father can come near the love of our heavenly Father for how doth his heart mourn how do his mercies over-look our iniquities how are his bowels troubled how are his repentingsrouled together how doth he in the midst of wrath remember mercy how doth he aâ—ter all his menacings and threatnings recall our frailties and his own blessed glorious and ever renowned attribute the mercifull God And so spare us heu quam bonus est deus quam vilis homo O How good is God to Israel and how unworthy and unthankfull and disobedient is Israel to this good God and that we may the better blush and be ashamed of our selves and sinfull courses let us look upon some branches of his Love As 1. When we were deadly sick and nothing could recover us but the blood of his beloved and onely begotten Son then he spared not his own Son but gave him for us all to death that we might live Rom. 8. 32. 2ly The eminency of his Love shines the more clear if we consider the persons upon whom he cast and bestowed his Love and that was upon grievous sinners as the Apostle shews Rom. 5. 6. for Christ when we were yet of no strength died for the ungodly 3ly The unworthiness of the persons is aggravated by their loathsome condition being à capite ad calcem from the crown of the head to the soal of the foot full of nothing but wounds and sores and swellings full of putrified corruption Isa 1. 6. Job in that condition was loathed by his own wife and friends and for the King of Kings to be enamoured on such wretched Lazarusses Quantus amor how great was his Love The blind and the halt and the lame the soul of David hated and who but God would but have done the like and therefore the stronger tie and bond to bind us to love him Who hath so loved us as it is 1 Joh. 4. 11. 4ly If our condition had been loathsome by divine Providence it had not been much to be wondered at that he should love deformed creatures of his own making but when it came by our making and marring by sin what he had made beautifull this speaks his goodnesse indeed 5ly Or for a good man one may die Rom. 5. 7. but for an open and professed enemy who but David would die Yet when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 10. We conspired and crucified and killed the Lord of Life Acts 3. 15. and the Lord of Life layes down his life to give us life and is not this unheard-of love 6ly His love is most apparent by the rich purchase and price he paid for us For we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb undefiled and without spot 1 Pet. 1. 18. All the blood of Bulls and Goats in the world could not help us but it must be the blood of the Lamb of God must purifie our consciences from dead works Heb. 9. 14. and when this Lamb must be slain to save us sinners who can deny his love to be very great The uses hereof are these Vse 1. The bountifulness and loving-kindeness of our heavenly Father towards us should lead us all unto repentance Rom. 2. 4. What could he have done for his vineyard that he hath not done unto it Isa 5. 4. he hath planted it with the best plants he hath watered it and dungde it and pruned it and hath bestowed much labour and cost about it and love upon it as the Dresser did upon the barren fig-tree Luk. 13. 7 8. He feeds us he clothes us and in a word blesseth us with the blessings of his right hand and of his left Prov. 3. 16. And now O man what doth the Lord thy God require of thee Surely nothing but to do justly and to love mercy and to humble thy self and to turn from thy evil wayes and to walk with thy God Mic. 6. 8. So that as the servants of Naaman spake unto him 2 Kingâ— 5. 13. If the Prophet had commanded thee some great matter would'st thou not have done it how much rather then when he saith to thee wash and be clean I speak unto you if God had required of you your lands treasures wives husbands yea your Absaloms ye must have parted with them but he soares not so high but contents himself with little and that little is to be grieved with our selves for grieving him to return unto the Lord that he may return unto us Zach. 1. 3. and to repent us of all our wickedness He that will grudge God this deserves not to be owned for his childe It was the saying of the man of God to the good Shunamite 2 King 4. 13. Behold thou hast had all this care for us what shall we do now for thee and of David Psal 116. 12. Quid retribuam domino What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits even so let it be our meditation what we shall do for God that hath done such great things for us For where much is given much is looked for saith Christ Luk. 12. 48. Let us then with the Samaritan leper chap. 17. 15. return and praise God and that not only in tongue or word but in our deeds and lives and conversations Mark the Apostles argument 1 Cor. 6. 20. yeare bought with a price there is our Heavenly Fathers love Now the sequel tells us what lieth on our part to perform Glorifie God therefore in your bodies and in your spirits A son honoreth his father and a servant his master If he be then our Father let us honour him If our master let us fear him Mal. 1. 6. Vse 2. Here is comfort and Balm of Gilead to heal all that are wounded with their sinnes for if David could forget and forgive as we use to say all the unkindeness and wrongs done to him by his unnatural son Absalom and wish to die for him who had as willingly die as see him live then out of all question God hath more yerning melting and tender bowels towards them that lie grovling on the earth for their failings Can David soal a pardon to his son that stands up in defiance of him abuseth his wives and concubines rebels and takes armes to pull him out of his Throne by head and ears and wil not our heavenly Father receive us to mercy when we shall submit lament and bewail our errours and transgressions weep and howl and beg and crave forgiveness shall David look a squint and a to side upon the faults of his childe and only eye him as the fruit of his loins and will not God cast all our sinnes into the bottom of the Sea Mic. 7. 19. and not look upon us in our selves but in his Christ in whom he is well pleased Mat. 3. 17. and with us in him Wherefore let us comfort one another in these words 1 Thes
tears for David weeps and Israel weeps and weeps again as it is vers 34. that as a man falleth before wicked men so Abner shall fall And the King said unto his Servants Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man this day fallen in Israel No man as yet no not the Son of God himself as man be he never so potent and mighty was privileged from death or from tasting of Deaths cup Psal 89. 48. for the decree is past the doom is irrecoverable decretum est omnibus mori there is an appointed time for all men to dye Heb. 9. 27. But to fall immaturely like Fruit before it be ripe but to be cropped like the Rose in the bud but to be nipped in the Spring like the flower of the field but to be chased up and down like a Fox fleeing to the Mountains but to be wearied and worried to death Acteon-like by his own Hounds and greedy Currs thirsting to fill themselves full with the flesh and blood of their loving Master but to be cheated and gull'd of his life and that after many Protestations Vows and lifting up of hands to the Almighty but to be betrayed with a Kisse as Judas served his Lord but to be stubbed up root and branch in time of peace and that under colour of a fair treaty and parley as Joab did Abner vers 26 27. Hinc illae lachryme Niobe herself will weep at this This cannot but cause the most stony heart to melt this cannot but cause all Israel to hang down their heads like Bull-rushes and to wring their hands and to water their couches with tears Psal 6. 6. and this cannot but move Israel to curse with David the Author and Authors of Israels woe vers 29. that Abner a Prince a great man should fall and thus fall and in Israel too where was the Law and the Prophets where the word was taught and preached and where a reformation a goodly reformation a general reformation is pretended But although horret meminisse David is ashamed is startled and trembles at so horrid so cruel so unnatural a Fact that he would not have it published in Gath nor proclamed in Askalon lest the Heathen the uncircumcised the Philistines the Papists the Jesuites tryumph and rejoyce in Israels wonderfull inspeakable invaluable losse wherein the light of Israel is quenched as it is 2 Sam. 22. 17. Yet he declareth and broacheth this sad news and heavy tidings to his Servants that they might take notice what a rich Jewel was fallen from the Crown saying Know ye not that a Prince and a great man is this day fallen in Israel There is no innocent blood spilt and shed upon the ground but hath a tongue to cry unto Heaven for vengeance So saith God to Cain Gen. 4. 10. The voice of tby brothers blood crieth to me from the Earth and therefore that the Land might be found guiltlesse of so foul crime for Clamitat in Coelum vox sanguinis Sodomorum Vox oppressorum merces retenta laborum and so acquitted of the imminent and eminent judgements following it from the great Tribunal above the Law requires the Coroner to sit and make enquiry after the death of the meanest Peasant for saith the Statute in that case provided the King hath lost a Subject and must have an account thereof How much more then when an Abner a Prince a great man falles ought whole Israel by the same bond of love to stand uâ— as one man and require satisfaction for his death that as it is ver 28. The Kingdom may be guiltlesse before the Lord for ever concerning the blood of Abner David fore-sees a black storm comming and therfore labours to make his peace with God and Men laying open unto them the manner nature of Abners fall in these words ver 33. Died Abner as a fool dieth and prayeth unto the Lord to reward the evil doer according to his wickednesse ver 39. and digito monstrat hominem points out with his finger to the eyes of all the mourners in Israel Joabs evil and wickednesse like Cains brand-mark on his forehead to be the shedding of bloud innocent bloud Princes bloud for saith the King to his servants Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man this day fallen in Israel Scelus aliquis tutum nullus securum tulit saith Seneca a man may commit theft rape murther c. so secretly that neither the Sun oculus mundi the worlds great eye nor mans eye seeth it not But all things are naked and open unto his eyes with whom we have to do Heb. 4. 13. but that Erynnis conscientiae the Worm of conscience will be alwaies checking and gnawing and griping of him for them with pangs as bitter as Hell Let Richard the third deny this if he could speak but once again was not his hand still upon his Dagger being afraid that every one met and found him would slay him did not the bloud of the harmlesse infants he caused to be slain that they might be a foot-stool to mount him into their throne so trouble him so disquiet him that either sleep departed from his eyes as it did from Ahasuerus Esth. 1. or he was so frighted in his sleep with dreadfull apparitions of ugly Devils haling and tearing of him into pieces that his life was burthensome unto him Let Joab speak what one comfortable day or night he enjoyed after the slaughter of a good Prince I had almost said the best of Princes In the day time trepidat ad arundinis umbram he is afraid of his own shadow in the night the cracking of a few Chest-nuts in the fire terrifie him So that herein is the Prophecie fulfilled Isa 57. 21. non est pax impiis there is no peace unto the wicked saith my God or otherwise perhaps Joab may vaunt it for some few years or daies over his prey in great Gallantry outward Pomp magnificence and statelinesse but so sure as the Lord lives his end shall not be peace neither shall he go to the grave in a full age as a rick of Corn commeth in due season into the barn Job 5. 26. and to this effect speaks David Psal 37. 35 36. I have seen the wicked strong and spreading himself like a green Bay-tree Yet be passed away and to be was gone and I sought him but could not find him and no wonder for evil shall hunt the cruel man to destruction Psal 140. 11. and such is the justice of the Almighty that commonly that as he made a pit and digged it so he should fall into the pit that he made Psal 7. 15. and Neque enim Lex justior ulla est Quam necis artifices arte perire sua then evil watch evil catch As Tomyris said unto Cyrus who had formerly slain hir son cutting off his head and casting it into a Tub of bloud sanguinem sitisti sanguinem habes bloud thou thirstedst drink thy fill and
the residue we hear no such news so unhappy a thing it is to be the child of a bad father for saith David Psal 18. 26. With the froward he shall learn frowardnesse and with the ungodly ungodlinesse and so I passe to the next particular 3ly What Athaliahs Treason was with that she complained of Athaliahs Treason was Monstrum horrendum ingens so heinous so detestable so abominable that heaven could not but mourn over it the earth tremble at it and the mountains and hard rocks be moved for it God could not but loathe abhor the author of it Man could not but be startled at her inhumane barbaism and the Devils themselves not own it for when she saw that her son was dead she arose and destroyed all the Kings seed verse 1. that is all those that were of the house of Judah but one called Joash whom Jehosheba stole away and nursed up privately verse 2. Alas What harm had these harmlesse Lambs done What misbehaviour did she see in their unspotted lives that death must presently remove them out of her sight It was Hecuba's speech Thesei oultus amo illos priores quos tulit quondam juvenis that she was in love with the youthfull fresh face of Theseus which seemed lovely as the morning and whose cheeks were comely Cant. 1. 18 and why should not these Athaliah give a check mate to the violent torrent of thy swelling envenomed rage against them Athaliah look upon the Royal blood streams in their veins Athaliah look upon their innocency Athaliah look upon their sweet and amiable countenances and if Nihil horum â—ra vulâ—usque movebunt none of these can move thee to pity them to spare them to have compassion on them then let the tender bowelness of a mother melt thee for how will Rachel moutn for her children when they are not Matth. 2. 18. Thou were once a mother thy self and let thy own tongue speak What pangs and throbs like a second labour thou enduredst in thy heart when thou lost thy son and therefore let the remembrance thereof move thee to have a fellow-feeling of other womens miseries or if that be too weak to refell repel and null thy ambitious high towring thoughts then call to mind the consanguinity and affinity they had with the son of thy love to quench thy burning thirst after their blood or if that be too weak an Argument to convince thee then let the remembrance of thy own shame and the grumbling and muttering of a discontented people fright thee from doing such a cursed act Athaliah remember that for blood and such grand wickednesse the Land mourns Jer. 12. 4. Athaliah remember that a house cannot be established by iniquity Prov. 14. 11. Athaliah remember what a terrible wo is denounced against those that build a Town with blood and erect a City by iniquity Hab. 2. 12. Athaliah remember the Saints cry day and night unto the Lord to judge and avenge their blood Rev. 6. 10. and then if thou be not more savage than the Bear robbed of her whelps and given over to a Reprobate sence to work evil and all manner of evil in the sight of the Lord like thy Progenitors thou wilt stifle this design in the birth I but thinks Athaliah How shall I wear the Crown and sway the Reaml then An. Imprison them and that is cruelty enough toward the heirs apparent of a whole Kingdom I but thinks Athaliah they may break prison and pull the Crown off again from my head An. Then banish them proclaim them Traytors if they disturb thy peace and cause the Pamphleters to libel them disgrace them and bring them into an odium with their Subjectâ— I but thinks Athaliah they will be alwayes undermining my new upstart honour and foundation and hatching one evil or other against me and therefore my surest course will be to take offth eir heads and here she sets up her staff fall back fall edge this she resolves to do be it pleasing or displeasing to God or man She intends to make sure work where she goeth so well as she can and so cuts off all that might lay claim to her usurped interest And now she conjectures the Crown is nailed fast to her head She thinks that her house is builded upon a rock that will not deceive her She supposed like Babylon Isa 47. 7. That she shall be a Queen for ever and so she ruffles it and vaunts it like Nebuchadnezzar over his Babel Dan. 4 27. and glorifies her self six years together not fearing or feeling any storm to disquiet her She sings a Lullaby to her soul with the rich man Luke 12. 19. Soul take thine ease eat drink and be merry she cries peace peace when there was no peace Jer. 6. 14. for when she least dreamed of it then her wickednesse lay at her door like a fierce Mastiff to rend her into peeces and rob her and spoil her of all her glory and the Lord bringeth a Vine as it were out of Egypt and raiseth up an Infant out of the dust to dethrone her by name Joash by birth of the line of Judah as he had promised David That he should not want a man to sit upon his Throne after him Jer. 33. 17. And all this he bringeth to passe by weak means as when men are lowest then he is strongest and loves to be Jehovah-Jereh seen in the Mount even by Jehoiada chief Priest who anoints him proclaims him King and the people with acclamations of joy shout lift up their voices like trumpets and cry out Vive le Roy Let the King live for ever verse 12. God save the King God save the King Wherefore 1. Let no man be sory as they that are without hope 1 Thes 4. 13 for he is the Almighty God as he told Abraham Gen. 17. 1. to do wonders for us as well as for Judah 2ly Let us comfort one another in the meditation of his power mans necessity is Gods opportunity to help and if his help be deferred for twice six years Wait for it shall surely come and not stay Hab. 2. 3. Thus her stiff mountain is shaken that she may speak with David Psal 30 6 7. In my prosperity I said I shall never be moved I having made my mountain so strong but thou didst bide thy face O Lord and I was troubled Thus the scale is tuâ—ned and Athaliah so nettled at the noise and clamours ecchoed into her ears that she must hasten to see what news was stirring abroad verse 13. but her eye no sooner gave the relation thereof but her countenance changeth her flesh trembles like an Aspen leaf and her joints are loosed and her hands shake â—s with the Palsie troubled her heart now condemns her the dead serpent or viper now flies in her face like Pauls and her tongue ventâ— forth her grief bellowing forth Treason Treason How now Athaliah is it Treason for Joash to resume his Birthright How now Athaliah
art not given over to a reprobate sense Rom. 1. 28. then these things cannot but melt thee relent thee and dam up thy way from prosecuting thy devilish purposes any farther I but thinks Absalom that is not the way to the Kingdom and Sceptre and to reign and therefore be it never so foul I will thorow it and as Caesar said Vel inveniam vel faciam I will hack and hew it out with my sword and so having gathered together all the men of Israel from Dan to Beersheba and made him self strong for the battel he prepares to divide the spoil Oh unparalleld traytor for 1. He sought the death of the Lords anointed and that it is aggravated in these Circumstances 1. His anointed child And right dear and precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Psal 116. 15. 2ly His Prophet who was as the apple of Gods eye very tender to him Zech. 2. 8. and concerning whom he hath given so strict a chatge Psal 105. 15 Touch not mine anointed nor do my Prophets no harm 3ly That he was anointed his King a King of Gods own pointing out 1 Sam. 16. 12. a King after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13. 14 A typical King of Christ a King-father and a father to his people so well as to his own children a nursing father Isa 49. 23. And for Absalom to rob God and men of such a King who would not should not fight it out to the death like Zebulun and Nephtali Judg. 5. 18. to save him but Absalom and some of his Faction who love to fish in troubled waters but hence we learn Obs That one sin if not in time stifled makes way for a bigger as a little wedge doth for a greater Read backward and ye shall find that his sin grew like a snow-ball to a very great pitch and height and so I may compare it to Elijahs cloud 1 Kin. 18. 44. the which at first seemed no bigger than a mans hand but by and by it overspread the heaven or like to Ezekiels waters chap. 47. 3 4 5. which came to the ancles then up to the knees then to the loins and afterward waxed so deep that they could not be passed oveâ— or like to that fountain which became a river Ezek. 10. 6. and as our Proverb is Give the Devil an inch and he will take an ell We read Matth. 12. 43 44 45. of an unclean spirit in a man Which goeth forth and taketh seven other spirits worse than himself and they enter in and dwell there Even so if we give way to one unclean spirit one sin yea and as Lot sayd of Zoar a little sin we make way for all sin that we may say as Jacob did of Gad A Troop cometh As the Sea making the least breach be it thorow a mole-hole presently grows bigger and bigger upon it and pours in an inundation to the destruction of man and beast and as the Story goeth of Hatchet which begging a withered bough of an Ash to make it a helve instantly falls to work and cuts down the tall Cedar and strong Oke and green Elm and Ash which stood before secure and as Pompey marching with his Souldiers to take a great and rich City and finding the gates shut and the opposition strong he craves leave of the Citizens to give entertainment to some few of his wounded and sickly men and he would passe away without their least disturbance the which having obtained they in the night opened the gates to the General and the stronger men to the sacking and utter undoing of a famous City Even so if the Devil can but beg a helve for a hatchet or make a breach in mans heart to get in his little finger he will strain hard to make room for his head and if he can get in his head he will draw in his whole body or if he can procure the favour from us to give entertainment to some weakling and puling sins then he cries out with Moah now Moah to the spoil now Devil to thy prey and therefore Vse Is for our instruction to kill the Crocodile in the egge lest it grow to be a serpent and so kill us to quench the fire whilst it is but a spark lest it get head and so consume us Obsta Principiis withstand the beginnings of sin lest they grow to be so mountainous that they crush thee down to hell Venienti occurre morbo faith the Physician Prevent the disease by taking Physick in time lest it run on and destroy thee before thy time If Absolom had observed this rule he had never fallen so shamefully so suddenly like a child new born so wonderfully like Jerusalem Lam. 1. 9. 2ly Absaloms Treason is aggravated in that he sought the death of his father his father that begat him and his father that so well loved him He was troubled with a new disease at that time for he was sick of his father and nothing could cure him but his removal out of his eye that he might sit at Helm an steer the ship from whence we learn Obs That when Kings Princes Governors and Magistrates shall suffer sin to go unpunished in others God will make them so spared instruments to punish them David permitting Absalom to run on in sin out of one sin into another not executing the Law or justice upon him God makes him as the Canaanite to the Israelite Num. 33. 55. A prick in his eye and a thorn in his side We have a Proverb Save a Thief from the Gallows and he will hang thee at last if he can Amnons Murther deserved severe punishment by the Law of God but David out of foolish pity omitting it and winking at it God sets him home to him at last and raiseth up the son of his bowels and love too to hunt after his life Absalom may grieve God and yet that doth not much grieve David wherefore God takes his own quarrel in hand and causeth him to be the greatest grief that ever he encountred withall and so hear him roaring and howling forth this sad lamentation and Dittie for him O Absalom my son my son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my son my son And so I passe to the last point 4ly Which is Absaloms death The two Generals Absalom and Joab joyned Battel to dispute the Controversie about the Crown and at last Absalom being worsted flieth and flying the Mule came under a great thick Oke And his head caught hold on the Oke and he was taken up between the heaven and the earth and Joab took three darts and thrust them thorow Absalom and so he died verse 9. 14. Died between heaven and earth as unworthy by reason of his debauchednesse to go to the one or to have a burial place in the other the which is a most terrible and fearfull example of Gods vengeance 1. Against Rebels to their King 2ly Against those that are disobedient to