tender parent one that cannot abide to see the least wrong done in word or deed either by servant or stranger unto any of his children yet to be oft chiding with them chastising of them himself so that neighbours take notice how the rod walketh in his house and his children some or other of them come daily under the lash we will easily conclude that there is sure somewhat amisse in them that he would have reformed their carriage is some way or other such as it should not be the cause therefore of his so dealing with them contrary to his own disposition otherwise is not from ought in himself being of himself averse thereunto but from somewhat in them that induceth or even constraineth him so to do In like manner when we shall see and observe how God who is so chary of the good and welfare of his children and so tender over them that he cannot endure to see them sustain the least injury at the hand of any other yet to be so frequently correcting theÌ„ himself and dealing with them so severely as oft-times he doth we may well thence conclude that there is not somewhat onely but very much amisse with them many things out of order that he would have reformed and amended in them that it is from them and their corruption not from himself or his own disposition that he deals in such wise with them It is that which the Prophet thence inferres in that dispute of his wherein he debates and discusseth the ground causes of those afflictions that his people then in captivity sustained The Lord saith he doth not from his heart afflict or grieve the sonnes of men and yet he doth it that is acknowledged For Who is he that can or dare say that ought comes to passe and the Lord hath not commanded it It is he that creates evill as well as good as well darknesse as light as well war as peace and there is no evill in City Country or family no evill whatsoever that befalleth persons or people which he hath not done he hath ever a hand tho a pure and a just one in it and as well evill as good comes out of his mouth either comes by his appointment But if he do what is done and yet that which is done goeth against the heart with him surely there must be somewhat without him that incites him to do what he doth yea that is true saith our Prophet the cause of the evils we sustain is in our selves not in him Why doth the living man complaine what is the first and principall procuring cause of his grief man suffereth for his sinne it is his own sinne that is the procuring cause of his sufferings it is mans sinne that kindleth wrath in God Thou art incensed because we have sinned it is sinne that wrings and wrests it as by force and violence from God Zedekiah did evill in the sight of the Lord his God and would not humble himself before Jeremiah the Prophet at the commandement of the Lord but stiffened his neck and hardened his heart that he might not returne to the Lord God of Israel all the chief of the Priests also the people transgressed exceedingly according to all the abominations of the Gentiles and polluted the Lords house which in Ierusalem he had halowed Yet the God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers rising early and sending because he had compassion on his people and on his place of abode among them and was loath to destroy either But they mocked his messengers and slâ—ighted their message and misused his Prophets untill his wrath was incensed that there was now no remedy he bare with them so long that he could no longer forbeare till he were even wearied and tired out with repenting and revoking of his former doomes of destruction Hence so frequent in the holy story the book of Iudges especially The children of Israel sinned against God and God thereupon sold them into the hand of this or that oppressing enemy And because it may be said that the sinnes there mentioned are mostly the sins of idolatry and the sins of the worse tho the greater part of that people To omit what might be replied hereunto that tho such sinnes are most commonly named as the chief yet other sinnes no doubt were rise also among them and for other sinnes also as well as these are Gods judgements threatned by Gods Prophets as also that both sorts as well good as bad had their share and suffered either with other in the common calamities of the times It is apparent by the confession of Gods own choise people that they also had their failings not a few and that the hand of God for those defaults of theirs was oft heavy also upon them Thine arrowes saith David stick fast in me and thine hand presseth me sore there is no soundnâ—sse in my flesh by reason of thy wrath nor rest in my bones because of my sinne and while I kept silence concealing my sinne my very bones wasted so that I roâ—red for paâ—n and grief all the day long For night and day incessantly thy hand was so heavy â—pon me that the moisture of my body was all clean dried up it was turned into a sommers drought And because it may again be objected that thus it was before Christs coming in the flesh in the time of the Old Testament but it is not so with the faithful now since the death of Christ under the New Not to insist on that which yet well we might that God is no changeling and that his affection to his children hath been ever the same The Apostle even in the New Testament telleth us that for their sinne in irreverent and unworthy repair to Gods board and unseemly carriage of themselves there some of them at Corinth were from God smitten with weaknesse some with sicknâ—sse and by sicknesse some of them unto death Nor will it serve to say that these were of the infidels at Corinth for they had accesse to the Lords Table or that it might be spoken of some profane and unsound ones among them such as many in that Church might be for to omit that he saith noâ— the unworthy receiver but he that unworthily receives he that tho in regard of his personall estate is not unfit to be a guest at Gods board yet comes not so fitted and prepared as he ought or demeanes not himself as is meet when he is there is not so cautious as he should and might be in the manner of his addresse or of his approaches thereunto To let this passe which yet is of some moment it is added presently after by the Apostle putting himself also in among the rest that if we would judge or sift our selves to wit so as to repent of and redresse what upon search we find amisse in our selves God would not judge us by inflicting such sad and heavie things upon us and that when God doth
time to be short so when he rageth most fiercely it is a sign that his time is short that his fury being at its height will not hold or last long when the wickednesse of the Amorite was come to the height he was then ripe and ready for destruction and when the fury of Iacobs adversaries is come to the height it is then high time indeed for God to strike in and to take down it and them at once And tho God may seem to linger and delay reliefe while his people are in some lingring pains yet when their throws come thick and their pains grow extream and the birth is come to the breach but there is no power to bring it forth the Lord is then wont to hasten delivery that his people may not perish under the hands of those that put them unto such extremity Again hath God such a tender eye on those and over those that are his the consideration hereof may in the next place serve for encouragement to encourage them to go on constantly in Gods cause and not to flinch back or give over for feare of any evill that thereby may accrew unto them or of miscarrying and perishing in the pursuit of it For how can he see or suffer any evill to befall them whose wrongs and sufferings he is so affected with or how can he permit any of them to perish whom he cannot endure to see undergo any hard measure at the hand of those that hate them The Lord rescueth the souls of his servants saith the Psalmist and none that trust in him shall perish and The eye of the Lord is upon the righteous and upon those that feare him and trust in his mercy God hath a continuall eye to them and on them because his delight is in them But to what end is his ey so alwaies on them to deliver their souls that is their lives or themselves their persons from death and how can they perish whom Gods eye is never off whom he hath alwaies an eye unto My sheep saith our Saviour heare my voyce and I know them I take speciall notice of them and they fâ—llow me and I give them life eternall and they shal not perish My father that gave me them is greater then all and none can take them out of his hand they that are ever in Gods eye the eye of his perpetuall providence that are ever in Gods hand the hand of his most powerfull protection how can they but be safe how can they possibly perish But how is this made good may some say when we see that they do oft perish and aâ—e so far from being protected or delivered that they dy in the qarrell I answer 1. they perish not when they seem to perish The righteous perish saith the Prophet that is they depart they decease for such onely is their death and to the eye of flesh and blood they seem indeed to have perished and men lay it not to heart and good or godly men aâ—e gathered and men do not consider that the righteous are gathered from the evill to come that they go in peace and depart this world before troubles come while outward peace yet continueth and with inward peace of mind quietly or go unto peace passe hence unto peace the soul to a place of joy and blisse the body to lie down and sleep till the resurrection in the grave provided as a bed or room of rest for it God doth with them as men are wont to do with their corn when it is catching weather they are carefull to get it in before the rain fall or as with their fruit when they see the clouds gather make haste to pluck and house it before the storm come So he took away Ieroboams sonne before the fall of his fathers house Iosias before the dismall destruction of his people Secondly no evill doth or can befall them by ought that in this kind doth betide them Hated they may be but harmed they cannot be hunted and hurried to and fro yea and murthered and massacred they may be and yet hurt they cannot be as he said sometime of his adversaries so may a Christian much better say in the like case of his Kill me they may but hurt me they cannot And as the Cynik sometime answered when one told him that some mocked him Mock they may but I am not mocked and the Apostle of God that howsoever men therein worse theâ— divels dare mock at him at his word at his works at his ministers and messengers yet God is not mocked so here wrong men may do them and yet are they not wronged wrong I say men may do them because they intend desire and endevour so to do and their very intent and desire is sufficient to make them wrong-doers and yet are not they wronged because no damage can accrew unto them by any wrong that is done them as every malicious person is a murtherer albeit the party maliced by him be not murthered and every one that looketh on a woman so as or untill he lust after her is an adulterer altho the woman so looked on and lusted after be free from any adulterous either act or thought Amnon was an incestuous violatâ—r of his sister and yet was not she either incestuous or at all violated in the party forced saith God himself there is no fault and sacrilegious persons are guilty of wrong done to God albeit no wrong can possibly reach unto him no more then those shafts that are shot against the sunne can come any thing neer it much lesse lessen its light Men may set up the godly man as a mark whereat to levell all their envenomed arrowes but they can no more fasten on him to hurt him then as if they met with a rock where they cannot enter so much tho they may be shattred themselves as to make the least dint or to leave the least print behind them For consider a while with me what men can do to thee if thou beest one of Gods peculiar ones or wherin they can endamage thee They may take thy goods from thee but can they take away thy grace that is thy true treasure and while thou retainest that thou maist say more truly then the Philosopher when the City he dwelt in was sacked that thou hast lost nothing Yea suppose a man be plundered as Job was of al that ever he hath to let passe what one of the ancients saith of him that tho Iob when he was stript of all that he had been formerly possessed of might seem to be in a very miserable condition yet was he even then in a most happy and blessed estate in what respect or how so you will say why because saith he albeit he had lost all that God gave him yet he had that God still that gave him all and he had all yea more then that all by much in him the Devill had taken from him his goods but he could not take away
he would forbeare to go thither and Agabus a Prophet at Caesarea with Pauls girdle binding himself shewed by ocular demonstration how he should be bound hand and foot at Ierusalem and the brethren there present thereupon likewise were earnest upon him with teares beseeching him that he would not go thither What mean ye saith he thus by weeping to break my heart I am ready not to be bound onely but to die at Ierusalâ—m for the name of the Lord Iesus And when he had been bound at Ierusalem and being sent from thence to Rome he was a prisoner now there writing to the Philippians Mine earnest expectation and hope saith he is that I shall no way be abashed but that with all freedome as well of speech as of spirit as at all times formerly so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body be it by life or by death and what is the reason why he sets so light by his life that it is all one to him whether he live or die so long as Christ may be magnified by either he resolveth you in the next words himself if they be rightly understood not as our former translation following Beza and some others had it For Christ is to me both in life and in death advantage that is whether I live or die I shall be a gainer I shall gain Christ or gain by Christ in either that is true indeed but that respects himself rather then Christ not Christs glory but his own good tho these two are inseparable nor as our later edition and some others interpreters of good note because they mislike the connexion returning to the old Latine For to me to live in Christ and to die is gaâ—n or in handsomer English Christ is my life and death is my gain which yet as little agreeth with the Apostles drift as the former but as a reverend Divine of ours if I mistooke him not for it is long since I read him which I conceive to be the genuine sense of the place Fâ—â— gain to mâ— or my gain both in life and death is Christ. that is all the gain that I seek and aime at either in my pains taking while I live or in my sufferings if I die is Christ is to magnifie him to bring glory to him to do service to him and for him to his That which elsewhere he saith of all true Christians with himself None of us lives to himself nor dies any of us to himself for whether we live we live to the Lord or whether we die we die to the Lord. that is to Christ. our aime both in life and death is to serve him not to receive ought from him that is true that we shall so do yet not here intended but to do him service To which purpose also he further telleth the Philippians that concerning his stay here he was in some doubt what to choose or what might be deemed most beâ—â—ofefull and that he was in a great straight what to pitch upon for when he considered himself and his own good he had a strong inclination to a desire of departure that he might be with Christ whom he was absent from tho imployed in his service while he abode here in the body which was indeed by far much the better for himself but when he looked upon the Philippians and other of Gods people to whom his abode in the flesh might be more usefull he was well content to stay longer here tho with delay of his own greatest good his personall enjoyment of Christs glorious presence Yea he addeth afterward in his ensuing discourse that if his death might conduce any way to their spirituall improvement and it might be thought more advantagious to them for him to die for them then to live with them he was right ready not willingly alone but even cheerfully to condescend thereunto Yea if I be offered up saith he or poured out upon the sacrifice and service of your faith if my blood as a drink-â—ffering which was wont to be poured out upon the body of the beast sacrificed to consummate the sacrifice by being shed in Christs cause may help further to strengthen your faith I shall therein joy and rejoyce with you I shall for your sakes be exceeding glad of it You see what the gain was that he aimed at as well in life as in death not his own but Christs and the gaining of others unto Christ. It is not therefore without great cause and good ground that God thus gives way to the sufferings of his servants so much conducing to his own glory and their honour and good nor are they as his souldiers and champions unwilling so to be imployed in his service to be spent in his cause Howbeit this hindreth not but that God disliketh and abhorreth the rage and cruelty that such wretches his enemies as well as his people do for him and his sake thus exercise on them no more then his purpose concerning the death of our Saviour for the salvation of his elect did any way extenuate much lesse excuse or make lesse odious in Gods eye the wickednesse of those that had any way either by malicious contrivance as the Priests or treacherous imployment as Iudas or importunate clamour as the people or judiciary sentence as Pilate or despightfull usage and acts of violence as the Souldiers and other Officers an hand in the procuring and execuâ—ing of it And nothing therefore can thence be concluded to hinder but that God neither doth nor can without much indignation and detestation endure to behold whatsoever wrong or violence is offered unto his people either in this kind or in any other Now for the use and application of the point thus made good First the consideration hereof may serve as by the hand to lead us where to find the cause of Gods so oft chastising his children I have been smitten saith Asaph every day day after day and â—hastised every morning as if no day had past over his head without some stroke from Gods hand and God had usually made it his first mornings work to be dealing out somewhat in this kind to him his constant wont were to make him break his fast with the rod. and lest we should think that this was his lot alone he telleth us in the words ensuing that this his dealing was not unusuall with the whole race of his children And indeed There is no sonne saith the Apostle whom God doth not chastise love he him never so well he scourgeth every one whom he takes into family to be a sonne or a servant For is God so affectionate unto those that are his that he cannot endure to see any the least harm done to them how commeth it to passe then that he deals so harshly oft with them himself surely this leads us to seeke the cause hereof somewhere else not in him but in our selves If we shall see and observe one whom we know to be a very chary and
so judge us we are chastened by him in the world that we may not with the wicked world be condemned hereafter In which words the blessed Apostle plainly implyeth that those he spake of were such as God chastised for their amendment here that they might not perish hereafter and withall also that God doth usually meet in judgement with his for not keeping a stricter course in the due examination and carefull sifting of themselves And it was no small presumption therefore for that chief ringleader of the Antinomian faction among us so confidently and peremptorily in the publique hearing of so many hundreds to avow that he did not beleeve that any sinne of his or of any beleever had any hand in the procuring of the present judgements of God that lie so heavy upon our land Nor doth it any way derogate either from the free grace of God or from the merit of Christs death to affirm that God chastiseth his children as well now as formerly for their sins because it is said by the Prophet in a passage of Scripture by these men much abused that the chastisemeÌ„t of our peace was upon him as if God could not chastise in these times for sinne because he chastised him before for us and so chastised us in him and it is not consonant either to equity or to Gods free grace to chastise us for that which Christ our surety hath been chastised for already For first that which we touched also in part before as well they that lived before Christs coming were saved by the grace yea the free grace of God in Christ Iesus as Iames avoweth it as well as we now are and had as deep a share in the death of Christ and in the merit of his sacrifice which to that purpose was as effectuall even before it was effected as any have that now live Jesus Christ in regard of the benefit of his passion being yesterday and to day and for ever the same 2. Nor again was it the end of Christs suffring for us to free us from Gods chastising hand that we might thenceforth sinne the more freely without fear of check or controll of curb to restrain or scourge to reclaim no more then to free us from temporall death but to take away the sting both of the one and the other that neither of them might impeach us in our spirituall estate Christ was indeed as the Apostle tearmeth him a surety intervening between God and us of Gods gratious covenant made with us Gods surety to us for the performance of his promises For in him are all the promises of God yea and amen and our surety to God for the discharge of our debt For as the Prophet saith when it was exacted he answered he undertook it and discharged it and God made the iniquity of us all to meet in him and light on him In regard whereof it is truly said that the chastisement of our peace was upon him because the guilt of our sinne whereby we were severed from God and stood liable to his eternall wrath and curse being wholly abolished by his suffrings called sometime a sinne-sacrifice or trespasse-offring and sometime a chastisement both in reference to our sinnes for which he suffred the enmity between God and us is removed and we are now reconciled to him and at peace with him with whom we stood at a distance and were at eâ—â—ity before Thus then by Christs suffrings there being full satisfaction made to Gods justice for our sinnes we are freed indeed from the condemning power of sinne and of the Law for sinne and from Gods revenging wrath but yet not from Gods paternall indignation or the fruits and effects of it which are exercised on us for our good Howsoever therefore it is true as hath formely also been acknowledged and avowed that God for other ends and purposes hath and doth at sundry times chastise those that be his reconciled unto him in his Christ yet it is no lesse true as hath also been evidently shewed that ordinarily and usually he doth it for sinne and that therefore considering his tender affection and affectionate disposition we should thereby be led when his hand is upon us to seek the procuring cause of it in our selves every one of us in his own bosome in his brest endevour as Salomon speaks to take notice of the cause of the stroke in his heart and so take to heart the stroke it self It is the Prophets own inference in the place above mentioned where having laid down these two grounds that God punisheth not from his heart and that men procure eâ—ils to themselves by their sinnes he subjoyneth Let us search and enquire into our wayes let us make a privy search each one of us into his own heart and his life ransack every corner of either that whatsoever evill lieth lurking either in the one or in the other being discovered and brought to light it may by sincere repentance and serious reformation be removed so the fewell being withdrawn that at first kindled and still feedeth the fire of Gods wrath we may well hope that it will speedily go out of it self And this leadeth us to a second use and that is for encouragement to encourage Gods people when they lie under such pressures exposed to the rage and cruelty of their malicious opposites to repair unto their God with hope of relief and redresse he having professed his affection and disposition towards his to be such as hath been shewed It is a shrewd discouragement to a poor suppliant in case of danger or distresse if he know or hear that the party whom he is to make suit to is one void of bowels an hard-hearted man for to seek and sue for favour and mercy to such is as if the ship should in a storâ—â— repair for safety to the rock a man many times doth but the more enrage them and either aggravate his own misery or hasten his ruine by addressing himself tho in the humblest manner that may be to such But it is not so here we go not to a God in whom ought is found that gives in this regard any ground or occasion of discouragement unto any to any especially of his own toward whom he is so tenderly affected that he cannot endure to see any evill befal them but it goeth to the very heart with him It was that that encouraged Benhadad to seek unto Ahab notwithstanding that he had but a little before so insolently insulted over him and most despitefully abused him by his imperious and tyrannicall demands which he had also twice attempted to put in execution and had as oft been repulsed and compelled by shamefull flight to save himself with hope yet to prevail for a renewed reconceilement and a buriall of his former contumelious carriages towards him in oblivion We have heard that the Kings of Israel are mercifull Kings But much better encouragement have we to repair and have recourse unto our God in