being an use of Reproofe are handled Fol. 171 CAP. VIII Wherein the third and last branch of the Use of Reproofe is handled Fol. 215 CAP. IX Wherein the Doctrine is applyed to the enemies of the Church by way of Exhortation Fol. 257 June 23. 1640. IMPRIMATUR THO WYKES THE SAINTS Interest in GOD. PSAL. 68.20 He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues of death CAP. I. Wherein the Coherence together with the sense and meaning of the words are cleared and Doctrines raised WE are met in the presence of this God of ours as the Text speaketh to our hearts very gratiously who is the God of saluation to pay the yearely tribute of praise and thanksgiving which a mercy so transcendently glorious as that Deliverance was which this day calls to remembrance hath imposed upon us with the rest of our Brethren of this Nation That which our Prophet spake of the great workes of God in generall Psal 111.4 though some restraine the words to the deliverance from Aegypt may in speciall manner be applyed to that great Deliverance wrought for this Land which wee now celebrate Some of our English translations reade the words thus The marcifull and gracious Lord hath So done his marvellous workes that they ought to be had in remembrance Our late Translation without any variation of the sense thus He hath made his marvellous workes to beremembred that is upon such workes of his by which hee intends in any more especiall manner to magnifie himselfe on earth he sets as it were such faire and large Characters of his glorious Greatness Power Wisdom and Mercy that all the world cannot but see and know the superscription whose it is He hath so done his marvollous workes that is in such a manner hath put so much as it were of himselfe into them that they ought to bee had or must needs or cannot but bee had in remembrance which is the same with the other Translation he hath made his marvellous works to be remembred that is he hath as it were compelled the world against the naturall inclination and disposition of it which stands to neglect to passe by to forget any thing that God doth to preserve the remembrance of them Men cannot but doe what they doe therein That great Deliverance which that great God of ours wrought for this Nation now 29. years since is of this sort or kinde of his workes among many excellent and goodly workes of his which shine like the Stars in the Firmament it is one of the first magnitude it doth not require it rather comes with power and authority upon us and commands this solemne remembrance of it selfe by this Nation As our Saviour answered the Jewes speaking against the people who so much magnified him If these should hold their peace Luk. 19.4 the Stones would cry So if wee the people of this Land the Men and Women to whom the duty of praising God for such a mercy doth belong if wee I say should have that Miracle or rather indeed Monster of sin found amōgst us not to exalt the name of God under such a provocation we might have cause to expect that God would provoke us and confound us by them that are neither Men nor Women The very beasts of the field or trees or stones of the earth would rise up and take this glory from us They would cry out if we should hold our peace that great is that God that could and would deliver after such a manner David tooke notice by way of thankfulnesse of that speciall love God bare to Sion above all other places in that Land in that he would have his praises heard there Psal 87.2 The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob So have wee just cause to conceive and judge by that great mercy of his to this Land that the same Lord loveth more to be praised by us then any other Nation under heaven that the English Incense is in heaven as the Gold of Ophir sometimes was upon earth preferred before that of other Lands it makes the sweetest perfume and savour in the Nostrils of God And therefore because he would have it plentifully offered and sent up unto him he hath unbared his holy arme to doe those great things for us which our soules know right well When he made this compact with David I will deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal 50.15 it was a signe that he had a minde to Davids praises more then other mens so having delivered this our Nation once and again and the third time also with so high a hand What other construction can all the world make of such his dealings with us but that he delights to have his praises sung and his name magnified by the English Nation more then all Lands besides Since therefore wee have so great a testimony of the Lords good pleasule in this kinde that he esteemes our praises lovely and desires to heare our voice let us addresse our selves to this great and honourable service let us fill the golden Vialls of our hearts with these sweet odors and make a perfume before the Lord. To furnish both you and my selfe herewith I have made choice of this rich Veine in one of the Psalmes of David as you have heard wherein wee shall finde the praise and glory of God bearing very strongly The Psalme it selfe is in genere laudativo that is of that kinde of Psalme which is in purpose framed for the exaltation of the name and praise of God For the scope of the words no more but this The scope The Prophet a few verses before having set forth severall deliverances and victories which God had given him and his people Israel his heart being full with a Commemoration and mention of so many mercies of the love of the Lord and admiration of his goodnesse in these two verses this and the former not able to hold any longer hee easeth himselfe and breakes forth into the praises of his God in this manner Blessed be the God that daily ladeth us with his benefits c. For the meaning of the words and meaning of the words a little will suffice because here is nothing scarce either word or phrase but is every mans language He that is our God that is that God with whom we are in Covenant whom wee serve and worship That God whether true or false which any Nation or People or any private person chuseth for a god and bestowes that feare and love other points of worship which belongs to God indeed is usually termed and well may be their or his God because such a People or such a person may seem to have a right and interest in the power of that God whatsoever he is for helpe and succour in times of need Out of some such principle as this he spake that said Iure venit cultos ad sibi
we now speake of in that Scripture Heb. 6.13 When God saith the Apostle made the promise to Abraham because he had no greater to sweare by he sware by himselfe Because he had no greater c. if that be the spirit of the words which I conceive neither can I apprehend what other it should be with any tolerable congruity of Reason they are a straine of speech to be heard out of the mouth of an infinite God fearefully high and glorious Because he had no greater to sweare by therefore he sware by himselfe clearely implying that if he had a greater then himselfe he would have sworne by him For this is the reason delivered in plaine and expresse tearmes why he sware by himselfe because he had no greater As if the infinite Al-sufficiency of God himselfe did not give him that satisfaction which he desired for the confirmation of his oath made to the heires of promise in respect of the weaknesse and marvellous backwardnesse of their hearts to beleeve unto perfect establishment and assurance but he would have had a greater if it might have beene and have passed by himself if there had been infinitum infinito infinitius this had been an only choice for him in this case To say that the words imply only this Gods greatnesse above all others makes the sense but cold and waterish For it is not the scope of the Holy Ghost here to declare the greatnesse of God but rather the greatnesse of his desire to satisfie the heires of promise as they are called that is his Church and People with the strongest and mightiest consolations touching the truth and stablenesse of that promise of life by Christ And for this purpose the words in the sense given are as is evident of mighty importance So desirous he was that his children should be filled with faith and the strong consolations of it that if hee had had any greater or more effectuall meanes for the bringing it to passe they had been used and the words thus understood are but an expression and breaking out of the mighty power of that love of his towards his Children which all this while we speake of which moves him to give his owne selfe unto them if he had any greater then himselfe they should have had it but for himselfe they shall be sure of As we heard before of Christs love mentioned by S. Paul Who loved me and gave himselfe for me Like love like bounty like affection like expression Thus you see the love and affection in God towards his Church to be one cause or reason why he gives them this interest and propriety in himselfe which the Doctrine speaketh of A second Ground of the point is The gift or bestowing of Iesus Christ upon the world So God loved the world that hee gave his only begotten Son c. as you heard before Iohn 3. Though the love of God to his Church was the Basis or prime cause of that propriety it now hath in him yet was it not either the only or immediate cause thereof This affection of his notwithstanding they were yet afarre off as S. Paul speakes and lay at as great a distance as is between heaven and earth from being a Church or holy People unto him from having any such peculiar interest or propriety in him Sin had separated and that with a high hand betweene him and them and had fixed a great gulfe betwixt the one and the other moveable only by him that hath power to remove the earth out of his place which kept them asunder from comming one at the other God could not reach or come at his creature with any other expression of his love till this gulfe was removed till sin that hindered was taken out of the way much lesse was it possible for the creature to have made any approach neare unto him to have gained any thing upon him or in him till then Now to fill up this vaste dreadfull and devouring gulfe and so to make the way passable from God to the creature and from the creature back again unto God there was nothing else to be found in heaven or earth of any proportion or any wayes commensurable thereunto but only one that might lawfully count it no robbery to be equall with God being God himselfe blessed for ever The infinitely wise just and righteous God could have found no other consideration of value and weight sufficient to have built a dispensation of that most righteous and just Law of his upon In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death but only the death of his owne only begotten Had all other creatures in heaven and earth consented together in one to have given out their strength and beeings to the uttermost to have raised a consideration or reason amongst them why God should have passed over those words of his as if they had never beene spoken should have let fall that solemne intermination or threatning of his to the ground never to have executed what he had threatned the wisdome of God doubtlesse and zeale to his glory would have despised it and laughed it to scorne whatsoever possibly it might have amounted unto and would have beene more ready to have fallen upon Mediators and Offenders together with fiery indignation then any wayes relented or stood so much as to consider what he had to doe upon the tender of any such propositions unto him It was no worke no undertaking for creatures to salve the glory of an infinite Wisdome and Majesty in case he should let such words of his goe for nought and vanish into the winde which were uttered with such solemnity upon such just and righteous grounds in the sight of heaven and earth It might justly have been thought that God had prized such words as those at a low and under rate and consequently undervalued himselfe in the bargaine if he had sold them at any such rate or price as the creature could have given But the death and sufferings of his owne Son this was a price that weighed somewhat like in his hand upon consideration hereof it was no waies grievous unto him to dispense with his Law and suspend the execution thereof for ever as far as it concernes those that shall unfainedly acknowledge this inestimable grace of his who hath thus bought them from under so heavy a curse and condemnation It is not the least prejudice or disparagement to the infinite Wisdome or Majesty of God or the least diminishing of the authority of any of his Lawes or threatnings whatsoever to let Lawes and threatnings sleep upon such a Pillow as this is and not to be put into execution upon the intercession of such a consideration as this And thus we see how the gift of Iesus Christ likewise was of absolute necessity to bring about this great and wonderfull thing in the world that sinfull men and women the generation of which the Church of God is made should have this deare
have any thing else any creature that flatters them and sayes unto them as the Bramble said to the Trees of the Forrest in Iothams Parable Judg. 9.15 Come and put your trust under my shadow place your confidence in me Men will hardly be intreated to cast away such a confidence upon any termes If a great estate or some great friend that is eminent in place and power should but allure us and speake as kindly and gratiously unto us as the great God of heaven and earth doth from place to place in his Word cast all your care and your burden upon us we will take care for you Men would take hold of such words as soone as they should be spoken and would doe that which was desired of them with all their hearts and would hardly aske any question about it either for conscience sake or for feares sake But now God inviting us to doe him that honour and our selves that ease as to cast all our care on him i. e. to doe it in a carelesse secure and resolute manner as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth assuring us that hee doth care for us which no creature doth in comparison of him men will thinke of it ten times before they will doe it once 1 Pet. 5.7 Even they which doe any thing in this kinde they will not cast their care upon him all they will be brought to doe is to lay it on him faire and softly as we use to lay burdens of any weight upon Tables or Stooles when we suspect the joynts to be crazy and shaken we lay them downe as gently and easily as may be for feare we should breake all in pieces and our burdens fall to the ground and as men use to walke upon Ice over deep Waters they doe not at first leap and jump upon it but first set one foote and then another to see whether the Ice crack or no whether it will beare them that so they may retire back againe to the ground without danger before they be on too far but to goe thus to worke with God is not to cast our care upon him but rather to tempt him and see whether he wil beare it or no. Wheras he gives us in that an assurance before hand yea gives it as the reason or ground upon which he requires us to cast all our care upon him in such a manner Cast all your care on him for he careth for you I would never wish you to doe it to cast it upon God but that I know he doth take care for you and will discharge that trust alone as much for your comfort and satisfaction as if you should be over-busie your selves and would needs joyne your selves in Commission with him Therefore now if thou hast interest in God and hast any burthens one or more to beare or carry if thou wilt carry this burden thy selfe and toile and turmoile thy selfe till thou beest ready to faint and sinke and die under it and not cast it upon God now walkest thou laden to the prejudice and scandall of heaven thy burthen would be honourable upon the shoulder of the Almighty both to him and thee We account it a meane calling among men and servile to carry burdens but it is exceeding glorious in God to beare all the burdens of his Saints that they may walke upright and not have their backs bowed downe to the earth This point of the Reproofe likewise as the former did concerneth us not only as we are private men but as we are together a Church and People of God If our interest in him be such as hath been declared as doubtlesse it is if we be the People of God why do we cause this great blessednesse of ours to be blasphemed and evill spoken of in the world by seeking to lay other foundations of our peace and comfort besides the favour and power of God alone why doe we not stand sure upon him though we have nothing else to establish us why are we not built upon him what addition can be made unto him if we had all the flesh in the world made up into an arme of salvation unto us could it adde any thing to our security Dan. 6.20 Is not thy God saith Darius to Daniel in the Lions Den whom thou servest alway able to deliver thee from the Lion Either he is able to deliver us and save us out of the mouthes of all Lions able to rebuke all our destroyers or he is not able if he be not able then I aske who made heaven and earth doubtlesse it will not aske a greater power to save us then it did to create us and the whole frame of heaven and earth besides Ps 124.8 And therefore David in the name of the Church of God fats and flesheth as it were his trust and confidence with that consideration Our help standeth in the name of the Lord that made heaven and earth as if he meant never to trouble himselfe further as long as he saw heaven and earth standing before him to enquire out more names of helpers and defenders to joyne with him that made heaven and earth Our help stands in the name of the Lord c. Here it is permanent and fixed it did not remove up and downe and shift from one name to another as if now they were confident in God another while confident in some creature or outward support they did not remove from bottome to bottome as men that are double minded doe they have no standing help or comfort any where but still are shifting and flitting from under the shadow of one tree to another from under the wing of one creature to another If he be able to deliver us and we be his People and have interest in all the glory of his power why do we suffer any thought to enter into us of standing upon any other ground why are we troubled and distracted in our selves about seeking and providing a hiding place from storms and tempests when we remaine under the shadow of his wing If any enemy have power to pluck any of his feathers then had we some cause to feare a lying open to the weather And what shall we say in this point to our Romane Catholiques for the name of Catholiques they must have to themselves and all the world must give out their right to them but for the truth and substance of it that they leave to divide who will amongst them But let it be here againe considered what interest it is like that they have in God or whether their wayes in the point we speake of be like the wayes of men Whose God is the Lord. Doe they make their dependance intire upon God doe they trust in him alone for the bearing up of the Pillars of their Church doe they commit their cause unto him attempting nothing but that which is lawfull and right for the advancing thēselves their Church and Religion are they content to fall
be unto dissolution corruption though not as the end yet as the meanes whereas wee know corruption in that sense whether considered as end or meanes is contrary to the desire much more the fervent desire of every creature Therefore the vanity whereunto the creature is here said to be subject and to be subdued unto viz. by the over-ruling hand and power of God seems rather to be meant of a vanity in their service and labour implying that they doe otherwise then they have a minde to doe or then stands with their owne inclination and so it is to be taken rather for a vanity of sorrow then of mutability which is called a bondage of corruption ver 21. either because to be thus subdued and held to it by God to serve his enemies it is to the creature as unpleasant and bitter as a bondage unto corruption or because such a subjection doth staine and corrupt the glory of the creature Notwithstanding it is the pleasure of God so to have it for a season and in respect of that hope God hath given it that it shall shortly be delivered the creature is well content with it it is no vanity to it in either of these respects Now if question be made Wherefore doth God subdue the creature to vanity in this sense and compells it to serve and comfort wicked and sinfull men One maine reason is this It is because God hath yet many of his Children upon the way of their Pilgrimage in the world amongst them and he hath more to succeed them for a while But if these were once all through the Wildernesse of this world and entered into their glorious rest God would deliver the creature from the bondage mentioned it shall no more minister to the children of disobedience but shall be restored into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God it shall be as free from serving sinfull men as these in the state of the Resurrection shall be free from obeying any sinfull corruption Therefore those that seek to take away the lives of the Saints of God they make the foundations of the round world to reele totter and stagger and attempt to shake the pillars of heaven and earth They doe as if a man should undermine and dig down the foundations of the house he dwells in to cause it to fall on his head and those that were with him We see whilest Lot was in Sodome Gen. 9.22 Sodome was in Lot i. e. the safety and peace of Sodome was in Lot I can doe nothing saith the Angell to him meaning towards the destruction of the City till thou beest gone out of it and hast taken Sanctuary Now suppose the men of the City had persecuted Lot and thrust him out of their City before this as words brake out that way they were talking of such a matter ver 9. had not the storme and tempest of the fiery indignation of the Lord come swifter upon them then it did Except those daies were shortned saith our Saviour of the troubles of Jerusalem no flesh could be saved but for the Elects sake these daies shall be shortened Mat. 24.22 On the contrary concerning the mercies and good things wicked men enjoy in this world except these dayes were lengthened and prolonged there could none of these mercies be enjoyed but for the elect and righteous mens sakes these dayes are lengthened unto them And therefore the Prophet Esay makes a solemne and sad observation upon it that righteous men should perish and so few consider it and lay it to heart Esay 57.1 The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart c. as if it were a thing of neare concernment and to be taken much to heart when a righteous member is cut off from the body of any State or Society of men and yet of the two it is a thing much more to be laid to heart that such a righteous man should be thrust our by men themselves from amongst them or lose his life by their hand then if God should take him away by death It is true in both cases it is likely he is taken away from the evill to come but in the former when men destroy the righteous from amongst them the evil to come is like to come both more suddenly more heavily upon those that are left Therefore they that persecute the Saints of God they call for fire as it were downe from heaven upon their owne heads they put a sword into the Lords hand wherewith to slay them If that Scarlet Whore of Rome had been or ever should be able to performe the devise she imagined and yet imagines daily to roote out all the holy Seed the whole family that is descended of Jesus Christ in all the world so that she had left none but her owne adulterous generation to possesse the earth she might then thinke indeed that she sate like a Queen but the truth is she should have prevented her judgment and torments so much the sooner Shee had but brought the feare and dread of the devill which was To be tormented before his time so much the more speedily upon his owne head Suppose the Lord had given us up into their bloody hands which yet we and our posterity shall have cause to blesse him so long as the Sunne and Moone indures that it was far from all his thoughts to doe but put case I say that she had been let alone with State People Gospell Religion that she might have done with all these as it is said the Jewes did by Iohn the Baptist Mat. 17.12 even what she list that she had triumphed in that fatall blow for ought that she knew or was aware of she might have shaken the foundations of her owne Mountaines and have caused her Sun to have set over her head even at noone dayes she might have thundered even the Lord Jesus Christ out of heaven to have taken speedy vengeance upon those that would bring up hell from beneath upon the face of the earth and that had destroyed out of the world the beauty and glory of it Fourthly and lastly this consideration also may prevaile with the enemies of the Church and People of God to cause them to desist from persecuting the Saints from attempting and plotting evill against them because they cannot lift up a hand against these but in a way of unrighteousnesse wrong They are called in Scripture The generation of the righteous and their waies are just and holy and good therefore whoever shall touch any of these to doe them any harme to afflict or bring evill upon them cannot be innocent but injustice and violence will be found in his hands Many of those that are the sourest enemies of the Church and that beare a tyrannicall and inveterate hatred against the Saints are men that for Morall honesty and Justice stand upon termes of honour and reputation and thinke it their great glory that they wash their hands in