if it be not white and ready for the fickle observe thine own wayes and works and see if they do not tell that the day of the Lord cannot be farre off There be that put this day far off from them that is by flattering themselves in their sins they make themselves beleeve that they shall not yet come to punishment Repentance only lengtheneth this day and suffereth it not to approach to us Such an one feareth not in die malo in the evil day 3. The extent of this judgement over all the Heathen Meaning heâ—e all those that have joyned together in warre against the Jewes See Jer. 25. Here is a Quaerie Did not God stirre them up against Jerusalem In this Prophecy he declareth how Jerusalem was chastened by the Heathen and doth not the Holy story say Surely at the commandment of the Lord came this upon Iudah 2 King 24.3 Iudah well deserved this punishment and God justly inflicted it and the heathen were the rod of God wherewith he chastened Iudah yet this execution done upon Iudah by the heathen was impious in them for they made warre against Gods Church and sought the ruine of Religion it was covetous they robbed Ierusalem it was cruel they delighted in the blood of the Lords people it was proud they insulted over them It is true that these heathen do not go without God to invade Iudah true that he sent them to punish the transgressions of his people true that they are the rod and sword of God for so David confest that God bade Shimei to curse him The Lord hath sayed unto him curse David 2 Sam. 16.10 As in the Creation God separated the waters from the face of the earth and called the gathering together of the waters Seas yet David sayes God hath set them their bounds which they cannot passe nor return to cover the earth Yet they would cover the earth Surely the wicked are resembled to the Sea in every consideration the Church may be compared to the dry land God holdeth the wicked in that they cannot droune this dry land yet this they would do for there is a naturall antipathy in the heathen to the Church of God When the Church sinneth God openeth a gap and letteth his Sea break in he suffereth the wicked to scourge the Church when it defaulteth for both their sakes that he may execute his judgement upon both and as Augustine saith Vtitur Deus malis bâ—â—â— In the story of the Iudges we read how the Concubine of Micah the Levite was abused to death in Gibeah which being complained of to the rest of the Tribes by the Levite they sent unto Benjamin to deliver up to them those men of Belial that had done the villany Jud. 20.13 that they might put away the evil from Israel But Benjamin would not heare their Brethren but prepared to put themselves in Armes and to go out to battail against the children of Israel The children of Israel arose and went to the house of God ver 18. and asked counsel of God and said which of us shall go up first to the battaile against the children of Benjamin And the Lord said Iudah shall go up first They went and Benjamin destroyed that day two and twenty thousand men The children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord untill even and asked counsell of the Lord saying ver 23. Shall I go up in battaile against the children of Benjamin my brother And the Lord said go up against him They did so the second day and the children of Benjamin destroyed of Israel eighteen thousand men Here was nothing done without consulting of God God bade them go and yet they prospered not yea they lost in all forty thousand men There is no cleere expression in this story to declare why God punished Israel with this great effusion of blood Plain it is that Gods purpose was to punish Israel and first the Tribe of Iudah but the Text sheweth 1. That the cause of this warre was a just provocation there was villany done in Israel 2. That the end of this war was godly for it was to remove evil from Israel 3. That they did nothing herein without Gods expresse warrant for they began to take counsell of the Lord. Yet before God would revenge the fault of the Benjamites upon them by Benjamin he punished the Tribe of Iudah first and then the rest of the Tribes with losse of so many men and effusion of so much blood And I must tell you that I find not the reason thereof exprest It may be that the Holy Ghost hath suppressed it that we might rest in the feare of God and not search further it is enough for us to know what God doth and not why for as Augustine saith Iudicia Dei occulta esse possunt injusta non possunt esse Gods judgements may be secret but never unjust And we must be very tender how we call God to accompt for what he doth for God is whatsoever his will is of which we must not seek to know more then is revealed for that is prying into the Arke and costeth death God is accomptable to none for what he doth The third day he gave Israel a full victory against Benjamin by Benjamin He first scourged Israel and by Israel he after destroyed Benjamin and left of them but six hundred men So may we say of this example in my Text God useth the heathen to scourge his Church and after destroyeth the heathen in his just but secret judgement Yet let me tell you what some learned judgements have conceived of that great example of justice in that story of Israel and Benjamin Rabbi Levi saith that Israel might provoke God at first because they came to God to aske who should go first against Benjamin and did trust to their own strength and did not beseech God to give them victory Rabbi Kimchi saith it was because that Israel had suffered Idolatry in Dan and had never taken the cause of God to heart to aske counsell of God against them iâ—â— but now in a private injury done to a Levite they were provoked and sought revenge 3. Others conceive that this was the cause They came too slightly to God at first for they did only bluntly enquire who should go first against Benjamin Not whether they should go or not Not enquiring by what way he meant to punish their brother But the second time they went up to the Lord they wept till even and then they asked counsell Shall I go up again in battaile against my brother Yet even then being commanded to go they lost eighteen thousand men True but they came not the second time with that preparation which became them that would sight the Lords battails to remove evil out of Israel for the third day they mended all Then all the children of Israel and all the people went up and came unto the house of God and wept ver 26. and
church with their best learned in points wherein the Jesuits at this day accuse us of Heresie Therefore one observed well that the Religion of Rome was like Nebuchadnezzars image the height of it was 60 cubits and the breadth was but 6 that is without any proportion for never could they make the parts of it symmetricall Therefore first we are comforted against all the enemies of our Religion their strength may be great and their malice greater but they cannot unite themselves with the bond of true Peace and the God of peace is not their tutelary God In the damnable conspiracy of the Powder-traytors God by one of themselves diverted the Treason I deny not but Turks have had many great prevailings against Christians Papists against Protestants and their confederates have held fast with them So had Moab and Ammon Geball the Assirians Philistines the Chaldeans against Israel But God found a time to consume these Nations by their own strength and their own confederates were the ruine of them We have heard that war is one of the sore judgements wherwith God scourgeth offendors At this time a great part of the Protestant Church is hostilly attempted with war we have many of our countrymen noble generous and valiant voluntiers engaged in that cause I hope we shall do a charitable Christian duty to God and them to pray God to cover their heads in the day of battaile to beseech him whom Job cals the preserver of men to save them from all evill Thou Lord preservest man beast do thou save them let their eye have its desire upon their enemies And for our selves we say O Lord be gratious unto us we have waited for thee be thou their arme every morning Isa 33.2 our Salvation also in the time of trouble God is called Lord of Hoasts and so he can master his enemies the stars in their courses by their influences the Elements fire as in Sodom ayre as in the Pestilence in Davids time water as in the deluge earth as in Corahs transgression to smite sinners He can punish man by Frogges by Flyes by Lice by Grasse-hoppers and such like armies of his Yet he chose to destroy the army of the Midianites by themselves rather then by any other means The Lord set every mans sword against his fellow throughout all the hoast Jud. 7.22 He could have employed other executioners to have done vengeance upon blaspheming Senacherib King of Assyria but he would shew that no bonds of society or nature can hold them together whom God hath not joyned Therefore it came to passe as he was worshipping in the house of Nisâ—ock his God Isa 37.38 that Adrameleck and Sharezer his sons smote him with a sword 2. We are therefore taught to unite our selves in the Lord by the bonds of â—ue love for all other bonds will be like the new cords wherewith Sampson was tied break in sunder and we shall cast them from us The great friendship that is made by bribes cannot be sincere for 1. The receiver of them knowes that his love is a dear penny worth to his friend it is not a gift but a perquisite and therfore he cannot call it sure 2. The giver knoweth his mony not his love made the friend and if this friendship bear him out of the hands of justice his conscience will still tell him that his money not his innocency acquitted him if this friendship prefer him his conscience within him will say that his money not his worthinesse hath advanced him Therefore the frienship thus made is not sincere But they whom Religion and the fear of God doth unite are of one heart and of one soule here is no lack of any thing Acts 4.32 if any of them may supply it the wounded man shall have both the oyle and wine of the Samaritane out of his vessels and the help of his hand and of his beast and of his word and of his purse Our Saviour Christ saith Go thou and do the like How can we say we are neighbours when we are so far from healing our brethrens wounds that we rather set them into a fresh bleeding and open them wider we rather make more in the whole and sound flesh we rather take away their oile and wine and beast and money wherewith they should help themselves and instead of putting them into an house we take their houses over their heads and expose them to stormes The God of peace sanctifie us throughout that his peace may knit us together in him Doctr. 4 Those who trust in men have no understanding Here on earth we do much value the wisdome and judgment of man by his choyce of adherence and dependance and we judge them unwise that addresse themselves to such as cannot either support them as they are or put them on farther But the word of the Lord saith there is no understanding in Edom to trust in man and the Psalmist Non relinquat hominem he adviseth Trust not in Princes nor in any son of man for there is no help in him God goeth farther in my text there is treason in him subducet auxilium super inducet exitium He will bring thee to thy uttermost borders and there he will leave thee Jun. reads Cujus vulneris non erit intelligentia as pointing out so great a plague upon Edom ut ipsam nequeat mens humana comprehendere nedum curare arte intelligentia Joannes Draconites readeth the text thus Ante proderis hostibus quà m animadvertas But the sense is easie God censureth them for fools that put their trust in man For God himself saith they commit two great evils They forsake God the Fountain of living waters Jer. 2.13 and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water The Philistims trusted in their great Champion Goliah 1 Sam. 17.10 and they desied the hoâ—st of Israel and despised David the Aramites sent Israel word that the dust of their land should not be enough to give every one of their Army an handfull 1 Reg. 20.10 The reason of this folly is the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them that beleeve not 2 Cor. 4.4 for Satan worketh strongly in the children of disobedience he hath strong illusions for them to make them beleeve lies They that trust in lying vanity saith Jonah do forsake their own mercy It is a lying vanity to trust the false gods of the Heathen Deut. 32.38 God upbraideth the Apostate Jewes so Let them rise up and help you let them be a refuge It is a lying vanity to trust in any confederacie against God It is Gods woe Woe to the rebellious children that take counsell but not of me that cover with a covering but not of my spirit Isa 33.1 that they may adde sin unto sin That walk to go downe into Egypt and have not asked at my mouth to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh and
them be as they that is equally culpable Upon this evidence we find the Church of Rome guilty of the Powder-Treason it was secretly animated and abetted by them and they prayed for the successe thereof 2. The cruelty of the eye this is twice here urged ver 12. v. 13. For the eye of humanity doth abhor the sight of Murther To look on and behold the wrongs done to our brethren in their life or goods is murther and theft Hagar was so tender that when her son Ismael was ready to perish for want of water she cast the child under one of the shrubs And she went and sate her downe over against him a good Way off Gem 20.15 16. 2 Sam. 20.12 as it were a Bow-shoot for she said let me not see the death of the child The sight of Amasa murthered and weltring in his blood in the way was a stop in the way of Joabs Souldiers and all the people stood still It was a grievous sight and troubled souldiers men used to acts and sights of death for Amasa was a worthy Captain They looked on in condolement not in rejoycing It is reported that after the Massacre of the Protestants in France on the Bartholmew-night following the Queene-Mother with many others went out to behold the dead carcasses and having caused the body of the Noble Admirall of France to be hanged upon a Gibbet they went out of the City to feed their eyes with that spectacle God will one day require the blood of those men at the hands of all those whose cruell eyes delighted in that spectacle For thou shouldest not have looked on thy brother in the day of his affliction with cruel eyes With compassionate eyes we may so it is foretold of the Elect They shall see him whom they have pierced and shall mourn for him Zech. 12.20 So Mary and Iohn saw Christ Crucified and Christ invited to that sight have ye no regard all ye that passe by see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow But when the ungodly of the earth perish there is joy as the Wiseman saith It is one of the comforts of the Church against the enemies thereof And they shall goe forth Isa 66.24 and looke upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their worme shall not dye neither shall their fire be quenched and they shall be an abhorring to all flesh And David saith Psa 92.11 Mine eye also shall see my desire upon mine enemies These be speciall executions of wrath upon the ungodly but the generall rule of charity doth convince that eye of cruelty which beholdeth the blood of man with joy shed on the earth and the law of piety doth sind that man guilty of marther that looketh on whilst an Egyptian smiteth an Israelite which Moses could not endure to see for as Seneca Oculi augent dolorem the eye encreaseth sorrow He slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand Exod. 2.12 This is no example for imitation for lookers on to become gamesters of a sudden How justifyable that fact of Moses was I will not now dispute the point is Moses could not look on and see wrong done to an Hebrew It is a cruel eye that can see a neighbour suffer injury in his person or in his goods and will passe by and not give him help It is a cruel eare that will suffer a neighbour to be scandalized in his good name and will not open a mouth to defend him If thine eye so offend thee Christ adviseth thee to pul it out and cast it from thee When Pilate had caused Christ to be cruelly whipped he brought him forth to the people to shame him openly saying Ecce homâ— behold the man hoping that their eyes satisfied with that lamentable sight of his stripes would have cryed enough let him go But this gave their eye a new appetite to see more and they cryed out Pro 3â— 17 Crucifie him Crucifie him Those eyes that hunger thus Let the curses of Agur the son of Jakeh fall on them Let the Ravens of the valley pick them out and let the young Eagle eat them 3. The cruelty of the heart They rejoyce over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction This also is murther to joy in the destruction of our brethren though we put neither hand nor counsel to it This evidence doth pronounce the Church of Rome guilty of that murther in the cruell Massacre of Paris under Charles the ninth before mentioned wherin by a cunning pretence of friendship there were destroyed 30000 Protestants For after the Massacre there was a solemn Procession throughout the City and that this was the joy of the whole Church of Rome we may avouch it from the testimony of the head of the Church For Gregory 13 hearing of it caused all the Ordnance of his Castle of St. Angello to be shot off in token of joy and a Masse to be sung in St. Lucies Church for honour of the exploit And the Parliament of Paris enacted it that in honour therof every yeere on St. Bartholmews day should a solemn Procession be observed through the City of Paris The Cardinall also of Lorrain in a publike Oration magnified the fact and caused Monuments thereof to be erected Far be it them from us who carry the names of Christians to rejoyce at the sufferings of our brethren for this is murther Let Roman Christians teach Turks and Indians and Massagets to be barbarous let their mercies be cruel for so would they have joyed if their Powder-Treason had sped But as deare brethren let us put on the bowels of compassion and love and tendernesse Let not us rejoyce in the ruine of their persons that are executed for hainous prevarications of the Lawes of the kingdome but rather gush out rivers of waters for them that keep not the Law The punishment of sin is the joy but the destruction of the person of the sinner is the griefe of all them that feare God The heart is a Principall in murther for out of the heart cometh murther and an evil eye to look upon it It proceedeth from a corrupt and cruel heart when we passe by and regard not the afflictions of our brethren to relieve them as the Samaritan did but when we rejoyce over them as Edom here did and make our selves merry with their sins or their punishments our hearts are murtherers of our brethren and when he cometh that will one day make inquisition for blood he will remember the complaint of the poore The God of our Salvation is called the God of mercies and the father of all consolation If we be sons of this Father Be you mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull love as brethren comfort the heavy-hearted strengthen the weake bring him that wandreth into the way and let not thy brothers blood cry from the earth for vengeance against thee There is vox sanguinis a voice
of blood and He that planted the eare shall he not heare It covered the old world with waters the earth is filled with cruelty it was vox sanguinis that cryed and the heavens heard the earth and the windowes of heaven opened to let fall judgement and vengeance upon it The joy that the Jewes had at the death of Christ what sorrow hath it cost them ever since they have gone like Cain with a mark upon them stigmatized and branded as murtherers and they are scattered upon the face of the earth 1600 yeers almost deportation have they endured and who cries now it is time for the Lord to have mercy upon Sion The author of the three conversions of England writes a congratulatory Epistle to the Catholiques in England rejoycing at the timely quiet death of Queen Elizabeth in a full age full of dayes and full of honour and telleth them that they have as much cause of joy as ever the Christians had in the Primitive times for the death of the bloody and cruell Emperours This candle of the wicked was soon put out for ere that Epistle could come to them our gracious King was Proclaimed the heyre of her Crownes and of her Faith 4. They are charged with the cruelty of the tongue verse 12. Neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of their distresse This is another kind of breach of the Law non occides thou shalt not kill to speak proudly or as the Originall doth expresse it to make the mouth great or wide against our brethren in their distresse For they animated the persecutors of their brethren in the day of Ierusalem Psa 137. and said raze raze it even to the foundations thereof They opened their mouth wide in cruelty or as Ezekiel speaketh for them Moab and Seir did say Behold the house of Iudah is like unto all the heathen Ezek. 25 8 i.e. God taketh no more care for them then for any other people It is one of the provocations wherewith God was provoked against Edom Because thou hast sayd these two Nations and these two Countries shall be mine Ez. 35.10 and we will possesse it though the Lord was there He accuseth them of Anger and Envy against those two Nations i.e. Israel and Judah so called because the Land was divided in Jeroboams time into two kingdomes Anger and envy are by our Saviour declared to be murther and the tongue is called by David a sharp sword the poyson of Aspes is under their lips it is the bow out of which they shoot for arrowes bitter words Thou hast loved all the words that may do hurt Verba be verbera Venite percutiamus eum lingua Jer. 18.18 Jam. 3.5 6. Come let us smite them with the tongue said the enemies of Jeremy and Saint Iames saith there is ignis in Lingua a fire in the Tongue Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth The tongue is a fire a world of iniquity so is the Tongue amongst the Members that it defileth the whole body and it setteth on fire the course of nature and it is set on fire of hell It is an unâ—uly evill full of deadly poyson There is that speaketh like the purcings of a Sword 1. In their anger they spake cruelly Pro. 12.18 instigating their enemies to destroy them 2. In their pride they spake insolently expressing their inward joy at their ruine by speeches of scorne and disdaine and of triumph over them The Iewes are a fearefull example of this in their processe against Christ for they cruelly said Crucifie him Crucifie him not him but Barabbas If thou let him goe thou art not Caesars friend And after tauntingly when he was upon the Crosse to him he saved others let him save himselfe to his Father Let him now save him if he will have him Which how deare it cost them let their owne tongues repeat their judgement Sanguis ejus super nos filios nostros his blood be upon us and upon our children it was so ever since and as God wrote the crueltie of Amaleck in a Book and vowed never to forget So even unto this day he remembreth what that Amalek did to Israel the desolation of their City and Temple the glory and pride and praise of the earth their miserable dispersion to this day is a certaine testimony of Gods unappeased displeasure to them Sarah saw Ishmael working he doth not say she heard him peradventure it was but a scornfull or proud looke that she observed but it is understood that he scoffed him with some words of disdaine that he should be the young-Master and heire of the house And this provoked Sarah to solicite his casting out of the house and the Apostle doth call it persecution and a kinde of murther Beloved do you know that cursing is murther do you know that bitter and scornful slandring which toucheth the good name of a brother is murther do you know that every word you speake to animate and encourage any against a brother is murther do you know that those reviling speeches which anger venteth in your common scoldings and reproachfull railings one upon anoâ—her and that secret and private whispers wherewith you deprave one another be murther Saint Iames teacheth you Jam. 4.11 That he that speaketh evill of his brother and judgeth his brother speaketh evill of the Law and judgeth the Law That is he declareth himselfe to be above the Law and takes upon him to judge for he that judgeth the Law and thinketh that the law of God doth not bind him to obedience he is not a doer of the law but a judge Christ saith he that saith to his brother satue thou foole is obnoxious to hell fire Let us all judge our selves by this Law and we shall finde that we had need to take heed to our wayes that we offend not with our tongue it is no easie worke to governe the tongue it asketh care and caution David himselfe must take heed That was the lesson Pambus found so hard that it was enough to take up his whole life And in our anger and fury we do little thinke upon it that By our words we shall he judged by our words we shall be condemned and if of every idle word we shall give an account to God how much rather of every angry word of every lying word of every spightfull and scornefull word every cruell and bloudy word of every prophane and blasphemous word This is commonly the revenge of the poore for when they have no other way to right themselves against injuries they fall to cursing and imprecations Saint Iames telleth you Jam. 1 26. If a man among you seems religious and bridleth not his tongue he deceiveth his owne heart this mans religion is in vaine And againe Jam. 3.2 If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able to bridle the whole body It is a Master-peece â—o â—â—â—eene the tongue What