as I have done saith Adonibezek Judg. 1. 7. so God hath rewarded me Even so us our Abnor our great man in the Text falls by the hâ—nd of Joab so Joab must look to have his fall too although it be many years after by Benaiah 1 Kings 2. 31 32 33 34. and the curse of Jehoiakim King of Judah shall follow him to his grave Jer. 22. 18. There shall be none to lament him saying Ah my Brother or ah Lord or ah his glory And let all true hearted Israelites speak as Cushi did to David of Absolom 2 Sam. 18. 32. So let all the Enemies of the Lord their King perish and be as Joab is The Text is a vindication of Davids innocencie in and a lively description of Abners death wherein let us consider these five particulars 1. His qualities and so he was no mean man sprung from the dunghil or Ale-tap no broken Citizen or bankerout Gentleman no Mechanick or Artificer none of the base condition of Davids followers when he fled from Saul 1 Sam. 22. 2. but he was Ishbosheths staff the supporter of Sauls house and the glory of that Diadem and so the Pen-man sets him out two waies 1. As a Prince 2. As a great man 1. As a Prince unto which the Latine word hath a near relation Princeps the which signifies a chief head or ruler secretly inssinuating that as of a head he ought to be defended and made much of because life consists so well in the head as in the heart then as a Ruler he ought to be obeyed and feared according to Saint Paul's rule Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers but Joab had learned instead of Obsta principiis Obsta Principibus withstand the beginnings of sin stifling the first conception of murther in his heart to promote it and give life unto it by the fall of a Prince and so hath received to himself condemnation ver 2. 2ly The Hebrews use many words signifying a Prince but I shall make use but of one and that is Naghidh carrying this sence Dux Princeps a Captain and chief Commander ordering disposing and giving rules to Souldiers to go out and come in to draw and to sheath their swords and such a Prince was Abner and a valiant Prince but whom Ajax cannot conquer Vlysses will undermine by treason For know ye not that a Prince and a great man is fallen And so I passe to the second Branch 2. As a great man As when Ephraim spake there was trembling Hos 13. 1. As when the Lion roars who will not be afraid Amos 3. 8. even so when this great man speaks not onely the inferiour beasts of the Forest but even the Lion himself coucheth as is clear in the 11 verse before the Text and if a bare hand upon the wall did so starcle Belshazzar in his cups when men are most Pot-valiant and in the Guard of his Princes and making metry with his wives and concubines that his countenance changed the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another Dan. 5. 6. How will Joab look How will Joab stand How will he shift when the great God shall make inquisition for this great mans blood Psal 9. 12. Davids heart smote him for cutting off but the Lap of Saul's garment 1 Sam. 24. 5 6. How then deeply may they be touched that had a hand in cutting off the head of the Lords anointed for the greater the person the greater is the sin in them that conspire his death Kings and Princes and great man in authority are termed gods by Gods own mouth Psal 82. 6 and to act Treason against such is to be treacherous to God himself for which cause God spared not the Angels that had finned but cast them down into hell and delivered them into chains of darknesse to be kept unto damnation 2 Pet. 2. 4. What Christ spake in another kind holds true in this Matth. 25. 40. In as much as ye have done it unto them ye have done it unto me Another particular is the manner of this great Princes death so he is not threatned a fall as God told Adam that if he should eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in that day he should die the death Gen. 2. 17. for then he would have looked about him either to prevent his fall or to make a good preparation for his soul against his fall as the wise Steward did for his body Duke 26. 4. but in the present tense occidit is fallen noting the suddennesse of his death and his unprovidenesse for his grave Joab not onely labouring to kill his body but so far as he could his soul too like as the Italian I read of endevoured to serve his enemy overcome in duel wherein we may observe 1. Prov. 12. 10. The mercies of the wicked are truel 2ly The uncertainty of our death we have one way into the world but many out Ferro peste fame vinclis algore calore Mille modis miseros mors rapit una viros as sometimes by fire famine plague water sword like Abner and Joab And this consideration should move us to look for that in every place which every where looks for us Pharaoh tasted of deaths Cup in the deep Sea Herod upon his throne Eglon sunning himself in his Summer Parlour Amnon when his heart was merry with wine Ahab in the battel Zenecharib in the house of his God And who amongst us can coast of to morrow for we know not what a day may bring forth Prov. 27. 1. Let it be our wisedom then 1. So to live as if we were alwaies dying and giving up our accounts to the great judge of Heaven and Earth of our several stewardships 2ly With Joseph in the time of famine with Solomons Pismire in the harvest time and with the wise Virgins in the acceptable time to provide oyl for our Lamps that we may be found a people ready prepared for our God when he shall knock at our door and call us 3ly To pray alwaies as the Church hath taught us From sudden death Good Lord deliver us 3ly The next particular is the time of Abners fall and that is said to be hoc die this day Know ye not that there is a Prince and a great man this day fallen in Israel This was a day of darknesse and of blacknesse a day of clouds and obscuritie Joel 2. 2. a day of heavinesse and mourning a stormy and watery day and in a word such a sad day to David and all Israel as if as one man they had combined to revive their Abner with their tears as Christ did Lazarus John 11. or if they could not do that for him yet they would witnesse to the world their love to him and how wonderfully they lamented his losse To love a rich man and a great man living is no news the living dog being better than the dead Lion Eccles 9.
Parents and yet as bad as he was David the King wept for him saying O Absalom my son my son Absalom would God I had died for thee O Absalom my sonne my son Athaliah's detestable Treason SERMON III. 2 Kings 11. 14. Then Athaliah rent her cloathes and cried Treason treason VErbum diei in die suo was the Apostles charge to Timothy 2 Tim. 4. 2. and therefore it shall be my practice for saith Solomon Prov. 25. 11. A word spoken in season is like apples of gold with pictures of silver How well then doth this Text match the occasion of this our meeting together at this time which is to give thanks unto God for the discovery of Sundercombs desperate Treason against Oliver Lord Protector Then Athaliah rent her cloaths and cried Treason treason Herein let us consider these two general branches 1. Athaliahs action Then Athaliah rent her cloaths 2ly Athaliahs passiion And cried Treason treason In the first let us consider these two particulars 1. The subject of her action her cloaths she rent her cloaths Ah Athaliah this was a more suitable occasion for thee to follow the Prophets instruction Joel 2. 13. in rending thy heart and not thy garments But she that had no heart to spare infants like Herod had no heart to repent and so runs on still in revenge And if she can make man the subject of her wrath no longer her cloaths shall feel it and speak her minde She rent her cloaths 2ly The time of her rageing and mad wilde action implyed in the first word then Then she rent her cloaths Then when she saw another sun risen up in Judah to eclipse her pride her glory and her hautiness Then when she found she could no longer stand or keep the saddle or wear the Crown She rent her clothes In the second consider with me these two particulars likewise 1. The manner how she vents her passion She cried Her dead and seared conscience now revives and whispers in her ears that she had committed crying sins and so considering how near her door the punishment of them was come as a woman amazed frighted and startled at it she cried out for help when she was past cure she cried 2ly The cause of her passion and of her heavy exclamation in these words Treason Treason She had committed Treason against heaven and the King of heaven and that never troubled her which is the greatest Treason of all She had committed Treason in murthering the Kings Seed and that lieth not nigh her heart but when she seeth her full sea ebbing her sun setting her bright day drawn to an end and shutting in her hour-glasse run out and her doom of death passed upon her Then she rent her clothes and cryed Treason Treason Herein let us for the better discovery and opening the Text consider these four particulars 1. What Athaliah signifies 2ly Who Athaliah was 3ly What her Treason was and that which she complained of 4ly What her end was and of these in order 1. Athaliah signifies time for the Lord. When the ungodly destroy Gods Law and bring it into utter contempt then saith David in this sense Psal 119. 126. It is time for thee Lord to work that is to send help either by converting or confounding the enemies thereof as God converted Saul but confounded Herod When the wickednesse of the Amorites is full Gen. 15. 16. and the corn ripe for the harvest then it is time for the Lord to thrust in his sickle When Ahaliahs feathers of pride are full grown then it is time for the Lord to deplume her and send her as naked out of the world as ever she came into it When she was joined to Idols it was time for the Lord to make her know that an Idol was as vain a thing as a horse to save her from tumbling and ruine and destruction Psal 33 17. And this time is come and is made good to a tittle upon her all crying out with one voice as they did against Paul Acts 22. 22. Away with such a woman from the earl for it is not meet that she should live 2ly Who Athaliah was from the beginning And so she was descended from high Parentage for she was daughter unto Omri King of Israel 2 Kings 8. 22. and mother to Ahaziah King of Judah and wife to Jâ—horam his father As she came from a high Stock so she soared high and nothing could satisfie her ambition but the Scepter and sway of the Kingdom and the Crown and have it she will per fas per nefas be it right be it wrong rather than she will misse of so goodly a bait From whence we may learn Obs That ambitious Spirits will climb over the head of all wickednesse and make it their foot-stool to raise them to honour When Eteocles and Polynices his brother were contending for their Fathers kingdom with naked swords in their hands ready to sheath in each others bowels then Jocasta their Mother stepped in between them mediating for peace and accommodation upon her bended knees using these or the like words What my sons the sons of my womb the sons of my desires as Bath-sheba the Mother of Solomon said to him Prov. 31. 1. rather than let my eyes be spectators of your selves weltring in your bloud in me convertite ferrum put up your weapons into the womb that did conceive and bear you But saith Eteocles to her Pro regno velim patriam penates conjugem flammis dare Imperia precio quolibet constant bene To gain a kingdom I would set Country Houshold-gods wife and all on fire like Troy for Kingdoms and Crowns cannot be purchased at too dear a rate Absalom to step into his Fathers throne quid non audet what will he not what dares he not to do And it was the speech of one in later times who having by perjury dissimulation and treachery mounted himself aloft That if he fell all the Commonwealth should fall with him farr preferring his private interest before the publique And Athaliah was cast into the same mould for neither the frown of God the curse of the people the tears of Innocents could give a supersedeas to her wicked design she had in hand but a kingdom she will have although she buyes it with the losse of her soul Obs 2. As it was said of Corax and Lysias mali â—orvi malum ovum a curst Crow hath hatched a shrewd egge a crafty Master hath bâ—ed as crafty a scholar Even so as Isay speaks 24. 2. Like father like daughter a wicked father 1 King 16. 25 26. and as vile a child Of all the Kings of Israel there was not one good and of all their children there was not one thoroughly righteous It s true there was found some goodnesse in Abijah towards the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14. 13. but it was but some and that God takes notice of and that goeth not unrewarded but of all
for them that fear God and Kings with Princes were ordained to the like purpose i. e. by godly example good Laws and faithfull labourers in the Gospel under them to lighten men to Canaan above for Regis ad exemplum totuâ— componitur orbis 2ly To relieve those that are in want Thus the Kings of England have their Almoners to fling out money to the poor 3ly The Apostle tells us Rom. 13. 4. They bear not the sword for nought for they are the Ministers of God to take vengeance on them that do evil 4ly Righteous lips are the delight of Kings Prov. 16. 13. and so stand in the gap like Moses between God and his people to make their atonement for them 5ly To vindicate the cause of the innocent from the oppressour and wrong-doers To this effect speaks Solomon Prov. 29. A King that judgeth the poor in truth his Throne shall be established for ever and Prov. 29. 28. and for this light to be put out and extinguished this oyl to be poured on the ground this sword to rust this innocency to be smothered in dust and ashes this judge of the poor fatherlesse and widow to be condemned and this Angel to fall Let us not any more cry out with the woman of Tekoah 2 Sam. 14. 4. Help O King but help O Israel for a Prince and a great man is fallen this day in thee O Israel 4ly Because people without a Prince are like those Acephali a body without a head and sheep without a shepherd as Orphans Fatherlesse as Servants without a Master as the world without a Sun If the eye or head be cut off surely the body will perish If there be no shepherd the sheep lie open to spoil by the greedy wolf and Jesuite If the world loseth his Sun all things wither to nought and if the Servant be robbed of his Master that feeds him fully cloths him richly and rewards him liberally can their eyâ—s be dry to think of their losse Magis câ—rendo quam fruendo The Sheep the Servant the body will know and feel their misery sooner by the want of their Prince than they were sensible of their own happinesse in him Had I wist will not serve turn to say they were deceived to say they were not sensible of Joab's juggle will not avail them in the day of wrath no more than their unjust gotten riches since by Abners fall Prov. 11. 4. And seeing one Prince one great man will not be suffered to reign over them as they in the Gospel said Luke 19. 14. How just will it be with God as the wise man speaks Prov. 28. 2. For the transgression of the Land many should be the Princes thereof whose least finger should be heavier than the others loins as Rehoboam told the Israelites and for gentle rods they should be chastised with scourges 1 Kings 12. 14. 5ly Princes seldom fall alone but their Lord-like Train will as well follow them to the grave as to the palace If the tree be stubbed up at the root the top branches must fall with it the Lord avert this sad presage if it be his blessed will Vse Is for our Instruction 1. To lament over and for our Abner As the Turks have a Proverb unto this day when they would expresse their grief in the privation of any comfort Great such a one is dead as if all their hopes were bedded with him and all their joyes were nipped in the bud And as Phinehas his wife hearing that the Ark of God was taken 1 Sam. 4. 21. presently fell into travel calling hir Sons name Ichabod for saith she The glory is departed from Israel Even so every true Israelite may speak Ichabod our glory is departed from us Abner is fallen great Abner and not more great than good Of whom it may be said as Pharaoh of Joseph Gen. 41. 38. Can we find such a man as this and yet this Abner this great man is fallen the Lord be good unto our Israel that all Israel falls not presently after him Ob. If your Abner were so great so good why did not God suffer him to grow to a good old age as he once promised Abraham Gen. 15. 15. Nay why did God suffer Joab to mow him down like grasse before his eye was satisfied with seeing his ear with hearing and his heart with lusting Eccles 1. 8. Ah certainly latet anguis sub herba there was some Pad hidden under this straw Some Achans wedge of gold Some abominable execrable thing in him that God brought him down so suddenly so wonderfully as it is said of Jerusalem Lam. 1. 9. Ans 1. It is not for dust and ashes to enter into arcana Dei Gods secrets or dive into Gods Cabinet counsel lest whilst we seek to know those things that are not revealed ' we sind not the comfort of those things that are reveiled It was wittily answered by one that was asked what God did before he made the World makes this reply He made Hell for such curious Inquisitors as thou art quae supra nos nihil ad nos those things that are above our sphere belong not unto us to search into Peevish curiositie in man below is detested by God above As the Master of the house said to his Labourer Mat. 20. 14. So I speak to thee Friend take that which is thine own and go thy way and let the rest alone 2ly Who art thou O man that contendest against God or pleadest with God Rom. 9. 20. Wilt thou take Gods glory away and give it to another Isa 42. 8. Wilt thou wrest the sword out of the Lords hand and maintain justice in thine own Shew me thy warrant from Heaven for this Shew me any Law of God or any Law of man for this Ob. 1 Sam. 15. 3. 33. Did not the Lord command Saul to smite Agag King of the Amalekites and when Saul had spared his life did not Samuel hew him into pieces Answ But our Abner was no Agag our Joab no Samuel and so I proceed 3ly Isa 57. 1. The righteous perisheth and no man considereth it in heart and merciful men and Kings too are taken away and no man understandeth that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come 4ly God might suffer Abner to fall for the greater aggravation of Joab's condemnation 5ly Suppose our Abner our Prince our great man had sin in him as there is no man that sinneth not saith Solomon 1 Kings 8. 46. and to the like effect speaks John 1 Ep. 1. 8. yet Religion yet Charity thinketh no evil 1 Cor. 13. 5. that he was not guilty of so soul a crime that nothing could expiate his sin but his Fall 2ly It teacheth us that it is a great shame for any of our eyes to be dry in such a general losse and publik calamity Jacob wept and mourned for his Joseph and would not be comforted Gen. 37. 35. how much more cause have we to mourn for the losse of
his integrity and best meaning misconstrued and misinterpreted 24 25. ver Even so our Prince our great man was calumniated and reproched in the Army by rude Souldiers In the City by ignorant Ephesians Factious Schismaticks and many pratling Diotrephe's In the Countrey by Copper-Smith Alexanders and giddy-brained Athenians stil longing to hear and tell news sucking in all poison and then spewing it out to the disgrace of their Prince This was Christs lot and portion Isa 53. 3. to verse 12. and certainly how ever the world deem of it that servant is highly honoured that is admitted to drink of his Masters cup. If they have done these things to the green tree what may they not will they not do to the dry Luke 23. 31. 4ly Abners fall was lamented by all Israel unlesse it were by cursed Joab and his wicked brood verse 32. Even so our great mans subversion did afford much lamentation in our Rhama where among the more godly and constant godly ones there was weeping and mourning and howling for thâ—ir Abner for their Prince because he was not Matth. 2. 18. Perhaps there might be some greedy of prey might rejoice in his fall that they might rise and step into his seat but as Christ prayed for his malefactors so pray I Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. 34. That Crown must needs be dear bought which is purchased with blood and an ill conscience and the losse of a soul as Alexander the sixth sold his soul to the Devil to advance him to be Pope The Romans were wont to begin their Epicedies after the death of their Worthies with Augustus mortuus est the King is dead the tidings of Augustus death made a Land flood over all Rome And why should not Abijahs sad tidings of Princeps occidit our Prince is fallen turn our Israel into Bochim a valley of tears Unlesse we have eyes and will not see and hearts that will not understand the which was one of Pharaoh's plagues We never had more cause to pour out water before the Lord than this day 1 Sam. 7. 6. 5ly Abner falling Ish-bosheth presently fell with those adherents to them both 2 Sam. 4. 7. Even so our Prince and great man falling how many hundred Families that are bread at his Table and were cherished by our good Abner were utterly ruined The Peers lost the honour of their birthright and some of them their lives The Bishops Deans Arch-Deacons with the learned Clergy lost their Livings and Liberties The Gentry their Estates and have not all cause to cry out as Elisha did after Elijah when he was taken up into heaven 2 Kings 2. 12. My father my father What shall we do as the servant of the man of God said Chap. 6. 15. 6ly Abner signifies the fathers Candle and what he was by name our Prince was by nature a bright shining light and Candle as it was said of John Baptist John 5. 35. and this Candle being put out we must needs walk in Egyptian darknesse and darknesse is none of the least plagues 7ly Abner was gulled of his life under a colour of kindnes v. 27. Joab pretended love but intended murther Mol in ore verba lactis fel in corde fraus in factis he had honey in his mouth but gall in his heart he spake to him peaceably but struck him to the heart Even so our Prince was fed with golden promises and Naphthalies goodly words that they would make him the greatest Prince in Christendom if he would null Bishops Confirm the Parliament during their own pleasure Resign the Militia into their hands which having obtained and all they could ask at last cut off his head with his own sword as David served Goliah 1 Sam. 17. 51. And so let us pray From the Crafty Counsel of Abithophel From Rabshakeh's railing Shimei's cursing From Iudas's kisse and Joab's bloody hands Good Lord deliver us From all false Doctrine and Heresie From hardnesse of heart and privy conspiracy From sudden death and Jesuitical cruelty Good Lord deliver us Absaloms unnatural rebellion against his father SERM. II. 2 Sam. 18. 33. And the King was moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept and as he went thus he said O my son Absalom my son my son Absolom I would God that I had died for thee Absolom my sonne my sonne DIC mihi Musa virnm Tell me of any man but the son of man that ever was so soaked in sorrows and soused in tears as David was his whole life seemed nothing else from the Cradle to the Grave but a map of miserie the ground on which he stood a red sea of blood or a wild wilderness full of sharp briars and thorns that pricked and peirced him which way soever he moved his diet like Micaiahs 1 Kings 22. 27. Bread of affliction and water of affliction so that he said truly of himself Psal 102. 6. I am like a Pellican in the wilderness whose nature is to trickle down tears on her bill continually and in this sence saith Job Chap. 57. Man is born to sore travell and trouble as sparks flie upward and this ye shall find in the survey of his life 1. He was a shepherd and he that follows that calling duram servit servitutem serves an hard Apprentiship as Jacob speaks and shews Gen. 31. 40. I was in the day consumed with heat and with frost in the night and my sleep departed from mine eyes 2ly He was despised by Eliab his eldest brother 1 Sam. 17. 28. 3ly He was defied by Goliah the Philistim v. 42. 4ly He was assaulted by a lion and a Bear v 34. 5ly He was persecuted by Saul 6ly Despised by Michal his own wife 7ly He was betrayed by the Ziphims chap. 23. 19. 8ly He was envied by Philistims 9ly And in a word to fill up the measure of his griefs his own son his bosome son his Isaac son his darling son seeks his life and Crown a once and yet for this bird that would have picked out his eyes this cuckoe that would have devoured his damme that bred and fed and cockered him he good man weeps and in the midst of his inundation thus he said O my son Absalom my son my son Absalom I would God that I had died for thee Absalom my son my son From whence we learn after his example Obs 1. To love our enemies to blesse them that curse us to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them which hurt us and persecute us Matth. 5. 44. for saith Christ v. 46 47. If we love them which love us what reward shall we have Do not the Publicans even the same Or if we be friendly to our brethren onely what singular thing do we Do not even sinners likewise but to be perfect even as our heavenly father is perfect but with Steven to render good for evil Acts 7. 60. but with David to mourn and grieve