to keep him from attaining the perfection thereof So Eve deceived her self for when God gave her Issachar her fift son Ge 30.18 she said God hath given me my hire because I have given my maiden to my husband Wherein she deceived her self for by adding one wife more to the number of Jacobs Wives she did violate the state of matrimony vvhich in the institution vvas in these words I will make him a help meet for him not helps and so Adam understood it Gen. 2.24 for he said A man shall forsake Father and Mother and cleave to his wife not wives and they shall be one flesh Which lest the friends of Poligamie might understand of many wives Christ citing this place addeth by vvay of interpretation And they twaine shall be one flesh Mat. 10.8 So Saint Paul understood it Mat. 19.5 1 Cor. 6.16 two shall be one flesh So the Prophet Malachy understood it for charging his people with this sin of breach of Wedlock he speaketh as to one man Thou hast dealt treacherously against the Wife of thy youth Mal. 2.14 yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy Covenant And did not he make one yet had he the excellency of spirit and wherefore one that he might seek a godly seed So that this giving of her maid to her husband was no good service done to God that she should expect wages it was rather a trespass of vvedlock hovvsoever it pleased God to dispense vvith it in the fathers of former ages but our rule is quomodo fuit in principio hovv vvas it at the beginning for vve knovv that he vvho had abundance of spirit could have created many Wives for Adam if he had thought it fit and then for the encrease of the seed of man and the speedy peopling of the vvorld there vvas more need of Poligamy then vvas ever since I urge the fallacy here Non causa pro causa So Micah vvhen he had made him gods and gotten a Priest into his house flattered himself Now I know that the Lord will do me good Judg. 17.13 seeing I have a Levite to my Priest This vvas Idolatry one of the greatest provocations of God to anger that could be yet he vvould flatter himself that this vvould turn a cause of his vvel-doing These three examples do sufficiently open our sense to perceive the cunning of this fallacious suggestion in ourselves The Doctrine of merit vvhich the Church of Rome teacheth is a naturall Doctrine as God said to Cain If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted it is true that God accepteth even vveak services from us but as vve say it is more of his courtesie then our deserving if vve call it vvages that he giveth us in revvard vve over-ween our ovvn vvorks And this is a special sin vvhervvith God doth punish the sins of the ungodly in the Church of Rome the seat of Antichrist as the Apostle plainly describeth it God shall send them strong delusions 2 Thes 2.11 that they should believe a lye They believe that to be the cause of their salvation that is not The reason of this Doctrine Reason Why vve must fasten upon the true cause of Gods favour to us is Because faith not rightly grounded is not faith but presumption True faith can find no rest but in the assurance of Gods goodnesse to us God doth many favours to the vvicked here in this life vvhich he doth not for any love that he beareth to them but for the use that he maketh of them to vvhip and scourge others by them as for example God to Ezekiel Son of man Eze 29.18 Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel caused his Army to serve a great service against Tyrus every head was made bald and every shoulder was peeled yet had he no wages nor his Army for Tyrus for the service that he had served against it Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold I will give the land of Egypt unto Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon and he shall take her multitude and take her spoile and take her prey and it shall be the wages for his Army Because they wrought for me 1â— saith the Lord God Here is the King of Babylon doubly rewarded with successe and victory against Tyrus with the possession and spoile of Egypt not for any favour that God did bear to the King of Babylon but to punish the iniquity of Tyrus and of Egypt Let not Nebuchaduezzar boast of the favor of the Lord that he set him a work and paid him his wages the sins of these ungodly people not the goodness of God to the King of Babylon did all this We see daily that the vvicked do compasse about the righteous the poor Church of God bleedeth in many places of Christendome the enemy proscribeth imprisoneth beheadeth hangeth cutteth out the tongues smiteth off the hands of Gods faithfull Servants and deviseth nevv tortures to make death more terrible and more painfull This svvelleth the enemies of God vvith pride and they impute all this successe against the Church of God to the love of God tovvard them and the justice of their cause is mainteined by the Jesuits abetments and acclamations But thus did Babylon prevail against Gods ovvn Israel for a time the distressed part of the Church vvhich groaneth under these burthens doth not hang the head for this They knovv that their sins have deserved these rods they have had the light and have not vvalked vvorthy of that light therefore is this evill come upon them yet let them take courage and say Why beastest thou thy self in mischief thou mighty man Psal 52. â— the goodnesse of God endureth continually there is our Selah the rest of our musique this is the joy of the Churches harvest And great is the profit of this point Vse 1 1 When vve have found the true cause of Gods favours to be in himself and not in us we may assure our selves that his mercy endureth for ever for his gifts and calling are without repentance 2 A greater comfort then this is that godlinesse hath not onely the promise of this life but of the life to come also 3 We may rise in comfort a degree higher to assure our selves that this favour of God will give us our fruit unto holinesse for these go together Gods love to us and our comfort and hope in him for this fruit Rom. 6.22 as the Apostle joyneth them Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father 2 Thes 2.16.17 which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good help through grace Comfort your hearts and stablish you in every good word and work This blessing of the Apostle doth shew that when the love of God is setled there followeth grace and expressure of his favour that bringeth forth inward consolation of the spirit present good hope for the time to come an establishing of the heart in holinesse This I name as the
serpent for Christ calleth the vvicked genimina viperarum generation of vipers and to such he saith Vos estis ex patre vestro Diabolo you are of your father the Devill John 8.44 For this Rupertus saith that the Bible is called the Book of the battails of the Lord Num. 21.14 because it conteineth the story of the vvars betvveen these tvvo the Church and the vvorld From this enmity vvhich God put betvveen the Church and the vvorld ariseth this hatred and opposition so that the prosperity of the vvicked is Davids grief the miseries of David be the vvorlds joy the joy of the Church is the affliction of the vvorld God left the Devill in his fall and took him not up again thereby forsaking him he put enmity into him and he for the hatred that he beareth to God hath ever since persecuted him in his Church because his malice cannot extend to hurt him And herein he is the more cruel because he knovvs his time is but short Satan is but Gods instrument in the afflicting of the Church so it is said to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna Reas 2 Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison Revel 2.10 that ye may be tryed and ye shall have tribulation ten days He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour If he be kept from devouring he biteth and rendeth and doth vvhat hurt he can for he is a murtherer but if God shevv the light of his countenance to them vvhom he pursueth he is sick of that mercie and so are all the tents of Cushan the vvhole brood of vipers have this venome from the old serpent to be afflicted at the prosperity of the Church For instance I vvill prevent the time David saith one day telleth another and one night certifieth another To morrovvs memoriall teacheth this day this vvas the vigill of that popish holy day vvhich the same Papists here at home and many beyond the seas hoped to have made festivall to all posterity The children of darkness had provided to put out our light to quench the light of our Israel it was an affliction to the Papists to behold religion and peace setled under the government of a learned King who knew what he believed and why and who had discovered himself an enemy to their Antichristian and hereticall synagogue They saw a fair issue ready for timely succession so gratiously seasoned with the salt of heavenly wisedom from the first of their capacity and apprehension that there remained no hope for their politique religion to finde footing in these Churches Their flourishing state of Church and Common-welth was such an affliction to them that some Zealots of their Religion the sons of thunder could no longer contein themselves but their study was how to put their grief upon us and to transfer our joy upon themselves They shewed us the vvay of their rejoycing their mercies vvere cruel nothing could remove their grief at our vvelfare but the destruction of the head and body root and tree and all in a day And they that vvould have destroyed us thought and the Jesuites and Priests of the Roman Faith taught them to believe that they should do God good service We see the mercies of that religion so clearly in this horrible Treason that all that knovv and serve the God of peace have just cause to esteem Papists disloyall subjects secret enemies to the State bloudy persecutors of the Gospell of peace Our stories are full of their malice vvrackings imprisonments starvings burnings hangings and many exquisite torments executed upon innocent and holy Martyrs But vvhen vve remember the Povvder-Treason that calleth all the tormentors of the Church before them mercifull the Devill did never roar so loud before the Buls of Rome never bellovv'd such terrour to the Church as in that damnable and desperate attempt The provocation vvas their affliction at our prosperity and griefe at our vvelfare again this venome of the generation of vipers boiled over and they that bore evill vvill to our Sion sayd one unto another Catosby to his confederates I have bethought me of a way at one instant to deliver us from all our bonds and without any forriegn help to replant the Catholique Religion which is to blow asp the Parliament house with Gunpowder for in that place have they dohe us all the mischief and perchance God hath designed that place for their punishment for this striketh at the root and will breed a confusion fit to beget new alterations What alterations could be here meant but those that Job felt that our Land and Church might complain Thou hast turned my Harp into mourning and my Organs into the voice of them that weep How did they swallow up the joy of this change in hopeful expectation of successe but the children came to the birth and there was no strength to bring forth Their own fear came upon them For it was Catesbyes own Lenvoy to his revealed Treason But saith he If this take not effect as most of this nature miscarry the scandal will be so great to the Catholick Religion as not onely our enemies but our friends will with good reason condemn us Thus did their minds mis-give and abodements of evil did secretly call upon them to fly from the anger to come This diverted them a while from this execution and put them into a new project Thomas Winter was sent as his confession under his own hand reporteth to inform the Constable of Spaine then coming in Ambassy from the King of Spain to our Sovereigne of the state of the Catholicks in England and to entreat his mediation to solicite our King for the revocation of some penall laws and the admittance of the English Catholicks into the ranke of his other Subjects Winter met with him at Bergen neer Dunkirk and by the meanes of Owen an apostate Traitor he had accesse to him mooved him in his suite and had a fair promise from him to do all good offices in that errand But Owen discouraged that hope saying that he believed nothing lesse and that they sought onely their own ends meaning the state of Spaine holding small accompt of Catholiques Owen animated the Treason and promised to send Faux over to help to set it forward From thence Winter went to another of our fugitives Sir William Stanley to Ostend where he asked his opinion whether if the Catholiques of England should do any thing in England to help themselves the Arch-Duke would second them he answered no for all those parts desired peace with England After all these despairs they had no remedy to cure their disease of envy at the gratious peace of this State but their powder-plot in which none but profest Papists within the land had any hand None that we can discover but Priests and Jesuites here or abroad did blow the fire No forreign Prince hath the dishonorable name of privacy with it or abetment of it onely the
the Prophet will give God no rest till he heare and answer for the Prayer of the just if it be fervent prevaileth with God zeale is an holy fire the flame of it ascendeth to heaven and penetrateth all the passages till it come to God Cold and perfunctory devotions intermitted and given over do not prevaile with God they please him best that use most violence for the kingdome of heaven suffereth violence 3. Vnto thee he directeth his prayers aright for Baals Priests may cry from morning to night may cut and lance their flesh and make many signes of zeale and earnest importunity without successe because their God heareth not his eyes see not his ears hear not his hands handle not there is no breath in his mouth to give them answer But the cry of the Prophet went up to God who beholdeth ungodlinesse and wrong that he may take the matter into his own hand Thus farre we have seen what the Apostle did 1. He cried 2. He cryed loud 3. To God 2. What cause had he to cry For violence this is fully and largely exprest in the second part of his contestation with God ver 3 4. I therefore only observe here two things 1. That he complained not without great provocation for violence was Gods own complaint and quarrel against the old world The earth is full of violence Gen. 6.13 and behold I will destroy them with the earth It was Gods quarrel against Edom for thy violence against thy brother Iacob shame shall cover thee Obad. 10. and thou shalt be cut off for ever 2. We consider where this violence was not of Esau against Iacob but of Iacob against Iacob as Isaiah describeth it Every man eating the flesh of his own arme Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh Isa 9. ult and both of them against Judah Civil and Domestick warres in the bosome of the Church grievances and vexations one of another these differences it is likely that the Prophets had laboured to compound and used all meanes to settle Peace there but it appeareth that they prevailed not therefore he complaineth 3. With what Successe 1. Thou wilt not hear the Cry of the Prophet was to awaken the Iustice of God to chasten his People for this violence for so desperate was the disease of the Church that they needed the sharpest Physick to heal it even the rod of God to correct them Yet God is so slow to wrath and so long-suffering that he would not hearken to the voice of his Prophets as yet to pull his hand out of his bosome though they said with David It is time for thee Lord to put to thine hand 2. Thou wilt not save 1. Thou wilt not succour them that suffer violence against the hand of their oppressours as his not hearing is to be imputed to his mercy and patience so his not saving is to be imputed either to his wisedome putting his children to the trial of their faith by afflictions or to his Justice making one of them who have corrupted their wayes a rod to scourge the other neither of them being as yet worth the saving till he had humbled them The text thus cleared the doctrines which grow upon this stemme and first branch of the Prophets contestation are these 1. That the weapons wherewith the holy servants of God do fight against sinne are their Prayers to God 2. That one necessary ingredient in our Prayers is earnestnesse and importunity 3. That the zeal of Gods glory and the love of Peace cannot dispense with tumule and combustion in the Church of God 4. That God sometimes suspendeth the desired successe of the earnest Prayers of his most faithful servants when they do pray according to his will and doth not heare them by and by Of the first of these first 1. Doctr. The weapons wherewith the holy servants of God do fight against sin is their Prayers I find that this People to whom God had sent his Prophets rising early and sending them were grown incorrigible and therefore even the Prophets that loved them and wished them well having no other way to reform them were now put to it to pray against their violence to God They that had wont to stand in the gap to turn away ingruent judgements do take such offence at their ungodlinesse that they are put to it to pray to God against them Thus Ioseph carried the evil report of his brethren to his father and made them to be shent wherein he did a brotherly office to seek their Reformation The spleen of Habakkuk is not against the Persons of his brethren they are not so much as named here he cryeth out of violence And so Saint Paul saith The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse of men David did thus in a case of violence Psal 109.3 4. They compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without cause For my love they are mine adversaries but I give my selfe unto Prayer Ego oro Quaere How doth it stand with the rules of charity to complain to God of our brethren and to stirre up his indignation against them Sol. I confesse that this asketh an especial tendernesse in the servants of God for to begin here without using other means to reclaim our offending brother may shake the walles of our charity and may accuse us of want of love therefore all those ways of charity must be first tried as to admonish privately or not speeding so joyn another with thy self in the private chiding of his sinne after failing to communicate the matter to the Church If all these supports which we do owe to our brother will not keep him up then let him be as an heathen and then is Davids Prayer in season Let the heathen know that they are but men But in my text here was the body of the Church diseased the members parts of the body in armes one against another only some few of Gods holy servants lived with grief in their righteous souls to behold the ungodly conversation of men nefariously wicked and carelesse of religion therfore what other way was left them but that of David I will yet pray against their wickednesse take away their ungodlinesse and thou shalt find none The Prophets and Seers of former times have had speciall Revelations of the Will of God concerning the ungodly of the earth whereby they might as boldly use imprecation as deprecation or supplication We that come short of their measure of the spirit must not dare to go to the farthest extent of their liberty in Prayer to pray against our brethren only thus farre we may with Habakkuk cry out unto God and make our moan to him for violence 1. Committing our cause and the care of our safety unto him as to a faithful Creator and so the care and safety of our brethren 2. Desiring God to bring to an end the wickednesse of the ungodly and
to finish their sins This serveth 1 To settle faith in God and to seeke our repose only in him in all crosse opposals because he is the sunne and shield and there is no rest but in him he only over-ruleth all and evacuateth the counsels and frustrateth the works of wicked men He only shall bring it to passe 2. This serveth to reprove the means that are in use amongst us to reforme sinne as we pretend but they are unlawful and ungodly 1. By publick blazing and detecting of offenders to put them to open shame in the world for the losse of a good name doth more often harden a sinner and cause impenitency then reclaim him for what hath he to boast that hath lost the good opinion of men love covereth a multitude of sinnes and therefore that is an evil tongue that is the trumpet of anothers shame It is charity to make the best of every thing 2. The same offence is committed in private whispers and secret detractions and the fault is aggravated by concealing our selves as unwilling to justifie our accusations 3. By cursing and bitter calling upon God for his vengeance on them that offend if the offence touch us or our friends for God knoweth without us who to manage his judgments and cursing it returneth and smarteth at home For the Apostle saith it twice Blesse Curse not 4. By publike playes and interludes to represent the vices of the time which though it were the practice of the heathen which knew not God but afarre off yet in Christian-states it is no way tolerable nor justifyable to act the parts of evil doers since the Apostle saith it is a shame to name them much more to act and personate them 5. By private conceived libels after divulged by secret passage from pocket to pocket from one bosome to another for which the devisers thereof have no warrant and to which they have no calling 6. By Satyres and Poeticall declamations for who hath sent these into the world to convince the world is it not to put the spirit of God out of office who is sent to convince the world of sinne And who but the Lords Prophets have warrant to lift up their voyces like Trumpets to tell the house of Jacob their sinnes Every Emperique man may not professe and practice Physick There is a Colledge of soule-Physicians who have a calling to this purpose and are sent to heale the soars of the People 1. By their diligent preaching of the World of God to them 2. By drawing against them and exercising upon them the sword of Ecclesiastical discipline 3. By continual prayer unto God to give end to their sinnes whereby they do trespasse God and good men 3. This serveth to discourage men from doing evil for fear of offending the Prophets and Ministers of the Lord whose righteous souls cannot but be vexed to see their good seed cast away upon barren stony or thorny ground For howsoever basely and unworthily we be deemed if the incorrigible iniquity of men do put us to it to move Almighty God by our earnest prayers against them they shall find that as Iob can do his friends good by his intercession because he is a Prophet so the Lords Ministers may awake judgement against such as go on still in their wickednesse and will not be reformed 2. Doctr. Our Prayers must be importunate The Prophet cried yea he cried out to the Lord. This importunity is exprest two ways 1. In the ardency and zeale of his Prayer it was not oratio a Prayer but vociferatio a crying 2. In the continuance of time How long Thus must we pray with fervour of spirit our tongue is the piece of Ordnance our Prayer is the shot the zeale of our heart is the powder that dischargeth it and according to the strength of the charge such is the flight of the shot Niniveh cryeth mightily to God Christ our Saviour cryed earnestly to his father Jou 3.8 yea with strong crying and tears Salomon spred his armes abroad the Publicane beat his breast Christ fell on the ground David said My sighing is not hid from thee Psal 38.9 The Israelites weeping is thus described They drew water and poured it out before the Lord. The Holy Ghost doth not furnish us so much with words and phrases in Prayer as with sighs and grones which cannot be exprost Paul prayed three times against Sathans Angel Abraham moved God six times for Sodome Nehemiah had so spent himselfe in watching and prayer for his People that the King observed his countenance changed Beloved it is not Prayers by number tale as in the Romish Church nor Prayers by rote or by the ear perfunctoriously vented in the Church and for custome said over at home It is not much babling and multiplicitie of Petitions or vain repetitions that will send up our Prayers to heaven Though you stretch out your hands I will hide mine eyes from you Isay 1. and though you make many Prayers I will not heare you The Pharisees wanted powder to their shot for they prayed in their Synagogues and in the corners of the streets but as God saith Quis requisivit ista Who required these things The soule that actuateth and animateth Prayer is fervor spiritus the holy zeal of him that prayeth 2. Duration of time is another testimony of zealous importunity when our prayer is not a passion but a deliberate and constant earnestnesse holding out as the Apostle saith Pray continually not as the Euchites to do nothing else but to entertain all occasions to conferre with God and to prostrate our suites before him Christ spent a whole night together often in prayer Dan. 10. David day and night Daniel 21 dayes together during the time that he ate no pleasant bread and was in heavinesse Jonah three dayes and three nights in the belly of the Whale made it his Oratory and Chappel from whence he prayed to the Lord. If our soare runne so long we can pray whilest we smart or if our necessities do presse us to importunity we can hold out long for our selves But in my Text the cause is Gods zeal and Gods glory cannot contain it self in the cause of God 3. Doctr. the Lords people do break his Law and will not be reformed the Prophet of the Lord cannot stand and look on as in the next verse he doth and see the glory of God thus suffer but he must awake in the cause of God to bring him to correction So David Rise Lord and let thine enemies be scattered let them that hate thee flie before thee And thus for Gods glory sake we may with reservation of those that do belong to the election of grace pray to God earnestly for the confusion of all Sions enemies and of all that would faine see Jerusalem the true Church of God in the dust Shall our servencie and heat be only for our selves if it be the grant of our requests doth quench