low stiles are easily troden down every hawke dare flie at pigeon any wilde beast run at a silly lambe 2. And partly it comes from that inveterate hatred and enmity which God hath put betwixt the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman from which enmitie it comes to passe that the wicked can no more cease to persecute the righteous then the troubled Sea can cease from casting up mire and dirt 3. And partly from the devill who as he reignes in all the children of disobedience so where ever he is he makes it his great work to make warre with the woman and her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimonie of Jesus Christ Persecuting men often die often have been reconciled persecuting Kings and Princes have become nursing Fathers and nursing Mothers but Satan never turnes Christian Non semper saeviunt Nerones sed nunquam cessat diabolus The devill ever goes about like a roaring Lion seeking to devoure them 4. Yea God himself hath ordered it to be so for his own glory because he delights to rule amongst his enemies and to make the wrath of man to turn to his praise that he may shew his wisedome power and love in preserving his Lillie among the thornes and to keep his bush though burning from consuming Many are the uses which this lesson might teach us I shall onely name these two as most agreeable to our present businesse First to admire adore and praise the wisedome goodnesse power and care of God in the protection and preservation of his Church and people in the midst of so many and mighty malicious and impetuous adversaries We are prone to wonder why Gods people walking so innocently and inoffensively should meet with so much hard usage but alas could we read what is in the heart and purpose of all our ill neighbours we should rather wonder that there is one godly man left in the world In stead of thinking it strange concerning their fiery trials as though some strange thing happened unto them we should with thankfull hearts daily sing this Psalme were not the Lord himself on our side we should instantly be swallowed up quick the waters would overwhelme us the proud waters would go even over our soul Secondly this may teach us all never to be secure if we have escaped one danger if we be come out of six troubles and the seventh hath not been able to hurt us if whole armies of our enemies be overthrowne let us not hang up our armour upon the wall grow not carelesse because the rod of him that smote us is broken for out of the Serpents root will come forth a Cockatrice and the fruit will be a fiery flying Serpent God hath lately done great things for these two unworthy Nations great enemies are quelld great yokes are broken blessed be his Name for it but our enemies are not all dead our adversary the devill who rules in all the children of disobedience compasseth the earth and goes about like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure Be sober therefore and watchfull and keep on the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evill day and having done all to stand But though there be cause of watchfulnesse a yet you will see there is no cause of distrustfull fear by that time I have briefly opened the next branch which is the author manner and way of their deliverance God hath not not given us a prey to their teeth c. Where among many considerable things I shall onely commend to you these 2. observations First That they were not made a prey because God would not give them as a prey to their teeth Secondly when they were as birds caught in the net and snared God chose that for his time to break their snares asunder The first affords us this comfortable lesson That how potent soever how cunning or malicious soever the enemies of Gods Church are how great imminent or unavoidable the dangers of Gods people are yet they never can be made a prey unlesse God will give them for a prey All things seeme to meet that might make them a prey yet because God would not give them to be a prey therefore they were not made a prey This is abundantly proved out of the Scripture when ever God told his people they should be spoiled it was added he would deliver them up When at any time they were spoiled God is said to spoil them God sold his people into the hand of Jabin King of Canaan The Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian God sold his people for nought he made them a reproach a scorn and derision he made them turn their backs from their enemie So likewise when they desired deliverance from their enemies they used to beg in these termes that God would not deliver the soul of his turtle unto the multitude of their enemies accounting all to depend upon Gods act if God refused to deliver up his turtle they feared none others catching or shooting his turtle Most remarkable is that place in Deut. 32. 30. The Lord did there in that song tell the people what would betide them for their rebellion afterward they should be scattered into corners and be made a spoile to all their enemies round about them insomuch that two or three of their enemies should chase a thousand of them and a handfull of their enemies should put ten thousand of them to flight Now whereas they might object and say Is this according to thy promise that thou madest in the 26. Levit. That thy people should chase their enemies that five of them should chase an hundred and an hundred of them should put ten thousand to flight how comes it then that one should chase a thousand of thy people Mark what answer God makes them in that 30. verse This could never have been unlesse their Rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up If God say to one Spoile them shut them up it is done presently If God will not do it all the world cannot do it And the ground of it is plain because God not onely is a wall of fire about them keeps a watchfull eye upon them carries them under his wings and in his bosome but even all creatures all things which might hurt them all their enemies who would hurt them have such a dependance upon God that not onely in him they live and move and have their being but all their motions and operations are but as Tools in Gods hands That although they seem to work from principles of their own yet the truth is they are but meerly as the ax and the sawe in the hand of God who useth them This the Scripture speaks an hundred times The great King of Assyria was but the rod of Gods anger though his heart
hath bestowed upon you and if you be found to be the people who thus requite him who are thus advanced and work all these abominations God will ere long say of you as David said of Nabal Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath and he hath requited me evill for good I will not leave any thing that pertains to him in vain have I done all which I have done for these men they have requited me evill for good I will strip them naked I will deprive them of all my abused mercies I will spend my arrows and heap mischiefs in stead of mercies upon them 4. Are there not abundance to whom this thankfull rendring of a contrite heart of bodies and souls consecrated to Gods service reverent waiting upon him in his ordinances and doing good to others thereby to praise God to whom I say these things are the darkest riddles in the world who think God never doth enough for them and think any thing too much for them to do to God But to leave this generall complaint I beseech you Right Honorable and beloved to see what great cause we have to be abased concerning our great Ingratitude for the admirable mercies which God hath bestowed us this very last yeer This one yeer this wonderfull yeer wherein God hath done more for us in some kinds then in fourescore yeers before breaking so many yokes giving such hopes and beginnings of a very Jubilee and Resurrection both of Church and State This yeer wherein we looked to have been a wonder to all the world in our desolations and God hath made us a wonder to the world in our preservation giving us in one yeer a Return of the prayers of fourty and fourty yeers Now look abroad into the kingdome enquire as Ahasuerus did of Mordecai what honour and dignity is done to the Lord for all this my heart would bleed were it rightly affected in the expressing of it We scarce make any shew of thankfulnesse but manifest the very power of Ingratitude Alas there are many whose hearts are grieved at the great things which God hath done for us turning a Jubilee into Lamentations I know not better how to expresse the spirit of these men then by that in the 8. of Ezekiel Among all the abominations which the Lord shewed the Prophet whereby he was provoked to go far off from his sanctuary one was a company of women sate weeping for Tammuz they wept because they they had lost their Idoll so these grieve because they fear to loose their toyes and fooleries which provoke God against us Others bring up an ill report of Gods goodnesse and his worthy Instruments who can see no wood for trees ever enquiring in discontent what is done all this yeer the Parliament hath sate long abundance of money given but what have they done for us Indeed lesse is done then might have been had we been truly thankfull but much more is done then ever thou or I had cause to hope our eyes should see when it is Gods mercie we are not all as Sodome art not thou a wretched man to say what is done by way of sleighting what thy eyes see this day Others deny not but God hath done great things this last yeer and all their enquirie is What is to be done next who as swine under the pear-tree devoure all that fals and whine for more never looking to the hand that shakes down to them in the meane time return nothing to God abate not an ace of any of their former courses whereby God was offended as proud vain wanton worldly prophane this yeer as the last yea a greater torrent of sin for ought I can hear rusheth in and fearfully prevails and domineers in most places God is free in his goodnesse and will be mercifull to whom he will be mercifull and the wickednesse of a Nation can set no bounds or limits to his goodnesse else we should certainly conclude that this drie winde from the wildernesse this ingratitude of ours would even sweep and drive away all Gods mercies from us Yea may I not must I not Right Honorable and Noble Senators humble you even you before the Lord this day even in this day of your rejoycing to make you begin this your Passeover with eating some bitter hearbs have you rendred to God according to the mercies of this yeer I think you may say of Gods dealing towards you as never Parliament could say God hath carried you in his bosome prevented and discovered great designes against you queld great adversaries before you restored great priviledges unto you appeared as your Councellour in all your darknesses opened a doore an out-gate in all your straits all rubs and stumbling blocks before you God hath made them but as vantage ground to raise you higher What should I say you have found your gracious Soveraigne granting I think all your suits hitherto your Rights and Liberties are establisht and your houses built if it were possible you should surpasse the very Angels in thanksgiving Now let your servant be bold with you what glory and honour do you return to God How have you observed the goings of your God and King amongst you With what admiring thoughts are your hearts filled what Reformation appears in your hearts and lives what cost are you at for this God how strongly have you engaged and consecrated your selves and all which you have for his service and glory Lay your hand upon your heart and think in this your day of rejoycing whether your continuance in your old sinfull wayes your unbeliefe your ebbing and flowing in your spirits according as humane hopes and helps have come and gone your not zealously laying to heart the cause of Christ his worship and servants may not make the Lord say of you as of Hezekiah the Lords and Commons of England prayed unto God and the Lord heard them and gave them a signe but they rendred not again according to the benefits done unto them If it be so the good Lord humble you under it and turn away the guilt of this great sinne from you and from us all for Christ Jesus sake and so much for the use of Humiliation Secondly one more for exhortation and I have done Oh that I were able to speak something to raise up your hearts to the practise of this excellent service I shall confine my self to these two heads First a few Motives to quicken you to the duty Secondly a few Directions to guide you in it First the man lives not who owes not this homage or quit-rent unto God yea even for every thing which he hath finde out the man who lies under one evill so great as he hath deserved or enjoyes one mercie which he hath not freely received and that man shall go scot-free from the dutie of thankfulnes Now even common honesty will call for the discharge of this ingenuous equall
against her sometimes God crushes their intentions while they are in the shell Thus Jeroboams hand withered when he said against the Prophet Lay hold of him Thus the Emperour Valens could not write when he should confirm Basils banishment Sometimes God meets them in the midst of their enterprise and thus he put his bridle in the jaws and his hook in the nostrils of Senacherib when he was coming against Hezekiah But oftentimes he lets his people come into great extremitie Josephs feet are hurt in the stocks the iron enters into his soul The Israelites tale of brick shall be doubled David shall be hunted like a Patridge in the mountains The 3. Children shall be thrown into the fiery furnace Daniel cast into the Lions den The Decree for rooting out of the Jews established by the Law of the Medes and Persians before any hope of deliverance comes But then when extremity is come the Lord never fails to be a help in the needfull time of trouble All the former examples prove it Abundance of promises assure us of it Our own experience can abundantly testifie it Yea I think were all the examples in the world lost of Gods helping his people at a pinch they might be all revived in the experience of Gods dealing with this unworthy Nation especially in these two Instances which I shall give you The first is that of the Powder treason when the neck of the whole State the glory both of the Church and the flourishing Common-wealth lay upon the block and the Instruments of death lifted up and a few houres had done that which all the world could not have repaired and our case so much the more helplesse because all was done in the dark we could suspect no danger In that extremity our God sends his Angel and delivers us from all the expectation of his enemies 2. The other which is as remarkable is this great mercie which we have now received and this day come to celebrate I speak to wise men and therefore my words may be few you all know our estates our Liberties our Religion and what ever we may cal ours were in a manner irrecoverably lost through the malice and practise of wicked Instruments and a dreadfull cloud hath these two or three yeers been gathering and hanging over our heads continually readie to dissolve into showers of blood the two Nations readie to imbrue their hands in each others blood the most observing people in the Kingdome expecting nothing but certain ruine and our neighbours round about us did conclude that we should soon be made the most desolate people in the world help we could see none our Prophets were growne fools and our spirituall men mad The Judges and Rulers who should have been our help had many of them their hands in the means of our destruction We were tantum non swallowed up in confusion And when the foundations were thus dissolved what could the righteous do onely with Iehoshaphat mourne before God and acknowledge Lord we have no help we know not what to do but our eyes are towards thee and now lo our God hath brought all about and wrought a great deliverance as we see this day And would you know the grounds why it should be so I could give you reasons enough why God should help his people they are his people in covenant with him he hath redeemed them by the blood of his Sonne he hath promised to help them their cause is his own they betake themselves onely and wholly to his help But why he should put off his help till a time of extremitie why he should suffer his people to come to so lowe an ebbe this is a thing which many wonder at To satisfie you in this I can never give a better reason then our Lord himself gives in the 11. Joh. There you shall finde when Lazarus was very sicke sicke almost unto death his two sisters sent a messenger to Christ to tell him Lord he whom thou lovest is sick they thought he whom thou lovest is sick was argument enough to fetch Christ presently but though Christ loved Lazarus he tarried two or three dayes and sent this answer This sicknesse is not unto death but for the glory of God that the Sonne of God might be glorified thereby as if he should say The true cause of this great sicknesse and my delaying to come presently is not because Lazarus should be tormented or killed but because Christ should be glorified So the very cause of Gods putting off and delaying to help and letting things come to an extremitie is not because he would have his people afflicted and his enemies to triumph and be exalted but it is to gain the more honour and glory to his own Name to manifest his wisedome power love and goodnesse in creating deliverances for them Such mercies as come in an ordinarie way are commonly interpreted to come from an ordinarie love but mercies and deliverances coming in an unexpected time in an extraordinary way and manner in them Gods love and goodnesse is most apparantly seen and acknowledged God loved Hezekiah as well at other times as when he sent an Angel to kill nine score thousand of his enemies at one time in one night and when at another time he made the Sunne go back ten degrees in the diall of Ahaz making one day as long as two in token of his deliverance God loved the three Children as well at other times as when he preserved them in the fiery furnace so as the smell of fire should not be upon them And Daniel was as deare to God at other times as when he shut up the Lyons mouthes that they could not hurt him But his power over them his mercie and goodnesse to them his justice against their enemies never was so exalted as in deferring so long so unexpectedly helping them in their greatest extremity Themselves not onely finde it but their enemies are then constrained to acknowledge it All Moses Sermons and threatnings could not make the Aegyptians so much acknowledge Gods being on his peoples side as when they having promised themselves to overtake them to divide the spoile of them to have their lust satisfied upon them to have their hands destroy them when they were entangled in the land when the Wildernesse and the Sea had shut them in God then came in and made the Sea a path for his people and the waters a wall to them but took off the Aegyptians Chariot wheels and turned the waters upon them Then they are constrained to cry out Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against the Aegyptians Thus you see this truth cleared that God never fails his people in a time of need let us briefly make these two or three Vses of it First for our Instruction we hence learne that all plots against the Church and people of
I could wish that my voice could speak to all the kingdome that I might tell them what God expects from all their hands But though that cannot be I am called this day to speak to you Right Honorable and beloved who are the Representative Body of the kingdome and whose thankfulnesse will be interpreted by God and man to be the thankfulnesse of the whole kingdome you must think of some such way of praising God as becomes your high places and callings and the whole kingdome which you represent if single persons praise God upon a ten stringed Instrument you must do it upon a ten thousand stringed Instrument some thing worthy of a Parliament of England such a Parliament for whom God hath done such great things When King Solomon offers a peace-offering he brings two and twenty thousand fat beeves and an hundred and twenty thousand fat sheep there is thankfulnesse fit for a King to shew And when David would shew his Gratitude to God in preparing to build him an house he offered a thousand thousand talents of silver and an hundred thousand talents of gold which comes to above three and thirtie thousand cart-load of silver allowing two thousand weight or six thousand pound sterling to every load and of gold seventy millions of French crowns besides brasse and iron without weight And when he and his people had added much more unto it he admired Gods goodnesse to give them a heart to offer so willingly and excuses the smalnesse of his own gift as being prepared in a time of trouble Let not therefore your Thankfulnesse be in trifles lowprizd serve not God with that which costs you nothing And if indeed you would do something heroicall worthy of your selves take him for your pattern who for his thankfulnesse was called the man after Gods own heart and that is David who when God had delivered him from all his enemies and established him in his kingdome expresses in the hundred and first Psalme wherein his thankfulnesse should appeare weigh the Psalme seriously it comprehends the sum of what I have to say to you I will sing saith he of mercie and judgement that is I will celebrate thankfully all Gods mercifull administrations unto my soul how would he do this Answ. In binding himself in his rule of walking towards three sorts of persons with whom he had to do First himself Secondly his family And thirdly his kingdome For his own person he would be holy he would walk uprightly in the midst of his house For his family he would have no wicked person about him no slanderers liars proud or deceitfull persons he would root them out as pests to his family And he would search throughout the whole kingdome to have his family stored with good servants Thirdly for his kingdome he would root out wicked men without exception of persons and that early that so his whole kingdome might be a City of the Lord a people with whom God might delight to dwell Here is an example fit for a King and Parliament to follow oh that God would encline your hearts this day to resolve to begin first with your own persons else you will never be sincere for the rest Now God hath called you and separated you for his work be not the vassals of Satan factors or pensioners for his enemy who hath thus far be trusted you Secondly look to your families do as Jacob did at Bethel when he payed his vow of thanksgiving unto God he made all his family bury their Idols under an oke that so when hereafter any of you shall be mentioned it may truly be said such a Noble-man such a Parliament man and the Church in his house that your families may be little Congregations of Saints with whom God may delight to dwel Not like Taverns and Alehouses houses of lewd and debaucht persons where Zim and Jim dwels dolefull creatures fit onely to be agents for Satan as it is much feared many of them are untill this day Thirdly then look to sweep the Church and kingdome blessed be God you have begun well you have been happie Instruments to ease many pressures But beloved there is yet much work to be done yet the root of our evils is not taken away yet the Ministery is not purged yet the great Cities and Towns and many thousand other places in the kingdome want bread for their souls and the portions of the Levites honorable maintenance for them who should do the work of the Lord in many places are not yet provided yet there remains much rubbish to be carried away as yet the honour of the Lords day is not fully vindicated as yet the Lords Temple is not builded nor the Scepter of Christ throughly set up These are services fit for a thankfull Parliament if you neglect these and cause a cessation in building the Temple and let it lie unfinished as it was in Cyrus his dayes if there be a Pâ—rez-Vzizah a breach in bringing in the Ark of God unto us Now you have built your own house and procured Civill Liberties should you let Gods house lie waste should you be as many fear you are lesse zealous in Gods cause then in your own I solemnly professe unto you the God of heaven will require it at your hands and the hands of your posteritie he will curse all your blessings and overturn what you think you have established But the people of God in whose hearts and prayers you daily are expect and hope for these great things from you This do in the fear of the Lord and ye shall prosper 2. This Right Honorable is that I had to say to you from the Lord if now you that are the residue of this great Assembly enquire what you shall do and how you shall testifie your thankfulnesse I answer if you will go and ring Bels make Bonfires feast one another and send portions to the poore for whom nothing is provided I have nothing to say against it I think you shall do well But this I beseech you do go home and pray God to encline the hearts of the Parliament to practise what this day they have heard write down a Catalogue of all the great things which God hath this yeer done for us and let your children know them and the Lord put it into the heart of some wise observer of the times so to write them that the present and future generation may be blessed with a true Narration of these wonderfull mercies give every one of you up your selves to the Lord to be his servants abuse not your peace and Libertie with Idlenesse riot and excesse or in being choked with enlarging your selves with worldly businesses but make that use of our peace which the Church did in the ninth of the Acts and the 31. vers. Then had the Churches rest and peace and what use made they of their peace They