it hinder the Reformation of Religion for the People will fetch up the Ark with joy and fix it in a lawful Tabernacle till a Temple can be builded 3. God shews his Justice in discovering their wickedness and laying it open before the Sun that the horror of it may convince and deter all While sins are carried on in the dark and disguises are found to cover them Men sin securely and conclude that because the World doth not see God will not But when their sins are discovered and the hainousness of them laid before the World to their shame then they find That there is a God that judgeth Psal 58. 11. in the earth They may plot against the righteous and gnash on them with their teeth but God shall laugh Psal 37. 12 13. at them as foreseeing that their day is coming Little thought Saul to hear of his sparing idolatrous and persecuting Amalek by a Witches Familiar but he hath it told him with a vengeance and Satan could tell him too that as little as he thought of it God would set David on the Throne and establish him in it This was heavy Tydings and the sense of God's being departed from him and refusing to answer him and the reproach of Hell it self for his former Enormities strike him at the Heart and he falls into a fainting swoon out of mere anguish 4. The Justice of God is seen in being an Enemy to Wicked Workers and fighting against them It is not to be expected that God should be an Enemy to their Enemies and an Adversary to their Adversaries who forsake his Commandments and practice the contrary Would Men have him on their side they must be stedfast on his For God is 2 Chron. 15. 2. with us whilst we are with him but if we forsake him he will cast us off for ever Whilst Saul acts by Samuel's Direction matters go pretty well with him but when he stands upon his own Leggs he reels and totters his Spirit is in an hurry betwixt anger and fear and he is tossed with his own misgiving Imaginations no honourable Exploit adorns his Government but all goes on quite contrary and at last he disgracefully falls upon his own Sword out of mere Despair Behold now the Anguish he is in He hath no Anchor-hold nor any Expectation of the favour of God but a sad Indication of the contrary the sound of a shaking leaf terrifieth him and tho' his Army on Gilboa are Men resolved to fight yet Many of them deserting and going 1 Chro. 12. 20. to David and the rest having God against them his Heart fails him and a detestable Amalekite whose countrey he had partly spared doth him the last desired Office to let out his despairing Soul out of his dying Body And thus God manifested himself to be a God of Justice and that so eminently that all might see it Perhaps some Pretenders to Religion may blind their own Eyes and when God's hand is lifted up will not see Isa 26. 10. but God may so far convince them as to make them see and be ashamed for their envy against his people whom he delivers by their fall whatever others will do is no great matter all good Men are bound to take Notice of his Dealings and to adore him accordingly And this brings me to the last thing to be enquired into IV. Let us now see how God by his Justice on wicked Men gives cause of Praise to his faithful Servants Now this is manifest these Ways 1. By God's executing Justice on wicked Men and by the return of their Wickedness upon their own Heads makes way for the peace and security of his people which is matter of Admiration and Praise Upon the fall of Saul we hear no more of the encouraging of Informers nor any under an hazard for their adherence to God and his Ways There is now all possible Encouragement given to those that will cleave to God and none have any cause to complain of Grievances for Religion's sake only they who were Idolaters or Apostates find small Encouragement but as for them if they will complain because they are straitned in their Desires and fail of their Wishes of having Idolatry promoted let them grumble on If God will rescue his from the Iron Hands of Persecutors they have cause of Praise and Thansgiving to him When Constantinus Chlorus reigned and gave ease to the Christians in this our Nation who lately suffered the most horrid torments under Dioclesian how do the delivered Christians rejoice That they were not thought Criminals for Religion and that their Euseb lib. 8. cap. 12. Churches were not defaced nor they themselves persecuted But when his Son Constantine the Great reigned and slew both Maxentius and Licinius then they triumphed and rejoiced greatly and that which administred cause of Joy was that they were at liberty Religion in safety and that God had glorified his Justice on the most bloody Persecutors 2. It is matter of Joy That now a way is made for the propagation of Religion and the further spreading of it in the world When David was arrived at the Throne he had indeed many Forreign Enemies and very bloody but victorious Wars but this made many become Proselytes to the Jews and some Forreign Potentates became his Confederates And certainly those that did so did it not out of fear of his Conquering Arms or to prevent being the next Morsel to his Ambition but to confederate with him as the Captain of God's peculiar People And that this is highly probable Hiram's granting so much Cedar and so many Work men to the building of the Temple because he was ever a lover of David is a clear demonstration And others also were not wanting to send him great Presents which he dedicated towards 2 Sam. 10. 11. the building of the Temple So that Religion spread further and further and David's Government was an Enlargement to it When Constantine the Great had conquered the Pagan Emperors then the Kingdoms of the Earth became the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ Then was the Church farther propagated and Christianity was the Religion of the Empire and though Satan by Divisions Ambition and Heresies did much hinder its Purity and Progress yet it got above all and spread farther still 'till it had eaten out the heart of Paganism it self I cannot say what will be for the future but that the fall of wicked Men and the Peace of Protestants may be the Conviction of its blind Adversaries and the occasion of re-establishing the persecuted Reformed Churches abroad is my hearty and earnest Prayer And now I have dispatched these four Enquiries what remains for me to do but to apply this to our present Occasion which I shall do thus 1. This requires us to give God the Glory of his Mercy to us Of his Mercy I say who hath preserved our Dear and Dread Sovereign from Impending Mischief who hath preserved our
David and Saul OR His Majesty's CASE AND His ENEMIES PREACHED On the Occasion of the ASSOCIATION By T. B. a Countrey Minister of the Church of England Psal 89. 22. The Enemy shall not exact upon him nor the son of wickedness afflict him LONDON Printed for the Author and Sold by John Clark at the Bible and Crown in the Old Change 1696. PSAL. 9. 16. The Lord is known by the Judgment which he executeth the wicked is snared in the work of his own hand Higgaion Selah THis Psalm contains matter both of Prayer and Praise What might be the Occasion of the composing of this Psalm is not so clearly manifest In general it appears that it was some great Deliverance that he and the Church of God with him had received tho' from whom and in what is not particularly expressed However it were his mouth is full of Praises and the Fall of his Enemies is that which ministred both Occasion and Matter for those Praises And this Text contains the ground from whence he gathers Matter of Thanksgiving to God In which Note 1. The Persons described who were his Enemies viz. The wicked It is very probable that they might be Saul and his officious Ministers of his sin that are here described as divers passages in the Psalm intimate 2. The Condition they were fallen into viz. They were snared in the work of their own hand and that which was designed against him fell upon them It was once advised that he should be sent against the Philistines that their hand might be against him 1 Sam. 18. 21. and he might fall by their hand whose hand Saul felt the weight of when he fell by them in Mount Gilboa ch 31. 8. 3. The Honour that redounded to God hereby that he was made known to be a righteous and a just God and that tho' men carry on their Designs in disguise and in the dark yet God openly manifesteth himself to be righteous 4. The Cause of God's manifestation of his Justice viz. The wicked Work they had in design to execute Had their Work been good it had not snared them had it been righteous it had not armed Justice against them but being wicked it set the Holiness and Justice of God on work to bring their violent dealing on their own Heads Hence Note Prop. That when wicked Mens works bring Judgments upon themselves then is God manifested to be a God of Justice and gives cause of Praise to his People Taking it for granted that it was Saul and his Instruments of evil whose Works and Reward are here mentioned and in whose ruinous Fall God glorified his Justice I shall enquire 1. What were those evil Works they committed and which brought on Judgment 2. What colourable Pretences they had for the perpetrating such flagitious acts 3. How God manifested his Justice in their Discovery and Punishment 4. What ground of Praise this is to the People of God I. Let us enquire what are those wicked works which bring Judgment on the Acters of them And here we may possibly find something that matcheth our present case 1. The subverting and ruining Religion was one A Crime so evidently practised that not the All-seeing God only but all the World might behold it God at the Institution of Monarchy took care to secure Religion and therefore enjoins That the Deut. 17 18 19. King should write himself a Copy of the Law and meditate therein that he might remember to fear the Lord his God It being imposible to imagine that God should delegate a power to any Man against himself or give leave that those who were his chief Trustees in the World should contemn him and his Institutions But we find that all this went for nothing in those days but as for Religion it was either neglected or prophaned or almost ruined Neglected it was sufficiently when neither King Courtiers nor People so much as enquired at the Ark 1 Chron. 13. 3. during that Reign nor minded so much as to bring it to the Tabernacle at Shiloh but it must remain in the House of Abinadab for them to enquire at that 1 Sam. 7. 1. had a mind to it None sacrificed now before it nor any waited on the Worship of him whom it represented and whose Name it bore and herein Religion was much abated But had this been all it had been but little but worse follows Religion is also Prophaned and that in an high an enormous manner As we hear nothing of sacrificing on the Altar before the Ark so we find an Invasion of the Priests Office and a Sacrifice offered by one of another Tribe and this without any Commission or for ought appears any Altar No not so much as one of whole stone which was allowable in necessity for Saul himself will take that Office upon him To offer a burnt-offering 1 Sam. 13. 9. and as great a Prophanation as it was he can justifie it too that He was forced to it But Ver. 12. as one sin hardens a Man to the Commission of another so we find in his rage he will venture farther Samuel had begun to settle the Priests in their 1 Chro. 9. 22. set Office which David after confirmed Now the Priests being by Divine Direction and Appointment fixed in their Office they might not descend to inferiour Services though about the Tabernacle The Gibeonites having forfeited their Liberty by their fraud were given to the Priests To be hewers of wood and drawers of water for the use of the Tabernacle that the Sacrifices might be washed and offered and that the Priests might wash themselves and offer But Saul will make a blow at Religion and slay the Gibeonites and so necessitate 2 Sam. 21. 1 2. the Priests and Levites to break the Order that God had newly placed them in and do that Drudgery themselves or else the Worship of God must stand neglected But still there is worse behind a most desperate Act he will commit and murder a whole City of Priests at once upon the single Evidence of a Godless Informer Doeg's Word must be taken being Evidence for the King 1 Sam. 22. 17 18 19. against all the City of Nob and the honest and just defence of the accused must stand for nothing yea and rather then fail he will empower a wretched Edomite to butcher them this was highly wicked but when it was done Nob and its Suburbs might serve for a seminary of others fitter for his turn Now when all this was done against Religion and so fatal a blow given it what wonder if God's Jealousie waxed hot against him 2. Prophaneness and Irreligion was countenanced to the uttermost It doth not appear that there were any who took care of maintaining true Religion but whoso would might do in that as he listed As for Prophaneness what it was and how great may be collected by this that the best were least esteemed and the worst most
Religion which was instituted by himelf preserved by his miraculous handy-work confirmed by the Blood of Martyrs conserved by the stedfastness of its hearty followers and beloved of all that fear God Who hath kept us from being Slaves to the worst of Masters and set us in a state of Liberty under the security of our own Laws Who hath kept us still as for many Ages we have been an independent Kingdom in which we are in bondage to none but may sit under our Vines and Fig-trees in safety under the Protection of our own righteous Laws and Sovereign Who hath prevented our anxious care for Posterity and our fears lest they should be enthralled by idolatrous and cruel Lords In a word who hath so far manifested himself to be our God as that all the World must needs own That underneath are the everlasting Deut. 33. 27. arms though the Enemy hath pushed sore at us yet hath he not prevailed so that we may say The Lord of Psal 46. 7. Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge 2. Let us give Glory to God who hath so eminently discovered and brought to light the hidden things of darkness and hath as we hope and pray brought the wickedness of the wicked to an end That the Wheel is turned upon our Adversaries and that the Mischief designed is fallen upon their own Heads Were it barely to triumph over the miserable I would forbear what I have here just cause to enlarge upon But least they should seem innocent because but gently handled and least silence in this case give them occasion to think themselves in the right and least the artificial Speech of one of the Criminals whither his own or the composure of a Party let the concerned answer should ensnare the compassionate or weak Mind of any I will venture beyond my first intention to say something farther God's Justice being essential to him and deserving our Observation and Praise for the manifestation of it hath most eminently shewed it self at this time and in this affair of which there are these visible Foot-steps 1. In punishing The most unnatural Conspiracy that could be Had this succeeded we had been an Aceldama but by the prevention of it we enjoy all we have It was always held the highest Act of Perfidy to betray whole Kingdoms and those who were Enemies to their Native Countrey were held the worst of Monsters That Forreigners should gape for our Good Land and wish to partake of its abundance is no wonder but that Natives who have been nursed and bred in it and have been protected by its Laws and preserved by its Arms and Valour should for an Humour betray it is abhorred of all even the most barbarous God hath blest Men that would shew themselves valiant for their Countrey for even Joab who was none of the best Men yet playing the man 2 Sam. 10. 12. for his People and the Cities of his God was blest with an entire Victory But so hateful a sin is theirs who would expose their Native Country to slaughter or slavery that God always curseth it and in his Justice exposeth such to be a publick Victim to his Anger that the whole may be preserved 2. Their wickedness designed against Men's Souls is highly detested and punished Had their Project succeeded many Souls must have been exposed to the Danger of Damnation For as for the Adult they would have been put to the Trial whether they would have revolted to Idolatry or not and for Infants and tender young ones they must have been bred up in Ignorance and Idolatry without the true Knowledge of God And if any had made a demurr for a time they would quickly have been cudgelled out of their Lives or into Conformity The prophane and loose Protestants who own a Religion whose Principles are powerful enough to reform them should have been exposed to Temptations too strong for their Ability to resist and meeting with a Religion which would promise them Heaven and a Life of Sin too would soon have yielded and thus a Door must have been opened to let in the Devil to try what his Rage or Subtilty could do and fair leave given him by these Men to take what Souls he could catch and themselves too rather than fail of their Project And all this must be done on the score and pretence of Loyalty as if Loyalty to Man when yet there was none superseeded Duty to God and gave leave to yea consecrated a Devotion to Hell it self Certainly a power to damn Souls or to expose them to Damnation is frightful and yet such would these Men on the pretence of their false Loyalty set up in defiance to God and their Allegiance to him But Justice could not bear this and therefore pitty to the endangered hath secured them and the wicked have drunk the Dreggs of the Cup they mingled I add 3. Let us in Thankfulness to God unite together with Heart and Hand to serve him and to preserve the Nation and Government and our selves from their Attempts for the future I am not ignorant what plausible Pretences are on foot at this day to hinder our Union But for you my Beloved Auditors you know that I have not been wanting on all fit Occasions to confirm you against those That think to withstand the Kingdom of the Lord in the hands of the Sons of David 2 Chro 13 8. That I shall not say any thing now on that account nor do I need it Only because our present Union and Association is of so important consequence and because if we should not unite we give the Enemy the most desired Advantages and because some have Doubts cast in their way to stumble them and others are stunned with the Noise of a Victorious Monarch to terrifie them I will here answer their Objections 1. It is said that the Allegiance sworn to the Late King is still Obligatory and so we cannot lawfully Associate To this it may be truly said that the Design of that Oath was to assert an Independency in this Kingdom on any Forreign Power Civil or Ecclesiastical and to abjure Popery in its Foundation viz. The Supremacy of the Pope both which our Association designs and intends and so the end of imposing that Oath at the first is answered in what we do now and for the Person to whom it is said we made it if the Oath be personal we all know that he discharged it and would not have it imposed for Popery's sake and so disclaimed his own right in it He subverted a Fundamental Article of our Settlement in discharging it and we prosecute the greatest and best ends of it in what we do now Nor can we by that Oath be obliged to admit the late King again who refused to rule us himself but stept over to France to fetch Fetters thence to enslave us to the boundless Tyranny of that Monstrous Prince 2. Others stumble at the term Revenge used in this our Association Upon what reason they do it whether out of meer Scruple of Conscience or else to evade the performance of what is there under our Hands stipulated they must answer Certainly that term here used neither means the usurping the Magistrate's Power nor the personal Revenge of malitious Men but only that as Subjects of the Government and as Citizens of the Common-wealth we will to our power do all we can to bring to Punishment all those Malefactors that shall labour to destroy our present Settlement We must expound that term from the occasion of using it viz. The greatest of Treasons and worst of Conspiracies that was ever plotted against this Government and Nation and then we shall be easily able to see that this imports no more than that we will lend our Hands to the Magistrate to suppress Traitors and Invaders this being the way to deterr them from attempting the like for the future and all this the Law of God Nature and the Nation binds us to whether we Associate or not I will now add something to enforce our Union and so conclude I say then That none can stand bound in Conscience to any Prince to comply with a Religion contrary to the Bible nor will any personal Oath bind us to him who disclaims the very Oath it self and by dispensing with it dischargeth it None is in Conscience engaged to enthrall his Countrey or surrender it to Forreign Cruel Lords none is obliged to enslave Posterity and deliver them up to perpetual Bondage and for our uniting for common preservation and sustaining our present Government 't is no more than what at this time is highly necessary The Example of the best Men in Scripture-times may well be followed And we read that tho' Saul was alive and David but his Son-in-law yet because Saul had destroyed Religion Liberty and Property many thousands associated and went to David some when he was at Ziklag a year at least before Saul's Death 1 Chron 12. 1. v. 8. some when he was in the strong-hold in the Wilderness and some when he returned from Achish before the Battel on Gilboa as he was going to Ziklag v. 20. and as they fell to him so they associated with him against all his Enemies for thus they say Thine are we David and on thy side thou son of Jesse peace v. 18. peace be unto thee and peace be to thy Helpers for thy God helpeth thee And if this were warrantable in them our Circumstances will make it not only not culpable but necessary FINIS