as it were to the maintenance of it himselfe partly because some men will not and some men cannot defend his Cause And partly because it must be judged at some Tribunall Now there lye many appeales in the cause of God And all appeale is to a superiour Court The highest is Gods Therefore when Malice and Tyranny hath done what it can to Gods cause if his Servants do but Appeale as they ever doe The Cause must in the end revolve to God himselfe who alone hath no superiour Yet his very Enemies need not feare For he will so pleade and judge his owne Cause that their owne Consciences shall tell them his Judgement 's right Now one thing which layes a kinde of necessity upon God to maintaine his owne cause is as I told you that some Men will not and some men cannot maintain it I finde both these touched in the Text. First they that will not For these words Arise O God and maintaine thine own Cause are a grievous taxe upon all them to whom God hath given meanes and ability yet will not stir to succour his cause For 't is as if he had said Men will not maintaine thy cause If thou wilt have it defended thou must do it thy selfe The Jewes it seemes were now very guilty of this else the Prophet would never have runne with that earnestnesse to God He would have prayed to God had Men been never so willing yes God forbid else but had they done their duty the extremity had not beene fear'd And marke and tremble at the curse of God which was called for upon some of that People for this sinne Judge 5. Curse ye Meroz saith the Angel of the Lord curse the Inhabitants thereof Why because they came not up to helpe the Lord to helpe the Lord against the mighty To helpe the Lord. Why What cause of God was this What Why 't was his cause of Warre against Sisera as appeares Judg. 4. Against Sisera yet to helpe the Lord. And certainly 't is a great and grievous errour in any People as well as in Israel and in any age of the world as well as in that to fast and pray and call upon God to Arise and Maintaine his cause and their owne joyn'd with it if in the meane time they will put nor hand nor purse to maintaine either their owne or Gods Their owne in the State Or Gods in the Church These Men perhaps are of Tiberius his minde Deorum injuriae Diis curae And what that Oracle meant when he writ so to the Senate whether It belongs to God to vindicate his owne cause Or God will be sure to doe it Or let his cause sinke if he will not defend it I am not certaine This I am sure of God can defend himselfe sine Patrocinio nostro without any aide of ours But yet if we come not in to helpe when the Cause of God is deposited with us the feare is and 't is Just that God will Maintaine his cause and leave us to maintaine our owne Secondly They that cannot For these words Arise O God Maintaine thine owne cause imply disability in Man as well as malice For 't is as if he had said Men cannot at all times maintaine thy cause If thou wilt have it defended thou must doe it thy selfe And this is true of the strongest of the Sonnes of Men if they be left to themselves But this though it puts us in more feare yet it makes us not halfe so guilty For Guilt followes malice more then Impotency And our weakenesse and disability is such that we are not able to hold up against so many and great Enemies as the cause of God hath This was the case of Hezekiah He durst not trust to himselfe and his owne strength against the Host of Assiria Therefore to his Prayers he went 4 Reg. 19. O Lord God do thou save us out of his hand which is all one with the Text Arise and maintain thine owne cause But I pray take this with you When Hezekiah pray'd thus the People were in Armes No deserting the cause though no selfe-ability could hold it up But what Enemies had the cause of God then or hath it at this day that such earnest prayers were then and are now made that God would Arise and maintaine it Doe you aske what Enemies I 'le tell you Perhaps I shall not be able to tell you all But what my Text tells me I 'le shew you First the Text tells me the Enemies that came up against Gods cause were fierce and got some hope of Advantage Implyed in this that the Israelites were faine to call for maintenance had supply against them Next the Text tels me these Enemies were thought too cunning and too strong for Israil to whom the defence of Gods Cause was then committed Implyed in this that they were faine to flie to God and call him in to his owne defence A signe that all seconds were too weak Thirdly the Enemies were many and not like to be beaten or mastered at once And that 's expressed ver 20. A multitude of Enemies And last of all they were as cruel as strong and numerous For so we read ver 5. Where they are called Roaring Enemies A name which ever had some affinitie with the Devil 1 S. Peter 5. So in all likelyhood nothing remain'd but to get God to be absent and then they might easily swallow his People and his Cause together To prevent this was the Prophets prayer and so it is ours this day For so the Psalme begins O God considering how thy cause is streitned Wherefore art thou absent from us so long And it ends at Arise and maintaine thy Cause against them And the forme of the Prophets Prayer is very confiderable too and a great example to the Church of Christ The Prayer is that God would arise and maintaine his Cause The first thing the Prophet aimes at is the Cause the equity and right that belongs to it not the respect it had to Persons And this out of question is the way of Justice to honour the person for the Cause not to esteeme the cause of the person Now men for the most part goe a crosse way to this and therefore when they will come into the way of Justice I cannot tell For usually all businesse is sided into parties 'T is no matter for the Cause let who will maintaine that simply for it selfe If it make for us and our party so farre we will maintaine it else be it Gods cause or whose it will whether it sink or swim it shall not trouble us And I doubt as the practice of too many men is so is their Prayer For the Faction and the Party all not the Cause either as 't is Gods the Churches or the States And parties are ever private ends The Cause as 't is Gods the Churches or the Kingdoms is ever common ever fit to be
David as Davids was now at Jerusalem A built A furnished A strong an honourable House I know you would You are a Noble a most Loyall People Why then I will not take upon me to teach but onely to remember you of the way The way is Am I out No sure The way is to set David once upon his owne feet to make him see the strength of the house which God hath given him to fill him with joy and contentment in his peoples love to adde of your oyle to make him a cheerefull countenance now that God hath anointed him with the oyle of gladnesse over you that in a free Estate he may have leisure from Home-Cares every way to intend the good and welfare of his people and to blesse God for them and them in God And for David God hath blessed him with many royall Vertues And above the rest with the knowledge that his House is a foundation A foundation of his people and of all the justice that must preserve them in unity and in happinesse But t is Domus ejus His House still even while t is your foundation And never feare him for God is with him He will not depart from Gods service nor from the honourable care of his people nor from wise managing of his treasure He will never undermine his owne house nor give his people just cause to be jealous of a shaking foundation And here in the presence of God and his blessed Angels as well as of you which are but dust and ashes I discharge the true thoughts of my heart and flatter not And now my Dread Soveraigne upon you it lyes to make good the thoughts of your most devoted Servant Thus you have seene as short a Mapp as I could draw of Ierusalem She was famous for her unity and blessed too when it was within her selfe Shee was famous for her Religion and devout too when all the Tribes went up to the Arke of the Testimony to give thanks to the name of the Lord. She was famous for Justice and successfull too both at home and against forreigne enemies when the Seates of Judgement Ecclesiasticall and Civill were all as their severall natures beare founded upon the House of David This Ierusalem of ours is now at unitie in it selfe And I see here Capita Tribuum the Heads and Leaders of the Tribes and People of the Lord come up and present in his Temple I would to God they were all here that with one heart and one mouth we might all pray unto God for all his blessings to come down and dwell in the House of David and to rest upon this great and honourable Councell ready to sit You are come up to begin at the Temple of the Lord. The Arke was wholly Ceremoniall that 's not here But the Testimonie of Israel the Law yea and a better Law than that the Law of Grace and of Christ that 's here Here it is and open ready to teach the feare of the Lord which is the beginning of all wisdome Psal 111. In this Law you can read nothing but service to God and obedience to the House of David And so you find them joyned 1 S. Pet. 2. Feare God and honour the King And 't is a strange Fallacie in Religion for any man to dishonour the King and to make that a proofe that he feares God To the Temple and the Testimony you are come up When God would give Moses more speciall direction he declared himselfe from the Mercy-seat which was on the Arke Exod. 25. The Mercy-seat was wholly Ceremoniall as the Arke was on which it stood that is the Seate Ceremonie but the Mercy Substance And though the Seat be gone with Moses yet I hope God hath not left will never leave to appeare in Mercy to the House of David and this wise Councell If he appeare in mercy I fear nothing If he appeare otherwise there will be cause to feare all things And the way to have God appeare in mercy is for both King and People not onely to come to the Temple that 's but the outside of Religion but also to obey the Law the Testimonie Judgement went out from God lately and it was fierce How many thousands strong men which might have been a wall about Jerusalem hath the Pestilence swept away But his mercy soone overtook his Judgement For when did the eye of man behold so strange and sodaine abatement of so great Mortality A great argument that he will now appeare in Mercie And I cannot tell which hath got the better in the vie Your Honour or Your Religion that you have made suchhast to bring the Tribes to the Temple to give thanks to the name of the Lord for this The first Lesson of this dayes Evening prayer is Exod. 18. There 's the Story of Iethro's counsell to Moses for assistance of inferiour Officers This was not the beginning of that great and parliamentary Councell which after continued successefull in the State of the Iewes For that was set after by GOD himselfe Numb 11. yet I make no great doubt but that the ease which Moses found by that Councell made him apt to see what more he needed and so farre at least occasioned the settling of the Sanhedrim I take the omen of the day and the Service of the Church to blesse it That our David may be as happy in this and all other Sessions of Parliament as their Moses was in his Councell of the Elders That the King and his people may now and at all like times meete in love consult in wisedome manage their Counsell with temper entertaine no private businesse to make the publike suffer And when their consultation is ended part in the same love that should ever bring King and People together And let us pray That our Ierusalem both Church and State which did never but flourish when it was at unitie it selfe may now and ever continue in that Vnity and so bee ever successefull both at home and abroad That in this unity the Tribes of the Lord even all the Families and Kindreds of his people may come up to the Church to pray and prayse and give thankes unto him That no Tribe or Person for any pretences for they are no better may absent themselves from the Church and Testimony of the Lord. That the Seates of Iudgement Ecclesiasticall and Civill af all sorts may not only be set but set firmely to administer the justice of God and the King unto his people That all men may reverence and obey the House of David who it selfe upon God is the foundation of all these blessings That God would mutually blesse David and this People That so the People may have cause to give thankes to God for David And that David may have cause to take joy in the love and loyalty of his people and blesse God for both Till from this Jerusalem and this Temple and these Thrones Hee and wee all
be known that due may be performed unto it Now the Cause of God meant here though it be proposed as Causa una one cause yet 't is very large and comprehends many particulars under it Some directly concerne God and some onely by reflex But God is so tender of his Iustice and his Honour that nothing can so much as touch upon him but 't is Gods cause presently In as much as ye have done it or not done it to one of these little ones you have done it or not done it to mee S. Matt. 25. And so goes the Text Gods Cause all and but one whether it be directed against him or reflected upon him Whether it be the Reproach which the Sonne of God suffered for us Or the troubles and afflictions which we suffer for him 't is Gods Cause still and accounted as one As one And yet I finde three things agreed upon to be principally contain'd in this Cause of God First the Magistrate and his Power and Justice And resist either of these and ye resist the power and the ordinance of God Rom. 13. There 's Gods cause plaine And the Eye of nature could see Aliquid Divinum somewhat that was divine in the Governours and Orderers of Common-wealths In their very Office In as much as theyare singled out to be the Ministers of divine Providence upon Earth And are expresly called the Officers of Gods Kingdome Sap. 6. And therefore the Schoole concludes that any the least irreverence of a King as to dispute of his Iudgements And whether we ought to follow and obey him Sacrilegium dicitur is justly extended to be called Sacrilege And since all Sacrilege is a violation of some thing that is holy it is evident that the Office and Person of the King is sacred Sacred and therefore cannot be violated by the Hand Tongue or Heart of any Man that is by deed word or thought But 't is Gods cause and he is violated in him And here Kings may learne if they will I am sure 't is fit they should that those Men which are sacrilegious against God and his Church are for the very Neigbourhood of the sin the likeliest men to offer violence to the Honour of Princes first and their Persons after Secondly the cause of the Church in what kind soever it be Be it in the cause of truth or in the cause of unity or in in the cause of Right and meanes 't is Gods cause too And it must needes be so For Christ and his Church are Head and Body Ephes 1. And therefore they must needs have one common cause One cause And you cannot corrupt the Church in her Truth or persecute her for it nor distract her from her Vnity nor impoverish and abuse her in her Meanes but God suffers in the oppression Nay more no man can wilfully corrupt the Church in her doctrine but he would have a falfe God Nor persecute the profession of the Church but he would have no God Nor rent the Church into Sects but he would have many Gods Nor make the Church base but he would pluck GOD as lowe were God as much in his power as the Church is And therefore the Churches Cause is Gods Cause And as Eusebius tells us when by Stephen Bishop of Laodicea the state of that Church was much hazarded it and the meanes of it were mightily upheld by God himselfe And Elias Cretensis goes full upon it in the generall 'T is Gods cause any controversie that he debates against his Enemies Now this ever holds true in whatsoever the Church suffers for the name of God and Christ And therefore if either State or Church will have their cause Gods the State must looke their proceedings be just and the Church must looke their Devotions and Actions be pious Else if the State be all in worme-wood and Injustice if the Church savour of impurity and irreligion If either of these threaten either Body neither can can call upon God then For sinne is their owne and the Devills cause no cause of Gods who punishes sinne ever but never causes it Thirdly 'T is Gods cause which is directly against himselfe when Injustice that he will not or weaknesse that he cannot Arise and Helpe are most unworthily nay blasphemously cast upon him The very Text you see calls it no lesse than blasphemy And as S. Basil tells us 't was audacter effusa most audaciously cast into the face of God But how I pray How why they persecuted the Church of Christ with great extremities and then because God did not alwayes and in all particulars deliver it Deum ut infirmum traducebant they accused God of Impotencie Rabsaches case before Christ in the flesh Which of the Gods have delivered the Nations that serve them that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem 4 Reg. 18. Pilates case to Christ Have not I power to crucifie thee and power to loose thee S. Joh. 19. Julians case after Christ For while he raged against the Christians hee turn'd the contumely upon God And charg'd omnipotence with weakenesse So you see the Cause of God what it is and withall that it is many and but one Many in the circumference of his creatures which fill up the State and the Church and yet but one in the point of that indivisible Center which is himselfe Well we have found Gods cause as 't is tumbled upon the earth But what is it the Prophet would have God doe to it What Why that followes Iudica Pleade it Judge it Maintaine it Lord. For the King and the State For thy Church and Service For thy selfe and thine honours sake Thou hast made their cause thine owne therefore maintaine it as thou doest thine owne Now this God is never wanting to doe nor never will be So farre as Justice and Religion make the cause his he will Plead it first and Maintaine it after But yet he doth not this alwayes with a Judgement that is visible to us Nor with such a one as will make enemies confesse that Gods maintenance is on our part And therefore as Ruffinus thinkes these words are not onely a Prayer that God would Arise and maintaine his cause but that he would so plead it that he would make the Justice and Right of it appeare to Enemies and Opposers and the maintenance evident to friends and defenders of it So maintaine thy Cause is as much in effect as make the world know 't is thine and thou wilt maintaine it That from Gods maintenance the cause may have lafety And from our hope of maintenance we may receive Comfort Why but why should God plead judge and maintaine his owne Cause Is the Prayer of the Prophet just Yes no question For the Cause of God is ever just and therefore ought ever to be maintained Nor is it any partiality in God to his owne Cause that he comes to judge it But he is forced
made the Object of our Prayers Yet this advantage may here be had If ever you may safely prefer the person before the cause and yet be just you may doe it here God before his owne cause And the reason is because God as he can never tender an unjust cause to his People so is he Justice it selfe And ever juster than any cause of his that is without him Therefore whatsoever others doe Arise O God and maintaine thy selfe and thine owne cause Maintaine it even from Heaven there 's no great trust to the Earth for that is full of darknesse and cruel habitations ver 21. Now all this while we have almost forgotten who 't is that makes this Prayer Saint Hierom tels me and he is not alone in the opinion the Psalme was Davids and therefore the Prayer too As a Prophet he foresaw the danger and as a King he went on directly to the highest remedy And though Kings now are not Prophets yet 't is a great blessing upon any Kingdome to have the King a Seer so farre as is possible To have him with both eyes open His right eye open and up to heaven for God to maintaine him And his other eye downwards but open upon his People to take care of them and maintaine them with the same support that he hath received from God And herein above other Nations we are blesed this day I say againe Above other Nations if we can see our blessing and be thankefull For the King keepes his eye as steddy upon God as if he had no helpe below him And yet at the same time as gracious an eye upon his People to relieve their just grievances as if he were more ready to helpe them than to receive helpe from them Let not your hearts be troubled neither feare S. Joh. 14. Here are two Kings at once at Prayer for you David and your owne King They are up and calling upon God to Arise For shame Lagge not behinde God and your King You have been and I hope are a valiant Nation let nothing dead your spirits in Gods and your Countries Service And if any man drop malignant poyson into your Eares powre it back into his owne bosom And Sir as you were first up and summon'd the Church to awake and have sounded an Alarum in the Eares of your People Not that they should Fast and Pray and serve God alone but goe with you into the House of the Lord so goe on to serve your Preserver Your Merit and the Noblenesse of your heart will glew the hearts of your People to you And your Religious care of Gods cause and service will make him I doubt not Arise and haste to the maintenance of your Cause as of his owne Onely in these and all times of difficulty be strong and of a good courage keepe close to the Law of the Lord. Be full of Counsell and then resolute to Act it Else if you shall not be firme to deliberated Counsells they which are bound to serve you may seeke and finde opportunities to serve themselves upon you This doe and God Arise and be with you as he was with Moses Jos 1. This doe and as S. Chrysost speakes Aut non habebis Inimicum aut irridebis eum Either you shall have no Enemy or you shall be able to scorne him the world over The second thing which the Prophet would have God doe when he is risen is that he would Remember how the foolish man blasphemeth him daily The Enemies of Gods Truth and of the peace of his People it seemes doe not onely seek to overthrow his Cause but base and uncivilly irreligious as they are they fly upon his Person too For so you see the Text changes from the Thing to the Person Maintain thy cause but remember the Reproach runs against thy selfe They blaspheme thee And by this you may see how dangerous a thing it is for any Men or any States to become Enemies to the Cause of God For sinne will not stay till it have wrought them farther even into enmity against God himselfe And therefore this sin here a high and a presumptuous sin is not called the presumption of them that hate Gods Cause but of them which hate God himselfe ver 24. Presumption easily falls to Reproach goodnesse it selfe But what Reproach is it these Enemies cast upon God What Why 't was in the highest degree 'T was Blasphemy For so Saint Basil renders my Text. And so 't is called againe Ver. 11. 19 You may be sure the Prophet mistook it not It went not single there were more than one and Theodoret calls them Execrations Cursings and Revilings of God And men of all sorts as well as usurping Enemies had need be watchfull over this sinne For a man may quickly be within the borders â—o it before he be aware especially â—â—he be bold and busie with the Cause of God as it is reserved and secret in himselfe For since all Blasphemy is a Derogation of some Excellencie chiefly in God the Schoole collects and truly That whosoever denies to God any attribute that is due unto him or affirmes any of God that is not agreeable to his Nature is within the Confines of Blasphemy Entred though perhaps not so farre gone But these Enemies it seems stuck at no degree of Blasphemy Spared God himselfe no more than his Cause And what reason can this State of Church have to thinke these Enemies or their like that spared not God nor his Cause will if they have power enough spare them or theirs But I pray who or what manner of Enemy was it that made thus bold with God Who why my Text answers that too Stultus fuit it was the foolish Man And you may know so much by his boldnesse We find Psal 14. There was a Foole that blasphemed God But 't was in his heart Out of his mouth he durst not let it goe not once And this Foole was in the same feare at first For his Blasphemy kept in his heart ver 9. But now he was grown impudent it brake out at his Lipps For as S. Basil and others observe he did Palam maledicere Blaspheme at large The Prophet no question knew these Enemies what they were that they had other names beside Fools But he fits them with their Name of Merit That they deserved that he gives them I told you these Enemies were cunning subtill Enemies And 't is true But Malignity against Gods cause and Blasphemy against his Person will make the greatest Wisdome in the world turne Foole. And Follie dares adventure any thing against Man Nay against God too which is alike true of the Foole at home and the Foole abroad The Prophet pray'd against their Enemies as we doe now against ours O my God make them as a wheele Psal 83. And see in what a wheele they are The worst that ever moved For their Blasphemy
first Enmity betweene God and Man Sinne. And therefore if we wil quit the Enmity and be made friends the onely way to reconcile us with God and our Cause with his is by Faith and Repentance to banish Sinne. The sooner this is done the sooner we are safe which cannot be till our Cause be one with Gods One and yet when 't is one the preheminence is still with Gods Cause we must not suffer ours to step on before him For our Cause as 't is spirituall and concernes our soules if it be never so good never so close joyned with God's yet God's is to have the precedence For be ours never so good I must beg of your humility to Remember that Gods Grace did both prevent and follow to make it so And therefore we are to put his cause first and to pray chiefly for the maintenance of that which gave worth to ours And for our cause as 't is temporall and concernes this life onely Our safety life and lively-hood Gods cause is to have the precedence of that much more Father and Mother Wife and Children Brethren and Sisters Life and all must be accounted as nothing to Gods Cause S. Luke 14. And it hath ever beene a signe that the soule of a man goes right That a whole People keepe upon Gods path when they seeke first the Kingdome of GOD and the righteousnesse thereof and leave God to minister and maintaine the rest S. Mat. 6. When they are more tenderly affected to the Cause of God and more sensible of the Reproach or Blasphemy of his Name than of any calamities that might or malice can bring upon their persons And yet our giving Gods Cause the precedence in our Love to it and our Prayers for it is no exclusion of our owne Cause Nay the preferring of Gods before our owne And the making of our owne conformable to Gods is the way to make God as jealous of our safety from all extremity as he is to vindicate his owne honour from Reproach and Blasphemy And therefore though the Prophet here as Theodoret observes doth not say Arise O God and maintaine Causam meam my cause but thine owne Yet the same God that will have us prefer his cause will have us pray for our owne likewise And so the Prophet did For though he be here all for Gods cause yet we have him very earnest for his owne too Plead thou my cause O Lord with them that strive with me and fight thou against them that fight against me Psal 35. And defend my cause O God against the ungodly People Psal 43. 1. Well then Thy cause O God and my Cause O God But the Rule of Practise goes here Gods cause must leade that ours may follow it under the protection of God As we have therefore now begun so let us pray on as the Prophet did That God even our Gracious Father will be no longer like unto one that sleepes That he will Arise and blow over these feares from us 'T is but his Breath and he can dry the Cloudes that they drop not Rottennesse upon our Harvest 'T is but his Breath and he can cleare the Ayre of Infection as well all over the Kingdome as he hath beyond admiration done it in our chiefe City And 't is but the same Breath and he can shake our Enemies to peeces in the Sea That God being Arisen and come neare in providence will pleade first and after maintaine his owne Cause His owne in the hand of the King His own in the heart of the Church And his owne in the Holinesse of his Name That he will give this State and Church and every Member of both such grace that our cause may be his and his Maintenance ours That he will remember and that 's enough that if his Cause be ours our Enemies are his That we may so order our lives by his Grace that if these or any Enemies will Blaspheme it may not be Him for our sinnes but Vs for his service That our Enemies and his how-wise soever in other things yet in their plots and practises against us may be written in the Text-Letters FOOLES That we being preserved from them and all other Adversity may take warning in time to mend our lives and so hereafter live to honour and serve him that the world may see he hath beene mercyfull and we labour to be Thankefull That after the maintenance of his and our Cause here we may in our severall times be received up to him in Glory Through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. SERM. VI. Preached on Monday the 17. of March 1628. at Westminster at the opening of the Parliament EPHES. 4. 3. Endeavouring to keepe the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace THIS Chapter is a great Scripture for Unity For here we finde there is but One Lord whom we serve v. 5. But One God and Father whom we worship and obey ver 6. But One Spirit whom we receive while he sanctifies us ver 4. One Lord One God and Father One Spirit Three in One all Three but one God blessed for ever But one Baptisme by which we are cleansed But one Faith by which we beleeve ver 5. But one hope upon which we relye ver 4. But one knowledge by which we are illightned ver 13. But One Body of which we are members ver 4. Different Graces but all tending to One Edification Divers offices but all joynt-Overseers of the same worke Till the Building be One and we One in it ver 11. This Chapter is as pressing a Scripture for Exhortation And the first Exhortation is That men would walk worthy of their calling ver 1. Their calling to be Christians their calling in Christianity And that to shew themselves worthy they would endeavour to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ver 3. All for Unity And let me tell you We often reade of One in the Scripture but the word Vnity in the abstract is no where read either in Old or New Testament but onely in this Chapter and here 't is twice For we are exhorted to keep it ver 3. But how long why even till we be made perfect ver 13. that is to the end of this life Why but what need was there of this Exhortation at Ephesus what why sure very great need For Saint Anselm tells us Schisma suit there was a Schisme and a rupture there And Charismata the eminent Graces which God had given many of them was made the cause of the Schisme For Corruption at the heart of man breeds pride even out of Gods graces And they which had these gifts despised them which had them not and separated from them This gave occasion to false teachers to enter in and lye in wayt to deceive ver 14. This was the state of the Church of Ephesus
this exquisite Arithmetician beside the first comming of Christ in the flesh and his second to Judgement which are all the personall commings of Christ that ever the Scripture revealed or the Church knew hath found out a Third betweene One and Two namely his comming to this conversion of the Jewes But see a little I will not be long a passing Shall Ierusalem be built againe after this eversion by the Romans The Prophet Esay saith no Esa 25. But this saith our Author is not meant of Ierusalem but of her enemies Yes it is meant of Ierusalem as well as other Cities as appeares ver 6 7. and is confirmed by Saint Hierome and some Moderne Divines And suppose the place were doubtfull whether meant of Ierusalem or not yet that other is unavoydable Ier. 19. 11. I will breake this City and this people as one breakes a potters vessell that cannot be made whole againe Well But this new-built Ierusalem must be the Heavenly and the new Yea but it is against the received judgement of the Church that these places should be understood of any Church upon earth onely whether Iew or Gentile or both And apparent it is that there are some circumstances in Apoc. 21. which cannot possibly be applyed to any Church on earth onely Which made S. Ambrose professe that this Exposition is against Scripture And suppose they may be meant of a Militant Church onely 〈◊〉 what should lead us to see this conversion of the Iewes there I see not For the Ten Tribes comming in to the rest the good man should doe well to tell us first Where those ten Tribes have been ever since before the Baylonish Captivity or poynt out the Story that sayes they remained a distinct people No they degenerated and lived mixed with other Nations that captived them till not onely their Tribes were confounded but their name also utterly lost for almost two thousand yeares since And yet now forsooth we shall see them abroad againe It is strange we should not know our friends all this while For within these seventy foure yeeres they shall have quite rooted out both the Pope and the Turke our two great Enemies And shall begin to make both of them stagger within lesse than these thirty yeeres I cannot tell here whether it be Balaam that prophesieth or the Beast he rod on As for the Kings of the Gentiles that they shall serve this King of Ierusalem you neede not beleeve that till you see it If Christ be King there I make no question but the Kings of the Gentiles will easily submit to him But if it be any other they have reason to hold their own And it seems it is not well resolved yet who shall be King For pag. 56. and 102. The Author tells us Christ shall be King there And pag. 163. he unthrones Christ againe and assures us One shall be King whom the Iewes shall set up among themselves I will follow this vanity no further Onely doe you not think the Papists will triumph that such monstrous opinions are hatched among us Sure they will yet they have little reason here For two of their learned Iesuites are of opinion they are Salmer and Lori that the Apostles did not sin when lead with the errour of the Iewes they thought Christs Kindome should be temporall Act. 1. 6. which is the ground of all this vanity And Tullius Crispoldus one of theirs left notes behind him which are yet in Manuscript in the Library at Millan which agree in all things almost with this present folly So whatsoever is amisse in this Iewish dreame the Primogenitus the first borne of it after the Iew is theirs Onely herein their care out-goes ours They keepe the Frensie locked up and we publish it in Print I will leave these men to out-dreame the Jewes And hasten to and thorow the second generall part of the Text which is the Prophets owne prayer for Jerusalem In which the circumstances are sixe First then whether you reade the Text with Saint Hierome and the Geneva Translation Let them prosper that love thee and so make it a Prayer Or with Ar. Mon. Tremel and the last Translation They shall prosper that love thee and so make it a Reason full of promise to induce us to pray for it It is not much materiall It seemes both may stand and I will not make my Text narrower than it is Take the words then first as a Motive Pray for the peace of Jerusalem for there is great reason you should doe so For They shall prosper that pray for it So the Argument is drawne from prosperity prosperity is a reason that is very potent with men in all things else why then should it not be prevailing in this to make men pray both for the State and for the Church But shall men prosper that do so indeed Yes you have no probable cause to distrust it The words are They shall prosper And if you take them for an earthly promise you have a Kings word for it If for a spirituall you have a Prophets word for it Would you have any man testifie that hath had experience You have Davids word for it And he had often triall in himselfe that God made him prosper for his prayers sake and his love to that State and Church And since you cannot distrust a King a Prophet a man of experience be sure to pray for the peace of Jerusalem if it be but that your selves may prosper Take the words next as a Prayer Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem For there is great example to move you to doe so For the Kingly Prophet goes before you he askes no more of you than he doth himselfe He would have you pray for Jerusalem and so doth he Let them prosper that love it The Prophet is not of their humour that care not what burthens they bind upon other mens shoulders so themselves may escape the load No he prayes too And no marvell For as Saint Leo observes Prayer is one and the first of the three things which doe most properly belong to all religious actions He prayes then and in his prayer this is remarkable Prius orat pro orantibus pro Jerusalem He prayes for them that pray for Ierusalem before he prayes for Ierusalem it selfe First Let them prosper that love Ierusalem ver 6. And then Peace be within the walls of it v. 7. And there is a great deale of spirituall wisdome in this too For while his prayer strengthens them that pray for Ierusalem both his and their prayers meet and goe stronger to God than if any be it David prayed for it alone And therefore Ignatius tells his people at Smyrna that their prayers reached as far as Antioch who no doubt prayed for it selfe too and these joyned prayers obtained peace for that Church Secondly as David prayes as well
carries their Wisdome round into Folly And their Folly turnes their malice round into higher degrees of Blasphemy Thus is this Enemy no sooner a Blasphemer but a Foole And no sooner a Foole but a greater Blasphemer So Blasphemy is punished with Folly and Folly with Blasphemy There 's the wheele both in the sin and the punishment And I pray observe These Enemies that beset Gods Cause at Jerusalem were a Nation And so some reade here Not the Foolish man but the Foolish People And a powerfull Nation they were were they Babilonians Syrians or Romanes And one of them they were And yet you see the Prophet gives them no other no better name then Fool when they violently persecute Gods Cause Indeed they deserve it And this Sinne is as able to Foole a whole Nation as a particular Man Nay the holy Ghost here speakes of them as of one Man As if Blasphemie could change a whole Nation into one Foole. And surely 't is no hard thing with God to make the wisdome of the whole world foolishnesse 1 Cor. 1. And 't is as easie with him to confound the wisdome of a whole Nation as of one Achitophell And see I beseech you how their sinnes continue Once a Foole in this kinde and an Enemie to Gods Cause and a Blasphemer of his Person ever after without a great deale of mercy And this is noted in the circumstance Tota Die and Quotidie Daily and all the day long at this Blasphemy And 't is usuall this with Enemies All the day For their studdy is upon it And every day For these Enemies were the same in Blasphemy The day of their preparation The day of their Fight and the day of their Victory And Ruffinus observes that this Blasphemy grew in the continuance And either it derided God in his Servants or it menaced men for serving God How it flatter'd it selfe there while against both Man and God is thus farre apparent in the Text That they never durst have beene daily Blaspemers against God if they had not beene Opinators at least that God could never have maintained and made good his cause against them It is too much to see the cause of God opposed To heare the name of GOD Blasphemed were it but once But all the day long and every day is a Tentation almost unsupportable to Christian and religious hearts Yet this we must be Inur'd to heare against King and Church and God himselfe if we take not better course than hitherto we have done to keepe out the Enemy and his Blaspehmy Against this 't was time for the Prophet and 't is time for us to pray The Blasphemy of an Enemie is a very urgent Motive to make Men pray And the Prayer of the Prophet here that God would remember the Blasphemer was very fervent For he begins this Prayer at Remember the Rebuke of the Enemy ver 20. And he ends his Prayer with Remember the Blasphemy of this Fool ver 23. Remember and forget it not ver 24. This was the Prophet's Zeale for Gods Cause and you may learne by it that cold Prayers are not they which remove the Blasphemy of Enemies The Prayers indeed of but one righteous Man doth much but 't is when they are fervent Saint Jaco 5. But you will say What needes all this calling upon God to Remember Is it possible he should forget not possible certainely But then as before Though God cannot sleepe Yet to awaken not him but our poore understanding concerning him the Prayer was Arise O God So here though God cannot forget yet because in his providence he sometimes carries himselfe to our sense and apprehension Ad modum obliviscentis as if he did forget and threatens that he will forget Oblivione obliviscar eorum Ose 1. Forgeting I will forget them Therefore here againe the Prayer runnes after the manner of men Arise O Lord yes and Remember too Why but since here 's Enmity against the Cause of God and Blasphemy against himself why doth the Prophet aske no more of God but that he would Remember this Why why certainly 't is because there 's abundantly enough of that He knew if God did Remember he would punish And as S. Jerome observes hee therefore Remembers that he may confound in Judgement And indeede in Gods Language to Marke and Remember is many times to punish and not to Remember is to forgive sinne If thou Lord shouldest be extreme to marke and observe that is to punish What is done amisse Psal 130. And the Church hath learn'd not onely to speake but to pray of the Prophet For so the Church prayes in the Letany Not punish not but Remember not Lord our offences And therefore the Prophets Prayer was home enough Remember Lord Yes doe but that and we either have or shall have enough and our enemies too We I hope of deliverance and preservation and they of punishment Thus you have heard the Prophets prayer and I hope made your owne that God would Arise and bestir himselfe And what he desired God would doe both for State and Church when he was Risen that is That he would plead and maintaine his owne Cause And Remember that is punish in his owne time the Blasphemy of all them that reproach or detract from it or him One thing yet remaines and 't is fit to be thought upon this day every day all the day long And that is what it it is that makes God a Protector of any King any State any Nationall Church against either in-bred or forraine Enemies Against the Fox at home and the Lion abroad And that certainly is for the State to goe on with Honour and Iustice And for the Church to labour Devotion as much at least if not more then knowledge For else Gods Cause and ours may be two And then God may Arise and maintaine his owne but leave us to the Famine to the Pestilence to the Sword to any other Judgement The onely way to make God Arise as soone as ever we call Nay to prevent our call and come in to helpe before we pray is for both King and People State and Church to weave their Cause and Gods together To incorporate them so that no cunning of the Devil may be able to separate them For then the benefit is apparent God cannot Arise and maintaine his owne cause but he must maintaine ours too because 't is one with his And his owne doubt you not he will maintaine against the proudest Enemy that can come against it And certainly the greatest hope and confidence of Gods Assistance to any Nation to any Man that can precede deliverance it selfe is to make their Cause all one with Gods And that is done by upholding his and conforming theirs Our safety then is when our cause is one with Gods Our danger when they differ But what is it that puts the difference between them What why that which put the