him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come wicked men use to call and invite one another to commit sin they are a sociable sort of people they are unwilling to go to hell alone they entise and engage as many as they can to be partakers with them they are in league and covenant there is a combination among them especially among Traitors such as these chief Priests were who conspired against Christ just as Iosephs brethren against him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come let us kill him Ioseph indeed scaped with life thankes to his Eldest brother but Jesus had not one Reuben to speak for him none but a woman she could not prevaile the of Kings the earth standing up and the Rulers taking counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ for against the holy child Iesus both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of the Iewes were gathered together they gathered them together against the soul of the righteous that they might condemn the innocent blood They reasoned among themselves saying Come let us kill him Kill him As the Devil is a murderer so all those that are of his party thirst after blood Shimei did a great deal of wrong to David in calling him so but otherwise Bloody-man and man of Belial may well go together for there is no man desperately wicked but he is a blood-thirsty man It hath been thus from the beginning of the world and will be so to the end Cain was of that wicked one what is next 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and slew his brother 1. Ioh. 3.12 This was also the resolution of wicked Esau The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand then saith he will I slay my brother Jacob Gen. 27.41 Thus Pharaoh commanded the Egyptian Mid-wives to murder every male-child of the Hebrewes if it be a Son then ye shall kill him Exod. 1.6 And thus Herod slew all the children in Bethleem from two years old and under Math. 2.16 Thus we read of Herodias that nothing would satiate her malice but St. I hn Baptist's blood Math. 14.8 Thus the Iewes cryed out against St. Paul away with such a fellow from the earth for it is not fit that he should live Act. 22.22 and Act. 23.12 we find some that bound themselves under a curse they took the Covenant◠saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul And the whore of Babylon is said to be drunk with the blood of Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Iesus Revel 17.6 I might be almost infinite in examples but this in our Text shall be instar omnium we may see the bloody-mindednes of wicked men by these chief Priests who conspired not to banish or imprison but each to murder Gods own Son they reasoned among themselvs saying come let us kill him And the voices of the multitude and of the chief Priests prevailed this treason stood not alway in consultation but went on to action what the common counsell determined wickedly the common people executed greedily they cast the Heir out of the vineyard and slew him with this dreadfull imprecation His blood be on us and on our children And seeing our Master was thus used we must expect no better meature but even to be killed all the day long as the Psalmist speaketh and to be counted as sheep appointed to be slaine the Alpha and the Omega of the Church is writ in blood Sanguine fundata est Ecclesia sanguine crevit Sanguine firmatur sanguine finis erit And we need not wonder at this if we believe our Saviour for it is but that which he told us long agoe that we should be hated and hunted after for his sake yea the time will come saith he that whosoever killeth you will think he doth God service A prophecy that seemeth to point directly at our very dayes when the bloudiest of Souldiers think themselves the best of Saints when murdering of loyal Christians goeth for pure religion But though our blood be shed like water on every side yet our God that is true and holy will in his good time judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth there will on day be a strict inquisition made for blood for the blood of Strafford Canterbury for the blood of Lucas and Lisle for the blood of Tomkins and Chaloner for the blood of Yeomans Bourchier and Burleigh for the blood of Dunkin and others in Kent there will be a time I say if not in this yet in the next world when all the righteous innocent blood that hath of late years been shed in this Kingdome shall be required at the hands of this Tyrannical I will not call it but a Satanical generation And so I passe from the third part of the Text which was the Manner of the chief Priests conspiracy in these words They reasoned among themselves saying Come let us kill him to the fourth and last the End of their conspiracy which was that they might be Lords of the Mannour that the inheritance may be ours But now the Husbandmen c. In every action there is both Opus and Intentio oper antis the doing of the work and the end for which we do it and by an Hysteron Proteron the last of these is first what is last in execution the same is first in our intention the End being alway the beginning of the action Now it is an Axiome in Philosophy Finis bonum convertuntur let the action be what it will good is alway propounded for the End either Honestum or Iucundum or Utile either an honest or a pleasant or a profitable end they that do evill will say they do this that good may come of it good to themselves at least though hurt to others or if it be not good indeed yet it shall seemingly be good and the last of those three ends the chief Priests here propound unto themselves Bonum utile they set up profit for their end Come say they let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours They propound the same end with those sinners that Solomon cautioneth us to take heed of Prov. 1.11 13. Where hope of gain is used as a motive to invite others to joyn with them Come let us lay wait for blood let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause we shall find all pretious substance we shall fill our houses with spoil And at the 19. ver there is just such another passage So are the wayes of every one that is greedy of gain which taketh away the life of the owners thereof Quid non mortalia pectora cogis Auri sacra fames There is not any villany but will go down with a man if it have a golden bait The love of money is the root of all evil 1. Tim. 6.10 Balaam will endeavour to curse Israel if he may gain but the rewards of divination Achan will take of the accursed thing if
the rivers shall not overflow thee the flame shall not kindle on the. I propounded four acceptions of these Waters ye shall see that the Church passeth safely thorow them all First Thorow waters taken in the literal sense as we may see by sundry examples The first may be that of Noah Sin had once so soiled the earth that God was fain to lay it a soak it was so foul that nothing would cleanse it but a flood There were Gyants in sin as well as in Stature the wickedness of man was great in the earth And Abyssus abyssum this depth of sin called for as deep a deluge the flood-gates therefore were pluckt up the windowes from on high were opened And what distress of Nations was there then with perplexity the sea and the waves roaring and mens hearts failing them for fear Methinks I see how abruptly their Marriage-feasts are dissolved what haste they make out adoors that they may get up into trees how some climb the tops of mountains Tamen ultra pergere tendunt But the waters continually following them at heels when all hope that they should escape drowning was taken away methinks I hear them curse the day that ever they were born and wish if it were possible that they might be metamorphosed into fishes But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord when the flood was brought in upon the world of the ungodly For though it rained as if heaven and earth would have come together though the waters were so grown as to over-top the highest mountains yet heavens great Palinurus preserved Noah in this Ocean Elumina non operient the rivers shall not overflow thee The Children of Israel may be a second example whose preservation was indeed far stranger than Noah's for Noah had a ship the Isrealites had none which made them think that there was no way in the world with them but drowning Mars in the rear and Neptune facing of them they thought that one of these must needs devour Israel with open mouth But He that brought light out of darkness brought safety out of their greatest danger what they feared would be their destruction this God made their preservation for rather than Israel should miscarry Jordan shall forget his fluid nature the floods shall stand upright as an heap and the depths shall be congealed in the heart of the Sea Gods people need not fear the waters the waters saw them and were afraid and therefore ran away with might and main to make way for them The waters indeed faced as if they had known the Israelites from the Aegyptians drowning the hoste of Pharaoh but inmmuring the hoste of Israel Flumina non operient the rivers shall not overflow thee Moses may be a third example to this purpose There were never two crueller Tyrants than Pharaoh and Herod one drowned the male Children the other cut their throats But as Christ escaped from Herod so from Pharoah Moses whose Parents durst not long entertain him in their house when he was but a quarter old they shipt him in an Ark of rushes But how properly may that of the Psalmist be applyed to him Psalm 27.10 When my father and my mother forsook we then the Lord taketh me up Or rather indeed the Lady did this even Thermutis the King of Aegypt's daughter Flumina non opertent the rivers shall not overflow thee And to these examples I may add Elijah's and Elisha's passage over Jordan the Disciples with our Saviour in the ship and St. Paul's most dangerous voyage toward Rome all corroborating and confirming this Assertion in our Text Flumina non operient the Rivers shall not overflow thee The Lord sitteth above the water-flood Psal 29.9 I remember a story of one that wondered why any man would go to sea seeing so many die at sea to whom one replyed he might wonder as well why any man will go to bed seeing so many diâ— in their beds Dii maris terrae may be put into Gods royal Title His way is in the sea and his paths in the great waters he that was able without a ship to walk safely on the sea must needs be able to save those that go down to the sea in ships while they are following their honest vocation they may be assured of his protection he shall give his Angels charge over them to keep them in all their wayes the Angel of the water mentioned Rev. 16.5 This Angel shall be their Pilot and conduct them to their wished haven Flumina non operient the Rivers shall not overflow thee Secondly By Waters we understand the Enemies of the Church neither shall these waters be able to overflow her The seed of the Serpent will still be warring with the womans seed the Dragon and his against Michael and his Angels The Church of Christ will ever be maligned by the Synagogue of Satan but though these waters swell yet they shall not prevail against her David's enemies were daily in hand to swallow him up but these waters of the proud had bounds which they could never pass Hezekiah was both Invaded and besieged by the Assyrians but how strangely was he preserved from him that had drunk strange waters and who with the sole of his feet had dried up all the rivers of besieged places I have not time to shew you all the particular preservations of Gods people how he hath saved them still from the reproof of those that would have eaten them up And from this experience of Gods former together with the promises of Gods future favour we may draw this application we may here put on the resolution of holy David not to fear though the earth be moved and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same Let the Heathen never so furiously rage together and let the people imagine a vain thing let the Rulers stand up and take Counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed and against his Church Let Gebal and Ammon and Ameleck the Philistines with them that dwell at Tyre let Gog and Magog Antichrist and Mahomet the Pope and the Turk nay let all the devils in hell be confederate against the Church yet still she shall be safe the son of wickedness shall not hurt her the gates of hell shall not prevail against her Flumina non operient the rivers shall not overflow her Let me apply this more particularly to my Soveraign Lord the King The floods have risen as David speaketh the floods lift up their voice the floods lift up their waves But these floods of ungodly men I trust shall not overflow him though the waves of the sea are mighty and rage horribly yet the Lord that 's one good turn which dwelleth on high is mightier and he will send down from the high to fetch him he will take him out of many waters he will make these Traitors
to them but only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Had not Christ then after his resurrection enlarged their Commission we had not heard I doubt unto this hour whether there had been a Christ or no. For his Apostles would not have been like the Mechanicks in our dayes they would not have run about the world and preached without Commission without an Ite Praedicate go and preach how should they have preached except they had been sent Our Saviour therefore delayed his ascension into heaven to furnish his Apostles with a Catholick Commission that so their sound might go out into all Lands and their Words unto the ends of world And so ye have the Time of Christs ascension in reference to his Resurrection Be pleased now to consider it in reference to his last exercise which was the Resolving of his Apostles doubts the Instructing and the Blessing of them by and by after this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when had spoken these things The Church of Rome keepeth much ado about These things she would hereby have her unwritten Traditions to be understood But though all things are not written which our blessed Saviour spake yet all things necessary to salvation I am sure are written the Gospell were imperfect should Traditions be entertained So that we are not to heed mens inventions but only Christ's instructions He was the way and he shewed all men the way that they should walk in as he shewed it his Apostles here when he had spoken these things These things that is First when he had resolved their doubts They asked him whether he would at that time restore the kingdome to Israel Act. 1.6 To which he returned them a short answer that it was not for them to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power And this first may teach the Laity to bring their Queries their Questions to the Clergy the Priests lips must preserve knowledg and they must seek the Law at his mouth Mal. 2.7 And as the People must bring their questions so the Pastour must resolve them And to this end St. Paul would have him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach 1 Tim. 3.2 he must be both able and also ready to teach and resolve doubts our Saviour ascended not till he had done this till he had resolved his Apostles doubts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he had spoken these things These things That is Secondly when he had throughly instructed his Apostles in the way to heaven Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end he preached unto them till he departed from them till he was taken up into heaven And herein he was first a patterne to all that are Preachers of his Gospel who having set their hand to his plow ought never to look back The Levites at fifty years old were freed from the service of the Tabernacle But no age will exempt or discharge us of our office we must not cease to exercise it till we are just putting off this Tabernacle though we are never so superannuated though we are such as Paul the Aged or though so feeble that like St. Iohn we were fain to be carryed to the pulpit For as the Echo repeateth only the last part of the voice so the people are aptest to remember the last part of the Sermon and the last Sermon best And therefore St. Peters resolution was that he would not cease to be a Preacher till he ceased to be a man as we read 2 Pet. 1.12 13.15 I will not be negligent to put you alwayes in remembrance of these things though ye know them and be established in the present truth Yea I think it meet as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things alwayes in remembrance And as this affordeth a lesson for Preachers so doth it for Parents and Masters who ought to give their children and servants good instructions in their health but then to do this especially when they lie upon their bed of sicknesse when they have the sentence of Death in them when they are ready to depart out of this world the best Legacies they can then give them are godly admonitions For the words of a dying friend like those of our Martyred Soveraign live with us till our death they are as goades and as nailes fastned by the masters of Assemblies every sillable seemetha sentence to us their words make a deep impression in our minds and memories when therefore ye are going the way of all the earth do as religious Ioshua then did call for your families and charge them to persevere in pious duties to fear the Lord and to serve him in sincerity and truth Charge them also as a dying David charged his Son Solomon to know the God of their Fathers to serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind And after your benediction give them St. Paul's valediction Finally as he took leave of his Corinthians Farewell be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you Or let our blessed Saviour himself be your patterne and ensample who ceased not to instruct his Apostles till he was taken from them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when he had spoken these things These things that is lastly when he had blessed them so we read Luke 24.50 51. he lift up his hands and blessed them And it came to passe while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven Thus Iacob when he was a dying blessed both the sons of Ioseph Ephraim and Manasseth Genes 48.16 and Heb. 11.21 Nor did he blesse them only but also all the twelve tribes of Israel every one according to his blessing he blessed them Gen. 49.28 This was also St. Paul's custome to close all his Epistles with a benediction And thus likewise the New Testament is concluded The Old Testament endeth with a threatned curse lest I come and smite the earth with a curse Mal. 4. ult But the New Testament endeth with a blessing The Grace of our Lord Iesus Christ be with you all Revel 22. ult And this may serve to teach the Ministers not to dismisse the assembly without a blessing and the assembly to have so much patience as to tarry till it be pronounced It may indeed teach all sorts of people Soveraign and Subject Clergy and Laity not to part company at any time without a Dominus Vobiscum on both sides the Lord be with you the Lord prosper you we wish you good luck in the name of the Lord. Herein indeed lies the difference between our blessings and our Saviours Our benedictions are in the Optative mood we do but wish them but our Saviour's benedictions as that Royal Martyr hath an expression in
seed that is in Christ who was the Israelites own Countryman which is their last Prerogative recorded by the Apostle Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came Thus ye have seen how God loaded the Israelites with blessings with Privative and Positive with Temporall and Spirituall you only have I known of all the families of the earth And now Israel as Moses once said Deut. 10.12 What doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul But alas the God of Israel is here forced to complain that notwithstanding all the cost he had bestowed upon his vineyard when he expected grapes from it it brought forth wild grapes notwithstanding those many benefits he had bestowed upon his people they continually rewarded him evill for good they thought not of his hand nor of the day when he had delivered them from the hand of the enemy how he wrought his miracles in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan neither destroyed they the heathen but learned their works for they shed innocent blood even the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they offered unto the Idols of Canaan and the land was defiled with blood In generall termes their sins are set down Deut. 9.7 But they are more particularly described in the third and fist chaptel of Isaiah In the third chapter ye may see their womens sins the Prophet bringeth you as it were into the Exchange he sheweth you the pride and vanity of their womens dressings he giveth you such an inventory of their toyes as is able to make a very Cato change his countenance In the fist chapter the Prophet sheweth you their Mens sins after the catalogue of Gods benefits he giveth you another catalogue of their sins At the seventh verse he sheweth you their oppression and injustice I looked for judgement but behold oppression for righteousnesse but behold a cry At the eight verse their encroaching coverousnesse in joyning house to house and field to field until there was no place that they might be placed alone in the midst of the earth At the eleventh and twelft verses their drunkenness and riot in rising up early to follow strong drink and continuing untill night till Wine enflame them having the harp and the viol the tabret and pipe and wine in their feasts At the eighteenth and nineteeth verses their contempt and slighting of Gods word in defiance of this drawing iniquity with cords of vanity and sin as it were with a cart-rope as who should say let him do his worst let him make speed and hasten his work that we may see it and let the counsel of the holy one of Israel draw nigh and come that we may know it ver 20. Their hypocrisy in calling evil good and good evil in patting darkness for light and light for darkness in putting bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Ver. 21. Their self-conceit Being wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight verse 22. Their Porvalour in that they were mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink nverse 23. Their bribery and corruptio in justifying the wicked for reward and in taking away the righteousness of the righteous from him And shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this yes the wrath of God was kindr'd against his people insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance for three transgressions of Judah for four he resolveth that he will not turn away the punishment thereof And so I am fallen upon the second part of the Text which is Comminatio supplicii the threatning of a future punishment therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities You only c. Ye have heard that God bestowed upon Israel two sorts of blessings both which he threatneth to withdraw for their unthankfulness First his Privative blessings they must expect no more deliverances from him He brought them forth out of the iron-furnace even out of Egypt but they had so provoked him that he threatneth to bind them Apprentices there the second time Apprentices nay worse he threatneth to make slaves of them so we read Deut. 28. ult The Lord saith Moses shall bring thee into Egypt again with ships by the way whereof I spake unto thee thou shalt see it no more again and there ye shall ye besold offer your selves at least unto your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen and no man shall buy you God threatneth to sell his people for nought and to take no money for them And whereas the Israelites were wont to have the better of their enemies they had so angred the Lord of hosts that he threatned to give their enemies the victory so we read Deut. 28.25 The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies thou shalt go out one way against them and shalt flee seven wayes before them and shalt be removed into all the Kingdomes of the earth And I am sure they have been thus dispersed for many hundred years they are strangers in all Countries they have lost both their place and Nation Secondly God threatneth to withdraw his positive blessings from them We have a plain Text for this Isa 5.5 6. I will tell you saith God What I will do to my vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and I will break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down and I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it So true is that of the Psalmist Psalm 107.34 A fruitfull land maketh he barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein For though the Land of Canaan were as the garden of Eden yet for the iniquity of the Inhabitants it shall be turned into a wilderness and though the Israelites had the blessings of the right hand and of the left yet for their ingratitude and disobedience God threatneth to withdraw both You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Therefore I will punish you You that were my darlings mine own peculiar people you that were as dear to me as the apple of mine eye because ye have broken my Commandments and been unmindfull of my loving kindness therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities And the observation from hence for our instruction is most obvious Gods hatred against sin is such that he will not let it go unpunished in his dearest Children Adam was the Master-piece of all Gods workmanship and highly in favour with him at the first and yet as soon as ever he had tasted of the forbidden tree God banished this very
Adam cut of Paradise Moses is often stiled the servant of God but indeed he seemeth to have been more with reverence be it spoken to have been Gods familiar acquaintance for Exod. 33.11 The Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend Yet as great and gracious and familiar as Moses was with God for one sin of infidelity God fell out with him as we read Num. 20. Where when the people murmured for water God bid Moses but only speak to the rock and it should give forth water but Moses thought that speaking would not do it not a word therefore but a blow two of them for failing he smote the Rock twice and for â—â—is he had his doom immediately that he should not enter into the Land of Promise He that prophesied against the Altar at Bethel was Gods favourite a man of God yet forasmuch as he disobeyed the mouth of the Lord in going back to eat and drink with the old Prophet his carcase must not come to the sepulcher of his Fathers I shall give one signal example our Saviour himself that Lamb without spot the only righteous person that ever lived upon the earth though he were Gods bosome son and had not the least sin of his own only took ours by imputation yet how harshly did his Father handle him Never was there any sorrow like unto his sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his fierce anger And if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in the dry Luke 23.31 The righteous shall be recompenced in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner Prov. 11. ult If Judgement begin at the house of God what shall the end be of those men that obey not the Gospel of God And if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4 17 18. If an Israelite indeed in whom there is no guil if this man shall be recompenced shall be punished in the earth with whom shall Hypocrites have their portion that are full of deceit and fraud and under whose tongue is ungodliness and vanity If a perfect and upright man one that feareth God and striveth to eschew evil if this shall be recompenced shall be punished in the earth what will become of him that hath no fear of God before his eyes but liveth as if there were no God committing all uncleanness even with greediness If a man of a strict life and tender conscience must be punished what will become of those rebellious Reformers of our age whose consciences seem to be seared with an hot iron If Jerusalem the holy City must be punished Lord what will become of London and Westminster places every what as sinfull as Sodome or Gomorrah If God go so roughly to work with them he knoweth oh how will he handle strangers without mittons If he execute his Judgements upon Iury where he was known oh what fiery indignation will he pour upon the heathen that have not known him and upon the Kingdomes that have not called upon his Nâ—me This teacheth us to flee from sin as from the face of a Serpent considering how odious and abominable it is in the sight of God Though Coniah the son of Iehoiakim King of Iudah were the signet upon his right hand yet for sin God threatneth to pluck him thence Ier. 22.24 The King of England will not pardon wilfull murder though his chiefest Favourites should commit it The King of heaven and earth will let no sin go unpunished no not in his Favourites in his own people And he will never connive at sin in us that threatneth here to punish it so severely in Israel You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities And so I have gone thorow the several parts of the Text. A few words now of application and I have done Truly God saith the Psalmist is loving unto Israel and truly he hath been as loving unto us he hath bestowed many Privative and many Positive blessings on us First Privative many deliverances I will instance but in three The first was from Popish Tyranny and superstition a Tyranny more than Egyptian an Antichristian Tyranny The damned glutton Luke 16. desired only a little water for his thirst but water will not quench the thirst of Babylon the whore must have blood till she make her self stark drunk with it no blood of beasts it must be of men no blood of sinners it must be the blood of Saints no blood of Malefactors it must be the blood of Martyrs and these Martyrs none of Mahomets they must be Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 Sad experience of this Tyranny we had in Queen Maries dayes Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo the Romish horsleach would not give us over till she had full gorged her self with our blood Or indeed it is a question whether she would ever have been satisfi'd had we not been strangely delivered from her Tyranny by the Queen of all Queens or rather by the King of all Kings You only have I known of all the families of the earth A second deliverance was from the Spanish Armado in the year 1588. which Fleet had it prevailed our Thames had been turned into Tyber Romish superstition had invaded us once more and then by the waters of Babylon we might have set down and wept as often as we remembred this our Sion But God brake the ships of the sea through the East wind You only have known of all the families of the earth A third deliverance was from that horrid Powder-Treason November 5. 1605. which was carried on with so great secrecy that it made the man of sin insult Teque his ait eripe flammis who is that God that shall deliver them out of my hands But he that dwelleth in heaven laughed the Bishop of Rome to scorn and plucked us as it had been fire-brands out of the burning You only have I known of all the families of the earth And as God hath befriended us by his Privative so by his Positive blessings answerable to those which be bestowed upon his vineyard And first we may compare with Israel for a fruitfull situation being neither under the torrid nor the frozen zone neither burned alway with parching heat nor benummed alway with pinching cold but seated in a temperate Climate and fertile soil our folds are full of sheep our valleys stand so thick with corn that we may laugh and sing God hath also fenced us about like the Israelites in the red Sea with a wall of water the waters are a wall unto us on our right hand and on our left But especially God hath fenced us by his providence and protection salvation hath the Lord appointed for walls and bulwarks He hath likewise gathered the Stones out from us he hath cast out the Romish Rabble and hath planted our Land
FIVE SEASONABLE Sermons As they were preached before Eminent AUDITORIES Upon several ARGUMENTS BY PAUL KNELL Master in Arts OF Clare-Hall in Cambridge Sometimes Chaplain to a Regiment of CURIASIERS in His late MAJESTIES Army LONDON Printed in the year 1660. TO THE SACRED MAJESTY OF THE Most High and Mighty MONARCH CHARLES the Second BY THE Especial Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c Most Gracious Soveraign WEre not your Regal Clemency and Candour very eminent the Tenuity of that which here I offer to your Majesty might indict me for familiarity But as the Israelites were not to appear before the Lord their God so neither durst I before my Lord the King empty-handed Silver and gold indeed I have none scarce so much as that which Solomon saith is like Apples of Gold in pictures of silver but such as I have I most humbly offer to your Majesty knowing that as Artaxerxes did not disdain two handfuls of ordinary water offered to him by Synaetas so your Royal hand will graciously accept one handfull of Sanctuary-water from him who as in duty bound hath both actively and passively approved himselfe a faithfull Subject to the King and a dutifull Son of the Church of England that hath no better Present One of these slender Sermons hath already been honoured with your Royal ear at the Hague they all now humbly crave a glance from your gracious eye at White-hall The Inscription indeed and subscription of this Dedication are so vastly distant that some large Apology ought to intervene But your Majesties many important affairs dispense with no further avocation I humbly add therefore only a short Halelujah and Hosanna Blessing the Lord by whom Kings reign for so signally visiting your sacred Majesty and so seasonably redeeming your distressed People Beseeching also the same Lord of Lords to save and defend your Royal Person as with a shield to make your Throne here as the dayes of Heaven and hereafter to translate You to an Heavenly Throne which is the due and daily sacrifice offered up with a true heart fervently by Your Sacred Majesties Most Humble AND Most Loyal SUBJECT PAUL KNELL THE CONVOY OF A Christian A Sermon PREACHED Before His MAJESTY KING CHARLES the First OF Ever blessed Memory at Matson near Glocester in time of the Siege there on Tuesday August 22. 1643. LONDON Printed in the year 1660. THE CONVOY OF A Christian ISAI 43.2 When thou passest thorow the waters I will be with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee QUem miserum video hominem scio Trouble is the very badge and cognizance of humanity we are born to it holy Job saith as the sparks flie upward to this end were we born and for this cause came we into the world Or if this be not Finis intentionis yet it is Finis executionis I am sure if we came not hither on purpose to be troubled yet without great trouble we cannot get from hence from the Cradle to the Coffin being like Ezekiel's roul full of Lamentation and Mourning and Woe There are some indeed I mean the traiterous Reformers of our Age that live wholly at ease in their usurped possessions they come in no misfortune like other folk neither are they plagued like other men But these look like the Devils Darlings or rather like the worlds Bastards though we may be men therefore without Trouble yet without it we cannot be loyal Subjects we cannot be good Christians in the world ye shall have tribulation were the words of our departing Saviour to his Church But he told them just before that in him they should have Peace and he telleth them in effect the self same in our Text That he will deliver them in six troubles yea that in seven there shall no evil touch them that in Famine he will redeem them from death and in War from the power of the sword let their troubles be external corporal corrections let their Troubles be internal spiritual desertions yet their Jehovah and their Joshua will deliver them out of all When thou c. In which words we may observe four parts The Passenger the Passage the Concomitant and the Consequent The Passenger is the Church Cum transieris when thou passest The Passage is two-fold Per aquas per ignes thorow waters and thorow fire When thou passest thorow the waters when thou walkest thorow the fire The Concomitant or Convoy is Almighty God Tibi adsum I am or will be with thee The Consequent is the Churches safety Flamina non operient flamma non incendet the rivers shall not over-flow thee the flame shall not kindle on thee And of these parts in order I begin with the Passenger which is the Church cum transieris when thou passest Had we retained our first integrity we might easily have stept to heaven with as great facility as from one room to another from the Parlour of an earthly to the Presence-Chamber of an heavenly Paradise But sin hath placed a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great gulf between us and heaven we that were sometime near are now afar off whosoever will hereafter enter into Canaan he must undergo a tedious passage thorow the wilderness There are four Titles that pertain to the very best of Adam's sons Advenae Inquilini Hospites Peregrini we are Strangers we are Sojourners we are Guests we are Pilgrims But of all four the last methinks fitteth our condition best Peregrini we are Pilgrims Viatores we are Travellers Transeuntes we are Passengers here we have no continuing City but we seek for one to come Look upon the Patriarch Abraham the great Grandfather of the Church and ye shall find him like St. Paul in journeying often from Caldea to Charran from Charran to Canaan where he sojourned the Apostle telleth us as in a strange Countrey dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob he had there none inheritance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith St. Stephen no not so much as to set his foot on to teach him and us all that we must not set up our staff here Plus ultra we must go farther we being but Pilgrims on the Earth This we know likewise to have been the condition of the Israelites who wandered in the Wilderness in a solitary way and found no City to dwell in Their own houses were Tents Gods house was but a Tabernacle all portable to be carryed up and down from one place to another They had neither Tenement nor Temple till they were setled in the land of Canaan nor have we any certain dwelling place till we come thither where the Lamb is the Temple For while we are at home in the body we are not properly at home we are but in via in the way that leadeth us to it we are born from above and therefore there
yet thou shalt not be cast away for even He that upholdeth the Heavens is thine upholder Which leadeth me from the second part of the Text the Churches Passage thorow fire and water to the third which is the Concomitant or Convoy Almighty God I am or I will be with thee I that am the great Creator of Heaven and Earth I that fill all places and am contained in none I that am about thy path and about thy bed and spie out all thy wayes I will be with thee But what need then is there of this promise For we may say it without Blasphemy that God must still be with us it being as impossible for him to deny his Omnipresence as to deny himself he can sooner separate heat from fire he did that in Nebuchadnezzar's furnace he can sooner separate light from the Sun He did this at our Saviours expiration The Creator can better do any thing than divorce or divide his presence from his Creatures for herein not only our well-being but our very being doth consist should he substract his presence from us we must return into our first nothing He is not far therefore from every one of us as St. Paul told the Athenians nay he is neerer to us than we are unto our selves I will be with thee But ye know there is a twofold presence of Almighty God First His general presence which is his universall power and providence whereby he governeth and disposeth all things both in Heaven and Earth and under the Earth according to that of the Psalmist Psalm 139. If I climb up into heaven thou art there if I go down to hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea even there also shall thy hand lead me and thy right hand shall hold me Secondly There is Gods special presence whereby he is present with his Elect only either to prevent their Troubles or else to comfort and support them And chiefly is he with his servants in his Temple at his publick Worship which may easily be explained by an example The King is or ought to be by his Power in all parts of his Dominion yet he is said to be there especially where his Courtiers where his Retinue is In like manner the King of Kings by his unbounded Power and Providence is at all times in all places yet we may know him to be with us after an especial manner in the Temple from the Retinue of heavenly Courtiers that are there attending on him For it was not for Ornament only that the Walls of Solomon's Temple were carved round about with Cherubims but also to signifie that the holy Angels are ever about us at our publick services And if Angels be there much more is the King of Saints Tibi adsum I am or I will be with thee There are three things especially that will continually be with us The Air our Conscience and Almighty God We may as well be without our being as without our breath take but away this from us and take away us too The Air leaveth us not till death Our Conscience this goeth further with us it remaineth with us after death to all Eternity Do not therefore the least sin though none be with thee but thine own conscience for this will accompany thee to thy death-bed nay this worm will live for ever And thy conscience is not more inseparable from thee then thy Creatour whisper never so softly he will hear thee hide thy self never so closely he will see thee run away never so swiftly he will still be at thine elbow Tibi adsum I am or I will be with thee But I should not speak so much of Gods general presence his special presence is that which I must here insist upon That presence which he promised his Patriarchs and Prophets that presence which our Saviour promised his Apostles Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world Mat. 28. ult Alway there is no Intermission To the end of the world that is world without end here is no Termination We may have men for our companions that will forsake us in distress or if they stick to us all our life they must leave us in our death But if God be our Companion if God be present with us it is not distress it is not death shall ever part us nay death shall unite us more neerly than ever we were before we shall alway be with him he will alway be with us Tibi adsum I am or I will be with thee But if God be thus alway present with his Church we may then expostulate here as Gideon once did with the Angel Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us Why is the blood of his dear servants shed like water on every side Why suffereth he the Turk Turk and Pope to drink themselves drunk with the blood of Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus I answer though seemingly God absent himself from his Church for a season yet never will he finally forsake her Seemingly I say for indeed he absenteth not himself at all it is but in our apprehension that he is ever from us if we can but believe it he is present with us alway Tibi adsum I am or I will be with thee And the Application of this now may be twofold First Here is comfort for all that mourn in Sion and with good Hezekiah turn their face to the Wall Let them be cast into prison as Joseph was Let them be cast into a dungeon as Jeremy was let them be cast into a den as Daniel was let them be cast into the water as Moses was let them be cast into the fire as the three Children were let them go thorow fire and water famine and sword never so many dangers never so great disasters yet so long as they have God with them this will sweeten all their pills in the multitude of the sorrows which they have in their hearts his comfortable presence will refresh their souls Secondly Seeing God is still with us this should teach us likewise to be still with him seeing he vouchsafeth to keep company with us on earth therefore our conversation should be with him in Heaven When we are lying down to sleep to him we should commit our spirits when we wake up likewise we should be present with him It was Jacob's vow Gen. 28. That if God would be with him then the Lord should be his God We need not speak so doubtfully for God is certainly with those that fear him not only by his general but also by his special presence to direct and protect them to deliver and to defend them which leadeth me from the third part of the Text the Concomitant Almighty God to the fourth and last which is the Consequent the Churches safety Flumina non operient flamma non incendet
of heaven Psa 78.23 Secondly the celestial orbes and spheres are heaven the Sun Moon and Starrs are called Exercitus coeli the host of heaven Dent. 4.19 Thirdly and lastly the place of bliffe is heaven the Lord hath prepared his seat in heaven Psal 103.19 which distinction of heaven St. Paul seemes to allude unto when he saith that he was caught up into the third heaven 2 Cor. 12.2 Now where the Apostle saith that Christ ascended far above all heavens we are to understand it of the Orbes Celestial he ascended above the Orbes Celestial above all visible and materiall heavens But here then perhaps that of the Philosopher may be objected in the first book De coelo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without or above heaven there is no place now it is essential to every body to be in some place or other quod nusquam est non omnino est if Christs body therefore be in no place it will be so far from being every where as Lutherans would have it that it will cease to be at all To which I answer that to speak physically and strictly there is indeed no place above the visible heavens But though there be not Locus yet there is Ubi though there be no place yet there is a certaine space as I may so speak and it is sufficient for a body glorified to be in such a space which our Saviour notwithstanding calleth a place I go to prepare a place for you Ioh 14.2 And this was indeed the chief reason why he ascended into heaven Adam's sin shut him out both of the earthly and the heavenly Paradise there was no place for him in Eden nor for his posterity in heaven But the doores of heaven were opened upon Holy-Thursday when Christ had overcome and trampled upon death by his resurrection he did open the kingdome of heaven by his ascension Not as if heaven were so fast shut before that none could enter in no not in soul till Christ ascended thither in body the Papists might have some kind of ground for their Limbus Patrum if this were so That cannot therefore be the meaning of it there were glorious mansions prepared for us from the foundation of the world as it is Math. 25.34 But though places of glory were from the beginning prepared for us yet the plenary and the perfect preparation was made by Christs ascension And seeing our Saviour Christ is ascended corporally into heaven this earnest may ascertaine us of our ascension our Head being ascended we shall also ascend that are his Members It may be objected perhaps that flesh and blood cannot inherit incorruption I answer it is true that our bodies as they are now are not capable of going to heaven they must therefore be crumbled to very dust and ashes and new moulded by him that made them at the first before ever they can be admited into that holy place And as our bodies must be refined so likewise must our souls Heaven is a City of pure Gold no unclean thing must come into it We must therefore lay aside every weight and the sinnes that do so easily depresse us David could not go with Saul's armour nor can we ascend to heaven with the weapons of unrighteousnesse If then we will ascend thither at our death we must begin our ascension in this life if we hope to go to heaven when we take our farewell of the earth then while we are here on earth our conversation must be in heaven For anima magis est ubi amat quà m ubi animat saith St. Bernard the Soul is rather where it loveth than where it liveth If therefore we love the Lord Jesus let our affection be with him where our heavenly treasure is there let our hearts be also where the Load-stone is that way let the Iron tend where the carcase is thither let the Eagles resort by religious meditations and by assiduous supplications let us ascend unto that place whither our blessed Lord and Master is gone before St. Austin would rather have been in hell with Christ than be in heaven without him How then should our hearts be inflamed with love of heaven now we are sure that our Saviour is ascended thither How should we contemn though not abdicate the world use it I mean as though we used it not Seing Christ hath left it we should strive to leave it too dying daily as St. Paul did though not in deed yet in desire having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ our soules must be athirst for him our flesh also must long after him with an How long Lord Jesu◠when shall we come unto thee And so I passe from the fourth part of the Text the Place whither Christ ascended to the fifth Quomodo the Manner of his ascension set down here two wayes I begin with the Positive part of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was taken up Taken up why so Did he not go up of himself Lazarus was taken up carried by Angels into heaven And these carried up Elijah too the charet and horses of fire were holy Angels the Charets of God saith David are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels Psal 68.17 But though they were carried up yet Christ went up of himself in his ascension of all circumstances Quibus auxiliis came not in Christ went up of himself he ascended by his own power Why then doth our Text say that he was taken up as if he had been some way assisted in his ascnesion up to heaven I answer the Text saith that he was taken up for this reason to signifie and shew his obedience to his Fathers Will for otherwise he might have ascended upon the very day of his resurrection every glorified body being of that agility and lightnesse ut ubicunque volet esse anima ibi statim erit corpus wheresoever the soul would be there is the body straight But though Christ might have ascended sooner yet he would not till his heavenly Father saw good for which reason the Text saith that he was taken up And this may teach us not to lay violent hands upon our selves thinking to get so much the sooner into heaven If we be in poverty or sicknesse in imprisonment or banishment yet we must not make away with our selves nor must we repine or be impatient that we are let into heaven no sooner that we have so long sought for death and cannot find it but we must tarry the Lords leisure we must not be our own carvers all the dayes of our appointed time we must wait till our change come following the example of our blessed Lord and Master who submitted himself in all things to the Will of his heavenly Father and therefore he ascended not when first he might but when his Father would have him taken up And so ye have the manner of his ascension positively set down I now proceed to the Expositive part of it in these words A cloud received him out
of their sight He maketh the clouds his charet Psal 104.3 Not that this cloud did any way help to lift him up but he used the Ministery of a cloud chiefly for two reasons First to declare and manifest his Divinity Angels minister to men but clouds after this manner minister to God only And the clouds were servants to our Saviour more than once At his transfiguration when he gave his Disciples a glimpse of his Divinity a bright cloud overshaddowed him Mat. 17.5 So likewise at the day of Judgement clouds shall minister unto him He shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory Mat. 24.30 As therefore in Herauldry it argueth a good familie when a man hath clouds in his Coat of Arms so in this place it is an argument of Christs divinity that he hath a cloud to serve him his bearing is all Nebuly a cloud received him out of their sight A cloud I say received him His body then is not every where as Lutherans would perswade us that which is contained in any thing must needs be less than the thing which doth contain it The body of Christ was once contained in a virgins womb and here a cloud received him And it received him out of sight which maketh good that saying of our Saviour to his Disciples A little while and ye shall not see me Joh. 16.16 And that was indeed a second use of this cloud namely to take off the Apostles from curiosity Had it been necessary for them to know any further what became of their departing Saviour this cloud that received him out of sight had not been thus interposed But to shew them that they had corporally seen him long enough and that hereafter they were not to see but to believe to exercise their faith and to abate their curiosity a cloud received him out of their sight God alloweth us not to pry inquisitively into hidden mysteries When the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai there was a thick cloud upon the mountain to keep the people from gazing lest they perished Exod. 19. which was also one main use of this Cloud at Christ's ascension that his Apostles namely might not gaze after him as he ascended into heaven We must walk by faith now and not by sight For the Spouse of Christ hath a two-fold eye the eye of faith and the eye of glory As Jacob therefore married first of all blear-eyed Leah before he could obtain beautifull Rachel so we must fee Christ on earth with the tender eye of faith before we can in Heaven have the fruition of his glorious God-head For he is not so gone up into heaven but that we may see him still on earth We may see him in his Word we do not only hear of him there but we even see him When we stedfastly believe what we hear out of Gods Word we fare not only as if it were related in our ears but indeed verily acted before our eyes And as we may see Christ in his Word so we may also see him in his Sacraments especially in the blessed Sacrament of his holy Supper and yet even in that Sacrament he is under a Cloud too The Papists indeed would fain dispel and dissipate this cloud telling us that he is corporally and visibly there present handle and see they bid us that it is even he himself But this Herefie is confuted so at large that a bare denial of it might now suffice yet let me me urge against it one Text of Scripture which is Mark 7.19 Where our Saviour saith that Whatsoever entreth into the belly goeth out into the draught And what horrid blasphemy were it to say thus of Christs blessed body We can eat Christ with no other mouth but that of our faith not can we see him here with the eye of our flesh but of our faith And faith indeed is the most perfect perspective when all is done As Abraham therefore said to the damned rich glutton in another case If they believe not Moses and the Prophets neither would they believe though one should come unto them from the dead So he that believeth not the New Testament the History of our Saviour Christ would not believe that he were the Messiah though he should see him face to face he that believeth not St. Luke relating the manner of Christ's ascension would not have believed his own eyes though they had been witnesses of his Assumption though he had been present upon Mount Olivet when Christ was taken up into heaven When a cloud received him out of the Apostles sight We must endeavour therefore by faith to see Christ in his Word and Sacraments the exercising of this faith was one principal reason Why a cloud received him out of their sight And as our Saviour so our martyred Soveraign was taken up in a cloud too Never was Royal Majesty so disguised or under so thick a cloud but that cloud was a triumphant Charet wherein he was carried up into heaven the rebellious fools that murthered him accounted his life madness and his end to be without honour But yet honourable in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints And in spight of all their villany He is among the children of God and his portion is with the Saints And so I pass from the fifth part of the Text the manner of Christ's ascension to the sixth and last which are Testes the Spectators or Witnesses of his ascension which were the eleven Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 while they beheld The ascension of our Saviour was not seen of all the people but of certain Witnesses chosen before of God even of those who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead The adulterous generation of the Jews sought altogether after signes Shew us a sign from heaven come down from the Cross that we may see and believe But our Saviour would be the object of mens faith not of their sense Now saith commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God if the Jewes therefore will believe Christ's ascension they have the Apostles let them hear them they were eye-witnesses of his Majesty He was taken up while they beheld While They it is not while He beheld for unus Testis nullus testis one witness is as good as none In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established Mat. 18.16 And yet Pluris est oculatus testis unus quam auriti decem one eye-witness is more worth than ten of those that go by hear-say Had the Apostle told the Jews that they heard Christ say he would ascend at one time or another O how ridiculous had they been who would have given any heed to this report That the Apostles therefore might preach no uncertain Tradition they were made spectators of Christ's ascension he ascended in their presence He was taken up while they beheld Behold him then they did and indeed how could they chuse but
two uses for distinction and for conservation Israel was hedged about both wayes for distinction they had the Law by this they were discerned from other Nations what Nation is there so great saith Moses that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this Law which I set before you this day Deut. 4.8 other Nations dwelt as it were in a Champian countrey without a hedge without a Law but Israel was enclos'd hereby distinguish'd from all other people God dealt not so well with any other Nation neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Lawes And as Israel had an hedge for distinction so they had another hedge for conservation which was the providence of God and the protection of his Angels The hills saith the Psalmist stand about Jerusalem even so standeth the Lord round about his people from this time forth for evermore In the next place God gathered the stones out of his vineyard VVhereby we are to understand the wicked Nations according to that of the Psalmist Psal 80.10 Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt Expuleras gentes thou hast cast out the heathen God gave away their land for an heritage even for an heritage unto Israel his people That is the next thing presented to us he planted it with the choicest vine the vineyard of the Lord of hosts was the house of Israel and the men of Iudah were his pleasant plant The next observable is Gods building of a Tower in his vineyard and Turris authoritas est sacerdotalis saith Aretius the Tower in Gods vineyard is the office and authority of Gods Ministers for as watchmen from a tower overlooking all the coast give notice when any corporal enemies are approaching so Gods Ministers who are the watchmen of his Church these give her warning of her ghostly enemies so that neither the Boar of the wood can waste her nor yet the wild beasts of the field devour her In the last place God made a Wine-presse in his vineyard whereby the juyce of good living was to be as it were pressed out of the people But to explain all this in three words By the Fence by the Tower by the Wine-presse by all this care and cost bestowed upon the vineyard there is signifyed Gods abundant love toward his people Israel so that he could not possibly do any thing else for them having done more for them already than for all the world besides You only have I known of all the families of the earth And as God bestowed upon Israel many Temporal so also many Spiritual blessings which are mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 9.4 5. where speaking of the Israelities he telleth us that to them pertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises theirs were the Fathers and of them as concerning the flesh Christ came It will not be amisse likewise to examine briefly these particulars And first to the Israelites pertained the adoption they were culled out of all nations to be Gods peculiar people the quotations to this purpose are very many I shall cite but only one which is Isa 43. 1. Thus saith the Lord that created thee O Iacob and he that formed thee O Israel fear not for I have redeemed thee I have called thee by thy name thou art mine Called thee by thy name nay I have called thee by my own name so it is 2. Chro. 7.14 My people which are called by my name And Dan. 9.19 Thy City saith the Prophet and thy people are called by thy name Whence we may observe that there was a twofold relation between God and Israel the relation of father and children and of husband and wife First they were related as father and children Children bear their fathers name God therefore calling Israel by his own name this sheweth that he was their father they his children And the Prophet in their name testifieth as much Isa 63.16 Doubtless thou O Lord art our father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not Secondly God was related to Israel as an husband to his wife The wife beareth her husbands name it hath been thus ever since Isaiahs time I am sure for God threatneth by him to send a sword upon Judah and Ierusalem which should make so great a slaughter and dearth of men that seven women should take hold of or should come a wooing to one man saying We will find our selves meat and cloathes we will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel onely let us be called by thy name Isa 4.1 Called by thy name what do the women mean by this why the very next words will shew us which are to take away our reproach 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Barenness was a reproach among the Iewes let us therefore be called by thy name to take away our reproach that is let us be married to thee be thou our husband God then calling the people of Israel by his own name hereby sheweth that he was as it were their Husband they his wife Almighty God was to the Israelites both a father and an husband as a father he nurtured them as an husband he nourished them never did any one hare his own flesh God therefore must needs be loving unto Israel they being as it were bone of his bone flesh of his flesh they were his Spouse they were his Sons to them pertained the adoption And the Glory that is next which glory some would have to be a consequent of their adoption and indeed to be Gods own people was no small dignity But this glory may be taken rather for the glorious presence of God amongst them which he manifested most especially from off the Mercy-seat that was upon the Ark and therefore when the Israelites had lost the Ark Phineas his wife concluded that they had lost the glory too the glory saith she is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken 1 Sam. 4. ult And to Israel also pertained the Covenants for the Covenant that God made with Abraham runneth thus Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God unto thee and unto thy seed after thee Israel's next priviledge was the giving of the Law that is the Moral Law was given to them and Almighty God himself was their Law-giver The Promises were theirs too the promise of long life here and of eternal life hereafter of the life that now is and of that which is to come To Abraham and his seed were these promises made Gal. 3.16 Theirs also were the Fathers the promises were made as well to their Fathers as to them according to that of St. Peter Acts 3.25 Ye are the children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed In thy
with the choicest Religion that of Orthodox Protestants And he hath built a Tower among us he hath set up Episcopal Authority Some think this Tower too high and would fain have it quite demolished down with it down with it say they even to the ground But these are an Assembly of birds that would fain build in others nests there are Presbyterian Levellers as well as Independent but let them both do what they can I hope I shall never see the day wherein these Towers fall God hath as it were a Wine-press among us too No Nation under heaven hath better Laws than we many of them of late yeers have been cast into a deep sleep but I hope that within short time they will be wakened And that in telling you of one blessing I may tell you of all the rest God hath set over us a gracious and most religious a prudent and most pious Prince a King for his faith and life unspotted from the world a Patron and Pattern of good men and all goodness a Maintainer of his Countries Laws and however Rebellion hath traduced him a zealous Professour and Defender of the Christian faith O fortunatos nimium bona si sua nôrint Angligenas Happy Nation we to be in such a case happy nation we to have the Lord for our God to have him as kind and good to us as ever he was to Israel You onely have I known of all the families of the earth And now England what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but to feare the Lord thy God to walk in all his wayes and to love him and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul But here God may as justly complain of us as he did of the Israelites that when he looked for grapes from us we have brought forth wild grapes there is not a sin Isa 5. charged upon Israel but we stand guilty of it I have not time to arraign all the sins that raign among us the time would faile me to reckon up the oaths imprecations Our sins therefore being as many nay more I doubt than those of Israel of two things one we must either plead more priviledge to sin than they had which I am sure we cannot or else without great mercy we must look for greater judgments at least to have God so threaten us as here he threatneth the people of Israel You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities I will punish You You that have seven years set in Counsel been in covenant for him but have armed your selves against him and have at last most traiterously imprisoned mine Anointed you that have turned judgement into wormwood you that have turned your still waters into blood you that have turned your Kings house nay your Gods house into a den of thieves you that imagine wickednesse and practise nothing else you that have set your selves in no good way you that dare do any thing but justice you that dare rob your Soveraign nay even your God you that are made up of cousenage and contradictions you that have no religion but rapine and rebellion you that are Papists in practice though ye will not own that name you that neither fear your God nor honour your King You that resolve to beggar all that refuse to be such Rebels as your selves you that with Herod are deeply dyed in blood of Innocents that make no more of cutting a mans than cutting off a dogs neck you that have filled the grave with bodies and hell with soules therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities You likewise of the silly Schismaticall Assembly that out of meer opposition preach in Cloakes you that are no legal Synod but rather the Synagogue of Satan you that for a pious Liturgie would give the Church a pure piece of Non-scence you that would banish the Lords Prayer and the Apostles Creed and the ten Commandments you that call evill good and good evill you that teach for doctrines the commandments of wicked men you that preach up rebellion for four shillings a day you that would be more than Deanes or Bishops though you dislike those Titles you that are greedy dogs never thinking ye have enough you that serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but your own bellies Therefore I will punish You for all your iniquities And You also of the Court for your flattery prodigality You of the cowardly City for your disloyalty You that dare fight gainst none but your King and you of the Country for your stupidity and sottishnesse in sufferring your fellow subjects so long to enslave you You of the Clergy likewise for temporizing for fearing the face of men for not daring to speak truth You of the Laity for tenebrizing for your Conventicles You that are rich for your covetousness You that are poor for your idlenes You that are men for your day-sins gluttony and drunkenness you that are Women for your night-sins chambering wantonnes all you that are against the King for forswearing of your selves some of you that are for the King for your customary swearing you that swear not as Ioseph did by the life of your King but by the life of your God and by the Prince of life whom ye swear over once a day from top to toe as if ye would swear Christ in pieces or God out of heaven Therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities Ye have been told of this sin 〈◊〉 and if I now told you of it rightly I should tell you weeping that they who thus mouth their oaths and their God damne them they are no better than the very enemies of the Crosse of Christ. Nor are they enemies to him only but arrant Traitors also to their King and Country as arrant Traitors as those that have imprisoned him let them never tell me they are the Kings friends for they are the worst of enemies because of Swearing the Land mourneth Ier. 23.10 And mourn it will a great deal worse unless this and many other horrid sins be banished We have seen hitherto but as it were the morning of mourning the beginning of sorrows except we repent our land like Rama will be filled with bitter mourning as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo Zech. 12.11 For indeed how can we ever hope to have God blesse us when we are daily at him to damne and confound us how can we hope for peace with men so long as by oaths and other sins we fight against our God No there is no peace to the wicked their portion is desolation which though we hope still to out-run yet in the end it will overtake us Quod differtur non aufertur as God hath leaden heeles so he hath iron hands though he hath spared us therefore a long time yet he will pay us home at last he will bruise us with a
had been no Husband-man the Earth need have had no Mid-wife she would have brought forth of her self But Haec maledictio Adae c. saith St. Bernard this was a curse entailed on Adam's sin that for his sake the ground it self was cursed his barrenness in obedience made the very Earth grow barren Which may therefore serve to mind us sinners of repentance the husbandry of the hand may teach us the husbandry of the heart even to break up our fallow ground and sow in tears But I must not insist upon these Georgicks I must lead you from corporal to spiritual husbandmen And these are the painful Preachers of Gods word For as the Earth must be plowed and harrowed by the Country-man before she will ever bring forth her increase So the men of the earth must be directed and corrected by the Church-man before they will bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse The Clergy like the Prophet Elisha are a kind of Plow-men They that do as it were drive the plow are ordinary Ministers They that hold the Plow are the reverend Bishops the Plow would not go so well should Episcopacy be abolished Let these Labourers therefore have their due they are worthy of their hire And let them likewise have a respectful estimation set upon them for the Courtier cannot live without the Country-man the King himself is served by the field Ec. 5.9 As then where no Husband men are the people sterve So Likewise where no Ministers where no vision is the people perish Which admonisheth Gods Husbandmen the Clergy to be industrious There is no profession more laborious than that of Husbandmen who in the sweat of their face most commonly eat their bread And herein they are a pattern and ensample unto us who indeed should labour more abundantly than they all because they labour but to sustain mens bodies we to feed their souls We must therefore abound alwayes in the work of the Lord we must preach the word as St. Paul charged Timothy not slothfully but painfully we must labour in the Gospel we must be instant and eager and earnest in our preaching in season out of season in time of peace in time of War we must reprove we must rebuke we must exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine as the Apostle speaketh And as we must be fervent so we must be perseverant in our office having put our hand to Gods plow we must resolve not to look back we must not with Demas forsake our function and embrace the world nor must we cease to exercise it till we just put off this Tabernacle though there be never so great danger in the exercising of it Husbandmen will not give over plowing for a shower of rain nor must we give over preaching because of persecution though we are never so superannuated though we are such as Paul the aged or though so feeble that with St. John we must be carried to the Pulpit Neither must we lord it over Gods heritage like these chief Priests in our Text who that they might be Lords of the vineyard conspired to murder the right Lord of it the conspirators our Text telleth us were Coloni the Husbandmen And so likewise Pontius Pilat told our Saviour thine own nation and the chief Priests have delivered thee unto me Joh. 18.35 What prodigious unthankful miscreants were these there can be no Epithet bad enough for such Traitors For they that taught the people taught they not themselves They that were dressers of the vineyard durst they conspire against the owners of it Durst men of the Temple venture on the worst of treasons Well we see by this the truth of that old axiome Corruptio optimi est pessima the best wine maketh the sharpest vineger if Clergy-men once turn Traitors they are incarnate dviils So our Saviour stiled the Traitor Iudas thus likewise all Synod-traytors may be stiled And so I passe from the first part of the Text the Efficient cause of this conspiracy or the Conspirators the Husbandmen to the second the Material cause of it or the Person conspired against which was the Heir when the Husbandmen saw Him The Heir The wise God of peace and order will not have every man his own carver for the best weapon would then be the best evidence the strongest arm would be the surest title But as he hath ordained a succession of Men so of Esates their children must be their Heirs they must leave their substance to their Babes Dominio non fundatur in gratiâ they that call themselves babes of grace all things are not theirs had not Iacob supplanted Esau this gracelesse one had been Isaac's Heir For the inheritance was ever chalenged by the Eldest son and therefore this title of Heir must needs be due to Christ who was the first-begotten of his heavenly Father the first-born of his earthly Mother the first-born of every creature the first-born among many brethren by right of primogeniture he was the Heir 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith the Apostle Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and they that dwell therein Psal 24.1 And he that is owner of all things maketh his Eldest Son a promise of them he promiseth to give him the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession Psal 2.8 The Devil I know made his brags once that he was the Heir of the World when he shewed our Saviour all the Kingdomes of it and told him they were His But as he was a Murderer so he was a Lyar from the beginning It is true Abraham had a promise that he should be heir of the world as the Apostle testifyeth Rom. 4.13 But though to Abraham and his seed there were such a promise made yet Christ for all this was still to be the Heir it is the same Apostles observation Gal. 3.16 He saith not to seeds as of many but to thy seed as of one which is Christ But here we must not be mistaken for though our Saviour be stiled the Heir yet we must know that his inheritance is no temporal but a spiritual inheritance his Kingdome his Church his heritage is not of this world And as we Christians are not of it so our inheritance properly is not in it we are heires to a better country that is an heavenly though not by nature yet by grace though not by birth yet by faith we are made partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light we are heirs of God coheires with Christ we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for us where we shall see the Son of man siting on the right hand of God where we shall see our pierced Saviour not to our terrour but our triumph where we shall see him with no other but with these same eyes the same numerical though not the same mortal eyes where
if any man teach you otherwise let him be accursed O that ye would know therefore in this your day the things that belong unto your peace lest otherwise they be hid for ever from your eyes Consider what Almighty God faith to the Jewes Isa 1.19 20. For the very same he saith now to you If ye be willing and obedient willing to have your King restored and will henceforth be obedient to him Ye shall eat the good of the Land but if ye refuse his gracious pardon and resolve still to rebel against him Ye shall be devoured with the suord for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it If ye still keep up the sword ye will in the end perish by it your sword will certainly penetrate your own heart Obey not them therefore that think they can kill the body and that would have you make a trade of killing but obey him that can kill body and soul whose express Command is that ye shall not kill If ye will not follow peace ye shall never see the Lord if here ye banish that from you he will hereafter banish you from him he will renounce you with those words of David Psalm 139.19 Depart from me ye bloody ye blood-thirsty men And as God abhorreth the blood-thirsty so doth he the covetous man Psalm 10. He that said Do not kill said also Do not covet as therefore ye must abstain from blood so must ye from covetousness let not this be once named amongst you as becometh Saints but learn of the Apostle in whatsoeuer state ye are therewith to be content see that ye covet no mans silver or gold or apparel but having food and rayment be therewith content Ye know whose Law it is Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours house take heed then brethren of coveting Bishops houses or any thing else that is anothers and not yours All covet all lose ye have good Scripture for it Jer. 8.10 I will give their wives unto others and their fields to them that shall inherit them for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness from the Prophet even unto the Priest They that greedily get away other mens beget a gangrene in their own Estates De malè quaesitis vix gaudet tertius Haeres Take heed therefore as our Saviour exhorteth and beware of covetousness the caution is ingeminated and therefore the more emphatical Luke 12.15 Consider also what St. Paul saith Eph. 5.5 No covetous man who is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God And consider what the same Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6 9. They that will be rich as it were whether God will or no fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtfull lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition Covetousness tempteth men to murder this i◠that which maketh Rebels so bloody as they are From whence come Wars and fightings among you Surely Covetousness hath been the Original of them all the lower sort of people strive to be in an higher room the poor would fain turn Tables with the Rich they would thus have every valley to be filled and every mountain and hill to be laid low as if in this sense every man were bound to seek anothers wealth they that were born to nothing strive to get others birth-rights calling themselves forsooth the Saints who say they must inherit the earth they would make themselves rich that have nothing and others poor that have great riches But to conclude this brethren is not the office of Saints but of the King of Saints it is the Lord that maketh poor and maketh rich 1 Sam. 2.7 Presume not then to take God's office out of his hand strive not per fas nefas to make your selves rich if God have made you poor but be content with that portion of outward things that he hath given you The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts Hag. 2.8 Deny him not therefore that priviledge which your own selves chalenge give him leave to do what he pleaseth with his own Let not the least root of covetousness remain in you remember that godliness with contentment is great gain if the riches of others increase set not your hearts upon them seek not these things below but those above strive not for an inheritance on earth but to have one in heaven that ye may banish cruelty let covetousness be banished first that ye may not thirst after other mens blood covet not their goods Hast thou killed said God to Ahab and also taken possession Well ye know what became of him and Jezebel for this Stifle therefore not only your murtherous but also your covetous thoughts If you must needs be killing mortifie your earthly members if ye must needs be coveting covet earnestly the best gifts God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith to be heirs of his Kingdom labour therefore to get the gold of faith whereby ye may be rich towards God and then though here ye have no temporal Inheritance yet hereafter ye shall have one far better ye shall be Heirs apparent unto Heaven ye shall inherit glory God will give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Though now you are in your nonnage yet at the last day ye shall be perfect men ye shall attain to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ who shall then invite you to enter upon your Inheritance in these words Come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world FINIS A SEVERE Sentence AGAINST SECVRE CITIZENS A Sermon PREACHED At ST. Maries in Oxford Upon Sunday March 17. 1644. LONDON Printed in the year 1660. A SEVERE SENTENCE AGAINST SECVRE CITIZENS JONAH 3.4 And he cryed and said yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown HEre are two of the divine Attributes which are Gods Mercy and his Justice so that I may say with the Apostle St. Paul Rom. 11.22 Behold here the goodness and the severity of God for the words of our Text are both a Premonition and a Commination as they give warning so there is Mercy in them Adhuc quadraginta dies yet fourty dayes as they threaten so there is judgement in them Subvertetur Nineveh Nineveh shall be overthrown This might be the general division of these words But if we examine them more particularly they will afford us these five parts Here is first the Preacher He the Prophet Jonah Secondly The Manner of his preaching He cryed Thirdly The Matter of his preaching he threatned an overthrow Fourthly The place of his preaching the City Nineveh Fifthly The Time when his Preaching or Prophecy was to be accomplished and fulfilled and that was within fourty dayes And he cryed and said yet fourty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown And of these in order I begin with the first part the Preacher He the Prophet Jonah
briefly from the second part of the Text the manner of Ionah's preaching he cryed to the third which is the Matter of his preaching he said there should be an overthrow There are three names especially given to Prophecy in holy Scripture First it is called the word of the Lord from the Lords revealing of it Secondly it is called a vision from the Prophets attending to it Thirdly it is called a burden from the peoples groaning under it The name given to this prophecy of Jonah is verbum Domini the word of the Lord ch 1. ver 1. But by the argument of it this seemeth to challenge rather the title of Nahum's prophecy which is Onus Nineve the burden of Nineveh Nah. 1.1 For it threatneth the city of Nineveh with utter ruine and desolation Subvertetur Nineve Nineveh shall be overthrown As if he should have said though Nineveh like Jerusalem be full of goodly buildings yet there shall not be left in it one Stone upon another which shall not be thrown down it shall be made empty it shall be made waste it shall be turned upside down And if Nineveh had been served so as indeed afterward it was yet Almighty God might have asked as David once did in another case what have I now done Is there not a cause For though our Text make no mention of it yet if we look back to the second verse of the first Chapter we shall find it there Arise go to Nineveh that great City but why the reason followeth before the verse be out For their wickedness is come up before me The iniquity of these Ninevites was as great as their City and this was the reason why God told them that they should be overthrown Sin is that which provoketh Almighty God both to execute and to threaten Judgement Which teacheth us all to fear the cause for fear of the effect to eschew evil left we provoke God to threaten us with Judgement It is a fearfull thing saith the Apostle to fall into the hands of the living God He shal rain saith the Psalmist snares upon the sinners fire and brimstone storm and tempest this shall be their portion to drink When the Scripture speaketh of God in Judgement it representeth him terrible and dreadfull it describeth him in the most affrighting manner that can be imagined I will give you but one expression or instance for all the rest Our God is a consuming fire saith the Apostle Heb. 12. ult The Nations are but as a drop of a bucket saith the Prophet Isa 40.15 Now if that fire at Elijas sacrifice made nothing as it were of twelve barrels but licked up the whole trench-full of water what would become of us think we then if God should enter into judgement with us when we and the Nations even all the Nations of the earth are but as one drop of a bucket and God is a consuming fire we must needs cry out as those Israelites did at the promulgation of the Law surely this great fire will consume us Let us then brethren give no entertainment to the evil of sin lest the evil of punishment dog and ghost it at the heels lest we provoke God to threaten us as his Prophet here threatens Nineveh Subvertetur Nineve Nineveh shall be overthrown Overthrown saith he oh but Durus est hic sermo this is a hard saying who can hear it for most men are like Ahab they hate a Michaiah a plain-dealing Prophet or Preacher because he prophecyeth no good concerning them but evil Or they are like those who are complained of Isa 30.10 Which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophecy not unto us right things speak unto us smooth things prophecy deceits And this being the humour of most men how then durst Jonah threaten the Ninevites with an Overthrow yes as St. John Baptist resolved to tell Herod of his incest though he lost his head for it so let the Ninevites here take it how they will Jonah is resolved to do his message Subvertetur Nineve Nineveh shall be overthrown Here is an instruction then for all those that are the Ministers of Christ not to play the Gnathoes not to be Placentia-Preachers not to fashion their Sermons according to the humour and temper of their Disciples though indeed Is quaestus nunc est multo uberrimus this is the way to thrive I know for this cause fall the people unto them and thereout suck these Temporizers no small advantage But this must not be our practise we have not so learned Christ We must not be the devils Fidlers to play what tune the people bid us nor must we be the Devils upholders to sew pillows under mens elbowes nor must we be the devils Plaisterers to daub men up with untempered mortar we must not make fair weather preaching peace peace to sinners when there is no peace to the wicked but we must plainly denounce wrath vengeance against impenitent sinners unless speedily converted threatning them that they shall be confounded we must deal with them as Jonah dealeth here with the City Nineveh who threatneth it with a Subvertetur it shall be overthrown And so I pass from the third part of the Text the matter of Jonah's preaching an overthrow to the fourth which is the place of his preaching the City Nineveh Subvertetur Nineve Nineveh shall be overthrown And this Nineveh Strabo telleth us was the Metropolis of Assyria the chief City of that Countrey situate by the river Lycus A City we know it was and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Civitas from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Multus from the multitude of people that use to be in Cities In the Original it is called a City of God which at first sight seemeth somewhat strange seing there was neither Worship nor Temple nor Prophet of God in it Luther thinketh it was so called from the care of God to preserve it But I am rather of Oecolampadius his opinion in this who will have it called a City of God by an Heb aâ—sm for so indeed the Hebrews when they speak of an high mountain a tall Cedar or a great City because Gods dwelling is on high and because he is of such immensity therefore they think they cannot express these things so to the life as by calling it a Mountain or a Cedar or a City of god And therefore that which should be Civitas Dei according to the Original is rendred Civitas magna by St. Jerome whom our English Translators follow calling it a great City But if Nineveh were so great a City even of three dayes journey as we read how then durst Jonah be so bold as threaten it after this manner Yes he had good reason for it for Prophets must not be afraid of the face of men though briars and thorns were with them and though they dwelt among Scorpions we that are Preachers must of all other be full of godly courage and resolution not fearing to denounce wrath and