Christ and yet opened not her heart to lament her sinne and misery in her estate without Christ suppose she were without Christ is more then can be proved from the Text for t is said Her heart was opened to attend unto the things that were spoken by Paul and can any think that Paul or any Apostle ever preached Christ without preaching the need men had of him and could any preach their need of Christ without preaching mens undone and sinfull estate without Christ and doe you think that Lydiae was not made to attend unto this doe you think that when Philip came to open the 53. of Esay to the Eunuch that Christ was bruised for our iniquities that he did not let him understand the infinite evill of sinne and misery of all sinners and of him in speciall unlesse the Lord Jesus was bruised for him In examples recorded in the Scripture of Gods converting grace doe not think they had no sorrow for sinne because it is not distinctly and expresly set downe in all places for the Scripture usually sets downe matters very briefly it oftentimes supposeth many things and refers us to judge of some by other places as Acts 6.7 it is said Many of the Priests were obedient to the faith doth it therefore follow that they did immediately beleeve without any sense of sinne Look to a fuller example Acts 2. and then we may see as the one were converted to the faith so were the other having a hand in the same sin 1 Tim. 1.13 14. Paul he was a persecuter but the Lord received him to mercy and that Gods grace was abundant in faith and love doth it hence follow that Paul had no castings down because not mentioned here If we look upon Acts 9. we shall see it otherwise Doe not judge of generall and common workings of the Spirit upon the souls of any to be the beginnings of effectuall and special conversion for a man may have some inward and yet common knowledge of the Gospel and of Christ in it before there be any sorrow for sinne yet it doth not hence follow that the Lord begins not with compunction and sorrow because common work is not speciall and effectuall work when the Spirit thus comes he first begins here as we shall prove The terrours and feares and sense of sinne and death be in themselves afflictions of soule and of themselves drive from Christ yet in the hand of Christ by the power of the Spirit they are made to lead or rather drive unto Christ which is able to turn mourning into joy as well as after mourning to give joy and therefore t is a vaine thing to think there is no need of such sorrows which drive from Christ and that Christ can work well enough therefore without them when as by the mighty power and riches of mercy in Christ the Lord by wounding nay killing his of all their carnall security and self-confidence saves all his alive and drives them to seek for life in his Son These things thus premised let us now hear of the necessity of this work to succeed conviction Else a sinner will never part with his sin a bare conviction of sin doth but light the candle to see sin compunction burnes his fingers and that onely makes him dread the fire Cleanse your hearts ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded men saith the Apostle Iames Chap. 4.8 But how should this be done He answers verse 9. Be afflicted and mourne and weep turn your laughter into mourning So Ioel 2.12 the Prophet calls upon his hearers to turne from their sin unto the Lord but how Rend your hearts and not your garments Not that they were able to do this but by what sorrow he requires of all in generall he thereby effectually works in the hearts of all the elect in particular for every man naturally takes pleasure nay all his delight and pleasure is in nothing else but sinne for God he hath none but that Now so long as he takes pleasure in sinne and finds contentment by sinne he cannot but cleave inseparably to it Oh t is sweet and it onely is sweet for so long the soule is dead in sinne Pleasure in sinne is death in sinne 1 Tim. 5.6 So long as t is dead in sinne it is impossible it should part with sinne no more then a dead man can break the bonds of death And therefore it undenyably followes that the Lord must first put gall and wormwood to these dugs before the soule will cease sucking or be weaned from them the Lord must first make sinne bitter before it will part with it load it with sinne before it will sit downe and desire ease And look as the pleasure in sinne is exceeding sweet to a sinner so the sorrow for it must be exceeding bitter before the soule will part from it T is true I confesse a man sometime may part with sin without sorrow the uncleane spirit may goe out for a time before he is taken bound and slain by the power of Christ. But such a kind of parting is but the washing of the cup t is unsafe and unsound and the end of such a Christian wil be miserable for a man to heare of his sinne and then to say I le doe no more so without any sense or sorrow for it would not have been approved by Paul if he had seen no more in the carelesse Corinthians in tolerating the incestuous person but their sorrow wrought this repentance No the Lord abhors such whorish wiping the lips and therefore the same Apostle when he reproves them for not separating the sinner and so the sin from them he summes it up in one word You have not mourned that such a one might be taken from you because then sin is severed truly from the soule when sorrow or shame some sense and feeling of the evill of it begins it Not onely sinne is opposite to God but when the Lord Jesus first comes neare his elect in their sinfull estate they are then enemies themselves by sin unto God And hence it is they will never part with their weapons untill themselves be throughly wounded and therefore the Lord must wound their consciences minds and hearts before they will cast them by Now if there be no parting with no separation from sin but sin is as strong and the sinners as vile as ever before hath Christ who now comes to save his elect from sinne the end of his work what is the man the better for conviction affection to Christ name what you can that remains still in his sins When the Apostle would summe up all the misery of men he doth it in those words Ye are yet in your sinne So I say thou art convicted but art yet in thy sinne art affected with Christ and takest hold of Christ but art yet in thy sin He that confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall find mercy You
tumultuous complaints the deepest sorrowes run with least noyse If a man can have teares for outward losses and none for sins t is very suspitious whether he was ever truly sorrowfull for sinne Otherwise as the greatest joyes are not alway exprest in laughter so the greatest sorrowes are not alway exprest in shedding of teares what the measure of this great sorrow is we shall heare hereafter Thirdly it is a constant mourning for so it is here called a spirit of heavinesse as that woman that had a spirit of infirmity and was bowed downe many yeares Hannah constantly troubled is called a woman of a sorrowfull spirit 1 Sam. 1.12.15 As the spirit of pride and whoredome Hos. 4.12 â—is a constant frame where though the acts be sometime suspended yet the spirit remains so a spirit of mourning is such sorrow as though the acts of mourning be sometime hindred yet the spirit and spring remaines Hypocrites wil mourn under sin and misery but what is it it is the hanging down the head like a bull-rush in bad weather for a day Oh how many have pangs and gripes of sorrow and can quickly ease themselves again these mourners come to nothing in the conclusion I grant the sorrow and sadnesse of spirit may be interrupted but it returnes againe and never leaves the soule untill the Lord looke downe from heaven Lam. 3.48 49 50. The cause continues guilt and strength of sinne and therefore this effect continues Fourthly it is such a sorrow as makes way for gladnesse for so it is here said the Lord gives beauty for these ashes and hence it is no desperate hellish sorrow but usually mixt with sense of some mercy at least common and some hope not that which apprehends the object of hope particulary which is done in vocation but that the Lord may find out some way of saving it Ionah 3.9 Acts 2.37 which hope with sense of mercy waiting so long preserving from hell and death so oft c. doth not harden the heart as in reprobates but serve to break the more and to load it with greater sorrow thus the Lord works this sorrow in all his elect I know it is in a greater measure and from some other grounds after the soule is in Christ but this sorrow there is for substance mentioned for the reasons given if Christ hate you you shall mourne but never till it be too late if he love you you must mourne now how great and many are many of your sinnes how neare is your doome the Lord only knows how fearful your condemnation will be you have oft heard but yet how few of your hearts are sad and very heavie for these things sin is your pleasure not your sorrow you fly from sorrow as from a temptation of Satan who comes to trouble you and to lead you to despaire Davids eyes ran down with rivers of waters because others brake Gods law and Ieremy wisht he had a cottage in the wildernesse to mourne in and yet you doe not you cannot powre out one drop nor yet wish you had hearts to lament your owne sinnes but oh know it that when the Lord Christ comes hee will sad thy soule when hee comes to search thy old sores by the spirit of conviction he will make them smart and bleed abundantly by the spirit of compunction 3. Separation from sin is the third thing wherein compunction consists such a feare and sorrow for sin under a sinfull estate as separates the soule from sin is true compunction without which the Lord Christ cannot be had the soule is cut and wounded with sin by feare and sorrow but it is cut off by this stroake of the Spirit not from the being but from the growing power of sin from the wil to sin not from al sin in the wil which is mortified by a Spirit of holines after the soule is implanted into Christ for compunction contrition brokennesse of heart for sin call it what you will is opposite to hardnesse of heart which is in every sinner whiles Christ leaves him now in hardnesse as in a stone there is First insensiblenesse Secondly a close cleaving of all the parts together whereby it comes to passe that hard things make resistance of what is cast against them So in compunction there is nor only sensiblenesse of the evill of sin and death by feare and sorrow but such as makes a separation of that close union between sin and the soule and hence it is that the Lord abhorres all fastings humiliations prayers teares unlesse they be of this stamp and are accompanied with this effect The Lord flings the dung of their fastings and sorrowes in their faces because they did not breake the bonds of wickednesse to mourno for sin and misery and yet to be in thy sinne is the work of justice on the damned in hell and all the Devills at this day that are pincht with their black chains not loosened from them and not the work of the grace of Christ in the day of his power Hee that confesseth his sins shall have mercy that is true but remember the meaning of that confession in the next words and forsaketh he shall find mercy What is the end of the mother in laying worme-wood and gall upon her brest but that the child by tasting the bitternesse of it might be weaned and have his stomack and will turned from it what is the end of fear sorrow but by this to turn away the soule from sin This point is weighty and full of difficulty of great use and worthy of deep meditation For as the first wound and stroake of the Spirit is so it is in all other after-works of it both of faith and holinesse in the soule if this be right faith is right holinesse is right if this be imperfect or naught all is according to it afterward the greatest difficulty lies hâ—re to know what measure of separation from sin the Spirit makes here for after wee are in Christ then sinne is mortified how then is there any separation of the heart from it before it doth fully beleeve or what measure is there necessary here therefore I shall answer to the fourth and last particular viz. Fourthly what is that measure of compunction the Lord workes in all the elect So much compunction or sense of sinne is necessary as attaines the end of it now what is the end of it no other but that the soule being humbled might goe to Christ by faith to take away his sin the finis proximus or next end of compunction is humiliation that the soul may be so severed from sin as to renounce it selfe for it the finis remotus or last end is that being thus humbled it might goe unto Christ to take away sinne for beloved the condemnation of the world lies not so much in being sinfull under guilt and power of sin as in being unwilling the Lord Jesus should take it away this I say
hell have much spirituall life for they feele their misery with a witnesse As for the preaching of the Gospel before the Law to shew our misery it is true that the Gospel is to be looked at as the maine end yet you must use the means before you can come to the end by the preaching of the Law or misery in despising the Gospell End Means have been ever good friends you may joyn them well together you cannot sever them without danger I doe observe that the Apostles ever used this method Paul first proves Iewes and Gentiles to be under sinne in almost the three first Chapters of the Romanes before he opens the doctrine of Justification by faith in Christ. I do not observe that ever there was so cleere and manifest opening of Mans misery as by Christ and his Apostles who brought in the clearest revelations of the Remedy I doe not read in Moses or in all the Prophets such full and plaine expressions of our misery as in the New Testament The worme that never dyes The fire that never goes out The wrath to come c. and therefore assuredly they thought this no back-doore but faith the doore to Christ and this the way to faith To say that a man must first have Christ and life before he feele any spirituall misery is to say that a Christian must first be healed that he may be sick cured that he may be wounded receive the spirit of adoption before he receive and that he may receive the spirit of bondage to feare againe If Ministers shall preach the remedy before they shew misery woe to this age that shall be deprived of those blessings which the former gloried in and blessed the Lord for Mark those men that deny the use of the Law to lead unto Christ if they doe not fall in time to oppose some maine point of the Gospel For it is a righteous thing but a heavy plague for the Lord to suffer such men to obscure the Gospel that in their judgements zealously dislike this use of the Law You must preach the remedy that is true but you must also first preach the woe and misery of men or rather so mix them together as the hearts of hearers may be deeply affected with both but first with their misery It argues a great consumption of the Spirit of grace when Christians lives are preserved onely by Alchermys and choice Cordials notions about Christ nay choyce ones too or else the old and ordinary food of the countrey will not downe I tell you the maine wound of Christians is want of deep humiliations and castings downe and if you beleeve it not now it may be pestilence sword and famine shall teach you this doctrine when the Lord shall make these things wound you to the very heart and put you to your wits end that were not that would not in season be wounded at the heart with sin Are we troubled with too many wounded consciences in these times that we are so solicitous of coyning new principles of peace what is every man by nature but a kind of an infinite evill all the sins that fill earth and hell are in every one mans heart for sinne in man is endlesse and canst not thou endure to be cast downe Nothing is so vile as Christ to a man unhumbled and can you so easily prize him and taste him without any casting downe 2. Such as think there is a necessity of sense of misery by the work of the Law before Christ can be received but they think there is no such feeling of misery as hath been mentioned but that it is common to the reprobate as to the elect and consequently that in sense of sinne there is no such speciall worke of the Spirit as separates the soule from sinne before it comes unto Christ but that this is done after the soule is in Christ by faith viz. in Sanctification being first justified by faith This is the judgement of many holy and learned and therefore so long as there is no disagreement in the substance of this doctrine it should not trouble us onely let it be considered whether what is said is not the truth of Christ and if it be let us not cast it aside The Jewish Rabbins have a speech at this day very frequent in their writings Non est in lege unica literula à qua non magni suspensi sunt montes It is much more true of every truth and if I much mistake not much depends upon the right understanding of this point That therefore 1. there must be some sense of misery before the application of the remedy 2. That this compunction or sense of misery is wrought by the Spirit of Christ not the power of man to prepare himself thereby for further grace 3. That these terrours and sorrows in the elect doe virtually differ from those in the reprobate the one driving the soul to Christ the other not these are agreed on all hands The question onely is Whether there is this farther stroke of severing the soule from sin conjoyned with the terrours and sorrowes in the elect before their closing with Christ which is not in the reprobate or in one word whether there is not a speciall work of the Spirit turning at least in order of nature the soule from sin before the soule returns by faith unto Christ. For the affirmative I leave these severall Considerations That there is gratia actualis or actuall grace as well as habitualis or habituall grace Learned Ferrius makes a vast difference between them and therefore to think that there can be no power of sin removed but by habituall or sanctifying grace is unsound for actuall grace may doe it the Spirit may take away sinne mediately by habituall grace and yet it can doe it immediately also by an omnipotent act by that which is called actuall actuating or moving grace Christ can and must first bind the strong man and cast him out by this working or actuall grace before he dwells in the house of mans heart by habituall and sanctifying grace The Gardners knife may immediately cut-off a cyen from a tree thereby taking away all its power to grow there any more before it hath a power to bring forth any fruit which is wrought only by implanting it into another stock New creation which is at first conversion may well be without habituall graces that are but creatures Whether any man since the fall is a subject immediately capable of sanctifying or habituall grace or whether any unregenerate man is in a next disposition to receive such grace as the ayre is immediately of light out of which the darknesse is expelled by light and so the habits of grace doe expell the habits and power of sinne say some I suppose the affirmative is most false and in neere affinity with some grosse points of Arminianisme Adam in his pure naturals and considered meerly as a living soule was such
me no more therefore in asking Whether a Christian is in a state of happinesse or misery in this condition I answer he is preparatively happy he is now passing from death to life though not as yet wholly passed Nor yet whether there is any saving work before union I answer No for what is said is one necessary ingredient to the working up of our union as cutting off the branch from the old stock is necessary to the ingrafting it into the new indeed without faith it is impossible to please God nor doe I say that this work doth please i. e. it doth not pacify God for that is proper to Christs perfect righteousnesse received by Faith yet as it is a work of his owne Spirit upon us it is pleasing to him as the after-worke of Sanctification is though it neither doth pacify him nor doe I see how this doctrine is any way opposite to the free offer of grace and Christ because it requires no more separation from sin then that which drives them unto Christ nay which is lesse that makes them by the power of the Spirit not resist but yeeld to Christ that he may come unto them and draw them you cannot repent nor convert your selves Be converted therefore saith Peter Acts 3.19 that you may receive remission of sins and in this offer the Spirit works and verily hee that can truly receive Christ without that sense of misery as separates him from his sin as explained to you let him beleeve notwithstanding all that which is said and the God of heaven speakes peace to him his Faith shall not trouble me if hee bee sure it shall not one day deceive himselfe Of lamentation for the hardnesse of mens hearts in these times as it is said the Lord Jesus mourned when he saw the hardnesse of the peoples hearts Mark 3.5 are there not some so farre from this as that they take pleasure in their sins they are sugar under their tongues as sweet as sleep nay as their lives and you come to pul away their limbs when you come to pluck away their sinnes though they have broke Sabbaths neglected prayer despised the word hated and mocked at the Saints been stubborne to their parents curst and swore which made Peter goe out and weep bitterly though lustfull and wanton which broke Davids bones though guilty of more sinnes then there bee moates in the Sunne or Starres in heaven though their sins be crimson and fill heaven with their cry and all the earth with their burthen yet they mourne not never did it one houre together nay they cannot doe it because they will not if you are weary and loaden where are your unutterable groanes if wounded and bruised where are your dolorous complaints if sick where is your enquiry for a Physitian if sad where are your teares in the day in the night morning and evening alone by your selves and in company with others Oh how great is the wrath of God hardning so many thousands at this day whence comes it that Christ is not prized but from this senselesnesse name any reason why the blessed Gospell of peace and all the sweet promises of life are undervalued but from hence and what doe you hereby poore creatures but onely aggravate your sins and make those that are little exceeding great in the eyes of God whence it is that you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.2 3 4 5. This hardnesse is that which blunts the edge of all Gods ordinances whence Gods poore Ministers sit sorrowfull in their closets seeing all Gods seed lost upon bare rocks oh this is the condition of many a man and which is most fearfull the meanes which should make the heart sensible make it more proud and unsensible Tyre and Sydon and Sodom are more fit to mourne then Chorasin and Capernaum that have enjoyed humbling means long Nay how many be there that mourne out their mournings confesse out their confessions and by their owne humiliations grow more senselesse afterward did wee ever live in a more impenitent secure age wee shall seldome meet with one broken with sin but how few are broken from sinne also and hence it is many a tall Cedar that were set downe in the Table-Book for converted men once much humbled and now comforted stay but a few yeares you shall see more dangerous sins of a second growth one turnes drunkard another covetous another proud another a Sectary another a very dry leafe a very formalist another full of humerous opinions another laden with scandalous lusts woe to you that lament not now for you shall mourne Dost thou think that Christ should ever wipe off thy teares that sheddest none at all dost thou think to reap in joy that sowest not with these showers verily God will make his word good Prov. 29.1 Hee that hardens his owne heart shall perish suddenly heare this you secure sorrowlesse sinners if ever Gods hand bee stretcht out suddenly against thee in blasting thy estate snatching away thy children the wife of thy bosome the husband of thy delight in staining thy name vexing thee with debts and crosses short and sore or lingring sicknesses know that all this comes upon thee for a hard heart but oh mourne for it now you parents children servants the tokens of death are upon you desire the Lord to breake your hearts for you lye under Gods hammer be not above the word and suffer the Lord to take away that which grieves him most even thy stony heart because it grieves thee least meditate much of thy wofull condition chew that bitter pill remember death and rotting in the grave that many are now in hell for thy sins that Christ must dye or thou dye for the least sin remember how patient and long suffering the Lord hath bin to thee and how long he hath groaned under thy burthen that it may be though hee would yet hee cannot beare thy load long let these things be mused on that thy heart may bee at last sorrowfull before it bee too late But oh the sad estate of many with us that can mourne for any evill except it bee for the greatest sinne and death and wrath that lye upon them Of exhortation Labour for this sense of misery this spirit of compunction how can you beleeve in Christ that feel not your misery without him a broken Christ cannot doe thee good without a broken heart bee afflicted and mourne yee sinners turne your laughter into mourning tremble to think of that wrath which burnes downe to the bottome of hell and under which the eternall Sonne of God sweat drops of blood great sins which thou knowest thou art guilty of cause great guilt and great hardnesse of heart and therefore are seldome forgiven or subdued without great affliction of spirit they have loaded the Lord long they must load thee Little sinnes are usually slighted and extenuated and therefore the Lord accounts them great and therefore thy soule must
possession by the blood of Christ we enter into the holy of holies a price of infinite value must bring a kind of infinite glory 2. We are by Christ nearer to God then Angels are whose glory wee see is very great 3. Shall not our glory be to sâ—t out the glory of Christ 2 Thes. 1.10 and if so then it his glory be exceeding great ours must bear a due proportion and be very very great also 4. Doth not God pick out the poore and vile things of the world to be vessels of glory 1 Cor. 1.27 and is not that an argument that he intends exceedingly to glorifie himselfe on such to raise up a most glorious building where he layes so low a foundation 5. Are not we loved with the same love as he hath loved Christ Iohn 17. ult and shall not our glory abound then exceedingly 6. Is not the torment and shame of the Reprobates to be exceeding great and grievous doth not God raise them up to make his power known Rom. 9.23 What then shall we think on the contrary of the glory of the Saints wherein the Lord shall set forth his power in glorifying them as hee doth the glory of his power in punishing others and therefore 2 Thes. 1.9 the punishment of the wicked is exprest by separation of them from the glory of the Lords power because that in the glory of the Saints the Lord will as I may so say make them as glorious as by his power ruled by wisdom he is able to make them This is therefore the great glory of all those whom God hath called to the fellowship of his deare Sonne and which is yet more blessed be God the time is not long but that we shall feele what now we doe but heare of and see but a little of as we use to doe of things afar off We are here but strangers and have no abiding city we look for this that hath foundations and therefore let sinne presse us downe and weary us out with wrastling with it let Satan tempt and cast his daâ—ts at us let our drink be our teares day and night and our meat gall and worm wood let us be shut up in choaking prisons and cast out for dead in the streets nay upon dung-hils and none to bury us let us live alone as Pelicans in the wildernesse and be driven among wild beasts into deserts let us be scourged and disgraced stoned sawn asunder and burned let us live in sheep-skins and goat-skins destitute afflicted torâ—ented as who looks not for such dayes shortly yet oh brethren the time is not long but when we are at the worst and death ready to swallow us up we shall cry out Oh glory glory oh welcome glory If our miseries here be long they shall be light if very bitter they shall be short however long or short they cannot be to us long who look for an eternall weight of glory Who would not that considers of these things despise this world and set it at his heeles who hath all these priviledges and benefits with Christ in his eye who would not abhor a filthy lust to enjoy such a Christ who would ever look back unto his flesh-pots or fathers house that hath such welcome made him the first moment he comes to the Lord Jesus in having present fruition of some of these benefits but present right unto all fruition of some by feeling of all by faith But oh the wrath of God upon these times that either see not this glory or if they doe despise so great salvation Christ and pardon and peace adoption grace and glory is brought home to our doores but their price is falne in our market and we think it better to be without Christ with our lusts then to be in Christ with his benefits The reproach of Christ was dearer to Moses as great a Courtier and as strong a head-piece as our times can afford then all the riches and honours of Egypt but the grace and peace and life and glory of Jesus Christ is viler to us then the very onyons and leeks and flesh-pots of Egypt if you had but naked Christ our life for a prey in these evill times you had no cause to complaine but infinitely to rejoyce in your portion but when with Christ you shall find all these benefits and priviledges comming in as to your portion and yet to despise him Assuredly the Lord will not beare with this contempt alway Away to the mountaines and hasten from the townes and cities of your habitation where the grace of Christ is published but universally despised you blessed called ones of the Lord Jesus for the dayes are comming wherein for this sinne the heavens and earth shall shake the sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the moone into blood and mens hearts failing for feare of the horrible plagues which are comming upon the face of the earth Dreame not of faire weather expect not better dayes till you heare men say Blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord who thus blesseth his with all spirituall blessings in Christ Eph. 1.3 I now proceed to the last CHAP. III. All those that are translated into this blessed estate are bound to live the life of love in all fruitfull and thankefull obedience unto him that hath called them according to the rule of the morall Law Psal. 40.7 8. THe Lord doth no sooner call his people to himselfe but as soone as ever he hath thus crowned them with these glorious priviledges and given them any sense and feeling of them but they immediately cry out Oh Lord what shall I now doe for thee how shall I now live to thee they know now they are no more their owne but his and therefore should now live to him If you aske Moses after all the love and kindnesse the Lord had shewne Israel what Israel should doe for him you shall see his answer full Deut. 10.12 13. And now O Israel what doth the Lord require of thee but to fear the Lord thy God and to love him and serve him with all thy heart and to keepe his Commandements which I command thee this day for thy good If you aske Paul as Evangelicall a Christian as ever lived what now we are to do when we are in Christ hee answers punctually 2 Cor. 5.14 15. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that Christ dying for those that were dead they that live should not live unto themselves but unto him that dyed for them and rose againe If we aske Peter the question to what end the Lord hath called us out of darknesse into his marvelous light he expresly tells you it is to shew forth the vertues of him that hath so called 1 Pet. 2.9 If wee be doubtfull whether this be the Lords minde the Lord himselfe resolves it by Zachary Luk. 1.74 and tells us that t is his oath That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies wee should