he hath given you which is greater the opportunity or occasion of laying out your abilities A good commodity and a good penny-worth are as great a benefit as a good purse Lastly he hath given you which is greatest of all an heart to give g 1 Chron. 29.12 13 14 15 16. David praiseth him for all these three for riches to build for an house to be built for God and for an heart to lay out those meanes in that worke all these three for one yee have freely received Math 10.8 and therefore freely give I shall adde but a word more 't is to mind you that the exiled Saints which sojourne amongst you are the chiefe auxiliaries of this City Flying Lot did preserve that City which preserved him and was a Zoar unto his owne Zoar so these men doe line your workes and double the files of all your Regiments and that partly by their presence but chiefly by their prayers for the continuall safety honour and happines of this great City which hath been the fountaine of Liberality and the Atlas of Parliaments and in this prayer he heartily joyneth who doth subscribe himselfe Your Servant in the Lord Iesus Jo. Bond. Savoy Ian. 20. 1644. Occasus Occidentalis OR JOB IN THE WEST JOB 19.21 Have pity upon me have pity upon me O yee my friends for the hand of God hath touched me WEE are met together this day Introduction from the to weepe over the bleeding country of our nativity and in our weeping are forced to imitate banished Hagar in the holy History Let us looke a little upon her example Gen. 21.15 16. and borrow thence a bucket or two to set our pumpes a going It is said of her And the water was spent in the bottle and shee cast the Child under one of the shrubs and she went and sate her downe over against him a good way off as it were a bow-shoot for shee said Let me not see the death of the Child and shee sate over against him and wept Loe there a tender mother weeping over her gasping child here forlorne Children inforced to mourne over the dying mother the bottle of all our helpes and hopes being quite exhausted There Hagar had the sad priviledge to be neere her departing Ishmael if shee pleased and shee went and sate her down over against him But wretched we are driven off at the distance of some scores of miles beyond the sight and cries of our dearest brethren However let us not suffer our selves to be deprived of that last priviledge namely to lift up our voices and weepe To helpe us in this seasonable and necessary dutie I confesse it cost me some time and labour to find out a sufficient Text for I thought with my selfe that a single verse nay some one particular Chapter of lamentation would bee too narrow a field and circuit for a full discourse of our ample miseries but it must needs bee a whole volume some booke of sorrow to make up a Text broad enough to take in all our notes and so at last the choice was easie namely either out of the Lamentations of Jeremy or out of this booke of Job This latter I have chosen the rather because it doth not onely hold forth the sore but also the salve it shewes us both the miserie of Job and the issues thereof How aptly this Easterne historie doth parallel our Westerne subject will easily appeare if we consider either the Occasion or Division of this Booke First â—ccasion and as for the occasion some doe conceive that it was written by Moses while he led the people of Israel in the wildernes to teach them selfe-submission and holy contentation by setting before them the patience of Job and the end of the Lord. And so St. â—â—m 5.11 James doth apply this patterne Behold we account them happy which endure You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitifull and of tender mercie Thus Iobs patience may be our patterne and that end of the Lord our incouragement Others are of opinion that Moses did pen this holy poem for such it is generally in Midian to cheer up his country-men the Israelites under the yoke of their Egyptian bondage And thus also the whole book is a proper lesson for our selves and Counties Or Parts of this Booke viz. if you consider the parts of this volume its fitnesse for our use will yet more evidently appeare in that the whole book doth hold forth unto us the threefold condition of Iob which is parallel to the three spirituall estates of every saint First here is Jobs status constitutus or institutus if I may so call it his primitive condition and that is very holy very happy It is expressed in the first five verses of the first Chapter This is Jobs full-sea and it may be compared to mankinds state of innocencie in paradise which was in perfect holinesse and perfect happinesse The Second is his status destitutus his declining middle estate of calamity This is set forth from the fifth verse of the first Chapter to the last Chapter Now was his ebbing-water and it may be compared to the lapsed or fallen condition of man in Adam The Third is his status restitutus his condition of reparation more prosperous and happy then his beginning throughout Chap. the last Now it was spring-tyde or the highest-water with him And this is like to the sanctified and glorified estate of the Saints in heaven Our native West hath long injoyed the first of these and is now suffering the second why may it not like Iob arrive in the conclusion to the last and best of all O let us cry mightily for that Third condition this day The lot of my Text and of our Countrie at present are fallen a like upon the second and saddest of those Three generalls Coherence even upon Iobs destitute afflicted tormented estate which is set downe very pathetically in this whole Chapter from the beginning to my text In the Chapter immediatly foregoing Bildad the Shuite and his fellow physicians doe draw a false conclusion against Iob from true premisses for according to the common Logick of the vulgar they doe therefore conclude him wicked because he was wretched In this Chapter the holy man doth labour to confute their inference Analysis of the Chapter as also to move his friends to a more charitable construction and a more serious consideration of his extream suffering and to that end he doth spread before them in this Chapter an exact map of his present miseries and afflictions As ship-wrackt men of old were wont to describe the whole figure of their wrack in a painted table which they dayly shewed up and downe to move compassion in the beholders In this table of Iobs sufferings First he complaines that he is destitute of succours 1. Complaint and comforts from God above
Ianuary 20. 1644. Imprimatur Ja. Cranford Occasus Occidentalis OR JOB IN THE VVEST As it was laid forth in two severall SERMONS at two Publike FASTS for the Five Associated Westerne Counties BY Iohn Bond B. L. late Lecturer in the City of Exon now Minister at the Savoy London A Member of the Assembly of Divines Job 19.23 24. Oh that my words were now written oh that they were printed in a booke That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever Lament 1.12 Is it nothing to you all yee that passe by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger London Printed by J.D. for Fran. Eglesfield and are to be sold at his Shop at the signe of the Marigold in Pauls Church-yard 1645. To the Right Honourable the Committees for the Five Westerne Counties of Wilts Dorset Somerset Devon and Cornwall Associated by the Ordinances of Parliament of July 1. and August 20. 1644. Right Honourable Right Worshipfull and Beloved Men Fathers and Brethren HAd I but beheld as a Traveller the stript wounded halfe-dead condition of the West and so had passed by on the other side I might for that fault have been reckoned with the mercilesse Priest and Levite in the Gospel Luke 10.30 c. even worse than a Samaritan but besides the common tye of humanity there are many speciall bonds of Nature Justice Religion which doe constraine me to poure-in the utmost of my little oyl and wine to the wounds of those Countries yea and to lay out these my two pence mites rather in this paire of Sermons towards their reliefe First the lot of my Nativity did fall unto mee a Chard neare the center of those five Westerne Counties betwixt sea and sea betwixt East and West and the two largest of them I may call my b Somerset Mother and my c Devon Nurse so that the whole is according to the d Municipibus duas esse censeo patrias unam Natura alteram Civitatis Cicer. de Leg lib. 2. Oratour doubly my native Country This consideration did move me to e Isai 51.1 look unto the rock whence I am hewen and the hole of the pit whence I was digged I have observed that even a clod of earth hath so much of nature in it as will carry it strongly towards its owne native element and center Next Justice and Equity did call upon mee for mine owne eares and eyes have been present witnesses to divers Scenes of this Westerne Tragedy so that concerning the Substantials of this Treatise I may generally say in truth f Ioh. 3 11. Wee speake that we doe know and testifie that wee have seen and yet the same cares and eyes of mine have heard and seen too many aspersions that have been unjustly cast upon the people of those Counties as most unworthy of all pity g Juven Et quis iniqui Tam patiens orbis I may adde lastly a tye of Religion even that Charge of a Watch-mans office unto which though most unworthy I was called in those parts And this office hath not onely given mee the advantage of prospect above some others in this businesse but hath laid upon mee the duty of pleading for my Country with God and man as also of giving the Alarum both to it and to other places All these relations besides the calling which I had from some of your selves and many others have enforced me to the preaching and publication of this worke though I must confesse that in respect of the meannesse of mine owne abilities it may bee reckoned amongst the Westerne miseries that they are set forth by so weak an Oratour But better a meane friend than none at all Besides I thought with my selfe that the h In causâ sacili cuivis liâ—â—â— c. Copia of the Subject might supply the narrownesse of the Speaker And the occasion is so just and necessary that if every man should hold his peace the very stones might cry out There is an history of a son who though he was dumb from his birth yet when he saw one about to kill his father cryed out Villain wilt thou kil my Father And you know what beast it was that did speake with mans voice when the drawn sword was before him The common mother of all the children of the West is now a massacring therfore good warrant yea great need I conceive there was for some man and in case of none other for my selfe to speake write and Print the Map of her miseries Next as for the inscription of your noble Names upon it I must confesse I durst not thinke upon any other Patrons for are not yee the finest of the wheat-flower which the Western enemy like a Sieve or Range hath bolted and driven out of your Country whil'st generally the bran and huskes are by them preserved and left behind Are not yee the crop of that very small remnant Isai 1.9 which except the Lord of Hosts had left unto us in the West we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah Yee know right Honourable and beloved that those Cities of the plaine might have been spared for ten righteous persons yea Gen. 18.32 they were once rescued by the Militia of one righteous Abraham and his family and after that Gen. 14.16 one of the five Zoar was saved by one righteous Lot so we that are the inferiour exiles and Pilgrims of the West do looke upon you next unto God and this Parliament as our Abrahams which must rescue our Country by armes as our Lots which must authoritatively reforme and preserve it in which there are so many precious Saints under the enemy so many poore soules under darknes and according to this your double worke of Rescue and Reformation and our double hopes of them both is this following Treatise proportioned for it doth partly spread before you the sins partly the sufferings of the West the former our sins you may read over as ye are the Representatives and do beare the iniquities of your Country that so they may continually mind and quicken you in the work of Reformation the latter our sufferings you may be pleased to peruse as an help to continue your great activity in sending down succours for which all the well-affected of those parts have already abundant cause to blesse the Lord and to honour your Names There are also in this Treatise a true though too narrow Vindication of the West from some unjust aspersions and a Directory for an effectuall way of commiserating those most afflicted Counties If your leasure will permit you to read thorough the Booke you may in it travell Westward with safety and I hope with profit All the rest that I have to say is but as one that hath been sometimes a Chaplaine to the
laid against us Object 1 The Westerne folke will some say are an unworthie people Answ Beware of drawing sinfull inferences from sorrowfull premisses by concluding that such a man or people are wicked because they are wretched sinners because sufferers This was the false sophistry of Iobs three friends for which the Lord doth as it were enjoyne them penance Iob. 42.7 8. and amerceth them in the end of that book Nay this was the barbarous Malta-logick of those Islanders amongst whom St. Paul was cast ashoare at Mâ—lita And when the Barbarians saw the venemous beast hang on his hand Acts 28.4 they said among themselves No doubt this man is a murtherer whom though he hath escaped the Sea yet vengance suffereth not to live But when he shook off the beast into the fire Vers 5. they did as easily change their opinions to the other extreame and indeed none are more light and lavish in applauding then those which are most rash and severe in censuring But this fault I find may overtake the disciples themselves â—â—h 9. â— 2. When they saw a man that was blind from his birth they asked Iesus Master who did sin this man or his parents that he was born blind Christs answer telleth us that the Lord hath many other principall ends and causes for afflicting his people besides their sins as there his end was that the works of the Lord should be made manifest Vers 3. so in Iobs case he meant to set up a paterne of patience and of the reward thereof And in that of Paul he intended to honour the person and ministery of his servant in the eyes and hearts of the Barbarians Object 2 But the Objector chargeth againe telling us that Cowardise and Covetousnesse lost the West Answ I might first answer generally in the words of an * Iraset qâ—an donaâ—e vilius conslat Mart. acute Heathen that it is more cheape and easie to fall out with the distressed then to relieve their distresses But I will speake particularly to the severall charges of Cowardise and Covetousnes First to that of Cowardise I could returne many answers viz. 1. To the Charge of Cowardise 1. Who is he I pray you that is the God of the spirits of all flesh whose prerogative it is especially in war-like actions both to heighten the spirits of the faint and to flatten the courage of the mighty And when did the Lord so evidently and ordinarily exercise this his spirituall prerogative as in the present warres of his people in this Land Doubtlesse brethren it is not all Cowardise and treachery which we doe commonly call so in these times though I confesse there hath been too much of both sorts almost continually amongst us and I could wish that the extraordinary finger of God in this spirituall particular might be more observed and acknowledged 2. Secondly remember that those Westerne combustions did begin with the present generall and publike warres So that it was then the very Tyrocinium of all our Souldiery the first and suddaine shooting of Guns in earnest at which it is common even for valiant men a while to winke at the firing and to startle at the report of an Ordnance these and such-like allayes might be given But 3. Thirdly I doe answer by denying that charge of Cowardise upon that * At Minedip Hills in Sommerset about 30000. Commons appeared at once for the Parliament in the beginning against the Generallny of their Gentry In Devon at 2. several times at least 10000. each time all completely armed and paid by the same County And great forwardnes in the rest of the Counties Cornwall it selfe not excepted Country as unjust and for proof of that deniall could easily bring forth a whole cloud of publike and reall witnesses as the numerous frequent free appearances of great armies of common people upon slender summons or rather upon bare leave to appeare their willing tedious attendances at their own charges and begging permission to fall on c. And all this amidst often and heavy discouragements Some Counties going on against the streame of those which should have been their Leaders but did destroy the way of their Pathes Others had such Leaders as as would have caused them to erre Isai 9.16 yea as would have guided them as that Prophet led the blind-fold Syrians into Samaria instead of Dotham yet still the poore willing Commons leaving both the Kings high-way and their Malignant Gentry continued appearing waiting marching and fighting though in many places like sheep without a shepheard untill it hath pleased the Lord out of his secret Counsell and for our sins to give us up as a prey to the will of our enemies 2. To the Charge of Covetousnesse Secondly for answer to the charge of Covetousnesse aske of others and they shall tell you Aske the publike and private Treasurers for Ireland-subscriptions both gifts and adventures for the Parliament Propositions and for our own particular Westerne warres and fortifications all these will abundantly certifie you But as that proportionist did draw the whole stature of Hercules by the print of his foot so I could give you out of one of those five Shires best knowne to my selfe a guesse of the cordiall munificence of the whole 150000â— out of Devon Exon. Beside their sufferings If many scores of thousands have been laid out by one single County then admire the vast expences of all the five But it is still objected Object 3 Your enemies were few and contemptible at the first Alas Answ so were the enemies of the whole Kingdome at the beginning perchance fewer then ours remember the little cloud at Nottingham and by that you may see Secondly that the race is not to the swift Eccles 9.11 nor the battell to the strong but time and change happeneth to them all saith the wise Preacher especially thirdly when the Lord of Hosts createth trouble to a sinfull people and giveth commission to his revenging sword to passe through a Land beleeve it then they are not all your strength and counsell power and policy that can sheath up or keep off such an enemy But why did you lose so vast Object 4 so rich so populous a Country so easily Answ I answer First 1. doubtlesse the meritorious causes were our sins and the safest construction and best application that we Westerne exiles can make of our sufferings will be to take up that of lamenting Jeremiah Lament 3.39 Wherefore doth a living man complain It is a mercy that we are men and not beasts that we are alive this day and not fallen among the slaine a man for the punishment of his sinnes that is the Lord hath done us no wrong we doe suffer justly yea mercifully for our trespasses Let us search and try our waies and turne again to the Lord That is selfe examination and selfe-reformation Verse 40. are our most proper and profitable