the rash Lysander lost the Field Oppression as it is enough to make even a Wise Man mad according to Solomon Eccles. 7. 7. so it is an Argument that Justice hath forsaken the Tribunal and without Justice Human Societies become Cages of Ravenous Birds and the Band which is to hold Mankind together must necessarily be dissolved It 's this maintains the health and vigour of the Body Politick and this once taken away must on the other side cast it into violent Distempers Distempers which render it not only weak but deformed and odious and must at last be the Death of it It 's this whereby God intended Kingdoms and Cities should be governed and Men no sooner receive their being but at the same time receive the Principles of this Vertue Nature obliges them to it as much as it doth to self preservation and with their Mothers Milk they imbibe these Inclinations and on these Inclinations the wholesom Laws of all Nations are grounded and whatever Orders are contriv'd by Wise men for the well governing of Societies do all go upon this supposition Nay God himself is concerned to see this Justice maintained in Commonwealths and it is part of his Prerogative to preserve its Laws inviolable so that it 's being lost in a Corporation seems to reflect upon him and as it was he alone that first taught Men to gather into Societies so to let Oppression come among them which is the Bane that kills them to a sensual Eye seems to be no small disparagement to his Providence 2. Such another Disorder is when a Covetous Ambitious Prince is suffered to spoil and harrass the Countrey of his Neighbour Prince who is at Peace with him and not so much as dreams of any Hostile Approaches an instance whereof we have in Benhaded who without any other cause but that of Interest and his own glory fell upon Baashah King of Israel being in League with him and surprizing his Territories plundered and made himself Master of Ijon and Dan and Abelmaine and all the Store-cities of Naphtali 2 Chron. 16. 3 4. A strange way of War to fall upon his Confederate for no other reason but because he is more Potent and to deprive the other of his Right and Inheritance because he is too weak and feeble to oppose him To fancy because I have got a numerous Army that therefore I may do what I list and because I can be more wicked than another that therefore I may lawfully be so To imagine because I am a King that therefore I am exempt from all Laws and because there is no Man above me that therefore I may crush whomsoever I have a mind to to flatter my self because God hath advanced my Throne above other Potentates that therefore the rest must be my Vassals and because they cannot easily resist me that therefore I may make them fall a Sacrifice to my Lust and Glory Conceits monstrous and odious even to Pagans and Infidels and which deserve not only the sharpest Satyrs but Gods severest Vengeance We look upon Joab as a Villain because he killed Amasa Kissing and David justly called him the worst of Men because he Murthered Abner under pretence of Friendship and shed the Blood of War in Peace Thus Ninus takes what he can get because his Neighbours are unarmed and Sesostris of Aegypt discontented that he hath so little makes even his Familiars a prey to his Ambition Actions which in Private Men would be punished with the Hangmans Sword and in Persons of a lower Condition revenged with the most exquisite Racks and Tortures Yet it is not Power can justifie a Sin nor the greatness of a Man turn a Vice into Vertue Robbery is a Crime in a Prince as much as in a Subject and stealing other Mens Goods the greater injustice in a King by how much he stands higher than other Mortals No Prince hath power to act against the Law of Nature and what is intrinsically Evil can never be made Good by the most specious pretences of Authority Princes that are given to such injustice are Enemies of Mankind and no marvel if the Disorders they cause in the neighbouring Dominions are astonishing for the Sin it self is prodigious That which amazes the Spectator more is that such Unrighteousness very often prospers and the Disorders it causes tends to the Renown and splendour of the Perfidious Conquerer for it makes him not only more adored by Parasites and Flatterers at home who call him Great Invincible and a Demy-God but formidable to Nations afar off which like innocent Animals at the approach of the Ravenous Hawk quake as the Rumour spreads of his speedy though treacherous Victory A Scene of Affairs which Providence seems to suffer in and while he in whose Hands the Hearts of Princes are said to be le ts loose the Reins and suffers them to do what they list Men guided by sense can suspect no less than that the Lord doth not see neither doth the God of Jacob regard it as those Psal. 94. 7. 3. Civil Wars when Men of the same Countrey and Nation breaking into Factions imbrue their hands in one anothers Blood and thrust their Swords into one anothers Bowels as the Midianites Jud. 7. 22. When Neighbour fights with Neighbour and those of a Man 's own House prove his greatest Enemies when Members of the same Commonwealth first run into Discontents among themselves and thence into open Hostility one against the other when different Parties first give one another reproachful Names from reproachful Names come to Animosities and feed their Envy and Malice so long till it break forth into a consuming Fire There is hardly any Nation but some time or other hath felt the smart of these Intestine Divisions and if any have escaped the blow it must be because there was nothing in the Country worth contending for How many Mens lives were lost at Rome in the Contentions betwixt Marius and Sylla betwixt Catilines Party and the Senate betwixt Pompey and Caesar every School-boy knows that hath read the History This was the fate of the hot Disputes at Thebes betwixt Ismenias and Archias at Jerusalem betwixt Jason and Menelaus in Greece betwixt the Dorians and Jonians at Athens betwixt Thucidides and Timon in Italy betwixt the Guelphs and Gibellines at Constantinople betwixt Hypatius and the Court Party at Carthage betwixt Hannibal and Hanno at Florence betwixt the People and the House of Medices in France betwixt the Hedui and Sequani and he that shall peruse our own Chronicles take a view of the Quarrels betwixt the White and Red Rose and all the Seditions Rebellions and Divisions under the several Kings of this Island and add to all this what he remembers of the late Civil War that set Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and they both against Judah cannot but behold a very sad Landskip of Horrour and Confusion To see Men Drunk with their Prosperous Fortunes and angry with their own Happiness
for three things for Bread for a Spunge and for a Cittern for Bread to support his fainting Body for a Spunge to wipe away the Tears he had shed for the loss of his Royal Grandeur and for a Cittern to rejoyce in his Experience that all is vanity The fickleness of these outward Glories is an Argument of their emptiness and in that like Glasses they are so easily broke and crackt Wise Men see that they are but bubbles were they lasting Men would fancy them to be Heaven and their uninterruptedness would tempt poor Mortals to say of them as the surpriz'd Disciple of Mount Tabor It 's good for us to be here let 's make Tabernacles Indeed in the midst of their inconstancy Men are apt to promise themselves substantial satisfaction and while they see them slip through their Fingers they are so unwise as to adore them What would they do were they really what they seem to be and had they beside their dazling Dress Eternal duration to make them amiable God hath laid up other Felicities for Rational Creatures and they lie out of the Common Road that Men might take pains to get them We must not think God bestow'd Immortal Souls upon us that we might fix them on Sensual Objects and when we find that they are capable of securing such Riches and Pleasures as fade not away we must suppose that to do so was the principal End of their Creation God hath made these lower things changeable as the Moon that like the Woman in the Revelation chap. 12. vers 1. we may set our Feet upon them and aim at Delights which transport Souls ravish Angels and force Seraphim into Extasies The deceitfulness of outward Glories appears no where so plain as in publick Disorders and Confusions and they are the best Glass to shew us what unsatisfactory things they are For though in private Families disappointments and changes happen every day yet they are too inconsiderable for a Multitude to take notice of them but Publick Disorders convince a Kingdom of the Imperfection of these External Comforts and the more notorious they are the more all sorts of Men are perfwaded into a belief of that Imperfection so that Confusions of this nature are Sermons preach'd to a whole Nation and Speeches from Heaven whereby God intends an Universal Reformation 4. Sometimes it is to try the Good and to brighten their Faith and Hope and Constancy which like Gold is best Polished and Refined by Fire And this Reason God himself gives Ps. 81. 7. It is in this case as in matter of Heresies which must be That those which are approved may be made manifest 1 Cor. 11. 19. To adhere to a good Cause when it sleeps under the soft Wings of Peace and order may be Policy but to espouse it when discouraged is an argument of true Honesty and Ingenuity He that can defend it when it meets with Opposition we may conclude is guided more by its Equity than his own Interest and he that sticks to it when Tempests threaten to overwhelm it discovers that it hath not only his bare Approbation but his Heart and Affections too To Salute Christ when all Jerusalem cries Hosannah may be a piece of Civility but to speak for him when he is Crucified is a sign of true Christian Simplicity Till Persecution came the Son of God had innumerable Flatterers but when that Fire began the number soon dwindled away into a small Company of Followers It happens so sometimes that the good cannot be distinguished from the counterfeit Professors of Religion and while all meet in the Publick Assemblies the Wheat and Chaff seem to be one but Troubles and Disorders like the Wise Shepherd make a distinction between the Sheep and the Goats and discover the Integrity of the one and the Deceit and Hypocrisie of the other To follow David when all Israel runs after Absalom is a Mark of Loyalty but with Achitophel to shrink when Heaven seems to frown on the right side is base Treachery Troubles like Aqua Fortis make a separation betwixt Metals and shew which is the Silver and which the contemptible Mineral Those that are good grow better by them Those that seem only to be so in the hour of Temptation fall away That Sap certainly is strongest which preserves the Leaves of a Tree green and verdant all the Winter and nothing is so great a sign of strength and hardiness as to be able to endure the rude assaults of Frost and Snow and unseasonable Weather It 's a Character of Infamy the Evangelist imprints on the chief Rulers among the Jews who indeed believed in Jesus but for fear of the Pharisees durst not confess him Joh. 12. 42. True Goodness like Lillies thrives though Thorns and Bryars do surround it and Salamander like can live in Fire The late Kings Piety shines the brighter because he durst maintain it under Temptations to forsake it The Troubles that came upon him it 's confest added little to his outward Pomp but rendred his Goodness more charming and amiable to the Prudent Spectator It had never arrived to that Renown and Glory if those Confusions had not been the Touchstone and when like Lawrel it could stand those Thunders it was evident that an Almighty Power did uphold it Had he lived Prosperously all his days his Vertue would have made him a Saint but the constancy of it in the severest Tryals gave him the Character of a Martyr Had he professed and express'd Meekness while his Subjects were submissive and respectful the excellent Qualification might have challenged suitable Commendations but to practice it when his Servants became his Masters and instead of Honouring loaded him with Indignities and Reproaches this deserves our wonder To be true to the Church against his Temporal Interest was that which gave him the greatest Credit and to forgoe a Crown rather than part with his Religion an act which force the World into admiration The greater Man he was the greater was the Tryal and for such a Tryal perhaps nothing was so fit as Royal Vertue The Disorders he lived to see made him more sensible of Gods assistance than all his Sunshine did and he had never tasted of that degree of sweetness in Gods favour if Persecution and a Prison had not increased the relish This gave him a clearer sight of Gods goodness than the high Specula of his Palace and his Solitariness afforded him such Contemplations as he must never have hoped for in the Crouds of Courtiers This made him look into Paradise and see the Suffering Jesus on his Throne and taught him that a Man might be the Son of God in the very Garden of Gethsemane This furnished him with Lessons which the greatest Kings are Strangers to and with Moses directed him to behold him that was Invisible This made his Faith with Abraham believe even Contradictions and raised his Confidence that though he Died he should live for ever This made him
stand amazed at his own Vertue and while he saw he was able to do what he thought had been impossible admire the immense power and goodness of God when grace was thus sufficient for him and made his strength proportionable to his burden This made him find by blessed experience what the Saints of old felt in their Chains and Tortures and assured him that to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory in the midst of Flames was no Fable This made him see that the things Invisible are the most desirable Objects and find with the great Apostle that there is a great difference between being Persecuted and forsaken 5. Such Disorders are sometimes permitted to discover the ill Principles of some Mens Religion who are like to seduce others by their specious Pretences that Men who are in good earnest resolved to be saved may be aware of them and not fall into the same condemnation 2 Tim. 3. 1 5 9. Men who suppose that gain is godliness when troublesome and Perillous times do come and Disorders rise serve themselves of these Tumults and under a shew of Piety grasp what they can and betray their Carnal Ends which in such times cannot be hid when there are opportunities and temptations to call them out into Action for as in such Disorders commonly the Right Cause or the Party that have most Justice on their side are oppressed and come by the worst so the other make advantage of their Misery and their Blood and Tears give the other Growth and Stature It 's possible Beloved Hearers you may remember times when Men walked in Sheeps Cloathing but within were Ravening Wolves and while their Voice was exactly like Jacobs their Hands continued rough as Esau's when Men cryed The Temple of the Lord and yet at the same time Murthered those that opposed their Insolencies and talked of the good Cause while they meant nothing else by it but enriching their own Purses when Men pretended a thorough Reformation and made their own Souls as black as Hell and gave out that they fought for God when it was only to maintain what they had unjustly purchas'd when Men sighed and groaned to get the Prey into their Net and laboured much for a Spiritual Kingdom to make a surer settlement of their Temporal Possessions When Men under a shew of seeking a World to come did what they could to enjoy this present and left no Stone unturned to Establish Religion that thereby they might Establish themselves the better in their Unrighteous Acquists when Men to pull down Idolatry as they called it set up Robbery and Sacriledge in the room of it and instead of doing things better than they had been exchanged only one Sin for another when Men call'd that Zeal which was in good earnest nothing else but inordinate Passion and termed that Charity which was no more but Kindness to their Brethren in Iniquity when Men called others Dumb Dogs that they might more securely Bark at them and represented them as lazy Droans that they might carry the Honey those Bees had made to their own Hives when Men undertook to resolve Cases of Conscience while themselves had seared their own and under a pretence of taking Scruples out of other Mens Breasts felt none for the monstrous Injuries they had been guilty of to their Neighbours when Men gave out they pittied the Divisions of the Church while themselves were the Causes that began them and talk'd of Works of Mercy while they shew'd none to those they had turned out of their Livings when they trampled on the Pride of Prelates with a greater of their own and ran like mad from Babylon to be consumed in the Fire of Sodom and Gomorrah So I have seen some gaudy Flowers arrayed more gloriously than Solomon but when dismantled have been nothing but unsavoury and unprofitable Stalks so the deadly Night-shade looks fresh and green as other Plants but carries Poison in its Bowels so the Prince of Precious Stones the Diamond by its Rayes promises so many Springs of Light but its Powder kills without Remedy so Gold and Silver dazle the Eye yet are no Steams more odious or loathsom than those which rise from the Mines they are digg'd out of so the Butterfly is striped with several Paints yet is no more but a squallid Animal so the Glow-worm looks like a creeping Star yet if you behold it by day light it is a very homely Creature These are the true Emblemes of some Mens Religion in the World and their partial Obedience in times of Disorder and Confusion tells the Considerate part of Mankind that what they profess is Varnish not Substance Glass not Natural Chrystal Shadow not Reality for how can that be true Religion where I give to God the things which are Gods and deny to Caesar the things which are Caesars where I am conscientious to the Creator and unjust and perfidious to the Creature where I offer Sacrifice and envy my Brother in my heart where I express love to my Maker and yet do not give all their due Custom to whom Custom Tribute to whom Tribute Fear to whom Fear and Honour to whom Honour or in St. Peters Phrase Fear God and do not Honour the King And these Sophistications God commonly discovers in Confusions intending them as Sea-marks to give warning to the Ships that see them afar off not to come near those Sands lest they split their Vessel and lose their Goods which with great cost and labour they have purchased But it 's time we proceed and enquire 3. How Gods Providence appears in these Disorders and Confusions 1. God puts bounds and limits to the rage of Men that cause and encourage those Disorders The proud Senacharib Es. 37. 24. talks big he had already put Jerusalem into Consternation and boasted of greater mischiefs he intended By the multitude of my Chariots saith he am I come up to the height of the Mountains to the sides of Lebanon and I will cut down the tall Cedars thereof and the choice Fir-trees thereof and I will enter into the height of his Border and the Forest of his Carmel But he that sits in Heaven laughs at him and the great Jehovah derides the little talking Insect assures the Prophet that beyond such a Field he shall not step and as he saith he doth Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears therefore will I put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest When Maxentius had filled Rome with Murthers and the People feared not only greater Injuries to their Persons but a total Desolation so great was the fury of the Monster the Almighty sets bounds to his brutish Courage and sends the great Constantine to remove him and with him the Yoak he had laid on the trembling People And thus hath God dealt with most Tyrants who have thought to crush the World by their