come to nought speak the word and it shall not stand for Immanuel Isa 8. 10. yet hee never yet did set a broader seal to this Cause in testimony of his patrociny thereof than at this time and place The first Summer of our war hee wrote himself our God in great letters at Edge Hill The second in yet a greater character at Newbery The third that he might be legible to such as hitherto would not see hee hath wrote himself Immanuel in a Text letter even in that place where that which hath since proclaimed it selfe a cruell war did then in its infancy disguize it self under the name of Guard a good Omen Hannibal is routed neere the walls of his own Carthage There can be to us no better signe than when God increases upon us and still makes us better measure of his mercies than aforetime New mercies from him are the matter of a new song to us and of a new name to himself so let him swallow up the lesser characters of his goodnesse to us in still a greater letter untill the Egyptians see and say Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians Exod. 14. 25. I shall not stand to rip a sunder the texture of the whole Chapter the beginning of it is taken up in a dialogue between the Church and Christ Who is this saith she that commeth from Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah It is I saith hee that speak in righteousnesse mighty to save Wherefore saith shee art thou red in thine apparell and thy garments like him that treads in the wine fat I have saith he trodden down my enemies so have stained my garments with their bloud as theirs with the bloud of grapes that tread the wine-presse And because a third question might have beene asked what partners hadst thou in the work he anticipates in the 5 Verse I looked and there was none to helpe and I wondred that there was none to uphold Therefore mine own arme brought salvation unto me and my fury it upheld me and I will tread down the people in my anger c. How little how nothing doth the Church contribute to her own deliverance or salvation She hath nothing to do but like Israel to stand still Exod. 14. 13. with cap. 15. Ver. ◠c. ◠and see the salvation of the Lord and afterwards to sing and follow the Lords hand with acclamations therefore she breaks forth Verse 7. into these words I will mention the loving kindnesse of the Lord the praises of the Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us c. Now as a good Historian doth not relate meere and naked matters of fact but the reasons and considerations moving so or so with the effects and resultances so the Church survaying the loving kindnesses of the Lord even from the times of Egypt and of the wildernesse which was the great letter wherein the Alphabet of his remarkable mercies to that Nation did begin suggests in the words of my text the considerations upon which God proceeded to be their Saviour For he said surely they are my people children that will not lye so he was their Saviour The words have no great knot in them that expression Children that will not lie requires a little light Mercer in Gen. 21. 13. mentiri Hebraicè est dicti facti The Hebrews call lying not only in words but deeds verball lying I shall not insist upon for though the Papist under-prop his Religion as the enemy doth his cause with legends of these pious fraudes yet lying is a trade that will break both the first Merchant thereof and the Broker and the credulous buyer or receiver they cannot keep open shop long lying Bonefires will not blaze long lying Bels will be presently in the changes though truth may lose ground at the start yet it ever wins at last The text speaks of lying in deed or fact when a man doth fallere fidem datam break his Covenant deal perfidiously with God for that is the proper notion of lying in fact to break through and violate ingagements to be unfaithfull to deal falsly so the word is used Gen. 21. 23. Sweare to me that thou wilt not lie or deal falsly Psal 44. 17. All this is come upon us yet have wee not forgotten thee neither have we lyed or dealt falsly in thy covenant Psal 89. 33. I will not suffer saith God my faithfulnesse to lie or fail my covenant will I not breake nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips and so you shall find though the word in the fountain be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in the text Psal 18. 47. that feigned subjection or obedience to God or men is called lying The strangers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Is the word used Psal 18. 47 c. shall lie unto me or dissemble their submission in which notion the word is also used Deut. 33. 29. Thine enemies shall be found liers unto thee that is they shall not dare but to be subject though their hearts be rotten and to conclude Hab. 3. 17. The labour of the Olive shall lie that is fail or frustrate expectation so that it cannot rest in doubt what should be meant by children that will not lie that is they are my people that will not shrink as one of our English translations doth well Mr. Coverdales Translation turn the Latine filii non negantes they will keep touch with me and will answer their covenant-ingagements The words hold forth unto you three things That God in the experience and by the confession of his people was their Saviour He was their Saviour The consideration which hee had and the account which he gave to himself of them He said they are my people children that will not lie The connexion of these two together so he said of them and so he was to them So he was their Saviour For the right apprehension of the sense of the words you are to take them as a Prosopopeie conceived in way Sanctius inlocum of imitation of men that as a father in debate within himself what he should do concerning a lewd and disobedient son saith his courses are loose and vitious his disposition illiberall his carriages towards me undutifull but he now falls at my feet laments his exorbitances obliges himself to return ad bonam frugem what shall I conclude why notwithstanding all this hee is my child parentes nil non sper ant de filiis hee will now keep promise I will be a father to him So God is conceived of in this text as being in consultation with himself about Israel and the word surely or notwithstanding implyes that he could lay much rebellion many relapses to their charge and yet on the other side considers They bewail their evill ways they renew their covenants with me they put upon themselves new ingagements to
hath given into our hands the Keyes of both and hath shut up these two doors and both of them beyond our expectation Shrewesbury was that first Shop where the first great Army was formed against us a good omen there is in it that that place should come into your hands and that without any considerable expence of your blood and which is more that this should be upon the very day of breaking up the Treaty wherein though they were forward in their declaration thereby to serve themselves by such an advantage yet God put out his Declaration before theirs and declared himself much for us and better to the satisfaction of all murmurings and discontents for the want of Peace then any thing could have been said or declared by you For howsoever that the Treaty might have been a Tree of knowledge of good and evil to us all had we took and eaten of the fruit of it yet because it was a tree whose fruit was pleasant to the eye and a Tree to be desired how many might have been tempted to have put all to the hazard by it and for it at least have been much discontent at the uneffectualness thereof had not God put in such a caveat as this against all our quarrellings And for Weymouth who knows but it served to heighten the spirits and the conditions of the other part that they might break with us to their own greater disadvantage and then when that work was serv'd and done God returned it back into our hands again having taken it from us or borrowed it of us for a design of his which when it was accomplisht complisht he gave it back again God had left a little spark alive in Melcombe Melcombe Regis not the less the Kings for this their faithfulness though if I may speak without offence I hope less the Queens It was very much that a little Cock-boat should rescue the Ship and Guns and beat out the Pirats though assisted with field force and recover themselves again and when we thought that quarter might have been well for them then to Conquer and Triumph over the Enemy was a very remarkable hand of God with them and the more that it is to our admiration the more to Gods honor He that is solus in opere let him not have any that may be with him socius in gloria .. We will lay up this Sword in the Tabernacle of the Lord as a Monument that little David prevailed against great Goliah the Lord hath looked upon us in our low estate the season of these mercies makes them the more valuable unto us Vse 2 Let the salvations and victories which we have received from the Lord invite and incourage and oblige us to joyne in with him who is our Shield and Sword It is good for us to be on the right side of the cloud Oh that such seasonable demonstrations of Gods presence power and goodness might put fire into every man We have too much wild-fire of divisions and combustions amongst us already but the fire which I mean is Heavenly fire zeal for God to own him acknowledg and adhere unto him There are two great dividers of us amongst our selves jealousies and Interests I wish they were silenced by self-denyal and that the strength of publick spirit might drain those streams and make their channels drie My Lords and Gentlemen what a God do you lay out your selves for one that will be your Speaker in your Houses and your Shield and Sword in the Field be true to him and he will make your enemies lyars unto you set him on high and he will make you tread on their high places you have a rent and broken Ship to steer and pilot through cross winds and waves Be you one among your selves and then all divisions in Church or Armies will be less formidable Your union would be a precious Pearl while we are hnmbled for our manifold distractions Let us rejoyce in your unity If Moses Caleb and Joshua hold together and be all of one mind the tumultuous Isralites will be the better led on through this wildernes The last and ultimate end which you have covenanted to intend and aime at should give law to all private respects passions interests and rule to all the means that conduce towards it let the ardua regni take place of meum tuum self-denial will make you all one You that are for the Sea and the Field hearken the Sea and the Field call for you It 's seed time now in the Countrey let it be so with you go forth and sow for us the matter of future praises or else we shall have a late Harvest and I beseech you take faithfull Ministers with you If you have no Preachers with you you will have too many The Country savors too much already of the Field doctrine and there is yet another thing which I have to say I know not whether to you or the State or both and that is this That an exchange be made of two hang-byes that have followed some of our Armies I mean Plunder and Free-quarter and that exchange to be for two other that will do you more credit Good pay and good discipline We lose very much by the two former and should gain very much by the two latter we should by this means convince and conquer enemies and take away our own reproach out of their mouths and we should both gain and keep firm our friends unto us and therefore we could not do our selves or the cause better service then to harken to this motion Nor can there be a better time for you to go forth then when the successes which we mention this day do incourage you our praises are your vetiles or forlorn-hope sent forth before hand as they were Iehosaphats 2 Chron. 20. 21. The Psalmist makes this conjunction Ps 149. 6. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand And for you this renowned City you are the Deborah or Mother in this Israel of you that may be said which is in the 12th Chap of Zech. ver 5. The Governours of Iudah shall say in their heart The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of Hosts their God You are the sinews and strength of the Kingdom and though you be much exhausted and there is but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oyl in a cruse yet as hard as it was the Prophet put the widow to go and make him a little cake first 1 King 17. 13. it was a great tryal yet she lost nothing by it you have now an occasion and an invitement to stretch forth your abilities to the utmost this warm Sun that shines upon you may open the oyster-shell that is closest shut up Thanksgivings as they inlarge the heart so they open the hand It 's true that we commonly say a man will not adventure all in one bottom that is when
be mine I le trust them surely they will not lie nor shrinke how doth the love of God to his people preponderate all their miscarriages how inclinable is he to conceive hopes of them for though he can alleage enough against them to justifie his desertion of them yet he buries in forgetfulnesse that which is past upon hopes of better for time to come and this expectation which he hath of them gives a non obstante to all their former provocations and iniquities and casts the skales with him to be their Saviour They will not lie So he was their Saviour The Observations that I shall take up at this time follow in their order Observa 1 God could have drawn up such a charge against his people to whom he was a Saviour as might have justified him to all the world if hee had refused them I gather this from the first words he said He said surely or as it elswhere is translated notwithstanding when one begins a speech with a notwithstanding hee leaves it to your conception to imagine all that was in his minde which never broke forth and it carries it cleere enough that God broke through all the considerations of their rebellion apostasie unworthinesse when he said Surely they are my people and the like forme of speech carries the same implication Matth. 21. 37. Last of all he sent unto them his son saying They will reverence my son as if he had said They have hitherto killed my servants one after another but they will reverence my son Observe the connexion of the former Verse with my text I will mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord the praises of the Lord for he said yet they are my people that is when hee might have said so much against them as to have deserted them and given them up to destruction then hee said yet they are my people It 's good for us to observe what God might lay in charge against us even then when he crowns us with his favour or wee proclaim his praises for nothing gives a better foyle to mercy nothing sets such an edge upon thanksgivings nothing sets the strings in sweeter tune for praises than for us to consider and compare our remotenesse from expectation of any Salvation Make a man first humble and you make him thankfull He that first can justifie God will the more easily and freely glorifie him We finde not in the Pharisee his God I thank thee any self-condemning or God-justifying expressions Our Saviour observes that that Leper who of ten healed came onely back to give glory to God was a Samaritan This stranger sayth hee Luke 7. 16 28. Let us set our Nationall sins before our eyes this day when we come with our peace-offerings for publike mercies these sowre herbs will quicken our palate to the relish of this Passeover for it is a Passeover indeed God having made the destroying Angell to passe over the houses of his people and led the stroke to finde out them that would keep us still in Egypt after God cals us out And to let passe all those provocations of God by this Nation for so many yeers of rest Let us looke upon the face of our wildernes-sins as I may call them and what were Israels wildernes-sins murmuring against God complayning of his dealing with them dislike of his Covenant contempt of his Promises returning in heart into Egypt And are not our carcasses as worthy to fall in the Wildernesse as theirs did For it was not for their Egypt-sins but for the wildernesse-sins when they werein passage to the promised Land that God sware in his wrath against them that they should not enter Heb 3. 10 11. into his rest Have wee not cause to tremble lest God should enter the caveat of such an oath against us for the sins wee are guilty of in this our passage What bitter complaints of and murmurings at Gods dealing with us What mutinies against our Leaders what evill reports are brought up of the Reformation intended what lusting after the former flesh-pots what calling for Captains to lead us back again into bondage what dancing before the golden calves of new opinions and ways of our own erection and yet God is our Saviour with a non obstante to every of these miscarriages Let us rejoyce with trembling and be broken into thankgivings In our receiving of such high grace and favour we must look to two things 1 The rellish of the mercy bestowed which is quickned by sense of our unworthinesse 2 The disgestion of it into thanksgivings prayses and obedience In relishing of a mercy a man eyther looks upon it as a benefit and so hee gives thanks to God as the benefactour or as it is a fruit of prayer and as it is the workmanship of God in which he is seen in wisdom power presence goodnesse and so he praises God as the workman for that is the difference between thanksgiving and praise the one looks at the benefit the other at the workmanship of God in it If one give you a Watch or curious piece the benefactor hath the thanks the workman hath the prayse There are more thanksgivers than praysers of God because though many taste the benefit yet few taste or see God in it And for the digestion of a mercy bestowed it is much according to the rellish of it He that relislies onely his own interest or good in it turns it oftentimes into matter of self-glory security c. but he that sees God in it The joy of the Lord is his strength to make return of prayse and service to God again Observa 2 Gods people will not lie or faile God of his expectation that ehe hath of them The Text puts these two as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same They are my people Children that will not lie God sayth of himself that he cannot lie of his people that they will not The reason is because they follow and adhere to him and his Cause upon true principles and not self-interests and ends a man may advance very farre and do valiantly upon private interest and ends He may run swiftly and smoothly but he always fals towards and rests upon his byas The mixt multitude that go out with Israel will fall to lusting We have seen the end of such blazing and falling stars who after they have deceived us a while have been resolved into their elements of earth and selfe respects but a man that is carried by true Principles though the compass may through infirmity or temptation somtimes admit variation or wavering yet it recollects it selfe and will point to the true pole what waves or winds soever beat against the ship wherein he is Observa 3 The Church gives unto God alone the title of a Saviour He was their Saviour But are there not Saviours besides him Saviours shall come up on Mount Sion to judge the Mount of Esau Obad. Vers ult When they cryed unto thee
thou gavest them saviours who saved them out of the hand of their enemies Nehem. 9. 27. As the Scripture calls Magistrates Gods so it calls the vindices or Judges which hee raised up to Israel Saviours but as those are but dii minorum gentium Gods by participation of some spark of his image and authority so are these but subsaviours instrumentall actours so far as they are acted by God the glory of an instrument is none but what redounds to the workman that made it or useth it Cicero taxes Verres for that he found him at Syracuse written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour Hoc quantum est sayth he this is so great a style as cannot be exprest in one Latine word The word Saviour hath no plurall number in an univocall sense Hos 13. 4. Thou shalt have no God but me for there is no Saviour besides me I will not common-place this point This day is text enough to prove the truth of it Let us make particular use thereof 1 To acknowledge God alone The Saviour 2 To rejoyce in him 3 To render to him as to a Saviour To acknowledge him whose finger doe I say or arme rather was made bare in this businesse Remove the thick wood of men the so many thousands out of your eye that you may see God I know wee have as he said prodigia miracula humana prodigies of men for valour wee have seene the chiefe Commander in fight to be as was said of Caesar medius inter imperatorem militem betweene a Commander and a common souldier But who teaches their hands to war and fingers to fight The more of God we see in them the lesse of them let us see in themselves And because the word Saviour will carry it both to deliverance and victory 1 Let us see God in the deliverance What might we have lost by this battle Might not the Religion Liberties Happinesse of two Kingdoms have been shaken would not the enemy have been heightened if yet there be any degrees of ascent left unto such insolency and cruelty that as was said of Tarquin Vel ipsam savitiam fatigasset he would have tyred out cruelty it selfe Would it not have beene the greatest crime to have been godly should not every Aristides have tasted of their ostracisme at the least for no other reason than quia nimium justus He is too good and if any have more cause to consider this than others they are those that have more of Christ in them than others to whom England and Scotland both might have been another Ireland I cannot expresse the consequence God denied the premises or antecedent who is our Deus liberator He hath delivered Hee doth deliver and wee trust also that he will deliver Hee hath delivered from plots from stratagems of dilatory and delusory peace He doth deliver from the sword of a furious enemy and we pray that He will deliver the King unto his loyall Parliament and people 2 Let us acknowledge God in the Victory How long did we lie against a strong City untill God sent a great army to surrender it up into our hands It was relieved that it might be emptied that York might be carried out into the field and taken there Who so is wise and will observe those things even they shall understand the loving kindnes of the Lord Psal 107. 43. Did not the enemy flesht with that successe follows us and seek us out for so God will have it At Edge Hill Newbery and York wee shall be defendants was not there some inclination of the battle at the first against us and some trepidation in divers of our men Is this to be ascribed to the dubiousnesse and uncertainty of war for so Homer calls Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an up and downe Iliad ◠or rather did not God take off some of Gideons souldiers They are too many saith he for me to give the Midianites into their hands Judg. 7. 2. Wee have always hitherto found it in experience in all our battails that God removes men from standing in his light and obscures us the more to shew himself do we need this art of God to take off our pride and self-confidence or doth God in goodnesse to us delight to sweeten our victories because gotten by his own hand and will not doe us so much hurt as to let us be our own saviours some use there is to be made of it that God in no battle as yet would suffer men to hide him from us and blessed be his Name for the sight of him in a Victory doth us more good than the Victory it self And yet further to winde up the strings of your prayses see the spirits of the enemy which God hath given into your hands and God hath showne you their spirits in their colours There is a sword reacht from a cloud with Fiat justitia it s well no higher hand reacht out that sword unto them The Oracle with which hee consulted that devised that Motto Fiat justitia was too cunning for him as it was for Craesus when it said magnam pervertet opum vim that he should overthrow a world of wealth for it was indeed his own he lost and so it pleased God the tables should be turned and the Motto should become ours and that it should be sent up to you to whom it belongs as a memorandum Fiat justitia The Crown and Mitre under it shews also that they hold the old principle No Bishop No King that is the lowest interpretation it can bear It is to be feared that the Mitre might in time have crept higher for it is an aspiring thing and the Motto seemes to joyn the Crowne and the Mitre in equipage Nolite tangere Christos meos As for the Crown let Mercy and Truth be the supporters of it for ever Prov. 20. 28. but for Mitres if Histories lye not we may say of them as it is said of some trees that grow not kindly in vicinity to each other the Crown hath never flourished that hath grown too neer the Mitre There is a sword also in one hand threatens to unity a knot in an other haply they meane the Covenant of the Kingdomes but that which is more strange is that this knot did ungird that sword And finally that they may shew their vile esteem of you they call some of you in a picture Dogs barking at a Lion and in the Motto they call you Catilines for that is the English of quousqué tandem abutêre patientia nostra which might have been a proper device if in the Lions place at which we bark not they had set the Fox or the Wolfe and had owned their own character And is this the festivity of their wit or the rage of their spirits whatsoever it be God hath given them check for though upon confidence of successe they did antedate their bells and bonefires yet in a few houres there was nothing of them left in the
field but bag and baggage Ammunition Ordnance Prisoners dead carcasses which had been more if a Noble Commander the honour of the field he treads upon had not taken up that sweet word which Caesar somtimes used parce civibus spare the deluded countreymen To rejoyce in the Lord the God of our salvation The Romans allowed no triumphs to Civill Wars for they make the deepest wounds alta sedent civilis vulnera dextrae And haply you will say that Janus temple is not yet shut the sword is still waken and we know not for how long a time the Commission that God hath given to it is yet in force we want our David also to endite songs to the chief Musicians and it must be confessed that there yet remayns that which lames our joy and breaks a wing of it that it can but flutter and not fly high we know not how many heads of this Hydra will yet repullulate when War is once let loose it is like the winds which Poets feigne that one had in a bag the mouth whereof being opened una eurusqué notusqué ruunt they rusht all forth and could never begotten into the bag again but God is the God of Hosts and the battell is not yours but Gods and if hee give Moses and Israel a song let them sing though they have yet a great and terrible wildernesse to passe through where if we can hardly tread beside Serpents that sting mortally c. yet also we have a cloud that covers us an Angell of Gods presence that saves us a rocke that gives us water and which is above all a Tabernacle of his worship therefore let us rejoyce even in this our wildernesse If there be yet any that think we disguise and lie our selves into sinfull and blasphemous thanksgivings for the Oxford bells still ring in some mens ears let them consider what a remarkable postscript God hath added for confirmation of this Victory in the surrendry of York and if they be not so far out of taste as to account it a judgment and a misery let them also rejoyce with us for how doth hee differ that is hardned under ten mercies from him that was hardned under ten plagues Let us all think of rendring unto God every man aske Quid retribuam the hundred and sixteenth Psalme sets unto us a full Copy Take heed of pride which usually attends the receit of benefits and such pride brews a new cloud 2 Chron. 32. 25. Hezekiah rendred not again according to the benefit done unto him for his heart was lifted up therefore there was wrath upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem The Roman Commander upon some appearance of the gods for his help in battle built a Temple to them reddidit commilitonibus deis stipendium God must have a share out of this Victory Every mercy puts us further into debt to him and puts upon us new obligations The best rule to be observed herein is to pay unto him no lesse in our thanksgivings then we bad him in our fastings and humiliations we are apt to be liberall in vows and penurious in performance how then shal-we acquit our selves from being lying children Hee is my God saith Moses and Israel and I will prepare him an habitation Exod. 15. 2. which ingagement they did afterwards make good in laying out their bracelets ear-rings rings tablets all jewels of gold c. for the making and service of the tabernacle Exod. 35. 21 22 c. Observa 4 The fourth and last point which brings up the Rere is the very aliquid of the text arising from the connexion of the parts of it by the binding beam so so he was their Saviour God promises to himself that his people will not shrink from him or deal falsly with him So he is their Saviour for he speaks more humano surely they are children that will not lie and so he is their Saviour The sum of that which Gods expects in this saying They will not lie is They will not violate their covenant or play fast and loose with me they will not hereafter say I was forced to it the storm drove mee uuto it as an harbour I enter'd it with a side-wind will and affection There is no doubt but the prosperous successe of our Armies will make many Samaritans to be Jews and many will stand under the tree for shelter in a storme who would willingly afterward cut it downe if your heart be not right with God you will never be stedfast in his Covenant Psal 78. 37. The stone of witnesse which we set up in this place wil be our accuser for ever If we prevaricate with God by eluding the Covenant which we swore in the hearing thereof That they will not adulterate his worship in which God is punctuall and exact for if the Arke be but set upon a Cart which should be carried by the Priests there is a breach because the due order is not kept It 's a very dangerous kind of lying to vitiate the worship of 1 Chro. 15. 13. God which for the essentials thereof consists as I may say in indivisibili Thou shalt not adde saith he nor diminish It is observed that even when the Morall Law Exod. 32. was comming down to Israel they broke out into open impiety in the golden Calf and so in the beginning of the Priests administration they transgressed in offering strange fire corruptions may grow up in time but let Levit. 10. 1. us not like Jeroboam begin with a lie That they will not belie their profession but answer it with the power of godlinesse how unsuitable is it to be a Reformed Church and remayn deformed Christians God expects a reformation of our private and an entertainment of godlinesse into our hearts or else you may be like the Israelites that had all things according to the pattern themselves being a hard-hearted rebellious people This particular practicall godlinesse I doe humbly commend to you the Nobility and Gentry for our Reformation should begin à majoritis as hee said bring the knowledge of God and his wayes into your souls families retinues places of command be godly as poore men It is terminus diminuens an expression savouring of diminution when men say hee is religious for a Noble-man hee is godly after the rate of a great Gentleman Not that I upbraid you for I hope God hath as great a harvest in that kind of corn in this land as in any other field but I put you in minde of it this day Applic. This point cals upon you to reflect upon your selves and consider what an ingagement is put upon you I say not so much by the victory God hath given you as by that which God promiseth himself of you for might not his being your Saviour arise from this expectation they are children that will not lie say then If promises of great things should single out some of you that are our corner stones promises
parts come to a center of resolution that let God do what he will with your particular persons yet you will serve the Lord as in Ioshua 24. 19. When Joshua had told the people he is a jealous God and a holy he will not forgive your Transgressions and your sins they answered Nay but we will serve the Lord and thereupon he set up a great stone for a witness lest they should afterwards deny God Let us set up such a stone of witness this day that we may not turn away from the Lord our God but ingage our selves to be his people for ever It is not my purpose to weaken the faith of the people of God but to confirm their resolutions nor to give the enemy any occasion to say Now they stagger they mistrust their cause the wilderness hath shut them in No no for whatsoever may become of our carcasses in this wilderness though they may fall therein for our rebellions against and temptations of God yet for certain Israel shall come into the Land of rest for howsoever it be that Gods ways towards us be in the dark yet his promises to the Church are in the cleer light Our dry bones are not too dry to live again by his breath Though he cary Joseph into a prison it is but to advance him Though he thrust Jonas into the Whales belly it is but to save him When the Ship is wrackt and broken and the foundations as the Psalmist saith are destroyed yet edificabâ—o ecclesiam meam will stand good against the very gates of Hell And we may build upon it as a truth that however his works of providence may seem to us not to answer his Word of promise yet all his dispensations towards his Churches are in order to the fulfilling of his Promises and the pangs of his Church are unto life and not unto death I say the pangs or throws of his Church because I conceive that these motions that are in Christendome this renting of States and Kingdomes is in order to some revolutions in the Churches all these conspirations of stormy winds ingruent upon them are not for nothing Doth the plowman plow all the day to sow doth he open and break the clods of his ground when he hath made plain the â—ace thereof doth he not cast in the principal wheat c. Isa 28. 4 God will sow his Churches after his tearing them up by the plow and therefore whatsoever Statsemen and Politicians may aime at it is the Churches interest which the eye of God is upon though they neither know nor intend it As the Scripture taking notice of Augustus his Decree of taxing or enrolling the Empire or Provinces thereof seems to give us the reason and occasion of bringing Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem who were far off the place that Christ might be born according to the Scriptures which was a thing the Emperor never once dreamed of God hath other ends and purposes in these shakings of Kingdomes and Provinces then Politicians and Stasemen have therefore let us not discredit God by unbelief for my Covenant is to me saith he as the waters of Noah that is my purpose to my people to do them good is irreveâ—sible and absolute Isa 54. 10. But then for our particulars Though the waters of Noah return no more to cover the earth yet such a House City Country may be overflowed and swallowed up with water so may our Ark fall into Philistims hands and therefore gather your selves together search your selves Oh Nation even Ye our worthy Senators call your selves to account and examine your selves strictly impartially humbly lest the Babylonish garment and wedge of Gold which causes Israel to fly before the men of Ai be not in any of your Tents search out carnal policy luke warmness towards God Neutrality private ends It s not impossible but that there may be an Absolom a Shemei in your own bowels who if you were brought low would drive you and the Ark of God too into the Wilderness to seek a place Oh let the representative body of the Kingdome keep themselves pure that so if God should please to estimate or measure out unto the Nation according to the representative body of it there may be mercy to it for your sakes To this end have an eye I beseech you upon obstructours and designers which cannot do so much hurt in the enemies Army as in your Counsels Malignity thrust forth into the outward parts of the body is nothing so dangerous as that which lies close and neer to the heart or vitals Speed the hearing of Causes which come before you that men may be dismist to their commands and employments abroad to prevent a vacuum Pity and relieve those that are broken and shipwrackt for the Kingdomes sake have an eye upon your under-Instruments and Officers that they spend you not more honour and reputation by their miscarriages partialities private gain than they bring you in supplies he that flies a sharp Hawk rides hard after her or else the Partridge will be half eaten before he come in And fear not the losing of any party by doing Gods wil and work for God himself should neither give rain nor fair weather if he should please all sorts of men I shall less stick on these things because you were this day before put in mind of them only let me press one thing more namely That you would countenance honest and godly men with places of command and trust With command for they will be firm and valiant a mans valour lies in his conscience and not in his spirit With trust for such a man is like a door with two locks He hath an obligation upon him both to God and you Finally do all that may be to suppress open and crying sins for authority makes it self guilty of those other mens sins which it endeavours not to cut down we in the Ministry must cry them down and you must cut them down or else they become in guilt both ours and yours And let none of us say within our selves we have strength for war for Eccles 11. 9. The battel is not to the strong We have received many marks and tokens of favour from God for Iosh 24. 19. He will consume you after he hath done you good We are the Israel of God to whom pertain the Promises for Josh 7. 8. Israel flies before the Aians We have the Ark of God in the Camp with us for 1 Sam. 4 10 11. The Philistims may take it We fast before the Lord and have a good cause for Iudg. 20. 21. Israel falls in two battels under Benjamin We are not so bad as the enemy that comes against us For it s no trusting to the sins of an enemy The worst bryars or thorns may serve for a rod in the land of God to scourge his own people We are Gods witnesses for Rev. 11. 7. The beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit shall makâ— war
David a mourner David an oratour I say but this The teares of David were at this time in great part Compurgators of that suspicion which he might lye under of having a finger in that wherein Joab had his hand which kinde of teares we have not nor could wish to have though Davids only in the orator David that made the speech wee are exceeded and I am glad that such a State as this is inferiour and deficient in nothing but that wherein my poore service lies By this unparallelling parallell you may easily see that my discourse will be divided between two noble Generalls and first let us come to the Text wherein David speakes something of the dead and some thing to the living Of the dead That a Prince and great man is fallen this day in Israel To the living Know yee not It concernes you to Vatablus in Annot. know or I would have you take notice both of it that I am weake this day though annointed King and that the sonnes of Zeruiah are too hard for me so that I cannot execute justice at present upon the bloody hand that hath given us this stroke Concerning that which is spoken of the dead therein you shall finde the reason or spring of the teares of this lamentation A Prince and a great man fallen and fallen this day in Israel This day in Israel hath the Emphasis in it In this nick of time wherein Israel was upon the point of reducement by the agency and usefull contributions of this great man who seemed to be the onely Pilot that could have put the ship into quiet harbour or at least a very great steers-man in the worke This day is hee fallen and so Israel if not more alienated by his fall yet remaineth in distraction and unsettlement and this day wherein I cannot give them just reparation if they should demand it of mee if any shall deny that there is any accent or emphasis in the word this day in Israel doe but borrow the reflexion of light from the story and that will cleare it I shall not crumble that I have to say into literall and syllabicall minuts least I be of their number qui Gallius Doct. verborum minutijs rerum frangunt pondera but will draw up the matter into this theam or head The fall of a Prince and a great man in the time of his agency and usefulnesse for the settlement of the distractions of Israel is just reason of a sad and solemne lamentation This point I will open by parts and those words Know yee not shall bring up the uses of it in the rear 1. The subject of this lamentation is a Prince and a great man Prince to our English eares sounds the first masculine branch or surcle shooting from the stem of Majestie But the Scripture which speakes no Treason gives this title to Captains in War and generally to men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in headship or power whether Military Judg. 4. 2. 2 King 9. 5. or Senatorian yea though a man bee but the fore-man of his ranke Great man is a note of some singular eminencie above the ordinary trees of the wood and is a title given 1 Sam. 25. 2. even to a Nabal that hath 3000. sheep and 1000. goats which is the meanest ranke of greatnesse But where a great man is added to a Prince it may well import as much as magnificent a man of powerful interest great valour honourable atchievements noble activity in his place Magnus is an addition or hatchment by which Alexander Pompey Carolus c. have beene sirnamed for their great services or exploits So that a man by his orb or place he is set in is Princeps but by his influence and beams of worth raying from him upon the sublunary Commons he is Magnus It is an excellent conjunction a Prince and great man According to style of honour with us a man may be noble by birth discent or blood And though I be none of the new Switzers that could wish Princes Canton'd into the common level yet I may put you in mind that Antiquity of Race is but a Moss of time growing upon the back of worth or vertue And if a man carry not the primigeniall vertue with him which first made his race noble he is but a flower by change of soile degenerated into a weed as having nothing in him but the wax or matter without the form and stamp of Noblenesse And you know also that Nobility is often times the creature of a Prince his fancy which when there is no intrinsecall worth to be the supporter of it is as Cap. de Nobilitate Charron saith but Nobility by parchment It 's a brave consociation when the goodnesse and activity that makes you great is as high as the place which makes you Princes for if that crazy fancy take a man which possest some great ones they would be called Gods and personate an ostentation of greatnesse above men it may bewray pride madnesse but can never so far deceive the sense of underlings but that they will say as the Cobler did to Caligula in that state and humour that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great I cannot teach you to be princes Fortuitum est but I can tell you how to be great men not great in the glasse which Parasiticall flattery holds before you but indeed and that is thus Fill the sphere of your activity the Church and State the Towne or Countrey with the powerfull and benigne influences that flow from intrinsecall worth make the times the better for you Constraine by your example your inferiours to know God and reform their Families Let not Profanesse hide it selfe under the wing of your patronage nor lessen it self by the greatnesse of your examples Impartial speedy Justice with sweet refreshing Mercy will make you great men in the Commonwealth Zeal and Syncerity for God and his House will make you great men in the Church He that will be a great man must draw his lines to the center of publike good private ends never make a great man 2. The subject of this Lamentation is one Prince one great man Yee are called as some interpret the word the Corners of the people the Shields the Gods the Saviours the Shepheards of the people the Ministers of God for Good Benefactors c. Now the fall of one great Tree makes a great gappe in the hedge the Eclipse of one of the greater ruling Luminaries benights the world Our Lives Liberties c. are all bound up in you we poor men steal into our Graves with no greater noyse than can be made by a branch of Rosemary or a blacke Riband No body takes notice of the Gloeworme that goes out in the hedge bottome No Comet or Prodigie or Earth-quake tolls us the knell of our departure but one of you is carried forth by the teares all ISRAEL provided that you be what your Names
preparation The thing that is exhibited to us is Christ his body broken his bloud shed Christ dying Christ a Sacrifice offer'd up to God is here commemorated and is here offer'd and that inward grace which is necessary to receive and close with Christ must be brought with you That grace is found by and from the word and that grace must be used here and exercised The Covenant requires it and the Seal is the Seal of the Covenant You cannot take the Seal and leave the Covenant you cannot enter Covenant without faith and Repentance you do but expect that the Seal should seal a lie to you if you expect remission of sinnes to be sealed without your faith in Christ It 's impossible that the Word and Sacrament should be opposite as that the Covenant and Seal thereof should disagree As therefore if one would know what a Seal conveys or confirms let him reade the Deed and the Conditions of it and there it is learn'd So if you would know what the Sacrament seals to you hear what the Word saith Mercy and Grace to a believer in Christ and to no other which he that will receive from this fountain must bring his vessel with him for qui fide vacuus foras manducat non intus Chem. Exam. c. dente non mente August Corollary 3 Thirdly Be not frighted with the sound of this Word worthily or worthy Communicant but labour to understand the least and lowest manner of receiving worthily for we wrong our comforts when we make that which is the measure of growth to be the measure of truth of grace and judge of the life of the tree not by the bud but by ripe fruit and here consider §. 3. 1. That words of high sound in vulgar and common acceptation when they come to be undertaken in a Gospel-sense and notion do shrink into a meer contemptiblenesse with worldly wise men For as the Gospel useth some Greek words in a sense unknown to eloquent profane Authours so it hath a notion of Blessednesse Perfection Glory Worthinesse which relishes not the palate nor bears any show in the world If Aristotle describe blessednesse what a deal of humane perfection and accomplishments of fortune doth he croud into it for which he is derided by other Sects But if Christ describe blessednesse in the Gospel what do you hear of but poverty of Spirit purity of heart meeknesse mourning suffering for righteousnesse sake wherein there is no more shew of blessednesse to a worldly man than there was in Christ of Majesty to Herod and his men of warre So perfection in Gospel-phrase is a disclaiming thereof and sence of our imperfection Phil. 3. 12. And the Spirit of glory rests upon you that suffer 1 Pet. 4. 14. And your worthinesse is rather the sense of your unworthinesse Thus the Gospel construes these high sounding words and the reason is because the Gospel placing our righteousnesse and our happinesse in the having of Christ and taking every man utterly off his own bottom doth thereby come to a new reckoning that is not used in the whole world and accounts them full that are most empty rich that are poor blessed that are in their own sense or outward condition miserable possessing all things that have nothing and so in this point in hand according to Luther's paradoxal expression which our Whitaker approves is Est optime dispositus qui est pessime dispositus He is most worthy that is most unworthy viz. that is sensible of his unworthinesse 2. If this worthinesse of a Communicant should Whitak de Sacram. p. 658. be imagin'd to signifie any meritorious or proud congruities of our vertues works righteousnesse it would be the greatest unworthinesse that could be What should such proud creatures come to a Sacrament or memorial of Christs death for that being no sinne with them to be expiated by that death◠Thou sayest I am rich I stand in need of nothing go anoint thy eyes that thou mayest see Revel 5. This Pool of Siloam is for such as have infirmities Nor doth the Gospel require perfect faith or perfect repentance or grace for that 's against the nature of this Sacrament which is to last no longer than our imperfections and infirmities last that is untill Christ come So as there is no better Argument of our imperfection than the command of growing in grace so neither is any a fit patient for this medicine but the weak and impotent the doubting and complaining soul The Gospel knows not the name of attainers nor the thing Not that I have attained or were already perfect Phil. 3. 12. This meat and drink is for growing children which as the old Physician Hippocrates saith must be often-nourisht How long might a man examine himself before he finde this temper in himself that he wants nothing there can be no wonder that such a one is above Ordinances especially this which though it be one of the highest Ordinances of the Church yet is accommodated to the use of the lowest believer The Apostles communicated in it before the Spirit was sent down solemnly upon them they were but ignorant and raw when Christ said Take Eat Drink ye all of it 3. If thou hast the seminals of grace mixt with a masse of corruptions as gold at first is mixed with much earth there may be worthinesse despise not small things Natural generation begins in a small thing a little drop and so Regeneration If there be sense of sin if thirst after Christ there is something Thou art discouraged with thy daily lapses why drink of this wine for thy often infirmities Thou art overborn with strong lusts come and eat and drink to nourish thy weak graces keep them alive to fight though they do not conquer and triumph Thou canst not say thou hast faith but canst thou feel thy want of it and mourn for it This smoak comes from some invisible spark Thou art not thou sayest in Covenant and the Seal belongs not to thee But art thou willing to be in it and come into the bond of the Lord Is it the longing of thy soul to be ingaged into the ways of God and disenthrall'd from the sweet bondage of sin In a word Let thy sins and corruptions be strong and violent thy wants many thy weaknesse great Let them be as thou sayest as thou fearest yet if there be a groaning sense a longing desire of remedy affections piercing of and breathing after Christ If there be a seed of God in thy heart which is kept alive in the midst of so much corruption by no lesse a miracle than if a spark be kept alive in the sea then surely there is a Gospel-meetnesse in thee to be partaker of this Supper Here is Christ cook'd ready to thy weakest and lowest faith in obvious materials of meat and drink Let not the pride of any worthinesse bring thee nor the sense of unworthinesse keep thee back CHAP. XXIII Of Worthy