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A89666 Mans wrath and Gods praise. Or, A thanks-giving sermon, preached at Taunton, in the county of Somerset, the 11th. of May, (a day to be had in everlasting remembrance) for the gratious deliverance of that poore towne from the strait siege. / By George Newton, Mr. of Arts, and minister of the Gospell in that place. Newton, George, 1602-1681. 1646 (1646) Wing N1045; Thomason E344_6; ESTC R200954 18,621 32

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MANS WRATH AND GODS PRAISE OR A Thanks-giving Sermon Preached at Taunton in the County of Somerset the 11 th of May a Day to be had in everlasting remembrance for the gratious deliverance of that poore Towne from the strait siege By GEORGE NEWTON Mr. of Arts and Minister of the Gospell in that place PSAL. 118.24 This is the day which the Lord hath made made solemne above other dayes by extraordinary mercy and wee will make it solemne above other dayes by extraordinary joy Wee will rejoice and be glad in it LONDON Printed by W. WILSON for Francis Eglesfield at the Marigold in Pauls Church-yard and are to be sold by George Treagle in TAUNTON 1646. To the VVorshipfull the Major the Common Councell and the rest of the Inhabitants of Taunton Magdalen my duely respected and dearly affected friends SIRS THey that have been acquainted with my resolutions will admire to see any thing of mine especially by my consent made thus publick This Infant as you know was very weake and there was neither Will nor Strength to bring it forth in this way but it was forc't into the world by strong expulsives Now it is come abroad my hope is that either like Zaccheus it will bee hid among the croud of taller and more stout conceptions or if any chance to spy it he will not be so unworthy to wrong such a poore weak thing as this is If it may live to be to any of you a remembrancer of the uncomparable mercy of our God who show'd himselfe upon the Mount I have the utmost of my aime in this publication We finde sometimes in Scripture that a heap of stones hath serv'd for a memoriall as well as a more curious Pillar Though this be but a heap of things not orderly digested in a curious Method but hastily throwne up together as the short time for preparation would permit this service following close upon the Sabbath dayes labour yet it may serve for a memoriall of that sweet and pretious mercy which if it dye in your thoughts I desire to dye with it The Lord set up a lasting monument of this deliverance in our hearts and write it there with a pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond in indeleble Characters that no injuries of time may ever blot it out again and give us yet at length to render to him according to the benefits he hath done us lest we provoke him to repent and doe us evill after he hath done us good My heart bleedes when I thinke what God hath done what he expects what we returne and what is likely to become of all in the latter end I have a horrid apprehension of it as the Prophet had if after God hath punisht us farre lesse then our iniquities deserve and giv'n us such a deliverance as this we should againe breake his Commandements We should againe Why we doe break them since there came deliverance and that more frequently and boldly then wee did before The Lord breake our hearts for it and helpe us to make up our breaches and our controversies with him in and by him who as our peace before our houses that be left be all desolate before it come to Oh that thou hadst knowne before the wrath of God arise against us and there be no remedy All that I have to adde is this desire that as the Sermon is a monument such as it is of Gods praise for the deliverance of this happy day So this Dedication of it may be a monument of my thankfulnesse to you for all the great encouragement and kindnesse and respect with which you have refresht his bowells who is in the Apostles stile 2 Cor. 4.5 Your Servant for Jesus sake GEO. NEWTON MANS VVRATH AND GODS PRAISE PSAL. 76.10 Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of wrath shalt thou restraine WE are assembled in the presence of the Lord this day to make good this text Not to preach upon it onely nor to heare it but to act it To take occasion from the wrath of man to praise the Lord. And certainely if ever any people in the world had cause to say as the Prophet in my text Surely the wrath of man shall prayse thee we the poore people of this place have cause to say it Surely the wrath of man which was so largely manifested and so mightily restrain'd shall quicken us and stirre us up to celebrate the prayses of the God of our salvation This Psalme is Eucharisticall a Psalme of prayse therefore yeelds fit matter for a day of prayse Yea for this day of prayse as fit I think as any in the booke of God For the occasion of it was the same as most Interpreters resolve with the occasion of the prayses of this solemne day viz the raysing of the siege which the Assyrian King had laid against Jerusalem His great Commanders were come up against it w th a mighty hast as you may see 2 King 18.17 threatned utter ruine and destruction to it that in such a height of volence and pride and scorne as ever any eare heard So that the hearts of Hezekiah and his people melted in their bosomes But God comes in and cheereth them with a most sweet and comfortable message by the Prophet Chap. 19.20 c. And for the proud Assyrian King he tells him that his wrath and rage tumult were come up into his ears And that how cruell how bloudy how barbarous soever his intentons were he should not bring them into act and execution For he would put his booke into his nostrils and his bridle in his lips and turne him back by the way by which he came ver 27.28 And he would diligently defend the City and save it for his owne sake vers 34. And so accordingly the following night he sent an Angell that went out and smote in the Campe of the Assyrians an hundred foure score and sive thousand men ver 35. And the next newes you hear the siege is raised and the City is delivered With reference to this deliverance this Psal of thankfulnes was pen'd In which the Prophet magnifieth God who brake the arrows of the bow the shield the sword battel of the enemy Who spoyled the stouthearted made them sleep their last sleepe for so the Angell came upon them in the night you know as it is likely when they were asleep never suffered them to wake more Who caused judgement to be heard from heaven for thence he sent that fatall messenger who made such bloudy worke among them And in the end the Psalmist cheeres and comforts up himself and all the people of the Lord with this assurance drawn out of experience and out of that which he had seen the Lord to doe against the Proud Assyrian King when he was in the height and huffe of all his rage violence against Jerusalem Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of
David and his men gat them up into the hold Vse 2. Is it so my brethren that the rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord is such a bottomlesse endlesse rage Then let us earnestly beseech the Lord that we may not bee given up into their power what ever judgement come upon us True it is wee must confesse we have deserved heavy judgements bitter tryalls sharpe corrections and if the Lord see fit we ought with meeknesse to submit to them and patiently to beare his indignation because wee have sinn'd against him But yet let us bee earnest with him that if he be resolved to scourge us hee would be pleas'd to take the paines to chasten us himselfe and not to give us up into the hands of those whose tender mercies are cruell Oh let us begge as the Prophet David did in such a case 2 Sam. 24.14 Let us fall now into the hands of God for his mercies are great and not into the hands of barbarous and bloody men And let it be our studie and endeavour so to walke that wee doe not provoke the Lord to take this sharpe and rigid course with us And to this end wee must be carefull to avoid those sinnes which cause the Lord to leave a people or a person in the hands of such wretches I might be very copious here but I shall name but two particulars for haste and so on 1. The first that I will mention is forsaking God and casting off his service When men wil be no longer subject to the Lord at least they will not be obedient to him fully but in some certaine things only then he will make them subject to their cruell enemies And when they cast away his easie yoake the Lord will lay a heavier yoake upon them the yoak of mercilesse oppression by barbarous and bloudy men This is the sin for which he threatens it to his people as you may see Deut. 28.47 Because thou servedst not the Lord in gladnesse and in joyfulnesse of heart in the abundance of all things therefore thou shalt serve thine enemie in hunger and in thirst and nakednesse and in the want of all things and he shall put a yoake of iron on thy necke untill he have destroyed thee And this we see accordingly fulfilled on Israel often in the booke of Iudges As long as they were faithfull and obedient they were free from enemies they flourisht in a prosperous state but when they once forsooke the Lord and grew weary of his service their adversaries were the chiefe and they that hated them ruled over them To this effect we have a memorable instance 2 Chro. 12.5 The Princes and the people had sate loose from God and gone a whoring after other gods and thereupon the Prophet comes and sounds this terrible allarum in their eares Thus saith the Lord ye have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you in the hands of Shishack q. d. I see that you are weary of my service and therefore you shall serve your enemies another while I have left you in their hands There let them worry you and spoile you there let them kill you and destroy you let them doe what they will for me you are out of my protection I have left you I take no further charge nor care of you 2. Another thing provoking God to give a person or a people up into the hands of cruell men is non-proficience by his hand upon them For when he sees they will not profit by his mild and gentle hand then he delivers them into the hands of those that will pay them to the purpose You shall observe that there are some afflictions which are in a peculiar name called the hand of God in Scripture as the pestilence for instance for so you find it term'd 2 Sam. 24.14 Let us fall now into the hand of God saith David there And that you may not doubt what is intended by the hand of God it is immediately annexed in the following words so the Lord sent a pestilence upon the people Now then this hand of God prevailes not when it is slighted and contemned and brings forth no amendment in a people when he perceives that it will never be unlesse there be some rougher dealing us'd he leaves them in the hands of cruell men The Lord himselfe hath an exceeding tender heart towards his people his very bowels yearn upon them when hee heares them cry so that hee knowes not how to lay so much upon them as their iniquities deserve nor as is needfull for their reformation And therefore when he meanes to have them soundly scourged indeed he gives them up unto the power of wicked men and they he knowes will doe it throughly If hee chasten them himselfe their cryes and teares will overcome him and make his bowels yearn within him as he speakes and therefore he withdrawes himselfe he goes away and leaves that office to ungodly men and they will scourge them till they bleed and roare for they have no compassion in them there is as you have heard no end of their fury And now my brethren I beseech you let us look home The hand of God I meane the plague of pestilence hath been on us the people of this place a first a second and a third time within the compasse of a very few yeares But what amendment hath there followed May not the Lord complaine of us as once he did of Israel Amos 4.10 I have sent pestilence among you after the manner of AEgypt and yet you have not returned to me saith the Lord I make no question there were some who were so farre affected with this stroke of God that they returned to him that smote them and reformed many things But they were but a remnant that returned they were but as the gleanings after the Vintage as the Apostle speakes Truly my brethren I have lookt abroad as wide as I am able to see if any universall Reformation have followed this affliction in this place and I professe unto you in the presence of the God of Heaven and Earth that I know not where to finde it nor yet in what particular to say that wee are better then wee were before Sure I am that swearing drunkennesse uncleannesse profaning of Gods holy day are not in the abating hand the face of things among us looks as ill as ever men seek the things of Christ as little themselves their own ends as much as ever Ah my beloved if this be all the fruit of the hand of God upon us the clouds that for so long a time have lowred blacke upon us are not so dispelled yet but that the Lord can raise up other enemies among us or bringin forreign enemies upon us that shall make us know the price of slighting and despising his gentle and indulgent dealing with us Vse 3. Is it so my brethren that the wrath and rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord
is such and so exceeding great that there is no end of it Oh then what cause have we the people of this place to magnifie the Lord that hath delivered us from this wrath and from the rage of these men Alas how neere were wee to have it wreakt upon us to the very utmost If the Lord had not beene on our side now may we truly say if the Lord had not beene on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quicke so desperately were they bent against us Wee had assuredly beene made a prey to the enkindled and envenom'd rage of the most bloody savage hardned and remorselesse enemies that ever drew the sword in these warres whose spight and rancour was raised to the height against us Ah my beloved thinke upon it What might you have expected from those savage creatures that were gathered round about you Nay what did you expect if this poore Towne had beene taken by assault Looke backe a little I beseech you and returne upon the thoughts and apprehensions that you had when men came in with pale and ghastly countenances and with trembling hands and tongues and cryed Alas alas the eneomie is broken in at such a place hee is come within the 〈◊〉 aboundance of our men are slaine and the rest have left the workes the Towne is lost there is no remedie When such sad allarums were bethinke your selves what did you looke for from the enemie consult with your owne hearts I make no doubt the worst that cruelty it selfe could devise to inflict You may a little guesse my BRETHREN what they would have done by that which they have done where they had power You may reade it in the ruines of this place Shall I say looke about the Towne of TAUNTON and tell her Bulwarkes and her Towers c No my beloved looke about her and tell her heapes of rubbish her consumed houses a multitude of which are raked in their owne ashes Here a poore forsaken Chimney and there a little fragment of a Wall that have escap't to tell what barbarous and monstrous wretches there have beene here Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell But blessed be our GOD for ever that did not give us over as a prey unto their teeth Oh blessed be our God for evermore that kept us from such endlesse and unsatiable rage as theirs was Who when wee had no helpe nor hope left wrought out a great salvation for a poore people Me thinkes I could dwell here but that the time runs and there is a second observation to which I am enforc't to hasten Doct. Be the wrath of wicked men as endlesse and unsatiable as it will though it have no limits in it yet the LORD sets limits to it and fetches praise and glory to himselfe from it The observation as you see consists of two parts or two branches First God sets limits to the wrath of wicked men And secondly he fetches glory from it I wil proceed with them distinctly and in order 1. Branch Sometimes the Lord sets limits to the wrath of wicked men though hee permit a parcell of it to breake out yet the remainder hee restraines as you have it in my Text. Although their rancour have no bounds within yet GOD sets bounds to the externall exercise of it Let them bee as outragious as they will and let them bristle while they can the Lord hath them in a chaine and hee will take them short at his pleasure The Heathen rage saith holy DAVID Psalme 2.1 their passions boyle within their bosomes that is the working of their sensuall pride and then they plot and they imagine how to vent and how to wreake this rage of theirs that is the working of their intellectuall part But doe they execute it No GOD will not suffer them Their policy and fury doth melt away and come to nothing they imagine a vaine thing The wrath of the ASSYRIAN was exceeding great so great that GOD himselfe takes notice of it 2 KINGS 19.27 I know thy abode saith hee thy going out and thy comming in and thy rage against me Hee takes it as against himselfe because it was against his People The enemie was full of rage and on hee would against the Citie and meant to doe great matters But marke what followes I will put my hooke into thy nostrills and my bridle in thy lips and turne thee backe by the way by which thou camest And with respect to this saith the holy Prophet here Surely the wrath of man shalt praise thee the remainder of wrath shalt thou restraine I shall enlarge my selfe no further here but appeale to your experience This day my Brethren was this SCRIPTURE and this point of Doctrine fulfilled in your eyes How full of rancour those malicious wretches were who came against this poor Town your selves who heard their railings and their bitter threatnings who saw and felt their cruel deeds can tell They came upon you with an open mouth and thought to have devoured you suddenly but GOD would not suffer them You saw my brethren many of you who are here beheld it they came over your Workes and the Line that you had made and you could not hinder them But GOD had made a line within yours and over that they could not get beyond that they could not passe And certainely if ever GOD did bound and limit furious men if ever he did say unto them as the Psalmist personages him speaking to the Sea thus farre you shall come and no farther Hee did it here in this place You have seene it my beloved you have found it by experience and so you have reason now of any people in the WORLD to say the wrath of Man did GOD restraine Somewhat indeed hee suffered them to vent and to bring to execution upon our friends upon our Persons upon our houses and estates But the remainder hee did restraine Reason And this hee hath done and will ever doe because hee sees his people cannot beare the utmost of the wrath and rage of wicked men If hee should suffer all the weight thereof to lye upon them either they would reach forth their hands to evill or else their hearts would faint and sinke under it Beloved God is very tenderly affected to his poore people I speake it after the manner of men and therefore though hee suffer them sometimes to have a taste of the rage of wicked men for their correction yet when they lay it on without measure hee considers with himselfe as once he did concerning Ephraim Ieremie 30.20 Hee is my sonne hee is my pleasant childe still And therefore when hee sees his pleasant childe about to faint and when the enemies are ready to devoure his people then his bowells worke within him and out hee cryes hold there no more I can suffer it no longer Sometimes indeede hee goes away and leaves his children in the hands of wicked and
question to be made of this and hence the Holy Ghost hath set a surety on it in my Text Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restraine Well then my brethren in the second place since the Lord will have it so since hee hath said it shall be so let the wrath of man praise him There hath been much of the envenom'd rage of wicked men let out against this poore Towne Oh let us praise the Lord that kept us unconsum'd in the heat of their fury that when the Towne was storm'd so desperately as you know it was for so many dayes together God kept you who are here before him in that storme and did not suffer any of that haile to fall upon you That when others fell by the Bullet and the Sword your bloud was pretious and your lives were deare to him Say now as Hezekiah Isaiah 38.19 O Lord the living the living they shall praise thee as we doe this day Nay that GOD did not keep your bodies onely but your spirits too that he upheld them with unshaken resolution in the mid'st of such danger That hee united you so firmly all together who notwithstanding were not all of one minde nor one way That all the violence and rage that was declared against you was so farre from causing you to desert the Cause of GOD and to give up the Towne into the hands of those that fought against it as that it made you to renew your resolutions to sticke the faster to the Lord and to his Cause to fight it out in the midst of fire and bloud Here certainly the wrath of man doth praise the Lord the wrath of man sends us occasion to sing the praises of our God forever And if wee ought to praise the Lord with reference to that part of the wrath of man which he let out much more with reference to that which hee restrain'd Oh here was mercy to be spoken of to all ages that God sets limits to the rage of these men That when they set their heart as the heart of GOD himselfe he made them know they were but men That when they said of this poore Towne Fall on and take it for there is no reliefe for it there is none to deliver it that when they were about to enter GOD put his hook into their Nostrills and his bridle in their Lippes and carried them another way Brethren you may reflect upon the time when you stood looking out at the Windowes and crying as the Mother of Sisera Iudges 5.28 Why is the Chariot so long a comming Why doe the Wheeles of the Chariot linger Why is Reliefe so long a comming Why doth it stay and linger thus Why doth it meet with such procrastinations and delays And in the end concluded that there was no helpe for you but you should surely perish by the hands of these men And when your hearts were gone and hopes were gone when you were in the Wilderness where if you met with any good or any comfort it must come from Heaven then GOD came in and spake comfortably to you Oh thinke upon the time when you gave your selves for lost and on a suddaine some came running in and told you Reliefe is come Oh was not that a sweet and welcome word Reliefe is come Were you not as Israel was in such a case like men that dreame Did you not doubt this happy tidings was onely fancied and conceited in a Dreame and that there was nothing of truth and reality in it It was so farre above your hopes and beyond your expectations And now my brethren I beleeve your hearts are very much enlarged and ready to breake out into the praises of the Lord. Mee thinkes I heare you put the question to mee what shall wee doe to make it to appeare that wee are sensible of this mercie I give you some directions in a word and I have done 1. I acknowledge the restraint of our malicious enemies to bee of GOD. That it was hee and he alone that set limits to their siege Say not it was the valour or the skill of the COMMANDERS it was the courage of the SOULDIERS though many of them did beyond the race of men and deserv'd as high applause and commendation as instruments are capable of but rather say their wrath and rage did GOD restraine And truly GOD was visibly and admirably seene in this businesse For when our Line was almost empty of Defendants and when the bodies of your enemies were not restrained by any thing that you could either doe or see the LORD restrained their spirits as the PROPHET speakes in the Verse that follows next save one upon my TEXT so that they had no hearts to come on And therefore now let all your bones cry out and say LORD none is like to thee that wee are yet unbroken Let all your houses say LORD none is like to thee that wee are standing Let all your Wives and Children say LORD none is like to thee that wee are living They were not Workes they were not Gunnes and Souldiers that preserved us and destroyed our enemies but their wrath did God restraine and therefore let the Lord and he alone have all the glory 2. Endeavour to bee large to him in duty who hath beene large to you in mercie There was a time you know when you were shut up by your enemies who kept you in on every side when you were held within a very narrow compasse But now the LORD hath set you in a large place Oh let your hearts I pray you bee enlarged to him in praises and let your hands be enlarged to him in service Oh doe not goe but run the wayes of his Commandements now he hath set you thus at liberty Doe not thinke it is enough to walke on in an ordinary track of duty but strive to doe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Christ speakes some singular fine excellent some extraordinary thing and to abound in the worke of the LORD who hath laid out the riches of his mercie on you 3. Improve and lay out all that you have left for GOD and bestow it all upon him Beloved GOD hath given you your somes your wives your children your estates your lives If you have any thing he gave it you the second time hee renewed your tenure in it this day If hee had but let loose the enemie and if hee had not mightily restrained him in all appearance you had lost all You may truly say to GOD as David doth thou art the God of our life and therefore now live to him Thou art the God of our strength and our we with and our comfort and therefore lay out all for him 4. Let all those Vowes and Covenants which you made to God in dayes of miserie be remembred and observed in dayes of mercie Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee the remainder of wrath shalt thou nestraine and then the next words are Vow unto the Lord and pay it Brethren I make no question when you look't for nothing else but death and ruine you engag'd your selves to God by many obligations Oh how obedient and how holy you would be if he would but deliver you this once if hee would save you from this death onely You told the Lord a very fuire tale But say my Brethren have you paid those Vows have you made good those Obligations or did you onely flatter with him as wee are wont to flatter men to attaine our owne ends May that bee said of you which David notes of Israel Psalme 78.36 When hee slew them they sought him c. Neverthelesse they did but flatter him their heart was not right with him nor were they stedfast in their Covenant Well bee assured God will not flatter hee will not dally with you when hee comes about againe Praise and Obedience and Thankfulnesse was due before you made these Vowes to God but you have made it doubly due by laying on your selves such sacred Bonds as these are And have you broken these Bonds I feare when you examine what your wayes have been since you had respite you will acknowledge you have broken them indeed and desperately cast away these Cords from you I will not shake my Lap at you as Nehemiah sometimes did nor say as hee Chapter 5. Verse 13. So God shake out every man from his house and from his labour that hath not kept the promise that he made with God at that time Even thus let him be shaken out and emptied No that bee farre from mee But I will rather say as holy Hezekiah in another case The good Lord pardon every one that hath not kept his solemne Vowes and remember not his breaches to avenge the quarrell of his Covenant on him when the next day of Visitation comes 5. Endeavour to perpetuate the memory of this mercy write it upon the Lintells of your doores upon the Palmes of your hands upon the Tables of your hearts relate the story of it to your Children that so the Generations that are yet to come may blesse the Lord that you may keep the Praises of your God alive even to the worlds end Oh let not such a sweet and precious mercy dye with you Let not that bee charged upon you which DAVID chargeth upon Israel That you forget the workes of God and the wonders that hee hath shewne you That you forget the time when the Enemy was entring and God sent Reliefe from Heaven and restrained his fury Oh let this day bee alwaies solemne to you a day of gladness and of Feasting and a good day to all generations I say as God unto Ezekiel Ezek. 24.2 Write the name of the day even of this same day the eleventh of MAY the Enemy of our Religion and of our Liberty and Peace set himselfe against TAUNTON this same day The God of Heaven shewed himselfe for TAUNTON this same day Hallelujah Salvation and Honour and Glory and Power and Might and Dominion and Everlasting Praise be unto Him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb in all the Churches of the Saints for ever and ever AMEN FINIS