church with their best learned in points wherein the Jesuits at this day accuse us of Heresie Therefore one observed well that the Religion of Rome was like Nebuchadnezzars image the height of it was 60 cubits and the breadth was but 6 that is without any proportion for never could they make the parts of it symmetricall Therefore first we are comforted against all the enemies of our Religion their strength may be great and their malice greater but they cannot unite themselves with the bond of true Peace and the God of peace is not their tutelary God In the damnable conspiracy of the Powder-traytors God by one of themselves diverted the Treason I deny not but Turks have had many great prevailings against Christians Papists against Protestants and their confederates have held fast with them So had Moab and Ammon Geball the Assirians Philistines the Chaldeans against Israel But God found a time to consume these Nations by their own strength and their own confederates were the ruine of them We have heard that war is one of the sore judgements wherwith God scourgeth offendors At this time a great part of the Protestant Church is hostilly attempted with war we have many of our countrymen noble generous and valiant voluntiers engaged in that cause I hope we shall do a charitable Christian duty to God and them to pray God to cover their heads in the day of battaile to beseech him whom Job cals the preserver of men to save them from all evill Thou Lord preservest man beast do thou save them let their eye have its desire upon their enemies And for our selves we say O Lord be gratious unto us we have waited for thee be thou their arme every morning Isa 33.2 our Salvation also in the time of trouble God is called Lord of Hoasts and so he can master his enemies the stars in their courses by their influences the Elements fire as in Sodom ayre as in the Pestilence in Davids time water as in the deluge earth as in Corahs transgression to smite sinners He can punish man by Frogges by Flyes by Lice by Grasse-hoppers and such like armies of his Yet he chose to destroy the army of the Midianites by themselves rather then by any other means The Lord set every mans sword against his fellow throughout all the hoast Jud. 7.22 He could have employed other executioners to have done vengeance upon blaspheming Senacherib King of Assyria but he would shew that no bonds of society or nature can hold them together whom God hath not joyned Therefore it came to passe as he was worshipping in the house of Nisâ—ock his God Isa 37.38 that Adrameleck and Sharezer his sons smote him with a sword 2. We are therefore taught to unite our selves in the Lord by the bonds of â—ue love for all other bonds will be like the new cords wherewith Sampson was tied break in sunder and we shall cast them from us The great friendship that is made by bribes cannot be sincere for 1. The receiver of them knowes that his love is a dear penny worth to his friend it is not a gift but a perquisite and therfore he cannot call it sure 2. The giver knoweth his mony not his love made the friend and if this friendship bear him out of the hands of justice his conscience will still tell him that his money not his innocency acquitted him if this friendship prefer him his conscience within him will say that his money not his worthinesse hath advanced him Therefore the frienship thus made is not sincere But they whom Religion and the fear of God doth unite are of one heart and of one soule here is no lack of any thing Acts 4.32 if any of them may supply it the wounded man shall have both the oyle and wine of the Samaritane out of his vessels and the help of his hand and of his beast and of his word and of his purse Our Saviour Christ saith Go thou and do the like How can we say we are neighbours when we are so far from healing our brethrens wounds that we rather set them into a fresh bleeding and open them wider we rather make more in the whole and sound flesh we rather take away their oile and wine and beast and money wherewith they should help themselves and instead of putting them into an house we take their houses over their heads and expose them to stormes The God of peace sanctifie us throughout that his peace may knit us together in him Doctr. 4 Those who trust in men have no understanding Here on earth we do much value the wisdome and judgment of man by his choyce of adherence and dependance and we judge them unwise that addresse themselves to such as cannot either support them as they are or put them on farther But the word of the Lord saith there is no understanding in Edom to trust in man and the Psalmist Non relinquat hominem he adviseth Trust not in Princes nor in any son of man for there is no help in him God goeth farther in my text there is treason in him subducet auxilium super inducet exitium He will bring thee to thy uttermost borders and there he will leave thee Jun. reads Cujus vulneris non erit intelligentia as pointing out so great a plague upon Edom ut ipsam nequeat mens humana comprehendere nedum curare arte intelligentia Joannes Draconites readeth the text thus Ante proderis hostibus quà m animadvertas But the sense is easie God censureth them for fools that put their trust in man For God himself saith they commit two great evils They forsake God the Fountain of living waters Jer. 2.13 and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water The Philistims trusted in their great Champion Goliah 1 Sam. 17.10 and they desied the hoâ—st of Israel and despised David the Aramites sent Israel word that the dust of their land should not be enough to give every one of their Army an handfull 1 Reg. 20.10 The reason of this folly is the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them that beleeve not 2 Cor. 4.4 for Satan worketh strongly in the children of disobedience he hath strong illusions for them to make them beleeve lies They that trust in lying vanity saith Jonah do forsake their own mercy It is a lying vanity to trust the false gods of the Heathen Deut. 32.38 God upbraideth the Apostate Jewes so Let them rise up and help you let them be a refuge It is a lying vanity to trust in any confederacie against God It is Gods woe Woe to the rebellious children that take counsell but not of me that cover with a covering but not of my spirit Isa 33.1 that they may adde sin unto sin That walk to go downe into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and
hope that either God may divert the evil or mitigate the same or give patience to bear it or sanctifie the chastisement ad dignam emandationem for their amendment for onely the Lord knoweth who are his When Saul was rejected and Samuel was the messenger of that heavie judgement 1 Sam. 15.35 yet Samuel did not cease mourning for Saul untill the day of his death That is the most effectual manner of praying even that which the Holy Ghost useth in us with sighs and groans Plus fletu quam afflain Thus when Abraham saw Ishmael cast out for a scorner and persecutour of Isaac yet he prayed O that Ishmael might live in thy sight And God said I have heard thee also concerning him somewhat is obtained Therefore let us still be praying for all men Especially seeing God doth not make us of his counsell so far as to declare to us whom he accepteth and whom he rejecteth From this lesson of the certainty of the judgements of God upon the wicked certain whether we consider the nature of God without change or the weaknesse of man without any possibility of resisting or the nature of the reprobate without any ability of repenting We are taught 1. To rest in the decree of God let us know that he cannot deny himself and therefore though wrath go not out from the Lord presently and although his judgement is delayed yet let us resolve that upon the wicked he will rain snares and he will break the impenitent with rods of iron He was an hundred and twenty yeers preaching to the old world and they repented not so long was he ere he would pluck his hand out of his bosome yet at last he smote the World with a great slaughter and drowned all but eight persons Two Errours do grow in us if we do not wisely weigh this doctrine 1. An Errour in judgement These things hast thou done and I kept silence Psa 10.21 thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self as Aug. Deum quia non pateris ultorem vis habere participem quia malefacta tua placent tibi tu putas etiam ea placere mihi 2. An Errour in manners Because sentence against an evill work is not executed speedily Eccles. 8.11 therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evill For indeed what maketh men to walk so unconscionably on earth blaspheming the sacred name of the highest Majesty polluting his holy Sabbaths making their belly their penny their pleasure their God but this corrupt opinion of Gods either not seeing or not caring or pardoning of sins the presuming on his mercy not knowing this that the judgments of God howsoever deferred will surely light where they are threatned Therefore let every man in hearing and reading of the word of God observe his owne sins how they are threatned and let him know that he hath no way nor means but by his serious repentance to escape that judgment 1. Let us take heed of dallying with the Almighty God for be not deceived God is not mocked they that think to finde him when they list know not that there is a time when he will be found and they that neglect that time do lose their season of him 2. But especially let men take heed of abusing his patience and making that a motive to and a strength of sin for Laesa patientia fit furor patience abused turns to fury when men sin against the mercy of God they spill the medicine that should heal them they cut the bough that they stood on for it is that which keepeth our heads above water and standeth in the gap 3. To conclude let men take heed of falling so farre from God as to make a covenant with death and an agreement with hell that is to make peace with Satan for this bed the Prophet saith is too short and this covering is too narrow to cover us We are taught here not to repine at the present prosperity of the wicked This hath much disquieted very godly persons David confesseth it to have unrested him and his foot had almost slipt Psal 73. It made some wise men among the heathen doubt An sit providentia whether there be a providence and no humane wisdome can maintaine providence because bonis malefit good men suffer There is a parting of the red sea and then it will appeare who be Israelites and who be Aegyptians What if it last prosperous all their life long at the parting of the soule and body Lazarus and the rich man shall feele a change therefore grudge not the wicked their pleasures of sin for a season 2. By what means this intelligence of the judgement against Edom was given the meanes are two 1. By a rumour from the Lord. 2. By the Embassadours sent from the Heathen 1. The rumour from the Lord. Jeremiah useth the same word the Interlin auditum audivimus à cum Domino Jer 49.14 His meaning is as before is exprest that God hath put this prophecie in the mouth of many of his Prophets so that it is not a particular instinct by revelation to some one but a rumor that is a general opening of the same filling the mouths of many which declareth the consent of the Prophets in this Prophecie Doctr. It advanceth the message of God amongst men when the Lords trumpets doth Dare sonum certum give a certain sound when they all agree together as one man in the ministery thereof The messenger that came from Michaiah to bring him to the two Kings Jehoshaphat and Ahab thought he had used a great argument to perswade Michaiah to Prophesie good successe to that intended expedition against Ramoth-Gilead 1 Reg. 22.13 saying Behold now the words of the prophets declare good unto the King with one mouth let thy word I pray thee be like the word of one of one of them c. These false prophets all joyned together to flatter that expedition God revealeth the secret hereof by Michaiah there was an evil spirit offered his service to God saying I will go forth and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets And God said Thou shalt perswade him and prevail also The Prophets and Ministers of God do consent in their message and Sathan that studieth the ruine of the Church doth his best to make his false prophets agree all in a tale to make the fairer shew of Truth that he may deceive many It is one of the great objections of the Papists against our Religion that it cannot be the Truth of God because we Ministers do not agree in the Preaching thereof To whom we answer That the Church of England in all points both of Religion and Discipline is as a city which is at unity within it self if some particular Persons in the Ministery leave the way of the Church and go in their own way that is no fault of the Church but the
speak figuratively Much armour was turned into Utensils for domesticall uses and then there was no noyse abroad of hostility even then in the peacefull time of the Church and Common-wealth the religion of Rome stirred up certain searchers that digged into the bowels of the earth and their hunger after Protestant bloud brake through strong walls and there heaped up such instruments of massacre as would have searched our hidden things Those theeves would never have had enough those Grape-gatherers would have left never a cluster to relieve the poore Church thy would have rooted up Vine and all and have laid the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts desert and waste These were Papists the ministers of hell this was Religion falsely so called the zeale of furies such theeves lurke in many severall corners of the land such Grape-gatherers hide themselves under the shade of our vine let all that love the peace of Jurusalem take heed of them our houses closets nay our sellars are not safe from them they will seek out our hidden things if they can take advantage against us Against this Edom let us bend our forces and the idolatry and superstition and ignorance and imposture of that Religion let us search out and detect It is his Majesties expresse command that in every parish the sworn men do search for Recusants that forsake all our Churches and for our own malecontent Professors that love any Church better then their own He would separate the clean from the vile and the peaceable from the factious Edom from Israel for we hold nothing in safety we can hide nothing out of sight so long as those searchers and underminers be abroad the peace and honour and safety of the Church is their prey they hunt after 2. We are taught what a fearfull thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God when he plucketh his hand out of his bosome he smiteth home as he saith Affliction shall not arise the second time he calleth himself in his Law a jealous God his jealousie burns like fire He can give Edom high and strong mountains for his habitation he can give him the fat of the earth and the dew of heaven and let him multiply on the earth exceedingly he can forbeare him in his wickednesse and cruelty for a long time But when he cometh to execute judgment his right hand will finde out all his enemies he will not leave a place or corner unsearched but he will cut off head and taile branch and root in one day for his hand is not shortned but is stretched out still Why then doth the pride of our hearts deceive us flattering us that all shall be well with us though we walk in the lusts of our own hearts though pride disguise us in our cloathing though gluttony fill us up to the throats though drunkennesse stagger us and our oaths and blasphemies fly up as high as heaven Hath God forgotten to be righteous and is his judgment seat turn'd all to mercie that we dare him with our crying sins and awake his vengeance with our abominable impieties Can we sin the sins of Edom and not smart with their punishment he hath a curious and searching eye he hath looked upon our works he hath set our sins before him our secret sins in the sight of his countenance First his eye searcheth out the sins of men then his right hand searcheth out all his enemies if he be angry yea but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him They shall say one to another Come and see what desolations he hath made in the earth and as it is in my text How are they cut off but peace shall be upon Israel 3. Out of the manner of speech and phrase of this Prophecie against Edom I observe the use that all ages of the Church must make of the examples of Gods judgements upon other persons and Nations before us recorded in Scripture or in story registred for the benefit of after times For 1. He interposeth this clause of admiration How art thou cut off As declaring and admirable judgement to be executed upon them enough to strike all that see it or hear of it with feare 2. By a comparison of dissimilitudes he sheweth that Thieves and Vine-robbers shall be mercifull men in comparison of them that shall fight the Lords battails against Edom. For they shall leave somewhat behind them these wasting depopulators of Edom shall leave nothing 3. He saith not categorically and positively the things of Esau are searched out his hid things are sought up but in a more patheticall language of amplification by way of question How are the things of Esau searched out and resuming the matter but with addition and amplification How are his hid thing sought up Which questions do put it upon us to take the judgement of God upon Edom into a serious consideration It is a question amongst great learned Divines of former ages which was the greatest miracle that ever Christ wrought whilest he lived upon earth St. Ierome answereth some thinke the raysing of Lazarus others the giving sight to the blind others the voyce that was heard at his Baptism others his transfiguration but he for his own judgement he thinks that the whipping of men that bought and sold in the Temple twise by him performed was the greatest of all his miracles For that a man so weak in his own person so despised of men so opposed by the Merchants of the Temple should play Rex in the Temple and should there execute judgement and subdue the hearts of so many men who thought they did well and had some colour to defend what they did And that they should without resistance suffer the lash and abandon the place St. Origen doth admire this miracle of his justice as declaring him to be God as David saith God is known by executing judgement Quo domantur hominum ingenia Whereby the wits of men are subdued Therefore when the Judgements of God are preached let men feare The doctrines of Paul were soft and gentle when he spake of righteousnesse and temperance but when he spake of the Judgement to come Felix trembled but it is probably thought that that last doctrine of judgement to come put him into that quaking and shaking fit and made the earth to quake within him Therfore the Prophet David having shewed what search God maketh for sin addeth Psa 50.22 Now consider this you that forget God least I teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver His judgements are over all the earth it is a meditation for the Sabbath it is proper for the day And David saith Thou hast made me glad through thy worke Psa 92.4 One of his works is of judgement When the wicked spring as grasse Ver. 7. Ver. 9. and when all the workers of iniquity flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever For loe thine enemies O Lord loe thine enemies
Schisme of Private men Such as they are discovered so are they restrained and separated from the rest to Room then Parcius ista viris tamen objicionda memento Personall oppositions do not fasten imputation upon any entire Church of God And we say to the Roman Church Novimus et qui to c. For we have good evidence even from their own wrightings that the Church of Rome hath in later times dissented from those Tenets which in former times it hath maintained not in matters of light moment but in the main points of Christian Religion 1. For the books of Canonicall Scripture the learned of former times did refuse all those books which we call Apocryphall as well as we yet the Counsell of Trent hath since placed them in the Canon and given them equall authority with the Canonicall Scriptures 2. For the sufficiencie their own best learned have heretofore acknowledged the same as much as we 3. The vulgar translation hath been by their learned refused the originall preserved 4. For the conception of the Virgin Mary without sin it is not yet determined in the Church but contradictories are allowed 5. The distinction of Mortall and Veniall sins 6. The Doctrines of merite of super-erogation of the seven Sacraments of Transubstantiation of Purgatory of praying to Saints worshipping of images Indulgencies Popes supremacie all refused Therefore let them no longer charge us with differences our Church doth maintain one Truth in all these things with the former Church of Rome against this that now is Therefore let us observe the setled doctrine of the Church in which we live and receive that against the perverse oppositions of all schismaticall coiners of new Doctrines and that is the safest way for us to walk in for this rumor Domini is no rumour of the Lord. Doctr. 2 2. Because it is auditus a Domino heard from the Lord whence we are taught to distinguish between the rumours which we hear from men and those rumours which we hear from the Lord let us judge them by the word of God and let us learn of the Church the Spouse of Christ who best discerneth these spirituall things because they are deposited with it and the Spirit of God is with it and abideth with it for ever How holy Scriptures must be interpreted Let every man put his own particular fancies and humours to silence and as the Apostle saith let us receive with meeknesse the word of God and let it be graffed in us For the word of the Lord endureth for ever that is like him that gave it without variablenesse there is in it no shadow of change It was Davids rest Audiam quid loquatur Deus I will hear what the Lord speaketh And that we may hear this rumour of the Lord profitably The word is given to profit withall let me shew you who they be that receive the word of God profitably these namely who 1. Receive it in their understanding 2. in their judgement 1. In their understanding knowing what the Lord speaketh in his Word for the Word is the revelation of the good will of God To this is necessary 1. A preparation to this understanding 2. An use of the means For the preparation of our understanding two things are necessary as Saint Paul speaketh 1. Be not conformed to this world this world is our enemy Rom. 11.1 we must shake off all acquaintance with it it is the serpents fair fruit wherewith he tempteth us he setteth the eye and the heart a lusting and filleth us with the pride of life Christ first separated his disciples from the world then he fitted them to his service They deceive themselves that think they may embrace true religion and the world too following the vanities of fashion and surfetting in the pleasures of life for Godlinesse and vanity cannot dwell together and the god of this world blindeth the eye of the understanding that they which love the world cannot love God and the secrets of the Lord are revealed to none but such as love and fear God 2. Be ye transformed by the renewing of the minde that is be ye new Creatures casting off the old man which is corrupt for this new wine must be put in new casks We must sing a new song Canticum novum novus homo a new man none else can sing it therefore David desired Cor novum a new heart and spiritum rectum a right spirit it is the only new fashion as in many of ours to renew the old fashion the image of God stamped in us in our Creation which is decayed repaired anew by the image of the new Adam who came to restore us 2. A use of the means which are 1. Delight in reading of the word give attendance to reading 1 Tim. 4.15 what though thou understand not what thou readest no more did the Eunuch but God sent Philip to him he was in the way of illumination Idle and wanton books take up too much of our time from the reading of Gods book rumor populi a rumour of the people takes us from reading this rumor Domim this rumour of the Lord. Yet these things are written for our use and onely these things make the man of God wise to salvation 2. Meditation for that helpeth the understanding and layeth up what we read in the memory that we may know where to have it again when we have need of it It is said of Mary Luâ—k 251 that she kept all these sayings in her heart The wise son of Sirach saith well The inner parts of a fool are like a broken vessel Ecclus. 21 14. and he will hold no knowledge as long as he liveth Truly the cause of all our sins and frailties is want of meditation in the Word want of keeping it in our heart we see in our selves how we are affected here in hearing of the Word of God if we did meditate on it we should have the same affections still 3. Hear the Word preached for this is Gods ordinance for the saving of souls Nehem. 8. Ezra had a pulpit of wood made him he stood up be read the law and gave the sense and all the people wept when they heard the wonderfull things of the Law But it is said All the people were attentive both man women yet he preached not by the glasse but from morning till mid-day And Paul preached from evening till midnight for it pleaseth God by the foolishnes of preaching to save those that beleeve Be swift to heaâ— 4. Meditation is necessary also after hearing the word in the publike Ministery for the Minister speaking to a mixt auditory if he divideth the word aright he hath a portion for every hearer milk for some stronger meat for others some have need of information in things unknown some of comfort some of resolution in doubes some of confutation of errours some of chiding some have need to have their dulnesse spurred others their deadnesse quickened
upon the cheek bone Use 4 4. This teacheth us our duty before the War in the War and after the War 1. Before the War and in the War to joyn prayers with our prepatations and our attempts for God declared in the Wars of Israel with Amalck that Moses praying on the hill with Aaron and Hur and Joshua fighting belowe in the valley Exod 17. were both of them the forces of God And that prayers were the better fighting for when Moses ceased praying Amalek prevailed 2. After the War we are taught to whom to attribute the victory and good successe of the War that is to give the glory thereof to the Lord and so say with David The right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly the right hand of the Lord bringeth mighty things to passe So the daughter of Jephta came out with timbrels to meet her father and confest to her father Judg. 11.36 The Lord hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies even of the chldren of Ammon Yet may we not herein smother the well deserving prowesse and valour of valiant Commanders and souldiers but give them their due honour so even the women meet Saul returning from the slaughter of the Philistines and they answered one another in their song saying Saul hath killed his thousands and David his ten thousands 1 Sam. 18 7. Doctr. 2 2. Whereas Israel saith to the Heathen Arise ye and let us arise making use of the power and strength of the Heathen against Edom we are taught that God doth use one evil man and one evil Nation to punish another The Lord did smite the Moabites by the Ammonites and took from them some part of their land Chedorlaomer maketh war against other kings and taketh away their substance The Midianiâ—â— were their own Conquerours The Lord set every ones sword against his fellow there wont all the host The children of Israel did call the Heathen here to them Jud. 7.22 they joyned in one war against Edom as if at this day Princes of the Popish Religion should joyn themselves with a Protestant Prince to maintain him in his Kingdom against the Emperour the Popes eldest son Is not this setting Egytians against Egyptians and defending the Church by the enemies of the Church Reason 1 The reason why God doth this is not for want of other strength for he is Lord of hosts but to declare him to be King and Lord over all he doth whatsoever he will in heaven and in earth and in the sea and all deeps What doth more declare his absolute Soveraignty then his Power to whip and scourge the enemies of his Church by one another of them which is to make Sathan cast out Sathan This sheweth that Sathans kingdom is subordinate to the Kingdom of God there is but one Kingdom of which it may be truly said Et Imperijs ejus non est finis There is no end of his Kingdom Christ shall one day make this good when he shall have put down all his enemies for then he shall deliver up the Kingdom to God In the mean time the subjects of Sathans kingdom are the vassalls of God and Sathan himself shall be and is at his command to be the rod of God for execution of his wrath where he pleaseth Reason 2 2. God useth to punish the wicked to declare to the Church that there can be no true love but where there is love of the Truth onely true Religion doth unite the hearts of men and all that embrace not that want the bond of peace They may cry a confederacy and give one another the right hand of fellowship for a time but if God be not the knot of their union all other respects will come short of setling a constant concurrency We see this clearly in the vicissititudes of confederacies and wars amongst the enemies of true Religion temporall respects make their leagues temporall respects do again dissolve them The Uses of this point Use 1 This doth serve to reform our judgements and to settle our hearts in our great vexation for did not the foot of David almost slip when he saw the prosperity of the ungodly and compared it with the main and great troubles of the Church For seeing God doth make this use of them to be his sword marvell not that he keepeth his sword by his side that he keepeth it in a sheath that he keepeth it bright And David saith Deliver my soul from the wicked which in thy sword that is one cause why God rewardeth the wicked with some temporall favours Psa 17.13 because he maketh use of them to punish his enemies this is fully exprest For thus saith the Lord to the Prophet Son of man Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel caused his army to serve a great service against Tyrus Every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled Ezech. 29 18.19 yet had he no mages nor the army for Tyrus that served against it therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold I will give the land of Egypt into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and he shall take her multitudes and take her spoils and take her prey and it shall be the wages for his army This may satisfie us that we grieve not at the prosperous estate of the wicked for God hath use of them and he will not let them serve him for nothing The elect of God have fairer hopes let them stay their stomack and let them wait the Lords leisure Use 2 2. We may see in this example in my text and in many more that God maketh use of the wicked in the behalf of his Church and therefore we must not give the glory of Gods justice to the means but to God The wicked know not what they do when they fight the battells of the Lord yet God doth put such mettall into them that they do most valiantly perform his will A full example hereof is The word of the Lord to Zedekiah king of Judah by his prophet Jeremiah Jer. 37.8 The Chaldaeans shall come again and fight against this city and take it and burn it with fire Thus faith the Lord deceive not your selves saying The Chaldeans shall depart from us for they shall not depart For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men amongst them yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this city with fire This must needs be the hand of the Lord and therefore the glory must be given to God onely the means are weak but the Lord is strong he alone must be exalted and all the glory of victory must be ascribed to him The Church may use the help of the Heathen and of Idolaters in the Lords battells for they are the sword of the Lord as you have heard Use 3 3. We are taught that though Israel and the Heathen do come together though the godly do use the
If I have spoken evil Joh. 8.22.23 bear witnesse of the evil but if well why smitest thou me This then is spoken by our Saviour to forbid private revenge that no man should be the judge of his own wrong but should bear it with patience It is Saint Augustines answer Obedientia istanon in ostentatione corporis est sed in preparatione cordis And he saith Non maxillam tantum obtulit sed totum corpus dedit figendum cruci And he addeth Quanto melius et respondit vera placatus et ad perferenda graviora paratus est He could have withdrawn his cheek from the smiter Lam. 3 30 but he would fulfill the Prophecie He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him he is filled with reproaches Private revenge Christ forbiddeth us Christ did not take it against his adversary that smote him he reproved it in Peter he amended the maim that he made and healed his smiter But war is a publike revenge and the Magistrate beareth the sword to that purpose to execute revenge upon evil doers Vengeance is Gods and where he committeth the trust of execution thereof as he doth to the Magistrate there it is lawfull This cleareth many other like objections as that Qui gladio ferit Lam. 11. gladio peribit He that smiteth with the sword shall perish by the sword we must recompence to no man evil for evil For all this is meant of our revenge but the revenge of the Magistrate is the vengeance of God because he is Gods Minister Object 2 The prophet Isay foretold that in the time of the Gospel Isa 2.4 they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning-hooks nation shall not lift up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more Sol. These words bear three interpretations 1. That this was a signe of the coming of the Messias into the World he was born in a time of cessation from wars when the Romane Monarchy had leasure to leavie a taxation by the Poll so when David had rest then he thought of numbring his People 2. That this was fulfilled in the spirituall Peace and Unity of the Church collected now out of all nations of the World Iew and Gentile made one 3. That this is the proper effect of the Gospel where it was embraced faithfully to make Peace Under the name of Edom we may understand all the enemies of the Truth of God and Christian Religion such as are Schismaticks and Hereticks who understanding not the mystery of Godlinesse and Peace do set their wits against the Church to corrupt the Truth therein deposited and professed or to disturb the quiet professours thereof 1. Hereticks These are our brethren by outward profession 1. Heretiques calling themselves Christians but they see that we have gotten the birthright and the blessing from them and therefore they hate us and are comforted against us to destroy us The Church is Gods Israel the children of the Promise filij regni filij thalami filij lucis children of the kingdom of the Bridechamber and of the light The Embassadours that are sent to stir up to war against those be the Ministers of the Word of God for to this purpose we are sent forth to confirm the brethren against those to reconcile these to God And we are commanded to arise against these in battell The war and so the weapons with which we fight against these are not carnall but spirituall the clear light of the Gospel which is the power of God to salvation to them that beleeve and the Truth of God which is strong and prevaileth against them that beleeve not It is time for us to joyn together as one man in battell against these Especially the Papists whose Religion is ambition whose piety is worldly policy whose zeal is combustion whose faith is fury who hide the Word of Light in the darknesse of an unknown tongue to keep the people ignorant that they may not know Gods right hand from his left to emplunge them in the flames of their imagined Purgatory that they may be well paid to release them thence They mingle the sacrament of Baptisme with their own inventions which they make acquivalent in vertue to the power of Gods ordinance The mangle the sacrament of the Lords supper by robbing the people of one half thereof taking the cup from them They disable the sacrifice of Christs sufficient satisfaction for sin by addition of humane merits of erogation and super erogation They weaken the sole intercession of Christ by intrusion of more Mediatours Angels the Mother of our Lord and Saints They shorten the free and full grace of God which Christ himself from Heaven told Paul was sufficient by their lying doctrine of Free-will They flatter and abett some by their doctrine of indulgencies which attributeth to the Pope power of pardoning sins past and to come They dishonour the holy sufficient Word of God by acqui-ballancing with the same humane Traditions and false Legends They destroy true saving faith by their false doctrine of implicite faith teaching that is enough to beleeve as the Church beleeveth not declaring what the Church beleeveth and upon what ground their faith is built They maintain flat Idolatry by teaching the worshipping of Images and praying to Saints And for the power which they give to the Pope against God in dispensing with the breach of his Covenants in coining new Articles of faith in defining the interpretation of Scriptures in usurping authority over temporall Princes to enthrone and to dethrone at pleasure to arm their natural subjects against them to animate Incendiaries to abett treasons to blow up States All these things and many more call upon us take arms and joyn our strengths against this Edom this red and hairy and bloody enemy whose mercies are cruell The best weapon against this Kingdom of darknesse is the Light of Truth the more we carry this Light about us the more will the ignorant amongst them know how they are abused and mis-led For our war is spirituall not against their Persons but against their Heresies 2. Schismaticks These also call us brethren but they break the Unity and Uniformity of the Church All the children of Peace must arise against these in battel this also is a spirituall war and the sword of the spirit must be drawn and used against these to cut them off as Saint Paul wisheth I would they were cut off that trouble you Or if the Word of God cannot prevail with them to convert them to peace The discipline of the Church which Saint Paul calleth his rod must be used against them to cut them off from our congregations The Apostle calleth them Leaven and saith that a little leaven soureth the whole lump So do Schismaticks for a few of them do corrupt many and divert them from the congregations whereof they are members and distaste the established Ministery to them and set them in opposition to
Authority and at last tempt them to separation Mr. Perkins upon the Article of the Holy Catholike Church doth learnedly handle this point Object First saith hâ— they object That our Assemblies are full of grievous blots and enormities He answereth Sol. The defects must be 1. Either in Doctrine 2. Or in manners 1. Defects in Doctrine 1. Either Errours praeter fundamentum besides the foundation 2. Or contra fund mentum against the foundation He maintaineth that our Church of England doth teach no Doctrine against the foundation of Christian Religion 2. For corruption in manners he declareth that it cannot make a Church no Church but an imperfect Church therefore Christ commandeth to hear them which preach well and live ill as the Scribes and Pharisees which sit in Moses chair Object Again he findeth it objected that the Church of England doth hold Christ in word but denieth him in deed Sol. Answer Denyall of Christ is Either in judgment Or in fact To deny Christ in judgment which obstinacie is against the foundation and maketh a Christian no Christian To deny Christ in fact only sheweth us to be weak and imperfect in our profession of the Gospel and the best of Gods servants cannot keep out of this ranck because it is impossible for them that carry a body of sinne who do the evill that they would not to hold conformity of life and conversation with their knowledge and good desires And truly the authors or the actors of chisme do shew much uncharitablenesse in their separation from our Church for the Apostles rule is Be not unequally yoked with Infidels What concord hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.14 What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols Wherefore come out from among them and separate your selves saith the Lord. And do they judge their brethren to be Infidels the sons of Belial Idolaters that they do separate from us Againe the same Apostle saith If any man teach otherwise and consent not to the wholsome words of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Tim 6 3. and to the Doctrine which is according to godlinesse from such separate your selves Can any lay this to the charge of our Church that we offend in this kind It is true that nothing is more easie then to accuse but men and Devils cannot prove this against our Church The Church of the Jewes in the times immediately after Christs Ascension was the Church of God neither did Christ forsake that Church in his time nor the Apostles after him But when certaine men heardened and disobeyed Acts 12.9 speaking evill of the way of God Saint Paul departed from them and separated from them and separated the Disciples of Ephesus from certaine Schismatiques he separated but not from the Church Therefore arise against such in battell detect them to publike authority seek their amendment or if that cannot be compassed prosecute the ridding them out of the Church for those Edomites do not love the welfare of our Jerusalem and they will not know those things which belong to peace The way of peace they have not known Under the name and title of Edom we may understand the whole Kingdome of Satan and Israel the Church of God stirred up by the embassadours the Ministers of God to arise against it in battell For this is our life called a Warfare because we fight against Satan the professed enemy of the Church against all his forces Both his outward forces in the world And his inward forces Corpus peccati the body of sin The holy Apostle Saint Paul knowing the danger of the elect doth not only awake us to fight and giveth us his owne example so fighting not as one beateth the aire But he prescribeth us to a fit armour Ephes 6.19 c. and teacheth us how to put it on that we may be able to defend our selves and to resist Satan This is no power of our own but our strength in the Lord and in the power of his might 3. To come nearer home as God told Rebecca when Iacob and Esau were yet in her womb there striving Gen. 25.23 there be two Nations in thy womb so Saint Paul will tell you that there is in every regenerate man two opposite forces The flesh and the spirit and rhese strive the spirit hath God put into us to rule the flesh rebelleth against the spirit Therefore to will is present with us but we are not able to do to good that we would yea he confesseth that he cannot do the good that he would and that he doeth the evill that he would not The spirit of God is Gods Embassadour calling upon our spirits to arise against the flesh in battell and that is the true use of all Doctrines of mortification and of godly life to strengthen the spirit against the flesh to weaken the power of the body of sin And for this Saint Paul did bring his body in subjection for such is the nature of this fight that the more we resist our naturall and sensuall desires the more we advance the force of our spirits against our flesh And it a most glorious conquest for any servant of God to overcome himself Obadiah verse 2. Behold I have made thee small among the Heathen thou art greatly despised 2. The effect of this judgment 1. From God I have made thee small c. 2. From God and man Thou art greatly despised 1. From God Three circumstances aggravate the judgment 1. Edom is made small 2. Made small among the Nations 3. I have done it 2. From God and man 2. Circumstances 1. Thou art despised 2. Thou art despised greatly Before I handle these parts two things offer themselves to consideration which make easie way unto the understanding of the Prophecie 1. The preface to this Prophecie Behold 2. The phrase thereof 1. The Preface Behold Whereby he openeth the eyes of the Idumaeans to look into their future estate it is a word much used in holy Scripture and ever maketh way to some worthy and considerable matter here the Lord would have the Idumaeans take notice of the judgment and wrath to come Not that they should repent them of their sins and turne to God for God hated them and set his face against them and they had hearts that they could not repent but hence we learn Doctr. It is Gods manner to give warning of his judgments even to those who will not take warning that they may be without excuse and Ezekiel must prophecie to those that will not receive him And thou shalt speak my words unto them Ezek. 2.7 whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are most rebellious He giveth a reason before Reason 1 Use 5 Yet they shall know that there hath been a Prophet amongst them God will have the ungodly know that he hath tendered to them the meanes of escape from his judgments by the ministry of his word that they may have nothing to
low growth and our contentment with our daily bread there is much difference between those that be humiles humble and those that be humiliati humbled and between those that be Humiliati ad vindictam humbled to punishment those that be humiliati ad medicinam humbled to medicine This prophecie is full for it that God resisteth the proud and pride shall have a fall and after the fall followeth contempt And what reward have they of all those things v. 3. The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high that saith in his heart who shall bring me down to the ground Though thou exalt thy self as an Eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. 2. Now he foretelleth how all the hopes of the children of Edom are dispersed 1. They had hope in their own pride ver 3. 2. In the safety of their situation v. 3 4 5 6. 3. In the strength assurance of their confederates v. 7 4. In the wisdome v. 8. 5. In the strength of their own men v. 9. For the first The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee Thou didst think better of thy self then there was cause Self-opinion is the bane of all vertue for by it men become their own flatterers and build castles in the air it is tumor cordis the swelling of the heart this is of the world and one of that cursed Trinity which undoes the world The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 3 John 2.16 The cunning Serpent breathed this poyson in our first Parents for when Eva heard him say Similes eritis Deo you shall be like unto God she soon ate of the forbidden fruit and gave of the same to Adam Pride swelleth the heart that it is not capable of grace it filleth it full of it self leaveth no roome for Christ in that Inne Therefore one saith to a proud man Deus praesto est largiri sapientiam sed tu non habes ubi eam recipias Pride is contray to humility for humility is not only vertue but vas virtutum the receptacle of vertue God giveth grace to the humble but pride like the woman that had filled all her vessels with oyle and at last vas defuit there wanted a vessel it so filleth the heart with the oyle of self-flattery that there is no roome left no vessell to receive any grace It filleth the firkins up to the brim Whatsoever good parts are in a man of woman pride spoils all and turns them into vice as one long ago truly and facetely rimed Si tibi gratia si sapientia formaque detur Inquinat omnia sola superbia si comitetur This is esteemed the Queen of vices Isa 8 2.1 woe to the crowne of pride It is one of the late repentances of the damned beholding the happinesse of the just and feeling the misery of their damdation What hath our pride profited us or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us Wisd 5. Satan is called a Prince ruling in the air the god of this world and that Leviathan who is a King over all the children of pride This vice opposeth God and transgresseth and trespasseth the Majesty of God it began to all the other sins it infected glorious Angels and turned them into Devils One observeth that pride is no Recusant it will come to Church a man that lives in the light of Religion and hath any morall goodnesse in him will lay down his covetousnesse gluttony luxury idlenesse envy anger for Service time but the proud person will bring pride to Church along with him Two men went up to the Temple to pray one a proud Pharisee Pride mingleth it self with our best actions and claimeth share with God in many of our good works It also filleth us with contempt of our neighbour not as that Publican non ut alii not as other men Edom lived by his sword and awed men with his power and this did fill his heart with Pride Riches unsanctified make men proud so Jack becomes a Gentleman and Mechanicals finde some false pedegrees to enable them or purchase places of eminencie to put them before their betters power unsanctified makes men boysterous and heavy to the poore Learning unsanctified and the very knowledge of Religion doth breed pride and that maketh contention for pride is the root of Schisme and Heresie This turns faith into presumption in some professors of Religion but it turneth it into contention in others in others into separation in the pâ—â—phane it breedeth contempt of God and of his word Wisdome knowledge honour riches power with humility no pride to corrupt them they are the ornaments of life and the faculties of vertue and the factors of grace and the fear of God It is a good saying of Hugode Sancto Victore Superbia mihi Deum aufert Invidia proximum Ira meipsum Pride depriveth me of God envie of mâ— neighbour anger of my self Behold his soule which is lifted or puffed up in him Hab. 2 4. is not upright in him but the just shall live by faith Pride in the wicked taketh roome and place of faith for as faith in the Elect doth lay hold on all the gracious promises of God which do concern this life and a better So pride in the wicked maketh them beleeve that they are worthy of all favours of the time and of all temporall graces therefore the Prophet setteth them in opposition Therefore God beginneth to taxe this people of their pride teaching us that Pride is abominable to God Here we are compassed with a cloud of witnesses It was pride that cast down the Angels that deceived Eva that made Cain a murtherer Lamech a boaster Nimrod a hunter Ishmael a scorner Edom an oppressour c. And the Pharisee that could put off the aspersion of other sins extorsion injustice adultery he could not adde pride of this every one hath a share Diogenes wanted not his part as Plato taxed him most justly for it is so insinuating a vice as that they which labour most to expresse humility cannot but take some pride even in that This pride of Edom deceived Edom. Faith buildeth upon a rock no storme can shake it it is fortified by the prayer of Christ I have prayed that thy faith may not faile Pride buildeth on sand the foundation is false every wash and wave that beats on it shakes it and ruines it There is no creature that comes into the world more naked and more disarmed then man doth yet none so proud and therefore none so promising to it self as man is for as one saith Colligit de vite spinas pro uvis tribulos for out of the good blessings of God he maketh matter of self-opinion and false glory This is a monstrous birth Ex bono malum Lumen quod in te est
come to passe that every one that findeth me shall slay me Adoni-Bezek confest this justice of retaliation executed on him for they took him and cut off his thumbs and great toes and he said Threescore and ten Kings having their thumbs and toes cut off gathered their meat at my table Ver. 23. Jude 1.6 as I have done God hath requited me So saith God to the Chaldeans Because thou hast spoyled many Nations Heb 2.8 all the remnant of the people shall spoyle thee And God made this judgement good against Amalek for they sought to destroy Israel and God by Israel destroyed them Samuel said to Agag their King As thy sword hath made women childlesse so shall thy mother be childlesse among other women 1 Sam. 1.5 33. so he hewed him in peeces before the Lord. Ahab slew Naboth and himself was slain 1 King 21.19 Jezabel shed Naboths blood Thus saith the Lord In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick even thy blood also The dogs shal eat Jezabel by the wals of Iezreel As Solomon threatneth They shall eate the fruit of their own way Prov. 1.31 and be filled with their own devises The Apostle calleth this righteousnesse in God It is a righteous thing with God 2 Thes 1.6 to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you The word is decomposite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifieth a retribution contrary to them that in the same they shal be Patients wherein they have been Agents From this fountain of justice cometh that Law judiciall Ex. 21.24 an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth which Law Christ did not abrogate but interpret and put it into the power of the Magistrate where it ought to be taking it away from private persons Vse Let us all lay this justice of God to heart and let us look for it at the hands of God that he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to us our iniquities unrepented Let the Adulterer heare Job If my heart have been deceived by a woman or if I have laid wait at the doore of my neighbour let my wife grind to another Job 31.9 10. and let other men bow down upon her Let the cruel oppressor of his brethren look to be oppressed in himself or in his posterity If the daughter of Babel oppresse Blessed shall he be Psa 137.8 that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us It it Gods own word He that honoureth me him will I honour but he that despiseth me shall be despised Doctr. 3 There is no true love and peace between the ungodly Here hath been much confederacy between Edom and other Nations they were men of Peace they did eat and drink together yet even those turned perfidious to Edom and betrayed him Christ in his legacy of Peace said pacem meam do vobis non sicut mundus dat Job 14 27 My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth For Either it is pax adulationis the Peace of Adulation of which David saith Olâ—um peccatoris non confringet capat meum Ravennas note is that in all Sacrifices to God salt was used for God cannot be flattered when we say the most we can of him we come short Adulatio quam similis est amicitiae non imitatur tantum sed praecedit Poore men have the advantage of the rich in this for who flattereth them Sinners say we need not this waste why should we bestow it on them that cannot requite us We will save it and give it to them which are mighty 2. Or it is pax malae confederationis the peace of evil confederacie such as is between Thieves we will all have one purse these be as old Jacob said of Simeon and Levi fratres in malo brothers in evil St. Aug. calleth this ne fariam amicitiam a wicked friendship into their secret let not my soule come These tares bind themselves in bundles for the fire 3. Pax simulationis a dissembling peace when men hide malice under a shew of Peace that they may sub amici fallere nomen that they deceive under shew of friendship so â—udas kisseth and betrayeth Amasa entreateth and stabbeth 4. Pax temporalis a temporall peace when men maintain love and friendship and exchange great gifts and tender love and service to serve a turn So men set up the Ladders that they clime by as high as they can but when their turn is served they lay them along upon the ground This is the peace which the world giveth and there is no true friendship in it Pro. 17.17 for a friend loveth at all times Nec ullis divulsus querimoniis Suprema citius solvit amor die True peace is like the dew of Hermon none but the Elect of God have it My Peace I give to you it is not like the light of the Sun that shines on good and bad This is like the light that shined on Gosâ—en when all Egypt else was in palpable darknesse This is like the pretious oyle powred on Aarons head and running down to the skirts of his raiment Psa 133.2 3. for there the Lord Commanded the blessing and life for ever more Aristotle held that friendship contracted either by pleasure or profit could not hold for the cement and glew that should tye them together is but weak this continuation is but hujus ad hoc of this to that But the union of the faithful is hujus in hoc of this in that For they be incorporate in one body and they are made members of Christ and members one of another one flesh one body We see men in their greatnesse followed and served and petitioned observed and presented with choisest and richest gifts if we see them decline in favour or power we see them forsaken of their servants We see young prodigals frequented with company courted with complements feasted and swelled with all delights but when the fountain of this friendship is drawn dry and the means faile who calleth those men friends or seeketh their conversation This yet appeareth more plainly in the Idumeans of Rome that have long persecuted the true Church of God for though they have laboured ever since the first corruption of the Church to maintain their Hereticall opinions yet could they never be at any perfect peace amongst themselves And this ofter our Church may boldly make to them that there is no Tenet in our Religion we maintain against them but we wil renounce it if we do not find it averred by some one or most of eminent learning amongst themselves And because it will take up too much time to give instance in al particulars of our difference from the Trent Church For a taste let me refer so many as are desirous of better satisfaction to read that learned proofe of this truth in the Reverend Dean of Glocesters third book of the Church at the end of it where he nameth the agreement of our
Ghost bringing but a part and affirming that they brought all For Peter saith to Ananias After it was sold Acts 5.4 was it not in thine own power Yet in that communication it was not lawfull for every man to take what he would Acts 5 35. but the Apostles distributed to every one according to their need Surely if Edom and the Chaldeans had had as good right to the City of Jerusalem and to the goods therein as Israel had God had not laid this for an evidence against Edom that he laid hand on their substance God is Lord of all and he hath given the earth to the sons of men yet not in common nor in equall distribution Here the rich and poor meet together Pro. 22. â— and the Lord is maker of them both The Apostle learnt how to abound and how to want and God giveth to the rich things necessary in possession as to owners thereof during his pleasure he giveth them things superfluous that their cup may run over to the relief of others as to his stewards put in trust to see that their brethren want not And there be two vertues commended in holy Scripture which make men Proprietaries in the things of this world that is Justitia qua suum cuique tribuis Justice whereby thou givest to every one his own Misericordia qua tuum and mercie whereby thou givest of thine own The Use of this point is Let every one know his own and not lay hand on the substance of his brother Eph 4 28. and let him that stole steale no more but let him labour not all for himself but that he may give to him that needeth that the poore may grow up with him as he did with Job and that none perish for want of meat and cloathing Godlinesse must be joyned with contentment the law doth not only bind the hand non furaberis thou shalt not steal but it bindeth the heart too non concupisces thou shalt not cover not his house not his ground not his wife not his servant not any thing of his There be many wayes of theft I am limited to that of violent taking away of our neighburs substance for that only is here named and judged and that is either directly by invasion or secretly practised by oppression Oppression like other sins putteth on the habit of vertue and passeth for good husbandry but all stopping of the Wels wherof Isacc and his cattel should drink is oppression and theft and whatsoever is saved from the poor by it is the treasure of wickednesse and the wise man telleth us Prov. 10.2 The treasures of wickednes profit nothing we shall see it clearer when we come to Gods revenge upon Edom for laying hand upon his brothers substance 3 They are charged with insidiation for life Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crosse-way to cut off those that did escape Verse 14. Edom divided himself against Israel some entring the City to rob and spoyle their goods and to destroy them that abode there others attended without the City to cut off them who to save their lives did escape out of the City The Chaldeans that came from farre to invade Jerusalem were not so well acquainted with the wayes and passages for escape neere to the City as the Edomites their brethren and neighbours were therefore that cruell office they take upon them to declare their full malice to Iacob and to make up a complete destruction The history of those times doth make this plaine And the City was broken up 2 Reg. 25. v. 4. and all the men of warre fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls which is by the Kings garden now the Chaldees were against the City round about and the King went the way toward the plain At that time the Edomite knowing the secret wayes mingled himself with the Chaldees to cut off such as escaped In this passage note Note 1 1. The miserable calamity of warre how it maketh desolations and filleth all places with blood no safety from invasion in the City and none from insidiation without the City 1. When you hear of these things thank God for the peace of the Common wealth in which you live reckon it amongst the great blessings of God that you are borne in a time of peace and live in peace every one under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree every one enjoying the comforts of life without the noyse of invasion no leading into captivity and no complaining in our streets 2. Let us also think of the wofull calamity of that part of the Church wherein we have so great a part so much of the best blood of this Land and Crown in danger of this cruelty and if either our persons or purses or our prayers to God may relieve them let us not spare to comfort their distresses as we would desire in like extremity to be comforted our selves 3. Let us learne to abhor the bloody religion of the scarlet Strumpet of Rome that maintaineth and abetteth these quarrels and kindleth those coales in Christendome which threaten conflagration 4. Let us observe all them that make contention and move the hearts of their brethren to schisme to alienate their affections from the peace of the Church lest this sire which beginneth but amongst thorns and brambles enflame the Cedars of our Libanus Note 2 2. See the afflictions of Iudah and Ierusalem and search the cause thereof Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Judah 2 Reg. 24.3 4. to remove them out of his sight for the sins of Manasseh according to all that he did And also for the innocent blood that he shed for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood which the Lord would not pardon Have not we provoked the God of mercies to awake his justice against our Land Did ever pride put on more formes of costly vanity and shamelesse disguise then our eyes behold Did drunkennesse ever waste and consume more of the necessaries of life which many poor Christians want then now Were the Prophets and Ministers of the Word rebuking the vices of the times lesse hearkned to then in our dayes Was there ever a more curious search into mens estates and lands or more advantage taken or more new inventions to get wealth then we have heard of Was the Church at any time more rent with Schismes and maymed by defections and separations and the faithfull Ministers more opposed with contradictions and depraved by unjust calumniations by those that usurp the appearance of great professors then now Did knowledge ever swel and puffe men up more then now The times are foul and the crimes thereof are clamorous why then should not we expect Iudahs punishment that live in Iudahs sins O sin no more lest some worse evill fall on thee 1. Let us break off these sins by repentance and seek the Lord whilst he may be found and seeing the light
if it be not white and ready for the fickle observe thine own wayes and works and see if they do not tell that the day of the Lord cannot be farre off There be that put this day far off from them that is by flattering themselves in their sins they make themselves beleeve that they shall not yet come to punishment Repentance only lengtheneth this day and suffereth it not to approach to us Such an one feareth not in die malo in the evil day 3. The extent of this judgement over all the Heathen Meaning heâ—e all those that have joyned together in warre against the Jewes See Jer. 25. Here is a Quaerie Did not God stirre them up against Jerusalem In this Prophecy he declareth how Jerusalem was chastened by the Heathen and doth not the Holy story say Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Iudah 2 King 24.3 Iudah well deserved this punishment and God justly inflicted it and the heathen were the rod of God wherewith he chastened Iudah yet this execution done upon Iudah by the heathen was impious in them for they made warre against Gods Church and sought the ruine of Religion it was covetous they robbed Ierusalem it was cruel they delighted in the blood of the Lords people it was proud they insulted over them It is true that these heathen do not go without God to invade Iudah true that he sent them to punish the transgressions of his people true that they are the rod and sword of God for so David confest that God bade Shimei to curse him The Lord hath sayed unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16.10 As in the Creation God separated the waters from the face of the earth and called the gathering together of the waters Seas yet David sayes God hath set them their bounds which they cannot passe nor return to cover the earth Yet they would cover the earth Surely the wicked are resembled to the Sea in every consideration the Church may be compared to the dry land God holdeth the wicked in that they cannot droune this dry land yet this they would do for there is a naturall antipathy in the heathen to the Church of God When the Church sinneth God openeth a gap and letteth his Sea break in he suffereth the wicked to scourge the Church when it defaulteth for both their sakes that he may execute his judgement upon both and as Augustine saith Vtitur Deus malis bâ—â—â— In the story of the Iudges we read how the Concubine of Micah the Levite was abused to death in Gibeah which being complained of to the rest of the Tribes by the Levite they sent unto Benjamin to deliver up to them those men of Belial that had done the villany Jud. 20.13 that they might put away the evil from Israel But Benjamin would not heare their Brethren but prepared to put themselves in Armes and to go out to battail against the children of Israel The children of Israel arose and went to the house of God ver 18. and asked counsel of God and said which of us shall go up first to the battaile against the children of Benjamin And the Lord said Iudah shall go up first They went and Benjamin destroyed that day two and twenty thousand men The children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord untill even and asked counsell of the Lord saying ver 23. Shall I go up in battaile against the children of Benjamin my brother And the Lord said go up against him They did so the second day and the children of Benjamin destroyed of Israel eighteen thousand men Here was nothing done without consulting of God God bade them go and yet they prospered not yea they lost in all forty thousand men There is no cleere expression in this story to declare why God punished Israel with this great effusion of blood Plain it is that Gods purpose was to punish Israel and first the Tribe of Iudah but the Text sheweth 1. That the cause of this warre was a just provocation there was villany done in Israel 2. That the end of this war was godly for it was to remove evil from Israel 3. That they did nothing herein without Gods expresse warrant for they began to take counsell of the Lord. Yet before God would revenge the fault of the Benjamites upon them by Benjamin he punished the Tribe of Iudah first and then the rest of the Tribes with losse of so many men and effusion of so much blood And I must tell you that I find not the reason thereof exprest It may be that the Holy Ghost hath suppressed it that we might rest in the feare of God and not search further it is enough for us to know what God doth and not why for as Augustine saith Iudicia Dei occulta esse possunt injusta non possunt esse Gods judgements may be secret but never unjust And we must be very tender how we call God to accompt for what he doth for God is whatsoever his will is of which we must not seek to know more then is revealed for that is prying into the Arke and costeth death God is accomptable to none for what he doth The third day he gave Israel a full victory against Benjamin by Benjamin He first scourged Israel and by Israel he after destroyed Benjamin and left of them but six hundred men So may we say of this example in my Text God useth the heathen to scourge his Church and after destroyeth the heathen in his just but secret judgement Yet let me tell you what some learned judgements have conceived of that great example of justice in that story of Israel and Benjamin Rabbi Levi saith that Israel might provoke God at first because they came to God to aske who should go first against Benjamin and did trust to their own strength and did not beseech God to give them victory Rabbi Kimchi saith it was because that Israel had suffered Idolatry in Dan and had never taken the cause of God to heart to aske counsell of God against them iâ—â— but now in a private injury done to a Levite they were provoked and sought revenge 3. Others conceive that this was the cause They came too slightly to God at first for they did only bluntly enquire who should go first against Benjamin Not whether they should go or not Not enquiring by what way he meant to punish their brother But the second time they went up to the Lord they wept till even and then they asked counsell Shall I go up again in battaile against my brother Yet even then being commanded to go they lost eighteen thousand men True but they came not the second time with that preparation which became them that would sight the Lords battails to remove evil out of Israel for the third day they mended all Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up and came unto the house of God and wept ver 26. and
them contrition and sorrow for their sinne and a broken and contrite spirit God cannot refuse he will not discourage the contrite and sorrowfull but will have them to know that their groanings and sighes come up even into his eares He putteth all their teares in his bottle 2. Afflictions do turne the children of God into prayers and supplications and he will not neglect them that pray to him that they may see the power and vertue of prayer that upon all occasions they may prostrate their hearts before God in prayer God hath said of the just man He shall call upon me in trouble Psa 91.15 Hos 5.15 and I will heare him yes I will be with him in trouble I will deliver him and glorifie him in their afflictions they will seek me diligently In the house of bondage he heard Israel Exo. 3.7 Then the Lord said I have surely seen the trouble of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry St Iames saith If any man among you be afflicted let him pray If that were not our comfort when all remedies faile us we were most unhappy for we can never be shut up so but we may send our prayers from us to heaven to plead our cause in the name of Iesus Christ 3 Sharp afflictions may be a strong temptation to make the children of God doubt of the love of God It was not lawfull for them in the judiciall Law to be immoderate in correction A trespasser might have forty stripes given him but not more lest if he should exceed and beat him above these with many stripes Deu. 25.3 then thy brother should seem vile unto thee God will not overdoe in his chastenings of his Church to prevent this danger lest his servant should think himselfe lost in the favour of God We see how David was put to it in this kind When his soar ran and ceased not his soule refused comfort yea once he complained My God my God why hast thou forsaken me yea he thought upon God and was troubled Therefore God doth carry a favourable hand in his afflictions to prevent the despaire of his children for he knoweth whereof we be made 4. Sharp afflictions may be an occasion to harden the heart of man and make himful away from God to sinne and that reason is given by the holy Psalmist For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous Psa 125.2 lest the righteous put forth their bands to iniquity Indeed some that have been well taught and do understand well and have lived in some measure of good life and walked conscionably when God hath tryed them with wants have fallen into snares and embraced temptations Magnum pauperies opprobrium jubes quidvis facere pati vircutisquâ— viâ—m deserit arduae Shifts fraudes secret stealths borrowings without meanes or hope of repayment c. The wise son of Iakeh prayed to God Give me not poverty lest I be poor and steale Pro. 30.9 and take the name of my God in vaine Extremity of paine in sicknesse and soarenesse is a great temptation two great lights in the Church of God were ecclipsed by it Iob the example of patience fell into bitter cursings of the do of his birth so did holy Jeremy the Lords Prophet To these respects God is tender and suffereth not his chosen to be tempâ—â—d above their strength but doth give issue to their temptations Yet sometimes he suffereth his Elect to see their owne weaknesse by some fall that when he putteth to his helping hand they may be more wary to keep a better watch upon their hearts Reason 3 3. God doth not suffer his Church to be forsaken in afflictions lest the enemies thereof should too much insult over them It is Davids suite to God Let them not say we have prevailed When Saul and Ionathan were dead David lamented them with great lamentation The beauty of Israel is slaine upon the high places how are the mighty fâ—llon 2 Sam. 1.19 20. Tâ—ll is not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoyce lest the daughters of the uncirâ—â—â—tised triumph For this addeth to the ungodlinesse of the wicked they grow proud upon it Let not their wicked imagination prosper lesâ— they grow too proud Reason 4 4. The afflictions of the Church when they do grow sharpe and smarting cause the ungodly of the earth to blaspheme the name of God It is not for nothing that David doth pray so earnestly Quicken me O Lord for thy names sake Ps 143.11 for thy righteousnesse sake bring my soule out of trouble The ungodly Iewes and Romanes standing by the Crosse of Christ did speake contemptibly of God and took his name in vaine in derision of his son It is the manner of the ungodly to blaspheme if once they prevaile against the Church then the God they serve is thought unable to protect them and the Religion that they professe is scandalized for untruth These be great reasons why God doth not forsake his Church in affliction but giveth them a heavenly issue out of them This point teacheth its own use for it serveth both to 1. Informe 2 Convince 3 Exhort 4 Rebuke 1 Information This is a sure and infallible rule That whom God once loveth he ever loveth as he saith I will never leave thee nor forsake thee for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance his love is himselfe and he cannot deny himselfe he hath given us to his son Rom. 8 35 and of them that thou hast given me saith he I have lost none and no man can take them out of my hand What shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus he nameth the greatest miseries of life Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors Cant. 2.4 through him that loved us The love of God to his Church is a banner over it 2 Conviction This Doctrine convinceth the Heathen who deny that there is a any Providence because the best men drinke deepest of the cup of affliction which maketh the profane say It is in vaine to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his Ordinance and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts Mal. 3.14 True that they who make conscience of their wayes are despised their soule is filled with the scorne of the proud True Ver. 25. that they that worke wickednesse are set up and they that tempt God are delivered but the Elect say for thy sake we are killed all the day long Yet the comfort that the just have in their affliction doth assure that verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth the earth And though for a time the wicked insult over the just the day will come
in summa pericula misit Venturi timor ipse mali fortissinâ—â—â— ille est Qui promptus metunda pati The feare of evil to come hath endangered many he is the most valiant that is ready to suffer what is feared 2. It tryeth our faith Christ said to Peter Cur times exiguâ fide praedites when he so felt himselfe sinking in the waters God promised I will not leave thee nor forsake thee Do we beleeve him Dare we trust him as Christ Do you beleeve in God beleeve also in me 2 My brethren count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 2. 3. Knowing this that the trying of your Faith worketh patience 4. But let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing 1 Pet. 1 7. That the tryall of your Faith being much more precious then of gold which perisheth though it be tryed with fire might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Iesus Christ c. 3. This setteth before our eyes the great appearance that our enemies shall make before us either in this world when our eye shall have our desire on them that hate us or in the last day when the Saints shall judge the world which serveth to admonish us with the Prophet To commit our wayes to the Lord and to trust in him for he shall bring it to passe Excellent is the story of Elisha whom the King of Syriâ— sent an Army to take and they beset Dothan where he lodged but Elisha prayed and God smote the whole Army with blindnesse and he whom they sought offered himselfe to them to be their guide and he brought them into Samaria and then God opened their eyes and they saw themselves in the hand and power of their enemies Thus doth God blind the eyes of the enemies of his Church and when ther malice is at the height they find themselves set at the Barre to be judged by his Saints then Iacob shall judge the Mount of Esau Methinkes I see the great appearance of the boisterous Tyrants of the earth whose eyes did sparkle fire in the faces of Gods servants whole tongue spake proud words whose foot trode upon Gods Saints whose hand spared them not whose countenance darted against them scorne and disdaine and whose swords were made drunke in the bloud of Gods Holy ones With what a feareful trembling and horrible dread they come to this judgement against their wils where they shall see the Saints all in long white robes like a flock of sheep that come from the washing in whose glorified faces they shall behold their owne shame and dishonour in whose place and joy they shall behold the bloudy persecution wherewith they have oppressed them in their life and in whose setled happinesse they shall read their doom of eternall woe And as Saint Peter saith How shall the wicked and ungodly appeare there needs no more evidence against them bring them to judgement and that sight shall convince them 3. The issue and effect of all And the Kingdome shall be the Lords This is the proper fruite of our deliverance from the hands of our enemies that the Kingdome of God may be established on earth in Gods Church 1. For so long as the enemies of God do tyrannize and fill all with their grosse actions the face of the Church is covered the Temples of God are defiled and demolished the worship of God seeketh private corners and sheweth not it selfe the Saints of God fly from the Sword of Persecution wandring here and there from one Nation to another people and it is hard to say where the Church of God is During the persecution under the cruell Emperours till Constantine aross and restored the Kingdome to God the Kingdome of God on earth was not abolished quite but it was in some sort invisible not that it was then hidden from all the faithfull as it was from the world therefore concerning the invisiblenesse of this Kingdome we do affirme 1. That though this Kingdome of God be so established on earth that the gaâ—â—â— of hell shall not prevails against it because God gave to his son that asked him the heâ—â—hen for his inheritance and the utmost part of the earth for his possession And Christ promised to give the Holy Ghost to his Church to abide with it for ever 〈◊〉 yeâ—at sometimes the faithfull may be so few in number and they so separated one from another in the pursuit of their owâ—â— sâ—â—â—ty that the world cannot easily discome the face of a Church This some of the Church of Rome have confessed affirming that about the time of Christs passion and the dispersion of his Disciples theâ—â— true faith remained onely in the blessed Virgin Mary But untruly◠〈◊〉 the Disciples though they fled from the persecution of that time they fled not froâ—â— the â—aith of Christ But was it not so in Eliahs time when he knew of no more but himselfe alone that served the true God yet God had knees that had never bowed to Baal even then 2. We affirme that Satans Kingdome may so farre dilate it selfe in power and spreading that the externall government of the Church may cease the succession of Bishops and Pastors may be interrupted the Discipline of the Church hindered and the outward exercise of Gods Worship suspended the sunne of righteousnes may suffer ecclipse and thus much the Rhemists do confesse in their notes upon 2 Thes 2.2 3. That which the common opinion doth embrace for the Kingdome of God may be Satans Kingdome whose doctrine is poison whose pastors are wolves in sheeps cloathing whose children are bastards of the Strumpet of Babylon This appeares in the Church story for when Româ— forsook her first Love and began to turne saith into faction and religion into carnall policy to establish a tâ—anscendent greatnesse on the face of the earth and to tyrannize over all that stood for the truth revealed in the word then was the candle of the Church put out so farre as they could prevaile and the word of God the light of our steps was taken away from the people Then did the faithfull subjects of Gods Kingdome hide themselves from the sword and the fire and the sundry persecutions which Rome devised to oppresse them then their heresy past for truth commonly their usurpers for lawfull Bishops their mercenaries for Pastors their legendes for Gospel and they boasted themselves the only true Church of God and Spouse of Iesus Christ And when by the ministry of Dr. Lurher the Church began to lift up the head againe and that one single man opposed the Pope and was a burning and shining Lampe to whose light many dayly resorted we see that ever since that time the Church hath come more and more in sight and growne both in number and strength Kings have been nursing Fathers and Queens have been Nurses and the Kingdom of God hath been gloriously advaanced on earth Then did England