with fear and tembling Sometimes greif is mingled with faith as in the poor man in the Gospel of whom Christ said Doest thou beleeve he answered first with his tears then with his words saying Lord I beleeve help thou my unbeleefe So in the Publicane beating his breast and saying Lord be mercifull to me a sinner Sometimes indignation is mingled with faith as in all the imprecations of the Prophet which as they are Prophecies and so proceed from the Spirit of God so are they passions in these holy men and are vented with that indignation of which the Prophet saith Be angry and sin not and which the same Prophet justifieth Shall not I hate them O Lord which hate thee And this holy indignation you see in the very separate soules They cry with a loud voice how long Lord dost thou not judg and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.10 Tantaen animis caelestibus ira To come now to the point in question This zeal of the Prophet is not a dislike of or an opposition to the will of God by way of contradiction but a dislike of the thing done according to the expresse will of God wherein the Prophet doth not offend The example of our Saviour Christ is full and giveth testimony to this truth for coming of purpose to lay down his life for his Church and knowing it to be his Fathers will that he should so do yet in the garden he three times prayed that if it were possible that cup might passe from him he did not resist the Will of God for to that he submitted himself but he distiked that which he was to suffer according to that Will The reason is because it was evil and a punishment and he who taught us to pray libera nos a malo Deliver us from evil did so himself So though he knew the Will of God to be peremptorie for the destruction of Jerusalem and the rejection of the Jewes he sorrowed and wept for the same which shewed his dislike of the thing decreed though he approved the decree it self and resisted it not Sorrow is a griefe taken by a naturall dislike of that for which we greive When our parents wives children or freinds die we greive the Apostle doth not forbid that affection he limiteth and regulateth it he would not have us sorrow as men without hope And when he took on him our naturall infirmities and affections he did not so undertake them to remove them from us or to extinguish them in us but to correct and temper them As St. Cyrill saith ut sic natura nostra reformaretur ad melius that so our nature might be bettered In this very example in my Text of the Prophets dislike that God should shew him this iniquity and violence of the Jews which was a greif and a burthen to him to see remember what is said of Lot by St Peter For that righteous man dwelling among them 2 Pet. 2.8 vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawfull deeds Here was not only an holy greif for but an holy indignation against the sight of these things which God shewed him and that in the righteous soul of a righteous man I conclude this point as before with Davids words I deny not that this was the Prophets infirmitie I deny it to be his iniquity it was no sin in him And I again urge my former point of Doctrine it is lawfull for the holy servants of God to expostulate and contest with God in their prayers 1. Because hereby we declare our dislike of those things against which we contest Reas 1 as here the Prophet sheweth that it is to him very hateful and offensive to behold the sins of the people which both corrupt and end anger the state of the Commonwealth So when the Prophet complaineth often of Gods long-suffering toward the wicked he sheweth it to be an offence to the children of God that the enemies of God should be so long forborne And when he awaketh God up Lord why sleepest thou and stireth him to revenge of his own cause therein he declareth his zeal of the glory of God of which he must be careful especially 2. This publique expostulation used in this case to awake the justice of God against the wicked Reas 2 doth seem to terrifie the ungodly from their wicked wayes for when they see that they that fear God and walk before him and with him are up in armes against them and bandie their imprecations against them they cannot but see their estates in great danger 3. This expostulation of the just doth declare that their yeilding to the Will of God in these things which they do without offence to Gods dislike 3 Reas is not out of naturall principles and reasons incident to humanity but from a supernaturall dedition and yeelding of themselves to the transcendent Will of God whereby they do approve even what they do dislike because they find the Will of God that way The profit which we may make of this point is 1. To teach us zeal in the cause of God for there is no life in the service that we performe to God without zeal there is not only the Spirit of God required in us but fervency of the Spirit by the Apostle and that the same Apostle calleth the Spirit dwelling in us plentifully and in another place The Spirit sanctifying us throughout This giving our bow the full bent that it may have the full strength and this to be drawn home when we send our prayers up to heaven that they may reach the mark this is So run that ye may obtaine It is called striving to the mark Zeal only used in matters of forme and ceremonie and in outward things makes us like Agrippa almost Christians but zeal against the evil life and crying sins of the time is discreet and necessary for these do hack and hew the bough we stand upon these under-dig the ground we walk upon These put it to an if Si filius dei es if thou be the Son of God Let them that love righteousnesse and peace be troubled at these things and quench this common fire first that is the Apostles method For having taught the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and of holy preparation to the communicants he concludeth And the rest will I set in order when I come 1 Cor. 11.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First he directed them in the prayers of piety he reserveth the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the order till his coming to them shewing that he had Apostolicall power for that but that must be done after this In Religion that is now the double complaint 1. Of want of zeal where it most should be 2. Of inordinate zeal in other things The want of zeal in many Professours of Religion is such as that both Poperie and Anabaptistrie and other schismaticall and sectarious professors are suffered to grow
corruptions drowned and destroyed in the same waters And the Apostle saith I would not that ye should be ignorant of this thing which admonisheth both you and us that are your ministers 1 You not to be ignorant in those great mysteries of salvation 2 Us not to leave you untaught or unremembred thereof We that preach to a mixt auditory consisting incipientes Abcedaries in religion who are not yet out of their first elements which the Apostle calleth the doctrine of beginnings And some few proficients who also have their measures not all of equall growth but some few as much better grown then others as Saul was higher then all the rest of the people must as well give milk with the spoon as break bread and divide strong meat and me thinks there be two places that direct us well in the dispensation of the Word of God 1 That of the Prophet Isaiah The Word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept precept upon precept Isa 2. â—3 line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little in which words The matter of our preaching is exprest in two words 1 precept which teacheth us what to do 2 line which exemplifieth doctrine and serveth as a copy to write by And again the manner of our preaching is declared profitable if the same things be well taught till they be well learned And this is modicum ibi modicum ibi here modicum not too much at once for oppressing the spirituall stomack and here is ibi and ibi ibi amongst the proficients and ibi amongst the incipients 2 That of St. Peter Wherefore 2 Peâ— 1.12 I will not be negligent to put you in mind of those things though ye know them Yea I think it meet so long as I am in this tabernacle to stirre you up by putting you in remembrance This sheweth the use of often repetitions of such things as we ought not to forget for it is not enough to have light in our understanding there must be also zeal in our affections Religion in the head is speculation in the heart affection in the hand action If we do our duty thus as we are directed it must be your great fault if either you be ignorant or forgetfull of these things The spirit of God is our example for he remembreth this passage of Israel often and modicum ibi a little here in the old Testament modicum ibi a little there in the new Testament for this is also profitable for us This sheweth that the often preaching and learning and remembring the doctrine of our Baptisme is a most necessary lesson in the school of Christ that we do not enter into a new peace with the Egyptians whom God hath drowned in the red sea that we do not revive and quicken in us those things which the laver of new byrth hath purged by suffering sin to reign in our mortall bodies and by obeying it in the lusts thereof That we do not so much as in heart return again into Egypt out of which God hath so gratiously delivered us Profitable is the remembrance of our Baptisme for it is the sacrament and seal of our deliverance from the curse of the 〈◊〉 from the spirituall bondage of Satan from the dominion of sin iâ—â—heweth us the old Adam dead in the death and buried in the grave of Christ It also serveth being often remembred to stirre us up to a practise of Christian conversation and to an holy imitation of Christ in godly life that we may not receive the grace of God in vain that wee be not again defiled with the world for the Apostle will tell us That if Christ hath opened us a new and living way through the vail Heb. 20.22 23. that is his flesh we must draw neer with a true heart in full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Holding fast the profession of our faith without wavering For if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledg of the truth Veâ—se 26. there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins But a certain fearfull looking for of judgment Verse 27. and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries I conclude in the Apostles words therefore brethren I would not have you ignorant concerning this passage of the Lords Israel through the red sea Vers 16. Hab. â— 6. When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottennesse entred into my bones and I trembled in my self that I might rest in the day of trouble when he cometh up unto his people he will invade them with his troops AT this verse beginneth the third Section of this Chapter and it conteineth the consternation of the Prophet dejected before the Lord with the former considerations and the sad estate of the land of Canaan 1 Concerning the words When I heard The Prophet fitting this Psalme as you have heard for the common use of the Church doth not speak in this place in his own person perticularly When I heard but in the person of that Church of God to which this prophecy was sent Verse 14. They came out as a whirlwind to scatter me is spoken of the Midianites invading Gods people not the Prophet Habak So that Theard here is collectively the whole Church and perticularly every member thereof But what is that is here heard Surely this hath a double reference 1 To the former prophecy of Gods threatned judgments against his people of which you heard before Verse 2. O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid For it was a fearfull judgment which God had denounced against them 2 It hath reference to the full commemoration of Gods former mercies for howsoever faith may grow upon this root of experience of Gods favour yet when the Church of God shall consider all that former favour now turned into indignation and shall feel that power which once protected them so miraculously now armed against them this cannot but cast them into great fear This fear is described fully and rhetorically in four severall phrases 1 My belly trembled 2 My lips quivered 3 Rottennesse entred into my bones 4 I trembled in my self It is the manner of the spirit of God in such like phrases to expresse a great horrour and dismay by the belly is meant the inward parts and bowels So the Prophet upon the denunciation of the burthen upon the desert sea saith Therefore are my loyns filled with pain Isai 21.3 pangs have taken hold upon me as the pangs of a woman that travaileth I was bowed down at the hearing of it I was dismayed at the seeing of it My bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab Isa 16.11 and mine inward parts for Kirharesh So Job Job 30.27 My bowels boyled and rested not And David Mine eye is consumed with grief yea Psal 31.9 my soul and belly I am poured out like water all
feedeth nothing but ill humours to overthrow the contemperament of the complexions That is If it feed the sanguine only and so maintain all kind of wantonnesse pride and vanity If it feed only choler and so support tyranny and violence Or if it support only Melancholy it feedeth sullen and busie projecting wit Or if it feed fleame it sustaineth idlenesse if it do not nourish the temperament of these humours in the body it feedeth diseases and destroyeth the body Thus was the Common-wealth of the Jewes at this time diseased and only the choler was fed which brought forth greivance spoyling violence strife So riches became the faculties of evil doing and power was the mother and nurse of violence Our lesson therefore is Vse if we love the state of the Common-wealth in which we live and would have the body thrive of which we are members we must observe the lawes of Christian charity and common-justice Justitia tua suum cuique tribuit charitas tua tuum we must do all men right and know our own from another mans and we must distribute to the necessities of our brethren that there be no complaining in our streets the elder must labour by good councell and good examples to support the younger the younger by their strength and labour to give subvention and help to the elder each to know their own and to think nothing theirs which is not lawfully gotten Let us remember the severe prohibition of the Law which not only bindeth our hearts and affections saying Thou shalt not steal nec actu nec affectu neither in act nor in desire but it restraineth our very first thoughts and motions of the minde Thou shalt not covet any that is thy neighbours Let us remember how much violence and spoyling and greivance and strife displeaseth God and let our brother dwell in peace by us let us not so much as look upon our brethren with an evil eye to envy their thriving or with a covetous desire to enrich our selves with their spoiles We see the danger of this Common-wealth of the Jewes because of their oppression and we see the remedy-here used to complain thereof to God therefore if we with Solomon Turne and consider all the oppressions that are wrought under the Sun Eccles 4.1 and behold the tears of the oppressed and none comforteth them and the strength is of the hand that oppresseth them and none comforteth them I know no remedy that we have but our prayer to God for he only is the refuge of the afflicted If the Minister complain that he cannot be entertained to execute the Priests office without Simoniacall contracts or being in the execution of the same cannot keep the tythes and profits of his place from spoile and depredation If the Souldier complain that in time of peace he is despised If the Merchant be hindred in his commerce the husbandman over-racked in his rent the labourer either not found work or not payed their wages If the common man be exhausted by impositions and exactions and the rich man milked by borrowings Whilest the most idle and uprofitable mothes of the common-wealth and the rust of peace doth devour all and build their nests on high full of the spoiles of their brethren These things tells us that they that are dead in the Lord are happie as Solomon saith they hear not the voice of the oppressour and they shall not see the evil which this crying sin shall bring upon the living For you shall see that God heareth the complaints of his holy ones and visiteth the land that transgresseth in these things The corruption of Religion even the contempt thereof is complained of The Law of God slacked weakened despised Doctr. It is a diseased and a desperate state where Religion is contemned and where the Law of God is not cared for 1. The cause is Reason because we hold nothing temporall in this life by any other right then upon condition of our obedience to the Law and Will of God If thou consent and obey Isa 1.19 thou shalt eat the good things of the land But if yee refuse and rebell Vers 20. ye shall be devoured with the sword Moses repeating the Law of the ten Commandments to the people Deut. 5.2 calleth it the Covenant which the Lord made with them in Horeb and the conditions of the Covenant were these Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you Vers 32. you shall not turne aside to the right hand nor to the left You shall walk in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you Vers 33. that ye may live and that it may be well with you and that ye may prolong your dayes in the land which ye shall possesse The very introduction into the Law I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt out of the house of bondage sheweth why God delivereth us from the hands of our enemies that we may serve him and that we may thrive and prosper in his service Therefore where the Law is slacked and Religion set at nought the despisers thereof have no lawfull interest in any thing that they possesse but are intruders and usurpers and such as encroach upon Gods rights without any plea of right they are robbers of the just to whom the earth is given and with whom only the Covenant of God is made The Psalmist sayeth Blessed are the undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 who walk in the way of the Lord. The idle speculations of secular wise men and the corrupt affections of carnall men have sought felicity in other wayes but have not found it The way of Religion and keeping the Law of God never failed any man for though the faithfull man be not justified by his obedience and keeping of the Law yet the faith of the man is so justified as St. James saith shew me thy faith by thy works The way of temporal fulnesse â—ath misâ—led many and corrupted the very Jews of Gods people for why did they oppresse and spoyle and greive and contend with their brethren but to mend their own heap and riches are not but for use By riches they might have their hearts desire in any thing here below they might buy it out Every one observeth the way of his time if he see that there bee no way of rising or thriving in the world but by such a mediation the whole addresse is that way and that means is wholly studied If a man see that there is nothing to be had without mony for mony any thing then mony is his whole study quaerenda pecunia primum And sure if men did see that nothing but vertue and Religion and the fear of God did preferre men and sufficient worth for the place that they seek men would study vertue and honesty and all those parts which might make them worthy of what they seek But it is no matter
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
if any escaped to re-inhabit might be taken away This justice of God in avenging the wrongs done to brute beasts by calling them to an account for their sinnes that did the wrong doth teach us 1. That the providence and care of God doth stoop so low as the regard of our catted Christ made good use of it Considerate volatilia caeli consider the souls of heaven God feedeth them quanto magis vos how much more you 2. It teacheth us to use our dominion of these creatures moderately lest the Asse of Balaam do reprove his owner 3. It sheweth how much God doth make of any thing that serves him the text saith that these beasts did make the Chaldeans afraid and for this they suffered predation for the service they did to God and his Church against their enemies in Christs argument how much more will he defend us if we fight his battels against his enemies 4. We learne here that when God cometh to execute vengeance he surveigheth the whole catalogue of offences and as he saith in David I will reprove thee and set them in order before thee the wrong to the Cities to the men to the beasts to persons to places all comes into an account and the offenders shall smart for all Vers 18. What profiteth the graven Image that the maker thereof hath graven it the molten Image and a teacher of lies that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make dumb Idols 19. Woe unto him that saith to the wood awake to the dumb stone arise it shall teach behold it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all in the midst of it 20. But the Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him HEre God denounceth his judgment against their Idolatry The words of this text have no obscurity in them Thus much then shall serve for the opening of this text that all this commination of woe and judgment of which you have heard is the voyce of the true God declaring his just proceeding against the sins formerly mentioned and to this purpose he doth here lay open the vanity of false gods What profit can there come saith he of a graven Image that the maker thereof hath graven he asketh men this question and appealeth to the light of naturall reason can that profit a man meaning in the power and goodnesse of a Divine nature which is the work of a mans hands be it either a graven image wrought upon by art of the workman or a molten Image cast in any metall can this profit a man He calleth the Image thus carved graven or molten a teacher of lies for it is a meer illusion that any man should so befoole himselfe as to beleeve that such an artificiall composition wrought by the hand of man should be esteemed a god This is amplified and the wonder encreased for though other men may be carried away with a superstitious over-weening of such an Idol yet that the maker of it should trust in it who when he was at work peradventure as the Poet saith Incertus scamnum faceretne Priapum maluit esse Deum It was at his curtesie whether it should be an Idol or some other thing Therefore vers 19. God saith Woe unto him that saith to the wood awake and to the dumb stone arise that is woe to him that trusteth to an Idol for defence against evill or deliverance out of danger for that is one of the uses that is made of Idols to succour in time of distresse as the Disciples did awake their Master in a storme You see that when the workman hath put his hand upon it and shewed his best skill here God doth call it wood and a dumb stone still He proveth it thus It shall teach although it be dumb yet the dumbnesse thereof shall declare it to be an inanimate impotent thing For howsoever the matter of the Idol be it wood or stone or metall be laid over with gold and silver as superstition is costly enough in adorning their gods yet there is no breath at all in the midst of them and having no life in them they have no power to give help to them that serve them Vers 20. But the Lord is in his holy temple for having shewed the vanity of Idols he cometh now to reveale himselfe to them This some understand that the Lord is in heaven the temple of his holinesse and though the heaven of heavens cannot containe him yet he hath said Heaven is my throne and Christ teacheth us to say qui es in caeli who art in heaven So the temple at Jerusalem where he said I will dwell is the temple of his holinesse and as the Babylonians and other heathen had their Idols and their Temples for them to which they did resort so he produceth in opposition to them the God of Israel in his holy Temple to whom the Jewes may resort for help against all their enemies Let all the earth keep silence before him In which words either he discourageth all power that should rise up against him or he requireth the voluntary submission of the earth to him as to the supreme Soveraigne of all the world for Keeping silence is a signe of reverence and submission as Job speaking of his former glory when God had abased him saith that when he came forth The Princes refrained talking Job 29.9 and laid their hand on their mouth De verbis hactenus The parts of the text are two 1. False-worship 2. True Religion In the first 1. Peccatum that is idolatry 2. Poenae Vae Woe In the first here is 1. A description of the idolatry of the heathen Babel 2. A derision of the idolaters 1. Idolatry is a trust in and an invocation of graven and molten images dumb idols First here is trust then followeth invocation and that is the Apostles method in all religious adoration How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed Rom. 10.14 This doth open to us the occasion of this last imputation to them of idolatry for what hath made them so proud so cruel so covetous so voluptuous as the opinion that they have in the protection of their gods therefore now at last God overthroweth that also and doth shew them that in religion they are most of all wrong If you desire a general definition of idolatry which comprehendeth all kinds I think this is full of comprehension It is Cultus Religiosus exhibitus Creaturae A religious worship given to the creature Learn then that no nation of the world did ever deny a divine Power but acknowledged some God in whom they trusted and whom in their necessities they called upon and because this invisible Godhead was out of sight they devised idols which they erected for representation of their gods which they also worshipped with divine honours and this we call idolatry or the worshipping of idols They saw that there was much
ramms Psa 114.6 and ye little hils like young sheep And the words of David do seem to guide my judgement to expound this place not of the mountains upon the dry land but with reference to the miracle of the passage of the children of Israel over Jordan in which God by his power did make the waters of the river rise up like mountains to stop their way and yet not to suffer them to drown the neighbouring Continent and this was effected with an extratraordinary motion of the waters leaping and skipping like Sheepe Therefore here is added the over-flowing of the water passed by that is it did not over-flow the way of the Isralites but bestowed it self in the raising up of the mountains of water The deep uttered his voice he meaneth the noise of the waters running and swelling in heaps And lift up his hands on high for this rising of the waters into such huge hils did give restimony of their yielding to the almighty power of God in his working though contrary to their nature This exposition of these words I imbrace as most consonant to the web of the Scripture yet I will not conceal from you that some refer this trembling of the mountains and this noise of the waters figuratively to the trembling of the Kings in Canaan and the noise of the people afraid and melting in their hearts at the strange passage of Israel through the red sea first and now at last through Jordan Whom I dare not follow holding it dangerous to admit more figures then need when some more literall sense may be proper Others to refer this to the trembling of mount Sinai when God appeared to the people in the way of which Moses saith And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoak Exo. 9.18 because the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoak thereof ascended as the smoak of a furnace and the whole mount quaked greatly But this connexion of the trembling of the mountains with the noise of the waters doth make it probable to me that it is one and the same miracle Magister Historiae felleth of a mountain in the land of Canaan neer to the river of Arnon which suffered a violent earthquake at the time of the entring of Israel into Canaan but that is an Apocryphall relation and the silence of the story doth make it questionable whether any such thing were done The figurative and poetical form of speech here used is in sight 1 The heaps of waters swelling to a very great height are called mountains 2 Here is attributed to them humane sense motions and affections as seeing trembling uttering of a voice and lifting up of hands These things are familiar and frequent all the Scripture through especially in the poeticall part thereof as I have shewed The senslesse and livelesse creatures are subject to the will of God Doct. and to serve him For that which the heathen do call nature in the creatures is in religion the constant order which God hath established in the universall machine and frame of the world and in every perticular member and part thereof serving Gods generall providence that which we call miraculous and extraordinary is the perticular will of God upon occasion declered out of his singular and speciall providence In both these all creatures whatsoever do so serve him as if they knew what they did The Centurion did not keep his servants in better awe and had them not so ready at his command as God hath his creatures their nature is subject to rule and that so as fire shal burne and not consume as in the bush waters shall stand in heaps as in the passage through the red Sea and here in my Text in the river of Jordan Water shall not put out sire the haile as watry substance shall mingle with fire in the same shoare and Eliah shall call for sire that shall lick up the water and dry the ditches filled to the brim The reason hereof is because there is nothing in the world that hath any being Reas but it had beginning from him who onely is of himself and therefore called Jehovah and he never gave being to any thing but for use he hath made nothing idle and unprofitable for in wisedome he made all things and that use is directed by the Creator and therefore as it is said of him that he had made the heaven and the earth by Moses so Melchizedeck calleth him the high possessor of heaven and earth as the Prophet David saith Fecit quicquid voluit in coelo in terra in omnibus abyssis The right of Creation without which nothing had any being the right of protection which keepeth all things in being doth put all things in subjection under his feet his will is their nature and it is all one to the inanimate creature to serve his true will in an ordinary and in a miraculous way for his will is the soul that animateth them and maketh them active and he could have as easily let the sea keep his course and let the river of Jordan run on and have brought his people over upon the face of the waters as Christ and Peter walkt as he made them a passage through This ready obsequence of the inanimate creature to the will of God doth upbraid man whom God made for himself and his special honour with much unworthinesse for things without life owe lesse to God for creation then things animate much lesse then man to whom God gave a living soul made in the image of God having but one law of restraint put upon him broke it and brought a pollution of himself which like the leprosie of Gehezi runneth in all his posterity It is our shame that all things else do serve him onely men and devils the corrupters of men stand out and rebell And this maketh God cry Hear O Heavens and hearken Isa 1.2 O Earth I have nourished and brought up children and they have rebelled against me Why doth God make his complaint to the Heavens and to the Earth or why doth he call them to witnesse against Israel his people but to signifie that creatures without life shall condemne the disobedience of men even of Israel the people that God hath chosen to himself And truly when we do look out of our selves upon these things as David saith When we consider the Heavens Psa 8.3 the worke of thy fingers the Sun and the Moon with c. What is man that thou art so mindfull of him There be two things that may move 1 What is man that such excellent creatures should be made for him 2 What is man that beholding the heavens which do serve him and living upon the earth that is obedient to him and doth his will that God should be mindfull of man who of all the works of his hands that enjoy his favours doth serve him worst of all Do not we thank God for it and take it for a
need no other rods to scourge us here no other fewell to enfire us hereafter then our owne sins this is Hilaris insania to make our selves merry with these and to set in the chair of the scornfull 6 Incorrigibility when the gratious warnings of God do not lead them to repentance when the angry threatnings of God do not draw bloud of them when the rods of Gods favourable chastisement doe not smart upon them O Lord saith Jeremy Jer. 5.3 Thou hast stricken them but they have not grieved Correction had wont to be the way to reclaime sinners but when iniquity is come to the full ripeness God may lay on while he will they that have not known the way of peace will harden their hearts as Pharaoh did and correction will but make them curse and blaspheme God to his face This was the full iniquity of these nations whom God threshed and wounded and digged up and cast out that he might plant his Israel therein And it teacheth us to be wise to salvation Vse as the Apostle saith Thou man of God fly these things And let me say to you as Lot to the Sodomites I pray you my brethren do not so wickedly Take heed of Idols Babes keep your selves from Idols Idolatry hath growen bolder of later then heretofore the Factors of Rome are busie amongst us trading for proselites but God stirreth up the spirits of his religious servants to solicite the cause of Religion and the worthies of our land stand up with zealous fervency of spirit for the truth of God This is the light of Israel so long as we keepe the fire of God burning upon our Altars we shall have hope that God is with us and that he will give us his blessing of peace Let us break off our sins by repentance that we may turn away the indignation of God from us let not sin reign in our mortall bodies that we should obey it in the lusts thereof Let us take heed that we give not way to sin either in our selves or in others left it over-grow us but let us examin our own hearts in our chambers and turn to the Lord. And if a brother by occasion fall into sin let them that are spirituall restore him with the spirit of meeknesse Let shame cover our faces for the evils that we have done it is no shame to be ashamed of our evils as there is a godly sorrow so there is a godly shame let us say with Job I covered not my transgression with Adam by hiding my iniquity in my bosome Let it grieve us that wee have sinned and let us not boast thereof but say with Job Peccavi quid faciam tibi with Saul I have sinned and done foolishly Let the remembrance of our sin smite our hearts as Davids heart smote him when he had numbred the people and let us do no more so Let the judgments of God make us afraid Let the corrections of God humble us and cast us at the feet of God that he may shew us mercy and with Paul let us pray three times that the Angel of Satan may be taken from us Then shall we neither feel the flail of God threshing us nor the sword of God wounding us nor the spade of God diging up but we shall rejoyce every man under his own Vine and under his own Fig-tree 2 What he did in favour to his own Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people even for salvation with thine annointed David saith Truly God is good to Israel The everlasting comfort of the Church hath been planted and grounded in the favour of God by the mediation of Jesus Christ his anointed For although Christ were not so manifest to his Church before and in the time of the law as he hath been in the time of the Gospel yet he hath been always the hope of all the ends of the world The reason is Reason because Christ is not onely a Mediatour of intercession to pray for us and a Mediatour of satisfaction to die for us and a Mediatour of salvation to prepare eternall mansions for us but he is and ever was and will be a Mediatour also of temporall protection all to keep and defend us from all evils So that the Sun shal not smite us by day nor the Moon by night For as God created us to his own image so he fitted to his only begotten Son a body in our image he was made of a woman and so soon as his word had made him the promised seed so soon was he crucified for us and was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the World Then did he take his Church into his bosome and married her to himself and they became one body and ever since his Angels have charge over her to keep her in all her ways and this must comfort Israel in Babylon that God vvent before them vvith his anointed to setle them in the promised Land There be no other mercies that vvill tarry by us but those which God doth vouchsafe us by the means of this Mediator He importeth many outward blessings even to the vvicked by the means of his holy ghost For all the knovvledg that they have all the vvisedome in arts and sciences be the gifts of the holy ghost but they have no portion at all in the office of Christ he vvas not anointed for them From hence the Apostle doth conclude that God hath not forsaken the Jevvs but that they shall be called again for he saith Hath God cast away his people he ansvvereth God hath not cast away his people whom he foreknew Ro. 11 1 2. The election of grace vvhich made them his doth confirm them to him forever and therefore they mention his going before them with his anointed to assure them that though they go into captivity and abide a long time there yet they shall not be left in bonds for ever For the spirit of the Lord is upon this anointed to preach liberty to Captives Isal 61.1 and the opening the prison to them that are bound This is now the true comfort of the distressed parts of the Church which groan under the burthen of oppression and bloudy persecution They cry for the help from men and no Nation doth succour them they weep and pray to God and to his annointed and no doubt but in good time he wil come down to them to visit them in his mercy they are Christians and they carry the name of Gods anointed his name is in them and his righteousnesse and truth are their hope and strength It is time for thee Lord to put to thy hand for the wicked sons of Belial the children of Edom cry out against thy Church down with it down vvith it even to the ground The Bishop of Rome abetteth the unchristian shedding of Christian bloud by his letters and disperseth his vvhetstones to sharpen the sword of Gods enemies against Gods Church Let us say vvith old Jacob O Lord
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