Church of Rome for it is clear that there was a time wherein there were no images at all known in the Church There were some desirous then to bring them in but the councel of Eliberis decreed that no picture or image should be brought into the Church lest it should be adored And Epiphanius finding an image painted on a cloth Can. 36. hanging in a Church rent it down and said it was against the Authority of Scriptures that any image should be in the Church Saint Origen saith of his time Con. Cels l. 7. nos imagines non adoramus we do not worship images Eight hundred years after Christ the second Nicene Councel set up images but The Councel of Franckford which was a general Councel and where the Popes Legates were present repealed it and affirme The Catholick Church doth affirme that mortal man ought to worship God not by images and Angels but by Christ our Lord. And whatsoever the practice of the Church of Rome now is in the use of them they shall never be able to reconcile the judgments of their best learned concerning them For Some condemn all divine adoration given to them some condemn external bowing before them some confesse that the ancient fathers condemned them some think their use dangerous And they which have gone farthest in defending them have done it by so nice distinctions that the common People cannot understand how to beware of idolatry themselves not understanding themselves therein Even in the administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper they are idolaters in worshipping the hoast which I prove from Cardinal Bellarmines own penne De justif lib. 3 cap. 8. Ne que potest certus esse certitudine fidei se percipere verum Sacramentum cum Sacramentum sine intentione ministri non conficiatur intentionem alterius nemo videre potest And thus much Garnet the Provincial did ingenuously confesse upon his private conference with some of our Bishops Wherefore how they can excuse their idolatry in the worship of the elevated hoast I cannot see seeing they worship they know not what Any man may easily conceive that they do carry a corrupt mind that way because in all their Catechismes set forth for the institution of young beginners they do leave out the second Commandment quite and to make up the number they divide the tenth Commandment into two Now having convinced them of idolatry which is the high sin against God and toucheth him in his Majesty and Glory we see how dangerous a thing it is to have conversation with such least we receive of the plagues due to them Though the Church of Pergamus did hold fast the name of Christ and denied not his faith yet had the Lord something against her Rev. 2.14 Because she had there them that held the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication The same quarrel had our Lord to the Church at Thyatira in which though he approved her works and charity and service and faith and patience yet he saith Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Iezebel who calleth her self a Prophetesse Rev. 2.20 to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols We have no law to favour idolatry or idolatrous meetings to masse we have severe laws against them yet it is in sight that Masse is frequented by multitudes of all sorts in the sight of Israel in the sight of the sun whence this boldnesse grows we cannot judge but from â—n negligent execution of our godly and just laws Have we forgotten 88 have we forgotten the fifth of November 1605 do we not believe experience Were not the Canaanites whom Israel suffered to live amongst them against the Commandment of God Jude 2.3 thorns in their sides and pricks in their eyes and were not their gods a snare to Israel Is not Popery a dangerous religion to the Soveraign Authority of the King setting the Pope above him to over-rule him and to deprive him of his Crown if he be not for his turn Is not Popery a profest enemy to the Religion that we professe light and darknesse God and Belial may as soon be reconciled and therefore an enemy to our Clergy who are all armed with the Word of God against it Or is it good and wholesome doctrine which the Anabaptists this last year tendred to the King Prince Nobility Judges and Commons of Parliament that Freedome of Religion is not hurtful to any Common-wealth or that Freedome of Religion depriveth not Kings of any Power given them of God The times are foule God is much dishonoured where the fault is and of whom the Church and Religion hath cause to complain is not so much our duty to enquire as to pray to God to amend all I le tell you where you shall have him 2. The punishment of this sinne is exprest in one word Vae Wo and it containeth the whole Cup of Gods indignation 1. In this life they trust in that which cannot help them 2. They invocate that which cannot hear them They trust in lying vanities and they forsake their own mercy they are taught by teachers of lies and therefore the light that is in them is darknesse Baals servants cried from morning to evening upon Baal their god to hear them and it would not do here is a double woe 1. Losse of labour 2. Want of help In the first they bewray their folly the god of this world hath made fools of them for turning the glory of the invisible God into the images of creatures But it the second they find the misery for we cannot subsist without help and they trust to idols where there is no help But that is not all the woe the Apostle telleth us that no idolaters shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven Gal. 5.20 this is terror domini the terrour of the Lord for how shall they hope to have glory witch God who deny glory to God will God give them glory that seek to take away glory from him or let them into heaven that would thrust him out Observe it in that law concerning graven images God hath more exprest himself then in any of the rest to be a God of vengeance for there is ratio legis God is jealous And there is Comminatio judicis visitabit and it goeth in descent to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him Observe he calleth them such as hate him There is a promise He will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him And I conceive this added to this Commandment rather then any of the rest because Gods Israel did most often offend in this kind by worshipping God in creatures and by performing external adoration to them which is in this law chiefly forbidden The fear of this woe hath
serpent for Christ calleth the vvicked genimina viperarum generation of vipers and to such he saith Vos estis ex patre vestro Diabolo you are of your father the Devill John 8.44 For this Rupertus saith that the Bible is called the Book of the battails of the Lord Num. 21.14 because it conteineth the story of the vvars betvveen these tvvo the Church and the vvorld From this enmity vvhich God put betvveen the Church and the vvorld ariseth this hatred and opposition so that the prosperity of the vvicked is Davids grief the miseries of David be the vvorlds joy the joy of the Church is the affliction of the vvorld God left the Devill in his fall and took him not up again thereby forsaking him he put enmity into him and he for the hatred that he beareth to God hath ever since persecuted him in his Church because his malice cannot extend to hurt him And herein he is the more cruel because he knovvs his time is but short Satan is but Gods instrument in the afflicting of the Church so it is said to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna Reas 2 Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison Revel 2.10 that ye may be tryed and ye shall have tribulation ten days He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour If he be kept from devouring he biteth and rendeth and doth vvhat hurt he can for he is a murtherer but if God shevv the light of his countenance to them vvhom he pursueth he is sick of that mercie and so are all the tents of Cushan the vvhole brood of vipers have this venome from the old serpent to be afflicted at the prosperity of the Church For instance I vvill prevent the time David saith one day telleth another and one night certifieth another To morrovvs memoriall teacheth this day this vvas the vigill of that popish holy day vvhich the same Papists here at home and many beyond the seas hoped to have made festivall to all posterity The children of darkness had provided to put out our light to quench the light of our Israel it was an affliction to the Papists to behold religion and peace setled under the government of a learned King who knew what he believed and why and who had discovered himself an enemy to their Antichristian and hereticall synagogue They saw a fair issue ready for timely succession so gratiously seasoned with the salt of heavenly wisedom from the first of their capacity and apprehension that there remained no hope for their politique religion to finde footing in these Churches Their flourishing state of Church and Common-welth was such an affliction to them that some Zealots of their Religion the sons of thunder could no longer contein themselves but their study was how to put their grief upon us and to transfer our joy upon themselves They shewed us the vvay of their rejoycing their mercies vvere cruel nothing could remove their grief at our vvelfare but the destruction of the head and body root and tree and all in a day And they that vvould have destroyed us thought and the Jesuites and Priests of the Roman Faith taught them to believe that they should do God good service We see the mercies of that religion so clearly in this horrible Treason that all that knovv and serve the God of peace have just cause to esteem Papists disloyall subjects secret enemies to the State bloudy persecutors of the Gospell of peace Our stories are full of their malice vvrackings imprisonments starvings burnings hangings and many exquisite torments executed upon innocent and holy Martyrs But vvhen vve remember the Povvder-Treason that calleth all the tormentors of the Church before them mercifull the Devill did never roar so loud before the Buls of Rome never bellovv'd such terrour to the Church as in that damnable and desperate attempt The provocation vvas their affliction at our prosperity and griefe at our vvelfare again this venome of the generation of vipers boiled over and they that bore evill vvill to our Sion sayd one unto another Catosby to his confederates I have bethought me of a way at one instant to deliver us from all our bonds and without any forriegn help to replant the Catholique Religion which is to blow asp the Parliament house with Gunpowder for in that place have they dohe us all the mischief and perchance God hath designed that place for their punishment for this striketh at the root and will breed a confusion fit to beget new alterations What alterations could be here meant but those that Job felt that our Land and Church might complain Thou hast turned my Harp into mourning and my Organs into the voice of them that weep How did they swallow up the joy of this change in hopeful expectation of successe but the children came to the birth and there was no strength to bring forth Their own fear came upon them For it was Catesbyes own Lenvoy to his revealed Treason But saith he If this take not effect as most of this nature miscarry the scandal will be so great to the Catholick Religion as not onely our enemies but our friends will with good reason condemn us Thus did their minds mis-give and abodements of evil did secretly call upon them to fly from the anger to come This diverted them a while from this execution and put them into a new project Thomas Winter was sent as his confession under his own hand reporteth to inform the Constable of Spaine then coming in Ambassy from the King of Spain to our Sovereigne of the state of the Catholicks in England and to entreat his mediation to solicite our King for the revocation of some penall laws and the admittance of the English Catholicks into the ranke of his other Subjects Winter met with him at Bergen neer Dunkirk and by the meanes of Owen an apostate Traitor he had accesse to him mooved him in his suite and had a fair promise from him to do all good offices in that errand But Owen discouraged that hope saying that he believed nothing lesse and that they sought onely their own ends meaning the state of Spaine holding small accompt of Catholiques Owen animated the Treason and promised to send Faux over to help to set it forward From thence Winter went to another of our fugitives Sir William Stanley to Ostend where he asked his opinion whether if the Catholiques of England should do any thing in England to help themselves the Arch-Duke would second them he answered no for all those parts desired peace with England After all these despairs they had no remedy to cure their disease of envy at the gratious peace of this State but their powder-plot in which none but profest Papists within the land had any hand None that we can discover but Priests and Jesuites here or abroad did blow the fire No forreign Prince hath the dishonorable name of privacy with it or abetment of it onely the
it and putteth us to silence but if the glory of God be that we seek and aime at the more God heareth our prayers and granteth our requests the more he enflameth our zeal and even as it were transformes us into prayer and what better motive can we give of Christs so frequent so durant prayers then this I know that thou hearest mee alwayes Now because long and frequent prayers are a wearynesse to the flesh the flesh is no good friend to this exercise and we do find our selves in no exercise of Religion more tempted then in this for this cause watching and fasting are so often joyned with prayer as the best means to disable the rebell flesh from resisting Doctr. God sometimes suspendeth the successe of the prayers of his servants There is a case wherein God will not hear at all though Moses Samuel Noah Daniel Job do pray to him In some cases God will hear but not yet for he that keepeth the times and seasons in his own power knoweth best when it is fittest for him to hear And that was the case of this prayer God did 1. give them yet more time to repent and seek his face that he might preserve them and sent his Prophets to them to reclaime them 2. He did expect if not the conversion of them by fair means then that after the full taste of the fruits of his patience they might by the rod be brought to him when he should change his righthand Mutatio dexterae 3. Or he did expect the filling up of the measure of their sins that they might have no plea to excuse their ungraciousnesse 4. He forbore to stirre up the Prophet so much the more to this importunity that it might be seen that not only their sins but the Prophets prayers had awaked vengeance 5. To declare how acceptable a sacrifice prayer is he will delay us that we may pray for with such sacrifices God is pleased but if we withdraw our selves Gods soul will have no pleasure in us Let no man think the worse of this holy service of God because he presently feeleth not the successe thereof but as the woman of Canaan would not be put off by the Disciples or by Christ himself Math. 15.22 so that both her request was granted and her faith commended If we remember our Saviours limitation all will be well Eather if thou wilt let us set those bounds to our prayers 1. What thou wilt 2. In what measure 3. When thou wilt 4. In what manner sicut tu vis As thou wilt Vers 3. Why dost thou shew me iniquity and cause mee to behold grievance for spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention 4. Therefore the Law is slacked and judgement doth never go forth for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous therefore wrong judgment proceedeth 2. HE contesteth with God for shewing to him the sins of the people vers 3 4. For the opening of that Text Why dost thou shew me iniquity 1. That it is not his own curious search to look into his brethren I do not say so scrutinously as the Hypocrite in the Gospel who with a beam in his own eye could yet discerne a moat in his brothers eye no not to behold their grosse iniquity He did not look upon his brethren like an informer to see what fault he could finde in them to complain of he had something else to do he saith that God shewed him the iniquity of his brethren So he freeth himself of suspicion of malice and evil affection to his brethren For there may bee malice in looking into the vices of brethren though it pretend desire of Reformation 2. This cleareth the Prophet that he is not as one of them no partner with them in their iniquity seeing they that live in the society of evil practise and do not communicate with the evil in evil cannot behold the evil the object is too near them or gone out of sight 3. It sheweth that God doth not only himself take notice of the evils that men do but he acquainteth his Prophets and Ministers therewith which he doth to that end that he may prove their fidelity to him whether they will discharge their duty to him and their people to whom they are sent in telling the house of Jacob their sins and in labouring to bring them to the knowledge thereof that they may repent It followeth Thou dost cause me to behold grievance Psal 51.8 Wherein he resurmeth what he hath spoken before and rhethorically amplifieth it for it is one thing to shew another to cause him to behold This is an effectuall demonstration as the Prophet David doth pray Make me to hear joy and gladnesse God hath sent his Gospel which is the voyce of joy in the tabernacles of the righteous all the world over have they not heard Their sound is gone out into all the world and their word to the ends of the earth But that is not enough except God do cause us to hear the same We preach this Gospel of peace and we shew unto men their righteousnesse that is Viam Iustitiae how they may be justified in the sight of God We declare unto men their sins and shew them how the Law of God is broken but if God do not cause our hearts to behold this if God do not turne their eyes into themselves and into their own wayes to see them we spend our strength in vaine the scorner goeth away from Church and wipeth his mouth as the harlot in the Proverbs and saith this is nothing to me because God doth not make his heart smite him for it God doth not cause him to behold God doth not open our eyes to see our sins for our selves only that we may declare them but for you that we may give you warning of the anger to come And what did God shew him 1. Iniquity that is the unjust dealing of the people one with another as it after followeth 2. Greivance either the Greivance which that unrighteousnesse doth bring upon their brethren or the greivance wherewith the righteous soul of the Prophet is vexed day by day in seeing and hearing the evil conversation of them to whom he is sent For spoiling and violence are before me 1. Here is Spoyling that is robbing one another invading one anothers goods and lands and that done in the common-wealth of the Jewes where God himself was so carefull to establish the right of propriety in several that he divided the land himself to every Tribe their part and by a judicial Law set every man his bounds taught every man to be content with his own The common-wealth cannot long last in prosperity where this spoiling is in practise whether it be by corruption of the Magistrate stopping the course of justice or by the covetousnesse of the private man taking advantages to make his brother a prey This is commonly the worme of peace for when
up together with the profession of the Gospel which could not be if we had zeal proportionable to our knowledge such as was in David All false wayes Iutterly abhorre We see also great corruptions in manners which holy zeal might soon eat out and without which Religion may bring us to Church and to the Font and to the Lords Table and may rank us with outward professors but till we grow to such an hatred of sin as the very patience and forbearance of God toward those that do abominably and will not be reformed doth disquiet and greive us and make us complain we fail and come short of duty to God 2. Another complaint of the Church is of inordinate zeal Which is 1. Either in Persons without a lawful calling seeking to reform things amisse 2. Or in respect of the things when men carryed with the strong current of opinion find fault where no fault is or make the fault greater then it is 3. Or in respect of times when men prevent the time and exasperate the judgments of God and provoke his justice against their brethren before they have done all that can be done by the spirit of meeknesse 4. Or in respect of time when they expresse their zeale First against those things that may with least hurt to the Church be forborn till more concerning affairs of the Church be advisedly thought upon 5. Or in respect of the measure of zeal if it be more or lesse then the cause of God requireth 6. In respect of the mixture of it if it be commeded with any of our own corrupt and furious perturbations 2. Seeing therefore we may make so boldwith God as the Prophet here doth we are to be taught that God is so slow in the execution of his judgments even upon them that do ill that till he find that his patience is a burthen to his Church and till he be even chidden to it by his faithful ones he cannot strike Wherefore we must both stirre up our selves and our brethren to a serious consideration of this goodnesse of God and that which the Apostle doth call The riches of his patience that we despise it not that we spend not such riches unthriftily but bestow it upon our repentance and making our peace with God 3. Seeing we may thus call God to account as the Prophet here doth and chide his remissenesse let us not take it ill at the hands of God if he chide us for our sins which do well deserve it and he contest with us for our neglect of our duties either to him or our brethren 4. Seeing we have so good warrant for it when we see any unremedied evils which do threaten ruine to our Church or Common-wealth which perchance the Minister may be forbidden to reprove or to disswades uch as these in my text Violence and oppression corruption of Religion and corruption of Courts of Justice which the Minister in general terms may reprove but he must not with Nathan say tu es homo thou art the man to any delinquent in any of these kinds This then is the remedy we may go to God himselfe and chide with him for it without any feare of scandalum magnatum and in holy indignation and zeal of Gods glory laying aside our own corrupt passions we may call him to account for shewing us and making us to see such things And I do not doubt but we shall have as good successe as this Prophet had as the next section of this chapter doth declare Vers 5. Be hold yee among the heathen and regard and wonder marvellously for I will work a work in your days which you will not believe though it be told you 6. For lo I raise up the Chaldeans that bitter and hasty Nation which shall march through the bredth of the land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs 7. They are terrible and dreadful their judgement and their dignity shall proceed of themselves 8. Their horses also are swifter then the Leopards and more fierce then the evening Wolves and their horsemen shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from farre they shall fly as the Eagle that hasteth to eat 9. They shall come all for violence their faces shall sup up as the East-wind and they gather the captivity as the sand 10. And they shall scoffe at the Kings and the Princes shall be a scorne unto them they shall deride every strong hold for they shall heap dust and take it 11 Then shall his mind change and he shall passe over and offend imputing this his power unto his God THese words are the second section of this chapter and do contain Gods own answer to the former complaint of the Prophet wherein God declareth how he will be avenged on his own People for the oppression and violence which they have used for the corruption in manners in religion and in the administration of Iustice Let us begin at the words Verse 5. and search the will of God revealed therein Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvellously Here is God himselfe speaking to his sinful people the Iews and awaking them to behold the anger to come Here is first the roaring of the Lion Cap. 1.2 as in Amos. The Lord will roare from Sion and utter his voice from Jerusalem This is the thunder the thunderbolt doth after follow 1. He biddeth them behold that is to take this threatning of Gods judgement and to spread it before their eyes and to peruse the sad contents thereof 2. Behold yee among the heathen He turneth their eyes to the heathen whom God will now make their sharp schoolmasters to instruct them for seeing they will learn nothing by the ministry of his Prophets whom he hath sent to them to chide them and guide them and seeing they are not moved with the lamentable complaints of their brethren groaning under their oppressions and grievances and injustice now he biddeth them to look among the heathen as to the quarter from whence the following tempest is like to arise for by them God intendeth to punish the Iews 3. He addeth Regard for beholding without regarding and taking the matter into due and serious consideration is but gazing As the Apostle presseth an exhortation Consider what I say God had sent his Prophets to instruct them and they heard them but regarded them not Now he will not be so neglected 4. He addeth and wonder maxveilously attoniti este obstupescite Here he prepareth their expectation for some extraordinary judgement this is that which the Apostle doth call Terror domini and ira ventura the terrour of the Lord and the wrath to come 5. He addeth in general terms the matter of their feare and consternation For 1. There is a work to be done 2. God himself professeth to be the worker 3. The time is at hand in your days 4. The wonder is that though God himself foretell them thereof Non credetis
13.40 And there he citeth these words ver 5. I will do a work in your days which yee will not believe c. whereby he sheweth 1. That the Provocation which moveth God to this severe judgment is contempt therefore Saint Paul saith Heare yee despisers for it was spoken at first to such as did slack the law of God and had no awe or reverence of his threatnings and judgments 2. That this was no singular judgment proper to that nation of the lews but common to his People all the world over for God seeing Religion contemned and Justice corrupted that neither a Christian nor a moral conversation is regarded he will find Chaldaeans more fierce and hasty and violent nations to over-run and destroy such a People Our sins are the edge and point of their weapons 3. The intention of the Chaldaeans God worketh as he professeth in this invasion and his end is to punish the over-growing sins of the Jews the Chaldaeans they work their end is spoil and enlargement of their dominion God for his own end giveth way to them and suffereth that is not all he worketh with them and accomplish their desire The Papist and the Anabaptist do both charge the Protestant Church that we maintain God to be the Author of sin Campian saith for us Volens Suggerens Efficiens Jubens Reas 8 Operans in hoc impiorum scelerata consilium gubernans And this is one of our paradoxes Cardinal Bellarmine doth maintain that all evils are done on earth only permittente deo by Gods permission Our answer is That in all sinful actions two things are to be considered as Aquinas well teacheth 1. Ipsa actio the action 2. Vitium actionis the fault of the action We confesse that God is vilens suggerens efficiens jubens operans and gubernans in actione for omnis actio quatenus actio est bona for deus omnia operatur In him we live and move and without his power no action can be performed It is blasphemie to say or think that any thing is or can be done against the will or without the power of God or that God doth lend his power to any against himselfe and his Will for that destroyeth the Omnipotent Providence of God But for the evil that is in a wicked action that deriveth it felf from the corrupt root of mans sinful nature Saint Augustine handling this point doth thus exemplifie it Qum pater tradiderit filium dominus corpus suum Epl. 48. ad vincent Judas dominum cur in hac traditione deus justus est homoreus nisi quia in re una quam fecerunt causa non una est ob quam fecerunt In the example in my text God himself hath cleared this truth For here are the Chaldaeans 1. Out of a natural fiercenesse of evil nature apt to do mischief and hasty to execute it 2. Out of a covetous desire to enrich themselves making no conscience to invade the goods of their neighbours 3. Out of an ambitious and proud desire longing to possesse a land that is not theirs Doth God approve these unchristian desires in this idolatrous and wicked nation We say and believe that God hateth wickednesse neither shall evil dwell with him Yet for the action of violence God seeth his people of the Jews for contempt of Religion and for corruption of Justice and for violence to one another worthy of punishment he holdeth them worthy to be punished with violence and therefore he stirreth up a violent nation against them He seeth that they live by oppression and therefore he sendeth oppressours to strip them out of all He seeth that they live in unbridled licentiousnesse and therefore he taketh away their liberty and sendeth them into captivity he findeth them unworthy of the land which he gave them and therefore he giveth it away to strangers and putteth their enemies into possession thereof Consider all this as malum panis the evil of punishment and so God is Author Suggestor and operator herein But consider how the Chaldaeans work in this affaire and God himself acquitteth himself in this text and putteth it off upon them Their judgement and their dignity shall proceed from themselves That which they seek is a project of their own Verse 7. they know not what God would have done and as they advise not with him nor understand that he stirreth them they acknowledge nothing to him as it followeth for they thank their own god for the victory You do now see Gods good end and their evil and in this one action and Saint Augustine saith Deus quasdam voluntates suas utique bonas implet per malorum hominum voluntates malas Vide Whitak contra Camp ratione 8. From hence it cometh that they which fulfilling the Will of God which they know not do fulfil their own Will which they aime at have no reward of their service but rather are after punished for the same as Hugo de Sancto victore saith Quoniam non suâ voluntate De Sacramenti Ps 4. c. 15. ad implendam dei voluntatem dirigunt sed occulta ipsius dispositione And thus doth Master Calvin teach men in those places which Campiarae doth slanderously traduce to this paradox that God is author of sin The title is Deum ite impiorum opera iti animos flectere ad exequenda sua judicia ut purus ipse ab omni labe maneat 1 Inst 18. It sufficeth that wee see the intention of the Chaldaeans evil for that condemneth them and his judgement upon them which followeth in this chapter doth prove that their intention make their whole service corrupt so that though it pleased God that evil was done against the Jews they did not please God that did execute the same The rule is true that all evil actions are justly judged by the intentions of their Agents good actions are not so ⊙ For every good intention will not justifie an action to be lawful as in Rebecca and Iacob her sonne it was a good intention to seek the blessing which God had decreed but the act whereby it was attained was meerly unlawful But an evil intention is sufficient to corrupt any action though it carry never so specious a shew of good Jacobs sonnes went about a good action to draw the Shechemites into a conformity with the Hebrews in Religion the intention of the Shechemites which made them embrace the motion was the enriching of themselves by this correspondencie the intention of Jacobs sonnes was to betray them to death and God punished them both the Shechemites with death the sonnes of Jacob with their fathers curse And the Chaldaeans punished the Jews and sought therein the glory of God only and gave him the praise of their victory of whom they borrowed the power of their strength they had been blamelesse but their hands concurred with the just will of God their hearts did not yet God is just in employing them
The rule therfore is that he that willeth the same thing which God willeth doth the same thing which God would have done sinneth except he willeth and doth the same thing in the same matter and for the same end which God projecteth Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus arme your selves with the same mind That mind is an armour against the wrath of God 1. Pet. 4.1 we know we cannot displease him so long as there is an harmonie of our mind with his that mind is an armour against the revenge of men for if we be abundant always in the work of the Lord we know that our labour is not Eph. 4.23 cannot be in vaine in the Lord for we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind we must not be like the axe and hammer in the hand of the artificer which knoweth not who useth it nor what he doth nor why we are living instruments and our minds must set our hands awork we must know what we do for whom and why or else our work is against our selves We do nothing but as God doth guide the hand so he frameth the heart and affections to it if he do not also enlighten our understandings and apply our minds to it we are carried as bruit beasts we are not led as men So then I leave those Chaldaeans though the armies of God at this time and doing the will of God ignorantly yet for the corruption of their intention culpable and in as ill case as they whom they persecute and overcome All the injuries that we do by word or deed to our brethren they are done with Gods privity Vse he knoweth thereof he disposeth them to their punishment who suffer by us or for the exercise of their patience or the tryal of their charity to them that hurt them or their constancie in obedience to him Let us not so much consider what good God doth work out of us to them as what evil breedeth in our heart and so no thank to Iosephs brethren that he is the second man in Aegypt All the fat of the land of Goshen and the sweet exchang of their pinching famine for a swelling plenty will not still the clamorous accusing voice of their guilty conscience for the sinne of their evil intention against their brother for as soon as their father died their fear revived they doubted that Joseph would revenge that fault The old word was animus cujusque is est quisque every mans mind is himself and so when David saith of the just man the floods of many waters shall not come near him it is expounded it shall not come so high as his mind to the disquieting thereof it shall not come so high as his faith to the weakning thereof Remember this when you pray fiat voluntas tua thy will be done that you desire of God not only a correspondence with his hand that you may do that which he would have done but correspondence of Will that you may do it for the same cause 2. How far the punishment shall extend 1. To a full Conquest 2. To a proud triumph Divis p. 78 The full Conquest is set forth vers 6. They shall march through the bredth of your land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs v 9. They shall come all for violence and shall gather together the captivity as the sand Wherin is described a full possession of the land of the Jews and a deportation of the people a losse even of the birth-right and the blessing The land of Canaan is called the land of promise for God promised it to Abraham and swore to him that his seed should inherit it but by way of Covenant which had reference to their obedience of the law of God for so Moses forewarned them If thou forget the Lord thy God c. I testifie unto you this day yee shall surely perish Deut. 8.19 as the nations which the Lord destroyeth before you so yee shall perish because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God And Moses saith unto them Behold I set before you this day Deut. 11.26 a blessing and a curse Blessing if you obey the Commandments of the Lord c. And the curse if you will not obey Now God is free of his promise and oath that he made to them for they have disobeyed him they have corrupted their ways they have contemned and slacked the Law of God therefore they have forfeited their estate in that good land and their persons stand obliged to the punishment of their disobedience The lesson is Doct. that all the promises of Gods favour to men are not absolute but conditional and are referred to the obedience or disobedience of men For man is mutable Reason God is unchangeably just he must not he cannot favour disobedience his love goes not in the blood but in the faith of Abraham Israel the posterity of Abraham is no more to him then the posterity of Canaan who had his fathers curse except that Israel do serve him better then they do He hath told them so by Moses for seeing there was no merit in them to deserve his love at first and no means for them to continue his love but their obedience that failing they are to him as heathens Christ teacheth us that if any be wilful and will not obey the Church he must be to us as an Heathen and a Publicane we can never excommunicate such ex communione charitatis out of the communion of charity for as much as in us lieth we must have peace with all men and we must never hide our selves from our own flesh and we must do good unto all men but we may we must exclude them ex Communione Ecclesia from the Communion of the Church we must not admit them to our Congregations nor esteem them members of the Church till they be reconciled Religion is the knot of true union that knitteth us to God that uniteth us to one another that once dissolved farewel fair weather we must turn all into chiding and reproof and as the Apostle saith come to them with the rod. We must complain of them to God and awake his Justice upon them So that if we would keep our land from invasion and depopulation our persons from captivity and deportation our goods from direption and deprecation let us serve the Lord in feare and obedience in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the days of our lives 2. The punishment shall extend to a proud triumph which is exprest v. 10. They shall scoffe at the Kings and the Princes shall be a scorne to them and they shall deride every strong hold This is another of Gods rods Doct. he punisheth the despisers with scorne and contempt as you heard out of Obadiah Behold I have made thee small Vers 2. thou art greatly despised Therefore Saint Paul repeating this prophecie doth by way of
and wicked men to be his servants to do his will and he maketh the very sins of men rods to scourge both themselves that commit them and others 2. The second grievance of the Prophet The wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then he and God holdeth his tongue That is the Chaldaean who worshippeth strange gods devoureth the Iews the Posterity of Abraham who though they be much too blame yet they are more righteous then Chaldaeans and God seeth and saith nothing whilst the Chaldaeans doth spoil Israel This indeed is a great grievance to behold the afflictions of the Church and the power of the wicked against them it was that which put David into an extreme extasie for the time and till he went to the house of God and was there taught the end of such men as hurt their betters his foot had well nigh slipt Our experience showeth us much more for the wicked sons of Belial the moths of our Common-wealth the rust of our peace how have they fed upon the far of the land and by fair pretexts of common good even devoured the Common-wealth and made more righteous men then they their prey assaulting their goods their liberty and peace of life disturbing their honest callings with inhonest encroachments to the great prejudice of the State And God held his tongue many years although he saw it but now he hath set open the eyes of the politick body to detect them and he hath opened the mouth of that body to accuse and to condemn them David saith It is a Proverb of the Ancients 1 Sam. 24.13 Wickednesse proceedeth from the wicked This is wickednesse in a grown degree for the godly be the holy ones of God and God saith nolite tangere touch not they do not only tangere but angere yea devorare justiores se devour juster then they There is a natural antipathy between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent sinners cannot abide them that carry any face or shew of Religion or the worship of God hating and touching and biting will not serve nor satisfie they must devour and destroy Salomon saith The tender mercies of the wicked are cruell viscera crudelia Prov. 12.10 cruel bowels The wicked is ever the devourer observe it as a fure rule that Church or that Common-wealth which devoureth and maintaineth slaughter and effusion of blood is the Synagogue of the wicked The true Church is no smiter no traytor no plotter no abettor of invasions it was ever true Arma Ecclesiae preces lachrymae the weapons of the Church are prayers and tears The Church of Rome the mother of murthers and nest wherein treasons breed the nurse of Iesuites the incendiaries of Christendome the mint of facinerous Machinations the Cathedral and dogmatical defenders of the lawfulnesse of any thing that is done for their own good hath discovered her self to be Antichristian by this infallible mark of cruelty She is a devourer It is the Religion of Rome that armed the Spaniards against Queen Elizabeth and her land in 88. the blessing of the Pope and the curse of God was upon that enterprise For they came to devoure them that were then more righteous then they It is the Religion of Rome that digged the vault that hired that fraighted the Cellar under the Parliament house to blow up all os sepulchri the mouth of the grave os inferni the mouth of hell the mouth of Rome shall gape and swallow with the best of them Surely this is a great grievance and vexation of spirit here on earth to see the worst sort of men prevailing and better then they swallowed up This is also aggravated in the manner of it which is fully and rhetorically amplified by the Prophet 3. The next grievance amplified by a comparison which is double vers 14. 1. They are compared to the fish of the sea 2. To creeping things which have no Governour In the first resemblance he insisteth ver 15. The Chaldaeans are the Fishermen the Jews the Fish as you have heard and these Fishermen use 1. The Angle 2. The net 3. The dragge which sheweth a full devouring as in Isay I will sweep it with the besome of destruction saith the Lord of Hosts Is 14.22 Compare this text with that of Joel That which the Palmer-worm hath left hath the Locust eaten Joel 2.4 and that which the Locust hath left hath the Canker-worm eaten and that which the Canker-worm hath left the Gaterpillar hath eaten For what the Angle leaveth the net taketh and what escapeth the net the drag doth sweep it up Observe here with me 1. This manner of teaching by familiar resemblances is much used in both Testaments Note 1 and it is a smooth and easie kind of teaching which doth bring things to the understanding by some sensible demonstrations And may we not justly charge the Church of Rome with cruelty to her children that when the spirit of God hath so laboured in both the Testaments to open himself to the understanding of the simple the Oracle of Trent shall put out the candle and turn men to seek the way of life darkling without the light of the Word which they shall not be suffered to read for fear of understanding by it their impostures It can be no good Religion wherein they that know the least and believe the most are made to believe they are in the best case 2. I find here that there is a wisedome of God to be learned out of the natural and moral ways of life Note 2 as the storke for naturall affection the Ant for Providence the Spider for industry the Bee for art industry and providence When we see dogs pursuing an Hare or a Deer thus do the projectures of our time hunt the Common-wealth When we see Fishermen cast in their nets thus do the oppressors of their brethren all is fish that comes into their net A wise and sober judgement may make good use of all that his eye seeth to behold therin either the goodnes of God to man or or the good or evil that cometh from one man to another 3. In that he doth use two comparisons and resemblances to fishes on the sea Note 3 and to creeping things on earth we see that both sea and land do afford examples And the Prophet is very near touched with the calamities of his brethren that which way soever he looketh he beholdeth some representation of their woe It is the manner of grief to take all occasions to figure and represent to it self its own sorrow 4. Where he resembleth them to creeping things which have no ruler over them Note 4 Two things do aggravate the calamity represented thereby 1. That which God brought upon Edom I have made thee small for these creeping things of the earth are of small strength and are subject to the foot of man and beast to tread on them thus God hath made the Jews the
that abuse it or to stop the course of his justice to them whom correction doth amend then we say he repenteth him of that which he hath either promised or threatned for clearing whereof understand That God never changeth in promise or in threatning but only in things concerning this life as in all the examples repeated all those promises and threatnings be used as motives to induce obedience and therefore they are not absolute but conditionall For it is no good argument to perswade a man to be Religions and to fear God abstaining from all the pleasing delights of the world to promise him his hearts desire if he know that that promise doth bind God that whatsoever he do he shall be partaker of the promise And it is no inducement to disswade sin by the commination of judgment if the judgment must of necessity be inflicted Therefore this revealed Will of God is conditionall and hath reference to our obedience and faith and good life and use of the means ordained by God and tendered to us This is the rule of life and by this Will is the Church of God governed for by this he doth reveal himself both in his word and in his permissions and in his operations 1. God signifieth his Will by his Word for that doth declare in precepts prohibitions and examples what God would have to be done what not to be done it revealeth both rewards and punishments and it useth both promises and threatnings 2. God signifieth his Will by permissions because he declareth thereby that what he suffereth to be done that he willeth to be effected 3. By operations for what God doth he doth according to his Will 2. Voluntas beneplaciti is the secret Will of God reserved in himself in wiâ—ch 1. There is consilium the wisdom of God foreseeing what is to be done 2. There is decretum determining it and herein the counsell of God is not the rule of his Will for there is nothing in God above his Will but wiling all things to be thus as he hath decreed he foreseeth in wisdom what he willeth and therefore the rule is not with God This is good therefore I decree it but this I decree therefore it is good Now sometimes there seems to be an opposition between these two Wils of God which is thus reconciled The Will of God is revealed to man 1. Either for necessary and absolute obedience as in the whole morall Law of God 2. For probation and tryall as in the commandment given to Abraham to offer up Isaak wherein God concealed his secret Will which was to preserve Isaak and concealed the purpose of his commandments which was to try the saith of Abraham So on the contrary he sent to Pharaoh commanding him to let Israel go yet it was not his secret will that Israel should go yet but the commandment was given to convince Pharaoh of hardnesle of heart and as in Abraham the commandment did cause him to declare his faith so in Pharaoh did it convince him of rebellion to the Will of God So all our preaching wherein we perswade repentance and promise life eternal it serveth to direct all that look for salvation in the way of life and it serveth to convince the world of unrighteousnesse if they obey not The answer then is that whatsoever God willeth and decreeth voluntate beneplaciti by the will of good pleasure doth take effect What God willeth voluntate signi by the Will signified not always Reply How then shall I know what to do seeing the signifying Will of God is my rule and that seemeth uncertain and not agreeable to the secret Will of Gods good pleasure Sol. Do as Abraham did prepare to offer thy son do as thou art commanded leave the event and the disposition of thy obedience to God who wil further reveale himselfe unto thee Do as Hezechiah did set thine house in order yet use the means by repentance and Prayer to prolong thy life Do as the Ninivites did fast and repent and call upon the name of the Lord and try him as the Prophet saith Whether hâ— will shew thee mercy or not But to bring this home to my text when God pronounceth the Decree of Judgement against the enemies of the Church and promiseâ—h mercy to his Church believe him in both for neither can Gods enemies repent to change the course of his Iustice neither can his Church sinne unto death that he should take his mercy utterly from it So then the Argument holdeth strong God hath said and decreed what he wil do against these Chaldaeans what for his Church therefore it shall come to passe Quest But if this be true Quest what need then is there of Prayer doth it not argue in us a kind of distrust in the favour of God when we do not take his word but are still importunate to sollicite his favour To this our answer is that this cannot discourage Prayer because the decree is past and unchangable this is the proper foundation of Prayer for the Apostle saith And this is the confidence that we have in him 1 John 5.14 that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us So that it is a necessary knowledge before we undertake to pray to know what is that good that acceptable and perfect Will of God For we not only lose our labour but we do also offend God if we ask any thing against or beside his Will therefore that we might not run into the errour of the sons of Zebedee Nescitis quid petatis you know not what you should ask Our Saviour hath set down a forme of Prayer so absolute as that we cannot justifie the asking of any thing according to the Will of God that hath not reference to one of those petitions Reply If then we prevail in our Prayers Object why do we commend Prayer seeing all events do follow Gods will and decree and not our Prayers Our answer is that though the supreme agent in all operations be the Will of God Answ yet the hand of operation in many things is prayer which God hath ordained and commanded as a means to draw forth his Will to execution So God giveth every good gift yet we are without any wrong to God thankful to men by whose means any good cometh to us So that the doctrine doth remain firm Whatsoever God hath promised to his Church or threatned the perverse enemies therof that he will surely perform for the decrees and the word of God are unchangable Quest But when God threatneth me punishment and denounceth judgement against me how shall I know whether it be voluntas signi or bene placiti is there not an hope left me that God may repent him of the evil that he threatned It is a note of the evil conscience to feare where no fear is â—e where there is no cause of fear an elect man fearing judgement threatned which shall not come near him feareth where no cause
readeth This taunting speech against the King of Babel How hath the oppressor ceased the golden City ceased c. You see in derision she is called the golden City Isa 14.4 And after All they shall speak and say unto thee Vers 10. Art thou also become weak as we art thou also become like unto us How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer Vers 12. c. Thus the great glory of the mighty Monarchy is become ludibrium vulgi fabula mundi the scoffe of the vulgar and the tale of the world So Jeremy declareth that this shall be one part of the punishment of Babylon she shall be laughed to scorne read at your leasures the 50. and 51. of Ieremy Amongst many salt and sharp taunts spent upon Babel this is one for a taste Babylon is suddenly fallen Jer. 51.8 and destroyed howle for her take balm for her paine if she may be healed It is Davids phrase But thou O Lord shall laugh at them Psal 59 8. thou shalt have all the heathen in derision It was no small part of the passion of Jesus Christ the subsannations and scornful derisions of his enemies they made sport with him as the Philistims did with Sampson Thou that couldest build the Temple Come down c. It pleaseth God sometimes to suffer his good servants to be tongue â—â—â—itten as we see in the example of David and of Jeremy and Job and others And we have many examples of his permission of it in the punishment of the wicked This doth not justifie contumelies or make libels and scandalous derisions lawful but it declareth them to be the rods of God Therefore let men tender their reputations and do that which is right in their places be they high or lo that they may not deserve ill of the times in which they live that they may have good report of all men and of the truth it self Amongst other things which by way of caution we may take warning of 1. Let them that would live out of the danger of scorne and derision apply themselves to glorify God in their bodies and in their souls and to honour him for God hath spoken it He that honoureth me him will I honour 1 Sam. 2.30 but they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed 2. Let such take care that they be no despisers of their brethren that they sit not in the chaire of the scornful for the wages of the scorner is scorne and they that trust in themselves and despise others go away from the sight of God unjustified Can pride have a fall and the lookers on not laugh them to scorne 3. Let such keep a good tongue in their own heads for many fair pretenders of Religion and outward professors are as long as Pambo in Eusebius taking out of that lesson from David Servabo circa os meum capistrum ne peccem lingua I will set a watch c. It was in fashion while that they that sought as they pretended Reformation of the Church sought it in the way of libelling and breaking jests upon the Prelates and Malignants of the Church But St. James telleth us That if any among us seem to be religious Jam. 1.26 and refraineth not his tongue that mans religion is in vain 4. Let such take out the lesson of the Apostle Cor. 4.6 Let their speach alway be with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how to answer every man This is the seasoning of wisdom from above which being the breath of the holy Ghost which is the spirit of meeknesse doth rather put the burthens of our brethren upon us in Christian compassion then heap burthens upon them in spight and disdain 2. Yet I do not determine all sharp and satyrical tartnesse of speach unlawful the acrimonie of a taunt hath sometimes due place and it may be some of the fire from Gods own Altar when they do not proceed from anger envy desire of revenge vaine ostentation of wit flattery of others whom it may please pride of our own hearts When Adam had transgressed and God had laid his curse upon him God said Behold the man is become like one of us to know good and evill Gen. 3.22 St Augustine saith Verba sunt insultantis quòd non solùm factus fuerit qualis esse voluit sed nec illud quod factus fuerat conservavit God derideth the folly of man fallen away from him It is said of Eliah And it came to passe at noon that Eliah awaked them 1 Reg 18.27 and said cry aloud for he is a God either he is talking or he is pursuing or hee is in a journey or peradventure hee sleepeth and must bee awakeed So the Prophet Isaiah plays upon the Idolmakers and Idolaters as if he had one of our Papists in hand For he sets a man upon the stage having cut down a tree He burneth part of it in the fire Is 44.16 with part thereof he eateth flesh he rosteth rost and is satisfied yea he warmeth himself and sayeth Aha I am warme I have seen the fire And the residue thereof he maketh a god Vers 17. even his graven image he falleth down to it and worshippeth it and prayeth to it and saith deliver me for thou art my god You see what sport the Prophet maketh with Idolaters and sure he had the Spirit of God The Apocryphal book of Baruch 6. chap. is a very pleasant bitternesse against Idols and Idolaters Surely this example in my Text is justifiable for it taxeth the covetous oppressours of the earth for fools that take so much pain and do so much wrong to load themselves with thick clay But is it not an injury to Almighty God Object to set no higher price and to give no better tittle to the richest of all mettels that which God himself was pleased should be used in the choice vessels and ornaments of his own house then thus to indignifie it I answer Sol. the Prophet doth not indignifie the creature but as God said to man Pulvis es thou art dust and he told him true out of what materials the frame of his body was built so it is no disgrace to gold to call it thick clay it being no other in the matter of it And howsoever good use may be made of these outward riches yet are they never to be esteemed for themselves but for their use which if men on earth could once understand and beleive they would not set their hearts upon them Saint Peter calleth them Corruptible things 1 Pet. 1.18 1 Tim. 6.57 Saint Paul calleth them Vncertain riches Every man is easily drawn to study and labour to the getting of this burthen and so insatiable in desire that few say with Esau I have enough There is a singular wisdom in the use of riches which few do seek because they do not understand for what this thick clay serveth In the Latine phrase all those
high favour that he made us men and did not make us stones or plants worms or flies serpents or toads or any other kind of hatefull or hurtfull creature But yet if we live not to serve him and to do his will our condition had been much more happy to have been the worst of these then to have been made men and women I will not goe from the example in my Text to teach you what we are for by originall generation we runne like Jordan in a full and swift current into the great and wide Sea of the world and there we loose our selves in those salt waters Sometimes as Jordan in harvest times that is in times of our plenty and fulnesse and when we have ease and whatsoever our heart desireth we do overflow our banks and exceed all measure But when the Preists of the Lord do bring the Ark of God into us that is when we come to have a sense and a feeling of Religion and the fear of God then do we recoile and strive against nature and overcome nature and we learn to do the good that we would not do For truly religion doth carry us against winde and tyde religion leads us all up-hill and he that will follow Christ must deny himself so Saint Paul doth Vero ego non amplius ego sed vivit in me Christus I live yet not I but Christ in me Observe the creature here and you shall see that whatsoever is ingredient in perfect obedience is ascribed to this River of Jordan for 1 It was congrua for it was to God they were his Priests and they did carry his Ark upon their shoulders and they had his warrant for it It was prompta ready no sooner did the soales of the feet of the Priests touch the waters but they fled back no sooner were they all over and the stones carried out of the river to shoare but they returned again to their course Such let our obedience be and this is acceptable in the sight of God this Lecture is read to us in Heaven in Earth in the Sea in Heaven we have the example of the Angels who are called Angeli facientes voluntate ejus In Earth we have the examples of all creatures who in their severall kinds do his will according to the generall Law of Creation and the perticuler law of speciall dispensation In the Sea the winds and sea obey him This serveth to teach us to passe the time of our dwelling Vse 2 here in fear because we see the omnipotent hand of God in the government of the world that we may say Ah Lord God Jer. 32.17 thou hast made the Heaven and the Earth by thy great power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard for thee and he remembreth the wonders of this deliverance out of Egypt and saith Thou hast made thee a name Verse 20. This filleth all that think of it with a reverent fear of Gods name it exalteth him in the congregation of the just and maketh him say Domine quis similis tibi Lord who is like thee This serveth to convince the enemies of God Vse 3 who make nature sit in the place of God and do give the rule of all things to nature for what have they to say for themselves in these great examples could nature cut a passage of dry land through the red Sea could nature draw waters out of an hard Rock and teach it to follow Israel wheresoever they went to rest when they rested to run when they removed could nature keep their cloaths on their backs their shooes on their feet for wearing for forty years Did nature raine Manna and bring in the Quails and feed the people till they came to the corne of Canaan Did nature make these mountains and high piles of waters in the river of Jordan Is not the extraordinary hand of God in all these This also serveth for encrease of our faith Vse 4 for we have good cause to cast our care and fasten our trust upon him who not onely worketh by means but without them yea and against them The hardest lesson in religion is to trust God when we see no means of helpe as Abraham did when he was commanded to kill the son of the promise The very captivity of the Church hath had that comfort in the greatest terror thereof so the Psalmist saith 1 That God suffered no man to do them wrong but reproved even Kings for their sakes 2 That he made them that led them away captive to pity them and to minister to their necessities they became rather nurses then their Jaylors Upon comfort of which confidence Job protested that Though he kill me Job 13.15 Vse 5. yet will I trust in Him This assureth to us all the promises of God which the Apostle distributeth into these two sorts The promises of this life And of the life that is to come And this made Abraham when God promised him seed not to consider his own body was now dead Rom. 4 19 2 c. nor the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe He staggered not at the promise through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform And therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousnesse and he addeth Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him But for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe We see some parts of the Christian Church now in great extremity and no way in sight open from their escape out of great misery the Bohemian Protestants put to cruel deaths the French Protestants have the sword drawn against them and the arrows upon the string to shoot at them the Palatinate under proscription the Prince thereof in exile Our helpe is in the name of the Lord. All these will faint except they believe verily to see the goodnesse of God in the land of the Living Sweet and full of comfort is the example of Gods people to whom it was promised even when they were in captivity in Babylon they had hung up their Harps upon the Willows and sate weeping by the rivers of waters Thus Zech. 8.3.3 saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem and Jerusalem shall be called a City of truth and the mountaine of the Lord of Hosts the Holy Mountaine Thus saith the Lord of Hoasts there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Jerusalem and every man with his staffe in his hand for very age And the streets of the City shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets of it Thus saith the Lord of Hoasts if it be mervellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of Hoasts I will save my people from the East and from
serveth to reprove the doctrine and faith of the Church of Rome Vse 3 who teach that God hath committed to his Son the dispensation of Justice but to his sons mother the dispensation of mercy which opinion was no sooner afoot but they turned Domine into Domina Lord into Lady and so in the Church of Rome the Virgin Mary hath more Devotoes vowed to her service then Christ hath she hath more temples dedicated to her honour then Christ and far more miracles ascribed to her then to Christ Yea they shame not in print to tell the world that she hath saved some from hell whom her son had condemned thether and she hath released many from hell whom her son had already sent thither I onely alleage against them the plain words of our Saviour Thou hast given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast gived him Therefore beware of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees the poisonous doctrines of the Church of Rome which take salvation out of the hands of God and ascribe the donation thereof to creatures This was wont to be called Idolatry in the sermons and writings of the learned to invocate the Virgin Mary as they do in their Rosaries and Letanies of the holy Virgin Mother of mercy Gate of heaven our salvation she that hath bruised the head of the serpent They make their vulgar Latine Bible say so Ipsa conteret caput tuum There be two Psalters both printed in Paris in French and set forth with the approbation of the Sorbonne one called St. Bonaventures Psalter in which wheresoever God is named for Dominus they have put Domina printed in Anno 1601. The other Psalter is digested into fifteen demands printed the same year with the same approbation wherein the Virgin Mary is called the first cause of our salvation the finder out of grace and putteth her before Christ even in gloria Gloria Virgini Maria Jesu Christo What think you doth that Church wish the salvation of of any man in good earnest that swerveth us from the God of our salvation and directeth us to seek it from a creature Yet this is the religion which is now grown in fashion with many in these doubtfull and giddy times which as it robs God of one of his highest prerogatives and doth divest him of his power of salvation so the professours thereof will finde it a thief in their things temporall for in ordine ad Deum the Church will engrosse all the Apostles of that Church wil not be content till all be laid at their feet Let me commend to you the Kings Majesties confession of his faith published in Latine and in English directed to all Christian Kings in this perticular his words are For the blessed Virgine Mary I yield her that which the Angel Gabriel pronounced of her that she is blessed amongst women and that which she prophecyed of her self in her Canticum that all generations shall call her blessed I remember her as the mother of Christ whom of our Saviour took his flesh and so the mother of God since the divinity and humanity of Christ are inseparable and I freely confesse that she is in glory both above Angels and men her own Son that is both God and man onely excepted But I dare not mock her and blaspheme God calling her not onely Diva but Dea praying her to commend and controul her Son who is her God and her Saviour You see what opinion his Majesty hath of the Doctrine and practise of Rome in this point he doth call it mocking of her and blaspheming of God to ascribe salvation to her or to seek it from her I hope you have lived too long in the light of the Gospel to be taken with any of these baits and to be befooled with any of these inchantments of palpable heresie I hope if an Angel from heaven should come and teach you this doctrine to seek your salvation any where else but from God you would answer him 〈…〉 as Nehemiah did answer Sanballat There is nothing as thou saiest but thou feignest it out of thine own heart Beloved let all that love Jesus Christ and his holy truth joyn as one man against popery and seek to the light of the Word whil'st it shineth upon us that we may not lose the way of salvation which that Word revealeth Popery robbeth the Church of this Word and putteth this candle under a bushell it sendeth us the wrong way for salvation and like the blind Aramites it leadeth them into the midst of Samaria even putteth them into the hands of their enemies God did much for this land when he gave us this light let not our unthankfulnesse to him or our peevish waiwardnesse amongst our selves or our evill and unworthy conversations forfeit this light or remove our candlestick So long as we know where our salvation is setled and who hath it in keeping for us so long as we look that way and direct all our obedience and worship our thanks and prayse that way we are safe for Blessed is the people that be in such a case blessed is the people whose God is the Lord for ipse est qui dat salutem 2 Ground of their hope The Lord is my strength This comfort supporterh in afflictions and this is that which is our ability of which the Apostle saith But God is faithfull 1 Cor. 10.13 who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able for what are we able surely of our selves to nothing that is good for us the name of man ever since the fall of man hath been a name of impotency and weaknesse Cease ye from man Isai 2.22 whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accompted of Christ hath told us sine me nihil potestis facere For by strength shall no man prevail 1 Sam. 2.9 Psal 71.10 I will go in the strength of the Lord God and I will maeke mention of thy righteousesse even of thine onely The words of my text are Doctrinall Doct. The Lord is the strength of his Church Consider this which way you will 1 In eo quod sumus in that we are In him we live 2 In eo quod facimus in that we do the good that we do he doth it himself O Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us Isai 26.12 The skill that we have in our severall professions and trades and mysteries it is his spirit that giveth it the strength that we have to labour in our severall callings is his strength and that blessing was included in the curse of man Gen. 3.19 Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy face that God would give man strength to earn his bread and his labour should be his physick it should make him breath out evill and noxious vapours in his body which might offend health in sweat And if
against crying sinnes of the time is discreet and necessary pag. 52 The Contents of the third Chapter A Double plainnesse of Scripture Rationall and Spirituall pag. 77 Afflictions of this life cannot separate the society of the Faithfull pag. 5 Afflictions of the Church are such a deading to it that unlesse it were quickened with souâ—â— beams of grace it would be a burthen to it more then it could beare pag. 41 Affection of love most vehement in a woman pag. 94 All Gods favours to men proceed from his love towards such as are thankfull for them pag. 69 As God brought Israel into the land of Canaan by the sword so by the sword he driveth them out pag. 144 C CAtesbie's speech concerning the Gun-powder treason pag. 89 Christ descended into hell pag. 78 Christ was alwayes before the Gospel and even from the beginning of the world the hope of all the ends of the world pag. 150 Church musick ancient and of holy use pag. 22 Comfort in afflictions groweth out of a right understanding of the Will and purpose of God therein pag. 43 Commination of Gods judgments makes the Church of God to fear pag. 174 Consideration of former mercies strengthens faith in present troubles pag. 50. 68 Cushan is Aethiopia so called from Cush the son of Cham. pag. 80 Cyrus angrie with the River Gyndes pag. 103 D. DAvids Psalmes a common store-house of good learning pag. 195 Description of Repentance pag. 1â—5 Distressing of the poor a greivous and provoking sin pag. 159 E EVery childe of God and member of the Church ought to pray for the whole body of the Church pag. 34 F. FAith in Christ takes away the horrour of the terrour of the Lord pag. 82 Faithfull men who worship God with fear and trembling how they ought to be taught pag. 33 Fear is a proper passion of a true Believer and is inseperably joyned with saving Faith pag. 28 Figurative speeches are in use in Scripture pag. 72 G. GOD is not so glorious in any thing that he hath wrought as in his Church pag. 38 God will not suffer us to be tempted further then he thinks fit pag. 41 God is armed with instruments of vengeance to punish sin pag. 57 God never had mercy enough to swallow or consume either his justice or his truth pag. 60 God is glorious in Heaven and in Earth pag. 61 God never layeth his rod upon those creatures which he hath ordained for the service of man but to punish man 102. For he hath no quarrell to them pag. 103 God must have the glory of his own great works pag. 104 God is without variablenesse or alteration pag. 113 God sometimes declareth his power openly to the comfort of his Church and terrour of its enemies pag. 115 God is above all second causes pag. 133 God hath taken upon himself the care of the preservation of his Church 151. Therefore we need seek no further for it pag. 153 God in his judgment maketh the ungodly rods to punish one another pag. 155 God in Christ is the rest of his Church pag. 158 God never forsaketh us till we forsake him pag. 185 God punisheth one evil nation by another pag. 87 God is the strength of his Church 214. both in that we are and in that we do and in that we suffer pag. 215 God is the restorer of his Church wil renew the face glory of it pag. 222 Gods word must minister matter to our prayers pag. 25 Gods Church is Gods work both in respect of its calling 37. and of his perpetuall presence in it pag. 38 Gods mercie and our obedience are motives of re-establishing his protection upon his Church pag. 55 God's secrets revealed only to them that fear him pag. 75 God's power shewed in the terror of the wicked proves that there is a God pag. 80 God's promises are either for this life or for the life to come pag. 124 God's extraordinary mercies must be often remembred pag. 166 God's mercie in giving must not destroy his justice in punishing of evill doers pag. 186 Good use is to be made of some temptations H. HOrnes in Scripture signifie strength page 49 How God was said to have divided the Land of Canaan amongst the children of Israel page 63 73 How many ways spiritual enemies assault the Church page 205 How many ways men abuse their strength page 216 I. JErusalem and the Temple shall lye desolate untill the second coming of Christ page 68 Jewish Feasts were instituted for remembrances of favours received from God page 166 In the last calling of the Jews their Common-wealth shall be restored page 66 In reading of holy Scripture we ought carefully to observe what is spoken literally and what figuratively 74. and not to make figures where none are 77. Nor understand that literally which is figurative page 79 In all wars God is Lord of Hosts and General of the armies that fight his quarrels 143. and he ordereth all wars page 144 Jotham's Parable page 188 Joy dilateth the heart page 195 Joyes of the ungodly compared to a candle page 205 Israel a type of Gods Church on earth page 99. L. LAnd of Canaan not above 300 miles in length and 100 in bredth 173. The fruitfulnesse of it shewn ibid. Logick and Rethorick requisite and necessary in a Minister page 76 M. MAnna and Water out of the Rock were types of our Lords Supper and the children of Israels passage through the red Sea a type of Baptisme page 168 Matter of thankesgiving is an acknowledgment of all benefits page 68 Mercy is the most glorious attribute that God hath page 46 Miseries of afflicted men make them forget comforts page 44 Monarchie of the Assyrians lasted 1300 yeers page 250 Moses charged by Heathens to be a Magician page 97 105 Motives inducing us to blesse those that persecute us and pray for those that hate us page 70 N. NO lesson so hard for a child of God to take out as to take up Christ's Crosse page 41 No counsel or strength can prevaile against God 65. nor any prescription ibid. No Oratory nor eloquence comparable to the holy elocution of Scripture page 75 O. OBjections against Church musick answered page 13 Obedience to God assures and gains all good things to us page 180 Over-weening of our fellow creatures is and hath been a cause of Idolatry page 134 P. POetry ancient and of use in the Church page 10 Polygamy unlawfull page 108 Prayer a faithful messenger page 43 Prayer hath the same force now as it had in former times page 141 Praysing of God in Hymns and Songs ancient and much used in the Church Prophane mens hearts are hardned with custome of sinning page 31 Prophane and carnal men how they ought to be taught page 30 Prophets Apostles and Ministers of the Word are the fittest Persons to be used for direction of devotion page 7 R. REading of Scripture good to make us understand what the Lord hath
done in former ages page 105 Religion in the Head is speculation in the Heart affection in the Hand action page 169 Rich mens duties to the poor page 161 S. SAlvation is a work of power 210. of glory Ibid. Of mercy page 211 Salvation only of God page 229 Satans Suggestions that God is merciful animates sinners to do evil page 58 Satan is but Gods instrument in afflicting of the Church page 84 Selah what it signifieth page 49 Self conceited men how they ought to be taught page 32 Self-opinion is a kind of spiritual drunkennesse page 32 Set-prayers both lawful and necessary to be used page 6 Senselesse and livelesse creatures are subject to Gods will page 119 133 Sigionoth what it signifieth page 2 Signes of true spiritual joy page 201 203 Six Signes of ensuing judgment page 146 Sin is that which parteth God and us page 146 Sometimes God taketh away from his children their feeling of his love and of the joy of the Holy-Ghost page 56 T. TEmporal things have but a resemblance of good and evil spiritual favours are reall Pag. 202 Thanksgiving ought to be joyned with Prayer Pag. 106 Thanksgiving is a work of Justice which puts us in mind of our unablenesse to requite God and of our unworthinesse Pag. 69 The Contemplation of Gods justice in punishing the sins of his Church of his vengeance in revenging the quarrels of it of his mercy in his mercy in healing the wounds of it give the faithful occasion to resort to God by prayer Pag. 3 The Churches Plea in affliction is for mercy Pag. 45 The Church of God hath a special interest in the power and protection of God Pag. 54 The best forme of thanksgiving is that which maketh particular commemoration of Gods mercies Pag. 68 The sense of Scripture is the soul thereof Pag. 76 The welfare of the Church is the grief and vexation of her enemies Pag. 82 The truth of God is a good ground because the word of God is a sure word Pag. 112 The devil knew where Moses was buried Pag. 137 The effectual fevrent prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much Pag. 139 The poor are under Gods protection and his own flesh Pag. 160 The very Elect are shaken with fear Pag. 177 The law sheweth us how much we are in Gods debt Pag. 178 The same hand that put the children of Israel in possession of the land of Canaan put them out again Pag. 186 The Chaldaeans armies the Troops of God Pag. 186 The Saints of God have their sorrows on earth yet they always rejoyce in the Lord. Pag. 202 The general apprehension of Gods mercy in Christ will not justifie a man in the sight of God Pag. 207 The Lord will loose the bonds of his Church and give her deliverance out of her troubles Pag. 220 They that joy in the Lord rest in the Lord and rejoyce in nothing otherwise then as a means to serve the Lord. 200 and because God is Lord. Pag. 201 Three notes of a lawful promise and oath Pag. 115 VAin repetitions not to be used in Prayer Pag. 33 W WE ought to give the whole glory and praise for all good to God 70. And thanks to creatures as ministers and instruments of God Pag. 71 We must search out and confesse the true cause of all the good that God doth to us Pag. 107 What use may be made of Davids Psalmes in our frequent reading and meditation of them Pag. 19 What is meant by the works of God Pag. 19 What is meant by the midst of years Pag. 21 Whether we ought to swear at all Pag. 114 Whether every oath ought to be kept Pag. 115 Wheresoever there is Election there is Vnction pag. 130 154 Where God loveth a People his favour runneth in a full stream in the channel of his Church Pag. 138 Where there is the true joy of the Holy Ghost no temporal affliction can extinguish or eclipse it Pag. 195 X Xerxes angry with the sea causeth it to be beater with stripes pag. 102 FINIS A Commentarie OR EXPOSITION UPON The Prophecy of HABAKKVK CHAP. I. Verse 1. The Burthen which HABAKKUK the Prophet did see THis first verse tels us what we shall find in the ensuing Prophecy and it openeth to us three things which give light to that which followeth 1. The Minister of God in this Prophecy 1. By his name Habakkuk 2. By his Function the Prophet 2. The manner how he came by it Vision 3. The matter of it the Burthen 1. Of the Minister First of his name The name Habakkuk is rendred by Philo the Jew amplexans embracing so doth Pagnine give it our English a wrastler for they that wrastle do embrace and hold fast one the other a name well expressing the office and employment of this Prophet who wrastled with the sinners of those times and their horrible iniquities to cast them 1. But as God wrastled with Jacob that he might leave behind him a blessing His tribe Dorothaeus saith was Simeon I know not upon what information for the silence of the holy Scripture doth argue it to be conjectural Concerning the time when he prophecied it is not particularly exprest but it appears to be before the deportation into Babylon for the Chaldeans invasion is here threatned and therefore Junius thinks him contemporary with Jeremiah and referreth his Prophecie to the end of Josias his Government Others after the Hebrews referre it is the â—â—me of King Manasseh Master Calvin very truly affirmeth it before the time of Zedekiah Arias Montanus gives a probable conjecture by comparing that which is said 2 Reg. 21.12 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel behold I am bringing forth an evill upon Jerusalem and Iudah that whosoever heareth of it both his ears shall tingle That in the eleventh verse t is said Because Manasseh King of Judah hath done these abominations and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did which were before him and hath also made Iudah to sinne with his idols And this Commination is almost in the same words in the fifth verse of this chapter Saint Hierome in his Prologue to this Prophet saith that he is called a wrastler quia certamen ingreditur cum deo because he wrastled with God Nullus enim Prophetarum ausus est tam audaci voce Deum ad disceptationem justitiae provocare none durst so boldly provoke God to vindicate his Justice as it appears v. 2. But he doth violate the text of Canonical Scripture and History to verifie that Apocrypha tale of Habakkuks bringing food to Daniel by miracle which destroyeth the truth of the history to make faith of a Legend For either there must be two Habakkuks or this one must live as Arias Montanus doth cast it up three hundred years if he lived to feed Daniel in the Captivity a long time of life then or this must prophecie before he was born Bellarmine hath found out two Daniels one the