnto him what doest thou None can stay his hand This is it which before I noted namely that It is neither care nor policie that can stay Gods reuengefull hand when hee bringeth fire in it as here it is threatned vnto Rabbah I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah Thus farre by occasion of my first Doctrine which was It is not the greatnes of a citie that can be a safeguard vnto it if Gods vnappeasable wrath breake out against it for its sins And it was grounded vpon these words I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah It is further added of this fire that it shall deuoure the palaces of Râ—bbah Which branch repeated in each of the precedent prophecies as vers 4 7 10 12. hath formerly yeelded vs this Doctrine God depriueth vs of a great blessing when he taketh from vs our dwelling houses This truth is experimentally made good vnto vs by the great commoditie or contentment that commeth to euerie one of vs by our dwelling houses The vse whereof is to teach vs 1. To be humbled before Almightie God whensoeuer it shall please him by water by fire by wind by lightning by thunder by earthquakes or otherwise to ouerthrow our dwelling houses 2. Since we peaceably enioy our dwelling houses to vse them for the furtherance of Gods glory 3. To render all hearty thankes vnto Almighty God for the comfortable vse we haue of our dwelling-houses Thus farre of the commination or denuntiation of iudgement as it is set downe in generall The speciall circumstances whereby it is further notified or illustrated doe concerne partly the punishment and partly the punished Concerning the punishment it is full of terrour and speedy First full of terrour in these words With shouting in the day of battell With shouting in classico saith Brentius cum clangore saith Drusius that is with the sound or noise of Trumpets The Septuagint doe reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vulgar Latine in vlulatu Mercer cum vociferatione Gualter cum clamore Caluin cum clamore vel Iubilo that is with a cry with a great cry with a vociferation with a shout such as souldiers doe make when on a sudden they surprise a Citie In the day of battell in die belli The like phrase we haue Psal 78.9 where it is said of the children of Ephraim that being armed and shooting with the bow they turned backe in die belli in the day of battell Dauid confesseth Psal 140.7 O Lord God the strength of my saluation thou hast couered my head in die belli in the day of battell Salomon saith Prou. 21.31 The horse is prepared in diem belli against the day of battell So here the Lord threatneth against Rabbah a shouting mâ—â—ie belli in the day of battell This day of battell is that day of warre and time of trouble mentioned by Iob chap. 38.23 We see now the purpose of our Prophet in vsing these words With shouting in the day of battell It is to proclaime warre against Rabbah the chiefe citie of the Ammonites and consâ—quently against their whole kingdome This proclamation is more plainly deliuered Ierem. 49.2 Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will cause a noise of warre to be heard in Rabbah of the Ammonites and it shall be a desolate heape and her daughters shall be burnt with fire From this proclamation of warre made by our Prophet Amos as in the Lords owne words saying I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah and it shall deuoure the palaces thereof with shouting in the day of battell wee may take this lesson God sendeth warre vpon a Land for the sinnes of a people For proofe of this truth let vs looke into the word of truth In the 26. of Leuit. vers 25. thus saith the Lord vnto Israel If yee walke stubbornly against me and will not obey me then I will send a sword vpon you that shall auenge the quarrell of my couenant And Ierem. 5.15 vnto the house of Israel thus saith the Lord Loe I will bring a Nation vpon you from farre You heare the Lord speaking in his owne person I will send I will bring as here I will kindle Will you any other witnesse Then heare what Moses telleth the Israelites Deut. 28.49 The Lord shall bring a nation vpon you from farre from the end of the world flying as an Eagle a nation whose tongue thou shalt not vnderstand a nation of a fierce countenance which will not regard the person of the old nor haue compassion on the young the same shall eat the fruit of thy cattell and the fruit of thy land vntill thou be destroyed and he shall leaue thee neither wheat nor wine nor oile nor the increase of thy kine nor the flockes of thy sheepe vntill he haue brought thee to nought By this speech of Moses we plainly see that warre and all the euills of warre are from the Lord that warre is r Cominaeus Hist lib. 1. cap. 3. one of the accomplishments of Gods iudgements and that it is sent by God vpon a Land for the sinnes of the people as my doctrine goeth Let vs now make some vse of it Is it true beloued Doth God send warre vpon a Land for the sinnes of a people How then can we looke that the happy peace which we now enioy should be continued among vs sith by our daily sinning wee prouoke Almightie God vnto displeasure Let the consideration hereof lead vs to repentance Repentance the gift of God the ioy of Angels the salue of sinnes the hauen of sinners let vs possesse it in our hearts The Angels of heauen need it not because they sinne not the Deuills in Hell care not for it for their iudgement is sealed It only appertaineth to the sonnes of men and therefore let vs the sons of men possesse it in our hearts that is let vs truly and vnfainedly forsake our old sinnes and turne vnto the Lord our God so shall this blessed peace and all other good things be continued among vs. But if we will persist in our euill wayes not regarding what the Lord shall speake vnto vs either in his holy Word or by his faithfull Ministers we may expect the portion of these Ammonites that God should kindle a fire in our Rabbahs our best fenced cities which shall deuoure the palaces thereof with shouting in the dâ—y of battell Thus much of the terrour of this iudgement Now followeth the speed in the next circumstance With a tempest in the day of the whirle-wind Suiting hereto
let flye his arrowes of pestilence and yet they flye abroad to the killing of many round about vs yet haue wee not returned vnto him Not returned vnto him What Can no medicine that God applyeth mollifie our hard hearts Can none of his corrections amend vs Will we needs try whether he will send a sword vpon vs He shaked his sword ouer vs many of vs may well remember it when the great Spanish Armada floated on our Seas but then as S. Iames speaketh chap. 2.13 Super exaltauit misericordia iudicio mercy exalted it selfe aboue iudgement and we were spared Were we spared What shall we render to the Lord for so great mercy We will with Dauid Ps 116.13 We will take the cup of saluation we wil call vpon the name of the Lord and will offer vnto him the sacrifice of prayse Which sacrifice of ours that it may be acceptable to the Lord let vs cast away from vs all our transgressions whereby we haue transgressed and with a new heart and a new spirit returne we to the Lord our God But if we will persist with delight and goe on in our old wayes our crooked peruerse and froward wayes our wayes of wickednesse and will not bee turned out of them by any of God his milder chastisements and corrections what can we expect but the portion of these Moabites euen fire a sword from the Lord and with them to die with a tumult with a shouting and with the sound of a Trumpet Thus farre de modo poenae of the manner of this punishment to be inflicted vpon the Moabites The extent followeth I will cut the iudge out of the midst thereof and will slay all the Princes thereof with him I the Lord the Lord Iehovah yesterday and to day and the same for euer I am not changed all my words yea all the titles of all my words are Yea and Amen Exscindam I will cut off I will root out and destroy Iudicem the Iudge the chiefest gouernour and ruler in Moab the King Nam Reges quoque populum iudicabant For Kings also did iudge the people and it is euident by sundry places of holy Scripture that the state of the Moabites was swayed by Kings I will cut off root out and vtterly destroy the iudge the King out of the midst thereof Out of the midst of what Of Moab of Kerioth Both are mentioned vers 2. Dauid Camius and some other say of Kerioth which was Sedes Regum the cittie of the Kings habitation The meaning is there was no cittie in the Kingdome of Moab so strong but that from out the midst of it God would fetch the King and cut him off I will cut off roote out or destroy the iudge the King out of the middest of the strongest cittie of the Kingdome of Moab be it Moab Kerioth or any other I will slay all the Princes thereof with him together with the King I will root out all the Princes of the land None shall escape my iudgements neither Prince nor King You see the extent of this iudgement here denounced against Moab Not onely the meaner sort of people but the Princes also yea and King himselfe were to haue their portion in it and that as certainely as if they had alreadie had it For Iehovah the Lord hath spoken it For it s added for a conclusion to this Prophecie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth the Lord. The Lord hath said it that neither Prince nor King shall be exempt from his iudgements but shall as well as the lowest of the people be cut off and come to nought The doctrine to be obserued from hence is this God exerciseth his iudgements not onely vpon men of low and base estate but also vpon the great ones of this world vpon princes and Kings This truth I haue heretofore confirmed vnto you in my 21. Lecture on the former Chapter handling those words Chap. 1. vers 15. Their King shall goe into captiuitie he and his Princes together I proued vnto you this doctrine When God punisheth a nation with captiuitie for their sinnes he spareth neither Priest nor Prince nor King My now-doctrine for substance is the same but more generall God exerciseth his iudgements not onely vpon men of low base estate but also vpon the great ones of this world vpon Princes Kings The vses One is to admonish the great and mightie ones of this world that they presume not to sinne against the Lord as if they were priuiledged by their greatnes and might There is no such priuiledge He that is Lord ouer all will spare no person Princes and Kings must feele the smart of his iudgements A second vse is to minister comfort to such as are of low and base estate If the mightie by violence and oppression grind your faces and compasse you about yet be not yee discouraged God the iudge of all accepteth no persons He in his good time will auenge your causes be your oppressours neuer so mightie For Princes and Kings must feele the smart of his iudgements A third vse is a warning for our selues that we set not our hearts vpon the outward things of this world for as much as God the Creator of all will not respect vs for them Dost thou glory in this that thou art a mightie man or a rich man For both might and riches Princes and Kings are far beyond thee yet must Princes and Kings feele the smart of Gods iudgements Let vs make a fourth vse of this doctrine euen to poure out our soules in thankefulnesse before almightie God for his wonderfull patience towards vs. Our sinnes are as impudent as euer were the sinnes of the Moabites Our three and foure transgressions our many sinnes doe cry aloud to Heauen against vs as the sins of the Moabites cryed against them For their sinnes God sent a sword vpon them and did cut them off from being a nation Gods wrath against our sinnes hath not yet proceeded so farre We yet enioy our happie peace Euery man dwels vnder his owne vine and vnder his owne figtree and liues in the habitations of his forefathers in peace free from all feare of the enemies sword Such is our condition through the neuer-too-much admired patience of Almightie God O let vs not despise the riches of the bountifulnesse patience and long sufferance of our God St Paul tells vs. Rom. 2.4 That these doe lead vs to Repentance These doe lead vs shall we not follow Beloued while we haue time let vs betake our selues to Repentance It was good counsaile which Iudith gaue to Ozias Chabris and Charmis the ancients of the cittie Beâ—hulia Iudith 8.12 Quia patiens Dominus est in hoc ipso paeniteamus indulgentiam eius fusis lachrymis postulemus The counsaile is as good for vs. Beloued because the Lord is patient therefore let vs repent and with shedding of teares beg of him indulgence and pardon for our sinnes past It s no wisedome for vs any
This was not the practise of olde Of old time in the primitiue times of the Church the Holy Scriptures had their free passage All sorts of people might read them might search into them might iudge of them The vnlearned as the learned the laitie as the clergie women as men base as noble yong as old all had their shares in reading in hearing in meditating in practising the sacred doctrines contained in the Holy Scriptures There can be no iust reason to the contrary For as S. Chrysostome in his first Homilie vpon S. Mathew saith The Scriptures are easie to the slaue and to the husbandman to the widdow and to the slaue and to him that may seeme to be very simple of vnderstanding To which purpose S. Austine Epi. 3. ad volusian affirmeth that Almightie God in the Scriptures speaketh as a familiar friend without dissimulation vnto the hearts both of the learned and also of the vnlearned The like S. Basil avoucheth vpon the 1. Psal The Scripture of God is like an Apothecaries shop full of medicines of sundry sorts that euery man may there choose a conuenient remedie for his disease Vpon this ground S. Chrysostome Hom. 2. in Iohan would perswade his auditors not onely in the Church to bee attentiue to the word of God but that at home also the husband with the wife and the father with the childe would talke together thereof and would to and fro inquire and giue their iudgments and would to God sayth he they would once beginne this most approued and most excellent custome Theodoret in his fift Booke de curatione Graecarum affectionum seemeth much to reioyce at the knowledge which the Christians generally had in the sacred Scriptures Our doctrine saith he is knowne not onely of them who are the doctors of the Church and Masters of the people but also euen of Taylers and Smiths and Weauers and all Artificers of women too not such onely as were learned but also of labouring women and Sewsters and seruants and hand-maides Neither onely Cittizens but Country folkes also doe very well vnderstand the same Ditchers deluers Cowheards Gardiners can dispute of the Trinitie and the creation of all things Thus was it of old and why should it not be so now in our daies The Holy Scriptures are the same now that then they were Now as in the dayes of q Sermon de Confessorib sive Dispensat p. 610. Fulgentius In Sacris Scripturis abundat quod rebustus comedat quod parvulus sugat There is in the Scriptures plentie whereof the strong may eate and the little ones may sucke Now as in the dayes of r Epist ad leandrum Gregorie Scripturae flumen sunt in quo agnus ambulet Elephas natet the Scriptures are as a great Riuer wherein a Lambe may walke and an Elephant may swim Now as in the dayes of Å¿ De Lazarâ— Theophylact Scripturae sunt Lucerna quo fur deprehenditur The Scriptures are as a lanterne whereby you may descry and discouer that great theefe the Deuill who is euer readie to steale away your hearts from God Let vs deaâ—ely beloued follow this lanterne Let this Lampe of Gods word direct your footsteps So shall we bee safe from errour But if we will not follow it if we will decline if we will swerue from it we shall be suddainly involued and inwrapped in deceit and cannot choose but erre This was my first doctrine I can but touch the second Their lies caused them to erre after which their Fathers walked You haue vnderstood by my precedent exposition of these words that the Inhabitants of Iudah are here blamed for adhering to the blind superstitions of their forfathers The doctrine arising hence is this In matters of Religion we are not tyed to follow our forefathers This truth is plainely deriued from my text for if we will make it our rule in Religion to follow our forefathers their lyes that is their blind superstitions and idolatrous worship of God may deceiue vs and cause vs to erre Were not the elders of Israel thus deceiued and brought into errour The twentie Chapter of the prophecie of Ezechiel makes it plaine that they were so there shall you finde it obiected to them that they were polluted after the manner of their fathers and committed whoredome after the abomination of their fathers ver 30. And to draw them from adhering to the ill courses of their fathers the Lord himselfe is pleased ver 18. 19. thus to speake vnto them Walke yee not in the statutes of your fathers neither obserue their iudgements nor defile yourselues with their Idoles I am the Lord your God Walke in my statutes keepe my iudgements and doe them What will you more for the confirmation of my propouÌ„ded doctrine You haue alreadie the warrant of Almightie God from heauen for it that in matters of Religion we are not tyed to follow our forefathers It is backed with another text Zach. 1.4 Be not as your Fathers your Fathers they heard me not they hearkened not vnto me saith the Lord. Be not you therefore as your fathers Your father 's tempted me in the desert Psal 95.9 Will you also tempt me Be not as your Fathers Your Fathers were a stubborne and rebellious generation Psal 78.8 Will you also be stubborne and rebellious Be not as your Fathers It is out of doubt Our fathers must not be followed in euill Yea in matters of Religion we are not bound to follow our Fathers If our fathers in their religion were blinded with superstition and worshipped God otherwise then they were directed by Gods holy word we are not to follow them yea we are plainely charged not to be as they were Thus briefly of my Doctrine In matters of religion we are not tyed to follow our forefathers This truth serueth for a reproofe of Iesuits Priests Recusants and all other popishly affected within this our country who are so strangely devoted to the Religion whereof their fathers were that they purposely shut their eyes against the light of Gods word will not suffer it to shine vpon them To whom shall I liken them They are like to certaine Iewes that dwell in Pathros in the land of Egypt who when Ieremie in the name of the Lord dehorted them from their Idolatrie did as it were defying the Prophet thus protest Ierem. 44 17. We will not hearken vnto thee We will doe what seemeth good to vs as we haue done we and our Fathers our Kings and our Princes so will we doe We will burne incense to the Queene of Heauen we will powre out drinke offerings vnto her For so long had we plentie of victuals we were well we saw no euill Doe not our popelings in England now sing the same song Call them t Esa 8.20 ad lâ—gem ad testimonium call them to the word of God Their answere is readie at their tongues end we will not hearken to it we will doe what
the Lord. It is the complaint of the Lord himselfe Esai 52.5 My name continually euery day is blasphemed and Ezech. 36.20.22.23 The Israelites liuing among the Heathen haue prophaned my Holy name The Heathen there could say Hi populus Iehovae these are the people of the Lord these are come out of the land of the Lord. A holy people sure The Israelites you see sinned the Heathen thereby tooke occasion to blaspheme the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord was likewise blasphemed through the sinnes of the Iewes in S. Paules time The then-Iewes notwithstanding they made their Å¿ Rom. 2.17 boast of God and t Vers 18. knew his will and were u Vers 19. confident that they were guides of the blind the light of them which were in darkenesse x Vers 20. instructors of the foolish teachers of babes that they had the forme of knowledge and of the truth in the law yet forasmuch as they were spotted with theft with adultery with sacriledge with other enormities they are by S. Paul reprooued for prophaning the name of the Lord. The reproofe is Rom. 2.21 c. Thou which teachest another teachest thou not thy selfe Thou that preachest a man should not steale doest thou steale Thou that sayest a man should not commit adulterie doest thou commit adulterie Thou that abhorrest Idols doest thou commit sacriledge Thou that makest thy boast of the law through breaking of the law dishonourest thou God It followeth vers 24. For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you The Iewes you see were the sinners The Gentiles thereby tooke occasion to blaspheme the name of God Thus is my doctrine confirmed vnto you Incestuous persons adulterers fornicators and other vncleane sinners are oftentimes the cause of prophaning the holy Name of God Let vs now a while consider what Vse wee may make hereof vnto our selues Is it true Incestuous persons adulterers fornicators and other vncleane sinners are they oftentimes the cause of prophaning the holy name of God Then dearely beloued let vs from hence be admonished so to spend the remainder of our pilgrimage in this present world in all holy conuersation that no boyling inordinate or vnruly motions no vicious or vnchast affections no act of vncleannesse may so far haue dominion ouer vs as to cause the holy name of GOD through vs to be prophaned S. Austine Enarrat in Psal 146. speaketh plainely Cum blasphematur Deus de malo opere tuo opere tuo blasphemas Deum that is When God for any euill worke is blasphemed thou by thine euill worke blasphemest God To the same purpose sayth the same Father Tract 27. in Iohan. Rarò iam inuenivntur qui linguâ blasphemant Deum sed multi qui vitâ Seldome now adayes doe we finde any that with their tongue blaspheme God but many that blaspheme him with their life Such were they in S. Pauls time of whom the blessed Apostle Tit. 1.16 sayth They professe that they know God but in workes they denie him And will we be such Farre be it from vs. We professe that we know God we professe our selues his seruants walke we therefore worthie of our profession as it becommeth the seruants of God And how shall wee so walke We so walke if we walke in holinesse For as St Paul speaketh this is the will of God euen your sanctification that yee should absteine from fornication that euery one of you should know how to possesse his vessell in sanctification and honor not in the lust of concupiscence euen as the Gentiles which know not God For God hath not called vs vnto vncleannesse but vnto holinesse And therefore as the same Apostle aduiseth the Ephesians Chap. 5.3 so aduise I you Fornication and vncleannesse let them not be once named amongst you as it becommeth Saints Not once named How then is it that the Apostle nameth them How is it that in this exercise I haue named vnto you incest adultery fornication and other sinnes of vncleannesse Yes beloued you may name them but it must be out of detestation to shunne them and not out of delight to nourish them From hence may you make this Collection If I may not once name fornication but with detestation then may I not commit it If I may not commit fornication much lesse may I commit adulterie much lesse incest much lesse some other sinnes of vncleannesse sinnes against nature monstrous and prodigious sinnes Now that we may not commit fornication it is euident by these reasons First it is vnlawfull by the law of Nature The very Heathen who hold no other light for their guide but the glimmering light of Nature haue so accounted of it Memorable is the saying of Demosthenes concerning the y Dimidium talentum vnius pretium noctis great price that was set him by the notorious strumpet Lais z Macrâ—b Saturnal lib. 2. c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I like not to buy Repentance so deare Doth he not thereby intimate that dishonest pleasure the vnbridled desires of the flesh haue euermore for their companion Repentance Diogenes the Cynicke resembled a Laertius lib. 6. in vitâ Diogenis beautifull harlots to sweete wine tempered with deadly poyson What else doth he thereby intimate but that vnchast lusts howsoeuer to a carnall man they may at first seeme sweete they are notwithstanding full of bitternesse and are attended with perpetuall sorrow Crates the Philosopher beholding at Delphi the golden image of the harlot Phryne brake forth into this exclamation b Plutarch de fortuna Alexandri lib. 2. The like Laertius reporteth of Diogenes lib. 6. vit Diog. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the trophie the monument of the loose liues of the Greekes Doth he not thereby intimate that incontinencie is euen by Natures law vnlawfull I might here produce many goodly sentences many notable examples of Ethnickes and Pagans to shew vnto you the iust punishment which for the most part followeth this detestable vice hard at the heeles which might also stirre vs vp to hate it and to flie from it with all our might But its time that I returne to the Booke of God Therein also doe we finde that this filthy sinne the sinne of fornication is reputed vnlawfull by the very law of Nature In Rom. 1.29 it is expressely named among the sins of the Gentiles who were meerely naturall men And Leuit 18.24 it is layd to the charge of the Cananites Gentiles too that with such vncleannesse themselues were defiled and the land wherein they liued was defiled and therefore are they in that place threatned that the land should spew them out You haue now the first reason why we may not commit fornication The reason is because it is vnlawfull by the law of Nature Secondly it is forbidden in holy Scripture In Ephes 5 3. And in 1. Thes 4.3 In the latter place we are commanded to abstaine from c 1. Cor. 6.18
them very infamous for their beastly Sodomie for their filthy adulterie for other their vncleane lust So holy were those holy Fathers Neither were they themselues alone giuen ouer to such filthinesse but they also tooke order to haue others like vnto them They could not alone be wicked z SZeged Spec. Pontif. Alexander the sixt gaue leaue to Cardinall Mendoza to abuse his owne bastard sonne in incestuous Sodomie a Downam de Antich lib. 1. cap. 6. Ormâ—rod Pict Pap. SZâ—ged spec Pont. Vescel Kroning Tractat. de Indulgentijs Sixtus the fourth gaue licence to the Cardinall of S. Lucie and to all his familie that they might in the three hot moneths of the yeare freely vse Sodomie Iohannes a Casa a Florentine Archbishop of Beneventum Legat for Iulius 3. at Venice set forth a booke in Italian Metre in commendation of this Diana of the Papists this abominable sinne of Sodomie Will you heare more of Sixtus the fourth He to incite and incourage others to be as filthy as himselfe built in Rome a famous stewes not onely of women but also of males The femall stewes how aduantagious it hath bin to the Pope and gainefull to his coffers may from hence appeare that the Pope hath receiued from them a yearely pension amounting sometimes to three thousand sometimes to foure thousand Ducates It is said of Paulus the third that in his tables he had the names of 45000 Curtizans which paid vnto him a monethly tribute Now that the Pope neede not to loose so great a reuenew some haue bestirred themselues to patronize his stewes by argument and by autoritie Their chiefe reason is that common Curtizans in hot countries are a necessarie euill Harding Confut. Apol. Iewelli par 4. cap. 1. thus speaketh of it It is common in all great Cities in hot countries not to banish from among them the filthy generation of harlots for the auoyding of a greater mischiefe Dr Bishop in his second part of the Reformation of a Catholicke deformed in the treatise of repentance saith The stewes in some hot Countries are tolerated to auoyd a greater mischiefe The cheife autoritie they bring is S. Austines out of his second booke de ordine cap. 4. Aufer meretrices de rebus humanis turbaveris omnia libidinibus Take harlots from among men yee shall disturbe all things with leacherous lusts To their reason that Curtezans in hot Countries are a necessarie euill we say that the heat of a countrey is no sufficient warrant for the popish stewes The land of Israel is a hotter climate then that of Italie yet saith God vnto the Iewes Deut. 23.17 There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel neither shall there be a whore-keeper of the sonnes of Israel For S. Austines autoritie wee acknowledge it to bee great and reuerend But withall we say that S. Austine when he wrote those words was not S. Austine When he wrote that tract of Order himselfe then liued in disorder a yong gallant a novice in the faith not well instructed not yet baptised in the name of Christ himselfe then kept a concubine and liued in whoredome But the same Saint Austine afterward fully instructed and baptised said thus Istam in vsu scortatorum terrena civiâ—as licitam fecit turpitudinem The words are De Ciuit. Dei lib. 14 cap. 18. The citie of the world not the Church of God hath made this filthinesse of harlots to bee lawfull So doth not Saint Austines autoritie hold vp the stewes Saint Paul beates them downe flat Rom. 3.8 they who say Let vs doe euill that good may come thereof their damnation is iust In a word the toleration of the stewes is an occasion of vncleanenesse to many a yong man and woman that otherwise would absteine from all such kinde of filthinesse What an abomination is it for a brother and his brother a father and his sonne a nephew and his vncle to come to one and the same harlot one before or after the other Is it not the very abomination which the Lord reproueth in my text A man and his father will goe in to the same maide to profane my holy name I haue held you too long May it please you to remember my doctrine It was Incestuous persons adulterers fornicators and other vncleane sinners are oftentimes the cause of profaning the holy name of God A twofold Vse I made of it One was to stirre vp our selues to a holy conversation The other to reproue such as are giuen ouer to vncleanenesse I conclude with that exhortation of Saint Peter 1. Epist. chap. 2.11 Dearely beloued I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims absteine from fleshly lusts They may seeme vnto you a Paradise to your desires but they will proue a Purgatorie to your purses and a Hell to your soules Doe you loue your bodies Abstaine from fleshly lusts for they are rottennesse to your bones Doe you loue your soules Abstaine from fleshly lusts for they warre against your soules Doe you loue your credits Abstaine from fleshly lusts for they are dishonourable The heate of carnall lusts what is it but an infernall fire whose fuell is fullnesse of bread and aboundance of idlenesse whose sparkes are euill communication whose smoake is infamie whose ashes are pollution whose end is Hell Dearely beloued I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstaine from fleshly lusts haue your conuersation honest among all men that they beholding your good works may glorifie God in the day of visitation Now gracious Father so worke in vs thou and thy power thou and thy mercy so bring it to passe that we may so spend the remainder of our dayes here in all holy conversation that after this life ended we may haue our inheritance in thy kingdome Grant this for thy sonne Christ Iesus sake To whom with thee c. THE XI LECTVRE AMOS 2.8 And they lay themselues downe vpon clothes laid to pledge by euery Altar and they drinke the wine of the condemned in the house of their God IT is a great height of impietie whereto men are growne when by vnlawfull meanes or pretences or allurements they adde sinne to sinne A man may sinne once and a second time and may doe it through infirmitie but if he go on with a third transgression and with a fourth if he be obstinate in heaping sinne vpon sinne lamentable is his estate A woe must be his portion It s denounced by the Prophet Esay cap. 5.18 Woe vnto them that draw iniquitie with cords of vanitie and sinne as it were with a cart-rope Was there euer a people so far giuen ouer to worke impietie Behold such were the people of Israel they to whom this prophecie of Amos was directed Their cruelty their couetousnes their oppressions their calumnies their filthy lusts reproued in the two precedent verses do proclaim as much And yet they haue not done sinning They would I grant make faire weather they would make a faire shew as if their desire
name alone are we to giue thankes Giue thankes alwayes for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ This is our dutie beloued euen to giue thankes alwayes for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ Is it our dutie Let vs then embrace it Ascendant gratiae vt descendat gratia let our thankes ascend vp to God that his grace may descend downe vpon vs. For cessat decursus gratiarum vbi non fuerit recursus sayth Bernard Serm. 1. in capite ieiunij The course and descent of the graces of God ceaseth and the spring is dryed vp when there is not a recourse and tide of our thankefulnesse O! Why should so good an exercise be a burthen and griefe to any Christian soule Let the vnrighteous vanish away in their gracelesse vnthankefulnesse and become as the dung of the earth but let the righteous alwayes reioyce in the Lord m Psal 33.1 for it well becommeth the iust to be thankefull Early and late let vs prayse his holy name though not with the harpe nor with the Psalterie nor with an instrument of ten strings as the Psalmist aduiseth Psal 33.2 Yet let vs doe it with the best members and instruments we haue with our bodies and with our soules An eminent n B. King in Jon. lect 25. p 328. piller of our Church hath for this place a sweete meditation Let vs neuer turne our o Eze. 8.16 backes to the Temple of the Lord nor our faces from his mercy seate Let vs not take without giuing as vnprofitable ground drinketh and deuoureth seed without restoring Let vs neither eate nor drinke nay let vs neither hunger nor thirst without this condiment to it The Lord be praysed Let the frontlets betweene your eyes the bracelets vpon our armes the gards vpon our garments be thankes Whatsoeuer we receiue to vse or enioy let vs write that posie Epiphoneme of p Chap. 4.7 Zacharie vpon it Grace grace vnto it for all is grace To shut vp this point let our daily deuotion be the same that Dauids was Psal 103.1 2. let it be our daily song Blesse the Lord ô my soule and all that is within me blesse his holy name Blesse the Lord ô my soule forget not all his benefits Thus farre hath the vnthankefulnes of Israel noted in the particle Yet carryed me I now goe on with the explication of the first benefit here mentioned to haue bin bestowed by God vpon that vnthankefull people I destroyed the Amorite before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagint I haue taken away Exterminavi the Vulgar Calvin and Gualter I haue cast out Delevi Leo Iuda and Castalio I haue wiped away Excidi Oâ—colampadius I haue cut off Perdidi Vatablus Tremellius and Iunius I haue destroyed Drusius expounds it Delevi Perdidi profligavi Mercerus Disperdidi abolevi The word in the originall signifieth so to abolish and wipe away a people or a nation that there be not any memorie left of it I destroyed the Amorite The Amorites were descended from Canaan the fourth sonne of Ham. In Gen. 10.16 Canaan is sayd to haue begotten the Iebusite and the Amorite and the Gargasite He begat the Amorite I destroyed the Ammorite What The Ammorite alone Not so But the Ammorites and other nations of the land of Canaan whom when they had fulfilled the measure of their iniquitie God did cut of that he might giue their land for an habitation to the posteritie of Iacob the people of Israell according to his couenant made with Abraham Gen. 15.18 Vnto thy seed haue I giuen this land from the riuer of Egypt vnto the great riuer the riuer Euphrates The Kenites and the Kenizites and the Kadmonites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Rephaims and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Girgasites and the Iebusites The Amorites you see were not alone According to this couenant with Abraham a promise is made to the Fathers in the desert Exod. 23.27 I will send my feare before thee and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come and I will make all thine enemies turne their backes vnto thee And I will send hornets before thee which shall driue out from before thee Whom The Hivite the Canaanite and the Hittite It s true But they are not all Looke backe to the 23. verse There shall you finde the Lord thus to speake Mine Angell shall goe before thee and bring thee vnto the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Iebusites and I will cut them off You see againe the Amorites were not alone I pervse the Catalogue of the Nations whom the Lord hath cast out before Israell It is Deut. 7.1 There I finde that he hath cast out the Hittites and the Girgasites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Heuites and the Iebusites seauen Nations greater and mightier then Israell was Seuen Nations Then the Amorites were not alone Were they seauen Nations that were driuen out before Israel How then is it that the Lord here in my text recounting vnto Israell this great benefit nameth onely the Amorite saying Yet destroyed I the Ammorite The Iesuite Pererius in his third Tome of Commentaries vpon Genesis writing vpon the 15. Chapter ver 16. these words The iniquitie of the Amorite is not yet full moues this very doubt but thus The reader may here wonder why mention is made onely of one Nation of the Amorite sith it is plaine by other places of holy Scripture that there were seauen Nations which the Lord draue out from before the Israelites His first answere is It may by a Synecdoche A part may be put for the whole one Nation of the Amorites for all the seauen A like Synecdoche there is Iosh 1.4 There thus sayth the Lord vnto Ioshuah From the wildernesse and this Lebanon euen vnto the great riuer the riuer Euphrates all the land of the Hittites and vnto the great Sea toward the going downe of the Sunne shall be your coast All the land of the Hittites shall be your coast The Hittites onely are named and yet within the bounds described all the seauen had their habitations It is therefore a Synecdoche A part is put for the whole One Nation of the Hittites for all the seauen It s so here One Nation of the Amorites for all the seauen This answere admitting a Synecdoche is approued by Piscator Tremellius and Iunius Yet Pererius thinkes to giue a better And therefore his second answere is that the Amorites are praecipuè singulariter chiefly and principally named aboue all the rest and for them all because for the largenesse of their Nation and for their height of stature and for their strength of bodie and for their excessiue crueltie and impietie they were aboue all famous and much spoken of Mercerus that great Professor of the Hebrew
Christ for its durablenesse stabilitie may well be likened to mountaines and that the Cedars of Lebanon doe not so much ouergrow other trees in tallnesse as true Christian religion for its reuerend maiestie shall ouergoe whatsoeuer blind bushie and thornie superstitions It is out of doubt Cedar trees are verie high So high that neuer man neuer Gyant was so high How then is it that my text thus speaketh of the Amorites Their height was like the height of the Cedars It is by a figure which the Greekes call Hyperbole Whereof many instances may be alledged out of holy Scripture In the 2. of Sam. 1.23 it is said of Saul and Ionathan They were swifter then Eagles they were stronger then Lyons Swifter then Eagles and yet the Eagle of birds is the swiftest stronger then Lyons and yet the Lyon of Beasts is the strongest They were swifter then Eagles they were stronger then Lyons they are two Hyperboles or prouerbiall speeches By them the holy Ghost lets vs vnderstand that Saul and Ionathan were exceeding swift of foot and strong of bodie In Psalme 107.26 it is sayd of the waues of the Sea in a great tempest They mount vp to Heauen they goe downe againe to the depths They are two Hyperboles By them the Psalmist setteth as it were before our eyes the greatnesse of the daunger wherein they often times are that trade by Sea In Genes 13.16 The Lord said to Abram I will make thy seede as the dust of the earth so that if a man can number the dust of the earth then shall thy seed also be numbred I will make 〈◊〉 seede as the dust of the earth saith the Lord. It is an Hyperbole S. Austine so takes it de Civ Dei lib. 16. c. 21. And well For who seeth not how incomparably greater the number of the dust is then the number of all the men that euer haue bin are or shall be from the first man Adam to the end of the world can be And therefore where the Lord saith I will make thy seede as the dust of the earth we are not to imagine that the posteritie of Abram was to be in number as the dust all the people of the earth put togither cannot stand in this comparison but wee are giuen to vnderstand that they were to be a very great people I passe ouer with silence many instances of like nature and returne to my text where it is said of the Amorites Their height was like the height of the Cedars The speach is prouerbiall its hyperbolicall We may not from it collect that the Amorites were as high as the Cedars but this onely that the Amorites were a people very tall and high of stature Neuer did any man equall the Cedars in height yet shew me a man that is of a vaste bodie and of an vnusuall proceritie I may take vp this Scripture phrase and say of him His height is like the height of Cedars Thus you see the Amorites for their height or talnes are likened to the Cedar For their strength or valour they are resembled to the Oke in the next words He was strong as the Okes. The figure of speach is as before It s prouerbiall The Oke you know is a hard kinde of wood strong firme and durable Hence is the prouerbe Quercu robustior or robore validior stronger then the Oke Neuer was there man of so firme a constitution that he can properly be said to be stronger then the Oke Yet shew me a man of extraordinarie strength I may take vp this Scripture-phrase and say of him Fortis ipse quasi quercus he is strong as the Okes. And in this sense it is here said of the Amorite He was strong as the Okes. That the Amorites were of an vnusuall and extraordinarie height and strength as they are here described by our Prophet Amos you may further know by the relation which the Spies made vnto Moses after their returne from the search of the Holy land Their relation is Num. 13.28 The people be strong that dwell in the land we saw the children of Anak there At the 32. verse they speake more fully All the people that we saw in it are men of great stature And there we saw the Gyants the sonnes of Anak which come of the Gyants and we were in our owne sight as grashoppers and so were we in their sight By this relation of the Spies you see that the Amorites the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were more then ordinarie tall and strong The tallest and strongest of the Amorites of these Amorites which the Lord destroyed before Israel was Og the King of Basan Of his height and strength the Iewes make strange reports For his height they say he was in his cradle and swadling cloutes thirty cubits high and as he grew in yeares so grew he in tallnesse For his strength they say when he had heard that the tents of the children of Israel tooke vp the space of three miles he rooted vp a mountaine of like space and set it on his head with purpose to cast it vpon the tents of Israel but as he caried it Ants made a hole through the midst of it and so it descended and rested vpon his necke whence by reason of his teeth excessiuely increasing and running into the holes of the mountaine the mountaine stuck so fast that he could not remoue it to cast it as he had purposed vpon the campe of the Israelites This the Iewes do write in their booke of Benedictions and Lyra in his Postill vpon Num. 21. makes mention of it but withall censures it to be so absurd that it needs no other refutation yet he makes mention of it that we may see quanta coecitas est in Iudaeis how blinde the Iewes are to beleeue such fables It is I grant one of those Iewish fables whereto S. Paul wished Titus chap. 1.14 not to giue any heed and I beleeue it no more then I doe that the Gyant Antaeus was threescore cubits high because Gabinius in the 17. booke of Strabo his a pag. 960. Geographie affirmes it or that in Scythia in a rocke by the riuer Tyres there was to be seene the print of Hercules his foote of two cubits length because Herodotus in his b pag. 110. Melpomene is the relator of it Yet beleeue I that Og the King of Basan was of more then ordinarie tallnes and strength And you will beleeue it too if you will estimate a monument of his which was to be seene in Rabbath the Metropoliticall Citie of the children of Ammon now called Philadelphia The monument was a bedsted of his It is described Deut. 3.11 His bedsted was a bedsted of yron nine cubits was the length thereof and foure cubits the breadth of it after the cubit of a man Of a man of reasonable stature not of a Gyant nor of a dwarfe Nine cubits long was his bedsted and bedsteds vsually exceed the common stature of
sword them and all their people and tooke their Cities all their Cities and vtterly destroyed the men the women and the litle ones of euery Citie they left none aliue They destroyed their fruit from aboue and their rootes from beneath These famous victories gotten by Israel ouer those two mighty Kings are described Num. 21. and Deut. 2. 3. Is Israel now the conqueror Is it the sword of Israel that smiteth Sihon King of the Amorites and Og the King of Bashan them and their people their men women and litle ones How then is it that the Lord in my text takes it to himselfe and saith I destroyed the Amorite I destroyed his fruit from aboue and his rootes from beneath The answer is easie Israel indeed smote the Amorites but it was by the power of the Lord not by any power of their owne Moses confesseth it of Sihon King of the Amorites Deut. 2.33 The Lord our God deliuered him vnto vs and we smote him and his sonnes and all his people He confesseth it likewise of Og King of Bashan Deut. 3.3 The Lord our God deliuered into our hands Og the King of Bashan and all his people and we smote him vntill none was left to him remayning Israel could not smite till God had deliuered God first deliuered then Israel smote Israel smote the Amorites not by any power of their owne they did it by the power of the Lord. And what is done by the power of the Lord may well be said to be done by the Lord. In regard hereof it is that the Psalmist Psal 135.10 ascribeth the victorie whereof we now speake immediatly vnto God Whatsoeuer the Lord pleased that did he in Heauen and in Earth in the Seas and in all deepe places He smote great Nations and slew mighty Kings Sihon King of the Amorites and Og King of Bashan and all the kingdomes of Canaan And gaue their land for an heritage euen an heritage vnto Israel his people The like he doth in the next Psalme and in the like words Psal 136.17 O giue thanks vnto the Lord To him which smote great Kings and slew famous Kings Sihon King of the Amorites and Og the King of Bashan and gaue their land for an heritage euen for an heritage vnto Israel his seruant In both Psalmes you see the destruction of the Amorite ascribed to God himselfe and his sole power So is it Psal 78.55 but more generally The Lord He cast out the heathen before Israel he cast out the Amorites and made the Tribes of Israel to dwell in their Tabernacles But no where so plainely is this great worke of casting out the Amorites and other the heathen before Israel attributed vnto God as Psal 44. There the people of God groning vnder their affliction in the middest of their enemies doe thus begin their confession vers 1. We haue heard with our eares O God our fathers haue told vs what worke thou diddest in their dayes in the times of old What this worke was they expresse vers 2. Thou diddest driue out the Heathen with thine hand Thou with thy hand didst driue out the Amorites and other the Heathen and in their roomes didst plant our fore-fathers This was a great worke and it was Gods worke That it was Gods worke and his alone they yet further acknowledge vers 3. Our forefathers they got not the land in possession by their owne sword neither did their owne arme saue them but thy right hand and thine arme and the light of thy countenance O God did stablish them God was all in all in the ouerthrow of the Amorites and the rest of the Heathen By his strength by his might by his power onely were they ouerthrowne And therefore albeit Israel smote with the sword Sihon King of the Amorites and Og the King of Bashan them and their people their men their women and their litle ones sith they did it onely by the strength might and power of the Lord the Lord in my text doth rightly challenge the whole glory of this ouerthrow vnto himselfe saying first I destroyed the Amorite before them and againe I destroyed his fruit from aboue and his roots from beneath From hence we may take a profitable lesson It s this Though God vse meanes for the performance of his counsels yet the accomplishment and glory of them belongeth to him alone This truth is so euident that it needs no further proofe Israel the people of Israel they were the meanes which God vsed for the performance of his counsels vpon the Amorites euen to destroy them and to roote them out from being a people but the accomplishment and the glory of that great worke was the Lords alone The people of Israel had they had much ado to ouercome their enemies the Amorites they might happily haue imputed somewhat to their owne force They might haue said Shewed we not great power in the battle Behaued we not our selues like men Did not we fight valiantly But when their enemies were driuen like chaffe with the winde when they who earst were stour and strong were tall as the Cedars and strong as the Okes when they should extraordinarily be dismaide should haue no more heart then a silly sheepe hath but should be scattered at the first onset should be so cowardly as that their enemies might at their pleasure slay them till they were weary of slaying them what can be said of it what can be thought of it This is all The Lord who is Lord of battels though he vse meanes for the performance of his counsels and for the atchieving of his victories yet will he haue the accomplishment and the glory of all to be peculiar vnto himselfe Thus is my doctrine illustrated Though God vse meanes for the performance of his counsels yet the accomplishment and glory of them belongeth to him alone The reason hereof is because all power is Gods and whatsoeuer power man hath to execute or performe what the counsell of the Lord hath appointed it s all deriued from God The vse is to teach vs to yeeld God the honor of all the victories that he giueth vs against our enemies The honor of all victories must be his When I say all victories I meone not onely the victories of Princes when they make warre or winne a battell in the field but euen our priuate victories too as when we haue bin assailed by some particular man and are escaped from his hands this is a victorie and the honor of it must be the Lords If a neighbour an vnkinde neighbour hath done vs any wrong or hath put vs to some trouble we are deliuered from it we must assure our selues it is God that hath giuen vs the vpper hand to the end that we should alwaies haue our mouthes open to giue him thanks for it This must we doe but this is not all We must with the mouth giue thanks to God for giuing vs the vpper hand against those that haue
the Lord ô my soule and forget not all his benefits Forget not All Nay Forget not any of his benefits Remember them all either first or last Now from the non-obseruance of the order of the Historie in this enumeration of Gods benefits vpon Israel we are particularly to speake of the benefit mentioned in the second place It is their deliuerance out of Egypt The words are Also I brought you vp from the land of Egypt I Iehovah It is his name ver 6. 11. I Iehovah the onely true euerlasting and Almighty God I a Trinitie in Vnitie and the Vnitie in Trinitie Father Sonne and Holy Ghost I who destroyed the Amorites before you and for your sakes I also brought you vp from the land of Egypt I brought you vp It well expresseth the originall which word for word is ascendere vos feci I made you to ascend Nam ex Aegypto ascenditur Iudaeam versus sayth Drusius from Egypt to Iudaea you must ascend and it is a tradition of the Hebrews Iudaea est altior Egypto Iudaea stands higher then Egypt It s affirmed Deut. 10.22 It s there sayd that Iacob with threescore and ten persons went downe into Egypt Iacob with his familie went from Canaan from Iudaea and went dâ—â—ne into Egypt Canaan therefore and Iudaea stood higher then Egypt I brought you vp or I made you to ascend from the land of Egypt From the land of Egypt a Maginus in descrip Aegypti pag. 203. a Egypt is a most noble region and famous much spoken of by writers sacred and prophane Some would haue it to be one of the parts of the world a diuerse part from Asia and Africa and to be betweene them both Others supposing the riuer Nilus the great riuer of Egypt to be the fittest bound to part Asia from Africa doe make Egypt to pertake of both Asia and Africa One part of Egypt they place in Asia the other in Africa The Iesuite Lorinus Comment in Act. Apost cap. 2. 10. makes it a part of Asia Maior He sayth it is a well knowne region of Asia the greater neere vnto Africa But b Lib. 4. Geogr. cap. 5. Tab. 3. Aphricae pag. 98. Ptolomee and the greatest part of Geographers and other writers holding the gulfe of Arabia or the Red Sea to be the fittest bound to sever Asia from Africa haue placed Egypt in Africa This is the most receiued opinion and worthiest to be embraced The land of Egypt is in Africa and is by an c Georg. Abbot the description of the world I. 4. b. Isthmos or a narrow streit of ground ioyned to the Holy land It was of old a land very fruitfull as fruitfull as any almost in the world though in these dayes it doth not answere to the fertilitie of former times From the land of Egypt The Hebrew cals it the land of Mizraim It s so called in my text and else-where generally in the holy Scriptures and hath its name from Mitzraim one of the sonnes of Ham of whom we read Gen. 10.6 He first inhabited that part of Africa which was afterward called Egypt When it first began to be called Egypt it s not easily defined Some say it was first called Egypt in Moses his time when Ramesses surnamed Egyptus sonne of Belus and brother of Danaus was King of the land Ramesses otherwise called Aegyptus began his raigne in the 29 yeare from the going of Israel out of Egypt Of this opinion is d Ad annum Mundi 2482. Funccius in his Chronologie S. e Willet vpon Gen. c 10. p. 120 Perâ—t in Gen. Tom. 2. lib 15. Disp 1. p. 412. Augustine lib. 18. de civ Dei cap. 11. following f Ad annum Mundi 3720. Eusebius in his Chronicle sayth this happened in Iosuahs time more then eight hundred yeares after the floud According to the computation of Manethon an Egyptian Chronographer cited by Iosephus in his g Pag. 451. b first book against Apion It was three hundred ninetie and three yeares after Moses leading Israel out of Egypt Whensoeuer it was first called Egypt it s not much materiall Were it first so called in Moses his time or after in Iosuahs time or yet after 393. yeares from Israels going vp from thence it was many a yeare so called before our Prophet Amos wrote this his Prophecie And yet our Prophet here retaineth the old Hebrew name Mizraim Also I brought you vp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the land of Mizraim it is in our Language from the land of Egypt But what benefit was it for Israel to be brought vp from the land of Egypt Had they not there a sweete habitation Were they not planted in the best of the land in the land of h Gen. 47.11 Ramesses in the land of i Vers 6. Goshen It may not be denyed but that Egypt of it selfe was a very goodly fruitfull and commodious countrey yet was it very beneficiall to the Israelites that they were thence deliuered and that in two respects one was because the people of the land were superstitious the other because they were full of crueltie First the Egyptians were a superstitious people They had as the Greeks and Romans had their Gods maiorum gentium and their Gods minorum gentium Gods of greater authoritie and Gods of lesse They had for their Gods manie a beast Athenagoras a Christian Philosopher in his embassage or apologie for the Christians to the Emperours Antoninus and Commodus witnesseth that they bestowed diuine honors vpon Cats and Crocodils and Serpents and Aspes and Dogs Arnobius in his first Booke against the Gentiles sayth they built stately Temples felibus scarabaeis buculis to Cats to Beetles to Heyfers Cassiodore in his tripartite historie lib. 9. cap. 27. tels of the Image of an Ape which they adored and cap. 28. hee sayth that a nest of Rats was their God Many other k Accipitres Noctuas Hircos Asinos Hieronym in Esai 11. Tom. 5. p. 51. a Cironius Hieron in Ioel. 3. Tom. 6 pag. 67. d. beasts did they adore Here their superstition rested not it proceeded to the plants of the earth to base plants to leekes and onyons Leekes and onyons were to them for Gods Porrum l Hieron in Esai 46. Tom. 5. pag. 172. a caepe nefas violare Iuvenal Sat. 15. could note it O it was a wicked and detestable act to doe any hurt to a leeke or onyon At such their ridiculous superstition he by and by scoffeth O sanctas gentes quibus haec nascantur in hortis Numina Surely they are holy Nations that haue such Gods growing in their gardens Mad Egypt So the Poet stiles it in the beginning of his Satyre And could it be lesse then mad when it was besotted and bewitched with such foule and monstrous adoration Well might Minutius Felix in his Octavius call those Gods of the Egyptians non numina sed portenta Gods they were not they were monsters Well might
m Geverharl Elmenhorst com ad Minutium Felicem pag. 41. Salisberiensis in his first Booke de nugis cvrial cap. 10. call Egypt Matrem superstitionis the mother of superstition For as n Tom. 5. pag. 170. c. S. Hierome in his Comment vpon Esay 45. witnesseth Neuer was there any Nation so giuen to Idolatrie or worshipped such a number of monsters as Egypt did This notorious superstition and Idolatrie of the Egyptians so much spoken of by Christian writers and others is also in the sacred volumes of Holy writ censured and controlled In Exod. 12.12 the meanacing of the Lord is against them Against all the Gods of Egypt I will execute iudgment I the Lord. The gods of Egypt that is the Images and the Idoles which the Egyptians adored and worshipped Concerning which o De quadraginta duabus mansionibus Mans 2 Tom. 3. pag. 42. S. Hierome in an Epistle of his to Fabiola reporteth out of the Hebrew writers that in very same night the Children of Israel departed out of Egypt all the Temples of Egypt were ouerthrowne siue terrae motu siue iactu fulminum either with earth quakes or thunderbolts These Hebrew writers say further eâdem nocte lignea idola putrefacta fuisse metallica resoluta fusa lapidea comminuta that in the same night all the wooden Images were rotten all the mettall Images were dissolued and moulten all the stone Images were broken If so it were it was doubtlesse a great worke a great iudgement of God vpon those Egyptian monsters In Esay 19.1 their confusion is againe foretold Behold saith the Prophet the Lord rideth vpon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt and the Idoles of Egypt shall moue at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it Where the Idoles of Egypt are the heart of Egypt They are called the heart of Egypt because the heart of the Egyptians did wholy depend vpon them for reliefe and succour The Lord rideth vpon a swift cloud and shall come into Egypt and the Idoles of Egypt shall moue at his presence and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it The Idols of Egypt shall moue and melt at the presence of the Lord. In Ierem. 43.13 their desolation is likewise denounced There the Lord threatneth to send Nabuchadnezzar the K. of Babylon his seruant into Egypt What shall he doe there He shall breake the Images of Bethshemesh that is in the land of Egypt and the houses of the Gods of the Egyptians shall be burnt with fire Thus you see it confirmed not onely by Christian writers and others but also by the sacred volumes of holy Scripture that the Egyptians were a superstitious and an Idolatrous people Superstitious were they and Idolatrous Happie then wast thou O Israell that the Lord brought thee vp from the land of Egypt Liue in Egypt thou couldst not with a good conscience nor would the Egyptians willingly suffer thee to worship God otherwise then themselues did To haue worshipped as they did must needs haue beene a Hell vnto thy soule and to haue done otherwise must needs haue brought certaine daunger to thine outward estate Acknowledge it therefore for a great benefit and blessing of God vpon thee that he brought thee vp from the land of Egypt God in reckoning vp this fauour of his his bringing vp Israel out of the land of Egypt teacheth vs what an intollerable thing it is to liue among Idolaters and what a speciall fauour it is to be deliuered from amongst them And this should stir vs vp to a thankfull recognition of Gods goodnesse towards vs who hath deliuered the Church wherein we liue from the Babylonish and Romish Idolatrie wherein our auncestors were nus-led and trained vp to worship and adore not the true and liuing God but Angels and Saints damned â—â—â—les it may be silver and gold stocks and stones Images and Idoles and what not From such grosse and palpable Idolatry we are by Gods goodnesse deliuered and now doe as a long time we haue done enioy the bright Sunne-shine of the p 1. Tim. 1 11. glorious Gospell of the blessed God our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ Being now deliuered from the q Colos 1.13 power of darknesse vnder Antichrist and translated into the light of Christs Gospell Let it be our daily care for it is our dutie to walke worthy the light h Ephes 5.8 as children of light to walke in truth Ep. 3. Ioh. ver 3. to walke in loue Colos 5.2 to walke in newnesse of life Rom. 6.4 to walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8.1 If we walke after the flesh we shall mind the things of the flesh we shall be carnally minded and our end shall be death but if we walke after the spirit we shall mind the things of the spirit we shall be spiritually minded and our end shall be life and peace The choise is not difficult Life is better then death If you chuse life you must abandon and forsake the i Gal. 5.19 workes of the flesh which cause death Adulterie fornication vncleannesse lasciuiousnesse k Vers 20. hatred variance emulations wrath strife l Vers 21. envyings murthers drunkennesse revellings vsurie extortion oppression and such like are workes of the flesh and doe shut you out from life Yet may life be yours if you will be m Vers 18. led by the spirit n Vers 22. Loue ioy peace long suffering gentlâ—nesse goodnesse fayth meeknesse temperance are the fruit of the spirit Let these dwell among you and life shall be yours The God of life shall giue it you Hitherto you haue the first respect why it was beneficiall good for the people of Israel that they were brought vp from the land of Egypt It was good for them because the people of the land were superstitious and idolatrous and among such there is no good liuing The other respect now followeth It was beneficiall and good for the people of Israel that they were brought vp from the land of Egypt because the people of the land were full of crueltie and held Israel in subiection and seruitude Egypt was long a harbour to the Israelites but at length it prooued a Gaole vnto them The posteritie of Iacob finds too late what it was for their forefathers to sell Iacob a slaue into Egypt There arose vp a new Pharaoh a new king ouer Egypt he knew not Ioseph Then then were the Israelites contemned as drudges o Exod. 1.11 Task masters must be set ouer them to afflict them with their burdens Why so How had they offended They prospered too fast For thus sayth Pharaoh to his people Exod. 1.9 Behold the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier then we Come on let vs deale wisely with them lest they multiplie and it come to passe that when there falleth out any warre they ioyne also v to our enemies and fight
house it is a houshold consisting of persons of diuers sexes ages statures strengths and abilities But this narrow signification of a family will not serue for this place For it was not onely a houshold that the Lord brought out of Aegypt it was more than so The Author of the Vulgar Latine giues here a larger scope Familia contents him not Cognatio is his word Not a family but a kindred must serue his turne His reading is Super omnem cognationem It pleaseth Luther and Mercer and Vatablus Against all the kindred A kindred wee know may containe many families and many were the families which the Lord brought vp from the Land of Aegypt yet is not this word kindred of extent sufficient to comprehend the great multitude that was brought vp from the land of Aegypt Nation is a fitter word with Castalio Heare this word that the Lord pronounceth to you to the whole Nation which I brought vp from the land of Aegypt It was indeed a Nation that the Lord brought vp A Nation and therefore many kindreds and more families Yet need wee not refuse either the word kindred or family as vnfit for this place for each of them may well bee vsed to signifie a Nation The reason whereof Kimhi giueth quia ab initio gentes singulae ab vno aliquo viro defluxerunt because at first Nations had their beginning from some one man that was head of a family or kindred A Family for a Nation you haue Mic. 2.3 Behold saith the Lord behold against this family doe I deuise an euill Against this family that is against this Nation of the Israelites So haue you Ierem. 8.3 Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remaine of this euill family This euill family is the nation of the Iewes I read of the family of Aegypt Zach. 14.18 and there the family of Aegypt is the nation of the Aegyptians Such is the signification of the word family in my Text against the whole family that is against the whole nation of the Israelites By this whole family of the children of Israel some doe vnderstand all the people which the Lord brought vp from Aegypt which afterward was rent into two Kingdomes the Kingdome of Iudah and the Kingdome of Israel So Saint Hierome and Remigius and Hugo and Lyra and Dionysius Some by the children of Israel doe vnderstand the Kingdome of Israel the Kingdome of the ten Tribes and in the whole family brought vp from the land of Aegypt they will haue included the Kingdome of Iudah the other two Tribes the Tribes of Benjamin and Iudah So Theodoret and Albertus and Montanus Quadratus and Christophorus à Castro Petrus à Figueiro takes this whole family to be here vsed Appositoriè by Apposition to expresse what is meant by the children of Israel The children of Israel that is the whole family kindred or nation of the Israelites which the Lord brought vp from the land of Aegypt The like doth Tauerner in his English Bible his Translation runnes thus Heare what the Lord speaketh vnto you O ye children of Israel namely vnto all the Tribes whom I brought out of Aegypt I take them to be in the right who by the children of Israel doe vnderstand the Kingdome of the ten Tribes and by the whole family brought vp from Aegypt the other two Tribes the Tribes of Iudah and Benjamin to this sense Heare this word this sentence that the Lord pronounceth against you O children of Israel and not against you alone but euen against all those whom I brought vp from the land of Aegypt All that are in the same fault doe well deserue the same punishment If Iudah sinne as well as Israel Iudah shall bee punished as well as Israel Heare therefore this word not only you of Israel but you of Iudah too all you whom I brought vp from the land of Aegypt All which I brought vp from the land of Aegypt How can this bee Of those which the Lord brought vp out of Aegypt all that were of i Numb 14.30 32.11 12. twenty yeeres old and vpward all saue two Caleb the sonne of Iephunneh and Ioshua the sonne of Nun died in the Wildernesse They died there and therefore they came not into the Holy Land Againe the deliuerance of Israel out of Aegypt was about k An. M. 2454. seuen hundred yeeres before the l Which was An. M. 3158. time that this Prophesie came by the ministery of Amos vnto Israel What Seuen hundred yeeres before this time It s then to be presumed that all which so long before were brought vp from Aegypt were long ere this time dead And so out of doubt they were How then is it that here so long after it is said to the children of Israel from the Lord Eduxi I brought you your whole family vp from the Land of Aegypt The Israelites to whom this speech is had for the place of their natiuity and habitation the land of Iudaea Neuer had they beene in the land of Aegypt and yet may there be a good construction of what is here said vnto them Eduxi I brought you your whole family vp from the land of Aegypt Albertus makes the construction I brought you vp vos in patribus you in your Fathers So doth Petrus Lusitanus I brought you vp vos vtique in parentibus you in your parents And so Piscator I brought you vp vos in maioribus you in your Ancestours You in your Fathers in your Parents in your Ancestours I brought you vp from the land of Aegypt I brought vp from the land of Aegypt The words we met with before Chap. 2.10 There they were by me expounded and haply you will not thinke it fit I should say the same againe vnto you Wherefore for a full exposition of these words and the profit to be taken by them I referre you to my fifteenth Lecture vpon the second Chapter of this Prophesie of Amos. Hitherto haue I dwelt vpon the opening of the words of my present Text. I gather vp all in briefe Heare not only with the outward eare but also with the assent of minde heare and vnderstand this word this thing this sentence this decree that the Lord Iehouah the onely true euerlasting and Almighty God hath spoken hath pronounced ouer you vpon you to you against you against you O children of Israel yee the sonnes the posterity of Iacob and not against you onely but also against the whole family the whole Nation of you them of Iudah too against you all whose Fathers Parents and Ancestours I brought vp and deliuered with a mighty hand and out-stretched arme from the land of Aegypt that land wherein they liued in great slauery and bondage saying after this manner as it followeth vers 2. You only haue I knowne c. The words you see are expounded It remaineth now that we gather from hence such obseruations as are here naturally offered vnto vs
your cities which are now inhabited Ezech. 12.20 shall be laid waste and your Land shall be desolate yet you take courage to your selues against such terrours Amos 6.3 you put far away from you the euill day you say within your selues Ezech. 12.27 the vision which this man seeth is for many daies to come and he prophesieth of the times that are far off To this purpose Saint Cyril With him agree three great Rabbins R. Dauid R. Abraham R. Selomo They make the Lord here to speake after this manner If a trumpet be blowne in a citie at an vnseasonable houre to giue warning that the enemie is comming the people will exceedingly tremble and be afraid Why then are not you afraid why tremble yee not at the voices of my Prophets My Prophets are my trumpeters by them I giue you warning of the euils that hang ouer your heads and will ere long fall vpon you Why are you not afraid why tremble you not To this application of this sixth similitude our new Expositors for the most part haue subscribed They vnderstand by this Citie the Church of God by the Trumpet the Word of God by the people the bearers of the Word and so thus stands the application When a trumpet giueth a sudden signe by the sound of it out of a watch-tower all the people harken and are troubled and prepare themselues this way or that way according as the trumpet giueth the token So at the voice of God founding by his Ministers we ought to giue eare and be attentiue and be moued at the noise of it and as he giueth warning prepare our selues and looke about vs while it is time lest afterward it be too late Now the lesson which we are to take from hence is this The word of God vttered by his Ministers deserueth more reuerence feare and trembling then doth a trumpet sounding an alarme from a watch-tower For the word of God is a trumpet too and a trumpet of a farre shriller sound The blowers of this trumpet are the Ministers of the Word who in this regard are called sometimes Tuba Dei and sometimes Speculatores They are Gods trumpet and they are watch-men They are Tuba Dei Gods trumpet and hereby are they put in minde of their dutie euen to denounce perpetuall warre against the wicked and to excite men euen to fight against the Deuill and to bid defiance vnto sinne And they are Speculatores they are Watch-men placed by God in his holy Citie the Church Velut in speculâ as in a Watch-tower to watch for the safetie of the people and to blow the trumpet vnto them when any danger is at hand Both appellations are met together in Ierem. 6.17 Constitui super vos speculatores audite vocem tubae I haue set ouer you watch-men hearken to the sound of the trumpet Bishops Pastors Ministers they are these watch-men and wee are to hearken to the sound of their trumpets Their trumpets True For Ministers haue trumpets Their trumpets are two One is Territoria the other is Consolatoria One is a terrifying trumpet the other trumpet is comforting Of the former God speaketh by his Prophet Esay chap. 58.1 Crie aloud spare not lift vp thy voice like a trumpet and shew my people their transgression and the house of Iacob their sinnes So doth hee by Zephania chap. 1.16 A day of the Trumpet and alarme against the fenced cities and against the high towers And I will bring distresse vpon men that they shall walke like blinde men because they haue sinned against the Lord. This trumpet you may call tubam legis the trumpet of the Law because by if the Minister denounceth the curses of the Law the wrath of God misery and calamitie to euery vnrepentant sinner Of the other trumpet of the ministery we may vnderstand that Esay 27.13 The great Trumpet shall be blowne and they shall come which were readie to perish in the Land of Assyria and the out-casts in the Land of Aegypt and shall worship the Lord in the holy Mount at Ierusalem This trumpet you may call tubam Euangelij the trumpet of the Gospell because by it the Minister pronounceth the blessings of the Gospell the loue of God a quiet conscience and true felicity to euery true beleeuer These two trumpets terrifying and comforting that of the Law this of the Gospell are still of vse in the Church of Christ the Minister sounding sometimes woe sometimes weale according as our sinnes shall giue him cause But why is it that the ministery of the Word and the preaching thereof is compared to a trumpet Hector Pintus in his Comment vpon the eight and fiftieth of Esay giueth hereof two reasons One is because as the materiall trumpet calleth and encourageth vnto warre so this spirituall trumpet the preaching of the Word calleth and encourageth vs to fight valiantly against the world the flesh and the Deuill The other is because as the materiall trumpet is blowne at solemnities to betoken ioy so this spirituall trumpet the preaching of the Word should stirre vs vp ad laborem in praesenti ad gaudium in futuro to labour in this life and to ioy in that to come For as he addeth hic est locus vincendi ibi triumphandi hic breuis laboris illic sempiterna quietis hic poenae transeuntis ibi gloriae permanentis Here is the place for ouercomming there for the triumph here of some little labour there of eternall quiet here of paine that passeth away there of glory that endureth The comparison standing thus betweene the preaching of the Word and a trumpet warranteth the truth of the doctrine propounded which was The word of God vttered by his Ministers deserueth more reuerence feare and trembling then doth a trumpet sounding an alarme from a watch-tower This representation of the word of God by a trumpet should euer sound and as it were goe before vs in all our actions in warre in peace in all meetings and ioyfull feasts that all our doings may be acceptable to the Lord our God The doctrine now deliuered standing vpon the comparison that is betweene the preaching of the Word and a trumpet may in termes absolute be thus The preaching of the word of God is to be harkened vnto with all reuerence It is the point I handled in my first Sermon vpon this third Chapter of Amos. My Thesis then was The word of God is diligently to be harkened vnto What proofes and reasons out of Scripture I then produced for the confirmation of that truth and what vse was made thereof I now stand not to repeat Nor need I so to doe The holy Scripture being as the Ocean of waters which can neuer bee exhausted yeeldeth vs great varietie of matter though we speake againe and againe to the same point I proceed then with my Thesis as it is giuen in termes absolute The preaching of the word of God is to be harkened vnto with all reuerence I
with perseuerance euen vnto the end He that hath put his hand to this Plough may not looke backe lest he proue vnfit for the Kingdome of God Luk. 9.62 In this race and course of life we are to contend and striue with the whole earth Though we be despised despighted hated cursed of euery man because we preach what the Lord hath bidden vs and proclaime his vengeance against sinners yet will we not be discouraged Our hand against euery man and euery mans hand against vs Our tongue against euery vice and euery tongue walketh rangeth at liberty through our actions The Disciple is not aboue his Master Math. 10.24 nor the Seruant aboue his Lord. If our Master and Lord Christ Iesus haue suffered such things we his Disciples and seruants must possesse our soules in patience If wee bee thought too clamorous against the disorders of common life if too busie if too seuere in striking at offences forgiue vs this fault A necessity is laid vpon vs The Lord God hath spoken and wee cannot but prophesie Is a necessity laid vpon vs That 's not all For a Woe is due vnto vs if we preach not Vae mihi saith Paul 1 Cor. 9.16 Woe is mee if I preach not the Gospell If I preach not the Gospell What then shall become of the Law Wee must preach both as the Gospell so the Law As wee are to publish the tidings of ioy to those that reioyce in our message so are wee to denounce the terrors of iudgement to those that contemne it As wee are to preach liberty to captiues so are wee to threaten captiuity to libertines As wee are to pipe to those that will dance after vs so are wee to sound a trumpet of warre to those that will resist vs. As we are to build an Arke for those that will bee saued so are we to powre out a floud of maledictions against those that will bee damned Finally as wee are to open the doores to those that knocke and are penitent so are wee to stand in the doores with a flaming sword in our mouthes against those that are obstinate Thus you see a necessity is laid vpon vs to preach vnto you to preach not the Gospell onely but the Law too Yet is not this necessity necessitas coactionis a necessity of coaction constraint or compulsion but necessitas obligationis mandati diuini a necessity of obligation and diuine Commandement It is our vocation and conscience that imposeth this necessity vpon vs. If then we preach vnto you wee haue not whereof to glory or boast our selues For we doe no more than we are of duty to doe Now if we of duty preach vnto you then are you of duty likewise to heare vs and a necessity of hearing is laid vpon you I say not a necessity of coaction constraint or compulsion but a necessity of obligation and diuine Commandement A necessity is laid vpon you to heare the word of God God commandeth you to heare it And Vae vobis Woe vnto you if you refuse to heare it Yet when you heare take heed how you heare Quid juvat auditus verbi si non datur vsus What aduantage is it to you to heare the Word of God if you make no good vse thereof Ideo audis vt agas Therefore you heare that you may put in practise what you heare Sweetly Saint Augustine vpon Psal 104. Valdè malè digerit is qui bene audit non bene operatur Surely he very ill digesteth that heareth well and workes not well Now gracious Father we most humbly beseech thee to open our hearts and to vnlocke the eares of our vnderstanding that whether we preach or heare thy Word wee may preach it and heare it profitably that we may obserue learne and embrace such things as are necessary to the confirming of our weake faith and the amendment of our sinfull liues Amen THE Eleuenth Lecture AMOS 3.9 10 11. Publish in the palaces of Ashdod and in the palaces of the Land of Aegypt and say Assemble your selues vpon the mountaines of Samaria and be hold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof For they know not to doe right saith the Lord who store violence and robbery in their palaces Therefore thus saith the Lord God An aduersary there shall be euen round about the Land and hee shall bring downe thy strength from thee and thy palaces shall be spoiled THe equitie of Gods iudgements is such that if strangers see them they cannot but approue them It appeareth to be so by this passage of Amos his second Sermon to or against the people of Israel This passage is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or an Exornation pertaining to the proposition which was in the second verse of this Chapter It amplifieth the iniquitie of the Israelites from the testification of forren Nations thus You you of Israel your sinnes are so notorious so grosse so palpable that the Philistines and Egyptians may behold them sith you of your selues are not touched with a conscience of your euill deeds them the Philistines and Egyptians I call as witnesses and Iudges of your impuritie and vncleannesse This is the scope of the words now read vnto you The parts are two An Accusation vers 9. and 10. A Commination vers 11. The Accusation is deliuered by an Apostrophe by a turning of the speech from the Israelites to others vers 9. Others are called vpon to make a proclamation in these words Proclaime in the Palaces of Ashdod and in the Palaces of the Land of Aegypt and say the tenour of their proclamation is in these Assemble your selues vpon the mountaines of Samaria and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof The sinnes pointed at in this proclamation are two Crueltie and Couetousnesse Cruelty in their great tumults Couetousnesse in their oppressions Both are amplified vers 10. from two places à genere à specie First from the generall They know not to doe right Secondly from the speciall They treasure vp violence and robbery in their Palaces Their violence argueth their cruelty their robbery is a demonstration of their Couetousnesse The truth hereof is not to be questioned For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neum Iehouah the Lord hath said it For they know not to doe right saith the Lord who store vp violence and robbery in their Palaces We haue a large field for discourse to trauell in we will begin at the gate or first entrance into it which is the iniunction for the proclamation Proclaime in the Palaces of Ashdod and in the Palaces of the Land of Aegypt and say At the entrance into this field the Hebrew word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haschmignu and is as much as make to heare The old Interpreter puts for it Auditum facite make a hearing so doth Saint Hierome these keepe neere vnto the word The Septuagint with their 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not farre from the meaning nor is Oecolampadius with his annunciate for which our countryman Tauerner hath Preach Preach in the Palaces at Ashdod Caluin Iunius Brentius with his Clamate Gualter with his Diuulgate Vatâ—blus Marcer Drusius and others with their Promulgate are all for the Proclamation Cry Diuulge Publish or Proclaime Proclaime Where In Ashdod and in the Land of Aegypt First in Ashdod Pâ—laestina the Countrey of the Philistines was diuided into fiue Prouinces Dutchies or Lordships mentioned Iosh 13.3 the Prouinces of Azzâ—h of Ashdod of Askelon of Gath of Ezron Those fiue the chiefe and most famous Cities of Palastina are recorded also 1 Sam. 6.17 where the Philistines are said to haue returned for a trespasse offering vnto the Lord fiue golden Eâ—â—rods one for Ashdod one for Azzab one for Askelon one for Gâ—th and one for Ekron Ashdod In the first diuision of the holy Land it was in the lot of the Tribe of Iudah and is so described Iosh 15.47 Afterward it tell to the lot of the Tribe of the Children of Dan who had their inheritance as the Children of Simeon had within the inheritance of the Children of Iudah I sh 19.1 is accordingly described by Adrichom and Schrot in their tables of the Holy Land The more familiar name of it is Azotus In it were left Giants those that were called Enakim It is to this day a famous Citie of Palaestina Apud Hieron Tâ—â— 3. So saith Eusebius lib. de locis Hebraicis Another learned Author writing of the Hebrew places in the Acts of the Apostles saith Azotus is a famous towne of Palaestina called in Hebrew Ashdod and is one of the fiue cities of the Allophyli of the Philistines For the Etymologie of the word Saint Hierome saith it signifieth as much as ignis vberis or ignis patrui the fire of an vdder or of an vncle The words are in his Commentary vpon Amos chap. 1. where he refuteth those that say it is ignis generationis the fire of generation And well for they mistake Resch for Dâ—leth taking it for Aschdor when it is Aschdod The Author of the booke De nominibus Hebraicis vpon Ioshua saith Asdod is dissolutio vel effusio siue incendium a dissolution or an effusion or a burning A little after ignis patrui mei vel incendia my vncles fire or burnings Ignis patrui so I reade with Drusius obseru 6. 8. not Gens patrui as it is in the old bookes by the like mistake of Resch for Daleth Buntingus in his Itinerarie vpon the old Testament saith it is Ignis dilectus a beloued fire There is no agreement betweene these Etymologizâ—rs The more familiar and Greeke name of this Citie Azotus is by Stephanus in his booke of Cities deriued from Azâ— a woman that was the Foundresse of this Citie But I rather thinke that Azotus is so called from the Hebrew Asdod by the change of some letters Azotus for Asdotus as Ezâ—as for Esdras and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Dâ—ricke Dialect This same Citie Asdod or Azotus was made famous by the Ark of the Lord brought thither wheÌ„ it was taken by the Philistines and by the house of the Idoll Dagon there 1 Sam. 5.2 This is that Azotus where Philip the Deacon was found after he had baptised the Aethiopian Eunuch Act. 8.40 And this that Asdod whereof you heard in my thirteenth Sermon vpon the first Chapter of this booke vpon the eight verse these words I will cut off the inhabitant from Asdod Yet I take it not that Ashdod is here put so precisely for the Citie but that it may by a Synecdoche comprehend the whole region or Country of the Philistines Commonly it is so vnderstood by Ancients Saint Hierome Remigius Albertus Rupertus Hugo Lyra Isidorus and by moderne Writers Montanus Christophorus à Castro Petrus Lusitanus and others But I must from Ashdod and goe on to the Land of Aegypt for there is this proclamation likewise to be made Proclaime in Ashdod and in the Land of Aegypt To this Land of Aegypt we came twice before in our view of this Prophecie Cap. 2.10 3.1 and therefore need not at this time stand long vpon it Yet may we not leaue it altogether vnsaluted It is here called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eretz Mitzrajim the Lâ—nd of Mitzrajim Saint Hierome Comment in Esai cap. 18. saith that with the Hebrewes an Aegyptian man and an Aegyptian woman and the Country of Aegypt haue all one name Mefraim Obser lâ—b 5. c 25. for so Drusius readeth out of a Manuscript of Saint Hieromes Workes Apud Ebraeos Aegyptius Aegyptus Aegyptia vno vocabulo nuncupantur Mâ—sraim But this cannot be so For the Aegyptian man hee is Mesri the woman Mesrith the Countrey only Mesraim And if by the name of Mesraim the Aegyptians bee sometime signified it is by a figure of speech as when Iudah is put for the Iewes or Ephraim for the Ephraimites Iosephus in his first booke of the Antiquities of the Iewes cap. 7. saith that Egypt was called Mesrâ— and the Aegyptians Mâ—sraei he alludeth to the Hebrew name Mitzrajâ—m And Aegypt was so called from Mitzrajim one of the sonnes of Chum his second sonne as we finde him Gen. 10.6 He first inhabited that part of Africa which was afterward called Aegypt from Aegyptus sonne of Beliâ—s King of that Land Now because this same Mitzrajim was one of the sons of Cham the Land of Mitzrajim or of Aegypt is in the Psalmes of Dauid entitled the Land of Cham Psal 105.27 106 2â— as Psalm 105.23 Iaacob was a stranger in the Land of Cham and in other places And for the same reason is Cham put for Aegypt Psal 78 51. He smote all the first borne in Aegypt euen the beginning of their strength in the tabernacles of Cham. The latter part of that verse being an exposition of the former makes it manifest that Cham is there put for Mitzrajim or Aegypt Enough for this time of Aegypt The Palaces of both Ashdod and Aegypt are here specified not barely the houses as the Vulgar Latine here readeth but the Palaces to shew that this proclamation was to be made not in obscure houses or poore Cottages but in their Princes Courts And quod in aulis principum diuulgatur latere non potest what is published in Princes Courts it will abroad There is the greatest confluence of honourable persons and men of note who haue euermore some about them that will not spare to tell abroad what is either said or done by the Princes themselues in their most secret closets Their very vices cannot be hid So Honorius the Emperour in the Panegyricke tells his son Theodosius Claudian de 4. Cons Honorij vers 271. cunctis tua gentibus esse Facta palam nec posse dari regalibus vsquà m Secretum vitijs Whatsoeuer thou doest it is knowne abroad nor can
there to visit is taken in the worse part for to visit in iudgement in anger or displeasure for as much as it bringeth a rod and stripes with it It is to correct it is to punish There is Esay 10.12 a commination against the King of Assyria that same rod of hypocrites that his pride should be broken It is thus deliuered I will visit vpon the fruit of the proud heart of the King of Ashur and the glory of his high lookes And there also to visit is in the worse part for to visit in iudgement in ire anger or displeasure It is to correct it is to punish As in the now alleaged places to visit signifieth in the worse part to visit in iudgement in ire anger or displeasure and by a consequent to correct or punish so doth it in my Text. And therefore for Visitabo Iunius hath animaduertam This same visiting is with him a punishing In the day that I shall visit or punish What Prauaricationes Israel saith the Vulgar Latine The preuarications of Israel The preuarications of Israel are his swaruings from truth reason and honesty Iunius translates them Defectiones the reuoltings or slippings of Israel Our English hath the transgressions of Israel by which name sinnes are called because they exceed the bounds and markes which God by his Law hath appointed vnto vs Drusius Caluin Oâ—aller Breâ—tiâ—s for the moderating of our desires and affections Some here haue Scelera Israel the wickednesse lewdnesse or naughtinesse of Israel These generall appellations doe direct vs to particular sins to couetousnesse to pride to cruelty to vniust exactions to robbing and spoiling of the poore these were the sinnes that reigned and raged in Israel in the Kingdome of the Ten tribes or the Kingdome of Israel called in the precedent verse The house of Iacob and these were the sinnes for which the Lord was resolued to punish Israel as it is also signified in the second verse of this Chapter There is a Visitabo as well as here Visitabo super vos omnes iniquitates vestras I will visit vpon you or I will punish you for all your iniquities Visitabo I will doe it I will visit I will punish I the Lord God the God of Hosts will visit the transgressions of Israel vpon him Whence ariseth this obseruation Whatsoeuer visitation or punishment befalleth any of vs in this life it is laid vpon vs by the hand of God by his good will and pleasure The Visitabo in my Text doth warrant this truth A day there shall be wherein Visitabo I shall visit the transgressions of Israel vpon him I shall doe it When the world was growne so foule with sinne that it deserued to be washed with a floud God himselfe vndertooke the visitation Gen. 6.7 I will destroy man whom I haue created from the face of the earth And vers 17. Behold I euen I doe bring a floud of waters vpon the earth to destroy all flesh Concerning the sinne of the people that great and grieuous sinne when they made them Gods of gold the Lord saith vnto Moses Exod. 32.34 In the day when I visit then will I visit their sinne vpon them When I see good to punish them I my selfe will punish them For the disobedient and despisers of the will of the Lord the Lord hath a Visitabo too Leuit. 26.16 Visitabo vos velociter I will visit you quickly with terrours with consumptions with burning agues that shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart with the sword with famine and with pestilence Visitabo vos velociter I will quickly visit you I will doe it Monstrous and grieuous were the sinnes of Sodome and Gomorrah that were to be reuenged by so fearefull a iudgement as is a raine of brimstone and fire But how fell that raine vpon them The Text is Gen. 19.24 The Lord rained vpon Sodome and vpon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of Heauen The Lord rained saith the Text. Then not man not deuill not necromancy not any thing in nature was the cause that this befell those Cities but the very power and wrath of God of a displeased God at so great abomination as was there committed sent downe that raine vpon them The Lord was he that gaue that raine Prodigious were the plagues wherewith the land of Aegypt was visited I looke into the Sacred story and there I see aboue them a Exod. 9.23 thunder haile lightning tempests one while b Exod. 10.22 no light at all another while such fearefull flashes as had more terrour than the darknesse I see vnder them c 7.20 the waters changed into bloud the earth swarming with d 8.6 frogs and e 10.13 grashoppers I see about them f 8.24 swarmes of flies by which the land was corrupted I see their g 9.23.10.15 fruits destroyed their h 9.6 cattell dying their i 12.30 children dead Turning mine eyes vnto themselues I see them very loathsome with k 8.17 lice and deformed with l 8.10 scabs boiles and botches Grieuous indeed were these visitations but who was he that wrought them It was the Lord. For so the Text runneth Exod. 7.5 The Aegyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I stretch forth mine hand vpon Aegypt Who was it but the Lord that smote Nabal that he died 1 Sam. 25.38 Aske of Esay who it is that formeth the light and createth darknesse that maketh peace and createth euill he will tell you it is the Lord that doth all these things Chap. 45.7 It is the Lord doth all Light and peace are the symbols of prosperity darknesse and euill of aduersity so the meaning of the place will be that the Lord is a doer not only in the prosperity but also in the aduersity wherewith this life is seasoned Thus haue you the confirmation of my obseruation which was that Whatsoeuer visitation or punishment befalleth any of vs in this life it is laid vpon vs by the hand of God by his good will and pleasure One reason hereof is because nothing is done in this world but the Lord is the principall doer of it Nothing is done without him no not in the carriage of a lottery which in mans iudgement seemeth of all things to be the most casuall yet therein doth Gods hand appeare Salomon auoucheth it Prou. 16.33 The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord. Let Lots be cast into the lap some hat or cap or pot or box some secret and close place from whence the drawing of them forth may seeme to be meerely accidentall yet it is nothing so For God by his infinite and eternall prouidence doth both generally and particularly wholly and altogether direct and order them Now if Gods hand be found in the disposing of Lots shall it not be found in the ordering of the visitations and punishments that are incident to vs in this life for our