eminent person who hath got the speed of them and dispairing fairly to overtake Him resolve foully to overturn Him by all means possible contriving his destruction Hence comes those many millions of devises and strategems contrived for his ruin endeavouring either to Divert him from his righteousness or Destroy him in his righteousness If the first takes no effect and if his constancie appears such as without regreet he will persist in pietie leaving them no hope to byass him to base ends then dispairing to bow him from they contrive to break him in his righteousness Thus whilest he hath many enemies which conspire his destruction seeking with power to suppress or policie to supplant him The wicked man on the other side hath the generalitie of men the most being bad as himself to befriend him a main cause of his prolonging himself successfull in his wickedness Secondly Righteous men perish in their righteousness because not so warie and watchfull to defend themselves in danger being deaf to all jealousies and suspitions over-confident of other men measuring all others by the integritie of their own intentions This makes them lie at an open guard not fencing and fortifying themselves against any sudden surprisal but presuming that deserving no hurt none shall be done unto them Thus Gedaliah governor of the remnant of the Jews after the captivitie twice received he express intelligence of a conspiracie to kill him yet was so far from giving credit that he gave a sharp reproof to the first discoverer thereof Yea when Johanan the son of Kareah tendered his service to kill Ishmael sent as he said from Baalis king of Ammon to slay Gedaliah Gedaliah rejoyned * Jer. 40. 16. Thou shalt not do this thing for thou speakest falsly of Ishmael His noble nature gave no entertainment to the report till he found it too late to prevent it Whilest wicked men partly out of policie more out of guiltiness sleep like Hercules with their club in their hand stand always on their guard are jealous of their very shadows and appearances of danger a great cause of their safety and success prolonging themselves in their wickedness Thirdly They perish because of a lazie principle which hath possessed the heads and hearts even of the best men who are unexcusable herein namely that God in due time will defend their innocence which makes them more negligent and remiss in defending themselves as the Prophet makes mention of * Dan. 2. 34. a stone cut out without hands they conceive their cause will without mans help hew its own way through the rocks of all resistance as if their cause would stand Centinel for them though they slept themselves as if their cause would fix their Muskets though they did it not themselves Thus the Christians in their battels against the Turks having wonne the day by their valour have lost the night by their negligence which principally proceeded from their confidence that God interested as a Second in every just cause was in that quarrel concerned as a Principle and it could not stand in his justice to suffer it to miscarrie Whereas on the other side wicked men use double diligence in promoting their designs If their lame cause lack leggs of its own they will give it wings from their carefull soliciting thereof and will soulder up their crackt title with their own industrie They watch for all tides and wait for all times and work by all wayes and sail by all winds each golden opportunity they cunningly court and greedily catch and carefully keep and thriftily use in a word they are wiser in their generation than the children of light This may be perceived by the paralel betwixt the wife and the harlot many wives though herein they cannot be defended knowing their husbands obliged in conscience to love them by virtue of their solemn promise made before God and the congregation at their marriage are therefore the less carefull to studie compliance to their husbands desires they know their husbands if wronging them wrong themselves therein and presuming themselves to deserve love as due unto them for their honesty and loyalty of affections are the less sollicitous to gain that which they count their own already Whilst the harlot conscious to her self of her usurpation that she hath no lawful right to the embraces of her parramour tunes her self to the criticalness of all complacencie to humour him in all his desires And thus always those men whose cause have the weakest foundation in pietie getteth the strongest buttress in policie to support it Lastly the righteous man by the principles of his profession is tied up and confined onely to the use of such means for his preservation as are consonant to Gods will conformable to his word preferring rather to die many times than to save himself once by unwarrantable ways Propound unto him a project for his safetie and as Solomon promised to favour Adonijah so long as he * 1 kings 1. 52. shewed himself worthie otherwise if wickedness were found in him he should surely die So our righteous man onely accepts and embraceth such plots to secure himself thereby as acquit themselves honest and honourable such as appear otherwise he presently dispatches with detestation destroying the very motion mention thereof from entering into his heart On the otherside the wicked man is left at large allowing himself libertie and latitude to doe any thing in his own defence making a constant practice of doing evil that good may come thereof Yea we may observe in all ages that wicked men make bold with religion and those who count the practice of pietie a burthen find the pretending thereof an advantage and therefore be the matter they manage never so bad if possible they will intitle it to be Gods cause Much was the substance in the very shadow of S. Peter which made the people so desirous thereof as he passed by the streets And the very umbrage of Religion hath a sovereign virtue in it No better cordial for a dying cause than to overshadow it with the pretence that it is Gods cause for first this is the way to make and keep a great and strong partie No sooner the watch-word is given out For Gods cause but instantly GAD Behold a troop cometh of many honest but ignorant men who press to be listed in so pious an employment These may be kild but cannot be conquered for till their judgements be otherwise informed they will triumph in being overcome as confident the deeper their wounds got in Gods cause gape in their bodies the wider the gates of heaven stand open to receive their souls Besides the pretending their cause is Gods cause will in a manner legitimate the basest means in pursuance and prosecution thereof for though it be against Gods word to do evil that good may come thereof yet this old error wil hardly be beaten out of the heads and hearts of many men that crooked ways are made direct
by being directed to a streight end and the lustre of a bright cause will reflect a seeming light on very deeds of darkness used in tendencie thereunto This hath been an ancient stratagem of the worst men great Politicians to take pietie in their way to the advancing of their designs Thus Rabshakeh pretended a Commission from God for all the wickedness he committed and complements blasphemie * 2. Kings 18. 25. Am I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it the Lord said to me Go up against this place to destroy it The Priests of Bell were but bunglers which could not steal the meat of their Idol but they must be discovered by the print of their foot-steps Men are grown more cunning thieves now adays first they will put on the shoes of him they intend to rob and then steal that so their treadings may tell no tales to their disadvantage They will not stride a pace nor goe a step nor stir a foot but all for Gods cause all for the good and glorie of God Thus Christ himself was served from his cradle to his cross Herod who sought to kill him pretended to worship him and Judas kissed him who betrayed him By these arts and devices it cometh to pass that wicked men prolong themselves in their wickedness Traiterous Zimri indeed continued * 1. Kings 16. 15. but seven days that was not long wicked Jehojachin reigned but three * 2. Kings 24. 8. moneths in Jerusalem that was not long ungodly Amon reigned two * 2. Kings 2. 19. years in Jerusalem that was not long idolatrous Ahab reigned in Samaria twentie * 1. Kings 16. 29. and two years that was indifferent long cruel Herod the King who sought to kill Christ reigned in Judea wel-nigh fourtie years that was long indeed he prolonged himself to purpose in his iniquitie Seeing therefore to recollect what hath been said the righteous hath most foes the wicked many friends the righteous free from the wicked full of jelousies the righteous two often overcareless the wicked over carefull in his defence the righteous limited onely to lawful the wicked left loose to any means for his own advantage No wonder if it often cometh to pass that the righteous man perisheth in his righteousness and the wicked prolongeth his life in his wickedness Come we now to the abuses which wicked men make of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And hear the whole kennel of Atheists come in with a full crie oh that there were no more of them on earth than there are in hell where torture makes them all speak truth spending their wicked breath against God his attributes Some bark at his Providence as if he perceived not these things * Psalm 73. 11. How doth God know and is there knowledge in the most high Others cavil at his justice that he has no mind others carp at his strength that he has no power to rectifie and redress these innormities This world say they is a ship without a pilot steered onely with the winds and waves of casualtie it is a meer lotterie wherein the best men daily draw the blanks and the worst run away with the prizes And as * 2. Samuel 15. 4. Absolom boasted if he were king of Israel how far he would out-do David in right managing of all matters so these impudent wretches conceive with themselves the Plat-form of the world had been more perfect might they have been admitted to the making thereof The moon would have shined without any spots roses grown without any prickles fair weather should have never done harm because rain should onely fall in the night neither to hinder the pleasure of the rich or hurt the profit of the poor Merit should be made the onely standard of preferment no perishing of the righteous man in his righteousness when success should onely be entailed on desert In a word such Atheists presume all things by them should be so prudently disposed that nothing no doubt in the whole world should be out of order save themselves More might be spoken to highten and improve the objection but I am afraid to persist further therein It is not onely dangerous to be but even to act an Atheist though with intent to confute their errour for fear that our poisons pierce further than our antidots But in answere to this objection know that God without the least prejudice to his justice may suffer the righteous man to perish in his righteousness because allow him righteous justicia causae he is not so justicia personae the best man standing guiltie of many faults and failings in his sight God needs not pick a quarrel with any man having at all times matter of a just controversie against him And seeing God hath oftentimes connived at him being faultie he may condemn him being faultless for nullum tempus occurrit Regi the King of heaven is not limited to any time but at his own pleasure and leasure may take an opportunitie to punish an offender Secondly grant that the cause of the righteous man was just in the primitive constitution thereof yet if it branch it self forth into numerous circumstances appendant thereunto many whereof may be intricate and perplext if it be of so spacious and ponderous a nature that it requires many heads and hands as subordinate instruments in several places for the managing thereof Lastly if the cause be so prolix and tedious that many years must be spent in the prosecution thereof the original righteousness of the cause may be altered with the handling of it and much injustice annexed thereunto for which God may justly cause it finally to miscarrie For it is impossible that a cause consisting of such verietie of limbs retaining thereunto should be carried on without many grand errors and mistakes committed therein and the righteousness of the best man will not spread so broad without shrinking stretch so long without tireing applie it self so exactly to each circumstance without some swerving therein Especially when all the faults of the inferior officers employed under him are chargeable on the righteous mans account the matter of whose cause may justly perish by Gods just anger on the unjust managerie thereof Yea God without the least blemish to his Justice may suffer the righteous temporally to perish in his righteousness because in the midst of their sufferings his mercie supports them with the inward comfort of a clear conscience In the time of persecution a woman being big with child was imprisoned condemned to die which the night before her execution was I cannot say brought to bed delivered of a child when her pain wanting the help of a midwife must be presumed exceeding great The Jailor hearing her cry out in her pangs If you cry said he to day I will make you shreek worse to morrow when you are to be burnt at a stake The woman replied Not so to morrow my pain
disconsolate with soft paces sad looks and sorrowful hearts all their children they are ready to call and christen * 1 Sam. 4. 21. Ichobods the glorie is departed from Israel being affected like the Citizens of Jerusalem besieged by Senacherib their hearts are like the trees of the wood * Isaiah 7. 2. moved with the wind But let such droopers know that herein they offend God and wrong themselves and let them gird up their loins and tie up their spirits at the serious consideration that God in due time will raise them out of the dust maintain his own cause and confound his enemies The third sort of people are the Arguers or Disputers who being of a middle temper neither haughtie nor stomachful neither low nor dejected and withal being good men embrace a middle course neither to fret nor dispute but calmly to reason out the matter with God himself Of this latter sort was the Prophet Jeremie who thus addresseth himself unto the Lord * Jer. 12. 1. Righteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are they happie that deal very treacherously The good man could not conceive Gods proceedings and although he kept to the conclusion Righteous art thou O Lord yet his heart was hot within him and he would fain be exchanging an argument with God that all was not right according to his humane capacity Job also was one of these Arguers in the agonie of his passion * Job 16. 21. Oh that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbour But let flesh and bloud take heed of entering the lists by way of challenge with God himself * Acts 6. 9 10. If the synagogue of the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of them of Silicia and of Asia disputing with Stephen were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake much less can frail flesh hope to make good a bad cause by way of opposition against God the best and wisest Answerer Remember the Apostles question * 1 Cor. 1. 20. Where is the disputer But if we should be so bold in humility to examine Gods proceedings let us take heed lest whilest we dispute with God Satan insensible prompts us such reasons as are seemingly unanswerable in our apprehensions so that in stead of being too hard for God which is impossible men become too hard for themselves raising such spirits which they cannot quell and starting such doubts which they cannot satisfie Wherefore let not our ignorance be counted Gods injustice let not the dimness of our eyes be esteemed the durtiness of his actions being all puritie and cleanness in themselves Let us if beaten from our out-works make a safe retreat to this impregnable castle Jeremie his conclusion Righteous art thou O Lord c. Come we now to the good uses that the godly ought to make of a righteous mans perishing in his righteousness And first when he finds such an one in a swoun he ought with all speed to bring him a cordial and with the good * Luke 10. 34. Samaritane to pour oil and wine into his wounds endeavouring his recoverie to his utmost power whilest there is any hope thereof I must confess it is onely Gods prerogative * Psal 79. 11. according to the greatness of his power to preserve those that are appointed to die However it is also the boundant dutie of all pious people in their several distances and degrees to improve their utmost for the preservation of dying innocencie from the crueltie of such as would murder it But if it be impossible to save it from death so that it doth expire notwithstanding all their care to the contrarie they must then turn lamenters at the funerals thereof And if the iniquitie of the times will not safely afford them to be open they must be close Mourners at so sorrowful an accident O let the most cunning Chyrurgeon not begrutch their skill to unbowel the richest Merchants not think much of their choisest spices to embalm the most exquisite Joyner make the coffin most reverend Divine the Funeral Sermon the most accurate Marbler erect the Monument and most renowned Poet invent the Epitaph to be inscribed on the tomb of Perishing Righteousness Whilest all others wel-wishers to goodness in their several places contribute to their sorrow at the solemn Obsequies thereof yea as in the case of Josiah his death let there be an Anniversarie of Mourning kept in remembrance thereof However let them not mourn like men without hope but let them behave themselves at the interment of his righteousness as confident of the resurrection thereof which God in his due time shall raise out of the ashes It is sown in weakness it shall be raised in power it is sown in disgrace it shall be raised in glorie Lastly the temporal perishing of the righteous man in this world minds us of the necessitie of the day of Judgement and ought to edge and quicken our prayers that God would shortly accomplish the number of his elect consummate this miserable world put a period to the dark night of his proceedings that so that day that welcome day may begin to dawn which is termed by the Apostle * Rom. 2. 5. The day of the revelation of the righteous judgement of God Five things there are besides many other in the primitive part of Gods justice which are very hard for men to conceive First How the sin of Adam to which we did never personally consent can justly be imputed to us his posteritie Secondly How Infants who never committed actual sin are subject to death and which is more to damnation it self Thirdly How God can actually harden the hearts of some as he did * Exod. 14. 4. Pharaohs and yet not be in the least degree accessarie to sin and the authour thereof Fourthly How the Americans can justly be condemned to whom the sound of the Gospel was never trumpeted forth and they by their invincible ignorance uncapable of Gods will in his word Lastly How God as it is in the Text can suffer righteous men to perish in their righteousness and wicked men to flourish in their iniquitie In all these a thin veil may seem to hang before them so that we have not a full and free view of the reasons of Gods proceedings herein yet so as that under and thorow this veil we discover enough in modestie and sobrietie to satisfie our selves though perchance unable to utter what in part we apprehend we cannot effectually remove all the scruples which the pious nor all the cavils which the profane man brings against us But at the day of judgement at the revelation of the righteous judgement of God this veil shall be turned back or rather totally taken away so all shall plainly and perspicuously perceive the justice of
will be abated for to day I suffer as an offender for the punnishment justly imposed by God on our sex for our disobedience and breach of his law but to morrow I shall die for the testimony of the truth in the defence of Gods glory and his true Religion Thus it is strange to see what alacrity a good cause infuseth into a righteous man deriving comfort into his heart by insensible conveiances so that he embraceth even death it self with a smiling countenance feeding his soul on the continual feast of a clear conscience Besides this it clears divine Justice and comforts the righteous man perishing temporally in his righteousness that his Cause shall be heard over again and rejudged in an other world If one conceive himself wronged in the Hundred or any inferiour Court he may by a certiorari or an accedas ad curiam remove it to the Kings-Bench or Common-Pleas as he is advised best for his own advantage If he apprehendeth himself injured in these Courts he may with a Writ of Error remove it to have it argued by all the Judges in the Exchequer-chamber If here also he conceiveth himself to find no justice he may with an Injunction out of the Chancery stop their proceedings But if in the Chancery he reputeth himself agreeved he may thence appeal to the God of heaven and earth who in another world will vindicate his right and severely punish such as have wilfully offered wrong unto him And so much to assert Gods justice in suffering the righteous man to perish in his righteousness Now on the other side God may without any prejudice to his justice suffer wicked men for a time to thrive in this world and not suddenly surprise them with punishment so giving them a * Rev. 2. 21. space to repent if they would but make use thereof Indeed David saith * Psal 140. 11. Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him But God is a fair hunter he might in the rigour of his justice knock wicked men down as he finds them sitting in their forms But God will give them fair law they shall for a time run yea sport themselves before his judgements ere they are pleased to overtake them Know also to the farther clearing of his justice that wicked men notwithstanding their thriving in badness for a time are partly punished in this world with a constant corrosive of a guiltie conscience which they carrie about them The Probationer-Disciple said to our Saviour * Mat. 8. 19 Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest what is promised by him is performed by a guiltie conscience that Squire of the bodie alwayes officious to attend a malefactour Fast and I will follow thee and thy emptie bodie shall not be so full of wind as thy mind of dismal apprehensions feast and I will follow thee and as the * Dan. 5. 5. hand on the wall bring in the sad reckoning for thy large bill of fare stay at home and I will follow thee ride abroad and I will follow thee or else meet thee in the way with my naked sword as the Angel did * Num. 22. 23. Balaam wake and I will follow thee sleep and I will follow thee and affright thee with hideous fancies and terrible dreams as I did King Richard the third the night before his death I have read of one who undertook in few dayes to make a fat sheep lean and yet was to allow him a daily and large provision of meat soft and easie lodging with securitie from all danger that nothing should hurt him This he effected by putting him into an iron-grate and placing a ravenous wolf hard by in another alwaies howling fighting senting scratching at the poor sheep which affrighted with this sad sound and worse sight had little joy to eat less to sleep whereby his flesh was suddenly abated But wicked men have the terrors of an affrighted conscience constantly not onely barking at them but biting of them which dissweetens their most delicious mirth with the sad consideration of the sins they have committed and punishment they must undergo when in another world they shall be called to account This thought alone makes their souls lean how fat soever their bodies may appear And as sores and wounds commonly smart ake and throb most the nearer it is to night so the anguish and torture of a guiltie conscience increaseth the nearer men apprehend themselves to the day of their death Now not onely wicked men but even the children of God because of the corruption of their hearts too often make bad uses to themselves of the righteous mans perishing in his righteousness These may be divided into three ranks 1. Such as fret at Gods proceedings herein 2. Such as droop under Gods proceedings herein 3. Such as argue with Gods proceedings herein The first are the fretters for if the perishing of the righteous cometh to the serious observation of a high-spirited man one of a stout and valiant heart he will scarce brook it without some anger and indignation fuming and chafing thereat Thus David we know was a man of valour of a martial and warlike spirit and he confesseth of himself that beholding the prosperitie of the wicked * Psal 73. 21. his heart was grived and he was pricked in his reins Nor was it meer grief possessed him but a mixture of much impatience as appears by that counsel which in like case in one Psalm he gave himself three several times * Psal 37. 1 7 8. Fret not thy self because of evil doers and again fret not thy self because of him who prospereth in his way and the third time fret not thy self in any wise Our Saviour observeth that there are a sturdie kind of devils that will not be cast out save * Matt. 17. 21. by fasting and prayer But this humour of fretting and repining at Gods proceedings herein which he understood not could not be ejected out of David but by prayer no doubt and that very solemnly not at home but in Gods temple * Psal 73. 16. When I thought to know all this it was too painful for me until I went into the Sanctuarie of God there understood I their end O let men of high spirits and stout hearts not lavish their valour and misspend their courage to chafe and fume at such accidents venting good spirits the wrong way but rather reserve their magnanimous resolutions for better services and besides their private devotions address themselves with David to Gods publick worship in his house who in his due time will unriddle unto him the equitie of his proceedings But if men be of low and mean spirits pusillanimous and heartless natures and if these narrow souls in them meet with melanchollie and heavie tempers such fall a drooping yea despairing at the perishing of the righteous they give all over for lost concluding there is no hope they rather languish than live walking up and down