they must come into the wast howling wilderness and there be led along for fourty years together and yet God doth reckon up his guidance of them here in this way as a fruit of his love So long as we are in Gods way though the way be difficult yet we have cause to bless God that we are in his way and let not us be troubled at the difficulty of our way when we see God before us and leading us in our way Thirdly Though we meet with difficulties in our way yet God loves to teach his people how to go in their way and the more difficult their way is the more care hath God of them to teach them how to go We do not find such an expression of Gods care of them to teach them in any other way but this of theirs when they went first out of Egypt because that way was the most difficult therfore God takes upon him in a special manner to teach them in that way Be not discouraged at your difficulties but when you are in your way and your conscience tels you that it is not a way that you have chosen to your selves look up to God for guidance cry to him as you find in Psal 107. 6. They cryed to the Lord in their trouble and then vers 7. he led them forth in a right way Mark how these two are joyned together They cryed to the Lord in their trouble and he led them forth in a right way When you are in straights cry to God in your trouble the Lord will lead you forth in a right way When we have been in the greatest straits and have had the hardest way to go how hath God taken us up in his arms Through Gods mercy though we be very weak yet we are gone on a great way even from Egypt from our spiritual Egypt and bondage It is unthankfulness in people to say We are in as bad a condition as ever we were VVhat God may bring us to through the unthankfulness of men we know not but certainly through Gods mercy we have been led along a great way in our journey God hath taught us to go it hath not been the wisdom nor providence of men that hath carried us on in our way so far as we have been no we have found apparantly we are not much beholden to the wisdom of men for that way that we have been carried on in but 't is God that hath come in in our straits we see by what hath fallen out how we should have perished in our way we should have returned into Egypt how often have we been ready to think Would things were with us as heretofore they have been Oh! this hath been the peevishness of our spirits to be thinking of turning into Egypt as it was with this people though God was with them in their way yet often they thought of returning back again We have been ready to be thinking of by-waies for our selves and every one to be shifting his own way and what cross paths have we walked in first one way and then another way undoing what we have done First engaging men and then discouraging the same men that we have encoraged though they have continued the same yet our spirits have not continued the same towards them VVe may apply that that you have in Jer. 31. 22. which is spoken in reference to their way coming out of their captivity How long wilt thou go about O thou backsliding daughter It may be well applied to England at this day Oh! how long wil we go about that is shifting this way and that and not daring to trust God in his way we are afraid that if we should go on in the right path that God guids us in that we should miscarry and therefore we go about and that 's the reason it is so long before we have our deliverance because we go about and do not follow Gods guidance in our way There 's an excellent promise that God makes to his people in Jer. 31. 9. in reference to the guiding of them in their way from their Captivity They shal come with weeping and with supplications wil I lead them I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble for I am a father to Israel aud Ephraim is my first born This is a Scripture very sutable to that Scripture we are now opening It 's a fruit of fatherly love to guide us in a straight way and keep us from stumbling But mark how this shall be done They shall come with weeping and with supplications will I lead them There must be weeping and supplication to cry to God for guidance in our way As a poor child if it be left a little by the Mother or Nurse it stands crying to be guided in its way and this should be our care in all our straights not to fly upon this Instrument or the other but to cry to God to guide us in our way We may apply this to Gods guidance of the soul from spiritual Egypt when God brings the soul out of the spiritual bondage he guides it in the way to heavenly Canaan you whom the Lord are bringing out of your Spiritual Bondage look up to God to teach you how to go why For your way is a hard way it is a straight way it is a narrow way that you are going now it hath many stumbling blocks in it it hath many by-paths near it that are very like to it Your way is a very slippery way and you had need be taught how to go you may slip and fall and break your selves quickly if you be not taught how to go you that are yong beginners in the way of Religion be not too confident in your own understanding and your own strength many poor children for want of the care of their Nurses have gotten such fals when they were children that have lam'd them and made them go crooked all their daies and so it hath been with yong Professors of Religion many yong ones in the profession of Religion because they have been too bold and confident in their own understanding the Lord hath left them to such fals that they prove but crooked all the daies of their profession but though they do go on in a way of profession of Religion they are but maim'd Professors crooked Professors because of the falls that they have gotten when they were yong ones And truly we have very great cause to fear that who lives but a few years to see those that are yong Professors of Religion now live to be something old I say we have cause to fear that those that live to see it will see a great many maim'd and crooked Professors of Religion for there are a many yong ones in these slippery times gets fals that venture so much upon the Ice upon doubtful things
upon God in afflictions shews grace of God in any 393 Use 1 To servants which are in hard service ib. Use 2 To servants which are out of it ib. Obs 3 Love wil carry through long service 394 Obs 4 A good Wife is a great blessing of God though she have no portion ib. Obs 5 Children should not marry without their Parents consent 395 VER XIII Obs 1 None shal lose any thing by what they do for God 397 Obs 2. The shiftless estate of our Ancestors should humble us much 398 Obs 3 God works great things for his Church by smal means ib. Obs 4 It 's a great aggravation of sin to transgress against God's more than ordinary appearing for peoples good 399 Obs 5 Abuse of suth as have reference to the service of God is a great evil ib. VER XIV Obs 1. God is not angry unless he be provoked 403 Obs 2. It is only sin that provokes God 403 Obs 3 Som sins provoke God more than others 405 Obs 4 They that be wilful in sin their blood will be upon their own heads 407 Obs 5 God will be Lord let wicked men do what they can 410 CHAP. XIII VER 1. Obs 1 It 's an Honor to have respect from others when we speake 415 Vse for Inferiors ib. Obs 2 Those who are in Place of Power account it their honor that others should tremble at what they say 436 Obs 3 The subjection of the hearts of men to those in authority is a work of God 417 Obs 4 The meaner the beginnings of men are the more imperious they prove 418 Obs 5 Men of great repute and reverend respect by sin fall from their dignitie 419 Verified in Magistracy and Ministry ibid. Use For Magistrates and Ministers 421 Obs 6 Alteration in marter of Government is a hard and difficult thing 422 Obs 7 Men of resolved spirits will break through difficulties when God raiseth them up to it 423 Obs 8 If after they have gone through difficulties they rest in their own strength they shall vanish and come to nothing 423 Obs 9 Alteration in Religion is a difficult business 424 Obs 10 Men of resolute spirits will go on in matters of Religion though it be from better to worse 425 Obs 11 When God withdraws his protection from a Familie he leaves it as a dead carkass 426 Obs 12 Corruption of Worship causeth God to withdraw from a people ib. Obs 13 When wicked men are most active in their evil way then they may be under the sentence of death 427 VER II. Obs 1 Vse makes a mighty alteration in mens spirits 428 Obs 2 When destructions neerest evil men are wickedest 430 Obs 3 There 's no stop in Apostacy 431 Obs 4 Every sin against conscience weakens the work of conscience 433 Obs 5 In what degree a man fals off from God in that degree he loseth his comfort in God 434 Obs 6 When one hath sinned against God his spirit and holy duties are unsutable ib. Obs 7 The presence of God is terrible to an Apostate ib. Obs 8 What may turn an Apostates heart to God is grievous to him ib. Obs 9 One sin cannot be maintained without another 435 Obs 10 The pride of an evil mans heart is such that he will be justifying his sin ib. Obs 11 When men are grown far in an evil way they grow desperate ib. Obs 12 When men trust to their own understandings in matters of Worship God gives them up to sottishness 441 Obs 13 It 's false Worship to give Religious respect to any creature by kissing as well as bowing to it 443 Use Against such as kiss the Book when they take an Oath ib. VER III. Obs 1 The messenger of wrath drives unsetled men to misery 444 VER IV. Obs 1 It 's a great evil to sin against the work of mercy 445 Obs 2 Deliverance from Egypt is a Note of Gods being our God 446 Obs 3 The end of Gods great work is That he may be known to be God ib. Obs 4 God delights to manifest himself in a way of salvation 448 Obs 5 Saving mercies are great mercies ib. Obs 6 No creature can do us good further than God gives it leave ib. Obs 7 Our faith should be exercised on God as a Savior ib. Obs 8 We are never safe but when our peace is made with God 449 Obs 9 God is never worshiped as God but when he is worshiped as a Savior ib. VER V. Obs 1. It 's a great mercie for God to know a man in time of trouble 451 Obs 2 Gods knowing us in distress is a mighty engagement to us 452 VER VI. Obs 1 It 's better to want the comfort of the creature and to have Gods protection than to have the creature and live of our selves ib. VER VII Obs 1 The Lord pities sinful men in adversity 499 VER VIII Obs 1. The wrath of God is more dreadful than the dreadfulness of all the creatures in the world 505 VER IX Obs 1 It 's an aggravation of sin another day to be the cause of the evils we suffer 508 Obs 2 Men would put offtheir evils from themselves to God 510 Obs 3 God knows how to turn all the evils upon our selves 511 Obs 4 A man can bring himself to no misery but there 's help in God for it 519 Use Look up to God when you have done evil 520 Obs 5 Those that seek help in God and yet misery grows upon them let them examin themselves 521 Obs 6 The more God hath helped men the greater will their destruction be if they be destroyed at last 522 VER X. Obs 1 It 's a sad condition when God rules over a people in spight of their hearts 523 Obs 2 The things that carnal hearts rest upon will vanish 526 Obs 3 God loves to insult over men in their carnal confidences 526 Obs 4 It 's great confusion to carnal hearts when they shall be asked Where 's their confidences 527 Use Let us learn to seek after those things we may be able to give an account for 528 Use 2 Let not the Saints be afraid of evil men ib. Obs 5 Though God be much with a man yet if he be of a low rank carnal hearts regard him not 529. Obs 6 Men will not hear so long as they do not suffer 533 VER XI Obs 1 God may have a hand in things wherein men sin exceedingly 535 Obs 2 Things that are very evil may have present success 536 Obs 3 Gods gifts are not alwaies in love ib. Notes whether it be out of Love or Hatred 1 When we desire the gift rather than God in it 540 2 When our desires are immoderate and violent 541 3 When God grants men their desires before due time 542 4 When there comes no blessing at all with what we enjoy 543 5 When what we desire is meerly to satisfie our lusts 544 6 When men are so eager that they care not whether they have it from a
remember I have read of the Pisidians a certain Heathen people that when they were a Feasting at any time the first fruit of all their Feast they would offer to their Parents as thinking it unseemly for them to rejoyce in the use of the Creature without shewing due honor to their Parents from whom they had their being and education Heathens have ever condemned undutifulness in children to be unnatural and liable to punishment and they have punished undutifulness and the Law of God we know doth punish a stuborn child with death But they knew not that I healed them Many times children though there be a great care to teach them how to go yet they will venture themselves and by their venturousness and wantoness they get many a knock and bruise So it was with this people indeed my care was towards them but they would go their own way and they often bruised themselves Well did God therefore reject them and say It is through your own fault that you have gotten these bruises and maims No I healed them saith God Though he were never so froward and he got by that many bruises yet my pity was so great that I healed those very bruises and maims that he got by his wilfulness Though in the reading of this we may pass it easily by yet it is as notable a Scripture as most we have in the Book of God What 's the reason our consciences do so misgive us and that we are so afraid that the Lord will leave us to our selves when our consciences accuse us of this Oh! we may thank our selves for it the Lord shewed us another way but we through our sinfulness and frowardness would go in our own way Can we think that the Lord should have care of us in our sores that we got our selves by our wilfulness yes saith God such was my compassion towards Ephraim that I taught him how to go and yet they got bruises But I healed them afterwards That 's the Note from it God will not cast off his children though they get hurt yea though they get hurt by their own sin yet the Lord is so gracious as to heal thm You have a notable Scripture for this in Isa 57. 17 18. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wrath and smote him I hid me and was wrath and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart He went on frowardly when I smote him what then in the 18. verse I have seen his waies One would have thought that should have followed I have seen his waies and I 'le smite him and plague him and make him to know what it is to deal so frowardly and perversely with me but behold the goodness of the Lord Gods waies are not the waies of men his thoughts are not our thoughts for he saith I have seen his waies and will heal him and restore comforts to him I will not say I will never leade him more because he would not regard my teaching but goes his own waies and gets many bruises No I have seen his waies and will heal him and lead him notwithstanding Oh! be not discouraged when you have gone out of Gods way but be troubled and ashamed make use of this promise the Lord sees the frowardness of his people and yet will heal them and lead them and restore comfort to them And my brethren thus hath the Lord dealt graciously with us in our inconsiderate foolish sinful courses how often we in this Land have been brought low by our inconsiderate foolish waies we have been sore wounded we have been in danger to bleed to death by the falls that we have got we have often given all for gone as it were mens waies have been so perverse and cross as there hath been little hope of any good that sometimes when we have met together we have even said al is gone we are but betraied and therefore there is little hope of any good Have not we oftentimes said thus but the Lord hath come in and healed us and that Scripture in Isa 57. hath been made good unto us the Lord hath beheld the frowardness of our waies and yet hath healed us and yet hath led us You have gone one in such and such waies saith God and you have even undone your selves in them and you were made but fools and others squandered away your estates and nothing came of it well you knew not what to do I 'le leade you in waies that you do not think of in such waies as you have the least hopes of good by I wil lead you on in those waies and restore comfort to you My Brethren the waies that the Lord hath this last Summer restored comfort to England by were they waies that any of you did think of this time twelve month Certainly it was never in the imaginations and thoughts of men to be brought in such waies as the Lord hath lead us in and restored comforts to us by the Lord did see that the way of the old Soldery was not the way to restore comforts to England but the Lord hath led us in other waies well let Gods healing of our bruises that we get in walking in our own waies make us thankful and careful that we run not wilfully into any such waies any more that we be not still more ventrous and more careless if we be God may suffer us to break our bones for though God be patient and loving and merciful yet he hath times to leave men in the perversness of their waies it may cost us dear before we are healed if God doth leave us though God may not take away his love to cast us wholly off I but we may be forced to cry again and again with David in Psal 51. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce David would go out of his way and he got such a fal as he broke his bones Oh! that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce When God heals us he expects that we should take notice of his work that we should acknowledg him But mark what follows But they knew not that I healed them I healed them saith God but they knew not that I healed them My Brethren that 's the Note from it God doth us much good that we know not of I say God doth us much good that we know not of not only in preventing mercies in a day that we know not of but in healing mercies we attribute our healing to this and the other cause but it is God that comes in in the use of means somtimes comes in beyond means though means oftentimes hath been used and no good hath been done by them at last God by a secret and invisible blessing he comes and heals us we must not envie at the honor that is due to Instruments But certainly by the healing that we have had
evil of kicking and spurning against God so soon as he hath taken off the yoke from their jaws than we are at this day Could any have beleeved that if it had been revealed from Heaven but Six years since That within six years this People of England should be delivered from those sore yokes that they cried to Heaven because of the burden of them and the Lord would work in a miraculous way to deliver them but upon their deliverance there shal be such wantonness such horrid blasphemous opinions and wicked licentious waies yea that those that make profession of Religion shall be guilty of presently upon the taking off of their yoke Could it have been beleev'd Certainly if our forefathers that were under the yoke that were godly and cried to God for deliverance if they should rise out of their graves now and assoon as ever they were risen out ye should make a full Narration of all that Libertie that God hath granted to his people in England in the breaking of all that yoke of Tyrannie in the Civil State and the yoke of Tyrannie in the Ecclesiastical State they would presently think that they should see wonderful glorious effects of this in England but if within a month or two after they should have conversed with men they should hear of such monstrous opinions they should see the extream licentiousness and wantonness in the hearts of men expressed in their waies Oh! they would be ready to spit in the very faces of their children of those that now live in such times as these are The wantonness and licentiousness of men hearts in abusing of our freedom from our yokes it 's very evil in these Respects First Because this hardens the hearts of former Oppressors Our former Oppressors our Prelats and others will not they say or do not you give them occasion to say Now you see what is the fruit of casting of us out Was there such wantonness before were there such horrid Opinions before when we had power We kept down all such things we could easily curb these when we had power but you see what extravegancies there are how men run wild assoon as our power is taken from us By this means they are hardened And others that are of Prelatical spirits they are hardoned and begin to think surely the other way is the better way and indeed if this be a good argument That the keeping men in union and the keeping down errors by violence shall prove the truth of any way or of any Government it may as well prove Prelatical as any other for we know that they kept men from venting of such notorious errors by violence but shall we because there is not this violence upon us shall be more erronious and more wanton in our spirits Secondly This wantonness and abuse of our Liberty and licentiousness it darkens the glory of this great work of God in our deliverance the Lord hath been pleased to magnifie his Name in the deliverance of these Kingdoms from the yoke Now what should be the care of all the people of God but to seek to magnifie the great work of God to make it beautiful and glorious before the eyes of all But now by this wantonness and licentiousness men do darken the Glory of God they take off the lustre and beauty of it Psal 149. 4. the Lord there promises to beautifie the meek with salvation He will beautifie them with salvation now the Lord hath wrought so towards us as to beautifie us with salvation and indeed there is a great beautie upon the work of salvation that he hath wrought but this doth I say darken the Glory of God and it takes away the beauty of the work of God in our salvation What hath God done all this for us that men might turn wanton and run wâ—ld into monsterous opinions and blasphemies Oh! wo to thee that thou shouldest live in such a generation as this is how unfit art thou to live in such a time as this is to darken the glory of such a glorious work as God hath wrought for us here in England Thirdly By abusing our liberties from our yokes you do wrong others wrong those who are wise and holy and peaceable and you make them to be denied that liberty that otherwise they might have It is for your sakes who are so wanton and run so wild in opinions and in the loosness of your lives that I say those that are otherwise discreet wise and holy and peaceable and that would make use of what liberty Christ would have given to his people they must be denied it for your sakes it will be upon your account one day what ever denial they have of that liberty that they would use in a gracious and peaceable way for the honor of God I say you must answer for it one day for 't is your wildness that is the cause of it Yea Fourthly This wildness and loosness and abuse of deliverance from bondage it will be the means to bring others to be under greater yokes again it were just with God at least that it should be so Yea It might make any that have but any Civility or Morality in them to think that they shall do God good service in yoking these men in another way than ever they were yok'd I say it might make them to think that they do God good service when they see the Name of God dishonored and Religion so abused I say by this means they may come to think it would be a good service to God to lay yokes upon such kind of men as these are If ever instead of the great strings that have tide yokes upon you you should have lesser strings if you should have them multiplied to tie yokes upon you yet thank your selves you are the cause of it in Lament 1. 14. The yoke of my transgression is bound by his hand The Lord may justly bind the yoke of your transgressions upon you Oh! that God would humble us for the abuse of our libertie of the freedom from our yokes Oh let us take heed of this and say with our selves Surely this is not the use that we should make of our deliverance from our yokes no but rather this use we will rather so much the more willingly take the yoke of Jesus Christ upon us In Exod. 12. 25. after the people of Israel were delivered from the yoke of Egyptian bondage presently upon it Thou shalt keep this service speaking of the passeover that was to be kept upon their deliverance from Egypt Thou shalt keep this service The word that is there Service it is the same that is used somtimes for their Service and Bondage under the Egyptians as if the Lord should say You were once in Service indeed there was a Service that the Egyptians requir'd of you a servile Service it was and your necks were under it
blasphemy whatsoever but when I see that such and such things are no other but that may stand with Godliness and godlie and peaceable men may have many doubts among them and especially seeing I hold this now of late and did not see it heretofore as now I do I will do possibly what I can with a good conscience that my brethren may enjoy thy Ordinances in what liberty thou wilt afford unto them this savours like the Spirit of a Christian indeed And likewise you that are Governors seeing God account it his Glory to take off the yoke from his people Oh! be you tender towards them that are under you as Majestrates so all Governors Parents and Brethren and Neighbors not to lay too heavie yokes upon Children and Servants Fathers provoke not your Children to wrath and Masters they should be gentle towards them that are under them knowing they have also a Master and therefore give them what libertie may be without sin even outward libertie not to keep them continually at work but some times of recreation some times of refreshment it 's true your Holy-daies are taken aken away but surely there was no such way and means to bury them in Oblivion that they should never be thought of again then to have some set times for Servants and Children to have their recreation It were the only way to keep the Sabbath pure for if they have it not in the week day they will have it on the Sabbath or otherwise they will keep up that which they were wont to have in their former Holy daies The beast must not alwaies be plowing sometimes the yoke must be lifted up and must have some refreshing It follows I laid meat unto them Luther I so wrought for them as they should eat their meat quietly as if he should say You did not provide for your selves your meat I prepared it for you and came and laid it before you thus God laid meat before them when he rained Manna from Heaven when the Quails were he provided it Whence observe Mercies prepared and provided for laid before us are to be prized When we come to have a mercy I say that did not cost us much when it is prepared and set before us this is to be prized How many of you have all your mercies prepared for you When you go abroad about business now you take no care for provision at home in your families you do but dress you and go abroad it may be to a Sermon or other company and return home again you have your Tables spread and find full Dishes upon your Tables without any care of yours it 's all prepared for you Oh! consider of the mercies of God towards you in this thing Whenas many poor people they are fain before they can get bread to be working hard to prepare food for their families their wives and children but the Lord laiet meat before you God is to be acknowledged in this The propriety of the word is I made it to descend it came down from Heaven it was neither too high nor too low but it came just to you fitted for you which teaches us thus much In the receiving of our food we must look up to Heaven we are more beholden to the Heavens than to the Earth for our bread God is to be acknowledged in that he satisfies the poor with bread yea and that he satisfies the rich with bread you that are the richest of all you are to see how it comes from Heaven I made it to descend I say our very food we should look from whence it doth descend it doth descend from Heaven lift up thine eyes to Heaven when as thou art eating meat be not as the Swine under the Tree that looks downward to the Achorns but never upwards towards the branches of the Tree from whence the Achorns fall but look up to Heaven from whence thy meat and provision did descend I took off their yoke and I laid meat unto them I made their service easie and I made their provision comfortable It 's quite otherwise with many ridged and cruel Governors they make the service of those that are under them hard but their provision to be very scant quite contrary The service of Gods people is easie and their provision is bountiful Now the service of your servants is hard and your provision is very penurious you would have your servants to do your hard labor and yet provide little food for them Oh this is a baser cruelty than any to put their servants to hard labor and yet not to provide comfortably for them for their food But my brethren the main thing that I would note from hence is How great the Mercies of God is to us who hath eased our yoke this day and laid meat before us too my brethren who would have thought four years since that there should be Civil Wars for almost four years together in our Land and such cruel bloudy Wars and so overspreading the Kingdom as they have and that yet we should at this day have provision so plentiful as we have Did not all say even at the first year when the Wars began Surely things would be very scarce many began to lay in Corn and other provision and we had cause enough to have feared it but behold the bountifulness of the love of God that hath eased our yokes and hath laid meat before us that the poor is satisfied with bread there is no complainings in our streets we have not only our bread but our Tables fi'ld What difference do you see upon the Tables of men now from that they were in former times If a stranger should come into this Kingdom hearing what miserable Wars there hath been as bloody and cruel as in any Kingdom and yet come to see every mans Table so fill'd he could not but stand and wonder Certainly strangers think our condition to be far more sad in respect of provision than it is let 's not be wanton with our plenty we were wont to say if we might have but Bread and Cheese and the Gospel it were good cheer Now my brethren we have outward food and the Bread of life too What Is this sweet to be freed from outward bondage and to have meat laid before us how sweet is it then to be freed from spiritual bondage and to have the food of life laid before us yet this is our condition Our blessing is specially in having our spiritual yokes taken off from us and having the Bread of Life laid before us in a more plentiful measure then ever we had Was there ever a time that this City had so much meat laid before it for the soul as at this day the misery of other parts of the Kingdom is your mercie the Lord grant that you do not loath your Manna and despise it God hath waies enough to cut you short VER
thus we might have a hint of a very profitable meditation It 's time for a people to return when God doth but wher his Sword or draw out his Sword in Jer. 18. 7 8. At what iustant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdom to pluck up and to pull down and to destray it if that Nation against whom I have pronounced turn from their evil I will repent of the evil I thought to do unto them Oh! happie had it been for us if when the Sword begun with us we had turned from our evil But we must rather take it as it is in our Books and so the words are more proper for The Sword shall abide on their Cities As for the evil of the Sword that I have already opened in the latter end of the former Chapter But that which I here would note is The abiding of the Sword upon their Cities From whence observe That the abiding of the Sword it is a sore Judgment So it was here for afterwards in the reign of Hoshea then was this Prophesie fulfilled when Samaria was besieged for three years together When God threatens fearfully he threatens the abiding of the Sword when he doth not only threaten the Sword but Bathing his Sword and being filled with blood and made fat with fatness and devour and shall be made Satiate and made Drunk with blood All these expressions we have in Scripture these six expressions in two Scriptures you have them all Isa 34. 5. 6. and then Jer. 46. 10. Oh! this is a dreadful thing for the Sword to abide It hath abode long upon Germany the Lord hath been angry with them for almost this thirty years we think three or four years long for the abiding of the Sword But if it be such a fearful judgment for the Sword to Abide how vile are they that seek to prolong the abiding of the Sword upon a people and that for their own advantage Oh! that is a cursed thing these men live upon blood every draught they drink they drink blood that have endeavored the prolonging of the Sword upon this Kingdom for their private advantages My Brethren we have cause to bless God that God hath raised up instruments for us who have hazarded the shortening of their own lives for the shortening of the War who have done their work of late this year as if they took it by the great there is a froward and envious Generation of men that will say of some kind of men because they differ from them in somethings they would be glad that these troubles might continue because they might have the more libertie But we see that men though of different judgments they do not take a course to have the trouble continue you see how they hazard themselves to make all the hast possibly they can and that to admiration and doing things in the winter season that is not ordinarilie heard of among other Nations and all this that the Sword may not abide upon their Country but that peace may be hastened so that the blessing of God be upon such Again further The Sword shall abide as long as God will have it he that is the Lord of Hosts he gives the Commission to the Sword and till he calls for his Commission back again the Sword it shall go on We may think the wars may be at an end Oh! let us look to it that we make up our peace with God and then we may hope it but otherwaies the Lord may cause a Serpent to come out of the Cockatrice Eg the Lord may kindle fires otherwise than we can imagin therefore saith God The Sword shall abide It may be they thought that indeed if the enemy come he will not stay long Oh! but he shall abide I verily perswade my self that there were many yea and the wisest in this Kingdom that did perswade themselves at the begining of the taking up of the Sword that it would scarce have held twelve months together it was impossible to have foreseen the abiding of the Sword so long upon us as it hath Yea but if God gives Commission it must abide There 's a notable text for that in Jer. 47. 6 7. O thou Sword of the Lord How long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still Mark the answer there How can it be quiet seeing the Lord hath given it a charge It must go on it must abide seeing the Lord hath given it charge And then The Sword shall abide on his Cities It is a sad thing for the Sword to be in the Field but for the Sword to be in the Cities it is sadder for in the Cities there is the strength of the Kingdom when the Sword comes into the Cities Oh! the fearful sights of houses fired of streets running with blood the hideous noise of shreeking and cryings out of women and children I remember Joseph us in his story of the Jewish Wars reports of Jerusalem when the Romans came against it and took it that the narrow streets of the City of Jerusalem was so filled with dead bodies that there was no passage and he saith That the streets ran with the blood of men and there were many things set on fire that were quenched with the blood of men and women that ran in the streets so dreadful was the Sword there and the number of those that were slain died in that time that the sword was stretch'd out against that one City he saith was Eleven hundred thousand because it was that time that the people came-up to the Passeover and then he saith it was that they were surrounded Oh! for the Sword to come to populous Cities is very dreadful And the dreadfuller it is the greater is the mercie of God to our Citie the Lord hath wholly delivered it from the Sword that it hath not come at all upon it If the Sword should have come to this City Oh! it would have raged indeed for this was the But of the malice of the Adversaries their furie it was reserved for this City Oh! but the Lord hath protected it it hath been the Citie of the Lord of Hosts the Lord hath commanded that no Army should meddle with it for hurt Isa 37. 33. 34. 35. I will defend this City saith God and I will save it for mine own sake Yea it is for Gods own sake indeed that he hath said to the Sword Go through the Land and indeed quite through the Land except this City and a few Counties about it as in Ezek. 14. 17. Or if I bring a Sword upon that Land and say Sword go through the Land c. The Sword hath even devoured from one end of the Land to another Jer. 25. 15. And yet this Citie preserved Oh! not only preserved but made a refuge and a succour
any wild Beasts whatsoever there is that in my wrath if you escape one wild beast another shall tear you and that 's the reason that the Bear is added to the Lyon and the Leopard because the Bear runs up a tree so much which the others do not and now he comes to all wild Beasts put them all together and my wrath is as fierce as them And this is one excellent meditation from hence That put all the dreadfulness of all creatures in the world together and all that it is in the wrath of God As put all the good things that are in all creatures together all this is in the Love and Mercy of God so put al things that any way may bring any torments or tortor to us and the quintessence of all this is in Gods wrath The wild Beasts shall tear them Lyra thinks that this Prophesie was fulfill'd when they were carried captive and in their journey many died and so they were cast into fields and devoured by wild Beasts and it 's likely it may be fulfill'd in part so as usually when Soldiers carry an Enemy captive Why if they be sick let them die and if they die throw them into a ditch there 's all they care for them and so it was with this people that the Lord though he knew them in the wilderness and his protection was over them yet now to forget them and lets them be carried into captivity and cast to wild beasts and so their carkasses was torn And some think that the expression of Gods wrath by these Beasts hath reference to the four Monarchies which God would make use of to be very terrible to his Saints In Dan. 7. you shall find the four Monarchies of the world the Babylonian the Persian the Grecian and Roman Monarchies set forth in the same manner as here the holy Ghost sets out the wrath of God against Israel for the truth is Those things that we have here in Hosea were to set forth Gods waies to his people in after-times not only when they were to be carried captive In Dan. 7. 3. there appeared four great Beasts the first li 〈…〉 Lyon by which was signified the Babylonish Empire the second like a Bear by that the Persian the third like a Leopard and that 's the Graecian for Alexander was as a Leopard exceeding swift all his exploits he did in twelve yeers he was but thirty three yeers old when he died And moreover they observe of the Leopard which hath the name from a Panther that it smels exceedingly the very body of it smels sweet above all Beasts and so it doth invite the Beasts to it and so it was said of Alexanders body that it had a sweet smell with it And then the fourth being the Roman Empire mark how that 's set out just as Gods sets out his wrath he doth not name any particular Beast but the wild Beast this is dreadful terrible and strong exceedingly and it had great iron teeth it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it and it was diverse from al the beasts that was before it and it had ten horns you know now that that was divided into ten Kingdoms or ten sorts of Civil Governments at several times This is the Roman Empire the power of whom Antichrist was to have by both whom the Lord would exercise his people and be very terrible to his people especially those people of his that were Apostatizing people that would worship him according to their own waies God would be thus terrible to them where ever they lived under any of the former Empires they should have God either as a Lyon a Leopard a Bear or like this dreadful Creature at the last unto them Oh but you will say Why do you speak thus Or it may be people would speak thus to the Prophet Oh why do you speak of God in this terrible manner Is not our God a gracious God and a merciful God why then will you render God thus terrible Why saith the Prophet then comes in VER 9. O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help OH do not find fault with the dreadfulness of God that God appears thus dreadful to you and do not you blame the Ministers of God that they do render God in this dreadful manner before you though it 's true that God appears in a way ready to destroy you bu 〈…〉 the Lord yet is infinite holy and blessed and a God of mercy and goodness in himself O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self thou maiest thank thy self for all this 〈◊〉 many of you when you hear the terrors of God set before you perhaps your hearts rise against them and your spirits do exceedingly distast such things as those are and why do Ministers make God appear to be so terrible to people when as he is such a merciful and gracious God Oh! rather lay thine hand upon thine own heart and say God indeed is thus gracious and merciful but it 's through my wickedness that makes God appear so terrible the judgments of God are call'd strange things it 's because that God hath not such delight in the execution of wrath in appearing like a Lyon a Leopard and a Bear It 's that that pleases the heart of God to appear as a Father to do good to his people Oh! but thou hast destroyed thy self And this is a main point indeed that sinful people should charge themselves with all the evil that doth befall them they destroy themselves Oh! this it is that will be the aggravation of mens judgments another day that they are the cause of all the evils they suffer You may think to put it off to God and say Oh how dreadful is Gods Justice but God knows how to put off all upon your selves and the destruction of sinners will appear to be from themselves and God will cleer it up to all the World before Men and Angels and will cleer it up unto their Consciences The damn'd in Hell shall not be able to speak against Gods Justice at all but they shall be forced to charge themselves with all the evil that is upon them Oh! it was through this wretched and vile wicked heart of mine God was not wanting to me in any means of good but I had a rebellious heart and I have brought all this evil upon my self I have destroyed my self O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Destroyed himself did not God in the words imme 〈…〉 〈◊〉 before say that he would meet him as a Bear that is bereaved of her Whelps and would rend the Caul of their hearts and would be as a Lyon to them and a Leopard and yet O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self Though God execute severe wrath and makes use of instruments of wrath against a people yet their destruction is to be attributed to themselves
Oh Israel thou hast destroyed thy self thou mayest thank thy self for all this The reading of the words I find to be somewhat different from what you have them in your books Calvin and many others read it It hath destroyed thee Israel And in the old English Translation wherein Beza's the Geneva Notes are there it is One hath destroyed them so the word may be read so as it must be made up with somewhat else Either One hath destroyed them or It hath destroyed them or Somewhat hath destroyed them as if God should say 't is not I that have destroyed them but as if somewhat else had done it Tremelius makes it up thus Thy King hath destroyed thee For so the words will bear to reade it to be made up with what the text and the dependance of other passages in the Prophet may help us to hath destroyed us so are the words hath what hath why your King hath dedestroyed you saith Tremelius Saith the Hebrews most of them your Calf hath destroyed you your Idols have destroyed you Aben Ezra your fained comforts hath destroyed you And Drusius he reades it Interogatively Who hath destroyed thee Your fulness of which vers 6. or your own heart and wickedness hath destroyed you The Greek thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who shall give help to the corruption of Israel so that though the words be read so diversly yet that wherein most agree it comes to the same effect as you have them in your books Your own wickedness hath destroyed you your s 〈…〉 ungodly Idelatrous living forsaking God and his 〈…〉 putting confidence in an arm of flesh that hath destroyed thee In Me is Thine Help Those words are somewhat different in the Original from what you have in your Books for there are two Inn's In Me In thy help so 't is in the Hebrew And you shal observe it that in your Books Is hath another character which notes that it is not directly according to the Original In Me in thy help Now in me saith Learned Drusius upon the text I am in thy help and thy help is in me therefore there is two Inn's In me In thy help that is I am in thine help and thine help is in me so in a way of elegancie he expresses it And it seems to be according to the intention of the holy Ghost Whatsoever help thou hast I am in it and thy help it is in me In me is thy help And Pareus he read it Against thy help and so supplies the word Thou hast rebelled against thy help Oh thou hast destroyed thy help Why Because thou hast rebelled against thy help And the words in the Original will bear this to be read against thy help But the other more full according to the general stream of Inerpreters and according to the words Thy help is wholly in me and I am wholly in thy help Thou hast destroyed thy self but thy help is wholly in me That shall suffice for the reading of the words Now for the several Truths that are to be here held forth to us out of the words First this Men would fain put off from themselves to God what evil is upon them Men naturally are loth to charge themselves with the evil that coms upon them It 's their ill-hap their ill-fortune their ill-lock or they could not help 〈◊〉 they did what they could and so think to 〈…〉 ll to God 't is for want of means for want of this or that thing that God did deny to them it 's because God put them into such and such a condition but never come to charge themselves but the Propet speaks here in a compassionat way Oh Israel saith he never stand charging it upon God thou hast destroyed thy self Secondly God knows how to turn all the evil upon our selves God knows how to right himself Though we may think to lessen our evil by putting it upon God God will turn it all upon our own heads and make it out to all the world that we were the cause of al the evils that were upon us both temporal evils and all the evil that shal come upon those that shall perish eternally it will be one of the great works at the day of Judgment To make it out to men and Angels that all the misery that comes upon the damned it is from themselves and their Consciences will acknowledg it and God wil be cleered before all it will be found that the cause of mans perdition it is not the Decree of God Gods Decree it damns none It is their Sin that damns them not the Decree The Decree of Reprobation it is but the leaving of men to be dealt withal in a way of Justice whereas saith God here 's a company I am resolved to magnifie my Grace upon to all eternity Whatsoever comes between to hinder it I am resolved that these shal be the subjects for me to exercise my Grace on toal eternity that 's Election But there are others that I wil have to a way and course of Justice they shal have what they earn and no otherwise so that the Decree is not the cause of mens damnation their sin comes in between that and their damnation so that they destroy themselv 〈…〉 Secondly It 's not the infusion of any evil into them You will say 〈…〉 n comes in between Decree and Damnation But how comes sin in Certainly not by any Infusion from God 〈…〉 t comes in by man himself man himself is the author o 〈…〉 Thirdly It is not by any coaction You will say Though sin is in men for the cause of it yet men cannot help it man cannot but sin Now to that First God made man in such a condition that he might not have sinned and though there be a necessity that man fallen cannot but sin yet it excuses not this necessity He sins as freely as if he could do otherwise Men though it 's true through their fall they cannot do that that is good they cannot but sin Eyes full of Adultry that cannot cease from sin as the Apostle saith of some yet they sin as freely as if they had power to keep from sin It 's that that pleases their wills it 's that that is sutable unto them It 's true that the Saints in Heaven they cannot but glorifie God but yet they glorifie God with freedom too they are so set in an estate of glory as they cannot sin but yet they honor God freely that is They do that that 's sutable to their own spirits in the honoring of God if so be that there be a necessity of sinning from mans fall Yea 2. From a judicial act of God in giving men over to sin yet that 's but in a way of punishment for former sins and they bring this upon themselves so still they destroy themselves Every sinner that perishes murders himself And all
and when thou art labouring for the mercy thou art as well labouring to prepare thy heart for it surely then when it comes it must be sweet indeed but when there 's no preparation before thou canst not know that it is in love We little think that we have need of preparation for mercies If indeed God should threaten some judgment we would think that we had need be prepared but certaialy there is as great need for preparation for mercies to be able to make good use of them as for afflictions to be able to bear them And this seventh Note I have likewise from Numb 11. 18. And say thou unto this people Sanctifie your selves against to morrow There 's a charge that they should sanctifie themselves against to morrow for God would give them flesh I do not find that they did do it but when God promised to give them sesh◠he bid them sanctifie themselves as if he should say If that your desires come before you have sanctified your selves it wil be in wrath not in mercy Oh therefore when as you are earnest to have your desires satisfied think thus The Lord charges thee to sanctifie thy self Oh! doest thou take care of this doest thou make it to be thy endeavor to sanctifie thy self before the mercy comes then thou maiest have comfort in it and not otherwise Eighthly When we seek greedily to have our desires satisfied but rest in the means we use and seek to be beholding to the creature only for it we do not lay the great weight upon prayer what ever it is that we enjoy and we do not get it by prayer we cannot know that it is in love When God intends a mercy from love he doth first fill the heart with the Spirit of Prayer when a mercy comes after much prayer then it 's a mercy from love When the Saints have been praying and then God hath come in with mercy Oh then they have gathered arguments of Gods love to them This I had because I sought thee as Hannah did concerning Samuel how did she rejoyce in Samuel Oh! this is the child that I prayed for saith Hannah unto Eli Oh! this is the mercy that I prayed for therefore she called her childs name Samuel one that was sought of God And so when we can call every gift we have we can call it Samuel that is a gift ask'd of God here 's a gift that 's got by prayer Whatsoever means was used yet prayer was the chief ingredient this is an argument of love But otherwise we can have no assurance that it is from love It 's true a King was not unlawful for them to desire because they had such hints in Scripture Oh but they did not so much mind them no but they come to Samuel and say Come Give us a King we do not reade that they go to God for it Such a great change of their State as that was one would think should have required divers daies in seeking of God It was a mighty change from such a Government as they had unto a new kind of Government and from a Government that was of Gods own appointment to another Government wherein now they would sute themselves according to the Nations And yet we find no daies of prayer for this and therefore it was in wrath that they had it Therefore when you would have any thing look not so much to come by it according to second causes but be much in Prayer according to the excellency of the thing that you seek for Ninthly When God gives our desires but doth not give a proportionable measure of Grace that so we might make a sanctified use of them when God gives you the shell but not the kernel surely it is not in love If your children should ask a Nut of you and you give them a Nut that hath no Kernel they wil not think if so be that you knew it that it is in any great love Truly all the good things that wicked men have they are but Shels without Kernels they are not in love The Kernel of every Blessing it is a proportionable measure of grace to use it for God You have a great desire that God should change your condition if he should change it and not give you a heart fit for that condition you had better be without that thing you have a desire that God should prosper you in such a business yea but if he doth not teach you how to abound you had been better never to have abounded Now it 's not in love for God to give any success except he gives a proportionable measure of Grace according to the success therefore that 's that which you should all examin the Lord hath altered my condition and many good things I have more than before but what Graces have I more than before what exercise of Grace what work of Grace more than before Certainly if it be in love it will be so Tenthly Surely our desires cannot be in love when God doth not only deny a proportionable measure of Grace 〈◊〉 there goes a secret curse with what we have If so be that 〈◊〉 man should be very hungry and hath a mighty desire to satisfie himself and he fals greedily upon his meat and eats it but assoon as he hath eaten it his body swels more and more till it be as big as two bodies surely he begins to think then that all is not well Lord have mercy upon me saith he he is afraid that he is poysoned So God gives you your desire and assoon as you have it you begin to swell you are bigger than you were before your hearts are proud and you can look scornfully upon others then Oh you are poysoned this is an ill satisfying of your hunger you are poysoned surely in this In Isa 10. 16. you have there a notable expression to this purpose Therefore shall the Lord the Lord of hosts send among his fat ones leanness and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire Even such things wherein there appears to be a great deal of glory such things perhaps as when your desires are satisfied in you can glory in Oh you glory in such and such a mercie such a good thing you have above others but under this glory there is a burning kindled there 's a great deal of the wrath of God in it a secret curse that goes along with it Eleventhly When we regard the satisfying of our desires so as we regard not what becoms of others sobeit we have our desires satisfied and this is from their example here Let 's have a King A King What shall become of Samuel then hath not he judged you and been faithful with you What will you shew your selves so ingrateful to him for all the good he hath done to you as to reject him and his house and family Oh! they cared not for