Charles the 5th sirnamed the Wife and Lewis his Kinsman King of Hungary and Polland with many other most noble and famous Monarchs And it is remarkable that Lothair and Charles the Bald the one the K. of France and the other the German Emperor and both of them the Sons of Lewis the devout Emperor both died the 29th of September the first of them in the year 855. and the other A. D. 877. So Charles 5. and Sultan Solyman two of the greatest Emperours that were these many Ages were both born in one year and so both also dyed in one month viz. in September Now though some have thought all these great and marvellous effects to have been wrought by the Conjunction of the superiour Planets or look below God to secondary causes yet let us look above all these to God himself who worketh all things after the Counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 Right Worshipful to you I Dedicate these ensuing Meditations as a publick testimonial of those respects you have manifested to me let me beseech you to look diligently to your selves because the Lord hath set you on higher ground than many others it is more for persons in your places and stations to win the City of God being ships of greater burden and in the main Ocean than for small Vessels that are not so much at the mercy of the stormes because by sailing along the Coast they may come quietly to the Haven In the midst of your worldly affairs labour ye to be like the fresh Rivers that preserve their own sweetness in the salt-Sea Thus recommending you to the rich Grace of God I humbly take my leave and remain Yours in all Gospel-Services to bee commanded W. GEARING Cransden in Sussex March 27. 1667. God's Soveraignty DISPLAYED Job 9.12 Behold he taketh away who can hinder him Who will say unto him what dost thou CHAP. I. FOr the Author of this Book whether it were Moses as the Jewish Rabbins think or Job himself it mattereth not we being assured that the Pen-man thereof as of all holy Scriptures was inspired from above and it came not by private motion but the Author thereof spake and wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost as S. Peter tells us 2 Pet. 1.20 21. yea all the Authors of the Scriptures being as Justin Martyr testifies like Lutes ready strung though not sounding till they were struck by the Finger of God It is of no great consequence who wrote it as what is written in it Hierom who as Lyra testifieth twice translated it once out of Greek into Latin and out of Hebrew also into Latin saith that it was for the most part written in Hebrew Hexameter verse All do number it among the Poetical Books It may seem a Tragedy in regard of those many miseries that Job endured but at length it turned to a Comedy by the happy issue and blessed deliverance that God giveth to him In the words of my Text Job acknowledgeth the Soveraignty Power and Righteousness of God in all his dealings with and Dispensations toward men The word Behold is a note of attention like the sounding of a Trumpet before a Proclamation or the ringing out of a great Bell before a Sermon and it signifies some matter of worth of admiration and observation In the matter it self ye may observe Gods dispensations toward men Gods Dispensation is expressed in the Original in one word he taketh away One Expositor saith he snatcheth away suddenly of which kind of Dispensation Job himself had great and sad experience four persons one after another being sad Messengers of four sad and sudden strokes Job 1. Then their condition and carriage under Gods Dispensation is to be observed wherein two things are to be noted 1. It cannot be resisted whatsoever he pleaseth he taketh away who can hinder him or cause him to restore None can rescue or recover out of his hand 2. It ought not to be controuled Who will say unto him what dost thou Who may in thought or word question or call him to account for any of his Dispensations CHAP. II. Obser THat the Lord doth and may take from his creatures what he pleaseth The point hath two branches 1. De facto 2. De jure That the Lord doth often take away many things from his Creatures and that of right he may do it That the Lord doth take away from men what he pleaseth there are great examples in Scripture this is to be considered in respect of 1. The matter what 2. The place where 3. The time when 4. The means and manner how SECT I. In respect of the matter or things he takes away 1. He takes away health and strength and that many times from his dearest Children We read 2 Kin. 20.1 That good Hezekiah was sick even unto death and Joh. 11.3 The Sisters of Lazarus sent to Christ saying Lord he whom thou lovest is sick The efficient cause of all diseases is God himself I will appoint over you Terrour Consumption and the Burning Ague c. Levit. 26.16 I will appoint them as so many Tyrants and Lords over you who shall vex you with all manner of vexation and I will appoint them over you as so many Judges who shall punish you for all your disobediences and I will appoint them over you is so many Executioners who shall execute the fierceness of my wrath upon you they shall be over your heads over your hearts over your bodies they shall fall upon you when I will and as often as I please they shall go to this person or that place whither I shall direct and send them go whether you will yet still they shall be over you you shall not escape them when I bid them to fall upon you I will set them over you as so many Task-Masters with Cudgels in their hands over their slaves they shall be watching over you to do you mischief you are not afraid of my threatnings nor do you tremble at my word of precept therefore I will appoint terrour over you I will appoint terrifying diseases to come upon you yea your own fancies shall terrifie you Do we not see how mens fancies and imaginations are set over them in every place to affright them at this day How doth God sometimes set Conscience over men to terrifie them sometimes their sins sometimes his Judgements yea God makes every rumor to affright them and nothing can allay those terrours every man they meet every bush they see every sickness that is neer them doth terrifie them fear is from God I will saith he set the Consumption over you a Consumption which shall consume the flesh of men and make them to pine away from day to day waxing more and more feeble so that all the means they shall use shall be of no value for their recovery God hath appointed it over them there is no escaping There is no remedy against evils which God appointeth over a people so the
they will reverence him when they see him But when the husbandmen saw him they reasoned among themselves saying this is the heir come let us kill him that the inheritance may be ours So they cast him out of the Vineyard and killed him what therefore shall the Lord of the Vineyard do to these husbandmen He will come and destroy these husbandmen and shall give the Vineyard to others Now it is said Ver. 19. that the chief Priests and Scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him for they perceived he had spoken this Parable against them The sense is this God planted his Church in the Land of Canaan he brought it out of Egypt and removed and transplanted it out of a dry and barren soil and set it in a fat and fruitful place viz. the Land of Canaan a Land flowing with milk and honey he gave them his Word and Ordinances sent his Prophets among them rising early and sending them and called upon them to bring forth fruit but instead thereof they persecuted his Prophets slew divers of them and at last slew his own son Now here is destruction threatned and who shall do it The Lord of the Vineyard shall do it he shall come and destroy these husbandmen and let out the Vineyard to others So that albeit the Romans were the instruments of this dreadful execution yet the Lord of the Vineyard did it Josephus tells us that Titus was very unwilling to destroy the Temple in Jerusalem that he laboured to quench the flame after it was set on fire and suffered some prejudice in his War about it it was done divino quodam impetu by a certain divine stroke as the same Author observeth But Joseph being a Jew was ignorant of the main cause sc their rejecting and murdering the Son of God Now of all judgements this is the most sad and woful when God removeth the Candlestick out of its place and unchurcheth a Nation and taketh away Church-priviledges and the use of his Ordinances oh that we were deeply sensible how we have provoked the Lord by our sins to deal with us in this kind to unchurch us and leave us in the dark as a people that shall no longer be owned by the Lord for a people If the Lord doth continue these priviledges among us we have cause much to admire his patience and to magnifie his mercy You see the people were very much affected with what Christ spake when he told them the parable fore-mentioned and that the Lord of the Vineyard would come and give the Vineyard to others When they heard it they said God forbid ver 16. SECT X. God takes away peace sometimes from a people and settlement from States and Nations In all these publick changes we must eye God as the cause of causes whatsoever the instruments be whether good or evil few or many whether they act by fraud or force it is God doth all in all and they do nothing but what God permits them and worketh by them Commonly the Instruments of publick changes are very evil and the way they take is evil The four Monarchies presented to Daniel in a Vision are represented like four cruel Beasts The Chaldean in the likeness of a Lion the Persian in the shape of a Bear the Grecian or Macedonian in the likeness of a Leopard and the Roman by a strange Monster with iron teeth intimating that great Conquerours that make great changes are most commonly like wilde and savage beasts All those savage Beasts fore-mentioned fastened their Claws upon the Church of Christ 1. The Assyriâ— or Babylonian came like a Lion roaring after his prey In the daies of Pekah King of Israel came Tiglath-Pilneser King of Assyria and took Ijon and Abel-Beth-Maacha and Janoah and Kedesh and Hazor and Gilead and Galilee and all the Land of Naphtali and carried them Captive to Assyria 2 Kings 15.29 And in the ninth year of Hoshea King of Israel Shalmaneser King of Assyria came up thorowout all the Land and went up to Samaria and besieged it three years In the ninth year of Hoshea he took Samaria and carried Israel away unto Assyria and transplanted the ten Tribes placing them in Halath and in Habor by the River of Gozan and in the Cities of the Medes Now the Assyrian was Gods Instrument to remove Israel out of their own Land yet it is said the Lord did it 2 Reg. 17.18 The Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight there was none left but the Tribe of Judah only Also Judah kept not the Commandments of the Lord their God c. This Beast also invaded Judah also in the time of Sennacherib and cruelly threatned Jerusalem where the Temple of God the special place of his worship was and in the time of Nebuchadnezzar this Beast besieged Jerusalem and took it and burnt the House of the Lord and the Kings house and all the houses of Jerusalem and every great mans house burnt he with fire and carried multitudes of the people to Babylon and held them in bondage seventy years Now see what God saith of this cruel Beast Isai 10.5 6. O Assyrian or woe to the Assyrian as some read it the rod of mine anger and the staff in their hand is mine indignation I will send him against an hypocritical Nation and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge to take the spoil and to take the prey and to tread them down like the mire of the streets What doth God make of this great Conquerour the Assyrian Emperour that prevailed over his own people and many others but as the Rod of Gods anger and one that could do no more than a rod or staff without a hand if the Lord had not mannaged it this staff could have done nothing the Lord makes use of Instruments as a staff and soon sets them behind the door and this appeared by the great slaughter that God made in the Host of this proud Assyrian for in one night an Angel of the Lord smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand and Sennacherib himself was slain by his own sons Isa 37.36 37. 2. The Persian Monarchy represented by the Bear though by the hand of God this Beast was so muzzled as not utterly to destroy the people of God and so over-ruled by the Lord as to give opportunity to the people of God to return and build the Temple and repair the City of Jerusalem yet were they afterward persecuted by the Court of Persia and brought in danger by the pride of Haman abusing his favour with Ahasuerus the Persian Monarch 3. The Macedonian represented by a Leopard came with his flying wings to destroy the Church of God in Judah afterward it was most grievously afflicted by two limbs of this Beast viz. that of the South and that of the North especially that of the North sc Antiochus Epiphanes whose cruelties are
heart by the searcher of the heart Doubtless then both had sinned but their sin was not the cause why he was born blind what then ut manifestentâ—r opera Dei that the works of God might be manifested Thus far Augustine upon the same place He saith opera Dei the works of God saith Calvin because as his work of judgement had been seen in his blindness which was opus solitudinis a work of solitude so his mercy might appear in his recovery which was opus reparationis a work of reparation Itaque oum latent afflictionum causae cohibenda est curiositas ne Deo faciasimus Therefore saith he when the causes of afflictions are not manifest curiosity is to be restrained lest we both do injury to God and become cruel toward our Brethren This was manifest in Job a work of power in taking away all his children and a work of his clemency in restoring him so many again and in suffering him to live to see the fourth generation of them and afterward to die old and full of daies for God is able even out of stones to raise up children to Abraham to Job to every true believer When God takes from us those things which he formerly gave us as our habitations food rayment health wealth if any man being thus emptied complain of Gods dealing with him cannot God reply justly to him I owe you nothing what I gave formerly impute it to my meer love My gifts are free I take them now away that you may know whence you had them not that I am any wayes obliged to you hitherto I have shewed my liberality and bounty toward you if I now please to continue so no longer toward you what Law have you to recover upon me May I not do with mine as I please Friend I do thee no wrong take what is thine and depart S. Augustine explaining Gods equity saith thus God takes away from us sometimes things necessary and so fretteth us that we may know him our Father and Lord not only pleasing but sometimes likewise squeezing us And who dareth or can object the least injury done unto him And if God take away necessaries from us yet we cannot accuse God of injury if he taketh them from us even for his own Honour and Majesty and to shew his power and Authority over us let us then cease complaining we are his subjects and must be his Clients SECT III. It may be God in taking away our health wealth honour houses possessions from us intendeth to bestow better things upon us and then we are no losers but great gainers if God take away our goods and give us more grace if he take from us things necessary for our bodies and gives us things absolutely necessary to salvation as pardon of sin peace of conscience assurance of his love and favour what have we lost thereby It is too low to say saith one these are equivalent to temporals they are transcendently more excellent than all temporal goods the whole world is nothing to the grace and favour of God and to pardon of sin if wealth were as necessary as grace every Childe of God should have it therefore godly men have great cause of contentment if God for reasons best known to himself doth either deny them or take from them the things of this life That Christian is not poor that is rich in grace that man is not miserable that hath Christ for his portion though he hath no house to put his head in yet he hath a Mansion in heaven provided for him though he hath no food for his body yet he hath meat to eat which the world knows not of he hath Manna for his soul though he hath no rayment for his body yet he hath glorious robes for his soul What kind of injury is that to take from one a thread-bare out-worn Coat and to give him a new one that is far better It is an excellent change to lose temporals and get spirituals and eternals We many times think that a great estate is best for us but God our heavenly Father both knoweth what we need and what is best for us were we to be our own carvers as to our worldly estates and outward comforts we should do as the young Prophet who being sent to gather herbs gathered poysonous weeds instead of wholesome herbs therefore in all Gods Dispensations toward us 't is good to submit to the wisdome of God who could make all his Children rich and great in the world but doth not because in his wisdome he thinks a meaner portion of the things of this life to be better for them than a greater To have lectum stramineum cibum gramineum straw for our beds and herbs for our food may be better for us than with the rich Epicure to be cloathed in fine linnen and to fare deliciously every day In fine every Christian shall conclude that estate God allotted me was best for me and the poor Christian shall say as Luther did it was better for me that I was a poor Clown and a Christian than if I had been great Alexander and an Infidel SECT IV. Behold another cause of Gods taking away from us Some there were that told Christ of certain Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their Sacrifices an argument of Gods sore displeasure in the eye of man to be surprized with death and that a bloody one even in the act of Gods service but Jesus answered Suppose ye these Galileans were greater sinners than all the other because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Luk. 13.1 2. And he confirmeth it by another parallel to it of the men upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell here you see punishment for other mens instruction and example ut aliorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that other mens scourges should be our warnings Let every one consider saith Cyprian not what another hath suffered but what even he himself deserveth to suffer In this we may say as he doth Plectuntur interim quidam quò caeteri corrigantur Some are suddenly punished to the end that others may be amended It is a common disease among men saith Calvin to be severe Censors of others when we see the scourge of God upon them and to flatter themselves if they escape unpunished whereas thus they ought to consider First that they ought to behold their own sin and to examine whether they have not deserved the like punishment Secondly in that the Lord in his mercy spareth them and chasteneth others before their faces to magnifie his name in their own behalf and to betake themselves unto speedy repentance Caecus ergo pravus Arbiter est qui hominum peccata ex paenis praesentibus astimat Therefore he is a blinde and perverse Judge who taxeth mens sins from their present punishments Neque enim ut quisque deterior est ita primus
our selves what we have deserved we may behold abundance of mercy toward us under our greatest losses and his sharpest corrections Peradventure thou art in some great pain in some part or member of thy body but tell me dost thou not deserve to burn in hell and to feel the scorching pains of the damned if such an easie disease doth so torment thee here think then with thy self how thou couldst lie in everlasting torments if the pain of one worm-eaten tooth doth so fearfully vex thee day and night that it almost driveth thee to madness think then that thou deservest to be tormented for ever with that fearful Worm of Conscience Thou canst not brook the sight of such a person nor endure the company of such a man who hath done thee wrong but tell me then how thou wouldest be able to endure the company of all the damned yet even this also thou dost deserve thy sharpest sufferings here are sweet if compared with hell torments Perhaps thy house is burnt thy goods are consumed by the flame thou hast lost thy husband thy wife thy children thy friends thy estate but tell me dost thou not deserve it and much more even to lose thy God thy Saviour thy soul thy treasure in heaven everlasting glory and blessedness Therefore under all thy losses and sufferings let God have the glory of his Justice and say with Mauritius the Emperour Justus es Domine justasunt judicia tua Righteous art thou O Lord and just are all thy judgements Or as Daniel To thee O Lord belongeth righteousnesâ—â— but unto us confusion of face Say thou I am unrighteous thou art righteous I am a sinner thou art just II. God may take from his creatures what he pleaseth without crossing his goodness or mercy his mercy is free it is not due to any he hath mercy on whom he will therefore he may take away what he will from any it is a mercy that God hath left any good thing in the possession of sinful man who might have stript us of all and when he doth a little consume us it is his mercies that we are not utterly consumed S. Augustine well weigheth the words of S. James Behold we count them blessed which endure Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have known what end the Lord made They should not therefore saith he suffer the loss of their goods in hope to receive their goods again as Job did for his wounds and rottenness made him whole and all those things which he had lost were doubly restored to him That therefore we should not when we suffer temporal losses expect or look for such a remuneration he saith not ye have heard of the patience and end of Job but he saith ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen what end the Lord made as if he had said Endure the greatest losses as Job but for this your enduring do not expect the restitution which Job had of temporal goods but rather of a more enduring substance laid up in heaven for you III. God may take away what he pleaseth from us without crossing his truth and faithfulness For 1. Gods promises by which he engageth to us in these outward things are conditional and what man living is able to say that he doth so exactly perform his conditions that God cannot take any thing from him without breach of promise who among us hath performed the conditions of the promises your in quities have withheld good things from you saith the Prophet So I may say your iniquities have taken good things from you We have either failed in our duty or we have been unthankful for what we received from God or we were not wise Stewards of Gods blessings or we waxed proud and wanton and forgat God the giver of our blessings therefore God hath turn'd us out of all or the greatest part of those good things he gave us as a chastisement of our sins and negligence in our duties Could we make good the condition of the promises we should still find God making good all the promises of this life to us Assuredly saith Calvin if we were fit and meet to receive Gods benefits he would open his hand and deal more liberally with us Therefore when God takes away your goods your wealth and substance search and try your wayes and you will find your iniquities to be the cause and then you will see little ground to blame God for unfaithfulness in his promises for albeit abundance of outward things be promised to the godly yet if we are deficient in our duty he may either with-hold or take away those good things promised for these things are promised upon condition of our hearkening diligently to the voice of the Lord our God to observe and do all his Commandments Deut. 28.1 2. 2. God may take what he will from the wicked without crossing his truth because they have no interest in Christ and his promises the promises are all yea and Amen in Christ but the wicked can claim no interest in the promises because they have no interest in Christ and if God leave them any good thing it is more than he promised them if he take away their children and leave them health it is more than he promised them if he takes away health and wealth and give them only their lives if he cast them not into hell it self it is more than he promised them IV. When God takes away health wealth goods liberties outward comforts from his own people he hath made up all their losses afore-hand he hath given himself an infinite God to be their portion nay he that takes these outward things from them will give them a kingdome and that Will make up all their losses and therefore he may take away all other things See how God speaks to Abraham Gen. 15. 1. Fear not Abraham I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward Had Abraham left his native Country his Kindred all save one Lot and was he also gone from him to dwell in Sodome was Abraham now as one alone among strangers among Idolaters and Atheists and those the most execrable in the world the very brood of Cham the Father of Canaan a people devoted to destruction having four hundred years given them to fill up the measure of their sins and yet hath Abraham no cause to fear no saith the Lord to him Fear not Abraham The Majesty of God is pleased to stoop so low as in love to give a reason hereof to Abraham and one that Abraham must needs say was very sufficient I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward which is more full than if God had said I will shield thee and reward thee though that had been enough but God promiseth himself as a shield to him and so assureth him of an infinite protection yea he giveth himself as a reward to him an exceeding great reward What cause then hath Abraham to fear Fear
it Luke 10.42 This worlds goods will do you good no longer than you live in this world but godliness will make you happy and the fruit of it will remain with you when the goods and the world it self shall have an utter end Leave then this worlds goods to the children of this worlds whose names are written in the earth they are the only portion of worldly men So Abraham said to Dives Son remember thou in thy life time hadst thy good things God gives unto Esau's the fatness of the earth but denies them the dew of heaven Indeed God sometimes promiscuously scatters these outward things upon the godly and the wicked he gives the wicked some share of his goodness yet it is worth your observing that Isaac would not vouchsafe to call Esau's Portion a blessing yet he gives him the fatness of the earth the worlds goods are the influences of Gods Providence not of his love only the riches of his Grace is the influence of his love and favour Ah! what pity it is to see how Satan layes upon many men a burden of cares above a load and makes a Pack-horse of their souls when they are wholly set upon the world we owe the Devil no such service it were wisdome then to throw off that heavy load into a mire and to cast all our cares upon the Lord Oh never seek warm Fire under cold Ice this world is not a field where true happiness groweth CHAP. VII THe work which now remains to use 2 be done is the application of this to the distressed Citizens of London in special many of whom have had their goods and houses taken away and consumed to ashes by that late sad and raging fire that hapned among them 1. I beseech you enquire into the procuring cause and that you will find to be sin if sin be in the City and in the house vengeance may quickly be seen at the door and at the gate sooner or later God will visit iniquities sin shall never go unpunished This was Davids resolution when God took away his subjects Behold it is I that have done wickedly but those sheep what have they done 2 Sam. 24.17 This was Hezekiah's confession for his own life I have cut off like a Weaver my life Isai 38.12 Thus did that godly Widow of Zareptha acknowledge at the death of her Son What have I to do with thee O man of God art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son 1 Kings 17.18 She verily thought that either some of her former sins or else the not using of so holy a man according to his place was the cause of this present punishment A harsh string to be touched but will be tuneable enough in the ears of the Childe of God that is already touched with the feeling of sin whose heart is still rather in the house of mourning than in the house of mirth it is the Unison of Gods people We have sinned and dealt wickedly Our Saviour prophesied Mat. 24.12 that iniquity shall abound c. and do not the times wherein we live tell us that iniquity doth abound It hath abounded and doth abound exceedingly among us in all our Country Towns and Villages but I had almost said it cannot abound more than it hath among you in London I wish I could draw a veil over the sins of these times and cover the iniquities of the City and Country as Constantine did over the errours of learned men in his daies But the sins of our times and the iniquities of your City cannot be hid they are too publick too common among us See whether all manner of sins do not abound among you the iniquities of the head the iniquities of the heart iniquities of the tongue iniquities of the life do abound in the midst of you have not the streams of all iniquities fallen into your City as all waters and rivers run into the Sea There are some particular sins for which God threatens to poure down fiery showres of wrath and indignation upon a people 1. The first I shall set before you is Sabbath-breaking the profanation of the Lords day Jer. 17.27 See how God threatens the City of Jerusalem for this sin But if you will not hearken to me to hallow the Sabbath day and not to bear a burden even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof and it shall devoure the Palaces of Jerusalem and it shall not be quenched Examine now whether there were not many among you that neglected and despised the publick worship of God and others that as soon as they came out of the House of God laid aside all thought of the Word preached to them either spending the rest of the day in the Alehouse or in some idle recreations yea many suffering their children and servants in the close of the Publick Worship to turn Gods Ordinances sc prayer singing of Psalmes hearing the Word into shouting and clamors idle sports and foolish loud laughter and that in such a rude manner as if they would profess themselves open despisers of God and of his Ordinances Is this to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Is this to do like Abraham to command your children servants to keep the way of the Lord Is it a wonder to see Gods Judgments upon your City to see the Plague raging among you destruction wasting at noon-day poverty encreasing and a fire kindled in your Gates and devouring the stately houses and Palaces thereof SECT II. A second sin is a general contempt and rejection of the Gospel and a despising of his faithful Messengers We read Mat. 23.37 38. that our Saviour prophecieth of the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem for killing and crucifying and stoning some of Gods Prophets for scourging others in their Synagogues and persecuting them from City to City therefore saith he Behold your house is left unto you desolate His Disciples were troubled to hear that so goodly a Structure should be made a ruinous heap wherefore they shewed him the goodly buildings of the Temple wishing him but to look on them vainly imagining that he could not but admire the stateliness of the house and sumptuousness of the buildings and would call in his threatning and prevent the desolation of it but Christ who regardeth not the magnificence of buildings or persons but will stain the pride and glory of man was so far from revoking his threatning as he doth assure them by an oath that the stately Temple so much admired for its curiousness so strongly seated and enriched should not only be left desolate but should be totally demolished Verily I say unto you there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down Mat. 24.2 This was for their contempt of the Word and their cruelty toward the Prophets This sin God hath alwayes
esteemed most dear and precious I have read of Justus Lipsius a most learned man who had a most choice Library and such a one as contained the primest Authours for out of all parts of the world what rare book soever could be purchased either by price or by entreaty he had it in this his treasury so that his Library was esteemed the most famous for books of all sorts nor had Lipsius so great a delight in any thing in the world as in being in this his rich study so that I may say Lipsius had even buried his soul here but behold a lamentable change what he had been in so many years with so great care gathering together all even all was by one furious fire suddenly consumed what grief must this be to Lipsius at once thus to lose all these his precious delights and jewels The like hapned to John Comenius that master of Learning in this present age the story whereof he gives us in this manner In the year 1655. saith he the King of Sweden brought in Armies into Poland the event whereof was very unhappy to the Gospel-professours especially to Lesua the chief City of refuge of the Bohemian and Silesian Exiles which although the very Nobility of the Kingdome delivered up with other royal Cities in the greater Poland as Posnonia Calissia Wschowia into the hands of the Swedes yet the Polonians being afterwards stirred up and again prevailing there seemed a good occasion and colour for the utter overthrowing of Lesna the late odious Nest of the Hereticks as they termed it which was done at the latter end of April by the permission of God in the year 1656. where as others suffered the loss of all their goods so did I also in like manner Indeed I would have timely conveyed away my self either for fear of some such tragical issue or of a war of a longer continuance and therewith of the hinderance of my studies amongst the noises of Arms. And both the admonitions sent privily by Drabicius as also the Exhortations of friends to hasten away from that strange Country out of those flames with invitations to come unto them did spur me up But I could not get a discharge from my people nor would I leave my flock with scandal it being verily an evil example as they said until being oppressed on a suddain and carrying away my life only for a prey we were deprived of all For a foregoing rumour only for two hours of the Enemies approaching to destroy us with an universal slaughter raising a pannick fear put the whole City the armed with the unarmed to flight and the Enemy being not able to pour out his fury upon the Citizens he poured it out upon the City all the streets of the City after a light plundering of the principal houses being set on fire and so burning for three daies together that of a thousand six hundred house four Churches c. nothing truely nothing was left but ashes and rubbish In which terrible fire my little house also with all my houshold stuff was destroyed my Library also with my Manuscripts Philosophical and Philological chiefly those which appertained to the garnishing of our own Country language and my Theological Manuscripts of more than forty years study were consumed Even thus doth God many times deal with his chiefest favourites hee either depriveth them of what they esteem most dear and precious to them or else denieth what they most eagerly pursue I will also give an instance of another kinde The Lord giveth to Parents perhaps a beautiful docil ingenious and towardly Childe which for his pregnant wit carrieth away the Bell from all his School-fellows but upon a suddain death croppeth off this rose-bud and the hopeful youth dieth in the prime and flower of expectation oh now how excessively do his Parents weep and lament and it may be conceived they inwardly think what they blush to speak as why did God give us such a Son as this since he was determined to snatch him away so soon from us had we not affliction enough before but must this heap of misery bee added to all the rest But God takes away such comforts as these and he will have us to subscribe it ought to be so and for that cause God takes away our dearest relations and best comforts sometimes from us that we may see our errour in placing too much of our love upon these things and give God the very yolk of our hearts SECT III. A third end God aims at is to reduce Wanderers and to spur them home again unto himself that move slowly towards him Wee may learn wisdome from the very brute beasts these if they be put into a Coach Chariot or Cart and be lashed with whips or pricked with goads they are sensible it is for their exorbitancy or because they move too slowly wherefore they come presently into the way again and make more haste and speed in their journey Certainly when God brings great losses and crosses upon us he would have us thereby to begin to ruminate and think with our selves verily I have wandered and gone out of the way of the Lord behold this fire that hath consumed my goods calleth me to return again Oh whether should I have run if the Lord had let me alone But suppose that I did go the right way yet sure I did but creep as a snail in it these losses do read lectures to me of a neglected duty therefore I now resolve to put on a little faster Absalom had by his servants often desired Joab the Captain of the Host to come unto him but hee came not 2 Sam. 14.29 But what Absalom Therefore he said to his servants see Joabs field is near mine and he hath Barley there go and set it on fire and Absaloms servants set the field on fire then Joab arose and came to Absalom unto his house In like manner the Lord dealeth sometimes with us the Lord sends out his Messengers from time to time declaring that it is Gods will and pleasure that we should come unto him but in the time of our ease of our health of our prosperity we refuse to come unto him but when God fireth us out of our nests burneth up our corn consumeth our goods our substance then we begin to be more gentle and tractable and presently think of returning to him from whom we have gone astray Certainly Hawks will not come to the lure until they be empty Eusebius Emissenus said of the Prodigal Luk. 15. That hunger brought him home whom saturity and fulness had driven away from his Fathers house It is reported of Wenceslaus King of Bohemia when as his army was routed and all his forces dispersed and himself was taken Prisoner being asked how he did and what courage he had now he answered never better for while he was so invironed with his strong army he very seldome thought on God but now being stript of all
shaking Ague makes the strong-bodied and the stout-hearted men to tremble so likewise the Fever is of Gods appointment which wasteth the spirits dries up the radical humor and puts men into a scorching flame The like is threatned Deut. 28.22 The Lord shall smite thee with a Consumption and with a Fever and with an Inflammation and with an extreme burning And ver 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt and with the Emerods and with the scab and with the itch whereof thou canst not be healed Ver. 28. The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness and astonishment of heart Ver. 59. The Lord will make thy plagues wonderful and the plagues of thy seed great plagues and of long continuance and sore sicknesses and of long continuance Ver. 60. Moreover he will bring upon thee all the diseases of Egypt which thou wast afraid of and they shall cleave unto thee Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book will the Lord bring upon thee Thus you see every disease in the world is the stroke of God Men may attribute it as Pagans do to ill luck you may attribute it to the unseasonableness of the weather to extremity of heat or cold to drought or moisture to the illness of the seasons All these are of God it is he that changeth times and seasons it is he that maketh the constellations of the Heavens to meet in such and such conjunctions it is he that causeth a distemper in the air it is not the unseasonableness of the year the illness of diet that can bring diseases upon the body unless God appoints them over a sinful people Yea sometimes God imployeth Angels to execute his wrath upon mens bodies he permits the Angels to infest the air and so plagues and pestilential diseases are over a people it is the Lord that sends forth these destroying Angels sometimes he suffereth the Devil to smite men as he did permit him to smite the body of Job with sores whom or whatsoever you may look upon as the causes of diseases they are of Gods appointment it is he that taketh away the health and strength of any person or people SECT II. He takes away life Psa 90.3 Thou turnest man to destruction and sayest Return ye Children of Adam to the dust dust ye are and to dust ye shall return When the living God saith Return there is no nay in his hand is our life and breath and all our wayes Dan. 5.23 The Chaldee Paraphrast renders my Text thus Si rapuerit hominem è mundo If he shall snatch man away out of the world So S. August if he will stop thy breath and deliver thee up to death who can hinder him as if Job should have said thus He hath taken away my Children my Cattel my substance my health my strength and all my outward comforts and if he now come and take away my life too I cannot hinder him God threatned the old world Gen. 6.6 7. I will destroy man from the face of the earth The Original word signifies as Pareus observeth upon the place I will steep him as a man steepeth a piece of earth in water till it turn to dirt man is but clay a speaking piece of clay and is apt to forget his Maker and the matter whereof he is made none but God can reduce man to his first principles and original matter whereof he was made there is no dust so high but the great God is able to give it a steeping In the City of Jerusalem during the time of the siege by the Romans there died and were killed eleven hundred thousand and there were taken by the Romans ninety and seven thousand at which time there were slain in all Judea in several places to the number of twelve hundred and forty thousand Jews besides an innumerable multitude who perished with famine exile and other miseries In the second Carthaginian War in Italy Spain and Cicily in seventeen years fifteen hundred thousand men were consumed The Civil War of Caesar and Pompey swallowed down three hundred thousand Pompey the Great wrote it upon the Temple of Minerva that he had scattered chased and killed twenty hundred eighty and three thousand men and one Cains Caesar gloried in it that eleven hundred ninety and two thousand men were killed by him in the Wars King Mithridates by one Letter caused eighty thousand Roman Citizens to be slain who were dispersed through Asia for traffique In Judea in the time of King David one Pestilence in a very short time swept away seventy thousand men Under Gallus and Volusianus Emperours a Plague arose from Ethiopia and invaded the Roman Provinces and emptied them for fifteen years together and sent an innumerable company of mortals to their graves In the time of Justinian the Emperours in the City of Constantinople and the places adjoyning the Pestilence raged so much that every daylit dispatched five thousand and some daies ten thousand to their long home In Numidia eight hundred thousand persons died of the Plague in the Sea-Towns of Africa two hundred thousand In Greece Anno Christi 1359 there was such a Pestilence that the living were scarce able to bury the dead In Athens the Pestilence raged for twelve years together When Italy was wasted by the Gothes in Picene only fifty thousand persons were starved with hunger At Fidenae under Tiberius the Emperour by the fall of the Amphitheatre there perished the number of twenty thousand Spectators How many thousands were swept away the last year in the great City of this our Land by the Pestilence and yet in many other Cities Towns and Villages of this Kingdome the Plague devoureth at noon-day the Plague cries with a loud voice still to us Death is neer Death is in your streets Death is creeping in at your houses and entring in at your windows Now whosoever or whatsoever be the Instrument of Death it is God only that takes away the lives of men at his pleasure See now that I even I am he and there is no God with me I kill and I make alive Deut. 32.39 SECT III. He takes away the spirits and courage of men that albeit they have opportunities put into their hands of doing this or that yet their hearts shall fail them and they shall not be able to effect it He is said to cut off the spirits of Princes Psa 76. ult Princes are usually men of the stoutest spirits but God sometimes cuts off the spirit of Princes When Belshazzar that Babylonish Monarch was in the midst of his jollity drinking Wine with a thousand of his Princes in the Vessels of gold which his Father brought from the Temple of Jerusalem he suddenly saw a hand-writing upon the wall at which sight the King was amazed so that his countenance was changed and the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against the other What was the cause of
this so great affrightment He saw a hand what hand the hand of a man What could one hand of a man saith one terrifie so mighty a Monarch Had he seen the paws of a Lion of a Bear or Dragon there had been some cause of terrour but need such a puissant Prince fear the hand of a man so much at whose beck and command an hundred Troops of Armed Horse would presently fly to his assistance What dreadful weapon could that one hand wield or mannage None but a Pen with which it wrote No other man would much less a King be afraid of a writing pen. Had he beheld the three darts of Joab or the Fiery Sword of the Flaming Cherub brandished directly against him he had then had some argument of astonishment But one hand one pen one piece of writing which he understood not this was that which daunteth him Sometimes the imagination that this or that evil will befall them doth so disturb them that they are presently over-whelmed with fear There are more things which affright us than there be which oppress us some things do torment us more than they ought some things do afflict us before they ought some do disturb us which ought not We often give place to our imaginations and do not give a check to those things which lead us into fears but feeding our fears by our fancy we turn our backs and fly and many times fly when none pursueth I have read of certain Souldiers who being amazed at a little dust raised up by a flock of sheep turned their backs as if the Enemy had been at their heels The French History tells us that the men of Burgundy were so affrighted at the apprehension of the approach of their Enemies that they thought long Thistles to be men with Lances We read that in the daies of Ahaz King of Judah that Rezin the King of Syria and Pekah the Son of Remaliah King of Israel went up to Jerusalem to war against it but could not prevail against it and it was told the house of David that Syria was confederate with Ephraim hereupon the heart of Ahaz was moved and the heart of his people as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind Isa 7.1 2. This kind of fear fills the heart with all confusion leaving a man without memory judgement or will to encounter any danger that threatens his ruine it dis-spirits a man and enfeebleth his spirits that whereas fear is a spur to generous spirits to strengthen them stirring them up to the use of the most effectual means to avoid the danger it doth so deject the faint-hearted and fearful man as he remaineth like a meer block or stone uncapable at all of any action There is a slavish fear when the dread of evil drives us to desperateness in evil and forceth us to fly from the presence of God This is the worst plague of all other no terrour is like inward terrours arising from a guilty Conscience The Conscience of sin is the Mother of fear saith Chrysostome sin is horrours fuel This was the ground of Cains fear the accusation of a guilty Conscience followed him where-ever he went he knowing that blood required blood feared lest every one that met him would kill him Gen. 4. 14. Such a fear surprized Caligula the Roman Emperour of whom it is written that when it thundered he would get into a Vault he had under the earth to hide himself from the wrath of God Such was the fear of some whom Aulus Gellius speaks of who thought there was a plurality of Gods and they divers in quality so some good some bad some good to whom they sacrificed and prayed to help them and some bad also whom they desired to please that they might not hurt them Sin makes in man an Assizes where the soul standeth arraigned and condemned before a terrible Judge The Heathen said that the greatest terrour was earthquakes thunderbolts burnings deluges the earth gaping but what is all this to a trembling heart to the thunderbolts of Gods Judgements to the burning Lake to the inundations of the waters of bitterness to the yawning of the gulf of hell this and worse is the condition of that man whose heart is the habitation of terrour such a man is Magor Missabib he is compassed about with terrour on every side yea he is a terrour to himself he feels a deadly arrow wounding him to the very heart there is both a fire burning and a knife sticking in his tender heart SECT IV. He takes away beauty from man Beauty is but momentaneum corporis accidens If the body fall to ruine the accident cannot stand Among all the qualities that flee away with the body of man there is none more swift than beauty When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth Psa 39.11 David complained that when Gods hand lay heavy upon him his moisture was turned into the drought of Summer Psa 32.4 The radical moisture or chiefest sap of his body was dried up wasted and worn away so as he was even brought to deaths door and become little better than an Anatomy or bag-full of bones The radical moisture is an airy and oily substance dispersed through the body whereby the life and vigor of the body is fostered which being spent death ensueth And Solomon tells us that a sorrowful spirit drieth the bones Prov. 17.22 the gathering together of much blood about the heart extinguisheth the good spirits or at least dulleth them and that humor having seized on the heart it cannot well digest the blood and spirits which ought to be diffused through the whole body but turneth them into melancholly the which humor being dry and cold drieth up the whole body and consumeth the beauty thereof for cold extinguisheth heat and driness moisture which two qualities do principally concern the life of man The passion of fear hath likewise wrought strange effects upon some mens bodies I have read of some to whom the sentence of death hath been brought in the Evening whose hair hath turned white before the next morning Beauty is but skin-deep a very slender vail a painted flower that soon withereth although thy hair doth now flourish thy flesh doth shine like ivory though thy Rofial face be beautified with the twinkling gems of thy rolling eyes though the health of thy body doth now minister ability though youthful age doth promise space of longer life though reason springeth and the bodily senses are nimble and vigorous though the sight be quick the hearing ready the going right and strait the face and countenance most pleasant and delectable yet a violent Fever will debilitate thy body and a few fits of a Quartan Ague turn thy beauty into swarthy deformity old age and the space of a few years will shew the slightness of it and death will utterly consume it If vain