to the building of the first Temple then the whole Congregation together were able to offer towards the reedifying of the second Possibly one man had been owner of more cattell then all of them could number when they were come up into their own land they did not enjoy the liberty of an Israelitish subject but were under the arbitrary power of a Tyrant who bare rule over them at their pleasure They were servants in their own land and it yeelded much increase to the Kings whom God had set over them because of their sinnes Onely they had found some favour with the Heathen Monarchs Proclamations had been issued in their behalfe some liberty granted by Cyrus some additionall enlargement by his successours some speciall providences had been dispensed in answer of their prayers a door of hope was opened but there were many adversaries and they daily wrestled with many difficulties and discouragements even among themselves were found many wicked and ill affected persons at that very time there was cause of solemne mourning and fasting Yet even this deliverance this way of God in good-will to them the holy man magnifies with no little wonderment hereof he was glad as they that dreame in an extasie of joy and admiration he looks upon it as an over-excellent object over-powring his heart that he cannot finde wordes for it And hast given us such deliverance as this Secondly The Psalmist speaks it plainly though he cannot speak it fully Happy is the people that is in such a case yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord He weighs both stakes with the advantages of each one against the other and in his judgement this casts the scales and more then counterpoiseth the good of that for if the former words vers. 12 13 14. and part of the 15. That our children c. Happy is that people that is in such a case be the wish and boast of the vain men mentioned vers. 11th then he opposeth those last of his own to theirs nay happy are the people whose God is the Lord or if he speaks his own thoughts looking to the promises and blessings of the Law yet then he correcteth himselfe and preferreth this to the former counting them happy who suffer affliction if God be amongst them in good will as when he dwelt in the bush rather then those who spend their daies in wealth whose houses are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them whose soever the words be without controversie he gives the precedencieto that for which he had first prayed viz. an extraordinary providence towards him in times of trouble Bow the Heavens O God and come down send thine hand from above rid me and deliver me out of great waters from the hand of strange children whose mouth talketh of vanity and their right hand is a right hand of falshood And by the way it may be noted how he can number and measure the blessings of plenty and prosperity can gaze upon the pomp and glory of them and finde language to speak as much as heart can wish or thinke but the priviledge of protection and deliverance in troublesome times while God teacheth the hands to warre and the fingers to fight while God becomes the goodnesse fortresse tower deliverer and shield of his servants subduing and scattering their enemies before them He rather admires then comprehends he cannot graspe what he saw nor distinctly expresse what he apprehended affections swallow up words Happy is that people whose God is the Lord But why do we look so farre when we may finde proof so neer in the last verse of this very chapter Happy art thou oh Israel who is like unto thee oh Jacob saved by the Lord the shield of thine helpe and who is the sword of thine excellencie The Rhetorique is very high yet very intelligible and its meaning easily discernable an ordinary capacitie will reach it especially if but imagine the man of God now upon the mount of contemplation as we finde him in the next Chapter on the top of Nebo looking round about him on the course of Gods providence in Egypt in the wildernesse and in the land in times of distresse and giving liberty to his heart with contentment and gladnesse to feed upon the good things the manifold good folded up in that blessed state wherein the Lord did more immediately and openly interest himselfe in their cause in every difficulty and against all opposition either miraculously in the want and absence of means supplying and saving-by himselfe or marvellously in the insufficiencie and disproportion of means commanding an efficacie and creating an issue beside their thought beyond their expectation to their advantage and priviledge especially in the hazard of warre else what means the mention of shield and sword A short paraphrase will smooth and clear the abrupt and imperfect expression if any thing may seem obscure in it and lend much light to the proofs of the doctrine in hand for the words do manifestly bear this sense Oh the happinesse of the people the care of whose welfare the everlasting God doth take upon himselfe The multitude the variety the world of mercies mingled with judgements the abundance the infinite of good put into their hands dropt into their mouthes by the gracious and glorious administrations of providence Oh the excellence the lustre of the prerogative of such a people above all other nations outshining the seeming cloudinesse and uncomfortablenesse of their unsetled distracted condition They perhaps may sometimes thinke themselves in a worse estate then other men because of the diminution and obstruction of their ordinary liberties by the want of common accommodations and conveniences but if they were taken off their prejudices and knew their own happinesse there were none to be compared with them the worlds wonder and envy having God so nigh them so seasonably so manifestly so admirably preserving and providing for them its impossible to set forth the excellencie of their priviledge words will not expresse it the minde cannot fathom it admiration cannot reach it Oh the happinesse c. But we may well set aside particular witnesses for there are three or four things in Scripture that we cannot lightly passe by without observation which corroborate the testimony produced First This blessing is the blessing of the promises mostly the matter of Gods promises speciall solemne promises other things are the object of mens wishes and desires Oh that thou wouldest blesse me indeed and enlarge my coast and that thou wouldest keep me from evil that it may not grieve me but if God saw cause at any time to fore-acquaint his people with his good will about the concernements of their outward temporall estates the prophecie and the promise are usually of these and of this kinde we finde very many very ample and very remarkeable discoveries and ingagements in Moses and the Prophets Secondly God is more oft proclaimed by Names
and shall declare thy mighty acts And herein my Lords ye have the advantage of all that hear me this day Ye may command these things to be written even a book of the warres of the Lord for the generations to come that the people which shall be created may praise the Lord Ye may appoint dayes of Thanksgiving when remarkeable passages of providence minister occasion thereto and if the God of our mercies should make the warres to cease and this miserable distration to end in an happy reconciliation and reformation ye may ordain an anniversary remembrance thereof as the Jews did their dayes of Purim that the memoriall of the good will of God in this wonderfull deliverance may not perish from the land and peradventure another age may finde cause to make a Secular commemoration of the multitude of mercies which are forming in the womb of this extraordinary providence and shall in time be brought forth for the advantage of posterity for we hope the foundations are now laying for many generations and the dayes come when it shall no more be said the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt no nor the Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the North at the least as to that which is already past for we wait yet a further accomplishment of that Prophecie But the Lord liveth that separated his people and brought them up from under the papal bondage and servitude which spiritually is Sodome and Egypt and Babylon and delivered their souls from the fierce anger of the Lord The Lord liveth which hath judged the great whore that corrupted the earth with her fornications and hath avenged the bloud of his servants at her hand Amen Hallelujah Surely the time approacheth when the memory of those wonderfull works shall be swallowed up in the celebration of this and this deliverance and the course of Gods speciall extraordinary providence at this season in favour of his Church shall be esteemed more miraculous then those of old and the glory of this shall dimme the lustre of those The mean while when God appears to us by such signals of his presence as of late and there is occasion either to contemplate or to celebrate such wonderfull manifestations of his good will as this for which we assemble to blesse his name this day let us not forget the admonition which God gave Moses when he turned aside to see this great sight Put off thy shoes from off thy feet a double caveat One to deny our selves not only in curiosity and vanity of minde but in all low earthly sensuall reasonings and passions such as are incident to brutish men who know not and to fools who understand not the deep thoughts and mysterious wayes of God in his judgements so some allegorize the phrase because the shoes go next the earth and gather dirt and to elevate the minde and heart above all that 's common and which a naturall carnall and politick wisedome which is from below would suggest and as if we were in the mount of transfiguration to have high and spirituall and heavenly apprehensions and stirrings of heart in all humble and holy reverence adoring the majesty of God both in that which we behold and that which we cannot yet comprehend waiting till he further interpret himselfe Verily God is with us nigh unto us else how is all this befallen us and whence are all these miracles the miraculous victories beyond all expectation so lately so often given in unto us The marvellous works done before us are apparently wrought out not by the heads or the hands of men but by the finger of God or rather his mighty hand and out-stretched arm and are none other then evident pledges of his nearnesse to us in good will as when he dwelt in the Bush The other is to lay aside all emulation contention vain jangling about the merits of men the praise or dispraise of the men of Gods hand and in all humility to resign up all pretences of claim or interest into the hands of God for in this way of resignation of right we sometimes find this Ceremony used so some understand that expression in Exodus and it may be applied to this purpose viz. 1. That the parties themselves whom God honoureth in the service would give him all the praise and let none of the fat of the peace-offering cleave to their own fingers but cause it to bee burnt on the Altar to the Lord Not unto us not unto us but unto thy name be the praise And to speak plainly for God there is none other cause for what is or hath bin praise worthy besides the successe and who knowes not who sees not that the event is of God When Gideon and his servant heard the Midianite and his fellow tell one another the Dream and the interpretation thereof how a Barley-cake tumbled into the Host of Midian and fell upon a Tent and smote it and over-turned it that the Tent lay along and they saw the carriage of the businesse the next day in the battell to answer it what could they do lesse than wonder and worship well might their hands be strengthned to the war but it had been extream madnesse and impudence to have gloried in themselves and would have been revenged as on Herod The spoyles of a victory may be divided amongst men but the honour of a victory especially such as ours have been of late belong to God alone It is his glory he is a jealous God and will not give it to another It is his Crown he that will set it upon his owne head or will not lay it down before the Throne of God and the Lamb the Lord will loose his shoe from off his foot and spit in his face And secondly That standers by and lookers on doe look off look up above the instruments of Providence to God who giveth victory in the day of Battel neither quarrelling nor idolizing men or means both which are equally sacrilegious and abomination before the Lord Do ye think the Israelites had done well or would it have been accepted of God if they had made odious comparisons between Moses and Ioshua if they had decryed as indeed they murmured at Moses because by his hand they were led about many years in the wildernesse and met with many difficulties and disasters and their carcases fell and they consumed daily and came short of their hopes and on the other hand had lift up Joshua because under his conduct the enemies were over-thrown and their walled Towns and strong holds were gained and they prospered in every undertaking Had this been to acknowledge the hand of God either in judgment or mercy Doubtlesse God is not honoured where there is strife and variance and emulation in such a way as this If there be a miscarriage at any time and
spring up daily many roots of bitternesse and many are thereby defiled There be scoffers and prophane persons and Atheists and many are daily made such and great occasion is given to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme and to speak evil of the way of Truth by those who privily bring in damnable Heresies and by those who follow their pernicious wayes using liberty for an occasion to the flesh These things and the like are done daily to the great dishonour of God and scandall of Religion I beseech you my Lords stirre up your jealousie and take hold upon your power for the punishing the avenging and the redressing of these things Be very jealous for God who is jealous for his people with a great jealousie that there may be no colour of cause given for the renewing of the old complaint All men seeks their own not the things which are Jesus Christs Secondly It is humbly desired that the worke of Reformation may be speeded and order in the Church established by Law even now while the Lord is thus advancing the worke of our deliverance although there be many difficulties and an appearance of some discouragements Your Lordships may please to remember how while the fire was yet on the Bush two or three dayes before they were to passe out of Egypt when the people must needs bee in an hurry and confusion in no fit disposition scarce a capacity of receiving such a Law and there was no time to teach them the interpretation of it and one would have thought a fitter season was nigh at hand and might well have been waited for the introducing of the use and regulating of the manner of communicating in such a mystery yet even in that juncture of time and before God offered to shew the whole patern in the Mount the Sacrament of the Passeover was instituted and the rule thereof made publike by an Ordinance and the people commanded to observe it and they went and were obedient thereunto It seems to me and I beleeve your Honours cannot think other but that this was done and written with speciall reference to this very season and the great affaire now in your hands for instruction and direction to this present Parliament to take into most serious consideration and affection the humble advice and Petitions that have so often and with so great desire and expectation been presented to both Houses in the matter of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and to give a Law for the Administration thereof and the regulating of the admission of Communicants according to the Word of God and the rules of discipline in all the reformed Churches That the Church of Christ may have the liberty of this Ordinance in the purity of it Then which nothing can make more for the unity and peace of the Church and Nation and the defeating of the crafty designes of those cunning men who lye in wait to delude and divide and to do this speedily notwithstanding all objections and obstructions which polititians or prophane worldlings or any Sectaries may with faire pretence raise to the retarding hereof being all cleâ—â—ly and fully anticipated and answered by the light and encouragement of this very story And when this is once setled you shall with the more ease provide and we shall with the more patience and consolation expect the setting up of the rest of the frame of Government though the times should continue unquiet and hazardous and we should still be put to depend upon an extraordinary Providence for subsistence For your Lordships may also please to call to minde how when the people wandered in the Wildernesse neer fourty years before they possessed the Land The Lord caused the Tabernacle of the Tâ—stimony to be wrought and reared and ordered the pitching of it and marshalled the Tents of the Tribes about it and gave the Lawes for his publike worship and in that unsetled time and when they were newly entred into Canaan while they were yet in warre set on foot all that belonged to the administration of it And afterwards how it was the care of Ezra and Nehemiah in the most troublesome times when they had many enemies and there were many conspiracies and confederacies against them and the distraction was great and they were forced to hold a sword in one hand while a Trowell was in the other yet made it their great care to re-edifie the holy Citie and the Temple and reforme and restore the publike service of God and when they entred into a curse and an oath Reformation in matters of Religion was the first and principall charge And when they waxed cold or forgetfull the Prophets put them in remembrance they received the exhortation and the Lord blessed the labour of their love Then the Prophets prophesied unto the Jewes which were in Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel and the Elders of the Jewes builded and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet and Zechariah the sonne of Iddo and they builded and finished it according to the Commandement of the Lord There is my warrant for this motion and there is your Honours paterne for the worke and there is great encouragement to us all I move you my Lords to no more than what ye your selves have obliged your selves by solemn Covenant to do and what you have engaged us all to endeavour and procure by all good and lawfull means to be done and this brings to minde A third thing The keeping of the Covenant in the whole and in every part especially that which concerns the Reformation of the Church according to the Word of God and the example of the best reformed Churches I suppose I may be bold and that without offence to transfer hither the speech of Peter to Ananias and Sapphira in another case or at the least to allude to it When the super-inducing of such a sacred ingagement was first in motion it was free to the high and Honourable Court of Parliament to have forborne the framing of such a Covenant And while it remained under debate and deliberation was it not in your power to have abstained from the bringing of your selves and the Kingdomes into such an oath and a curse but now yee have sworne before the Lord how so great a part as the intended Reformation can be kept back or be rigidly pressed for the advantage of the civill State and neglected or be proceeded in remifly in the case of Religion and the Church without tempting or provoking the Lord that I may not say without Sacriledge or a lye unto God judge ye Or how safe it may be after vowes to make inquiry How sad a thing and destructive would it be if the Land should after all this be made to mourne for breach of Covenant and perjury I beseech you my Lords prevent it with all your zeale and the Lord enable you to do worthily for God to do something extraordinary for him who
in mercy and truth to our posterity which we say shall be a prey and they may know that salvation which we now despise and the present froward generation perish by the way I thinke therefore there is need to pray and to pray daily to seeke the Lord that we live lest he that now dwells amongst us in good will as when he dwelt in the Bush breake out like fire in the Land as he threatens the house of Joseph and devourâ— it and there be none to quench it The Lord is an holy God he is a jealous God and will not forgive our tranngressions if we abuse the goodnesse of God and seek liberty for our lusts and forsake the Lord He will turn and doe us hurt and consume us after he hath done us good And it may come to passe that as all good things are come upon us which the Lord our God hath promised us so he may bring upon us all evil things untill he hath destroied us from off this good land which the Lord our God hath given us Nay if we knew the secrets of God concerning us or could understand by books as Daniel did the set time of our deliverance yet we ought to seek by prayer and supplication How much more while the fire is yet on the Bush should we cry continually to our God after the example of Moses that we may behold his Salvation And now while we are together and the Lord hath put it into our hearts to pray before him for blessed be God we may now pray after the Sermon and are not bound up to a doxologie no not on a day of thanksgiving Let us remember it in our Prayers FINIS Deut. 28. 58. Isa. 8. â— vers. 26. 28. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Exod 40. 35. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 King 11. 29. Doct. Greg. Nissen Lippomannus Proof by Scripture Ezra 9. 13. Psalm 126. 2 Chron 29. 4. Nehe. 8. 36 37. Psal. 144. 15. Job 21. 9 13 Psal. 144. 12 13 14. ver. 1 1. Numb. 21. 14. Psal. 145. Mognalia Dei Mirabilia Dei Isa. 59. 16 17. Psal. 15. 28. 1. Pet. 1. 7. Isa. 48. 10. Ezek. 20 5. Isa. 50. 4 50 Isa. 27. 9. Isa. 4. 4. Zech. 13. 9. Mal. 3. 16 17. Ezra 9. 13. Ezod. 3. 8. 1 Sam. 14. 27. Deut. 32. 13. Joh 2. Wisd. 16. 20 21. Deut. 31. 10 11 12. Isa. 63. 9. Exod. 3. 7. 2 Cor 1. 10. Psal. 103. 4. Psal. 68. 1â— Tegere beneficium beneficio Bona rerum secunderum optabilia bona rerum adversarum mirabilia Sen. Vse 1. Gen. 15. Exod 3. Exod 3. 3. Psal. 76. 10. Mr Sedgewick Rev. 17. 2 Thes. 2. Psal. 64. 6. Job 5. 12. Isa. 27 7. Deut. 9. 18. Isa. 28 29. Iam. 3. 22 23. Rom. 11. 33. Exod. 3 4. Isa. 1â— 4. Psal. 107. 8 1â— 21. â—â— Psal. 46 8. Psal. 111. 2. Psal 107 43. Psal. 9 16. HiggaioÌ„ Selah Res meditanda summa sunius Oh rem perpetua meditatione dignam Vatab. Psal. 145. Optimorum non est laus sed admiratio Psal. 65. 1. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Tacet laus ratione operum tuorum sortium Laus non potest attingere te Pagnin Psal. 106. 2. Psal. 150. 2. Ps. 145. 5 6 7. vers. 4. Esth. 9 18. Jer 16. 14 15. Rev. 11. 8. Jer. 51 45. Rev. 19. 2 4. Caution Psal. 92 5 6. Judg. 6. 13. Ruth 5. 7. Exod. 3. 5. Levit. 4. 10. Judg. 7. 13 14 15. Deut. 25. 9. Iudg. 24. 2 3. 2 Sam. 23. 17. Vse 2. Generally to all Psal. 50. 23. Psal. 105. 45. Esa. 63. 8. Exod. 4. 30 31 Exod. 5. 20 21. Psal. 78. 11. 22. Numb. 16. Psal. 78. 8. Exod. 24. Psal. 78. 34. Numb. 1. 46. Numb. 26. 65. 1 Cor. 10 6. Numb. 14. 24. Iosh 14. 6. 1 Cor. 10 11. More particularly to the Lords Numb. 7. 2. 1 Chr. 29. 6. Ego certè vereor ne nos quoque cum alienas blasphemias iterum atque iterum repetamus nostram mentem polluamus atque ita condemnatione quoque participemus Basil 2 Tim. 3. 16. Exod. 12. Neh 10. 19 30 31 c. Ezra 5. 1 2. Haggâ—i 1. 2. Ezra 6. 14. Vse 3. Esay 4. 4. Heb. 11. 25. Matth. 17. 4. Micha 7. 9. Hab. 3. 17. Exod. 9. 28. James 5. 7 8. James 1. 5. Psal. 18. 24. Pet. â— Numb. 14. Amos 5. 6. Josh. 24. 19 20 cap. 23. 25.