he saith to me he must have the warrant of his own mission from a special illumination of his own understanding or else his Trumpet will never give a certain sound 4. This bindeth the hearer to affection For if the spirit speaketh to the Churches then qui habet aures audiendi audiat he that hath ears let him hear Est Deus in nobis God is in us they do not flatter us as they did Herod and we shall never die of the wormes for receiving that testimony of our Ministry if we deal faithfully that say of our preaching The voice of God and not of man for Saint Paul testifieth of the Thessalonians For this cause also thank we God 1 Thes 2.13 because when ye received the Word of God which yee heard of us yee received it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also on you that believe Beloved it is true that we that are now the witnesses of God have not that open accesse to him that the Prophet had to receive immediate instructions from his own mouth But Christ saith Sicut misit me Pater it a ego mitto vos as the Eather sent me so send I you And he telleth his Father how he hath provided for his Church till his second coming I have given them the word which thou gavest me Iohn 17.8 and they have received them and having so done he said unto them Ite docete Go and teach When thou comest then to Church and hearest Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms which was the Manna wherwith God fed the fathers before the incarnation of Christ when the Veile of the Temple was up remember what Abraham said to the rich man Habent Mosen Prophetas audiant eos They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them that is the way to keep out of hell When thou hearest the voice of the Sonne of God in the Gospel the Veile of the Temple being torn from the top to the bottome Christ now reveiled to thee with open face Take heed thou despise not him that speaketh to thee in the Ministry of a mortal man this is a treasure which is brought unto you in earthen vessels value the vessels at their own worth in themselves but yet regard them above their worth for their use for they bring you the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Enough to make you wise unto salvation sufficient to beget faith in you by which you may overcome the world enough to make you perfect throughly perfect to all good works This is done by our Ministry if you will hear God in us and what would you desire more then to be taught how to become wise and honest for such are not afraid of the Parliament and say with Saint Paul With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you 1 Cor. 4.3 or of mans judgement 2. The vigilancy of the Prophet I will stand upon the watch Amongst the great titles of honour and service that are given to the Ministers of the Word in Scripture this is one they are called Watchmen It is Gods word to Ezechiel Ezek 3.17 Sonne of man I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me which is repeated in the same words chapt 33.7 as the Margent of the Kings Bible directeth you This correspondence must be between God and his Minister for if God do make us watchmen over the house of Israel then with Habakkuk we must stand upon the watch Let not us plead the trust of God committed to us except we can plead our faithfulnesse in the discharge of that trust This is indeed an honour done to the Prophets and Ministers of the Church to commit the Church of God to our care but the burthen of this care to keep watch is exceeding great A necessity is laid upon me and wo be to me if I preach not the Gospel Here be two things in this office 1. To watch 2. To give warning 1. Some can watch but they can give no warning Ministers of good and preaching lives but not apt to teach which Saint Paul requires in his Ministers Of whom Saint Hierome saith Innocens sine Sermone Conversatio quantum prodest exemplo tantum nocet silentio 2. Some will sometimes give warning but they cannot always watch Preach learnedly when they preach but they have not learnt out all their lesson of the Apostle Cave tibi doctrina in his Persta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Continue in these things it requires incumbency as the Law calleth it 3. But if we will do our duties we must do both some would fain do both and cannot get a watchmans place there is none void For be the People never so empty yet Ecclesia est plena the Church is full All is not well that way the Church complains and they that have laboured abundantly to enable themselves for this watch are too much searched and examined too narrowly for their gifts Others have a watch but they do not with the Prophet stand upon it either they sit at ease or they sleep it out soundly this Prophet promiseth to stand in readinesse for action and execution of his charge Beloved many will not beleeve it but we feel it if we make conscience of our duties in our calling that our vocation is laborious this watching in all weathers and this robbing of our temples of their timely rest to attend the watch over your souls as those that must give an account to God for our selvs and for you is an honourable burthen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is sufficient 1. Vigilat hostis The enemy watcheth he compasseth the earth to and again he goeth about like a roaring Lyon he is ever either reaching out an Apple of temptation as to Eve or stretching our an arme of provocation as to the blessed Virgin gladius pertransibit animam tuam We must keep you waking that he bring not upon you the spirit of slumber we must awake you if you sleep in sin that he surpize you not Custos Israelis non dormit the keeper of Israel slumbreth not Alexander lies down to sleep without fear because he leaves Parmenio his faithful counsellor waking David will lay him down in peace and take his rest seeing God doth make him dwell in safety Dominus dat dilectis suis somnum Yet let us observe two things concerning our sleep for the Apostle saith Therefore let us not sleep as do others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 5.6 as unbeleevers Lyranus qui sunt increduli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are left out of the Church and out of Gods fold to the world let us not sleep so how then 1. Before our sleep let us take Davids example for our Donec until I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to
obedience 63. 77. so are all God's promises to his children page 78 God can make good use of the vices of men and make wicked men serve for instruments of his will page 66 God is author of all actions but not of the evill of them page 73 God fore-knoweth the sins of men page 86 Gods certain knowledge of our evils will bring forth a certain judgment to punish them page 89 Gods love to his Church is eternal as himself is page 95 God is sooner stirred to mercy then provoked to anger page 100 God loves to be sollicited for mercy page 101 God is eternal in himself in his Essence and eternal in Providence in respect of his Creatures page 104 Ged is holy therefore the punishments of his Church are for its correction only page 105 Gods children in afflictions are not discouraged in their faith of Gods mercy page 107 God is author of punishment page 108 Gods eyes are pure page 110 God is a sincere searcher and punisher of sin and his justice and truth cannot fail page 113 God will have his Church taught his ways in all ages thereof page 154 Gods promises run in semine page 154 God signifieth his will in divers ways p. 167. and his will is twofold page 169 God taketh offence at such as are lifted up page 188 God is the author of faith page 208 Gods care and providence stoopeth so low as to the regard of our cattel page 325 God is to be worshipped outwardly as well as inwardly p. 335. 344 God is glorified in the shame of the proud page 280 God bringeth all the labours of the ungodly to losse and vanity yet the ungodly perceive it not page 289 God walketh with the righteous and contrary to the unrighteous page 291 God is glorious and jealous of his glory page 296 Gods creatures and his word are two books wherein his wisdome is set forth to the soul page 301 God punisheth sin by sin page 321 Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of the life to come page 42 Good covetousnesse 263. Evil covetousnesse is joyned with ambition page 264 Greatnesse and power are fearful to the common man yet he will search into the actions of the highest page 262 Grief mingled with faith is no sin page 49 H. HAbakkuk signifieth an embracer a wrastler 2. The time of his prophecie is not exprest pag. 2. Hatred a cause of contention pag 26 Hearing the word profiteth nought without faith pag 209 Hearing and understanding the word is a means to increase faith pag 209 Hearers ought to pray for their teachers pag 144 Heathens gods not jealous of their glory pag 299 He that willeth the same thing as God willeth and doth the same thing God would have done sinneth unlesse he doth it in the same manner and for the same end which God projecteth pag 76 How far we may complain to God against our brethren pag 15 How God is said to have eyes and other parts of a mans body pag 111 and how he is said to see hear c. pag 73. ch 3 How God is said to repent pag 165 How Gods righteousnesse is revealed in the Gospel pag 237 How drunken folks are said to discover their nakednesse pag 314 How man ought to carry himself in his dominion over beasts I. IDolatry defined and described pag. 328 Idolatry a grievous sin pag 329 Idolatry amongst Christians pag 330 Idolatry in the Church of Rome in worshipping the consecrated Host pag 333 If to omit a duty be a sin the committing of a contrary evil must needs be abominable pag 312 Ill-gotten goods bring such a sin upon a man as cannot be purged but by repentance and restitution pag 293 If we find in our selves an elevation above our pitch it is a certain Symptome of a diseased soul pag 191 Image-worship crept into the Church of Rome by little and little pag 332 Imprecations forbidden pag 17 Infirmities of Gods servants twofold pag. 48 Inordinate zeal what it is pag. 53 Iniquity knoweth no measure pag. 84 In all our considerations of the carriage of things under the Government of Gods Providence howsoever the effects may seem strange to us we must not question either the Wisedom Justice or Goodnesse of God pag. 117 In the Church of God there will always be some will argue against God pag. 147 Inconveniences of Rapine pag. 277 Ingredients of a saving faith by a dissection of the word Fides pag. 187 It was no small part of Christs Passion to be scorned and derided of his enemies pag. 258 It is a singular wisedome to use the fulnesse of prosperity well 83. and a great measure of grace is required thereto pag. 84 Judgment beginneth at the house of God pag. 65. and 179. ch 3 Just man defined pag. 185 Justification by faith only pag. 237 K. KEeping silence a signe of reverence and submission pag. 327 Knowledge of Gods glory an excellent knowledge 300. and the pursuit of this knowledge is a labour which well rewardeth it self pag. 301 M MAlice may be in looking into the vices of brethren though it pretended desire of Reformation pag. 21 Man is mutable God unchangably just pag. 78 Man in mercy cometh neerest Gods image pag. 99 Mans state in his innocency pag. 213 Man is but earth and gold but clay pag. 248 Men and Angels have their Eternity from God pag. 103 Means to get an upright soul pag. 192 Mercy the soul of the world pag. 100 Ministers may in general reprove sin but not particularize any man pag. 54 Ministers ought to be first Seers and then Speakers pag. 139 Ministers must not only watch but also give warning pag. 142 Ministers must maintain Gods cause against all contradictions pag. 143 Ministers ought to open to the Church of God the whole Councell of God pag. 156 Ministers have a necessity laid upon them to preach the word pag. 211 N. NO man simpliciter Atheos but acknowledgeth some divine ruling power pag. 89. and 328 and 80. ch 3 No man would do service where nothing is to be gained by it pag. 329 No inherent holinesse in Churches pag. 339 Not that as we have but what we dispose of maketh us friends in the day of the Lord. Nothing ought to be so dear to us as the glory of God pag. 300 O. OCcasion of offence to be avoided pag. 33 Oracles ceased at Christs coming pag. 175 Original sin what it is pag. 216 Outward things unsanctified to the Owner have no power to establish the heart pag. 84 Out of natural and moral ways of life there is a wisedome of God to be learned pag. 123 Overcharge of the heart with drink is drunkennesse pag. 306 P. PApists idolaters pag. 331 People without a Ruler are unhappy pag. 114 and 124 Prayer ought to be fervent and continual 18. as well in zeal of Gods glory as for our own necessities pag. 19 Prayer what it is pag. 31 Prayer is a help to him that
my bones are out of joynt Ps 2.14 my heart is like waxe it is melted in the middest of my bowels Thus the perturbations of griefe and fear and the passions of anguish are exprest The quivering of the lips which hindereth speech sheweth a man overcome with anger fear or grief so doth The generall disabling of the body as if the parts thereof the brains and sinews suffered luxation and debilitation And the earth-quake in the whole frame thereof and the distemper of the man within us I trembled in my self that is the inward man the hid man of the heart felt this anguish of grief and fear and all this trepidation and terrour had this good effect following That I might rest in the day of trouble For of sufferance comes ease this fear of the heavy hand of God is but a fit for faith followeth it and consumeth it and setleth the heart in a yielding to the mighty hand of God and that giveth rest in the day of trouble that day is also described When he commeth up unto his people he will invade them with his troops Either when God cometh or when the enemy whom God shall employ in the execution of this judgment cometh he will invade his people that have rebelled against him and are fallen away from him with troops that is hee will come upon them with a full power to make a full conquest of them This day is is further described in the verse following Verse 17. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines Hâ—b 3.17 the labour of the Olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stals IN which words he supposeth the worst that may befall to the land that God should not onely as before carry away or destroy the inhabitants thereof although he should smite the land it self with barrennesse that neither the fig tree nor the vine should relieve them nor the olive nor the fields nor the foulds yet the Church will not despair of the loving kindnesse of the Lord toward them This land so long promised to the seed of Abraham so long expected and at last by them possessed is much praised in Scripture God himself calleth it a good land and a large Exâ—d 3.8 a land flowing with milk and honey And so the spies that were sent to search it brought word num 13.9 and they brought of the fruit and shewed it to the people Again for the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land Deut. 8.7 a land of brooks of water of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hils A land of wheat and barley and wines and fig trees and pomegranates a land of oil olive and hony A Land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarcenesse thou shalt not lack any thing in it a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hils thou mayest dig brasse It was one of the miracles of the earth and the full blessing of the Lord was upon it for the land was small both in length and breadth as all the Charts thereof describe it For from Dan to the river of Egypt which is somewhat further then Beersheba it was litle more then three hundred miles which was the length of it and in the broadest place thereof it was not an hundred yea do I put it in this accompt all the land on this side Jordan the portion assigned to Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh Yet did it contein two great Kingdomes of Judah and Israel and in Davids time there were numbred in it thirteen hundred thousand fighting men 2 Chron. 24. which cannot in probable computation be more then a fourth part of the people seeing aged men women and children and all undertwenty years of age are not reckoned and this land fed them all much is said by heathen writers of the fruitfulnesse of this land and as great a wonder is it of the change thereof now for travailers do report it at this time to be a barren and unfruitfull land it is in the possession of Gods enemies and David saith A fruitfull land maketh he barren for the iniquity of the people that dwelt therein De verbis hactenus of the words hitherto The parts of this Section are two 1 The fear of the Church 2 The misery of the Land In the first I observe also three things 1 The cause of this fear 2 The fear it self 3 The effect hereof In the second the misery of the land It is distrest in the three great commodities of life 1 In the trees yielding fruit 2 In the soil yielding corne 3 In the flocks yielding encrease 1 Of the fear of the Church and therein 1 Of the cause of this fear in these words When I heard The commination of Gods judgments Doct. doth make the Church of God to fear 1 Because this openeth to man his conscience and declareth to him his sin for we know that God is gratious and mercifull and long suffering and hideth his hand in his bosome his mercy doth often pull it out and openeth it and he filleth the hungry with good things his mercy stretcheth it out often to gather together his chosen to defend them from evill to stay and support them If his indignation do pluck it out it is a sign that sin hath provoked him and therefore we read what of old was the practise of the Church If there were any judgment abroad presently they made search for the sin that had provoked God to it for they knew him so just that he will not smite without cause God taught Joshua this when the men of Ai smote the men of Israel and made them to fly before them Joshua went to the Lord to make his moan and God told him Israel hath sinned And so there was a present search made by the commandement of the Lord throughout all Israel to finde out the sinner and Achan was defected In like manner when Saul had made a vow that none of his army should tast any food till night and Jonathan not hearing of the commandement had eaten a little hony upon the end of his rod hee went to advise with God concerning the pursuit of the Philistines by night and God answered him not wherefore Saul said Draw you neer hither all the chief of the people 1 Sam. 14.38 and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day And this is so naturall a quest as that whosoever do acknowledg a divinity cannot but upon the sense of judgment or the fear of it presently conclude God offended with some sins So the Mariners in the great storme in Jonah said every one to his fellow Come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evill is upon us Jonah 1.7 The confideration of Gods judgments do breed fear in respect of God whose
Prophet of the tribe of Iudah and another of the tribe of Levi that heard the cause of Susanna and Ribera a Iesuite two Habakkuks But we lose time in this question for they that have not the light in the word do go in the dark and they that go in the dark know not whither they go The best use of this is to limit our search to the holy Canonical Scripture and to take all our light from thence so shall we not go astray 2. The function of this man is set down in the name Of a Prophet that is a man enlightned by divine Revelation to understand the will of God in some things and appointed to declare the same Secondly the manner how he came to it Vision that is divine Revelation assuring him of the truth of Gods will so fully as if he had seen the same with his eyes accomplished De his consule conciones super Obadiam Thirdly the matter of the Prophecie the Burden In which two questions are moved 1. Why this Prophecy is called a Burthen 2. Whose burthen this is To the first it is called a burthen in respect 1. Of the sin here punished which is onus a burthen 2. Of the punishment here threatned that is onus 3. Of the Word of God threatning that is onus 1. Peccatum onus Sina burthen 1 Deo to God 2. Hominibus to men 1. Onus deo A burthen to God God complaineth of the sins of his People that they are a burthen to him Behold I am prest under you as a cart is prest that is full of sheavs The very service that these sinners do seem to perform to God is a burthen to him as he complaineth Your new Moons your appointed feasts my soule hateth they are a trouble unto me I am weary to beare them Hierom. Laboravi sustinens So the Prophet Malachie complaineth Ye have wearied the Lord with your words Mal. 3. â—7 yet ye say wherein have we wearied him When yee say every one that doth evill is good in the sight of the Lord and he delighteth in them or where is the God of judgement Three things weary God 1. When we multiply our own sins 2. When we tender God service continuing in sin 3. When we justifie sinners and flatter them in their sins as though God had accepted them 2. Peccatum onus est hominibus Sin is a burthen to men Christ calleth none to him but such as are weary of this our-then of sinne to such he promiseth refreshing Ask the first sinners if they found not their sin their burthen when they hid themselves from the presence of God Ask the first murtherer if any place were safe for him who thought and said that whosoever met him would kill him They that think that Lamech kild Cain read the text occidi hominem in vulnus meum Ask Iosephs brethren when they saw their sad constraint in Aegypt both at their first coming to buy corne and after the death of their father if the trespasse against their brother Ioseph did not lie heavy upon them Ask the tender conscience of any of Gods children if any weight or burthen be like unto that of the body of sinne and if he do not cry with Paul Quis liberabit me Who shall deliver me Till we come to this to feele the burthen of sinne and to be weary of it we are the sons of wrath and every man may call himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A wretched man Here is pride and vanity cloathing of us here is gluttony and drunkennesse feeding of us here is the mouth full of evil words the hands of violence or bribes giving or taking the day the night the yeare spent in pleasure and recreations Gods Sabbath is neglected Gods Word not regarded he time served the humours of sinful men observed and when these thingâ— are no burthen to the bearers thereof there is wrath gone forth from the Lord against them and if timely repentance do not stand in the gap it will break in upon them that do such things like a flood and no man shall escape that is pursued by this judgement Let me therefore entreat you to hear a word of exhortation Give not the members of your bodyes servants to sinne Give not for indeed what have you to give seeing you brought nothing with you into the world and what have yee that you have not received or if you will needs be giving hands off give not the members of your body for your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost or should be if you would give so comfortable a guest welcome or if you will give your bodies away do them not the wrong to put them out to service for they are bought with a price the dearest pennyworth that was ever bought their liberty cost the binding their sanitie the breaking their ease the smart and aking their life the death of the holiest body that ever lived upon earth Or if you will needs give your body a servant let it not be to sin for that is ponderous in the weight noysom in the stinch bitter in the smart the burthen of sinne is the wrath of God Here let me awake your thankful hearts to an acknowledging consideration of that great redemption performed by Jesus Christ to his Church who came to take this burthen upon him and to ease us of it Agnus qui tollit peccata the Lamb that taketh away sins from us that he might wash us in his bloud upon himself he bore our infirmities and God made the iniquitie of us all to meet on him He did not rob us as Israel did the Egyptians of our jewels of silver and jewels of gold he only took our infirmities and our sins from us and whereas once we might have said with Cassiodore Quantitas delicti mensura est repudii the quantity of the fault is the measure of the judgment for by our sins we might have taken measure of the wrath and judgment of God now there is an unsâ—aled height an unsounded depth and unbounded bredth of love which hath said to the Church of the whole burthen of sin Cantantes ut eamus ego hoc te fasce levabo let us sing as we go I will ease thee of this burthen 2 The punishment here threatned is a burthen to man 1. Homini Issacher under his double burthen saith that rest is good he found rest amongst his burthens But there is no peace to the wicked man a sinner that hath any sense of sin will say as David Non est pax ossibus meis propter peccatum There is no rest in my bones because of my sinne he was so overcharged with the fear of Gods judgments that sometimes he doubted that God had forgotten to be mercifull and that he would be no more intreated Who can stand in thy sight when thou art angry I can tell you who could not stand not the Angels that kept not their first estate heaven was
bounds we are taught that they whom God employeth without their knowledge and Privity do only seek their own ends neither is God in all their ways 3. As this passing over signifieth the short joy of their victory so it teacheth that an ungodly man can never be an happy man nor a sinful man a wise man for in short time he will lose that what he hath unjustly gotten for though God intended the taking away of the Iews land from them he intended it but for a time he meant the Jews a sharp chastisement not an eradication I understand those words of a cessation from any further prosecution of this warre against the Jews for he shall carry away some captive into his own land and the meaner sort he shall leave behind to husband Judaea and so shall cease And this doth strengthen our former doctrine that those whom God useth as instruments of his Justice shall at length desist God will not suffer them beyond his decreed time 3. They shall offend Let no man mistake this place as if God did lay upon them a necessity of offence but he doth out of his Prescience foretell that they will offend God as with all their other sinnes so particularly with this their service done to him They are stirred up to this warre by God Doctr. and it is his just will to punish the Iews yet the Chaldaeans that execute this will do offend which was before proved by their evil intention and will after more appear in the close of this text wherein we have charged the action upon God and the evill of the action upon the Chaldaeans Doct. 2 2. God foreknoweth the sins of men He foreknew the fall of Adam and provided a remedy for it in his eternal counsel He foreknew the sins of the old world and provided a judgment to punish them He foreknew the sinnes of his Israel and therefore he made all his promises conditional and referred them to their obedience He foreknew the trespasse of Judas the cruelty of the Iews the injustice of the Romanes against his sonne and he made his death medicinal and cordial for his Church and a ruine to the enemies thereof the same stone which was the corner stone of the Church was a rock of offence to her enemies This is the ground of Gods Justice against the Chaldaeans in the next section of this chapter for fore-seeing how they would offend He did also fore-decree how he would punish them He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seer for all things are manifest in his sight the eye of the Lord is over all the world he seeth both the good and the bad God foreseeth offences before they be come into the hearts of men as Christ knew Judas would be a â—raitour before Judas knew it himself 2 Reg. 13.8 and God by his Prophet told Hazael how cruel he should be before Hazael was King and when Hazael though such wickednesse could not have bred in him Am I a dog that I should do this great thing And Christ told Peter that he would deny him when Peter protested against it very strongly 1. Because he knoweth the heart in which sinne breedeth and knows how apt it is to conceive sinne He knoweth whereof we be made 2. He foreseeth the temptations wherewith man shall be tempted 3. He knoweth what measure of strength and vertue is gone out from him to man to enable him against these temptations Vse 1. Let no man therfore flatter himself that he can commit any sinne so secretly that the eye of God shall escape it he knoweth our thoughts long before there can no darknesse hide us from this eye but the darknesse is as light as the day to him darknesse and light are both alike And if God foresee offences to come much more doth he remember sins past and observe sins present 2. Let this stirre us up to the feare of the Lord which is a continual putting of us into the presence of God and filleth us with fervent prayers to God to keep us from sinne either from the desire of it or from the committing of it or from the punishment of it by giving us strength to resist sinne tempting us or at least to hate the evil which we do against the law of our mind transported by the law of our members or to give us the grace of repentance that we may turn to him and break off our sins by righteousnesse and godly life This is that petition in our Lords Prayer Lead us not into temptation Which petition followeth that former forgive us our trespasses for whom God pardoneth them Satan tempteth most both because he despighteth God and because relapse into sins once pardoned is a double danger And he prayeth God not to lead him into the temptation because we must not only remember with grief the sins we have committed but we must consider with feare what sins our infirmities may fall into Into which God leadeth us by withdrawing his grace from us or from which he keepeth and preserveth us by his assisting grace The foresight of God is in respect of himself and his own perfect knowledge infallible and certain that will come to passe which he foreseeth and this is his wisedome though man have a free will to do evil yet he knoweth how far this his free will shall mislead him And for that cause he hath set such a guard of Angels about the just to keep them in all their ways that they fall not to take them up again when they fall and he hath given his word and lanthorn to their feet to guide and direct their paths Yet we may say that this foresight of God may be in respect of the means conditional and so God may foresee such an event upon some secret condition which yet by means may be prevented and not succeed A great example hereof in Davids story He heareth that the Philistims do rob Keilah David goeth against the Philistims 1 Sam. 23. and overcometh and saveth the men of Keilah Saul hearing of it armes his forces to surprize Keilah secretly David asketh of God Vers 12. Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul The Lord said They will deliver thee up Here God foresaw a sinne in the men of Keilah which was never committed but Saul had sent and God knew the corruption of the heart of those men and gave warning Here his foresight in respect of himself was certain which was that David should take this warning to escape But in respect of the successe it was conditional because it hath reference to the means of evasion So God foresaw the death of Ezechiah by his conditional will deferred but by his revealed will present and his revealed will doth not always make necessity of event but sometimes it is a warning to escape it Thus God foreseeth the spawning of sinne in mans life in the seed or root thereof which is
read and they returned saying Never man spake like that man If they that run from the word may be taken thus with a glance upon it you may soone conceive what effect it may work in those that run to it that are swift to hear that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse If they that hear or read the word immediately aliud agentes may perceive the mind of the Lord by the plain opening thereof much more they that come of purpose and run to it that come with appetite and desire after it with delight in it with purpose to profit by it and with due Preparation of the heart by earnest Prayer for the holy blessing of God upon the Ministry and hearing of it therefore quid Scriptum est quomodo legis what is written how readest thou 2. The assurance that he gives of the performance of his purpose in due time The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie Next verse It will surely come it will not tarry This is Rhetorically set down For 1. Here is veritas decreti the truth of the decree The Vision is yet for an appointed time 2. Here is veritas verbi the truth of the word it shall speak it shall not lye 3. Here is veritas facti the truth of the deed It will surely come it will not tarry 1. Decretum the Decree The Vision is here put for the thing seen as you have heard and that is the declaration of Gods just judgment in the cause of his Church against the Chaldaeans for he saith the time is appointed meaning in his own holy and fixt decree which is unchangeable 2. Verbum the Word God will speak his minde by this Vision and declare what he intendeth against the Chaldeans and therein he will deal truely and faithfully for he is truth he cannot lye For these be two Premises or Antecedents to one conclusion for we may conclude both wayes 1. The Decree of God is past Ergo veniet non tardabit he shall come he will not tarrie 2. The Word of God is past Ergo. From thence we are taught Doctr. That whatsoever God hath decreed or spoken shall certainly take effect in the appointed time The holy word of Scripture confirmeth this Indeed who should alter Gods decrees for he himself will not I may say truly he cannot change them for the Apostle saith he worketh all things after the councell of his will Eph. 1.11 And the Will of God is himself And he cannot deny him self 2 Tim. 2.13 Neither can he repent as Samuel told Saul The strength of Israel will not lye nor repent 1 Sam. 15.29 for he is not a man that he should repent And if God himself be without variablenesse and shadow of change his Will being established by his counsell and wisdom we may be sure that there is no power beneath him that can swerve him from his own ways for the wiseman saith There is no wisdom nor understanding Pro. 21.30 nor counsell against the LORD One reason may serve of this Doctrine God is equall infinite in his wisdom justice and mercie to conceive him infinite in power to do whatsoever he will and not infinite in wisdom to decree whatsoever he will do were to make him a Tyrant not a King but David saith The Lord is King and we do ascribe it to him Tuum est regnum potentia thine is the Kingdom and power for power without equall proportion of wisdom must needs degenerate into cruelty This wisdom foreseeth all things that shall be this wisdom decreeth all things that he will do which his power after in the times appointed doth performe and bring to act Against this Doctrine is Objected Object 1. Why then do so many texts of Scripture tell us that God repenteth Sometimes he repenteth of the good that he hath done for to make man upon the earth was a good work yet it is said And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth Gen. 6 6. and it greived him at his heart So to make Saul King over Israel was a good work for it was his own choise yet himself saith It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 Sometime God is said to repent of the evil that he hath done malum poenae the evil of punishment is there to be understood So after the great plague when David had made a fault in numbring the people When the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil 2 Sam. 24.16 and said to the Angel It is enough stay thy hand And concerning his Word we have frequent examples in Scripture of events contrary to the letter of his Word For example His word was to Hezekiah by Isaiah set thy house in order for thou shalt dye non vives Yet Hezekiah did live 15 years after that his word was to Nineveh by Jonah 40 days and Niniveh shall be destroyed yet yet it fel not out so and the story saith God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to them Joh. 3.10 To all we answer Sol. 1. That the Will of God that is his counsell decreeing what he will do is constantly the same and unchangeable as we have taught 2. Where it is in Scripture charged upon God that he doth repent we say with Chrysost it is verbum parvitati nostrae accommodatum a word accommodated to our weaknesse Hom. 22. in Gen. For we are said to repent when we change our mindes now the God of wisdom and power never changeth his minde but sometimes he doth change his operations there is not mutatio mentis but mutatio dextrae Exclesi as St. Aug. Paenitudo dei est mutandorum immutabilis ratio by which he without changing of his own decree maketh alterations in the disposition of things mutable This for want of understanding in us to comprehend the ways of God is called repentance and greif in God but as Aug. saith Non est perturbatio sed judicium quo irrogatur poena as Saint Paul I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh 3. I approve that received distinction of the Will of God 1. Voluntas signi of the Signe 2. Voluntas beneplaciti of his good Pleasure 1. God doth reveal his ways to the sons of men and sheweth them what he would have them do and openeth to them the knowledge and tendereth to them the use of fit means to performe that which he would have them and so it is said he would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of his Truth According to this revealed Will of God he doth offer mercy to all and he doth withall threaten judgment to such as forsake their own mercy as Jonah saith And when he seeth cause to call in either his mercy from them
of our duty permitte Deo Caetera leave the rest to God Faith now doth all that remains to be done By Faith Isaak blessed Jacob Heb. 11.20 21. and Esau concerning things to come By Faith Jacob when hee was dying blessed both the sonnes of Joseph 2. In adversity Thus it serveth to furnish us with 1. Patience 2. Hope 1. With Patience to bear the present distresse without murmuring at God David is a notable and a full example of this Faith I shall shew you him in distresse For when the Amalekites had burnt Ziklag 1 Sam. 30. and had carried away captives all the people therein and amongst them Davids two wives Abinoam and Abigael David was greatly distrest so were all the people They lift up their voice and wept untill they had no more power to weep David beside this sorrow of his losse and compassion of the losse of his people c. Feared For the people speak of stoning him because the souls of all the people were greived every man for his sons and his daughters No remedy against all this sorrow but Faith 1 Sam. 32.6 But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 2 Chor. 20. The like example of Jehoshaphat When some came and told the King of an army coming against him to invade him instead of mustering his men surveying his armour sending out for oxciliaries to resist this armie Or instead of sending a messenger to treat of peace to divert the enemy and to prevent war Jehoshaphat lets the enemy come on Vers 3. Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Juda he goes to Church and prayes O our God wilt thou not judge them for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us Vers 12. neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon thee In the very distresse to which this remedy is applied God hath threatned the Jews with an invasion by the Chaldeans he hath declared the enemy insolent and violent what shall the Jews do in the misery Observe God takes no care of the wicked let him sin let the Chaldeans do his worst to him but The just man shall live by his Faith For he shall possesse his soul in patience Beloved we hear of distresses abroad if we do but crosse the water the sword is drawen against the professours of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and they that have armes put them on to save their lives and stand upon their guard The bloody Iesuits cry to the French King of our Religion Rase it Rase it We know not how God may visit us hereafter when the light of Israel shall be quenched although there go over neitheir men nor mony to relieve the distresses of our own mothers children filios ecclesiae children of the Church such consultations are far above us yet let us pray for them to God that God would give them Faith to depend upon him and the just amongst them shall live by that Faith There is an example nearer kinne to this land the daughter of great Britaine and her root and branches for whom many a loyall heart in this Kingdom aketh in whose quarrel the honourable house of Parliament have in the name of the Commons offered to unlock all the treasures to put on armes and to adventure the lives of all faithful Patriots in the just cause of restoring them to their rightful inheritance and all such honours as their just claime shall challenge In their distresse I know no other comfort but my Text. The just shall live by Faith In a word where these three great and crying sins do raigne which in this Prophecy are threatned That is corruption of conversation when there is no honesty nor truth left amongst men but that every man studyeth the building of his own house he cares not where he hath the brick and the morter Corruption of Religion that schisme and heresie do carrie it from peace and truth Corruption of justice that honours places of service in the Common wealth and justice it self are sold for mony good men punished evil men rewarded Comfort Justus ex fide sua vivet the just shall live by his Faith 2. Faith furnisheth us with Hope That also 1. In Prosperity 2. In Adversity We have hope through Faith that God will continue his loving kindnâ—sse to us and not take away from us the light of his countenance So David Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow me all the dayes of my life Psal 23.6 and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever Observe in Davids hope two things 1. The ground of it Faith in Gods protection for that is the part of the whole Psalme The Lord is my shepheard he shall feed me he restoreth my soul In the valley of the shadow of death thou art with me Thou preparest my table thou anoyntest my head with oyle my cup runneth over 2. The means by him used to continue the assurance thereof even by dwelling in the house of God continually that is by consecrating his whole life to Gods service and worship 2. In adversities We have hope that either God will strengthen us to bear it or give issue out of it This is grounded upon that promise of God to his Church I will not leave thee nor forsake thee And if we hope for that we see not Rom. 8.25 we do with patience waite for it There is no such comfort in the sorrows and distresses of life as reading the holy Scriptures for the support of our hope For They are written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 This hope keeps the heart from breaking for building upon the truth of God it cannot be shaken 2. How Faith must be used in the Spirituall life 1. For this the Apostle doth call it the sheild of Faith and it serveth for defence against the fiery darts of Sathan to keep off the evil that is yet without us either in temptation or provocation 2. It serveth also to purify our hearts from that evil which we do bear about us in the infection thereof 3. It serveth for a provocation to stirre us up to resist the power of the enemy 1 Pet. 5.8 For so Saint Peter saith Though Sathan go about like a roaring lyon seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the faith Vers 9. 4. It serveth for victory This is the victory by which we overcome the world even our Faith 5. Many that returne out of the field victorious yet may bring home some dangerous wound that they have received in the battaile and there is another good use of Faith to cure and heal all the wounds For our Faith maketh us whole 6. It serveth for the effectuating the means 1. Hearing 2. Sacraments 3. Prayer 3. For our eternall life Faith is profitable unto all things which hath the Promise of
no divided hearts 3. Thou mistakest the cause of thy disease and thy Physitian for thou thinkest it to be some propension in thee to sin which needeth some preventing physick wheras it is a coroding plaister to eat out dead flesh yet flesh and blood hath many inventions we use to shoot another arrow after the first and like Balak try in anoth place and see if it will prosper there Vers 14. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 3. The effect Vide sura pag. IT is plaine that Gods remissenesse in the execution of his just judgments upon the proud and cruel Babylonians and the miserable face of the Church disfigured with tears her voyce hoarse with roaring for help her throat dry her heart aking and no relief appearing all this had not only made the ungodly and profane confident that there was no such thing as Providence but it appeareth by this Prophet that the faith of Gods children was staggered hereby But when God shall declare his justice against these his enemies then he shall recover his glory then shall they both know that Christ is the Lord both the oppressour shall know it and the delivered shall know it and they that are no parties to the cause of any side shall all understand The words of God in this text are full of marrow and fatness for God is rich in mercy aper it manum implet so he dilateth his favours 1. In the latitude all the earth over 2. In the plenitude the earth shall be filled 3. In the magnitude the knowledge of Gods glory 4. In the profundity as the waters cover the sea We are taught from hence Doctr. 1 that the delivery of Gods Church from the power of the enemies and his vengeance upon them doth give honour to the name of God upon earth so David we are in great misery Help us O God of our salvation Bs 79 9 for the glory of thy name and deliver us 1. Because if the wicked overcome the Church Reas 1 they will triumph against God So Moses Wherefore shall the Egyptians speak and say Ex. 32.12 he hath brought them out maliciously to slay them Rabshakeh the General of Senacheribs forces proudly insulteth Who is he among all the gods of these lands Is 36 20. that hath delivered their Country out of my hands But God delivering his Church and punishing the enemies thereof is magnified thereby Isa 37.20 as Ezechias did pray Now therefore O Lord our God save thou us out of his hand that all the Kingdomes of the earth may know that thou only art the Lord. 2. Because as the Schoole saith Reas 2 gloria est clara notitia cum laude and what doth more make the name of God known with praise then his present help to his Church his quick vengeance upon the enemies thereof The Heathen shall say the Lord hath done for them great things 3. Because this declareth the justice of God Reas 3 for First He is just and faithful in performing the gracious promises that he hath made to his Church Secondly He is just in the punishment of oppression and iniquity which his soul abhorreth Vse The use of the point is to teach us that whensoever we see the Church or any part thereof delivered from the hands of their enemies and so the righteous God taking vengeance upon them that we ascribe glory to God for the same Moses song is a good example of this duty for when the Egytians that pursued Israel into the red sea were covered and destroyed by the returne of the waters of the sea upon them Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord Exod. 15.1 for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider hath he throwne into the Sea This deliverance was a type of the final deliverance of the Church from all her enemies and therefore in Johns Vision it is said They sang the song of Moses the servant of God Rev. 15.3 and the song of the Lamb saying great and marvailous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name for thou only art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee Verse 4. for thy judgments are made manifest We have great and gracious examples at home of this our blessed Queen of happy memory Queen Elizabeth Anno 1588 after defeat of the Spanish Armado came in person to the chief Church in her Kingdom where having upon her knees devoutly given the glory of that deliverance to God she heard the Sermon at Pauls crosse and taught her people by her godly example to know the glory of God for in those dayes Spaniards loved us not and we thought it a great favour of God to be delivered from them The like publike declaration did our Soveraign that now is make of the glory of God for the deliverance of his royal person Crown and posterity the Religion and peace of the Kingdom in the last session of that first Parliament delivered by the hand of God from the bloody designe of the Papists whose Religion was also in those times thought dangerous to this Common-wealth his speech and recognition of the protection of God is extant in print And as States and great Common-wealths have their dangers and deliverances wherein as every one that is a member thereof hath their share of benefit so from every one is growing a debt of duty Isa 38.19 to acknowledge the same so that as Ezechiah faith The father to the children shall make known the truth of God So in our particular estates we have many tastes of the sweetnesse of God in our deliverances from dangers at sea on shoare from sicknesse imprisonment infamy and many other evils which annoy our life in all which God revealeth to us the knowledge of his glory and we shall do him but right to give him as David faith the glory due to his name and to invite our brethren as David did I will tell you quid Deus fecil animae meae what God hath done to my soul Seeing God promiseth to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God Doctr 2 we are taught that God is glorious and so we ought to conceive of him our Saviour hath taught us so to acknowledge in the close of the Lords Prayer Tua est gloria thine is the glory St. Stephen saith The God of glory appeared to our fathers Act. 7.2 And of this God is so jealous that he saith My glory will I not give it another Hold this fast the Devill when he tempteth us to sin Isa 42 8. Reas 1. doth not finde an easier way to fetch us about then to blemish the glory of God and to dim that to our sights and
nakednesse how he hath stripped them out of all But Saint Hierom reporteth that Nebuchadnezzar did abuse Zedechiah the King at a banquet in a very foul manner And because that kind of drunkennesse was before touched to the quick I follow Arias Montanus in the literal exposition of these words which I have before delivered that the King made his associate Kings and his Conquered enemies drunk to make him sport Which sin of his is threatned Vers 16. Thou art filled with shame for glory for this turned to the shame of the Babylonians Though Mr. Calvin expound it satiatus es probro non tuo sed alieno That the Babylonian did even satisfie himself with the disgrace done to his enemy Rather I take it for a punishment inflicted on the Babylonian that shame should come to him for this sport that he made himselfe as it also followeth Drink thou also and let thy fore-skin be discovered The Cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory This I take it was not only figuratively revenged upon Nebuchadnezzar when the glory of his Conquests ended in the shame of his transformation the most wonderful example that we do read in all the book of God The same houre was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.33 and he was driven from men and did eat grasse as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like Eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws For thus did the King continue in this shameful punishment the whole terme of seven years But literally this was fulfilled in Belshazzar who made a great feast to a thousand of his lords Dan. 5.1 and drank wine before the thousand In which drunken feast wherein the consecrate vessels of the Temple were abused in quaffing and carowsing the fingers of an hand were seen on the wall over against the King writing the doome of his shameful downfal For observe the end In that night was Belshazzar the King of the Chaldaeans slain Vers 30. and Darius the Median took the Kingdome So he did drink also and his nakednesse was laid open and the Medians came in and took away all their glory Vers 17. For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee and the spoile of beasts which made them afraid This overthrow of the Chaldean Monarchy he calleth the violence of Lebanon covering them Junius doth understand this place thus that the enemy should come upon the Babylonian with the same violence that hunters use who pursuing the wild beasts in the forrest of Lebanon having pitched their nets and tents for them do suddenly set upon them and drive them into their nets so sudden a surprize shall the Babylonian suffer Master Calvin doth give this as a cause of their punishment and understandeth the words thus that God will cover the Babylonian with shame for the violence that he offered to Lebanon and to the beasts therof forraging Judaea and destroying not only men and women in towns but the very wild beasts of the forrest of Lebanon which was near to Jerusalem So that this expresseth the cause of Gods provocation against the Babylonian and withal the comfort of the Church that God would revenge the wrong done to their land not only to the People thereof but to the very wild Beasts of the forrest De verbis hactenus The parts of this text are two 1. Peccatum sinne 2. Poena punishment 1. Peccatum in which 1 Quid potant amicum velsocium 2. Ad quid ut videant nuditatem 1. Potant vicinium 2. Faults 1. Drink drunk 2. Make drunk 1. They be drunk Drunkennesse it self is an horrible sin it is one of the fruits of the flesh Of which I tell you as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things Gal. 5.11 shall not inherit the Kingdome of heaven Drunkennesse is confest of all men to be a sinne and they that love it best and use it most will be very angry with you if you call them drunkards For it is not agreed upon as yet what drunkennesse is our statute law doth impose a penalty of five shillings upon every one that is convicted of drunkennesse Our Articles given to sworn men do charge them to enquire if there be any Drunkards in our Parishes and to present them But neither the Ecclesiastical Canon nor the Act of Parliament doth direct the inquisition by describing what Persons must be esteemed drunk I will tell you whom the Scripture denoteth Lot was drunk when he committed incest with his daughters Gen. 19. and so overgone with wine that he neither knew of their coming to his bed nor of their going from him Noah was drunk when he lay uncovered in his tent Gen. 9. these were farre spent in the highest degree Vriah the husband of Bathsheba was drunk too the text saith David made him drunk yet he was so much Master of his own thoughts and of his charge committed to him 2 Sam. 11. that he would not go home to his own house as the King would have had him Amnon the sonne of David was drunk 2 Sam. 13.28 yet it is said of him his heart was merry with wine Elah King of Israel made himself drunk 1 Reg 16.9 and Zimri his servant killed him Nabal made a great feast 1 Sam. 25.36 and was so drunken that Abigail thought not fit to tell him of the danger that his churlishnesse had like to have brought upon him till he had slept it out A King that drinketh wine is described then to be drunk when they drink and forget the law Prov. 31.5 and pervert the judgment of the afflicted So that to drink so deep as to forget the law of our lawful calling and to do things contrary to the same is to drink drunk Christ calleth the overcharge of the heart with drink drunkennesse Luc. 21 34 His word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the laying on of a burthen upon the heart For so much as we drink for necessity or for moderate refection doth cheat and refresh and lighten the heart but excessive drinking doth lay an heavy burden upon it Therefore Be not drunk with wine wherein is excesse Eph. 5.18 Now what is excesse not so much as layeth us under the Table only not so much as makes us stagger and reele as we go and taketh away the use of our memory speech and good manners But they are drunkards that sit at the wine till it inflame them Isa 5.11 Wine is allowed to warm the stomach not to set it on fire Some man excuseth himself that he drank not above his strength but was able to carry it Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine and men of strength to mingle strong drink Vers 22. This shews that all excesse in drinking which is beyond the measure which maintaineth health is
Church of Rome for it is clear that there was a time wherein there were no images at all known in the Church There were some desirous then to bring them in but the councel of Eliberis decreed that no picture or image should be brought into the Church lest it should be adored And Epiphanius finding an image painted on a cloth Can. 36. hanging in a Church rent it down and said it was against the Authority of Scriptures that any image should be in the Church Saint Origen saith of his time Con. Cels l. 7. nos imagines non adoramus we do not worship images Eight hundred years after Christ the second Nicene Councel set up images but The Councel of Franckford which was a general Councel and where the Popes Legates were present repealed it and affirme The Catholick Church doth affirme that mortal man ought to worship God not by images and Angels but by Christ our Lord. And whatsoever the practice of the Church of Rome now is in the use of them they shall never be able to reconcile the judgments of their best learned concerning them For Some condemn all divine adoration given to them some condemn external bowing before them some confesse that the ancient fathers condemned them some think their use dangerous And they which have gone farthest in defending them have done it by so nice distinctions that the common People cannot understand how to beware of idolatry themselves not understanding themselves therein Even in the administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper they are idolaters in worshipping the hoast which I prove from Cardinal Bellarmines own penne De justif lib. 3 cap. 8. Ne que potest certus esse certitudine fidei se percipere verum Sacramentum cum Sacramentum sine intentione ministri non conficiatur intentionem alterius nemo videre potest And thus much Garnet the Provincial did ingenuously confesse upon his private conference with some of our Bishops Wherefore how they can excuse their idolatry in the worship of the elevated hoast I cannot see seeing they worship they know not what Any man may easily conceive that they do carry a corrupt mind that way because in all their Catechismes set forth for the institution of young beginners they do leave out the second Commandment quite and to make up the number they divide the tenth Commandment into two Now having convinced them of idolatry which is the high sin against God and toucheth him in his Majesty and Glory we see how dangerous a thing it is to have conversation with such least we receive of the plagues due to them Though the Church of Pergamus did hold fast the name of Christ and denied not his faith yet had the Lord something against her Rev. 2.14 Because she had there them that held the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication The same quarrel had our Lord to the Church at Thyatira in which though he approved her works and charity and service and faith and patience yet he saith Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Iezebel who calleth her self a Prophetesse Rev. 2.20 to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols We have no law to favour idolatry or idolatrous meetings to masse we have severe laws against them yet it is in sight that Masse is frequented by multitudes of all sorts in the sight of Israel in the sight of the sun whence this boldnesse grows we cannot judge but from â—n negligent execution of our godly and just laws Have we forgotten 88 have we forgotten the fifth of November 1605 do we not believe experience Were not the Canaanites whom Israel suffered to live amongst them against the Commandment of God Jude 2.3 thorns in their sides and pricks in their eyes and were not their gods a snare to Israel Is not Popery a dangerous religion to the Soveraign Authority of the King setting the Pope above him to over-rule him and to deprive him of his Crown if he be not for his turn Is not Popery a profest enemy to the Religion that we professe light and darknesse God and Belial may as soon be reconciled and therefore an enemy to our Clergy who are all armed with the Word of God against it Or is it good and wholesome doctrine which the Anabaptists this last year tendred to the King Prince Nobility Judges and Commons of Parliament that Freedome of Religion is not hurtful to any Common-wealth or that Freedome of Religion depriveth not Kings of any Power given them of God The times are foule God is much dishonoured where the fault is and of whom the Church and Religion hath cause to complain is not so much our duty to enquire as to pray to God to amend all I le tell you where you shall have him 2. The punishment of this sinne is exprest in one word Vae Wo and it containeth the whole Cup of Gods indignation 1. In this life they trust in that which cannot help them 2. They invocate that which cannot hear them They trust in lying vanities and they forsake their own mercy they are taught by teachers of lies and therefore the light that is in them is darknesse Baals servants cried from morning to evening upon Baal their god to hear them and it would not do here is a double woe 1. Losse of labour 2. Want of help In the first they bewray their folly the god of this world hath made fools of them for turning the glory of the invisible God into the images of creatures But it the second they find the misery for we cannot subsist without help and they trust to idols where there is no help But that is not all the woe the Apostle telleth us that no idolaters shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven Gal. 5.20 this is terror domini the terrour of the Lord for how shall they hope to have glory witch God who deny glory to God will God give them glory that seek to take away glory from him or let them into heaven that would thrust him out Observe it in that law concerning graven images God hath more exprest himself then in any of the rest to be a God of vengeance for there is ratio legis God is jealous And there is Comminatio judicis visitabit and it goeth in descent to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him Observe he calleth them such as hate him There is a promise He will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him And I conceive this added to this Commandment rather then any of the rest because Gods Israel did most often offend in this kind by worshipping God in creatures and by performing external adoration to them which is in this law chiefly forbidden The fear of this woe hath
of the Jews shall be resetled there before the end of the world as it was after the return from the captivity of Babylon so that though there have been interruption of possession for so many years there shall be no impeachment of title but their right doth run on till the time appointed for the restoring of them Concerning the calling of the Jews and the restoring of them to the Church St. Paul hath prophecyed so plainly Rom. 11. as there can be no doubt thereof But for the restoring of them to the land of promise we have no good ground in holy Scripture 1 Because they have forfeited their estate therein which they held with condition of obedience When thou shalt beget children Deut 4.25 and childrens children in the land and shalt have remained long in the land and shall corrupt your selves and make a graven image or the likenes of any thing and shall do evill in the sight of the Lord thy God to provoke him to anger I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from of the Land whereunto you goe over Jordan to possesse it ye shall not prolong your dayes upon it but shall utterly be destroyed And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations This is not without hope for as by sin they lost their inheritance there so by repentance it was recoverable When thou art in tribulation Verse 3. and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and be obedient to his voyce He will not forsake thee nor destroy thee nor forget the Covenant with thy Fathers This proves their tenure conditional and their restitution to this land after their return froÌ„ captivity was also upon the same condition of obedience as appeareth in the words of Christ How often would I have gathered thy children together Moâ—h 23.37 38 39. even as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold the house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you you shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. That place is plain that the habitation of Jerusalem that is Domus vestra and the temple of which our God said Domus mea now become by abuse Domus vestra shall be desolate till the second comming of Christ 2 The Prophesies do speak plain Thus saith the Lord of hoasts Jer. 19.11 even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh a potters vessell that cannot be made whole again My conclusion therefore is that Though the argument drawn from the free gift of that land to the people measuring out the same to the tribes do serve to comfort their captivity in Babylon with hope of restitution yet now in these times and ever since the dispersion of the Jews for the cause of Christ this can minister no comfort at all to that nation to promise them their land again I come to matter of instruction 1 These words aime not at the generall scope of this Section in which is declared that The remembrance of Gods former mercies is a sweet consolation of present afflictions 2 Because he nameth the measuring out of the land of Canaan to the tribes the driving in sunder the nations the scattering of the mountains the bowing of the hils 1 Docemur We are taught The best form of thanksgiving is that which maketh perticular commemoration of the mercies of God to his Church or to any member of it 2 That the matter of thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of all benefits as received from the hand and free gift of God 3 From the phrase and manner of speech here used we are taught that figurative forms of speech are in use in holy Scripture In thanksgiving 1 Doct. let us be perticular in our commemoration we have Davids example for it Prayse the Lord Psal 103.2 O my soul and forget not all his benefits so he stirreth up himself to remember them to remember them all The two Psalmes 105.106 are full examples of this perticular thankfulnesse and they are good guides to such as would learn it This is necessary Reas 1 1 Because the more perticularly we recompt the favours of God to us the more we discerne Gods love to us as in the example of this people Deut. 4. Moses saith That God had done much for this people never so much for any read from Verse 32. ad finem 38. And all those favours grew out of one root Because he loved thy Fathers It is the Apostles note Ecce quantam charitatem behold how great love Sic Deus dilexit mundum God so loved the world 2 Seeing Gods temporall favours are not always bestowed in love but are made rods to whip the ungodly Reas 2 this is a certain rule that these favours of God are evermore tokens of his love to such as are thankfull for them and to none else 3 They that keep an inventorie of their receipts Reas 3 and are always reckoning and reporting the bounty of God to them shall finde that their receipts of favours have been more and greater then their issues of prayers For how many great blessings have we from God that we never prayed for so that God giveth us much more cause of thanksgiving and prayse of his name then of prayer and supplication 4 Thanksgiving is a work of justice as David Reas 4 it well becommeth the just to be thankfull and again give to the Lord the glory due to his name that is for every perticular benefit perticular prayse and thanks Thanksgiving doth put us in mind of our unablenesse to requite God Reas 5 we cannot make him amends for his favours done to us we shall finde that our wel-doing extendeth not to him we must therefore do good to all propter Dominum for the Lord. 6 Thanksgiving doth put us in mind of our unworthinesse Reas 6 as Mephibosheth to David What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a de ad dog as I am Jacob Non sum dignus I am not worthy David himself What is man 2 Sam. 9.8 that thou art so mindfull of him 7 If we will forget God will remember us as to David Reas 7 I anointed thee King over Israel I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into his bosome Domus Israel Domus Judae Surely Vse we have not well taken out the lesson of thanksgiving to God for to shuffle it up with generall God be thanked for all comes if but coldly and is a poor rependam for all the benefits bestowed upon us St. Augustine upon those words of David And forget not all his benefits saith pro quibus bonis primo quia es cum non esses sedest lapis deinde quia vivis sed vivit pecus
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
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
with their own staves As the Poet saith Suis ipsa Roma viribus ruit He declareth here the extent of the victory not onely to their walled Towns and defenced Cities but even to the Villages and Hamlets of the Land so that no part or corner of the Land escaped the hand of God or the possession of Israel but God who promised them that land gave it them and gave it all into their hands This as it hath a general extent to the whole story of Israels conquests so it may have a more perticular reference to the story of that war made in the behalf of the Gibeonites where the five Kings that made war against Gibeon hid themselves for safety in a cave at Makkedah and that cave chosen for safety proved a prison for their forth-coming and Joshua sent men to roule great stones to stop the mouth of the cave till he had finished the war Josh 10.16 and then he brought them forth and slew them and buried them in that cave Thus the head of the Villages were beaten with their owne staves and that cave which the Kings chose for their safety was first made the trap to catch them then the prison to hold them fast and at last the sepulcher to bury them Yet more perticular reference may it have to the conquest of the Midianites Judg. 7. for in that battail the Lord declared his strength for Israel mervellously for he said to Gideon their Captain The people that are with thee Ver. 2. are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands lest Israel vaunt themselves and say mine own hand hath saved me In conclusion God would have no more to go up against Midian but three hundred men Now the Army of the Midianites was great as appeareth in the former Chapter ver 33. Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East together Yet God would have no more to go against Midian but three hundred men against this great Army of whom he saith before that they came as Grashoppers for multitude Judg. 6.5 for both they and their Camels were without number And they had much vexed and impoverished Israel as the story saith But Israel had the victory by those three hundred men who being divided into three Companies in the beginning of the middle watch of the night when the signe was given by Gideon every man brake a pitcher of earth that was in his hand and held their lamps in their left hands and their trumpets in their right hands to sound withall and cryed The sword of the Lord and of Gideon and they stood every man in his place And the Lord set every mans sword against his fellow throughout all the hoast Judg. 7.22 Here it is plain how God beat them with their own staves and slew them with their own swords And of them we may well understand that which followeth They that came out as a whirl-wind to scatter me their rejoycing was to devour the poor secretly for the Midianites by many direptions had made them poor and by spoiling the increase of the earth almost starved them and now they came as a whirl-wind in an army to destroy them Their secret comming to devoure the poor it is well exprest in the story And so it was when Israel had sowen Judg. 6 3. that the Midianites came up and the Amalakites and the children of the East even they came up against them And they encamped against them Verse 4. and destroyed the encrease of the Earth till thou come to Gaza and left no sustenance neither Sheep nor Oxe nor Asse Here they assaulted them secretly by sudden incursions upon them and they came out as a whirl-wind by sudden violence and they made them poor The words thus expounded we may in this part of the section consider 1 The miracle of the station of the Sun and Moon 2 The victory that followed 3 The conquest of Midian 1 Of the miracle of the station of the Sun and Moon This example of the station of the Sun and Moon Doct. 1 as attending upon the wars of the Lord doth further confirme the former Doctrine delivered out of the Verse going before that the in-animate creatures do serve the Lord and the will of God is their onely nature whether he guide them by his ordinary providence or by his speciall dispensation of extraordinary power It teacheth that God is above all second causes so that his reveale determination of means for his operations do not bind him but his Non obstante often inter-curreth by vertue of his prerogative To expresse him absolute Lord of all Reas 1 ruling all things by the word of his power that he may be both trusted and feared above all To divert us from the over-weening of our fellow creatures for many Nations having observed the good that the Sun doth on earth have worshipped the Sun and some Lunatiques have as wisely worshipped the Moon others have adored some speciall Stars as the ascendents in their nativities The Aegyptians in respect as is thought of the great profit that came of kine did worship a living bullock or calfe and of them the Israelites learned that Idolatry Herodotus tels how Cambyses comming with his conquering forces into Aegypt Thal. 76. saw the Aegyptians worshipping their calf he drew his sword and cut him on the thigh that he bled exceedingly and shortly after died Cambyses seeing this cried out in scorne of the Aegyptians O Capita nequam hujusmodi Dii existunt carne sanguine praediti ferrum sentienter dignus nimirum Aegyptiis hic Deus Thus came into the Church the worship of Angels and the Mother of our Lord and Saints and it s because they were Benefactors to the Church And after for their sakes their images were worshipped as at this day in the Church of Rome To divert us from this superstition and idolatry and to teach us to know our fellow creatures God doth alter sometimes the established order of his government and saith as Christ to his Disciples Are these the things you look upon Surely the Sun of all things is that God hath made for the use and service of God as the most glorious the most comfortable in respect of light which it giveth us from its own body and which it bendeth to the Moon and Stars and in respect of its influence so that as Ambrose calleth it Ornamentum Coeli the ornament of Heaven and Oculum mundi the eye of the world others have called it animam mundi the soul of the world as the quickner of all living things Three most memorable evidences of Gods power in the Sun are past this of the standing of it for the space of a whole day The going back of the shadow upon the dyall of Ahaz in the days of Hezechiah 2 Reg. 20.11 10 degrees And the miraculous Eclipse at the death of Christ And Christ foretelling