p. 297. which they have without cause violated now if thou be a God as they say thou art and as we dreame revenge the wrong now done unto thy Name and me and shew thy power on thy perjurious people who in their deeds deny thee their God And shall I not arise to chastise them will not the honour of my holy Name and nature by severe judgements for their unholinesse on those my people who will not shew it by their conformity obeying my Lawes and fearing to offend my pleasure be vindicated from the blasphemous thoughts of mine enemies Unto which Gods power glory and faithfulnesse standing up do as it were answer and plead True O Lord most holy thy pure nature stands justly offended thy people are by their Altar-building made naked in thy sight they have moved thee to jealousie with that which is not God Deu. 32.21 22. or of God it may be just that the fire kindled against them in thy wrath should burne unto Hell and that therein for their sin thou mayest scatter them into corners and make their rememberance for to cease and thereby vindicate the glory of thy purity and shew thy selfe a sin-hating Exod. 32.22 23. by being a sin-revenging God but what shall become of thy faithfulnesse the glory thereof will be lost in the midst of the Heathen O remember thy promise Lord thy promise made to Abraham to Isaac and Jacob and let not the Heathen say thou hast spoken what thou wilt not performe thou art not as man that thou shouldst lie nor the sonne of man that thou shouldest repent O let the mouth of Balaam witnesse to a cursing Balak that thou hast said it and thou wilt do it thou hast spoken it and thou wilt make it good Numb 23.19 How shall the Heathen also blaspheme thy power and say because thou wast not able to bring to passe thy begun mercy and give them the promised land thou hast slaine them in the wildernesse Numb 14.16 For Lord the Nations consider not the cause nor accknowledge thy justice but reproach thy power and promise and say For mischief thou hast begun to shew them mercy Nay they will not only reproach thy power and promise but rob thee of thine honour and the glory of thy justly inflicted fury the rod will rebel against the hand that useth it if now and so severely thou strike with it consider Lord make not a full end of this rebellious Altar-building generation for the enemies will behave himselfe proudly and say My hand and not the Lord Deu. 32.27 hath done all this so that sinne doth not onely make Gods Word to fight against it self in promises and threats but also the very properties of the Lord how sad must it be unto an ingenuous child to see fury and mercy power and pitie justice and compassion at the same time to shine in the bosome of a tender father how vile then must this sinne be which runs God on such straits when as much as in us lies we labour to confound the very God of Wisdome and set unity at enmity making the Divine nature as it were to warre against it self And hence it is that the properties of God are many times pleading expostulations with God modo admonentis de benignitate by way of humble minding God of his owne nature in the prayers of his owne people fearing or feeling the fiercenesse of his fury The third effect is a rendering the worship of God vile in the eyes of the heathen which know him not by this sinne the enemies of the Lord have occasion to blaspheme the Name and ways of God to reproach the Gospel and Doctrine of Jesus Christ for in Altar-building men run from God and actually speak the language of the Apostate covenant-corrupting Jewes It is in vaine to serve God and what profit have we that we have kept all his Ordinances Mal. 3.14 and attribute the peace and plenty Gods patience indulgeth unto the Queene of Heaven and their shameful impieties Jer. 44.17 18. and therefore God complains that when his people built Altars unto Baal they did not know that God gave her corne and wine and oyle and multiplied their silver and gold Hosea 2.8 And God aggravates this sinne ever with the mention of his mercies whereby he declares how little cause they had so really to vilifie his wayes and worship by departing from them their rebellion against his will and words must needs bespeak his yoake to be heavie and servile bondage which is indeed perfect freedome and his tender reigne over his people to be fierce and cruel The Schismes and sad Divisions produced by this sinne give occasion to such as know not the doctrine of unity to charge the wayes and worship of God with the natural production thereof never considering how they are the fruits of sinne not of Gods sacred Altar How hath Satan and his wicked instruments taken occasion to reproach vilifie and blaspheme the wayes and worship of God from the lewdnesse of some that professe it in all ages do not the Papists generally calumniate the Reformation of the Church with the charge of division and novelty and the like because some professing to it have divided from the Church and propagated their Altar-building-principles so that every observant eye cannot but see that Altar-building besides the Altar of God makes Gods Altar Word and Worship as Simeon and Levi their cursed act on the circumcised Schechemites made good Jacobs savour to stink among the Canaanites and Perizzites in which regard it lies on the sincere worshippers of God with constancie to adhere to Gods Altar and with courage to suppresse others in their places as becomes the Gospel of Jesus Christ The fourth and last effect of this sinne of Altar-building which may render it exceeding vile is a reviving of the Lords fury for these are the Altars of Bethel which God will visit Amos 3.14 This is the sinne that is written before the Lord as with a pen of iron and point of a diamond Jer. 17.1 2. This is the setting of post by his post and threshold by the Lords threshold to the defiling of Gods holy Name till the subjects be consumed in his anger Ezek. 43.8 This is the setting up the Altar of jealousie to the provoking of God to depart from his Sanctuarie Ezek. 8.6 This is the following new gods to the kindling of a fire in his wrath which shall burne to hell Deut. 32.21 22. In a word this is the golden Calfe which turnes patience to speak with reverence into such rage that a Moses prayer can hardly binde from destroying Exod. 32.8 9 10. and the rebellion so highly provoking that a God most gracious in all affliction afflicted in pitie and love saving and redeeming being by it vexed in spirit becomes an enemie Isa 63.9 How did Corah and his company by their but formal Altar-building schismatical withdrawing from the administrations of divine worship provoke the Lords
increasing mercies in after-ages so also did increase this sinne of Altar-building causing the sad complaints of the Prophets in Hos 10.1 according to the multitude of fruit they have increased their Altars Throughout the Old Testament whensoever God by his servants reproves this sin he aggravates the same by the exprâ—ssions of their pride as in Is â—5 from the 2. to the 7. verse And in the New Testament we finde Apostates Seducers Innovators in to the Lords Word and Worship stigmatized with this brand of pride the Apostle Paul describing such as labour to draw aside silly women and to set up their own Altar saith of them among other properties that apt them for this work that they are proud heady high-minded in 2 Tim. 3.2 4. and in his first Epistle the sixth chapter the third and fourth verses notes that such as teach othâ—rwise and consent not to wholesome doctrine are puft up knowing nothing and that he may clearly evidence that this proud propertie produceth a declining of the Altar of God and building others he labours to anticipate this sad effect by a necessary caution concerning the cause in such as take the charge of the Churches of God * Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sâ—d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prâ—hibet apostolus quales etant Cateâ—humeni Calv. 1 Tim. 3.6 where he adviseth that a Bishop be not a novice ungrounded in the principles of Religion and that for this very cause lest he be proud and so fall into the snare of the devil The Apostle Peter in his se-second Epistle the second chapter sets out seducers with the same characters They speak evil of dignities and of what they know not and speak great swelling words of vanity And Jude omits not this propertie when he asserts them to despise Governments and to speak evil of dignities to speak proud things and analogically asserts their way to be the gain-saying of Corah But to close up what might be more largely spoken to evidence this gracelesse propertie to be the ground of this grand iniquity that might appear grievous in the eyes of the sincerely gracious I will only adde this one general observation viz. the sin of Altar-buildng never was so eminently acted in the Churches of God before or since the Gospel preached Christ come in flesh as when the peace and prosperities of the world had procreated and matured pride In the Church of the Jews it is evident whilest they were beset with wars and troubles though by some men and at some times this sin was acted yet Solomons peace plenty and glory was attended with the eminencie of encreasing various and glorious Altars to Ashteroth and Milcom and the gods of the Nations to which his wives were related And in the Christian Church As Paulus Samosatenus who having unjustly gained riches and puffed up with pride usurp'd secular dignities and made himself a lofty seat and stately throne after the manner of the Princes of the world exacting obeisance from the people by check and reviling termes not much unlike John of Leyden who knowes not that the ten pressing persecutions did generally by the humility of the Churches conserve purity of Word and Ordinances notwithstanding the sometime endeavours of particular hereticks to subvert the same until the Churches peace and prosperity conferred by Constantine the Christian Emperour gave occasion for the proud man of sin to appeare and advance his abominations increasing his Altars to the very casting down of the Altar of God in the greatest part of the Christian world giving the Church on sad experience to complain the truth of that saying reported to be heard from heaven Hodie venenum infunditur in Ecclesiam Now is the poison of pride poured into the bosome of the Church nay my brethren it is well if we finde not on serious observation this sin to be admitted and advanced by such as present prosperity and external glory hath lifted up And so I have done with the second ground of Altar building which must needs evidence it to be exceeding sinful whilest acted from such vile principles I now passe to the third and last ground of this sin and that is Third ground of Altar-building Self-advancement and advantage that cursed principle which is inconsistent with sincere affections to God and his worship which hurrieth a man forward by right or wrong to establish his own glory and possesse himself of creature transitory enjoyments this is that which will make a man active for God and his Altar so long as ambitious self can in that way obtain its object but that once missed or obtained affections abate nay are altogether alienated from the wayes of God this useth Religion on a Machivilian account to establish their own throne and keep up their own glory so that whatsoever is but serviceable to this base end though but for a season that shall be embraced and advanced In a word this is that cursed principle decried by Christ in such as take upon them the Profession of his Name as that which unsits them for adherencie to his Altar yet this we shall finde clearly to be a ground of this grievous sin of Altar-building if we do but consider how the wages of unrighteousnesse engaged Balaam to go contrary to Gods Will and by building many Altars in different places to attempt the cursing of Israel contrary to Gods declared pleasure as in Numb 22.23 chap. is to be seen in which regard seducing Apostates under the Gospel Altar-builders acted by this principle of self-advantage and advancement are said to follow the way of Balaam who loved the wages of unrighteousnesse 2 Pet. 2.15 and to be cast away by the deceit of Balaams wages Jude 11. so also we shall finde this principle provoking this sin of Altar-building in Jeroboam when he rebelled against the house of David and made Israel to sin in the same way with himself if we do but observe the Holy Ghost expressely noting his erection of a usurped Ministery to this very end that he might stablish his usurped Magistracie and his setting up his Altars at Dan and Bethel to be grounded on his desire and design to settle the Crown on his rebellious head for saith the text Jeroboam thought in his heart If this people go up and do sacrifice at Jerusalem then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord even to Rehoboam King of Judah so shall they kill me and go again to Rehoboam whereupon the King took counsel c. 1 Kings 12.26 27 28. et ad finem capitis for usurpers know that the sincere Worship of God teacheth due subjection to their lawful Soveraignes this self-establishment is declared to be the cause of Ahaz sinful Altar-building who his faith not fixed in the living God of Israel feared his approaching fall and hoping to establish his throne built Altars to the gods of Damascus as we see 2 Chron. 28.23 2â— This cursed principle of self-advancement
ground of suspition at the least of building Altars besides the Altar of God The fifth Character as the concomitant of building Altars besides the Altar of God is the dispensation of divine worship without the divine stamp of a due Call and Ordination God never yet appointed Altar-worship without an Altar-office which might not be common to every one nay which no man must take upon him but he which is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5.4 If Ministery be as it cannot be denied a distinct Office under Law or Gospel it must needs have a due Inauguration thereunto for as in a State an every mans Magistracie is a no Magistracie so in the Church an every mans Ministery is no Ministery a sinful seeking of the Priests Office upon the pretence of the peoples holinesse to be witnessed against by the plates of their censers and the budding of Aarons rod is suitable to Corahs separate rebellion a Whosoever will let him bring a bullock and consecrate himself a Priest is a fit Canon of Jeroboams constituted Altar-worship at Dan and Bethel the high-way to bring the lowest of the people into the Priests Office When did false Prophets run so fast unsent by the Lord but when the Altars of Israel were increased like the streets in Jerusalem Not to multiply needles instances in this clear case let the observation of the Churches of God in al ages witnesse the usurpation of the Ministerial Function never to be found in the Church whilest the doctrine and worship of Christ was preserved pure and uncorrupted and never out of the Church when and where false doctrines and superstitious innovations did abound the promise of Christ concerning the restoring of his Altar and worship came not without a promise to vindicate this Office from the invasion of the uncalled trades-man to the shameful conviction which shall extract his owne confession I am no Prophet I am an husbandman men taught me to keep cattel from my youth Zâ—ch 13.5 If therefore we would finde who they are that sinfully build Altars we must consider who they are that preach and practise ministerial discharges without due Ordination who they are that countenance and contend for this usurpation counting it a glorious liberty that every man may lay his hand on his own head and speak in the Name of the Lord were the Lord as eminent and immediate in his vindicative stroaks for this sin under the Gospel 2 Sam. 6.8 as under the Law how many Vzzahs would be found dead for their uncalled setting hand to hold the Ark of Gods worship notwithstanding the pretence of necessity How many Vzziah-like leprous foreheads would be found amongst us 2 Chr. 26.17 18 19. of such that by at least eighty Ministers of the Lord have beene warned it is not for them but for the Ministers of the Gospel to offer unto the Lord. But I shall conclude this Character as a just cause to irritate our humiliation before the Lord with that observation of reverend Doctor Hall upon a case not much unlike this though something different It is a dangerous thiâ—â— in the service of God to decline from his owne institutions we have to do with a power which is wise to prescribe his owne worship in matter and forme just to require what he hath prescribed and powerful to revenge what he hath required The sixth and last Character which I shall note to you Blow at the root Observ 8. p. 157. and I will but briefly note it is doleful contests for universal Tolerotion of all religions which a wiâ—e observant notes is nothing else but the putting of the true Religion out of all protection whilest therein Satan labours to exempt priviledge and for ever to secure his Agents and Brokers the Seminaries and Teachers of soul-murthering doctrines from being molested discouraged and disturbed in his work by any Government and Discipline Ecclesiastical or Civil whereby the hands of all in power are bound up or rather cut quite off that they may never be able to serve God as they ought in the protection and propagation of his Gospel and worship who seriously considers the strict Lawes the Lord left the Jewes for the keeping of them to his true Altar and sees not universal liberty leading from the same to be sinful nay who considers mans novellous nature and sees not a necessity of being kept to some one Religion by authority knowing men are naturally bent to mint Gods services in their owne braine and to go a whoring after their owne inventions to the building of Altars beside the Altar of God Was this sinne ever acted in Israel where the sword was sharp and severe against innovations The same may be demanded concerning the Christian Churches and upon the contrary was not this impiety evermore the effect of impunity and universal liberty I have done with the first part of the enquiry whether in the midest of us Altars may not be seene besides the Altar of God which we have too much cause to conclude in the affirmative I have also noted the concomitants as Characters of this sin so that the subjects of dangerous doctrine of divining predictions of dangerous separations of deadly enmity to Gospel-Altar-Ministery of dispensing divine worship without due call and of doleful contests of Toleration of all religions may justly be more then suspected abettors advancers if not actors of Altar-building and who those are I leave to the observation of the wise whose eyes are in their head and passe forward to the second matter of enquiry in order to our humiliation The second thing to be enquired for the defect of which we are to be humbled in the presence of a God of jealousie is Whether the sincere worshippers have or do according to their duty see to this sinne of Altar-building wherein we might enquire after their sensible observation of and affectation with the sin their seasonable caution and serious counsel to desistance their speedy accommodations of their brethren in matter of accidental temptation and their zealous resistance of the sin according to their places which was before noted to be acts of this duty in the religious Israelites but instead of a spirit faithfully discharging these duties it were well if to our griefe and Gods great dishonour some that have and eminently do professe to the worship of the true God in truth and whose places more eminently engage their priority in suspecting and seeing to innovation superstition Altarbuilding were not to be seene First staid by their self-interest from furious driving with a seeming zeale for the Lord of Hosts against the Altars and Priests of Baal suffering Jehu-like Jeroboams Calves at Dan and Bethel and the high places thereof to stand unremoved and unrebuked if not unobserved as to their sinful nature so soone as the house of Ahab is subverted and themselvs established in the high places of the Kingdome as if Prelatical innovations and superstitious ceremonies were to be
may be one and his Name one in the three Kingdomes Artic 2. Whatsoever is conceived and hath beene pleaded by some for the cessation of the obliging power of some Articles in this Covenant yet I keow not any that have denied its obligation and yet binding force in these Articles and to these duties unlesse it be such as profanely jesting with the whole have called or counted it an Almanack out if date whilest therefore we are under the Oath of God may we not be covered with shame to see it broken Oh can we with comfort remember our past condemnation of Vowes violation and dispensations from the obliging power of Oaths in others and run our selves under the same guilt O perfideous Nation that will keep no promise made though to the God of faithfulnesse O perjurious people whom sacred bonds cannot binde nor solemne Oath oblige Can you without blushing look upon the Covenant hanging in the places of Assemblies it may be many of your names subscribed to it as an evidence of your solemne obligation by it and remember that whilest you have sworne uniformity you propagate or at least indulge multiformity of Religion whilest you have sworne the extirpation of Baals Altars do you countenance or carry on the erection of Supâ—â—stition Heresie Schisme whilest you have sworne to endeavour that the Lord mâ—y 〈◊〉 one and his Name one Do you cast his worship according to your wills and cast off his owne standing rule and indulge mens worshipping him and professing his Name according to their corrupt fancies pretended to be conscience think you not God to be a God of jealousie that will and of power that can avenge the quarrell of his Covenant Against what sin hath his severity beene expressed so much as those sins that have beene acted after and against solemne Oaths Let us with sorrow and shame remember that the Lord was wroth with Israel and put them out of his sight because they forsook his Statutes and his Covenant and made Calves and built Altars unto them contrary to his commandments 2 Kings 17.15 16 17. and their obliging oaths But thirdly we have the more cause to be humbled before the Lord for that the severe judgements of God may seize upon us and we have cause with feare to expect them I have before noted that Altar-building doth incurre Divine displeasure and subject a people to the fury of the Lord how may we mourne to see the sin acted and allowed which is the sad omen of approaching miserie Fourthly and lastly this may affect our hearts and fill us with sorrow that sinful Altar-building is a sad provoker and symptome of the Lords departure Jer. 6.8 the last but heaviest of his judgements God will stay and threaten many miseries before it come to a least my soul depart from you I cannot but much observe the words of Phineas in this story when the two tribes and halfe vindicated themselves from the jealousie of their justly suspicious brethren concerning their Altar-building Rectè colligunt allegati sehovâ—m apud Israelitas presentem â—â—â—sse quia â—e igionis consensus adhuc ab ipsis colitur Mas â—n loc This day I perceive that the Lord is among us because ye have not done this trespasse Josh 22.31 which words do clearly imply that Altar-building against Gods Altar is an undoubted argument not only of Gods future but present absence for if by unity and consent in divine worship Gods presence be argued by the rule of contraries difference in and dissent from divine worship must needs argue his absence Contrariorum contraria est ratio Contrary reasons enforce contrary assertions O then my brethren is it not a woe to us that God is departed from us certainly Gods departure in respect of his counselling sin curbing guiding and directing presence is a sad presage of his departure in respect of his blessing preserving protecting presence the finall absence of God is hell it self then every with-drawing of himself must be a spark of that fire Happy is the man or place with whom God stayes to chide for whilest he stayes to reprove there is favour in displeasure but when he leaves either man or Church there is no hope but of sin and vengeance the withdrawing of divine presence is notbing else but the presence of his wrath O can we read the Schismes Errours Heresies and many innovations in the midest of us those sad effects and symptomes of divine withdrawing as written in most legible characters without grief in our hearts and tears in our eyes nay with a loud cry of golden liberty and glorious times O let us smite upon our thigh and say What have we done Let us sit in the dust and sigh Let us call for the mourning women that they may lament considering that the most heart-piercing and doleful tune that ever Altar-building Israel did lamentingly expresse as the very height of their maladies and calamities was the Comforter that should relieve my soul is farre from me Lam. 1.16 The second Use that I shall make of the Point is of exhortation unto such as professe but are suspected in the Church of God to be sincere worshippers of God and unto them I would in the Name of the Lord desire to think well of their brethrens jealous enquiry after their courses and suspition of their rare and unusual practices springing from unknowne principles and with a spirit of meeknesse beare their just reproofes and Christian cautions composing themselves to give an account unto their brethrens demands and readily to declare the grounds and reasons of their more then ordinary undertakings I do not deny but just actions may be unjustly suspected and condemned to be sinful but if this jealousie can plead ignorance it will thereby expect justification rather then censure animosity of spirit and outcries of violence and bitternesse against the modest demands of jealousie doth very much argue guilt for it is an observation as true as common Innocencie fears no trials We shall finde an example in this very story worthy imitation the ten tribes and a half heating of an Altar-building-work by their Ambassadours make a severe expostulating reproving demand of the ground and end of so sudden strange unconsulted and undeclared action yet we here have no complaints of violence bitternesse or censoriousnesse but a speedy and meek submission to their brethrens demand readily declaring their motive to this work viz. to engage posterity to Gods Altar before the Arke their end in the erecting this Altar to be that it may be a witnesse of their relation to the God of Israel Where is the spirit of brethren which should engage a ready satisfying of the suspitious demands of brethren Where is the spirit of due subjection to the authority of the Churches which should declare principles and practices and submit them with meeknesse unto triall If brethren stand at distance from such and expressed offence against their singular unusual courses may they not
soul that for the universal Church So also the Donatists Manichees Paulus Samosatenus of whom the Synod of Antioch sadly complaine that the Church was so rent See their Epistle in Euseb l. 7. c. 30. that faith and religion was run into great spite hatred and slander by reason of his swelling pride as also by the Arrians which filled the whole Christian world with confusion and division some taking this side and some that some communicating here and some there even to most bloody persecution of the true sincere Ministers and people of God the which schisme how sadly complained of by Athanasius the good Bishop of Alexandria how earnestly endeavoured to be cemented by Constantine the good Emperour and how strongly it reigned to the checking of the Churches comforts and clouding of the glory of the the Gospel Eusebius at large declareth in his first and second books of Ecelesiastical history but may not the separations from the communion of the Church and sad schismes amongst our selves produced by such as are of late risen up to build Altars of innovated doctrines contrary to the doctrine of Christ call us back from wandring so far to seek confirmation of this sad effect of so grievous a sinne and provoke us with shame and sorrow to own the evident effect upon our own sad experience and set to our seales that of a truth Altar-building against Gods Altar is an odious because a Church-renting sin Socrates Scholacticus Eccl. hist l. 1. c. 10 for to how many may we say as Constantine the Emperour to Aretius the Novatian Bishop Why sever ye your selves from the communion of the faithful whose answer may occasion our reply as his Provide you a ladder to climbe into Heaven alone The second effect which must needs also shew the building Altars beside the Altar of God to be exceeding sinful is to speak with due reverence a running God upon straits concerning the dispensations of his Providences and the administration of his judgements or mercies not that God is in his nature capable of such want of wisdome who is the most wise and readily disposeth all things according to the counsel of his own will or weaknesse of power to effect and bring about his purpose whose power is like himself and not to be resisted as that is should make him to doubt or dispute what to do Luctatur in Deo hinc justitia ira adversus peccata quae atrociter pecâ—cantes atrociter puniri perdi postulat illinc immensa misericordia bonitas quae non vult mortem peccatoris sed ut convertatur vivat Paâ— in Hos 11.8 Hac particula ostendit Deus quid meriti sunt Israeliâ—e jam se propensum esse ad sumendam poenam quâ dignisunt non tamen id sine poenitentia vel saltem dubitatione Calv. in lâ—â— whether to strike or spare the sinner But to speak to our capacity such may be sometimes the effects of divine Providence that to us God may seem to be in a strait and as it were in doubt with himself his justice provoked by the sin putting forward to punish the sinner and his mercies desiring repentance and deliverance pleading for suspence or abatements of the afflictions striving together make God as it were cry out What shall I do unto thee how shall I give thee up Ephraim how shall I deliver thee Israel how shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim Wherein though this Altar-building Israel had deserved to be made as Admah and Zeboim for their sinne yet God doth seemingly dispute with himself how should he do it to them in Hos 11.8 such another strait God seems to be in when he stands over Jerusalem with his how long and when shall it once be as in Jer. 13.27 where he criâ—s out of this sin of Altar-building I have seen thine adulteries and neighings the lewdnesse of thy whoredomes and thy abominations on the hills in the fieldâ— Wo unto thee O Ierusalem as if he should have said I have seen all Altars and am ready to strike and punish thee severely for them but yet he checks himself and bids a stay to his justice with a wilt thou not be made clean when shall it once be I would faine have my hand stayed at last even at last before the stroak that is up fall and as mercie and justice those different properties in God are to speak with reverence of a God not in the least subject to passions set as it were opposite by this sin so also we shall see a seeming strife betweene Gods purity that cannot endure iniquity and divine glory which he will not in the least give to another and promise performance faithfulnesse for the sin being acted God forsaken his Law declined and mans will and inventions advanced then Gods purity provokes divine justice to strike with such language as this I am holy I cannot endure sin yet it is acted against me If sentence be not speedily executed the heart of men will be fully set in them to do wickedly patience will but provoke their prophanenesse they being so corrupt as to abuse it Eccles 8.11 will be as it were driven to sin by it nay they will make divine silence an argument of sins allowance and when they sleight my service and set up their owne inventions and yet go on and prosper and I hold my tongue they will say I am altogether such an one as themselves arise justice let me not be reputed the Author or indulger of such disobedience set their sins in order before their eyes Psal 50.21 Nay though they being dearest Davids doth not their sin give occasion to mine enemies to blaspheme should I suffer Jedidiah my beloved one to increase his worship at Idol-Altars and corrupt nay decline mine and his posterity to possesse his Kingdome will not the Heathen say I am not pure and holy for I indulge their sin Do not the lewd lives of Christians cause the Heathen to reproach the Gospel of my Sonne and to say my doctrine dictates such things as nature will blush to see as if nature which I made were more pure then my selfe shall I be silent and not correct the impieties of my people which make Heathen Romes Senators when they see my holy Word to question whether it be my Law Shall my divine nature be blasphemously denied by an Apostate Julian or Arius and I not be avenged Shall the perfidious and perjurious deeds of my Christian people deny me to be a God and provoke this Turkish appeale to my purity producing the league sworne in my name and broken by them Behold thou crucified Christ this is the league thy Christians in thy Name made with me As did Amurath sixth King of the Turks against Udislaus king of Hungary Folonia when he took absolution from his oath from Cardinal Julian and fought against the Turks contrary to the league sworne See Turk Hist