person in the day of Battail but managed all his Wars with Abner Absolom and Sheba by the hand of Ioab Which gave him means and opportunity to provide for himself though all his Forces had been routed and their General taken But our great Master put himself into the head of his Army ventured his life for the Redemption of his people charged and recharged through the thickest of his enemies the first that came into the field and the last that left it and thereby gained the honour though he lost the victory of the day By what miraculous means he was preserved from death in that fatal Overthrow and with what Loyal secrecy conveyed from one place to another is not so clearly and distinctly known as the cause deserves therefore to be wished that it may publickly be declared by his Sacred Majesty that God might have the glory of his own great Mercies and all good men the honour of their brave fidelity In the mean time we may with piety believe that he was either carryed off by God on the wings of Angels so that none could reach him or else inveloped round about with a cloud of darkness so that none could see him Cernere ne quis eum ne quis contingere poss it as Virgil telleth us of Aeneas in the last condition 31. And then again the hand of God was far more visible in his Restitution For was it not a marvellous kindness that God was pleased to preserve a strong party for him which had not been infected with the errors and corruptions which then reigned amongst us that in a time of such a general defection from the rules of the Church so many thousands should be found of all sorts and sexes which had not bowed the knee to Baal nor to the golden Calves of Dan and Bethel nor the more guilded Calves that grazed and bleated upon these mountains of the Lord. And that far more should keep their hearts intire and loyal in those times of danger when they could find no means to signifie it by their tongues and hands And this not only was a kindness and a marvellous kindness but misericordia sua the Lords kindness also most properly to be called the work of God who did both bow their Hearts and advance their Hands and use them both for the facilitating of the Kings Reduction 32. In which conjuncture of affairs a little cloud ariseth from the Northern Sea after the heavens had been shut up for some years together Which though it were no bigger then a mans hand in the first appearance yet brought along with it such abundance of rain as did not only comfort and refresh the afflicted Land but forced our politick Ahabs and their followers too to take their Chariots and make haste away to some other place before the storm should overtake them And certainly this must needs be misericordia sua as well Gods mercy in it self as to be reckoned for a mavellous mercy in the eyes of men For neither the Party was so weak nor the Cause so desperate as to be broken by the coming of so small a power as rather seemed to be a Guard to their Generals person then of sufficient force to oppose that Army before which two great Kings were not able to stand And then it is to be observed that such as draw their Swords upon God's Anointed use commonly to throw away the scabbards also and find no way of doing better but by doing worse Nil medium inter summa praecipitia No middle way for them to walke in but either to bear up like Princes or to die like Traytors But it was otherwise in the case which we have before us God so prevailing on the hearts of the men of war that they became no less ready to receive their King then his own party to invite him And they which first ingaged in the War against him expulsed him hence and voted him uncapable of the Regal Dignity are now as zealous as the best to advance him to it Nay they contended eagerly with the rest of the Subjects as once the men of Israel did with the men of Iudah which of the two should shew most zeal for his Restitution and did not only send word to him that he should return both he and his servants with him but some of them passed over the Flood that they might bring him back unto his Countrey with the greater glory Et certant ipsi secum utrùm contumeliosius eum expulerint an honorabilius revocaverint as in the case of Alcibiades is observed by Iustin. 33. But possibly our Gideon with such a handful of men might not have been of power sufficient to effect the enterprise if our great City had not openly appeared in favour of it and thereby given encouragement to the rest of the Subjects whose hearts stood firm unto the King A treble City of three Towns together but all of them united in one common name as Ierusalem was and no less strong then that in regard on the multitude but stronger in respect of the power and riches of the people of it For here it was in this strong City the principal City of our Nation the abstract or Epitomie of all Britain In Britanniarum compendio as my Author cals it that the design was most advanced though not there contrived And here it was in this strong City that this great miracle of mercy did receive accomplishment by opening both their Gates and Hearts and Hands to receive their Soveraign Let them continue in that obedience to our Lord the King they shal wipe away the memory of their former Errors Nay our Posterity shall behold them with a cheerful gratitude as the restorers and preservers of our common happiness by giving good example to the rest of the Kingdom For certainly the practice of great Cities is exemplary not only in their Morals but their Politicks too According to the motion of the Primum mobile the lower Stars and Planets move in their several Spheres and think it no disgrace to be sometimes retrograde or in their motus trepidationis when the first Orbe begins to be irregular or seems to be left destitute of those Intelligences which are said to move it 34. And therefore it concerns great Towns and populous Cities upon whose actions all mens eyes are fixed and busied to be a pattern of good works of Loyalty and of due obedience to the rest of the people Faction and Opposition to Authority are two dangerous plagues more fatal and destructive to the greatest Empire than the Sword Pestilence or Famine Which if they get into a City or a Town of note Non ibi consistunt ubi caeperunt infect not there alone where they first brake out but as the nature of the Plague is observed to be from thence it springs into the Villages adjoyning and in the end to all the quarters of the Kingdom It cannot be denied but that
then we are in such a City which neither enemy can force nor want of trade impoverish nor disease infect Deus meus omnia Let God be mine and I am strong enough against all the world against all violence against all practices against all misfortunes I could inlarge my self on this general Topick as to the moral of my Text but that I am to keep my self to the literal sense to the strong City herein meant by the Royal Psalmist 20. And if I keep my self to the literal sense we must inquire what City is here meant by David And we shall finde upon a very short inquiry that it was either Ziglag Hebron or Hierusalem and the last most likely St. Austin and St. Hierome so resolve for certain with whom the Moderns do agree as to that particular all telling us That God declared his marvellous mercies unto David by setling his affairs in Civitate Ierusalem in the strong City of Hierusalem in the Fort of Sion For there he found an end of his former sorrows thither he brought the Ark to that place he removed the Trabernacle and there did he fix his Royal Palace with the Courts of Iustice and thereby drew unto it by degrees all the wealth of the Kingdom and there he reigned in greater glory and renown then any of the Kings and Princes which were round about him 21. Now Cities are accounted strong in two respects first in the strength of situation or of art and next in the multitudes and natural courage of the people and in both these Ierusalem as it flourished in the time of David might worthily be called a strong City as indeed it was Civitas munitissima as my Author hath it For first it was well situated and strongly fortified three Towns in one of them seated on steep Hills and all of them invironed with high Walls strong Bullwarks and unpassable Ditches But none to be compared with the City of Sion which made the Iebusites presume so far upon the strength of the place that in contempt of Davids Forces they mann'd their walls with none but their blind and lame as Iosephus tells us and then sent word whether with greater pride or folly it is hard to say that except he took away the blind and the lame he could not come thither Which was to tell him in effect that those poor wretches were sufficient to make good the Fort against all his Army and therefore must be first removed before he could expect to be Master of it Such confidence saith he they had in their Walls and Trenches that they conceived them able without further help to keep out the Enemy 22. But Walls we see by this example are but simple strengths if there be any want of people or in the people any want of courage to make good the place The honour of a King consists not in the strength of Towns and frequency of Garrisons but in the multitude and courage and good affection of his Subjects Kings are then safest when they trust rather to their Castles of bones then their Castles of stones according to the Aphorism of Sir Henry Savage an old English Souldier Lycurgus also seemed to be of the same opinion when he prohibited the Spartans to immure their City or to use any of the Arts of Fortification And in this sense lerusalem was strong because it was as populous and no less capacious then either Nineveh or Babylon or Eckbatana or any other Cities in the Eastern Countries So populous that at the siege thereof by Titus there perished by the Sword and Famine of all sorts and sexes 1100000. and above as Iosephus telleth us And so prodigiously capacious that once the High-Priest at the request of Cestius a Roman President numbering the people which came thither to observe the Passover found them to be two millions and seven hundred thousand men besides women and children all sound and purified and fitted by the Law for that Sacred Ceremony A number numberless and not indeed to be believed were not Iosephus generally reckoned for a true Historian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the good Father Iustin Martyr hath assured us of him And though these numberings of the people in that mighty City happened long after David's time yet the City after David's time received small inlargements Ten of the Tribes revolting on the death of Solomon and never afterwards returning to the Kings of Iudah 23. As for the courage of the People and Inhabitants of it in the time of David we may conceive it equal at the least if it were not greater then that of their posterity in the times succeeding Which was so eminent that he which reads the Story of their final ruine when besieged by Titus will find the Romans so put to it that they never purchased any City at a dearer rate And hereupon may say in the word of Iustin Et tanta animorum virtus fuit c. That though they had just cause at all times to despair of safety yet for the most part they presumed and came off with safety till God was pleased to give them over for a prey to the Sword of their Enemies 24. And yet there might be somewhat in it which more assured David of his peace and happiness than either the Courage of the people or the Strength of the place which was their good Affection and fidelity to him And this appears plainly by their carriage towards him when he was forced to give way to the Treason of Absolom For when he left them to the power of the Enemy the people followed him in great numbers to express their loyalty and followed him in tears to express their affection So as it cannot be affirmed that either they betrayed or forsook their King but that the King rather in a Royal pity did withdraw from them left otherwise he might have brought some evil on the City as the Text informs us Lay all that hath been said together of the strength of this City and we shall find that David had good reason to extol Gods Name for giving him possession of a place so strong so populous and so replenished with a loyal and couragious people 25. And thus I have run over all the parts of my Text as they declare God's marvellous kindness unto David so that it can be no hard matter to remove the vail and to behold the face of our own affairs the mercies of this day and the glories of it A day in which we solemnize the memory of as great a kindness a kindness as remarkable in respect of the Person as marvellous in its own condition no less peculiar to the Lord as the Author of it and in a place as notable our Principal City our strongest City of descence To which by Gods assistance and your Christian Patience I shall now proceed and then descend unto the duties of the dayes where we shall meet with David's thankfulness and our own to boot
26. Et De quo loquitur Propheta vel populus fidelis And in this place may be asked in the Eunuch's words Of whom here speaks the Prophet either of himself or of some other Not of himself alone saith Cassianus an old Christian Writer but in behalf of all Gods children of his faithful servants The Books of Psalms is so composed saith Athanasius that every man may read his own Story in them and find therein his own particular concernments and that as punctually as if the purpose of the Psalm had been addressed and fitted only unto his occasions Let it be so and then Who may not find the quality of our late afflictions and our deliverance together in this present Psalm and read the state of our affairs in the Story of David and then draw down an easie and familiar parallel betwixt the Persons and the mercies and the places too A parallel right worthy of the pen of Plutarch if any such were found amongst us but such as seems to have been done in part already by laying before you David's troubles and his great deliverance And therefore passing by those things which apply themselves and those in which the Story of both Princes seems to make but one we will observe the method which is used by Plutarch in laying down the points in which they differ or those wherein one party seems to have preheminence above the other 27. First then It may be truly said of our English David as Commodus not without vain-glory did affirm of himself Quem Primum Sol Principem hominem vidit that he was born a Prince and that the Sun did never otherwise behold him then as Heir to a Kingdom Which cannot be affirmed of David nor of David's Ancestors though all of them might live in expectation of obtaining that Scepter which had been promised to that Tribe in the person of Iudah And as his Birth was higher so his Fall was lower and his afflictions so much greater and the more insupportable because he was more tenderly bred and less able to bear them Nay they were greater in themselves then the heavyest sorrows that ever fell upon David in the time of his troubles who kept himself most commonly unto those retreats which his own Countrey did afford him and when he was compelled to retire to Moab or to sojourn in the Realm of Gath neither Saul's malice nor his power did pursue him there But so it was not in the case of our Royal Exile Driven out of all the Forts and Cities of his own Dominions by the power of his Enemies and by their practises not suffered to remain in France nor to be entertained in Holland compelled to shift from one Imperial City to another from the Higher to the Lower Germany but pursued in all seldom nor never free from their trains and treacheries who would not think themselves secure but in his destruction Sic aquilam fugiunt trepidae Columbae Never was Patridge flown at with a swifter wing by a well-train'd Falcon nor game more hotly followed by the fiercest Hounds than this poor Prince was chased by those mighty Hunters those Nimrods those Robusti Venatores as the Scripture calls them who had the building of that Babel which they raised amongst us They had their cunning Lime-hounds to draw Dry-foot after him and plyed the chase with all the Kennil at his Heels when the Hunt was up not with a purpose to call off when they had breathed their Horses or tryed their Dogs but with a merciless retreat to hunt him down and then to wash their cruel and accursed hands in his precious bloud as is accustomed in the fall of a Buck of Stagg 28. And as the dangers which accompanyed our English David were more transcendent in respect of his Sacred Person so were they far more grievous to him in respect of his party whose tears he put into his bottles whose stripes he bare on his own body and whose calamities did more afflict his righteous Soul then his own misfortunes And if we look upon his Party with an equal eye we shall soon find them to have suffered more and far heavier pressures in his cause and quarrel then all the Hebrew Nations did for the sake of David We read indeed of 85. Priests slaughtered by the cruelty and command of Saul But we may read of more than twenty times that number of our Regular Clergy all the Bishops Deans and Dignitaries and almost all the Heads of Houses imprisoned plundered sequestred ejected their wives and children miserably turn'd out of doors some of them left for dead in the open streets And why all this but for adhering to his Majesty and his Fathers house and to the Laws and the Religion here established and for no crime else But then again we do not read of any man of quality in the Tribes of Israel condemned and executed or otherwise deprived of Lands and Liberties for his well wishing unto David Amongst us nothing was more common than the imprisoning of our choisest and most able Gentry selling the Goods confiscating the Lands and calling those in question for their very lives whose known fidelity was imputed to them for their only crime For now we had attained to that height of wretchedness that Loyalty must pass for Treason and Treason must be Unicum eorum crimen quivacabant crimine as in the worst and most deplorable condition of the Roman Empire And thereupon it was concluded in the School of Tyrannus that they who were so prodigal of their Money Arms and Victuals to another man especially to one marked out for ruine by their mighty Masters should have no bread to feed their Families or money to maintain themselves or other Arms but Prayers and Tears to save them from the violence of unjust Oppression even from Death it self 29. Besides it might be some alleviation unto David's followers to suffer by the hands of a lawful King a King set over them by God by the Lord himself whose Power they were not to resist whose Person was too Sacred and his Authority too transcendent to be called in question But it must be a torment unexpressible to a generous spirit to be trode underfoot by an Adoni-bezek to have their lives and Vineyards taken from them at the will of an Ahab to see the Bramble Reign as King over all the Trees our tallest Oakes felled down by a shrub of yesterday and all the goodly Cedars of the Church grubbed up to make room for a stinking Elder 30. In the next place as the calamities which fell upon our English David and his faithful followers were more in number and more grievous then all those which had been suffered by the other so was the kindness of the Lord more marvellous in his preservation the hand of God more visible in his Restitution And first the kindness was more marvellous in his Preservation because we do not find that David ever hazarded his own