consider first the miseries of war and then the benefits and comforts of peace The former of these may be talk't of but can never be thoroughly conceived by any but those that have felt them I could tell you of sieging and famishing sacking and spoiling and killing and ravishing and burning of weltring in blood and a thousand such tragicall calamities of war but I had rather the spirit of God should describe them in his own expressions These Sword without terrour within shall destroy both the Young-man and the Virgin the suckling also with the Man of gray haires Deut. 32.25 And Jeremy Every battle of the warriour is with confused noise and garments rolled in blood but this shall be with burning and with fenell of fire Jer. 9.5 Not to presse those passionate descriptions of Esay and Nahum that one of the Prophet Azariah the Son of Obed shall shut up all Chro. 15.6 In those times there was no peace to them that went out nor to him that came in but great vexations were upon all the Inhabitants of the Countreys and Nation was destroyed of Nation and City of City for God did vex them with all adversity Mark but the foot of this report upon the mention of war straight it followes God did vex them with all adâ—ersity surely there is no adversity incident unto a Creature which doth not inevitably attend a war and as all wars are thus wofull and hideous so much more the intestine and domesticall those that are raised out of our own bowels these are beyond all conceit dreadfull and horrible As therefore we do in our ordinary prayers put all these together which are the effects and concomitants of war From plague pestilence and famine from battail and murder and from suddain death good Lord deliver us so good reason have we to put them into the tenor of our hearty thanksgiving that God hath graciously delivered us from the fury of all these in that he caused wars to cease to the ends of our Earth As for the benefits of peace if we were not cloyed with them by their long continuance we could not but be heartily sensible of them and know that all the comforts we enjoy either for Earth or for Heaven we owe to this unspeakable blessing of Peace whereto if we add the late accession of further strength by the union of our Warlick neighbours and the force of a strong and inviolable league for the perpetuation of our peace and unity there will need no further incitements to a celebration of this day and to our hearty thankfulness unto the God of peace who whiles he hath made wofull desolations in all the Earth besides yet hath caused wars to cease unto our ultima the ends of our Earth and hath broken the bow and cut the spear in sunder Oh then prayse the Lord O Jerusalem prayse thy God of Sion for he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates and blessed thy children within thee Ps 147.12.13 He maketh peace within thy borders and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat To that good God of all glory peace and comfort Father Son Holy Ghost one infinite God in three most glorious persons be given all praise honour and glory as is due from Heaven and Earth from Angels and Men from this time forth and for evermore Amen THE MISCHIEFE OF FACTION And the REMEDIE of it Laid forth in a SESMON Before his MAJESTY In the COURT-YARD AT WHITE-HALL On the Second Sunday in Lent 1641. By JOS. EXON PSALM 60.2 Thou hast made the Earth to tremble thou hast broken it heal the breaches thereof for it shaketh MY text is a complaint and a suit a complaint of an evill and a suit for a remedy An evill deplored and an implored redresse The evill complained of is double the concussion or unsettlement of the state of Israel and the division of it For it hath been the manner of the prophets when they would speak high to expresse spirituall things by the height of naturall allusions fetcht from those great bodies of Heaven Sea Earth the most conspicuous and noted pieces of Gods Almighty workmanship It were to no purpose to exemplifie where the instances are numberlesse Open your Bibles where you will in all the Sapienciall or Propheticall books your eyes cannot look beside them And thus it is here I suppose no man can be so weak as to think David intends here a philosophicall history of Earthquakes although these dreadfull events in their due times and places are worthy of no lesse then a prophets either notice or admiration But here it is not in his way It is an Analogicall morall or politicall Earth-quake that David hear speaks of and so our usuall and ancient Psalter Translation takes it well whiles for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Earth it reads the Land by a just Synecdoche and for making the Earth to tremble reads moving the Land and for broken reads divided and for breaches sores so as by comparing of both translations The Earth is the Land the tremblings are the violent motions of it whether by way of action or passion the divisions thereof are breaches and those breaches sores which the hand of God both makes and heals Shortly then here is first an Earth-quake such as it is 2ly The effects of that Earth-quake breaches or sores 3ly The authour of both Thou hast made the Earth to tremble thou hast broken it 4ly The remedy of both with the authour of it Heal thou the Sores or breaches and Lastly the motive of the remedy for it shaketh The Text falls into these parts so naturally that there is none of you who hear me this day but were able to divide it for me which I shall desire to follow with all perspicuous brevity and profitable enforcement And first hear and consider that the motions of the distempers or publick calamities of States are Earthquakes either or both For this Earthquake is either out of a feare or sense of judgment or out of the strife of contrary affectations the one we may call a passive the other an active Earth-quake Earth-quakes we know are strange and unnaturall things There is no part of all Gods great Creation save the Earth that is ordained for rest and stability The waters are in perpetuall agitation of flux and refluxes even when no wind stirs they have their neap and spring tides The air cannot stand still whiles the Heavens whirle about The Heavens or any part of them never stood still but once since they were made but the Earth was made for fixednesse and stability Hence ye find so oft mention of the foundations of the Earth and the stile of it is nescia moveri the Earth that cannot be moved and that stands fast for ever And therefore for the Earth to move it is no lesse prodigie then for the Heavens to stand still Neither is it more rare then formidable If we should see the Heavens stand still but one houre
whom our prophet here thou hast made the Earth to tremble This for the passive Earth-quake of publick calamities now for the active of publick stirs and tumults with these the land is moved too and this quaking is so much more unnaturall for that men are here the immediate troublers of themselves whereas in the other they are moved by the immediate hand of God And here alas what shall we say to those men that take pleasure in the embroyling of States that with Nero can sing to see the City on fire that love to daunce upon a quaking earth Yea that affect to be actors in these unkindly motitations That great Mathematician braggart could vainly say give me a place where to set my foot and I will move the earth that which that proud Engineer would do by Art these men will do by wickedness that and more for they will be moving that earth which they cannot but tread upon I remember Georgias Agricola who when I was a young man was noted for the most accurate observer of these under ground secrets of nature tells us most probably that the secondary and immediate cause of an Earth-quake is a certain subterraneous fire kindled of some sulphureous matter within the bowels of that vast body and increased by the resistance of the ambient coldnesse the passages whereof being precluded and blocked up by the solid and cold matter of the earth it rages and roars within those dark hollowes and by the violence of it as murmuring to be thus forceably imprisoned shakes the parts about it and at last makes way by some dreadfull Vesuvian-like eruption Such is the mis-kindled heat of some vehement spirits this when it lights upon some earthy proud sullen head-strong disposition and findes it self crossed by an authoritative resistance growes desperately unruly and in a mad indignation to be suppressed is ready to shake the very foundations of government and at last breaks forth into some dangerous rupture whether in Church or State Let no man think I intend to strike at a wise holy well-govern'd zeal no I hugge this in my bosome as the lively temper of grace as the very vitall spirits of religion I wish there were more of that in the World I speak of the unruly distempers of male-contented persons and of the furies of Anabaptism and Separation Let such men think what they will of themselves Solomon has past his doom upon them Prov. 6.14 Homo nequam miscet contentiones as Tremelius turnes it He is no better then a wicked man that hatcheth divisions how ever they may sleight this contentious humour I dare confidently say a private murderer shall make an easyer answer then a publick disturber even Apostolicall charity can wish would to God they were cut off that trouble you And more then so whereas they would not be more stirring then their neighbours if they did not think themselves wiser he that is wiser then they gives them their own It is an honour for a man to cease from strife but every fool will be medling Prov. 20.3 So then a quarrelsome man in a parish especially if he have gotten a little smattering of law is like a cholick in the guts that teares and wrings and torments a whole township but a Seditionary in a State or a Schismatick in the Church is like a sulphureous fiery Vapour in the bowels of the Earth able to make that stable element reele again worse then that Monster of Tyrants who could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I am dead Let Earth and fire jumble together but this man sayes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let me live to see the earth totter and with that shaking torne and divided which is the usuall effect of the Earth-quake and the second head of our intended discourse Thou hast broken or divided it I come not hither to astonish you with the relation of the fearfull effects which Earth-quakes have produced in all ages as it were easy to do out of histories and Philosophical discourses where you may see Rocks torne in pieces Mountains not cast down only but removed Hills raised not out of Vallies only but out of Seas Fires breaking out of Waters Stones and Cinders belched up Rivers changed Seas dislodged Earth opening Towns swallowed up and many other such hideous events Of which kind our own memory can furnish us with too many at home although these colder climates are more rarely infested with such affrightfull accidents It is more properly in my way to shew you the parallell effects of the distempers and calamities in States and Churches To begin therefore with the active breaches whom should I rather instance in then that wofull heart-burning of Corah the Son of Levi and of Dathan and Abiram the Sons of Reuben No sooner were they enflamed with an envious rage against Moses and Aaron then 250. Princes of the Assembly famous in the Congregation men of renown rise up in the mutiny against their Governours and these draw with them all the Congregation of Israel to the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation What is the Issue After Moses his proclamation the people withdraws from their tents the earth opens her mouth swallows up Corah and his Company withall that pertained to them and they go down quick into the pit What a shriek do you think there was when they found themselves sinking into that dreadfull gulfe as for the 250. Reubenites fire came out from the Lord and consumed them Lo the two terrible effects even of materiall Earth-quakes opening and burning which we shall find spiritually happening in all commotions of this nature Look at the rebellion of Jeroboam the male-contented multitude when their petition speeds not cries out What portion have we in David neither have we inheritance in the Son of Jesse to your tents O Israel took to thine own house David What was the effect Israel departed to their tents only Juda stuck to Rehoboam there is the division The stones fly about the ears of Adoram and become his suddain Tomb and drive their Leige Soveraign to his chariot there is the fire of violence So upon the harsh proceeding of Innocent the 4th against Frederick the Emperour Maxima partialitas populorum subsetuâ—a est as Tritemius tells us There was such a division of the people as lasted in the computation of that Author no lesse then 260. years not without the effusion of much blood those which took the Popes part were called Guelfes those which took the Emperours Gibellines here was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed with this Roman Earth-quake What should I overlay you with instances Will ye see the like effects in the Church I could tell you of those Eastern Earth-quakes caused by the Arrians Donatists Circumcellians of those of Province and the bordering parts wherein so many thousand honest and inoffensive Albigenses were overwhelmed I could tell you of the Parisian massacres and many other such tragicall acts take that one whereof
God hath taken at our thus Grieving of him his Indearments our Ingagements his Expectation were we a people that God had no whit promerited by his favours that he had done nothing for us more then for the savage Nations of the World surely the God of Heaven had not taken it so deeply to heart but now that he hath been more kind to us then to any Nation under Heaven how doth he call Heaven and Earth to record of the justnesse of his high regret Hear O Heaven and hearken O Earth for the Lord himself hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Esa 1.2 and excellently Jerem. 2.31 O generation see the word of the Lord have I been a wilderness to Israel a land of darkness therefore it followes Behold I will plead with thee ver 35. Neither are his indearments of us more then our ingagements to him for what Nation in all the World hath made a more glorious profession of the name of God then this of ours What Church under the cope of Heaven hath been more famous and flourishing Had we not pretended to holiness and purity of religion even beyond others the unkindness had been the lesse now our unanswerablenesse calls God to the highest protestation of his offence Be astonished O Heavens and be horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters and have hewen them out Cisternes broken Cisternes that can hold no water Jer. 2.11 And who is so blind as my servant Esa 42.19 Now according to his Indearments and our Ingagements hath been his just expectation of an answerable carriage of us towards him the Husbandman looks not for a crop in the wild desart but where he hath Gooded and plowed and Eared and Sowne why should not he look for an harvest And this disappointment is a just heightner of his griefe what could I have done more for my Vineyard that I have not done I looked for grapes and it brought forth wild grapes And now I will tell you what I will do to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof and I will lay it wast Esa 5.4 5. Wo is me we do not hear but feel God making his fearfull word good upon us I need not tell you what we suffer the word of Esay is fulfilled here It shall be a vexation onely to understand the report Esa 28.19 Alas we know it too well what rivers of blood what piles of Carcasses are to be seen on all sides would God I could as easily tell you of the Remedy and why can I not do so Doubtlesse there is a remedy no lesse certain then our suffering if we had but the grace to use it too long alas too long have we driven off the applying of our redress yet even still there is Balme in Gilead still there is hope yea assurance of help if we will not be wanting to our selves we have grieved our God to the height Oh that we could resolve to make our peace with our provoked God at the last Excellent is that of Esay 27.5 Let him take hold of my strength and make Peace with me and he shall make peace with with me Oh that we could take hold of our strong Helper who is mighty to save that we would lay hold on the strength of his marvellous mercies Oh that we could take Benhadads course here as they said of the King of Israel much more may I say of the God of Israel He is a merciful God let us put sackcloth upon our loynes and ropes upon our heads and go to the God of Israel and say Thy servants say I pray thee let us live 1 K. 20.31 Oh that it could greive us thoroughly that we have greived so good a God that we could by a sound and serious humiliation and hearty Repentance reconcile our selves to that offended Majesty we should yet live to praise him for his mercifull deliverance and for the happy restauration of our peace which God for his mercies sake vouchsafe to graunt us Thus much for the grieving of the holy Spirit in himself by way of allusion to humane affection Now followes that grievance which by way of Sympathy he feels in his Saints Anselme Aquinas Estius and other latter Interpreters have justly construed one branch of this offence of the Holy Spirit to be when through our leud despightful words or actions we grieve and scandalize those Saints and Servants of God in whom that Holy Spirit dwells It is true as Zanchius observes well that it is no thank to a wicked man that the Spirit of God is not grieved by him even in person he doth what he can to vex him the Impossibility is in the Impassiblenesse of the Spirit of God not in the Will of the Agent But although not in himself yet in his faithful Ones he may and doth grieve him They are the Receptacles of the Holy Ghost which he so possesses and takes up that the injuries and affronts done to them are felt and acknowledged by him As when an enemy offers to burn or pull down or strip plunder the house the Master or Owner takes the violence as done to himself We are the Temples the Houses wherein it pleaseth the Spirit of God to dwell what is done to us is done to him in us He challengeth as our Actions The Spirit of God prayes in us Rom. 8.26 so our Passions also he is grieved in our grief such an interest hath God in his that as Christ the second person in the Trinity could say to Saul why persecutest thou me So the Holy Ghost appropriates our injuries to himself If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ happy are ye saith S. Peter for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified 1 Pet. 4.14 Lo the Holy Spirit is glorified by our sufferings and is evil spoken of in our reproaches the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is blasphemed so as it is a fearful thing to think of to speak contumelious words against Gods children is by the Apostles own determination no better then a kinde of blaspheming the Holy Ghost See then consider ye malicious uncharitable men your wrongs reach further then ye are aware of ye suffer your tongues to run ryot in bitter Scoffs in spightful slanders in injurious raylings against those that are truly conscionable ye think ye gall none but men worse then your selves but ye shall finde that ye have opened your mouthes against Heaven I speak not for those that are meer outsides visors of Christianity making a shew of Godliness and denving the power of it in their lives I take no protection of them God shall give them their portion with Hypocrites But if he be a true childe of God one that hath the true fear
be and be acknowledged the sons of God Let us put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another forgiving one another if we have a quarrell against any even as Christ forgave us and above all these things put on charity which is the bond of perfectnesse Colos 3.12 13 14. And lastly forsaking the mis-guidance of Satan the World and our corrupt nature which will lead us down to the chambers of death and eternal destruction let us yield up our selves to be led by the holy Spirit of God in all the wayes of righteousnesse and holynesse of piety justice charity and all manner of gracious conversation that we may thereby approve our selves the sons and daughters of God and may be feoffed in that blessed inheritance which he hath laid up for all his to the possession whereof may he happily bring us who hath dearly bought us Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the blessed spirit one infinite God be given all praise honour and glory now and for ever Amen THE MOURNER IN SION ECCLESIASTES 3.4 There is a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance I Need not tell you that Solomon was a wise man his wisdom as it was in an extraordinary measure put into him by him that is wisdom it self so was it in a more then ordinary way improved by his diligent observation his observation was Universal of times things persons actions events neither did he look his experiments up in the closet of his own brest but by the direction of Gods Spirit laid them forth to the World in this divine sermon which not as a King but as a Prophet he preach't to all posterity Every sentence here therefore is a dictate of the holy Ghost it is not Solomon then but a greater then Solomon even the holy Spirit of the great God that tells you there is not a time onely but a season too for every thing and for every purpose under Heaven that is as I hope you can take it no otherwise for every good thing or indifferent as for evill things or actions if men find a time yet sure God allowes no season those are alwayes damnably-unseasonable abuses of times and of our selves not to meddle with other particulars our thoughts are now by the divine providence pitch't upon a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to mourn and a time to dance or rather onely upon the time to weep and mourn for our time of laughing and dancing is past already and perhaps we have had too much of that in our former times which makes the causes and degrees of our now weeping and mourning as more uncouth so more intensive we must be so much deeper in our mourning by how much we have been more wild and wanton in our laughter and dancing To fall right down therefore upon our intended discourse without any previous circumlocutions There is a threefold time of just mourning 1. When a man is sensible of his punishments 2. Of his sins 3. Of his dangers Of his punishments first or rather which is more general of his afflictions for all afflictions are not intended for punishments some are fatherly chastisments onely for our good whereas all punishments are afflictive when we are whip't then when we smart with the rod we have cause to weep and if in this case we shed no tears it is a sign of a gracelesse heart It is time therefore to mourn when we are pressed by sufferings whether from the immediate hand of God or mediately by the hands of men whether by private or publique calamities are we smitten in our bodies by some painfull and incurable diseases Doth the pestilence rage in our streets Hath God forbidden us the influence of Heaven and curst the Earth with barrennesse Hath he broken the staffe of bread and sent leannesse into our souls Hath he humbled us with the fearfull casualties of fire or water by wracks at Sea by lightnings and tempests by land hath he sent murrain amongst our cattle and destroying vermine into our barnes and fields now God tells us it is a time to mourn are we disquieted in our minds by some over-mastering passions of griefe for the miscarriages of children for the secret discontents of domesticall jars for unjust calumnies cast upon our good name are we molested in our mindes and spirits with impetuous and no lesse importune then hatefull Temptations now it is a time to mourn do we find in our souls a decay and languishment of grace a prevalence of those corruptions which we thought abated in us Do we find our selves deeply soul-sick with our sinfull indispositions Shortly do we find the face of our God for the time withdrawn from us Now now it is a time to mourn If we turn our eyes to those evils which are cast upon us by the hands of men Do men find themselves despoyled of their estates restrained of their Liberties tortured in their bodies Do they find the wofull miseries of an intestine war killings burnings depopulations do they find fire and sword raging in the bosom of out Land now it is a time to mourn Were these evils confined to some few persons to some special families they were worthy of the tears of our compassion for it is our duty to weep with them that weep but where they are universal and spread over the whole face of any Nation there cannot be found tears enough to lament them Punishments then are a just cause of our sorrow and mourning but to a good heart sin is so much greater cause of mourning by how much a moral evil is more then a natural and by how much the displeasure of an Almighty God is worthy of more regard then our own smart Doth thine heart then tell thee that thou hast offended the Majesty of God by some grievous sin now is thy time to weep and mourne as thou wouldest for thy only son Zechar. 12.10 now it is time for thee to be in bitternesse as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne Thy soul is foul wash and rince it with the tears of thy repentance go forth with Peter and weep bitterly Dost thou finde in the place where thou livest that sin like some furious torrent bears down all before it now it is time for thee to mourne for the sins of thy people and to say as the holy Psalmist did Psal 119 136. Rivers of waters run down mine eyes because men keep not thy law Lastly as our sufferings and our sins make up a due time for our mourning so do our dangers also for fear is no lesse afflictive then pain yea I know not whether there can be a greater pain then the expectation of imminent mischiefs Do we therefore see extremities of judgments hovering over our heads ready to fall down like Sodoms fire and