seeth no iniquity in Jacob nor transgression in Israel See he doth 't is true for he is all eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 King 1.6 and all things are naked and open before him Yea he seeth enough in the best to provoke the eyes of his glory For though the crow think her owne bird whitest and some parents can see nothing amisse in their children as David in his Adonijah Jeb 4.18.21 25.5 6. yet he charged his Angels with felly and the starrs are not pure in his sight How much less man that is a worme c. He is neither so blinde as not to behold nor so fond as not to mislike the least fault in his best childe For he is of more pure eyes then to behold evil in whomsoever Habuc 1.13 with approbation he cannot look on iniquity and not shew his displeasure All which notwithstanding the truth of this point is irrefragable and the text alledged is no lesse firm then plain for us God seeth no sin in his children For besides that he will never throw them to hell which is the just hire of the least sin it 's often seen Rom. 6.23 that he never so much as corrects them no not with the rods of men for innumerable faylings and infirmities But winking at smal faults as we say nay passing by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage like as a father pittieth his children and pardoneth them their childishnesse so the doth lord pitty them that fear him Lo he pittieth them not punisheth them Psal 103.13 14. Or if he do proceed to correction as he must other whiles such is our frowardnesse yet amidst all he knoweth our frame he remembreth we are but dust Esay 2.22 a peace of earth neately made up that we carry our souls as a light in a paper-lanthorne that our breath in our nostrils is every moment ready to puffe out and that therefore if he should alwayes chide the spirit would fail before him we should soon faint and swoon under his hands wherefore he deals not with us after our sins nor rewards us according to our iniquities But as a man chasteneth his son saith Moses and he would have us wisely to consider of it too so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee Deut. 8.5 Break their stomackes he will but not their bones their hearts but not their heads And albeit they such is their peevishnesse under the rod give up all for lost and make desperate conclusions upon their corrections Judg 6.13 2 Tim. 2. as Gideon did yet the foundation of God remaineth sure The Lord knoweth who are his he knows their souls in adversity I said in my haste I am cast out of thy sight Here was a poor prayer And yet thou heardest the voyce of my prayer poor though it were when I cryed unto thee Psal 31.22 So Zion when under the lash sud The Lord hath forsaken me and my God hath forgotten me Esay 49.15.16 Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea she may forget and some Tigresses have done it yet I will not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands c. Look how a natural mother turns her childe out of doors for dabbling himself or some other shrewd turn and with a thump on the back bids it be gone a begging yet when the childe begins once to make a lip whimper and set up his lure Jer. 31.20 she takes him in again and puts him in her bosom the very like dealing we may read of in God with Ephraim his dear son his pleasant childe Hos 13.1 2 3. c. Ephraim of trembling and tender conscienced became a flagicious offendour a desperate idolater Ver. 1.2 And was not it high time then to take him in hand therefore they shall be as the morning cloud as the early dew as the chaffe before the whirl-winde as the smoke out of the chimney No lesse then utter desolation is threatened against them But the Lord soon repents him concerning his servants witnesse the words following Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt I am thy sole saviour Here 's now mercy in the midst of judgement Oh but they abuse mercy forget their God and sin again Ver. 6. Why therefore God threateneth them again with a more terrible judgement Vers 7 8. Behold I will be unto them as a Lion and a leopard as a bear bereft I will rent the kell of their hearts and devour them Oh fearful condition who would ever think of such but as of deplored and desperate yet see the sequel O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help Ver. 9. Thou hast done thy utmost utterly to undoe thy self but yet I have thought of a way for thy help I will be thy king where is any other that would save thee as I do in all thy cities And albeit thou art an unwise son yet I will binde up thine iniquity as a cancelled bond and hide thy sin Ver. 12. And although the travels of a sorrowful woman be upon thee such is thy dulnesse in not coming off roundly with God work with those lively Israelitish women Exod. 1.19 but staying too long in the birth which might justly be thy death as it was Racâ—els yet I will ransome thee from the power of the grave I will redeem thee from death Ver. 14. Ey but for how long might they say I shall be likely breaking out again and then thou wilt undoe me after thou hast done me good No saith God repentance shall be hid from mine eyes He will not cast away a perfect man saith Bildad Iob 8.20 The Lord will not cast off for ever saith Ieremy but though he cause grief Lam. 3.31 32. yet will he have compassion according to the multitude or the magnitude of his mercies And this was that miracle that amused so and amased the Prophet Micah chap. 7.18 who is a God saith he like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of his heritage He retaineth not his anger for ever And will ye know a reason That text supplies us with two for failing and both from God 1. He delights in mercy 2. He provides for his own glory as occasioning hereby his pardoned people to praise him for present saying as here who is a God like unto thee c. and to trust him for future He will turn again he will have compassion upon us c. Thou wilt perform thy truth to Iacob c. ver 19.20 SECT II. The reasons are of two sorts First respecting God Reas 1 FIrst God will father-like pitty and pardon his poor people Psal 19.4 Eccles 7.25 Numb 14.8 2 Sam. 15.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 2.13 because he delights in mercy Now delight will do any thing as we say If the sun delight to run his race who
paraphrasâ—â—â— thus Although the Ninevites enjoy great peace and by peace are so mâ—â—â—plied that they are very numerous yet shall they be shorn and cut down Verse 13. For now will I break his yoke from off thee Lest the promised deliverance should be any whit doubted of the time when and the misery whence they should be delivered is here laid open God hath set the time of his peoples sufferings which shall be neither so little a while as they would â—or so long as the enemy would Hold out faith and patience deliverance is at next doore by and will burst thy bonds in sunder By yoke and bonds here understund those Tributes which the Assyrians called out by Ahaz imposed upon the kingdome of Judah 2 King 18. God promiseth them here their ancient liberty which was soon after this recovered under Hezâ—kiah who trusting in God and reforming religion rebelled against the king of Assyria and served him no longer Shortly after also the Persians destroyed Nineveh dealt more gently with the captive Jews and gave them good leave to return home again as many as had a mind to it Ezr. 1.4 2 Chron. 36. Verse 14 And the Lord hath given a commandement sc to his upper and lower forces for he is Lord of Hosts Commander in Chief of all creatures against thee O Sennacherib devoted to destruction for thine intolerable pride and cruelty God resisteth the proud Iam. 4.6 he setteth himself in battell-array against him as the word signifieth commanding all his creatures to fall on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no wonder For whereas all other vices flee from God pride alone fleeth in his face casteth down the gauntlet of defiance and maketh head against him Hence his hatred of a proud person that no more of thy name be sown i. e. that no more children be born to thee so Lyra expounds it that thy posterity perish so Gualther This must needs bee grievous to proud and ambitious persons who promise themselves a kind of immortality here in their posterity and that there shall be a perpetuall succession of their name in this world Their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever they call their lands after their own names Psal 49.11 But their lamp shall be put out in obscure darknesse Prov. 20.20 there shall be Nullus cui lampada tradant Others sense the Text thus Thou shalt no more be talked of but the memory of thy name shall bee utterly extinct The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth Psal 34.16 See Esay 10.12 13 c. Ier. 49.34 Sennacherib had done great exploits till he lifted up his hand against heaven he had been very victorious and famous but now lies wrapt up in the sheet of shame and is made an instance of divine vengeance even among the Heathen For so Herodotus telleth us that in Egypt there was Sennacheribs statue erected with his inscription Let whosoever looketh upon me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hero l 2. learn to fear God He lifted up himself against his Creatour and Father hee is therefore slain by his own children He thought to overturn the true service of God he is therefore slain at his idoll-worship He went about to destroy the house of God he is therefore destroyed in the house of his god Esay 37.38 Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image This those superstitious Heathens held a great losse a sore affliction It is reported of the people of the East-Indies in the Isle Zeylon that having an Apes tooth got from them which was a consecrated thing by them they offered an incredible masse of treasure to recover it What a noise made Micah after his Ephod and images Judg. 18.24 and Laban after his Teraphim Gen. 31. and the men of Ophrah for their altar and grove And what a price set Papifts on their pictures and trinkets Judg. 6.30 I will make thy grave sc Of thine idoll-temple polluted by thy slaughter therein and so converted into a sepulchre for thee There is a story but of no great authority that Sennacherib after his shamefull return out of Judea demanding of some about him what might bee the reason that the unresistable God of heaven so favoured the Jewish nation as he had found by sad experience Answer was given him that Abraham from whom they descended sacrificed unto him his onely sonne which purchased this protection to his progeny If that will win him saith he I will spare him two of my sonnes to procure him to be on my side Which Sharezzer and Adrammelech his sonnes hearing of prevented their own deaths by slaying him It is more likely that they laid wicked hands upon their father Castal Annot. either out of ambition or discontent for the losse of the Army Howsoever God made use of their cruelty for the just punishment of Sennacherib and is here therefore said to have commanded it After this cruell warre arose among Sennacheribs sonnes which were the utter overthrow of that nation In Cyropad and laid them open as a prey to the kings of Babylou as Xenophon writeth for thou art vile Worthlesse and weightlesse All wicked men are so be they never so great Psal 15.4 Dan. 11.21 In his estate shall stand up a vile person that is Antiochus Epiphanes the great king of Syria whom the Samaritans in flattery stiled The mighty god 'T is vertue onely that enobles Them that honour God he will honour but they that despise him shall be lightly esteemed 1 Sam. 2.30 Contempt shall be their portion and with ignominy repreach Prov. 18.3 Here then the Prophet threateneth the same that Joel had done chap. 2.20 His stink shall come up and the ill savour shall come up becaue be hath done great things i. e he hath attempted to do them but was hindered from heaven God put a hook in his nose and a bridle in his lips and turned him back to Nineveh where within lesse then fifty dayes after he was slain by his two sonnes Tob. 1.23 and although his third sonne Asar-haddon reigned in his stead yet hee soon after lost both his life and his kingdome which was devolved to the Babylonians and all the royall race of Assyria was rooted out Verse 15. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him c. This Behold is as the sound of a trumpet before some Proclamation to bespeak attention Jerusalem is surrounded with mountains Psal 125.2 and on the mountains a voice may bee heard afarre off Pedes Evangelizantis Vulg. The feet of him that bringeth good tidings Or Of an Evangelist that brings news of Sennacheribs ruine but-especially of Satan subdued by Christ which is the summe of all the good news in theworld Luke 2.10 that publisheth peace Pacem omnimodam externall internall eternall peace of countrey and of conscience by Christ who is our peace It is usuall with the Prophets
can suck honey out of a flower so cannot a flye they should busie their eyes and regard the work of the Lord Isai 5.12 Psal 35.27 Ezek. 3.12 yea they should so consider the operation of his hand as to say sensibly Let the Lord be magnified Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place God hath delivered me out of all trouble saith David and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies The Edomites stood looking on and laughing at the Israelites destruction Obad. 12.13 God saw this and it displeased him as he is wondrous sensible of the least indignity done to his people He therefore payes them home in their own coyn and promiseth his Israel that they shall rejoyce when they see the vengeance Psal 58.10 they shall wash their feet in the blood of these wicked ones become more cantelous by their just destruction Learn we hence First To have our eyes open upon the judgements of God whether general or personal that nothing of this nature passe our observation lest we incur the curse denounced Isa 5.12 and be made examples to others because we would not be warned by the example of others Lege historiam ne fias historiae Sodom and Domorrah are thrown forth as Saint Iude hath it for an example 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 June 7. Ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 2. suffering the vengeance of eternal fire And Herodotus saith That the ruines and rubbish of Troy are set forth for an example of this rule That National sins bring national plagues and that God greatly punisheth great offences Let him that looketh upon me learn to fear God These words were engraven upon the standing picture of Sennacherib after that God had by an Angel slain his Army and sent him back with shame to his own countrey as the same Herodotus testifieth Secondly Learn we how far forth we may look upon the overthrow of the wicked with delight viz. Not as our own private but as Gods professed enemies Not simply for their ruine but as it is a clearing of Gods glory and of our integrity Psal 9.16 1 Sam. 25.39 Not out of private revenge but pure zeal for God and his cause I say pure zeal for it is difficult to kindle and keep quick the fire of Zeal without all smoke of sinister and selfe-respects And ye shal say The Lord will be magnified c. Or The Lord hath magnified himself i. e. hath declared himself mightily to be a great King above all Gods by executing judgement upon these Grandees of the earth Exod. 18.11 and making out that In the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them Hâ—nce it is that praise waiteth for God in Zion 1 Sam. 12.28 his Name is great in Israel He is sent unto as sometime Ioab sent to David to come and take the city of Rabbah to take the glory of all their deliverances and victories Not unto us Lord not unto us say they but to thy Name be the praise Hunniades would not own or accept the peoples applanses and acclamations Turk hist but ascribed all to God So did our Henry the fift at the battel of Agincourt Speed 799. where he won the day He would not admit his broken Crown or bruised Armour to be born before him in shew which are the usual ensigns of war-like triumphs He also gave strait order that no ballad or song should be made or sung more then of thanksgiving to the Lord for his happy victory and safe return c. Dan. 101 Polyd. Virg. lib. 19. So our Edward the third after his victory at Poictiers where he took the French King prisoner Anno 1356. took speedy order by Simon Arch-Bishop of Canterbury that eight dayes together should be spent in magnifying the Lord from the border of England From the borders of Israel Or from beyond the borders of Israel viz. thronghout the wide world The Saints have large hearts and could beteem the Lord much more praise and service then they have for him Psal 1.45.2 Psal 48.10 Psal 103. They would praise him infinitely and according to his excellent greatness filling up the distance as it were and calling in all the help they can get of Angels men unreasonable and insensible creatures as David did c. Verse 6. A son honoureth his father Heb. Will honour his father Nature teacheth him this lesson to reverence his father Pater est si pater non esset said the young man in Terence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl It is my father I must not crosse him Our parents are our houshold Gods said another heathen and to have all possible respect from us To God and our parents saith Aristotle we can never make recompence There is no nation so barbarous that acknowledgeth not this natural axiom A son must honour his father and a servant his master as Eleazar did Abraham the Centurions servants him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by being at his beck and check in all things Servus est nomen officii A servant is not one that moveth absolutely of himself but he is the masters instrument and wholly his saith Aristoâ—le and therefore oweth him all love reverence and obedience as if he were many Masters in one the word here used for Master is plural Now from this Principle in nature thus laid down the Lord tacitly accuseth them First Of Ingratitude for his great love to them evinced and evidenced in the former verses Secondly Of contempt cast upon him and his service as appeareth first by the application of that natural law confirmed by the custom of all countries If then I be a father c. As you commonly call me and claim me Ier. 3.4 Iohn 8.41 We have one Father even God And you have been long since taught Io to do by Moses and told by what right I come to be your Father though with an exprobration of your detestable undutifulnesse Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord Is not he thy Father and is not he by the same right and reason thy master too that hath bought thee Hath he not made thee and established or preserved thee Hath he not more then all that adopted and accepted thee for his childe 1 Pet. 1.3 begetting thee again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead unlesse thou be still in thy sinnes then the which thou canst not chuse unto thy self a worse condition All which considered what more equal then that I should have both love from thee as a father and fear as a master A mixture of both is required of all Gods children and servants that they yield unto him an amicable fear and a reverent love that they look at once upon his bounty and severity Rom. 11.12 and so call God Father that they spend the whole time of their sojourning here in fear that they fear God and his goodness
kings as Iosephus relates it He was faithfull in all Gods house as a servant Joh. 8.35 but that was not all For the servant abideth not in the house for ever as the son doth Moreover the kings of the earth take tribute of their servants and subjects but their children go free Mat. 17.26 Behold Gods children are all manumitted by Christ and possessed of a twofold freedome 1. Multò plures sunt gratiae privativae quam positivae Gerson Privative from the dominion and damnation of sin from the rigour and irritation of the law from the captivity and cruelty of the devill from the danger of death and horrour of hell c. This is a priviledge far beyond that of a citizen of Rome which yet might neither be suffered to beg nor be bound with thongs Act. 22.29 Rom. 8. And this is that the Apostle calls the glorious liberty of the sons of God as elsewhere he couples Adoption with glory Rom. 9.4 includes it in glory Rom. 8.30 and puts it for glory Rom. 8.23 Freed Gods children are not I confesse of crosses and corrections for then were they bastards and not sons He scourgeth every son whom he receiveth Joh. 14.18 but he never leaveth them orphans helpelesse comfortlesse In the midst of desertion the sorest kinde of affliction they may nay they must call him Father and ask him blessing Esay 64.7 8 9. and he knowes not how to say them nay coming unto him in that name and under that notion Should a parent see his sick childe pant and look pittifully cry out as once the Shunamites son to his father O my head my head my heart is sick my head is heavy I am weary with paines what shall I do where shall I rest c. He could not turn his back upon him and neglect his moans much lesse could he continue to strike him lifting up his feeble hands for mercy and looking upon him with watery eyes but would rather set himself to seek out and to do him all possible ease and comfort Hic cum triste aliquid staruit fit tristis ipsa Cuique ferè poenam sumere poena fua est Ovid. 2 de Pont eleg 2. To say God hath cast you off because he hath hid his face is a fallacy fetcht out of the Devils Topicks And shall not the God of all mercy and the Father of all consolation pity his poor children that are distressed or diseased and send deliverance Will he not melt over his childe and burn his rod Will he not hold him up with one hand as he did Iacob when he beats him down with the other will he not look through the chinkers to see how we do when he hath shut us up close prisoners will he not deal by us as the mother deals by her little-one makes him beleeve she will cast him away to the puttock or pitch him headlong into the pool when yet she keeps fast hold on him 2. Positive and so he is made a free-denison of Jerusalem that is above and possessed of all the priviledges of that supernall citty See a brief extract of them in that 1 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are yours A very large charter All illuminations inspirations gifts and graces of the spirit gifts of Gods ministers and the abler sort of Christians all these are not more their own then yours to use you have title to them and interest in them and may claime them for your own Whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world you are heirs of it together with faithfull Abraham Or life grace to spend it well or death to the wicked a trap-dore to hell Janua vita porta coeli Bern. but to the saints an inlet into eternall happines or things present all occurrences are sanctified to you or things to come heaven waits for you hell hath nothing to do with you Thus all is yours as the Apostle there reiterates it though not in possession unlesse it be in our Head yet in use in right or by way of reduction as we say the worst things are Gods childrens they are heirs of the kingdome saith Iames heads destinated to the diadem Jam. 2.5 Serms non valet exprimere experimento opus est Chrys Lati simus non securi gaudentes in spiritu sancto scd tamen caventes à recidivo Bern. saith Tertullian Their priviledges as sons are fitter to be beleeved then possible to be discoursed And this should make them hold up their heads but not too high and be cheerfull but not withall scornefull CHAP. V. God will pity and pardon his people their wants and weaknesses And I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him HOw graciously God will deal with his dear children in respect of their pious performances is here sweetly set forth by an exquisite simile Shindler Pentag miserebor misericordia commovebor Figuier Clementiâutar Trem. polan. In quo duplex est aemoris ratio c. Figuier De Cartulone filio à patre Machaeo ob contemptum cruci affixo lege Just lib. 18. Heb. 13.18 from the dealing of an indulgent father with his obsequious childe I will spare them saith he nay that 's not full enough I will pardon and pity them I will commiserate and compassionate them as Pharaohs daughter once did the forlorne infant she found among the flags I will use clemency and shew kindnesse unto them And how As a man doth to his own son that serves him In which comfortable expression there is a double declaration saith an Interpreter of Gods fatherly affection as thus We cannot but shew love even to a stranger that observes us As o' tother side we dislike and detest even a son that slights us But a son and a serviceable son what father can chuse but love and like well of And shall God the father of all the father-hoods in heaven and earth shew lesse love to his obedient children that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willing at least to keep a good conscience and are faithfull in weaknesse though weak in faith No but he will kindly accept of what they are able and remit the rest He will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serves him Than the which I know not what the good Lord could have spoken more effectually for the setting forth of his own fatherly compassion or for the setting of our hearts in sound consolation Take it thus God will surely shew like mercy and mildenesse to his obedient children in Doct their faults and faculties in their wants and weaknesses as the kindest father would do to his dearest son that serves him SECT 1.2.3.4 Reasons from God out of Micah 7.18 19. THis is no new doctrine for besides that the Text is for us in so many words almost the man whose eyes are open hath said it He hath said Num. 23.21 who heard the words of God who saw the visions of the Almighty God
Chap. 3.4 where he interprets this Text shall abide many dayes without a King and without Princes and without a sacrifice and without an image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim that is without any forme of civil Government and without any exercise of true yea or of false religion What a comfort was it to good David in his banishment and after the slaughter of the Priests by Saul even fourscore and five persons that did wear a linnen Ephod 1 Sam. 22.18 that Abiathar the son of Abimelech came down to him to Keilah with an Ephod in his hand and that thereby he could enquire of God what to do as he did 1 Sam. 23.6 1 Sam. 30.7 And what a grief and misery to Saul that God had forsaken him in those visible pledges of his favour and would not be found of him Hence he lay all open and naked to his enemies who now might do what they would to him and none to hinder them This also was the case and condition of the people when Aaron by making the golden Calf at their command had made the people naked unto their shame amongst their enemies Exod. 32.25 that is destitute of Gods powerfull protection and deprived of their former priviledges A people or a person may sin away their happinesse and forfeit the favours they formerly enjoyed An hypocrite may lose his gifts and common graces as that idle and evil servant did his talent his light may be put out in obscure darknesse See Ezech. 43.11 17. with the Note and set her as in the day that she was born Not onely nudam tanquam ex matre Naked as ever she was born The Albigenses in France those old Protestants were turned out stark-naked both men and women at the taking of Carcasson by the command of the Popish Bishop and so were thousands of good Christians by the bloody Rebels in Ireland now alate but as she was born of the Amorite and Hittite her navel was not cut her birth-blot was not washed in water nay shee was cast out into the open field and no eye pitied her as the Princesse did Moses and as the shepherdesse did Romulus and Remus See all this and more most elegantly set out Ezek. 16. together with what high honour and sumptuous ornaments God did put upon her verse 11 12. What this people were in the day of their nativity Ioshuah telleth them in part Chap. 24.2 Your father 's dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time even Terah the father of Abraham and the father of Nahor and served other gods And I took your father Abraham out of Vr of the Chaldees as a brand out of that fire c. and gave him Isaacâ— And I gave unto Isaac Iacob who together with his children went down into Egypt where they fell to the worshipping of Idols Ezek. 16.26 And although they were there held under miserable servitude yet they continued exceeding wicked and abominable The fire of their afflictions seemed to harden their hearts as much as the fire of the furnace did the bricks they made Hence as they hardened their hearts God hardened his hand and had hastened their destruction had it not been that he had seared the wrath of the enemy lest their adversaries should behave themselves strangely Deut. 32 27. and lest they should say our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Psal 107.8 The Psalmist was sensible of all this therefore saith Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt they remembred not the multitude of thy mercies but provoked him at the sea even at the Red sea Neverthelesse he saved them for his Names sake c. And what was it else but the respect to his own great Name and the remembrance of his holy covenant that moved the Lord to premonish this perverse people of their present danger and not to suffer his whole wrath to arise against them and to rush in upon them without a Ne forte Am. 4.12 lest I set her as in the day c. The esoâ—e thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God with intreaties of peace lest your house be left unto you desolate Luc. 21. least wraâ—h seise upon you and that without remedy And make her as a wilderness after that â— have brought her out of a wildernesse and set her in a land that floweth with milk and hony God can quickly curse our blessings and destroy us after that he hath done us good See this excellency set forth Isay 5.5 and Jer. 17.5.6 Psal 107.34 Zech. 7.14 with the Note there and take heed lest living in gods good land but not by Gods good lawes we forfeit all into his hand and he take the forfeiture For he had rather that wild beasts should devour the good of a land yea that Satyres and devils should dance there then that wicked and stubborn sinners should enjoy it If Philip of Spain could say he had rather have no subjects then Lutheran subjects And if the Councell of Tholouse out of a like blind zeale for propagating Popery did decree that the very house should be pâ—lled down in qua fuerit inventus baereticus wherein an heretick as they then called Gods true servants waâ— found How much more shall the King of heaven the righteous judg root out and pluck up a rabble of rebels that refuse to be ruled by him Idolatry is a Land-desolating sin and brings in the devouring sword Judg 5.8 1. Joh. 5.21 Psal 78.58.59.62 Jer. 22.7.8.9 Cavete ab Idolis And slay them with thirst Surgit hic oratio surgit afflictio To be slame with thirst is a grievous judgment Lysimachus parted with his kingdome for a draught of water in a dry land and made himself of a great King a miserable Captive to the King of Getes Darius slying from his enemies Plut. was glad to drink of a dirty puddle that had carrion lying in it professing that it was the sweetest draught that ever he drank in his life Dives would have given all that ever he was worth for a drop of cold water The members infeebled for want of due moisture seek to the veynes for relief the veines to the liver the Liver to the Entrals the Entials to the ventricle â—he ventricle to the orifice But these being not abâ—e to impart what they cannot receive One he cryes Father Abraham But hospitable Abraham hath it not to him Rab. Samuel fire and brimstone storme and tempest is now the portion of his cup extream thirst is a piece of Hels pains Act. Mon. fol. 1547. and one of the greatest of earths miseries A dear servant of God in Queen Maries dayes kept and pined in prison would faine have drunk his own water but for want of nour shmâ—nt could make none Inward refreshings he had even those divine consolations of the maâ—tyâ—s he drank of the
to our Saviour that they were not the children of fornication for they had Abraham to their father Joh. 6.33 nay God to their father vers 41 But he as boldly telleth them that they a eâ—a bastardly brood yea a serpentine seed and that they were of their father the devil vers 44. And in another place as Serpents saith He ye generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell If mercy interpose not as the cold grave must one day hold your bodies so hot hell your souls But I will have no mercy upon her children for they are the children of fornications i.e. they are not onely misbegotten and illegitimate which though no fault of theirs yet is their reproach as hath been said in the Notes on the former chapter but they are children of fornications in an active sense too they have learned of their mother to fornicate they are as good at resisting the holy Ghost as ever their Fathers were Acts 7.51 they fill up the measure of their fathers fias that wrath may come upon them to the utmost Children as they derive from their parents a cursed birth blot which comes by propagation so they are very apt to fall into their vices by imitation and then they â—ue both their own and their parents iniquities Verse 5. For their mother hath plaid the harlot Being a wife of whoredoms chap. 1.2 see the Note there therefore I will not have mercy upon her children but will root out all her increase job 31.12 Either she shall commit whoredom and not increase Hos 4.10 Or if she do it is for mischief she shall bring forth children to the murtherer or at least she shall bequeath them a fearfull legacy of sin and punishment worse then that leprosie that Gehezi left to his posterity or that Joab lest to his 2 Sam. 3.29 lameness and gonorrhaea c. It is a dangerous thing to keep up the succession of a sin in the world and to propagate guilt from one generation to another it is a great provocation When the wickednesse of such is ripe in the field and they have filled up the measure of their fathers sins God will not let it shed to grow again but cuts it up by a just and seasonable vengeance Let parents therefore break off their sins and get into Gods favour if for nothing else yet for their poor childrens sake labouring to mend that by Education which they have marred by propagation and evil example And let children of wicked parents as they tender their own eternall good take Gods counsell Ezek 20. vers 18.30 Are ye polluted after the manner of your fathers and commit ye whoredom after their abominations Oh walk ye not after the statutes of your fathers neither observe their judgements nor defile your selves with their idols True it is men are wonderous apt to dote upon their fathers doings and are hardly drawn off from their vain conversation by received tradition from their ancestors 1 Pet. 1.18 A boâ—e majori discit arare minor Ovid. Prescription is held Authoritie sufficient Me ex ea opinione quam à majoribus accepi de cultu deorum nullius unquam movebit oratio â—ic saith Tully No man shall ever disswade me from that way of divine worship that my forefathers lived and died in It is reported of a certain Monarch of Morocco that having read Saint Pauls Epistles he liked them so well that he professed that were he then to chuse his Religion he would before any other embrace Christianity But every one ought Heyl. Geog. pag. 714. said he to die in his own Religion and the leaving of the faith wherein he was born was the onely thing that he disliked in that Apostle Thus He. Sed teto erravit caelo Antiquity must have no more Authority then what it can maintain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mine Antiquity said Ignatius is Christ Jesus who said not to the young man Do as thy forefathers but Follow thou me She that conceived them hath done shamefully She hath utterly shamed her self and all her friends husband children all The woman is or should be the glory of the man Solomons good huswife was she Prov. 31.28 29. Her children rise up and call her blessed her husband also and he praiseth her saying Many daughters have done vertuously but thou excellest them all Alphonsus King of Arragon was once resolved never to commend his wife lest he should be accounted immodest or uxorious but afterwards he changed his mind Val Max. Chri. 73. and was so taken with his wives vertues and constancy that he resolved to praise her quocunq in trivio cuique obvio sine modo et modestia in all places and companies c. So did Budaeus Pareus and others Plin. Tacit. utinam aut coelebs vixissem aut orbusperirssem Prov. 14.34 Deut. 28. Jer. 25.9 Ezek. 5.15 but a wicked wife an harlot especially puts her husband to the blush and is a great heart-break as Livia was to Augustus Eudemus was both her Physician and her stallion his children also proved start naught which made him wish that either he had lived a Batchelour or died childlesse Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a shame to any people It is the snuff that dimmeth their candlestick the leaven that sowreth their Passeover the reproach that rendreth them a proverb and a by-word an astonishment and an hissing a taunt and a talk to other countries Such was Israels Apostasie Idolatry their subjecting Religion to carnal policy in setting up the two calves and Baalim when Ephraim spake there was trembling and then he exalted himself in Israel but when he offended in Baal he died Hos 13.1 Whilst he kept close to God who but Ephraim None durst quack but all quaked at the name of Ephraim he was on high and much honoured But when he declined to Idolatry he became contemptible and every paltry adversary cast dirt in his face and crowed over him So true is that of Solomon The wise shall inherit glory Prov. 3.35 but shame shall be the promotion of fools What a victorious Prince was Henry the fourth of France till he for politike respects turned Papist Till then he was Bonus Orbi but after that Orbus Boni as the wits of the time played upon his name Borbonius Life of Phil. de Mornay by way of Anagram Once he was before his revolt perswaded by Du-Plessy to do publike pennance for having abused the daughter of a certain Gentleman in Rochel by whom he had a son Hereunto he was drawn with some difficulty being read to fight a battle and this was no disgrace to him But when by compliance at least he became an Idolater for lucre of a crown and love of life he became a vile person as Antiochus is called Dan. 11.21 and was worthily lashed with rods by the Pope in the person of his Embassadours and butchered by the instigation of those Jesuites whom
horse-leech Give give and may fitly be compared to the ravens of Arabia that full-gorged have a tunable sweet voice but empty they screech horribly Corpus opes animum famam vim lumina Scortum Debilitat perdit necat aufert tripit orbat Idolatry also is no lesse costly witnesse this harlots habit verse 13. and the purple whore of Rome with all her trinckets and those masses of money that she drains out of many parts of Christendome for the support of her state Muscipulata res Otto one of her Mice-catchers as the story calleth him sent hither into England by Gregory the ninth after three years raking together of money for pardons and other palterments at last departing he left not so much money in the whole Kingdome as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him What will not men part with to purchase heaven Bellarm. Now they perswaded the poor people and still they do that good works and what so good as to gratifie the Pope with great summes were mercatura regni coelestas the price to be given for heaven Idolaters are all Merit-mongers they will have heaven as a purchase they lay claim to it as wages for their work They say with that wretched Monk Redde mihi aeternam vitam quam debes Luke 15. Give me eternal life which thou owest me Give me the portion that belongeth to me God forbid saith another Papist that we should enjoy heaven as of meer alms to us On the other side the godly disclaim their own merits beg hard for mercy expect a recompence of reward from him but all of free-grace accounting all that they can do for God but a little of that much that is due to him and that they could well beteem him they do all righteousnesse but rest in none they know that Gods kingdom is partum non paratum that their reward is the reward of inheritance and not of acquisition and that if they could do any thing this way yet would it be mercy in God to reward every one according to his work Psalm 61.12 and I will make them a forrest See this more fully set forth Isai 5.5 6. Such is the hatred God beareth to sinne that he makes bloody wailes as it were upon the backs of the insensible creatures for mans sake A fruitfull land turneth he into barrennesse for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein Psal 107.34 Thus he dealt by Sodom which was once as Egypt yea as Eden but is now a place of nettles and salt-pits By Iudea that once Lumen totius orbis now laid desolate as Babylon where Strabo saith their Barley yeelded three hundred-fold increase and their Palm-tree three hundred and sixty severall sorts of commodities as bread honey wine vineger c. but what devastation befell it by the Modes see Esay 13.19 c. It were easie to instance in the seven Churches of Asia the Palatinate and other parts of Germany in Ireland and now Scotland and what may England look for Shall we altogether passe unpunished Shall we still sit safe under our vines and fig-trees and not be forrested and by those wilde beasts of the field devoured Sure it is that no beast of the field doth shew it self more raging or ravenous then do the wicked when God suffers or rather sends them to break into his vineyard Witnesse those breathing devils the Irish Rebels more cruel then any Cannibals Cursed be their wrath for it was cruel transcendentâ—y so extending it self both to the living and the dead Vrsi non saeviunt in cadavera but these bears Psal 58.4 boars Psal 80.13 lions leopards c. did rage against dead carcasses and tore them with their teeth Histories tell us that the first founders of Rome were nourished by a Wolf Certain it is that the off-spring of that people have the hearts of Wolves being savage and cruel above measure Their citie was first founded in blood and so was the Papacy for the foundation of that See was laid when Phocas slew his liege Lord and Emperour Mauricius whom he stewed in his own blood Whence the Poet wittily Suffocas Phoca imperium stabilisque Papatum The habit of that harlot is according to her heart purple and scarlet and her diet is the diet of the Cannibals Rev. 17.6 I saw her drunken with the blood of the Saints They are wholly bloody both in their positions and dispositions their plots and practises The Pope is said to be a Leopard or Panther with his feet like a Bear and his head like a Lion Revel 13.2 See the Note there And of their S. Dominick the father of the Dominicans it is reported that when his mother was with childe of him she dreamed that she brought forth a Wolf with a fire-brand in his mouth and he prooved accordingly Ezek. 21.31 Habac. 1.2 3. a bruitish man skilfull to destroy to devour the man more righteous then himself by his bloody inquisitors I pray that God would deliver his turtle from these savage creatures that he would cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land Ezek. 34.25 that the beasts of the land may no more devour them vers 28. Verse 13. And I will visit upon her the dayes of Baalim That is I will punish the sins committed in those dayes wherein they went after those multitudes of Heathenish gods 30000. In Theog In Georg. lib. 1. of them Hesiod reckons up in his days And Servius upon Virgil telles us that for fear of offending any of them they used to close up their petitions with Dijque Deaeque omnes All ye gods goddesses c. Some of the Hebrews by Baalim understand Dominos domuum the Lords of the houses for the planets are said to have thir houses Oecolampadius understands it of those Idols which they worshipped under the name of the Stars called elswhere the Queen of heaven or the heavenly constellations Others by Baal conceive to be meant their chief God called also by them Baal-samen or the Lord of Heaven by Baalim their under-gods mediozuma numina inter mortales caelicolasque vectores This was Plato's Demonogy See the Note above upon verse 8. of this chapter Saint Paul is thought to have been well read in Plato's writings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 1.6 is verbùm Platoineum and to have alluded to him in that passage 1 Cor. 8.5 6. Though there be that are called Baalim signifieth Lords whether in heaven or in earth as there be gods many and lords many but to us there is but one God the Father and one Lord Jesus Christ that is but one Mediatour betwixt God and Man the Man Christ Jesus who indeed in regard of his humane nature is inferiour to the Father but yet such a Lord by whom are all things and we by him The Papists acknowledge but one God but they have many Baalims many Lords and Mediatours both of intercession and of Redemption too But
spake right there was trembling and none durst budge against him but when he offended in Baal he died Hos 13.1 then every paltry adversary trampled upon him as a dead man Sanet in Zech. 8.13 Heyl. Georg. 370. then every scurrilous Poet could insult over him and cry Credat Judaeus Appela Non ego then every common Turk could by way of execration say Judaeus sim si fallo and in detestation of a thing I would I might die a Jew then a dispersed and despised people they are none more under the cope of heaven partly for their former Idolatry but principally for their rejecting of Christ crucified whom they cannot but in their consciences know to be the Shiloh that should come sith the scepter is so longe since departed from Judah and a Law-giver from between his feet Gen. 49.10 That for their sins which are many say the Talmudists he yet hides himself in the caverns and secret places of the earth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a simple pretence or rather a subtlety of Satan to hold them still in blindnesse till God unseale their eyes till when things that are never so clere will not be beleeved Verse 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return They shall come out of the furnace more refined then ever By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away her sin when he maketh all the stones of the Altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder the groves and images shall not stand up Esay 27.9 then indeed hath Jacob the right fruit of his sufferings when he makes all the stones of the Alter as chalk-stones crumbling them to crattle when he puls down the groves and images those Balaams-blocks that lay in his way to God and now resolves to return and seek the Lord from whom they had deeply revolted to seek his face and favour to seek his ordinances true worship lastly to seek to know do what is well-pleasing in his sight Their hearts shall rejoyce that thus seek the Lord these are true converts indeed these are those sekers Psal 24.6 yea this is Jacob as there Jsraelites indeed such as cannot be whereever they are cast without God in the world without Christ Jer. 30.9 Ezek. 34.24 1 King 12.6 who is here called David by a Patronymick as also elso where no without allusion to the Apostasy of the ten tribes from the house of David so from the true God which now also they shall bewail as the root of their sin ruine and David their King Call'd by Daniel Messiah the Prince Dan. 9. Act. 3. and by Peter Christ the Lord. See Luk. 1.32 Some think he is here called the goodnesse of God They shall fear the Lord and his goodnesse which also is his glory Pavehunt ad Dominum Exod. 33.19 The Hebrew is they shall feare to the Lord trepidabunt that is trembling they shall make hast to him as frighted doves do to their columbaries See Hos 11.11 they shall kiss the Son with a kiss of homage and with reverentiall feare submit to he kingdome CHAP. IV. Verse 1. Heare the word of the Lord This is the beginning of a new Sermon or judiciall act of God against the ten tribes which are here convented convinced sentenced It begins with an Oyes like that of St. Paul Act. 13.16 Men of Israel and ye that feare God if any such be in so generall a defection give audience Ye have heard Gods mind before parabolically delivered and in types now heare it in plaine tearmes Heb. 12.25 that you may see and understand and be converted and I may heale you Heare and your souls shall live Heare him that speaketh from heaven even that excellent speaker as he is calld Dan. 10. that Arch-prophet whom ye are bound to heare Deut. 18.18 Mat. 17.5 upon paine of death Heb. 12.25 the Lord Christ I mean who speaketh with Authority and is mighty in word and deed Act. 10. He it was whom Isaiah saw upon his throne and heard speaking Job 12.41 And it is a Rule in Divinity that where the old Testament bringeth in God appearing and speaking to the Patriarches Jer. 13.18 Prophets and people it is to be understood of the second person Hear therefore and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken it Am. 3.7 The Lion hath roared who will not fear The Lord God hath spoken who can but hear and fear humble and tremble ye children of Israel But oh how altogether unlike your father Even as unlike Ezek. 34.27 as Jehoachim that degenerate plant was to his father Josiah that plant of renown His heart melted when he heard the law 2 Chron. 34. but Jehoiachim cut it with a penknife and cast into the fire Jer. 35.23 These were Israels children and named the house of Jacob as those in Micah chap. 2.7 but an empty title yeelds but an empty comfort at last Is the spirit of the Lord straitened saith the Prophet there were these Jacobs doings Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly were you Israelites indeed I should not thus lose my sweet words upon you but you would incline your ears and come unto me Esay 55.3 1 King 14.6 hear as for life it self especially since I am sent unto you as once Ahâ—jah was to Jeroboams wife with heavy tidings with such a Citation or processe from heaven as may well be unto you as Samuâ—ls message was to Eli that made both his ears to tingle or as the hand writing was to Balthasar that made his knees knock together For the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the Land The former title children of Israel was too good for them they had disgraced their fathers family and were therefore Reuben-like fallen from their dignity They shall henceforth be called the inhabitants of the Land as the wicked are called Revelation 12.12 in opposition to the heavens and those that dwell therein the Burgesses of the new Jerusalem Abraham had seed of two sorts some were as the dust of the earth Gen. 13.16 others as the Stars of heaven Gen. 15â—5 And all are not Israel that are of Israel Rom. 9.6 Multi sacerdotes et pauci sacerdotes saith Chrysostome There are many Ministers and yet but few many in name but few indeed workmen that need not be ashamed Nomen inane crimen immane It was cold comfort to Dives in flames that Abraham called him Son or to Judas that Christ called him Friend or to these rebellious Jewes that God sometimes called them his people and had rooted out the cursed Canaanites to make room for them when as they lived in Gods good Land but not by Gods good Lawâ—â— for which cause the Lord hath here a controversie with them a suit at law and being himself both plaintiffe and Judge Mals fidei possessores he is sure to cast them yea
No people under heaven like them for that Psal 147.19 But they rejected knowledge and affected ignorance they hated the light and loved darknesse better This was the condemnation the mischief of it saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who besides this wilfull ignorance that mother of mischief and main support of Satans kingdome laid down his life for the nesciencies the not-knowings of his people Heb. 9.7 and prayed for his persecutors at his death Father forgive them they know not what they do Because thou hast rejected knowledge And that out of an utter hatred of it as the Greek word made of the Hebrew signifieth out of deep disdain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as of a thing below thee and vile in thine eyes not worthy of thy pains or pursuit Wisdome is the principall thing saith Solomon and he meaneth that wisdom that hath the fear of God for its foundation therefore get wisdom It is here called hadagnath Prov. 4.5 that knowledge by an excellency and with an accent in opposition to that science falsely so called 1 Tim. 6.20 that knowledge that puffeth up 1 Cor. 8.2 as it did Ioseph Scaliger that gulf of learning for whom it had been happy that he had been ignorant but of this one thing that he knew so much It is the acknowledging of the truth which is after godlinesse as the Apostle describeth it Tit. 1.1 that perfects the best part of a man that confirmeth setleth guideth discerneth differenceth him from others who are no better then bruits though wise in their own generation as are the Fox Serpent c. and maketh his face to shine Eccles 8.1 as St. Stevens did who was taught of God and mighty in the Scriptures This holy knowledge was highly prized by Agur Prov. 30.2 but slighted by those two slubbering Priests the sons of Eli sonnes of Belial they knew not the Lord 1 Sam. 2.12 they knew him apprehensively but not affectively they professed that they knew God but in their works they denied him being abominable and disobedient and to every good work reprobate Tit. 1.16 He that saith I know him saith S. John 1 Epist 2.4 and keepeth not his Commandements is a lyar and the truth is not in him Many of these Jeroboams Priests were ignorant Asses like that Bishop of Dunkelden in Scotland who boasted yea thanked God that he never knew what the old and new Testament was and that he would care to know nothing but his Portuise Act. and Mon. fol. 1153. and his Pontifical Or that Idol-Pastour in Germany who being asked by the Visitours whether he taught his people the Decalogue answered that hee had not the Book so called Joh. Manl. loc com Others of them that knew more of Gods minde yet neither cared to practise it nor to teach transgressours Gods wayes that sinners might be converted unto him Psal 51.13 I will also reject thee And that with a witnesse with an unwonted and extraordinary rejection as the Hebrew word Vecimaseka not found elsewhere in the same forme seemeth to import God will kick such Ignoramusses out of the Priesthood Tremel in locum cast them out of the hearts of his people throw them to the dunghill as unsavoury salt yea so reject them as never to be received again Ezek. 44.13 God will shake them out from his house and from his labour Neh. 5.13 as the Tirshata did those Apostate Priests Ezra 2.63 and lay them by as broken vessels of which there is no further use taking from them even that â—hich they seemed to have Luke 8.18 and blasting their gifts See Zech. 11. ult with the Note Seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God i. e. All that holy learning which thou being a Priest oughtest to have and to hold in firme and fresh remembrance for the good of the poor people which by thy default is cut off for lack of knowledge even the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins which thou shouldest have given them Luke 1.77 not by infusion but by instruction which is the Priests proper office But thou alas hast forgotten that little of my Law that thou once hadst attained unto and art grown as very a dolt and â—otard as Theodorus Gaza once a great scholler but in his dotage so ignorant that he knew not his letters he could not read Nay thou art not onely a silly Asse but a slow-belly all thy care is for fat sacrifices and benefices thy wits are in thy belly and thy guts in thy brain hence thy forgetfulnesse of my Law and of my peoples welfare The Arabick Translation hath it thus Inasmuch as thou hast loved this and the consolation therefore I will reject and forget theâ— c. Demas forsook Paul and embraced this present world yea he became afterwards a Priest in an Idol Temple at Thessalonica as Dorotheus testifieth The Vulgar Latin Translation rendreth this Text in the Feminine gender quia obliâ—a est against all Grammar and good reason for the Lord here speaketh to the Priest and chiefly to the chief Priest qui certè foemina non erat saith Polanus who sure was no woman Unlesse the old interpreter like another Balaams-asse would have this to have been spoken against the Sea of Rome wherein Pope Joan sometime sate Anno Dom. 854. Sure it is that the Arch-priests of Rome are so delighted in the feminine gender that they had rather attribute the breaking of the serpents head to a woman the Virgin Mary then to the Man Christ Iesus for in their last Edition of the Latine Bible they print Gen. 3.15 Ipsa conteret tibi caput She shall bruise thine head c. Thus Polanus I also will forget thy children Thy spiritual children say some even that whole people who saluted their Priests as the Papists do their Padres by the name of Father and observed their institutes But they do better that understand the text of their naturall children whom God here threateneth to forget that is to put them by the Priests office as he threatned Eli. 1 Sam. 2.30 and thrust out Abiathar 1 King 2.27 four-score years after It is a dreadfull thing to be forgotten of God We take it ill to be forgotten of a friend and to be as a dead man out of mind Psal 31.12 O take heed that God forget not us and our children that he cast not off the care and keeping of us He is so liberall a Lord and doth so little forget our labour of love and patience of hope as that he provideth for the posterity of his people Psal 69.36 The seed also of the servants shall inherit it and they that love his Name shall dwell therein Who then would not â—hire himself to such a master who would not remember Gods Law and teach it others if but for his poor childrens sake who else will rue for it Vers 7. As they were increased sc in number wealth and honour Their prosperity undid them
fruit of the womb Deut. 28.11 18. Luk. 1.42 Doegs doom shall befall them Psal 52.5 God shall destroy thee for ever he shall take thee away and pluck thee out of thy dwelling place and root thee out of the land of the living Selah Yea though they bring forth as Ahab did seventy sonnes after that God had threatened his utter extirpation following the work of generation so much the rather see the note on verse 13. Yet I will slay for it is God that lets in and sets on the enemy it is he that killeth and maketh alive 1 Sam. 2.6 Even the beloved fruit of their womb Heb. their desires or their desireable ones Valete mea desideria valete Cic. ep fam l. 14. ep 2. their dearest children called by Tully also his desideria The Latines seem to have their filius a son from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved there is an Ocean of love in a fathers heart Tres vomicas tria carcinomata Sueton. though the more he loveth the lesse he is loved sometimes as David by Absalom and is sure if he belong to God to be crossed in his earthly Idol Children are certain cares but uncertain comforts they may prove as Augustus his three children did whom he called his three ulcers or cankers c. Vers 17. My God wil cast them away My God not their God for they are cast-awayes and Apostates see the like 1 Iohn 5.17 and learn to stick to God the closer when others start from him to secure our own interest in a general defection by siding with God and subscribing as here the prophet doth to his perfect righteousnesse in the rejection and destruction of reprobates Wil cast them away with disdain and detestation as vile and execrable He will do it saith the prophet here not without a great deal of grief as finding that God was fully resolved and would not alter The eternity of Israel will not he nor repent 1 Sam. 15. for he is not a man that he should repent saith Samuel to Saul that cast-away and it is very dreadful as indeed it is for any wicked men to have such as have interest in God to declare against them sith the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him Psal 25.14 and their sentence is not to be slighted Gods messengers especially out of their acquaintance with their masters proceedings can foresee and foretel a punishment Because they did not hearken unto him Haec not abilis est sententia This is a notable sentence saith Luther upon the text and worthy to be written upon all our walls and windows Death came into the world by the ear so must life for it is Hear and your soules shal live and they that will not hear the instruction of life are doomed to destruction as were Eli's sonnes 1 Sam. 2.25 and Amaziah 2 Chro. 25.16 A heavy ear is a singular judgement Esay 6.10 an uncircumciled ear a forerunner of ruine Jer. 6.10 11. O pray God to pull off that filthy foreskin and to give us an hearing ear that way to wisedom an understanding heart such as Solomon begged 1 King 3.9 Pray that he would bore our ears as Psal 40.6 and make the bore big enough that we may not onely hear but hearken listen as for life hear and give ear be not proud for the Lord hath spoken it Jer. 13.15 when God hath spoken once let us bear it twice as David did Psal 62.11 he preacht over the Sermon again to himself at home We must do with the words directions as we do with oyl to a stiffe joynt rub and chafe them on our hearts by deep and frequent meditation and prayer lest else we hear with these in the text Because they did not hearken unto him they shal be wanderers among the nations Gen. 4.12 Heb. Nodedim Cains curse shall befall them A fugitive and a vagabond shal I be upon the earth but could not wander so wide as to misse of hell nor flie so far as from his own evil conscience Lo this is the case of these wandering Jewes a disjected and despised nation exiled out of the world by a common consent of all people till God turn again their captivity as the streams in the south till he gather the out-casts of Israel CHAP. X. Vers 1. I Sracl is an empty vine Heb. an emptying vine losing her fruit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so deceiving the owner How can Israel but be empty of all good of all fruits of the spirit when he will not hearken unto God nor dwell under the droppings of a powerful ministry when he is cast off by God Chap. 9.17 who fils his people with the fruits of righteousnesse and is not a wildernesse a land of darknesse unto them Jer. 2.31 when his root is dried up Chap. 9 1â—â— Phil. 1.11 and all his juyce and strength runs out into leaves so that is frondosa vitis as the vulgar renders it a leavy vine such as are our profligate professours and carnal gospellers and such as was Saint James his solifidian that empty fellow as he calleth him Chap. 2.20 when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lastly the holy Spirit those two golden pipes Zach. 4. empties not into his candlestick the golden oyles of all precious graces as from two blessed olive branches The Vine and the olive two of the best fruit-trees grow best together saith Melanchthon If Israels heart be divided from God as vers 2. and hath not his fruit found in him as Chap. 14.8 what marvel if he prove as Nahum 3.10 empty and void and waste and though as verse 2. the Lord turn away the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of Israel for the emptiers have emptied them out and married their vine branches He beareth fruit to himself As he beareth fruit in and from himself like the ivy which though it clasp about the oak and sometimes kils it yet brings forth all its berries by virtue of its own root so he beareth fruit for himself or to himself Profit pleasure and preferment is his Trinity and corrupt self is all these in unity He fasteth to himself as those hypocrites Zach. 7.5 he prayes hears confers giveth alms c. cut of sinful self-love In all that he doth sibi soli velificatur he seeks his own ends onely as the Eagle when he flieth highest hath his eye on his prey In parabola ovis capras suas quaerit like the fish in the Gospel either he is dumb or hath nothing but silver in his mouth he is a notorious self-seeker he bears fruit to himself he sacrificeth to himself as Sejanus did As Prometheus is fabled to have stollen fire from Jupiter so the false Israelite would cozen God of heaven if he could tell how Spira confessed that he used prayer onely as a bridge to bring him to heaven and therefore he despaired of acceptance as well he might for how should God relish such sorry
Majestie God as he surmounteth all creatures and hath no parallel so he surpasseth all notion and is above all name Plutarch lib. de Isâ—d Ofâ—id The Africanes call him Amon that is Heus tu quis et Our best eloquence of him â—â— an humble filence Or if we say any thing to say as in the next verse following Iehovah God of heasts Jehovah is his momoriall and prevailedâ— Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had power or got the better Christ yeelding himself overdome by the prayers of the Patriarch for the effectuall servent prayer of a righteous man availeth much saith St. James there is a kinde of omnipotency in it saith Luther of whom also that saying passed amongst his friends Iste vir pot uit apud Deâ—â—s qnod volâ—it That man could do what he would with God The reason whereof is given by St. Hierom in these words Deus ipse qui nulliscontra se viribuâ—superari potest precibus viucitur that is God himself who is otherwise insuperable may be overcome by prayers provided that men persevere in prayer as Jacob did Invictum vincunt vota preâ—esque Deum holding out till the morning-light and growing more resolute toward the later end then he had been before He wept and made supplication Jacob did not the Angel as Mercer and Drusrus would carry it His wrestling was by weeping and his prevayling by praying Verbum preces lachryma Misera arma sunt Ecclesia We read not till this Text of his weeping for the blessing no more we do of the earthquake in Hezekiah's dayes till Amos 1. and Zach. 14. But this we know that ardent prayer is a pouring out of the soul to God not without a shower of tears or at least a storm of sighes And as musick upon the water sounds farther and more harmoniously then upon the land so prayers with tears are more pleasing to God and prevalent with him Christ could not but look back to those weeping women that followed him to the crosse and comfort them Tears of compassion and of compunction when men love and weep as Mary Magdalen did are very acceptable to God who puts them into his bottle as precious There are tears of another sort lachrimae nequitiae tears of wickednesse expressed either by hypocrisie or a desire of revenge such were Esau's tears for the blessing too Gen. 27.38 but he went without it because a profane hypocrite he cried out of discontent and threatened his brother Iacob he complained of his fathers store Hast thou but one blessing of his brothers subtilty was he not rightly called Iacob but not a word of his own wickednesse He roared for the disquietnesse of his heart but he did not as Iacob weep and make supplication to his Judge Hithchameâ— deploring his own wants and imploring the supplies of his grace quam unicè expetijt as the main thing he desired he found him in Bethel that is the Lord found Iacob there Gen. 28.18 but especially Gen. 35.14 confirming his promises to him and all his posterity there he spake with us who were then in Iacobs loyns and promised that God should be our God but we have falsified with him and turned Bethel into Bethaven abusing that place to idolatry and calf-worship where we in our forefathers had so many manifestations of divine mercy Oh better he had never spoken with us there then that we should have so slighted his promises cast his words behinde our backs and wickedly departed from our God Is this Iacob-like c. There hee spake with us What he spake with Iacob he spake with us and wee are to hold our selves no lesse concerned therein then he was See a like expression Psal 66.6 See likewise Râ—m 15.4 and Heb. 13.5 what God spake to Ioshua chap. 1.5 he spake to all Beleevers And that which he spake to his afflicted Psal 102. He will regard the prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer that he spake to us for verse 18. This shall be written for the generations to â—ome The Hebrews have a proverb Quae patribus a ciderunt signum sunt filijs What things befell the fathers those were a signe to their children and thence it is that the deeds of the fathers are oft attributed to the children Let us labour to see our own names written upon every promise and secure our interest by searching for the conditions whereunto the promises are annexed and then put them in suit by faithfull prayer saying with David Remember thy word unto thy servant whereupon thou hast caused me to trust Verse 5. Even the Lord God of hosts Lo He it is who promised who spake with us at Bethel even that Jehovah who is himself unchangeable and Almighty whose promises are eternall and infallible who will perform with his hand what he hath spoken with his mouth to the thousandth generation of those that return unto him Concerning Gods name Jehovah see the Note on Mal. 3.6 Concerning his Title God of Hosts see the Notes on Mal. 3.17 Doct. 1. The Lord is his memoriall Jehovah is that nomen majestativum as Tertullian hath it that holy and reverend name of God whereby he will be known and remembred Psal 111. Exod. 3.19 which place doth notably illustrate this True it is that the Jews to countenance their conceit of the ineffability of this name Jehovah do corrupt that Text and for this is my name Legnalam for ever they read this is my name Legnalam to be concealed Where it is well observed by One how crosse the superstition of men is to the will of God They in a pretended reverence to God will not so much as mention this name because they say 't is a name that God so much glorieth in and yet the Text saith this name is Gods memoriall it is the name by which he would be remembred to all generations as that which setteth forth his glory more then any other Name whatsoever So that when we would have a holy memoriall of God and to remember Him Tam Dei meminisse opus est quam respirare Nazianzen is every whit as needfull as to draw breath saith an Ancient we need no Images or other unwarrantable helps the meditation of the Name Jehovah and the import of it will be of singular use that way Papists have their pictures and their memories as they call them Idolaters fain to themselves diverse representations and remembrances Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrances Esay 57.8 where Gods Law should have been written according to Deut. 6.9 11.12 and when as Gods Name should have been remembred Psal 135.13 and Psal 102.12 Verse 6. Therefore turn thou to thy God The premises considered Repent and so return to God from whom thou hast deeply revolted It is to thy God to whom thou art exhorted to turn not to a tyrant but to a God in covenant yea it is with thy God as the
and tender mercies insomuch as Moses stands amazed at it and cries out Happy art thou O Israel who is like unto thee O people saved of the Lord c. Deut. 33.29 Verse 6. According to their pasture so were they filled Saturity bred security fulnesse forgetfulnesse This was a foul fault and is much complained of Deut. 32.13 14 c. Psal 78.10 11 c. Acts 14.17 God had brought them out of a place of great drought into large and fat pastures a land flowing with milk and honey where he filled their hearts with food and gladnesse where he fed them among the â—iâ—â—ies daily and daintily But they as if God had hired them to be wicked basely abused his bounty to luxury and having fulnesse of bread and abundance of idlenesse grew proud as Sodom and out of measure sinfull forgetting God and his will Ezech. 16.49 themselves and their duties and running out into all excesse of riot though they had been fairly warned and commanded to the contrary Deut. 8.10 c. Their heart grew fat as grease and became as a foul stomach which the more you fill it the more you spill it or like fed horses they grew fierce and filthy Jer. 5.7 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hippoc. there was no hoe with them See Ezek. 34 16 18 20. Whiles they were in the wildernesse God knew them yea he knew their souls in adversity They both knew God and were known of him But now God neither knew them so much nor they him they lived not upon him now as once in the wildernesse Gal. 3. but being filled yea filled you have the word here twice together to note how they fell upon those allowed delights and even glutted themselves gorg'd themselves they flew upon them as those in Sauls time did upon the spoil of the Philistines they fed without fear as those Pseudo-Christians in Jude vers 12. they gormandized as those flesh-mongers afore the floud more like beasts then men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek word signifieth Luke 17.27 And hereupon their hearts were exalted Pâ—osperity and plenty will easily blow up such a blab as pride in the best hearts if care be not taken to the contrary as Agur knew and therefore prayed Give me a mediocrity lest I be full and deny and proudly ask Wâ—â— is the Lord and as Solomon felt whose wealth did him more hurt then his wisdome did him good Eccles 2. Prov. 30.9 and as Hezekiâ—h experimented to his cost Esay 3â— â—ndeed of Iehosaphat it is noted 2 Chron. 17.3 that he walked in the sâ—st wayes of David his father for the truth is Davids first wayes were his best wayes neither was he ever so good and tender as when he was hunted as a Partridge in the mountains and of Vespasian it is storied Verspasianus unus accepto imperio melior factus that he was made the better man by being made Emperour but he was a rare bird and had scarce his fellow again It is the property of prosperity to tumour the heart and ubi uber ibi tuber See Psal 73.3 6. 1 Tim. 6.17 they eat and are swelled as being poysoned with pride they are are fatted but it is for the slaughter therefore have they forgotten me Non tam theoreticè quà m practicè they remember there is a God but they honour him not as God they forget their ingagements to him and through the pride of their countenance they seek not after him Psal 10.4 they consider not their distance their dependance c. Now of all things God cannot abide to be forgotten Esay 1.2 3. it is a sin that he can hardly pardon Ier. 5.7 c. See the Note on chap. 8.14 Verse 7. Therefore will I be unto them as a lion as a leopard c. Thus still God proceedeth to use similitudes by the ministery of his Prophets as he did before verse 3. Exod. 19.4 Dent. 32.10 11. Mat. 23.37 He here compareth himself who otherwhere is compared to an Eagle bearing her young upon her wings to a Hen hovering over chickens to a father cherishing his children c to a lion yea to an old lion which taketh the prey but seldom and therefore is more ravenous of it when taken See chap. 5.14 to a leopard or panther that diligently observeth by the way and lieth in wait for his prey and useth subtilty as not being so swift of foot confer Ier. 5.6 To a Bear robbed of her whelps Plin. lib. 10. cap. 57. Scal. exere 208. which are very dear to her To any other cruell creature verse 8. as the Tiger that flieth upon the very picture of a man and teareth it or if he cannot come at it teareth himself for anger Neither is it for nothing saith Rivet that God compareth himself here to all these together but to shew that there was no hope of escape neither could he that had avoided one danger be safe from another So dreadfull a thing is it to fall into the punishing hands of the living God Oh consider this ye that forget God least he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you Verse 8. I will meet them as a Bear bereaved of her whelps Surgit hic oratio The Bear is more cruell then the Lion for the Lion is said to spare the prostrate but the Bear falleth foul upon all yea upon dead carcasses See Amos 5.9 and confer 2 Sam. 17.8 Prov. 17.12 See also what work the two Bears made upon the two and fourty children 2 King 2. and will rent the caul of their heart The pericardium that fat heart of theirs verse 6. that hoof upon their hearts which the word could not pierce thorow that filthy fore-skin that grew to their uncircumcised hearts there will I devour them like a lion Once more like a lion ut immanis Ieo for the word is not the same as before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as a lion that is in heart and that loves to suck the blood and the fat that is about the heart There will I devour them that is in their cities and houses where they hold themselves safest as the lions dealt by those mongrell-Colonies that made a mixture of religions 2 King 17.25 the wild beast shall tear them when they but stirre any where abroad so that there shall be no safety no peace to him that goes out or to him that commeth in 2 Chron. 15.5 but crudelis ubique Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Let us therefore have grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear for even our God and not the God of the Jews onely is a consuming fire is a devouring Lion is a furious Leopard a raging Bear yea put all the dreadfulnesse of all the creatures in the world together Heb. 12.28 29 it is all to be found in the wrath of God even the quintessence of all hence that of the Psalmist Who
Heb. corrupted his compassions forgot his brotherhood banished naturall affection out of his bosome and put off all humanity The Rabbines tell us that out of the profanenesse of his Spirit Esau put away his circumcision by drawing up againe the foreskin with a Chirurgeons instrument Whether this were so or not I have not to say but that he corrupted his compassions if any ever he had violated the law of nature and abolished the bowels of a brother the brotherly covenant this text assureth us even all the affections duties and respects of blood and nature by which he was bound His grandfather Abraham could say to his nephew Lot Let there be no difference between thee and me for we are brethren Gen. 13.8 This one consideration was retentive enough cooler sufficient to his choler it was even as the Angel that stayd his hand when the blow was comming Gen. 22. It should have been so with Edom good blood would not have belyed it self But he had lost his brotherly bowels and even put off manhood he had wiped out all stirrings of good nature as a man wipeth a dish wiping it and turning it upside down as the scripture speaketh in another case 2 King 21.13 or as when a man emptieth wine out of a cup the sides are yet moist but when it is rinsed and wiped there remaines not the least tast or tincture and his anger did teare perpetually i. e. He in his anger did teare as a beast of prey Psal 14. and rage without intermission The enemies of the Church do so still such is their implacable hatred against God and his truth they eat up Gods people as they eat bread yea they tread down and teare in peeces as if there were none to deliver At the Town of Barre in France when it was taken by the Papists all kind of cruelty was used saith Mr. Fox children were cut up and the guts of some of them and hearts pulled out which in rage they tare and gnawed with their teeth The Italians likewise which served the king there did for hatred of religion break forth into such fury Act. and Mon. fol. 1951. that they did rip up a living child and took his liver being as yet red hot Erasm epist lib. 16. ad obtrectator and eat it as meat Erasmus tells of an Augustine friar who openly in the pulpit at Antwerp wished that Luther were there that he might bite out his throat with his teeh And Friar Brusierd in a conference with Bilney brake out into these angry words But that I beleeve and know that God and all his saints will take revengement everlasting on thee Act. and Mon. 914. I would surely with these nailes of mine be thy death Psal 74.19 Gen. 49.7 Pray therefore with David Deliver not the soul of thy turtle dove to these destroyers c. Cursed be their anger for it is fierce and their wrath for it is cruel and kept his wrath for ever Though himself was mortal yet his wrath might seem to be immortal as was Hanibals against the Romanes and our Edward the first against the Scots against whom being about to march he adjured his son and Nobles Dan. hist fol. 201. that that if he died in his journy into Scotland they should carry his corpes with them about Scotland and not suffer it to be enterred till they had absolutely subdued the countrey Anger may rush into a wise mans bosome but should not rest there Aug. ep 87. Eccle. 7.9 for it corrupteth the heart as vineger doth the vessel wherein it long continueth Of the Athenians it was said that their anger was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 everlasting but that was but small to their condemnation Thou shalt neither revenge nor remember ill turns Lev. 19.18 where servare is put for servare iram to keep Ar. Rhetor. l. 9. c. 1. for to keep ones anger to shew that there is nothing that a man is more ready to keep as beeing a vindictive creature Arestotle saith but absurdly that it is more manly to be revenged then to be reconciled and this the world calleth manhood but indeed it is doghood rather The manlier any man is the milder and more mercifull as David 2 Sam. 1.12 And Julius Caesar when he had Pompey's head presented to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6.7 wept and said Non mihi placet vindicta sed victoria I seek not revenge but victory And the Apostle purposely disgraceth revenge of injury by a word that signifieth disgrace losse of victory or impotency of mind Thunder haile tempest neither trouble nor hurt celestiall bodies no more doth anger great minds Edom was short-spirited soon kindled and not easily appeased his wrath kept no bounds as the word here used importeth his coales were coales of Juniper fierce and long lasting his fire not elementary but culinary nourished by low and unworthy considerations a fruit of the flesh and such as excludes out of heaven Gal. 5.20 21. It was not the passion but the habit of hatred which St. James calleth the devill Jam. 4.7 and St. Paul counselleth men not to give place to that devill and for that end not to let the Sun go down upon their wrath Ephe. 6.26 See Ezech 35.5 where Edom is charged with a perpetuall hatre and therefore threatened with blood and desolation as here Verse 12. But I will send a fire A fierce enemy ut supra The inhabitants of Teman and Bozra together with other the posterity of Esau were famous for power and policy Obad. 8.9 Ier. 49.7 Esa 34.6 But there is no wisdome might nor counsell against the Lord Prov. 21.30 31. He can make fooles and babies of the Churches enemies he can fire out their malice c. Verse 13. I will not turn away the punishment thereof Or I will not turn and reduce him to my self by repentance that I may shew him mercy as Lam. 5.22 Ier. 31.18 but harden his heart and hasten his destruction because they have ript up the women with child Immane facinus vicinis indignum saith Mercer A cruel fact and the worse because done by so neere neighbours and allyes thus to kill two at one blow and those also innocent and impotent and such as they ought to have spared by the law of nature and of nations and all this meerely out of covetousnesse and ambition That they might enlarge their border but first root out the little ones that else might hereafter claime and recover their fathers possessions So at the Sicilian vespers they ript up their own women that were with child by the French that no French blood might remaine amongst them See the Note on Hos 13.16 and learn to detest covetousnesse that root of all evill 1 Tim. 6.10 Better converse with a Canibal then with a truly covetous caytiffe and more curtesie you may expect Verse 14. But I will kindle a fire c. with mine own hands not only
evill-gotten goods witnesse against them and eat their flesh as it were fire Jam. 5.3 till very Philistines and Egyptians cry shame on them and say as the Indians did of the cruel Spaniards that they carried themselves neither like Christians nor men but like devils that it had been better the Indies had been given to the devils of hell then to them and that if the Spaniards went to heaven when they were dead they would never come there Let no man think to thrive violentiâ vastitate by rapine and robery to treasure up sin is to treasure up wrath Rom. 2.5 which as a fire will devoure their palaces and it shall not be quenched Ier. 17.27 Verse 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord And he saith it in great hast and heat as appeareth by that concise kind of expression that he here useth after the manner of those that are through-angry Aposiopesis ut Ques ego c. and therefore say not much but meane to do the more an adversary round about the land A distresser at every corner that as all the borderers have beheld thy wickednesse so shall they thy wretchednesse by reason of the enemy and the avenger who shall meet thee at every turne and leave thee neither hope of better nor place of worse and he shall bring down thy strength from thee Thee in the feminine gender At for Atta ex â—â—agna perturbatione Chiskuni haply because they should be so infeebled and impoverished Or else to expresse the heat of Gods anger against them as Num. 11.15 where meek Moses being in a great passion of anger and grief together saith to God If Thou in the feminine deale thus with me kill me I pray thee out of hand c. he was so out of measure moved that he could not fill up his speech nor utter the last syllable thy strength Thy strong-holds or thy riches those treasures of wickednesse wherein thou trustest Prov. 10.2 and verse 15. The rich mans wealth is his strong city It is called his strength because he confideth in it 1 Tim. 6.17 and because he is enabled by it to bring about his designes and thy palaces shall be spoyled They shall be blown up because their foundation was laid upon fire-works their morter mixt with blood their materials raked together by rapine and robbery their furniture and those ill-gotten goods therein hid and hoarded shall be given hosti non haeredi not to thine heire but to thine enemy for a booty An inheritance may be hastily gotten at the beginning but the end thereof shall not be blessed Prov. 20.21 As the partridge sitteth on egges and hatâ—â—eth them not so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the middest of his daies and at his end be a foole Jer. 17.11 A poor foole God will make of him ere he hath done with him as he did of Balaam Achan Ahab Gehezi the rich man Luk. 12. and 16. Verse 12. As the Shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the Lion by a countrey-comparison as before oft the Prophet sets forth the fewnesse of such as shall escape the enemies hands 1 Sam. 17.35 Is it but a little that a shepherd dare pull out of the jawes of a Lion Few Davids or Lysimachusses that dare look such fierce creatures in the face Something a shepheard in this case may adventure to do that he may not be made to stand to the loss Exod. 22.13 Gen 31.39 But it is not much quibus non est lectus integer Tarnou Kimchi neither are they many that shall make escape and those few shall be of the poorer sort too that have scarce a corner of a bed to lye on or such as are sick-abed and not cared for by the enemy not counted worth the killing Or such as are in good health but glad to hide themselves for feare of the enemy under any bed or bench-hole as is usuall in the sack of a city and in Damascus in a couch Or in the corner of a couch Now Samaria and Damascus are joyned together because they were both desolated about the same time by the same enemy and for the same cause viz. their invading Judaea in an hostile manner 2 King 16.7.9 Esay 7.4 See the like Esay 8.4 and 17.3 Verse 13. Heare ye and testisie c. ye my Prophets and all true beleevers The Septuagint add ô ye Priests whose lips were to preserve knowledge and to present it to the People All that were thereunto commissionated by the Lord God the God of Hosts are here straightly charged to heare and to charge testify or contest See 2 Tim. 4.1 and what they have received of the Lord to deliver the same to the whole house of Jacob not stealing away the word from them Jer. 23.30 or shunning to declare unto them his whole counsell Act. 20.27 but faithfully handling the law Ier. 2.8 Verse 14. That in the day that I shall visit c. Tell them so from me saith God say to these wicked Wo be unto them it shall be ill with them Esay 3.11 The jelous Lord of Hosts will surely visit the iniquity of Idolatrous fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generation Exod. 20.5 See Ier. 3. Ezek. 16. Hos 2. As they have their day of defection so hath He of Visitation his season his harvest for judgment Mat. 13.30 What then will they do when God riseth up and when he visiteth what will they answer him Iob. 31.14 I will also visit the altars of Bethel At first there was but one altar 1 King 12.32 33. and 13.2 but afterwards they multiplied as in Peters at Rome there are said to be now above an hundred altars Hos 8.11 and 10.1 there is no end of will-worship but like the Ierusalem-Artichoke plant it where you will it over-runs the ground and choakes the Heart Now as God loved the gates of Zion where he was solemnly worshipped more then all the dwellings of Jacob Psal 87.2 and as the walls of good people whose houses are little churches are continuall before him Esay 49.16 So he heartily hateth places and monuments of Idolatry and layeth them wast as he hath done our Abbeys and Monasteries Zisca overthrew three hundred of them in Bohemia and among the rest the famous Monastery called the Kings-Court a mile from Prague Zisca 's life by Mr. Clark in the walles whereof the whole Bible was most exquisitely written in letters of gold but little read or regarded by those filthy Abbey-lubbers of whom Luther testifieth that they were tam desperatae malitiae c. so desperately debauched that they durst adventure upon any villany whatsoever and the hornes of the altar c. which were held the holier parts thereof This was fulfilled by good Iosiah many yeares after 2 King 23.15 2 Chron. 34.4.6 Nullum tempus occurrit Regi Time can be no prejudice to Gods proceedings neither is his forberance any quittance Verse 15. And
Philosophers say that before a snow the weather will be warmish when the wind lies the great raine falles and the faire weather made before him till the instant that he was drowned in the sea Nebuchadnezzar Herod and other tyrants were smitten in the height of their pride and ruffe of their iollity Jerusalem had three yeares great plenty before her last destruction of which some interpret this Text. Those seven once flourishing Churches of Asia how glorious and resplendent were they till they had sinned away their light The same might be said of many others and who knowes how soon it may be said also of us who knowes whether we be not even now upon the very Tropikes and turning-points of time Surely Gods patience towards us quò diuturnior eò minacior the longer it lasteth the more evill is toward us if we abuse it If in a land of light we love darknesse better then light we may soon have enough of it Solem in Britannia non occidere nec resurgere retulii Tacitus In vit Agricol Tacitus telleth us that at some time of the yeare the Sun seemeth neither to rise nor fall in this country but so lightly to pass from us in the night that you can scarce discern day from night Of England for this many yeares it may be said as Solinus doth of the Rhodes Polyhistor that it is semper in Sole sita ever in the Sun How long it shall be so He alone knowes that knowes all Walk whiles ye have the light and pray that God would discloud these gloomy dayes with the beames of his mercy and not cause our Sun to go down at noon nor our land to be darkened in the clear day Oh stop this Sun of righteousnesse posting as it may seem from us when the blind man cried lustily Jesus though journying stood still stay him by your importunities as those two did at Emaus and say Vespera jam venit nobiscum Christe maneto Extingui lucem nec patiare tuam Verse 10. And I will turn your feasts into mourning Whether your idolatrous feasts and temple-musick whereby you vainely conceit to be secured from danger saying Is not the Lord amongst us what evill can come unto us Or your common feasts whereat you have songs to cheer you up and so to put sorrow from your hearts and evill from your flesh nourishing your selves as in a day of slaughter or good cheer Jam. 5.5 All shall be turned into mourning funerall mourning see ver 3. and I will bring up sack-cloth upon all loynes for a token of your great grief as the custome then was and is still for mourning-weedes The Hebew word sack is the same in almost all languages which sheweth that the Hebrew is the mother of all the rest saith Mercer and baldnesse upon every head you shall pull off your haire for grief Or because they had learned of the Heathens their neighbours in token of lamentation to shave their heades Ezech. 7.18 Jer. 48.37 and beards too Isa 15.2 which yet was forbidden them to do Lev. 19.27 and 21 9. unlesse it were to shew their sorrow for sin Esa 22.12 and I will make it as the mourning of an only son which was very bitter Jer. 6.26 Zech. 12.10 The losse of a loving yoke fellow is more grievous then that of a son but to father and mother together nothing more bitter then luctuosa foecunditas Laeta's case in Hierome to bury many children and especially to bury all in One and the end thereof as a bitter day Thereof that is either of that land or of that lamentation there shall be bitternesse in the end So the Poet Nunc amara dies noctis amarior umbra est Tioul lib 2. Omnia jam tristi tempora felle madent How could it be otherwise then extream bitter with this people when heaven and earth conspired to punish them neither had they the good word of God called the word of his patience Rev. 3.10 written on purpose that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 that out of those breasts of consolation we might suck and be satisfied Esa 66.11 to succour them and keep from swooning Psal 119.92 And this was the greatest plague of all the rest and is therefore reserved to the last place deterrima tanquam colophon as a most sad catastrophe Verse 11. Behold the dayes come Behold it for it is a just wonder the Lord createth a new thing in the earth when Israel should want the word Israel to whom were committed the oracles of God Israel to whom God had spoken by the mouth of his holy Prophets which had been since the world began Luc. 1.70 in a sweet succession See my True treasure pag. 3.4 He made known his wayes to Moses his acts and monuments to the children of Israel Psal 103.7 Yet even these who had the cornu-copia of Gods word shall now suffer a famine of it they shall have cause to â—ry out We see not our signes there is no more any Prophet neither is there amongst us any that knoweth how long Psal 74.9 the word of God shall be pretious 1 Sam. 3. and they shall be hard put to 't to come by it Amaziah and his complices shall not need to pack away the Prophets as chap. 7.12 and to bid them go preach elsewhere the law shall be no more the Prophets also shall find no vision from the Lord Lam. 2.9 that I will send a famine in the land Heb. I will let it out sc out of my treasury of plagues where I have it ready and desirous to be a broad and turn it loose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuag which before I kept up as a wild beast that it might not hurt nor destroy in all mine holy mountaine now it shall out amongst you and the devill with it Rev. 12.12 with hell at the heeles of it not a famine of bread though that 's very grievous Lam. 1.11 19. and 2.12 20. and 4.4 9. and 5.16 and puts people to many hard straits and extremities as were easie to instance even to the eating of one another nor a thirst for water a torment more intolerable then the former Lysimachus to save his life parted with his kingdom for a draught of water But of hearing the word of the Lord which is pabulum animae the souls proper food such as she cannot live without but when God seeth his oracles vilipended and lying under the table 't is just with him to call to the enemy to take away It was so with those seven churches of Asia among many others as also with those of Africa that vast Continent thrice as large as Europe in all which there is not any region intirely possessed by Christians but the kingdom of Habassia for as for the large region of Nubia which had from the Apostles time as 't is thought professed the Christian faith it hath again
choice young men best able to endure thirst a long season shall faint for thirst Heb. shall be over-covered with grief shall be troubled and perplexed shall faint and swoon shall find by experience that all flesh is grasse and the glory thereof as the flower of the field that even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Esa 40.30 31. Verse 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria i. e. by the calfe set up at Bethel not farre from Samaria This calfe is called the sin or guilt of Samaria Esa 40.6 7. to shew the abomination of it for which cause also Paul cals it sinful sin Rom. 7.13 as not finding for it a worse Epithite and Antichrist for like cause he calleth That man of sin 2 Thess 2 3. to note him Merum scelus saith Beza meerly made up of sin Now to swear by this of Samaria was to deifie it to swear by any thing besides the true God is to forsake him Jer. 5.7 which is an hateful wickednesse Jer. 2.12 13. as in Papists who familiarly swear by their Hee-Saints and She-Saints and so sacrilegiously transferre upon the creature that which pertaineth to God alone and say Thy god O Dan liveth God onely liveth to speak properly 1 Tim. 6.17 but to say that Dan's Deunculus lived being no better then a dumb and dead idol and to sweat by the life of it Spec. Eurâ—p as the Spaniards do now in the pride of their Monarchy by the life of their king this is horrible impiety As for that of Abigail to David 1 Sam. 25.26 Now therefore my Lord as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth the former was an oath the latter was not an oath but an asseveration or obtestation onely conjoyned with an oath and the manner of Beersheba liveth that is the formes and rites of worshipping in Beersheba another nest of idolatry Chap. 5.5 and Hos 10.13 as the Chaldee paraphraseth it Durandus hath written the Romish Ritual the way of worship used in that Synagogue of Satan Mercer rendreth it Vivet peregrinatio Beerseba the way or passage of Beerseba liveth Beerseba had an idol and was the way to Dan and Bethel hence this superstitious oath drawn out to the full length By the sin of Samaria by the god of Dan and by the manner of Beersheba like as the great Turk Mahomet promising his souldiers the spoyle of Constantinople for three dayes together if they could win it for confirmation of his oath solemnly swore by the immortal God and by the four hundred Prophets by Mahomet by his fathers soul by his own children Turk hist 345. and by the sword wherewith he was girt faithfully to perform whatsoever he had to them in his proclamation promised even they shall fall and never rise up again Fall fatally ferally irrecoverably as old Eli did when his neck was broken but first his heart The ten tribes for their idolatry and contempt of the word never returned out of captivity From the famine foretold what could follow but irreparable ruine though for a time they might flourish See Prov. 29.1 with the note Of that spiritual famine let us be most impatient and say as Luther did I would not live in Paradise without the word but with it I could make a shift to live in hell it self CHAP. IX Verse 1. I saw the Lord This Seer Chap. 7.12 saw the Lord in a vision for otherwise God is too subtile for sinew or sight to seize upon him We cannot look upon the body of the Sun neither can we see at all without the beams of it so here standing upon the Altar Or firmly set sc to do execution upon that Altar sc that idolatrous Altar at Bethel fore-mentioned and formerly threatned by another Prophet 1 Kin. 13.1.2 The Rabbines say God was seen standing upon that Altar as ready to sacrifice and slay the men of that age whose idolatries and other impieties he could no longer bear with And hence it is haply that he is brought in standing like as Act. 7.55 Jesus at Stevens death was seen standing at the right hand of God where he is usually said to sit Stat ut vindex sedet ut judex And he said sc to the Angel that stood by Zeck 3.7 or to the enemy commissionated by him or to some other creature for they are all his servants Psal 119.91 neither can he want a weapon to tame his rebels with smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake Smite with a courage as Ezeck 9. Angels give no light blowes Behold the Lord the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terrour and the high ones of stature shall be hewen down and the haughty shall be humbled Esa 10.33 34. And he shal cut down the thickest of the forrests with iron and Lebanon shal fal by a Mighty one that is by an Angel shall he smite to the ground that mighty army which was like a thick wood see Esai 37.36 Psal 78.25 and 89.6 So at our Saviours Resurrection an Angel in despite of the souldiers set to watch rolled away the grave-stone and sat upon it And as a mighty man when he sitteth down shaketh the bench under him so did He shake the earth and for fear of him the Keepers did shake and became as dead men Mat. 28.2 4. Down with this Idol-Temple down with it saith God here even to the ground and cut them in the head al of them cleave them down the middle so that every post may be sure to fall being divided from the top to the bottom and let this act be a signe to them all of what I intend to do to their persons as many of them as by this gate have entred into this Idol-Temple and Altar A deep cut in the head is dangerous and deadly Gen. 3.15 Psal 68.22 and I wil slay the last of them I by mine agents and instruments as afore for it is but one hand and many executioners that God slayes men with Job could discern Gods arrowes in Satans hand and Gods hand on the armes of the Sabaean robbers The sword is bathed in heaven before it is embrewed in mens blood Isai 34.5 The Lord killeth and maketh alive saith holy Hannah 1 Sam. 2.6 He that fleeth of them shall not flee away See chap. 2.14 with the Note and say Behold the severity of God Rom. 11.12 Verse 2. Though they dig into hell c. No starting-hole shall secure them from the wrath of God and rage of the creature set a work by him Hell and destruction are before the Lord Prov 15.11 yea hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering Job 25.6 He hath a sharp eye and a long hand to pull men out of their
of prayer This therefore Jonah having prayed and perceiving that he was heard and by the goodnesse of God preserved safe in body and sound in mind he growes strong in faith Rom. 4. giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that he should yet walk before him againe in the land of the living out of the fishes belly where though he might seem buried alive and free among the dead yet he enjoyed Gods gracious presence and those strong consolations that made him live in the very mouth of death and say in effect as blessed Bradford did Act Mon. fol. 1476. I thank God more of this prison and of this dark dungeon then of any parlour yea then of any pleasure that ever I had For in it I find God my most sweet God alwayes Verse 2. And said I cried by reason of mine affliction His lips did not move in affliction like a creaking doore or a new cart-wheele with murmuring and mutinying against God and men Psal 73.9 he set not his mouth against heaven as the howling wolf when hunger-bit neither did his tongue walk through the earth cursing the day of his birth Lam. 3.29 and cutting deep into the sides of such as were meanes of his misery But putting his mouth in the dust if so bee there might be hope he cried by reason of his affliction The time of affliction is the time of supplication no time like that for granting of suites Zech. 13.9 Gods afflicted may have what they will of him then such are his fatherly compassions to his sick children he reserveth his best comforts for the worst times and then speaketh to the hearts of his people when he hath brought them into the wildernesse Hos 2.13 This Jonah experimented and therefore said I cried out of mine affliction unto the Lord. Ad Dominum asslicto de pectore suspirando And he heard me How else am I alive amidst so many deaths here 's a visible answer a reall return Oh blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me Psal 66.20 Surely as the cloud which riseth out of the earth many times in them and insensible vapours falleth down in great and abundant showers so our prayers which ascend weak and narrow return with a full and enlarged answer This was but a pittifull poore prayer that Ionas here made as appeares ver 4. and so was that of David Psal 31.22 For I said in mine hast I am cut off from before thine eyes Neverthelesse thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee It would be wide with us if God should answer the best of us according to our prayers yea though well watered with teares sith Ipsae lacrymae sixt lacrymabiles c. we had need to weep over our teares sigh over our sobs mourne over our griefs c. Jonah was so taken with this kindnesse from the Lord his God that he repeates it and celebrates it a second time out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardest my voice The whales belly he calleth hels-belly because horrid and hideous deep and dismall Thence he cried as David did De profundis and was heard and delivered Yea had hell it self closed her mouth upon a praying Jonah it could not long have held him but must have vomited him up A Mandamus from God will do it at any time Psa 44.4 and what cannot faithfull Praier have of God there is a certaine omnipotency in it said Luther Verse 3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep A graphicall description of his wofull condition which yet he remembreth now as waters that are past and is thankfull to his Almighty Deliverer See the like in David Psa 116.3 and learn of these and other Saints to acknowledge the uttermost extremity of a calamity after we are delivered out of it For hereby thy judgement will be the better instructed and the more convinced thine heart also will be the more inlarged to admire and thy mouth the wider opened to celebrate the power wisdome and mercy of God in thy deliverance As if this be not done God will be provoked either to inflict heavier judgements or else to cease to smite thee any more with the stripes of a father and to give thee up for a lost child for thou had'st cast me into the deep Not the mariners but Thou didst it and therefore there was no averting or avoyding it Thou had'st cast me with a force as a stone out of a sling or as that mighty Angel Rev. 18.21 that took up a stone like a great milstone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence c. In the middest of the seas Heb in the heart of the sea 's so Mat. 12.40 So shall the Son of man be three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth And Deut. 4.11 we read of the heart of heaven that is the middle of it as the heart sitteth in the middest of the body as king of that Isle of Man Now if it were so grievous to be cast into the main Sea what shall it be to be hurled into hell by such an hand and with such a force into that bottomelesse gulf whence nothing was ever yet boyed up againe and the floods compassed me about Aquarum confluges The Sea whence all floods or rivers issue and whereto they return Homer calleth the Ocean 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a river by the figure Miôsis Danaeus here noteth that out of that gulf of the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iliad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which of Plato is called Tartarus that is hell the waters do flow into the veines of the earth as it is Eccles 1.7 losing their saltnesse in the passage Here Jonah cried out as Psa 69.1.2 Save me O God for the waters are come in unto my soule I fink in deep mire where there is no standing I am come into the deep waters where the floods overflow me It was onely his faith that held him up by the chin and like blown bleathers bore him alost all waters all thy billowes and thy waves passed over me All so it seemed to Jonah that God had powred out all his displeasure upon him but he sufâ—ereth not his whole wrath to arise against his people neither remembreth iniquity for ever Thy billowes or surges not the seas but thine God seemed to fight against Jonah with his own hand David likewise in a desertion complaines that all Gods waves and floods were gone over him Ps 42.7 In this case for it may be any ones case let us do as Paul and his company did in that dismall tempest Act. 27. when they saw neither sun nor star for diverse dayes and nights together cast anchor of hope even beyond hope and then wait and wish for day God will appeare at length and all shall clear up he will deliver our soules from the nethermost hell Vers 4. Then I said I am cast
holy violence as Tertullian saith the good people of his time did The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much but then it must be the working stirring labourfull prayer as the word signifieth that strives and struggles and straines every veine in the heart as Elias seemed to do by that posture in prayer of putting his head betwixt his leggs 1 King 18.42 that sets awork all the faculties of the soule and all the graces of the spirit that stirrs up dust as Jacob did maketh a man sweat as our Saviour who being in an agonie prayed the more earnestly Luk. 22.44 not without strong crying and teares and was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7 For such a prayer when a man cryes to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mightily or with all his strength 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it availeth much it can do any thing as Paul using the same words saith I can do all things through Christ who streng theneth me Philip. 4.13 Yea let them turn every one from his evill way c. For else Prayer profits not Humiliation is to no purpose without Reformation Repentance for sin without repentance from sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there must be fruits meet for repentance answerable to amendment of life tantamount as repentance and that weigh just as much as it for Optima aptissima poenitentia est nova vita saith Luther the best and truest repentance is a new life and if gods people will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and withall turn from their evill wayes then he will do much for them 2 Chron. 7.14 and from the violence that is in their hands Heb. In the hollow of their hands where it lay hid as it were but not from God who here bids them turn from their wrong-dealing and rapacity This was their speciall sin ut in magnis imperijs emporiis magnae sunt rapinae therefore are they charged to relinquish it It is a speech saith Mercer like to that of our Saviour Go tell my Disciples and Peter c. Tell them all but be sure you tell Peter So here turn from all your evill wayes but especially from the violence that is in your hands See Es 59.6 Ezech. 23.27 Psal 7.4 The Hebrewes understand this text of restitution to be made of evill-gotten goods or wrongfully deteined from the right owners This say they must be done or the party can be no more renewed by repentance then a man could be legally purified by the washing of water when he continued to hold in his hand an unclean thing That of Austin is well known The sin is not remitted till that which hath bin ill-gotten from another be restored And that of Father Latimer Non remittitur peccatum nisi restituatur ablatum Aug. Restore or else you will cough in hell and the Devils will laugh at you Gravell in the kidneys will not grate so upon you as a little guiltinesse in this kind will do upon your consciences The same Latimer tells us in a sermon of his afore K. Edw 6. that the first day that he preached about Restitution there came one and gave him twenty pounds to restore the next time another and brought him in thirty pounds another time another gave him two hundred pounds ten shillings The Law for restitution see Num. 5.6 7. the party must not only confesse but restore or he is not a true convert And this will well appeare when death comes to draw the curtaine and looke in upon a man Hence our Henry the 7. in his last will and testament after the disposition of his soul and body Speed 995. Turk hist fol. 767. he willed restitution should be made of all such monies as had unjustly been levied by his officers And the like we read of Selymus the grand Signiour in the Turkish history Verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent This is the speech of one that doubteth and yet despaireth not like that of David praying for his sick child Who can tell whether God will be gratious to me that the child may live 2 Sam. 12.22 We are staggering saith Saint Paul but not wholy sticking 2 Cor. 4.8 They that go down to the pit of despaire as well as of the grave Es 38.18 cannot hope for thy truth but are hurried headlong into hell as the Gergesites swine were into the sea The Prophet Jonah was peremptory that by such a day Niniveh should be destroyed These men therefore had good reason to doubt if not of the pardon of their sins yet of the saving of their city All their hope is that this that Jonah denounced was not Gods absolute decree but onely his threatening and that conditionall too viz. except they repented This if they could do and heartily they knew not but that mercy might be yet had Keep hope in heart or the work will go on heavily Psal 43. ult Hope is the daughter of Faith but such as is a staff to her aged mother See the Note on Ioel. 2.14 Of God repenting I have spoken elsewhere Verse 10. And God saw their works i. e. He noted and noticed them to others Or he saw them that is he approved of them Videre Dei est approbare Let God but see Repentance as a rainbow appearing in our hearts and lives and he will never drown us in destruction But unlesse God sees turning he sees no work in a fast saith One upon this very Text. God may say to impenitent fasters saith Another as Isaac did to his father Behold the fire and wood but where is the lamb Or as Jacob did concerning Joseph Here 's the coat but where 's the child Get thee behind said Jehu to the messengers what hast thou to do with peace Confessions and humiliations are our messengers but if the heart be not broken if the life be not amended what peace The Talmudists note here that God is not said to have seen their sack-cloth and ashes but their repentance and works those fruits of their faith truth in the inward parts which God eyeth with singular delight Ier. 5.3 as the work of his own spirit Eph. 8.9 August Certum est nos facere quod facimus sed ille facit ut facimus and he is pleased to call his grace in us our works for our incouragement in well-doing and freely to crown it in us without any merit on our part That they turned from their evill way To which they were by nature and ill custome so wedded and wedged that they could never have been loosened but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of heaven The conversion of a sinner from the evill of his way is Gods own handy-work Jer. 31.18 2 Tim. 2.25 Ezech. 6.9 Plato went three times into Sicily to convert Dionysius the tyrant and could do no good on him Polemo of a drunkard by hearing Xenocrates is said to have become a Philosopher But what saith Ambrose to
Or revileth the father Menabbe◠be-Nabals him beknaves him of Nabal comes Nebulo turpitudine afficit bespatles him vilifieth him This is monstrous wickednesse Mal. 1.6 and a sure signe the devil hath set his limbs in a man that is thus unnaturall fierce traiterous heady high-minded which yet is foretold of these dregs of times these last and worst dayes both by our Saviour Mat. 10.21 35 36. and likewise by St. Paul 2 Tim. 3.3 4. Such a sonne was He who when his father complained that never father had so undutifull a child as he had Yes Full. holy State said his sonne with lesse grace then wit my grandfather had Such a sonne was Ham and Absalom and Amida son of Muleasses King of Tunes Turk hist 745. who cast his father out of his Kingdom and put out his eyes and Henry Speed eldest sonne to our Henry 2. who rebelled against his father and died before him of a fever and a flux with excoriatiation of the bowels And lastly Adolphus Egmondanus Cominaeus who imprisoned his own fater six yeers for no other cause but for living so long and keeping him from the Dukedome of Gelderland The daughter riseth up against her her mother As Mr. Fox mentioneth some that witnessed against their own parents here in Q. Maries dayes and were a means of their Martyrdome A mans enemies are the men of his own house See Mat. 10.36 with the Note and take our Saviours counsel there Be ye wise as serpents innocent as doves but beware of men yea of the men of your own house Fide Deo soli mortali fidito nulli Fallunt mortales fallere Jova nequit Verse 7. Therefore will I look unto the Lord Therefore inasmuch as there is no faith nor fair-dealing amongst men I will look unto the Lord look wishly and intently as a watch-man in his watch-tower doth look as farre as ever he can see on every side I also will lift up mine eyes unto those hills of heaven from whence cometh my help Psal 121.1 I will pray and look up Psal 5.3 I will keep close communion with the Lord and by faith commit the keeping of my soul to him in well-doing as unto a faithfull Creatour 1 Pet. 4.19 This I will do and yet more then this I will wait for the God of my salvation If he tarry I will wait for him because he will surely come Rev. 13.10 14.12 Psal 119. he will not tarry Hab. 2.3 This is the voice of faith and here is the faith and patience of the Saints God sometimes lies off and stayes long even till our eyes even fail with looking for his salvation and all to try what we will do as Samuel tried Saul who because he stayed not out his just time lost his kingdom David waited for for the kingdom and had it not till he had learned to quiet and behave himself as a child weaned of his mother Psal 131.2 Those in Esther waited for deliverance and had it not till almost forsaken of their hopes I have waited for thy salvation O Lord saith dying Jacob and I will wait for the God of my salvation Gen. 49. saith our Prophet here for a president to all the good souls of his time Let us but consider our distance from God in worth and degree together with our dependance upon him our undone condition without him how long he waited for us how he hath hitherto helped us as 1 Sam. 7.12 and now seems to say unto us Joh. 13.7 as he did once to Peter What I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter and we shall be content to wait as here and to say My God will hear me According to my faith and his own faithfulnesse The whole force of faith consisteth in this saith Luther Vt quis benè applicet pronomina that a man will apply pronounes Luth. in Gal. 1. that he can fiducially say My God and will hear me Were it not for this word of possession mine the devil might say the Creed to as good purpose as we He beleeveth there is a God and a Christ and such a Christ as is there described but that which torments him is he can say my to never an Article of the Faith Time was when Christ heard the devil begging that he might enter into the swine but he could not say My God hath heard me Let us secure our interest in God let us individuate Christ and appropriate him to our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a particular faith and then all shall be well with us Verse 8. Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy Here 's the triumph of faith in the fail of outward comforts in the middest of the worlds insultations and irrisions Ne laeteris de me O daughter of Babylon that art to be destroyed thou that art victrix gentium captiva vitiorum as Austin said of Rome in her pride thou that for present carriest the ball upon the foot and none can come neer thee Rejoyce not against me as forlorn and hopelesse say not This is Zion the outcast whom no man seeketh after Jer. 30.17 For assure thy self The right hand of the Lord will change all this and Flebile principium melior fortuna sequetur When I fall I shall arise Because fall I never so low I cannot fall below the supporting hand of God which will help me up againe Psa 37.24 The wicked fall and never rise Am. 8.14 they shall drink of the cup of Gods wrath and be drunken and spue and fall and rise no more Jer. 25.27 their carcasses shall fall as dung upon the open field and as the handfull after the harvest-man and none shall gather them Jer. 9.22 This is fearfull If Haman fall before Mordecai the Jew he shall not easily stop or step back Esth 6.13 A Jew may fall before a Persian and get up and prevaile But if a Persian or other persecutor begin to fall before a Jew he can neither stay nor rise There is an invisible hand of Omnipotency that strikes in for his own and confounds their opposites when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me He can lighten the greatest darknesse as he did the dungeons to the Martyrs Acts mon. 857. From the delectable Orchard of the Leonine dungeon so Algerius an Italian Martyr dated his heavenly Epistle I am now in the Bishop of Londons Cole-house saith Mr. Philpot a dark and ugly prison as any is about London but my dark body of sin hath well deserved the same and the Lord now hath brought me into outer darknesse that I might be the more lightned by him as he is most present with his children in the middest of darknesse And in his letter to the Lady Vane I thank the Lord Ib. 166 saith He I am not alone but have six other faithfull companions who in our darknesse do cheerfully sing hymnes and praises to God
striving as they say the toad doth to die with as much earth in their mouthes as may be till at length their Never-enough be quit with fire-enough in the bottom of hell Nenessan the Lawyer was wont to say He that will not venture his body shall never be valiant he that will not venture his soul never rich O curvae in terras animae coelestium inanes Is it nothing to lose an immortall soul to purchase an everlasting death to sink into the bottomlesse lake under this thick clay Verse 7. Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee Rent and tear thee as hunting-dogs do the beast they pursue See Esay 13.14 21. Jer. 58. and 51. The interrogation here used importeth both the certainty of the thing and their security as if no such thing could possibly befall them Suddenly therefore saith the Prophet shalt thou be surprized and spoyled by the Persians when thy city Babylon is held impregnable and boasteth of provision enough laid in for twenty years siege Security is the certain Usher of destruction as we see in Benhadads army and those Midianites Judg. 7. and the Amalekites 1 Sam. 30. and Pompeyes marching against Caesar and the French at the battle of Agincourt so confident they were of a victory that they sent to our King Henry 5. Speed 795. who was then in the field against them and gat the day to know what ransom hee would give c. Verse 8. Because thou hast spoyled many nations God loves to retaliate as hath before been oft observed to spoil the spoilers by a remnant of the people by such as were of no note and much unlikely to do such exploits Thus he spoiled these Babylonians by Cyrus and his Medes the Persians by Alexander and his Macedonians whom they so slighted that Darius in his proud Embassie to him called him his servant but himself the King of kings and Cousin of the gods So the Roman Empire was miserably rent and torn by the Gothes Vandals Hunnes Lombards people not before heard of and the Greek Empire by Turks Tartars Saracens Scythians c. taht it might the better appear haec non sine numine fieri that it was the Lords own doing who often suffers his enemies like Adoniah's guests to feast and frollick in a jocund security and promise of continued prosperity But at last when they are at the height of their joyes and hopes he confounds all their devises and layes them open to the scorne of the world and the spoyle of the remnant of the people whom they vilified because of mens blood Heb. bloods every drop whereof had a tongue to cry to God for vengeance saying Rev. 16.6 Psal 55.23 Give them blood to drink for they are worthy Oh let not bloody and deceitfull men live out half their dayes That souldier can never answer it to God that hath not a good cause and striketh not rather as a Justicer then as a souldier and for the violence of the land Heb. of the earth though principally of that land of desires the promised land and the inhabitants thereof whom he that touched touched the apple of Gods eye â—â—hon that little man in the eye that may not be medled with Zach. 2.8 of the city Jerusalem called the city by an excellency and by a better right then ever Rome was See Lam. 1.1 and Jeremies elegie there over it when captivated by these Chaldees Verse 9. Wee to him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse For there is a good covetousnesse which few are guilty of 1 Cor. 12.31 Covet earnestly the best guifts And yet shew I unto you a more excellent way Covet earnestly the best graces such as are faith hope and charity these better then gifts A shop full of barrells enrich not unlesse they be full of commodities Gifts as to heaven are but the lumber of a Christian 't is grace makes him rich toward God and of that he cannot be too covetous But the covetousnesse of the Caldeans here threatened and thundered against was of another nature It is called an evill covetousnesse and hath its name in the Originall of piercing or wounding as Joel 2.8 and fitly both in respect of a mans self 1 Tim. 6.10 and others Prov. 1.19 Am. 9.1 and here Woe to such and destruction too as Hos 7.13 The Lord to shew his just indignation against Covetous persons smiteth his fists at them as Balac did at Balaam Num. 24.10 See Ezek. 22.13 Behold I have smitten mine hand at thy dishonest gaine which thou hast made and at thy blood which hath been in the middst of thee Now lest people should object or conceive that those were but great words and that the Lord would not do so as he said or that they should deale well enough with Him therefore it followeth verse 14. Can thine heart endure or can thine hands be strong in the dayes that I shall deale with thee I the Lord have spoken and will do it to his house i. e. his family and posterity which he intends to advance but indeed undoes them by leaving them a cursed hoard of ill-gotten goods wherein they do them a greater displeasure then Joab and Gehezi did in leaving their children the leprosy for a legacy Iob speaketh chap. 15.34 as though the wicked when they set up their houses by pilling and polling by getting riches without right did but make a stack of wood and then comes a spark of Gods wrath and makes an end of all As in another place Brimstone saith He shall be scattered upon his habitation chap. 18.15 so that if the fire of Gods displeasure do but light upon it De vita Constant lib. 5. c. Thus Dioclesian that cruell persecutour had his house wholy consumed with lightening and a flame of fire that fell from heaven upon it as Eusebius tells us Add hereunto that many times there comes a son that is as good with a fork as his father was with a rake as great a spend-all as his father was a get-all that he may set his nest on high and there feather it at his pleasure see Obad 4. and secure his children like as the Eagle builds on high to save her yong from the serpent that seekes to destroy them that he may be delivered from the power of evill which he hat cause to feare from others to whom he hath been so injurious and oppressive But how will he be hid or freed from the terrours of his own guilty conscience well he may build cities with Cain and set up high towers with Phocas but what said the oracle to him Though thou set up thy strong-holds as high as heaven yet sin at the foundation thereof will soon overturn all and lay it levell with the ground Verse 10. Thou hast consulted shame to thy house c. Thou hast taken a wrong course both for thy house of the kingdome so the Persians called the kings palace Dan. 4.27 which shall be blown
shield Psal 84.11 and children have a place of refuge Prov. 14.26 Verse 16. Feare thou not why shouldest thou whilest the king of Israel is in the middest of thee Be of good cheer said Caesar to the ferriman in a storm thou canst not miscarry Caesarem enim fers fortunam Caesaris so long as Caesar is in the same bottome with thee May not the church much more gather comfort having God in her company and so many of his servants to fay to her Feare thou not True faith quelleth and killeth distrustfull feare but awfull dread it breedeth feedeth fostereth and cherisheth and to Zion let not thine hands be slack Remollescant Let not thy feares weaken but rather waken thy diligence in well-doing lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12.12 Up and be active pluck up your good hearts and buckle close to your businesse your task is long your time short your master urgent you wages unconceiveable It troubled a martyr at the stake that he should then go to a place where he should ever be receiving wages and do no more work Up therefore and be doing Be not slothfull but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises Heb. 6.12 Hippoc. Aphoris Spontaneae lassitudines morbos loquuntur faithlessnesse argueth a diseased soule Verse 17. The Lord thy God in the middest of thee is mighty Even the mighty strong God Esay 9.6 the Giant as the word signifies the champion of his church He being in the middest of thee cannot but see how thou art set upon and how many dangers and difficulties thou encounterest with and will send thee in new supplies Eph. 1.19 seasonable succour He will save This properly signifieth the privative part of mans happinesse but includeth also the positive Jesus will do all for his people He will rejoyce over thee with joy As a bridegroome doth over his bride Esa Gesti super te laetitiâ 62.5 He will take speciall complacency and content in thee being made accepted in the beloved Eph. 1.6 He will rest in his love And seek no further Heb. He will be silent in his love passing by small faults without any the least signification of his displeasure as if he were even fond over his church and did err in his love towards her as husbands are licensed to do toward their wives Prov. 5.19 Some render it obmutescet in amore suo he shall be dumb in his love so as he cannot speak through excesse of love Lovers are so transported sometimes that they cannot utter their minds He will joy over thee with singing As a father doth over his child whom he beareth in his bosome or dandleth on his knee Verse 18. I will gather them that are sorrowfull for the solemne assembly which now they cannot celebrate as being in captivity and are therefore in great heavinesse as was David Psal 42.2 3 5. Nothing goes nearer to a good heart then to be debarred the benefit of Gods holy ordinances then to heare the sabbaths mocked at by the enemies as these good soules did Lam. 2.7 and to be asked as David was Where is now thy God Psal 42.3 All outward comforts in this case are meer Ichabods When the Ark was taken Eli could live no longer that word struck him down back ward and killed him in the fall No sword of a Philistine could have slaine him more painefully neither is it easie to say whether his neck or heart were first broken who are of thee True children of the church as appeareth by their strong affections to the ordinances 1 Pet. 2.2 Luther said he would not live in Paradise without the word as with it be could easily live in hell An infant cannot be quieted with gawdes or fine cloaths without the dugg so neither cana true chirstian with any thing but the publike services the solemne assemblies to whom the reproach of it was a burden It lay heavy upon their spirits and made them send up many a deep sigh to God who heareth the breathings of his people Lam. 3.56 1 Chr. 15.26 and will restore comfort to such his mourners Esa 57.18 He that helped his Levites to bear the Ark will help those that grieve at the want of it and grone under the reproach cast upon it which they ever honoured as the face of God Psal 105.4 Yea as God himself Psal 132.5 Verse 19. Behold at that time I will undoe all that afflict thee Heb. Behold Me Look not to thy self as unworthy or unlikely to inherit such precious promises for not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord God be it known unto you but for mine own holy Names sake Ezek. 36.22 32. your unworthinesse shall serve for a foile to set forth the freenesse of my love your unlikelinesse the greatnesse of my power my grace is sufficient for thee my strength is perfected in thy weaknesse 2 Cor. 19.9 Againe look not to thine enemies how many and mighty they are how witty and wealthy how active and combined loricaâ—us incedit Satan cataphractus said Luther let thine eyes be upon me as Jehosaphats were when he knew not whither else to look 2 Chron. 20.12 let thine heart be lift up in my wayes as his was 2 Chron. 17.6 behold me behold me Esay 65.1 Look not downward on the rushing and roating streames of miseries and troubles which run so swiftly under thee for then thou wilt be giddy but look upward and stedfastly fasten on my power and promise beleeve in the Lord thy God so shalt thou be established beleeve his Prophets so shalt thou prosper 2 Chr. 20.20 thine enemies also shall be found liars unto thee and thou shalt tread upon their high places Deut. 33.29 I will undo them saith God here Heb. I will do them per Antiphrasin or I will bruise them and break them in peeces as R David rendreth it by comparing Ezek. 23.3 21. I will not only represse them but root them out Those that offer violence to the Church like blind Sampson they lay hands upon their pillars to pluck the house upon their own heads and I will save her that halteth As enemies shall not hinder the Churches happinesse so neither shall her own infirmities Grant she be lame and luxated maimed and disjoynted so that she goeth sideling and halteth down right Psal 38.17 Say she be driven out of her countrey as an exile out of all companies as an outcast whom no man seeketh after Ier. 30.17 and out of all good conceit of her self as an abject vile in her own eyes not fit for the communion of Saints or kingdome of heaven Yea I will save her I will gather her like as the gathering host in the wildernesse see Iosh 6.9 took up the lame feeble and those that were left behind See Mic. 4.6 with the Note and Ezek. 32.16 I will seek that which was lost and reduce that which was driven away c. and I will
from a blind understanding and carnall affection The Church in its infancy was inticed with shewes and shadowes but now God requires a reasonable service he calls for spirit and truth Verse 4. Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel c. Here he exhorteth all ranks first to good Affection Be strong or of a good courage Secondly to good Action Work or Be doing for affection without action is like Rachel beautifull but barren Charach unde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valeo Sept. vertunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be strong so as to prevaile and carry on the service all discouragements notwithstanding Those that will serve God in the maintenance of good causes must be couragious and resolute 1 Cor. 16.13 For otherwise they shall never be able to withstand the opposition that will be made either from carnall reason within or the World and Devill without for want of this spirituall mettle this supernaturall strength this spirit of power of love and of a sound mind 2 Tim. 4.7 opposed to the spirit of feare that cowardly passion that unmans us and expectorateth and exposeth us to sundry both sins and snares when he that trusteth in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29.25 Here then that we faulter not budge not betray not the cause of God nor come under his heavie displeasure who equally hateth the timerous and the treacherous let us 1. Be armed with true faith for Fides famem non formidat faith quelleth and killeth distrustfull feare 2. Get the heart fraught with the true feare of God for as one fire so one feare drives out another Mat. 10.28 1 Pet. 3.13 14. 1. Get and keep a clearing chearing conscience for that feareth no colours as we see in St. Paul Athanasius Luther Latimer and other holy Martyrs and Confessours 4. Think on Gods presence as here Be strong and be doing for I am with you Though David walk thorough the vale of the shadow of death that is of death in its most hideous and horrid representations he will not feare For why thou art with me saith He Psal 23.3 4. Dogs and other creatures will fight stoutly in their Masters presence 5. Consider your high and heavenly calling and say Et Turnum fugieutem haec terra videbit Virg. Shall such a man as I fly c Either change thy name or be valiant saith Alexander to a souldier of his that was of his own name but a coward Lastly look up as St. Steven did to the recompence of reward steale a look from glory as Moses Heb. 11.26 help your selves over the difficulty of suffering together with Christ by considering the happinesse of raigning together Thus be of good courage or deale couragiously and God shall be with the good 2 Chro. 19. vlt. as Iehosaphat told his Judges when to go their circuit and work Good affections must end in good actions else they are scarce sound but much to be suspected Num. 23.10 Ruth 1. Good wishes and no more may be found in hels mouth Num. 23. Orphah had good affections but they came to nothing God must be entreated to fix our quick-silver to ballast our lightnesse to work in us both to will and to doe that it may be said of us as of those Corinthians that as there was in them a readinesse to will so there followed the performance also 2 Cor. 8.12 Desire and Zeal are set together 2 Cor. 7.11 desire after the sincere milk and grouth in grace 1 Pet. 2.2 John Baptists hearers so desired after heaven that they offered violence to it Mat. 11. True affections are the breathings of a broken heart Acts 2.37 Rom. 7.23 But the desires of the slothful kill him Prov. 21.25 Virtutem exoptat contabescitque relictâ Good affections are ill bestowed upon the sluggard sith they boyl not up to the full heat and height of resolution for God or Pers at least of execution of his will The sailes of a ship are not ordained that shee should lie alwaies at rode but launch out into the deep God likes not qualmy Christians good by fits as Saul seemed to be when Davids innocency triumphed in his conscience or as Ephraim whose duties were dough-baked and whose goodnesse was as the morning-dew c. Be ye stedfast and unmoveable 1 Cor. 15. 〈◊〉 always abounding in the work of the Lord. Stick not at any part of it difficulty doth but whet on Heroick Spirits as a boule that runs down hill is not slugged but quickened by a rub in the way If this be to be vile I le be yet more vile 1 Sam. 6.22 who art thou O great mountain Before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain Zach. 4.7 And hee said unto me My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weaknesse 2 Cor. 12.9 For I am with you saith the Lord of hosts By a twofold presence 1. Of help and assistance 2. Of love and acceptance Of the first see chap. 1. verse 13. with the note there The second seems here intended The Jews were poore yet God assureth them they had his love So had the Church of Smyrna Rev. 2.9 I know thy poverty but that 's nothing thou art rich rich in reversion rich in bils and bonds yea rich in possession or All is theirs they hold all in capite they have 1. plenty 2. propriety in things of greatest price for they have God All-sufficient for their portion for their protection I am with you saith he and that 's enough that 's able to counterpoise any defect whatsoever as we see in David often but especially at the sack of Ziklag where when he had lost all and his life also was in suspence the Text saith he comforted or encouraged himselfe in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 whereas Saul in like case goes first to the witch and then to the swords point A godly man if any occasion of discontent befals him retires himselfe into his counting-house and there tells over his spiritual treasure he runs to his cordials he reviews his white stone his new name better then that of sonnes and of daughters Isay 56.5 Rev. 2.17 he hath meat to eat that the world knoweth not of the stranger meddleth not with his joy Virtus lecythos habet in malis Tua praeseutia Domine Laurentio ipsam craticulam dulcem fecit saith a Father Thy presence O Lord made the very gridiron sweet to the martyr Laurence It made the fiery furnace a gallery of pleasure to the three worthies the lions den an house of defence to Daniel the whales belly a lodging-chamber to Jonas Egypt an harbour a sanctuary to the child Jesus c. He goes with his into the fire and water as a tender father goeth with his child to the Surgeon Neverthelesse saith David I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by my right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory Again I am with you that
word Prophet be to be referred to Zechariah 2 Chr. 22.15 or to Iddo is uncertaine That there was a Prophet Iado we read and Zechary might well be of his line after many descents He is here mentioned as also Ezr. 5.1 ut nepoti suo Zachariae nomen decus conciliet for an honout to his ab-nephew Zechary according to that of Solomon The glory of children are their fathers Prov. 17.6 to wit if they be godly and religious What an honour was it to Jacob that he could sweare by the feare of his father Isaac to David that he could say Psal 116.16 2 Tim. 1.5 Truly Lord I am thy servant I am thy servant the son of thine handmaid to Timothy that he had such a mother as Lois such a grandmother as Eunice to the children of the Elect Lady to the posterity of Latimer Bradford Ioh 8.33 Mat. 3.9 Ridley and other of those men of God who suffered for the truth If the degenerate Jewes so boasted of Abraham their father how much more might Zechary no degenerate plant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no bastardly brood as they were Mat. 12.39 boast and beare himself bold on his father Berechiah the blessing of God and his grandfather Iddo Gods Witnesse Confessour or Ornament sith he trod in their holy steps and was adorned with their gifts and virtues The Papists brag much of Peter and other Apostles their founders and predecessours But this is but an empty title to talk of personall succession which yet cannot be proved unlesse they could also shew us their gifts and graces as all the world may see they cannot We read of a painter who being blamed by a Cardinall for colouring the visages of Peter and Paul too red tartly replyed that he painted them so as blushing at the lives of their successours Verse 2. The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers Heb. He hath boyled against your fathers with foaming anger with height of heate There are degrees of anger see Mat. 5.22 and Deut. 29.28 The Lord rooted them out of their land in Anger and in wrath and in great Indignation Surgit hic oratio and the last of those three words is the same here used in the text noting an higher degree then the two former even such a fervour and fiercenesse of Gods wrath as maketh him ready to kill and cut off see 2 King 6 6. and note the affinity of that word with this like as he had much adoe to forbeare killing of Moses Exod. 4. when he met him in the Inne and as Nebuchadnezzar was not only angry but very furious and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon Dan. 2.12 Now if the wrath of a king be as many messengers of death Prov. 16.14 what shall we think of the foming and frothing wrath of God which burnes unto the lowest hell and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains Deut. 32.22 After which followeth in the next verse I will heape mischiefs upon them Deut. 32.23 I will spend minc arrowes upon them c. He had done so upon the Ancestours of these refractary Jewes who had been saepius puncti repuncti minimè tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti ost punished but could never be reclaimed so incorrigibly flagitious so shamelesly so prodigiously wicked were they till there was no remedy This their vile stubbornnesse made him sore displeased with them and put thunder-bolts into his hands to destroy them For though Fury be not in God Isay 27.5 to speak properly he is free from any such passions as we are subject to yet if briars and thornes set against him in battle if a rabble of rebels conspire to cast him out of his throne saying We will not have this man to rule over us c. I would go through them I would burn them together saith he in the same breath Abused mercy turneth into fury Nothing so cold as lead yet nothing so scalding if molten Nothing more blunt then iron yet nothing so keen if sharpened The ayre is soft tende yet out of it are ingendered thunder and lightenings The sea is calme and smooth but if tossed with tempests it is rough above measure The Lord as he is Father of mercies so he is God of recompenses and it is a fearefull thing to fall into his punishing hands If his wrath be kindled yea but a little Heb. 10. Psal 2. woe be to all those upon whom it lights how much more when he is sore displeased with a people or person as here For who knoweth the power of thine anger saith Moses even according to thy feare so is thy wrath that is let a man feare thee never so much Psal 90.11 he is sure to feel thee much more if once he fall into thy fingers And this is here urged by the Prophet as a motive to true repentance sith by their fathers example they might see there was no way to escap◠the dint of the divine displeasure but to submit to Gods Justice and to implore his mercy men must either turn or burn For even our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 Verse 3. Therefore say thou unto them These Jewes saith Cyrill had neither seen their fathers wickednesses nor heeded their calamities mittitur ergo ad cos Zacharias quasi paedagogus Zachary therefore is sent unto them as a schoolmaster or Monitour that by considering what had been they might prevent what otherwise would be and redeem their own sorrowes thus saith the Lord of hosts A farr greater Lord and Potentate then that great King of Persia who was now their soveraigne True it is that they had been commanded by a former King to desist from building the city Ezr. 4.12 21. But there was no one word in that letter to forbid the building of the Temple There was also now another King set up and of another family They are therefore by this Prophet and by Haggai called upon again and again to turn to the Lord and to return afresh to their work Ezra 5.1 Wherein because they were sure to meet with many enemies therefore here and elsewhere eighteen severall times in that eight chapter there is frequent mention made of the Lord of Hosts for their better encouragement See the Note on Mal. 3.17 turn ye unto me saith the Lord of Hosts This is the great Doctrine of the Old Testament as Repent ye is of the New And this He purposely prefixeth as a preface and preparative to the other Prophesies both of Mercies and Judgements whereof the whole is fitly made up Sowr and sweet make the best sauce Promises and Menaces mixt make the most fruitsull discourse and serve to keep the heart in the best temper Hence Davids ditty was composed of discords Psal 101.1 I will sing of mercy and judgment and so be both merry and wise But to the words of the Text turn ye unto me c. By sin men run away
not as your fathers Man is a creature apt to imitate to be led more by his eyes then by his eares and children think they may lawfully Be as their fathers St. Peters converts had received their vaine conversation from their fathers as it were ex traduce or by tradition 1 Pet. 1.18 And St. Steven tells his perverse hearers that they were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as their fathers had been before them Act. 7.51 They used to boast much of their Ancestours Ioh. 8.33 and to bind much upon their example and authority Ier. 44. 17. Mat. 5.21 They thought they were not much to be blamed because they did but as their fathers had done before them The Prophet therefore dehorts or rather deterrs them from that folly serting forth both the crime and doome of their forefathers whom they so much admired and so stifly imitated and this he ost repeateth that they might once consider it and be wrought upon by thosé domestick examples have cryed Loudly and lustily Es 58.1 according to that Cry aloud spare not Lift up thy voice like a trumpet sic clames ut stentora vincas A minister should be a Simon Zelotes a son of thunder as Basil was said to thunder in his preaching lighten in his life as Hierome for his vehemency was called Fulmen Ecclesiasticum the Churches light-bolt as Harding before his shamefull Apostasy wished he could cry out against Popery as loud as the belles of Oseney and as Farellus that notable French Preacher whose voice when the envious Monks sought to drown by ringing the bells as he was preaching at Metis he lifted up his voyce adravim usque and would not suffer himselfe to be outroared The Saints-bell as they called it Pierius useth for an hieroglyphick of a preacher who must not speak the word onely but sound it out into all the earth Rom. 10.18 not preach it onely but cry it as the Apostles word signifieth 2 Tim. 4.2 clangite clamate Jer. 4.5 Boâte vociferate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boantis Vociferantis Mat. 3.3 Ministers have to doe with deafe men dead men living carcasses walking sepulchers of themselves Now therefore as our Saviour lifted up his voice when he said Lazarus come forth so must they stand over men and cry aloud awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead that Christ may give thee light Eph. 5.14 turne you now from your evil wayes c. This was the constant cry of the Prophets as here and Apostles as Acts 26.18 to open mens eyes naturally closed up that they cannot see the evill of their wayes Ier 2.35 Rev. 3.15 to turn them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan to God and from your evill doings Heb. Designes gests or exercises enterprized advisedly and prosecuted studiously of natural disposition and inclination as Prov. 20.11 and 1 Sam. 25.3 This St. Iohn usually calleth committing of sinne 1 Epist 3.4 8 9. Iohn 8.34 this is to adde rebellion to sinne Iob 34.37 impudence to impotence browes of brasse to iron sinewes Isa 48.4 This is wickednesse with a witnesse which if men could but see in its native colours and cursed consequents they would soon be perswaded to turn from it As the eye cannot but be offended with a lothsome object so neither can the understanding Take rats-bane it looketh not evil bu◠when a man feeles it boyle burn torture him c. he hates it extremely So he should doe sinne he will doe else at length when it is too late For prevention take the counsell of a Martyr get thee Gods law as a glasse to look in So shal you see your faces foul-arrayed and so shamefull mangy pocky and scabbed Bradfords serm of Repent p. 20.26 27. that you cannot but be sory at the contemplation thereof and seek out for cure Especially if you look to the tag tied to Gods law the malediction which is such as cannot but make us to cast our currish tailes between our legs if we beleeve it But O faithlesse hard hearts O Iezabels guests rocked and laid asleep in her bed O wicked wretches c. but they did not hear Though the Prophets cryed and spake loud enough to bee heard and heeded An heavie eare is a singular judgement Isa 6.10 An hearing eare a precious mercy Prov. 20.12 God must bee intreated to boare our eare Psal 40.6 and to make the boare so big that the word may enter to say as Isa 42.18 Hear ye deaf and looke ye blind that ye may see Verse 5. Your fathers where are they Is not the grave their house have they not made their beds in the dark are not they gone down to the Congregation house of all living Iob 30.23 Every man should die the same day he is born as being born a child of death the wages of sinne is death and this wages should bee paid him down presently But Christ beggs their lives for a season 1 Tim. 4.10 he is the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation but of temporal reservation But what a sad thing is it for men to dye in their sinnes as these in the Text and their Nephews did Iohn 8.21 24. How may such men on their death-beds say to their sins as Charles the fifth did of his honours victories riches Abite hinc abite longè Go Mornaeus go get you out of my sight or as Cornelius Agrippa the conjurer did to his familiar that used to accompany him in the shape of a dog Abi à me perdit a bestia Joh. Manl. loc com 136. P. Sut. de vit Caribusian quae me perdidisti Be gone thou wretched beast that hast wrought my ruine Petrus Sutorius speaks of one that preaching a funeral sermon on a religious man as he calles him and giving him large commendations heard at the same time a voice in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortuus sum judicat us sum damnat us sum I am dead judged and damned The Devill preached Sauls funeral 1 Sam. 28.19 though David made his Epitaph 2 Sam. 1. And do the Prophets live for ever Those false Prophets so Hierome senseth it that cryed peace peace to your fathers and made all fair weather before them when the fierce wrath of God was even ready to burst out upon them as an overflowing scourge But they doe better that understand it of Gods true Prophets who are dead indeed for wise men dye as well as fooles Psal 4◠10 Good men dye as well as bad Ezech. 21.4 yea good men oft before the bad Esay 57.1 but their words dyed not with them the truth of their prophesies not onely lived for ever for ever O Lord thy word is stablished in heaven Psal 119.89 but struck in the hearts and flesh of their perverse hearers like the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty throughout all eternity Haeret lateri lethalis arundo Wicked men may as the wounded Hart frisk and skip
his hair so doth the strength and glory of our land consist in the true religion and Gods sincere service which if it should be shaved and deprived of though every shower were a shower of gold saith a Divine every stone in the land a pearl every begger an honourable Senatour every fool as wise as Solomon every weakling as strong as Samson yet our wealth honour strength wisdom and glory are gone and we shall sing a doleful Miserere with Phineas his wife Ichabod The glory of England is gone for Religion is gone Verse 6. Ho ho come forth and flee from the land of the North A proclamation to those in Babylon to make hast home and come away for shame now they had so fair a way made and such free liberty given them to return A man would wonder they should be so backward to a businesse of this nature But they that were born in hell know no other heaven as the proverb is There they had lived a long season in peace and safety in a rich and fat though a forreine Countrey There they were at quiet enjoyed their religion and customs got wealth had favourites at Court and what should they trouble themselves to remove into a Countrey where they were sure to meet with many bitter enemies the Samaritans and others And who can tell whether this Proclamation of King Darius be not a designe to try their affection to their countrey and so to fall upon such as did offer to return thither Thus by casting of perils distrusting of promises and listening to that Improba Siren Desidia Antiqr Lib. 11 Cap. 4. they staid half of them at least behinde whatever Josephus hath falsly storied of 4628000. that returned the contrary whereto see Ezr. 2.64 for I have spread you abroad into the four windes And do now offer to recollect and reduce you to your own countrey See that ye shift not off Me that speak from heaven Heb. 12.25 and 2.3 See that ye neglect not so great salvation How oft is the Lord even fain to smoak us and so force us out of our clayie cottages toward our heavenly home And what ashame is it to us that a Heathen should say Fugiendum est ad clarissimam patriam Plotin apud Ang de C. D lib. 9. Cap. 16 ibi pater ibi omnia We should even flee apace to our own countrey that is above sith there is our Father there is All that heart can wish or need require Verse 7. Deliver thy self O Zion that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon q.d. Is Babylon a fit place for thee to abide in what comfort canst thou take in such lewd company Save thy self from this untoward generation Act. 2.40 Flee out of the midst of Babylon and deliver every man his soul be not cut off in her in iquity for this is the time of the Lords vengeance he will render unto her a recompense Jer 51.6.7 Shortly after this exhortation to the sons of Zion Babylon revolted from the Persians Iustin lib. 1. Herod lib. 3. and was taken and sackt by Darius in the fourth yeer of his reign that is two yeers after this Prophecy was uttered by the help of his friend Zopyrus Two thing should prevail with the people of God to shun the society of the ungodly 1. Infection of sin which is more contagious and catching then the plague Though Lot learned not the evil manners of Sodom yet his daughters did 2. Infliction of punishment Zac. 9.2 Hamath lay so nigh Damascus in places that she fared the worse for her neighbourhood See for both these Rev. 18.4 and say if at any time forced to be in bad company O that I had wings of a dove Psal 55.6 for then would I flee away and be at rest Or if this Oh will not set thee at liberty take up that Wo to expresse thy misery Wo is me that I sojourn in Meshech c. Vers 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts Sanchez referreth these words to those aforegoing q. d. Deliver thy self c. for so the Lord commandeth But herein he stands alone the current of Interpreters carrying it against him This preface seems prefixed for procuring more authority to the ensuing promise which to the poor Jews might seem incredible If Jehovah speaketh it and he that hath all power in his hand to effect what he speaketh why should any one doubt or despair After this glory i. e. these glimmerings of glory these out goings of grace begun amongst you and by degrees to be finished hath he sent me unto the Nations which spoiled you Or against the Nationâ— for it is a sending in judgement and perhaps against either the Caldeans destroyed by the Persians see the Note on verse 7. Or the Persians afterwards destroyed by the Grecians and by Alexander the Great See Esay 33.1 Now whereas some object that Christ is her said to be sent of his Father and this seems to import an inferiority It is answered First that two equals by mutuall consent may send one another Mission doth not alwayes import inequality Secondly One may be inferiour to another either by nature and so Christ is not or by condition as he is the Mediatour and as he did voluntarily abase himself and so he is Phil. 2.7 For he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye The little man that is in the eye as pupilla of pupa Or the black of the eye God Ishon of Ish It is here called Bath the daughter of the eye because it is as dear to a man as an onely daughter who at first drew light out of darknesse doth by an admirable work draw the light of the body out of the black apple of the eye Philosophers call it the Chrystalline bumour It is the tenderest piece of the tenderest part to expresse the inexpressible tendernesse of Gods love saith Salvian The eye is kept most diligently and strongly guarded by nature with tunicles A man can better beat a thultch on the backs then a touch on the eye Siquis digitum meum mordeat siquis pungat brachium crura siquis etiam duriter vulneret c. saith Calvin here If one bite my finger prick my leg or arm yea slash and wound me I can better bear it then if he thrust his finger in mine eyes Amida sonne of Muleasses king of Tunis cruelly put out his fathers eyes by holding hot burning basons before them Turk hist Robert de Behasme Earl of Shrewesbury Anno 1111. playing with his own childe Speed 473. for a pastime put his thumbe in the boyes eyes and thrust out the balls thereof We use to say Oculus fama non patiuntur joâ—os The eye and the good name will endure no jests Let persecutours take heed how they meddle with Gods eyes He is wise in heart and mighty in strength who hath hardened himself against God and prospered Job 94. Some read the text thus He
and replanted by forreiners for seventy yeers space but enjoyed her Sabbaths resting from tillage and all other employments for they laid the pleasant land desolate They by their sinnes rather then the Babylonians by their Armies did all this spoil as Daiel also confesseth chap. 9.16 and Nehemiah chap 1.8 Sin is the great make-bate hell-hag trouble-town that hurled confusion over the world at first and brings desolation still to pleasant countreys Palestins was very pleasant not more by the nature of the soil Ezek. 20. â— then by Gods speciall blessing a land that he had espied out for them flowing with milk and honey which was the glory of all lands This land they had laid desolate or for an astonishment as some render it or for an In qua quid as Montanus reads it What 's here Nothing of its old pleasantnesse CHAP. VIII Verse 1. AGain the word of the Lord of Hests As for reprehension in the former chapter so for consolation in this that they might not be discouraged or say as once they did There is no hope but lifting up the hands which hung down and the feeble knees they might go on to lay the last stone with joy To which end also no lesse then 18. severall times in this one chapter God is stiled the Lord of Hosts that resting upon Gods Power and Goodnesse whereof they are assured by many precious promises as upon the Jachin and Bozez the two main pillars of a Christians faith they might have strong consolation Came to me See the Note on chap. 7.8 Verse 2. I was zealous for Zion See the Note on chap. 1.14 Jealous as an husband zealous as a loving Father for Non amat qui non zelat saith Augustine and a Father being rebuked by some for his exceeding forwardnesse for his friend answered Ego aliter amare non didici I know not how to love any otherwise then earnestly God therefore to ascertaine his people of the truth of the ensuing promises and to cure their unbelief lets them know that all this he will do for them of his free grace without their desert As at first he loved them meerly because he loved them Deut. 7.7 8. so out of the same love he will bestow upon them all the good things here mentioned See the like Esay 9.6 7. where after a sweet description of Christ his kingdome and Benefits he concludes all with The zeal that is the tender love and free grace of the Lord of Hosts will performe this Feare ye not So 2 Sam. 7. 21. For thy words sake that is for thy Christs sake and according to thine own heart hast thou done all these things which thou hadst promised According to thine own heart that is ex mero motu out of pure and unexcited love or zeal which is the top of all the affections and the heate of the heart Verse 3. I am returned unto Zion After a long absence as it may seem by the late troubles and that dismall dispersion chap. 7.14 God was gone aside and returned to his place till they should acknowledge their offence and seek his face in their affliction said He they will seek me early Neither was he frustrated as appeareth Hos 5.15 with 6.1 Come and let us return unto the Lord say they Do so and then I will come againe unto you as the raine as the later and former raine unto the earth with a Cornu-copia of peace plenty and prosperity Neither this only will I do as a stranger in the land or as a way-faring man that tarrieth for a night but I will dwell in the middest of Ierusalem My Shechinaeh Ier. 14.8 or setled habitation shall be in the middest of it sc in my Temple there scituated Maimonides saith that the Hebrew word here used signifieth continuationem stationis a sure and setled abode such as was that of the God-head of Christ in his Manhood For the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word seemea to be made of this Shacan in the Text. and Ierusalem shall be called a city of truth A faithfull city Esay 1.17 A Verona rightly so called a place where the sincere service of the true God is set up and practised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in opposition to other cities such as Athens was wholy given to idolatry Act. 17.16 that went a whoring after lying vanities and so forsook their own mercies Ioh. 2.8 and the Mountain of the Lord of Hosts the holy mountaine This and the former clause may safely and fitly be extended to the holy Catholike Church of the new Testament also whereof Jerusalem and the Mount Moriah whereon the Temple stood were Figures The Rabbines themselves expect the good things here promised to be performed when their Messias shall come quem tantis vlulatibus exposcunt Verse 4. There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Ierusalem Because the Ancient of dayes the just Lord is in the middest thereof Zeph 3.5 Iam. 1.17 and he will give every good gift and perfect giving that is both Temporall and Spirituall The Fâ—ther of lights will be to His both a Sun and a Shield and no good thâ—ng will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 14.11 Godlnesse hath the promises of both lives 1 Tim. 4.8 Christ is heire of all Heb. 1.2 and the Saints are his coheires Rom. Esay 9.6 8.17 He is the everlasting father and withall the Prince of â—eace his Children and subjectâ— shall have both the upper and nether spring both the blessing of the right hand sprituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus and also of the left Riches and honour delight and pleasure life and length of dayes peace and prosperity c. Pro. 3.16 17. and 8.18 Psal 112.2 3. Deut. 28. and every man with his staff in his hand his third leg as they call it q. d. they shall live so long that they shall need a staff a servant or a son such as Scipio was to his old decrepit father to leane upon because the strong men the legs shall bow themselves Eccles 12.3 that is bend and buckle under their burden They shall not be cut off by the devouring sword of warr that slaughter-man of mankind that layes hepes upon heapes and by chain-bullets cuts its way through a heap of men at once without respect of old or yong and the streets of the city shall be full of boyes and girles Lads and lassed as the Hebrew seemes to sound that mind little else but play as if with Leviathan they had been made to sport or as those people of Tombutum in Africa who are said to spend their whole time in singing and dancing But this they could not do if the times were troublesome and the souldier at his boody play according to that of Abner 2 Sam. 2.14 Let the yong men now arise and play before us that is thrust their swords in their
Esay 56.11 which could never have enough they were sick of the bulimy or appetitus caninus yea they were as so many yong lions ramping and ravening as it is here and Ezek. 19.2 3. Psal 78.72 Both Princes and Priests were turned tyrants and instead of feeding the people in the integrity of their hearts and guiding them with the skilfulnesse of their hands prey'd upon them and pluckt the skin from off them and their flesh from off their bones Mio 3.2 for the pride of Iordan is spoiled the swelling of Iordan dryed up by the Romans as Hierome interprets it Or the proud and stately palaces and possessions that the great Ones had gotten upon the banks of Iordan for fruitfulnesse and pleasance as à Lapide Or the numerous and proud nation of the Iews likned to the yearly overflowing of Iordan whereof see Iosh 3.15 Ier. 49.19 as Diodate Verse 4. Thus saith the Lord my God Feed the flock of slaughter so lately pulled out of the jawes of those lions ver 3. with Am. 3.12 and yet destined to destruction by the Romans those Raptores Orbis their former preservation being but a reservation to future mischief for their desperate obstinacy and incorrigiblenesse feed them saith God to the Prophets for their ordinary shepheards have cast off all care of their good Tell them what evill will betide them unlesse they repent forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come Mat. 3. Luke 21.36 to take course that they may escape all these things that shall come to passe O the goodnesse of God to a nation so shamelesly so lawlesly wicked Besides himself the Shepheard of Israel that led Ioseph like a flock Psal 80.1 and neglected no good office of seeking and feeding them of handling and healing them of washing them and watching over them c. how carefull was he ever to raise them up seven shepheards and eight principal men Mic. 5.5 till at length he sent the man Christ Iesus who is the chief of ten thousand the chief Shepheard as St. Peter calls him 1 Epist 5.4 that One and only Shepheard as Solomon Eccles 12.11 that gteat Shepheard of the sheep as Paul Heb. 13.20 who came to look up the lost sheep of the house of Israel whom to move compassion and affection here calleth the sheep of slaughter untill the time prefixed for their totall dispersion by reason of their ingratitude Verse 5. Whose Possessours stay them flaying their skin from off them eating their flesh breaking their bones c. Mic. 3.3 feeding themselves and not the flock of God Ezek. 34.2 as if they had been Lords over Gods heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 Owners and Possessours as here vel precio vel praemio and as the Pope and his Curia Romana quae non vult ovem sine lana as the old Proverb was and hold themselve not guilty Non peccant They fault not themselves they are not found guilty by others Such an illimited power over Gods people they have usurped as if they might use them at their pleasure and never be once questioned or punished for the same but scape scotfree This was the extremity of tyranny such as the cruell Spaniards exercise over the poor Indians they suppose they shew the wretches great favour when they do not for their pleasures whip them with cords and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon which is one of the least cruelties they inflict upon them World encompassed by S. F. Drake 53. and they that sell them Sell them for slaves whom they ought to redeem rather with their own blood and grow rich by them being greedy of filthy lucre not without foule blasphemy against God whom they entitle to their riches sacrilegiously and most theevishly gotten whilest they say blessed be the Lord for I am rich Deo gratias Blessed be God is a very good saying and was much in Austins mouth But as the fountain of goodnesse will not be laden at with unwashen hands so fair words from a foul mouth are infinitely displeasing to him that inhabiteth the praises of Israel Psal 22.3 Hypocrites are not unfitly compared to Monkies that have the gravest countenances of all creatures but are uncessantly doing mischief or to the Harpies that are said to have Virgins faces Vultures tallons Mel in ore verba lactis Fel in corde fraus in factis Pharisees under pretence of long prayers devoured widdows houses Mat. 23.14 whiles their lips seemed to pray or praise God they were but chewing and champing some sweet morsel snatcht from the flock but sawced with the wrath of God Job 20.15 See how our Saviour sets them out in their colours Mat. 23.15 16 23. c. Such fair professours but foul sinners were their predecessours Esay 66.5 who when they had done evil as they could thought to salve all by saying Let the Lord be glorified And such also are their Successours The Pope and his followers Verba tua Dei planè sunt facta verò diaboli said one once to Pope Innocent the third preaching peace but sowing discord you speak like a God but do like a divel wherefore you shall receive the greater damnation When one of our persecuting Bishops read the sentence of excommunication against a certain Martyr and began as the usual form was Act. and Mon. In the name of God Amen the Martyr cryed out you begin in a wrong name And it grew to a common proverb In nomine Dei incipit omne malum All mischief begins on that maner Gentilis that impious Anti-Trinitarian gave out that he suffered for the glory of the most High God Becket the Arch-traitour pretended to submit to his Soveraign but with this false reserve Salv◠honore Dei The Swenckfeldians entituled themselves the confessours of the glory of Christ And Conradus Vorstius his late monster hath De Deo in the front and Atheisme and blasphemy in the text and their own shepheards pitty them not Which yet they ought to have done had they had never so much right and reason to destroy them A shepheard hath his name from friendly feeding in Greek from earnest desire and love to the sheep David when he was hunted from Samuel the Prophet he fleeth to Abimelech the Priest as one that knew Justice and Compassion should dwell in those breasts that are consecrated to God and his people But these shepheards through want of Gods holy fear Iob. 6.14 had brawny breasts horny heart-strings their hearts first turned into earth and mud did afterwards freeze into steel and adamant cursed children they were 2 Pet. 2.24 having their hearts exercised with covetousnesse and cruelty Verse 6. For I will no more pitty the inhabitants of the land Or surely I will no more c. A feareful sentence written in blood and breathing out nothing but utter destruction David knew what he did when he chose rather to fall into the hand of the Lord then of men For his mercies are many
was straitned for them because I saw that they received my grace in vain and considered not of my care for their good Theodotion and Srmmackus render it Anima mea exanimata est I am dispirited as it were and even disheartened to do any more for them and their soul also abhorred me And so they became God-haters as Rom. 1.30 and therefore hateful to God Tit. 3.3 hateful as hell so the word imports yea more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and worse for hell is but an effect of Gods justice but wickednesse is a breach of his Law The Prophet here seemeth to allude to those murmurers in the wildernesse that disdainfully cryed out Our soul loatheth this light bread Num. 21.5 Let Gods servants take heed how they hang loose toward him and lest by disuse and discontinuance of a duty there grow upon them an alienation of affection a secret disrelishing and nauseating at that which we oughtmost deeply to affect and duely to perform Surely as loathing of meat and difficulty of breathing are two symptomes of a sick body so are carelesnesse of hearing and irksomness of praying two sure signes of a sick soul Verse 9. Then said I I will not feed you Now the wrath of the Lord arose against his people so that there was no remedy as 2 Chron. 36.16 Now his decree brought forth Zeph. 2.2 Now he growes implacable inexorable peremptory Wherein neverthelesse the Lord might very well break forth into that speech of the Heathen Emperour when he was to passe sentence upon a malefactour Non nisi coactus I would not do this if I could do otherwise Christ could not tell Ierusalem without tears that her day of grace was expired that her destruction was determined As a woman brings not forth without pain as a hee stings not till provoked so neither doth God proceed against a sinfull people or person till there be an absolute necessity lest his truth and justice should be questioned and slighted See Ezek. 12.22 23 24 25. Fury is not in God till our sins put thunderbolts into his hands and then who knoweth the power of his anger Psal 90.11 Es 33.14 who can abide with everlasting burnings If he but cast a man off as here and relinquish the care of him he is utterly undone Saul found it so and complaines dolefully but without pitty that God had forsaken him 1 Sam. 28.15 and the Philistines were upon him all miseries and mischief came rushing into him as by a sluce Let us so carry matters that God may not abandon us that he may not refuse to feed us and take the charge of us as a shepheard He yet offereth us this mercy as Alexande did those he warred against while the lamp burned that that dieth let it die viz. of the murraine or pestilence For man being in honour if God but blow upon him abideth not but is like the beasts that perish pecoribus morticinis saith Tremellius the beasts that die of the murrain Vatablus thinks pestilence sword and famine are here threatened under the names of death of cutting off and of devouring one another All which befell the refractary Jews in the last siege the history whereof will make any mans heart bleed within him that hath but the least spark of grace or good nature It went hard with them when the rest that the pestilence and sword had left fell to eating the flesh one of another when the mother killed and boyled the dead body of her harmlesse suckling and eating the one half reserved the other for another time Behold O Lord and consider to whom thou hast done this saith the Prophet Shall the women eat their fruit and children of a span long Lam. 2.20 Oh the misery or rather mock of mans life And oh the venemous nature of sinne that moves God who is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man-hater but delights in mercy to deal so severely with his poor creature Verse 10. And I took my staffe even Beauty and cut it asunder In token that he had cast off his office of shepherd he breaks his staffe the ensigne and instrument of his office and this in token that he had broke his covenant which hee had made with all the people ◠i. e. with all the tribes of Israel which were as so many severall peoples over whom God had reigned but now rejected and in whom He delighted more then in all the nations of the world besides The Saints are called All things Colos 1.20 because they are of more worth then a world of wicked men Heb. 11.38 And the Jews have a saying that those seventy souls that went with Iacob into Egypt were as much as all the seventy Nations in the world What great account God once made of them above others see Esay 43.3 4. Deut. 33.29 But now behold they are discarded and discovenanted I have broken my covenant and ver 11. it was broken in that day that is in the day that they put themselves out of my precincts I put them out of my protection That peace that I had granted to my people that they should bee no more molested by any strange Nation which was verified from the time of the Maccabees till a little before the coming of Christ shall now be forfeited The glory is departed the Beauty broken in pieces the golden head of the picture Religion defaced and good order banished all things out of order both in Church and State for so they were when Christ came to his own and his own received him not he found them in Dothan that is in Defection as Ioseph found his brethren therefore he now disowns and disavowes them as much as once he did when they had made a golden calf Thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves saith God to Moses upon whom he now fathereth them Exod. 32 7 as if he had never been in covenant with them Danaeus upon this Text concludeth that the Jews are now strangers from the covenant of God and that this is hereby confirmed for that they are without Baptisme the seal of the covenant Verse 11. And it was broken in that day When they filled up the measure of their fathers sinnes and added this to all their other evils that they crucified the Lord of glory the Mediatour of the new Covenant Heb. 12.24 Now they were by an irrevocable decree to bear their iniquities and to know Gods breach of promise as once was threatened to their faithlesse fathers Num. 14.24 and so the poor of the slock i. e. the lowly and meek Mat. 11.19 the Apostles and other of wisdomes children these all justified her and glorified God when they saw his severity against their refractary countreymen Euseb Hist lib. 3. cap. 5. and themselves sweetly secured and provided for at Pella See the Note on verse 7. that waited upon me Heb. that observed me by obeying my precepts Pagnine tendreth it
speaketh of the times of the Gospel chap. 12.10 and of the kingdom of Christ Sequitur ergo saith Mr. Calvin here well and worthily non modò legem illam fuisse Judaeis positam quemadmedum nugantur fanatici hemines qui vellent hodie sibi permitti orbis turbandi licentiam sed extenditur ad nos etiam eadem lex It followeth therefore that that Law Deut. 13.9 was not made for the Jewes onely as some brain-sick people conceit it who would fain get leave to trouble the world with their fopperies but the same law extendeth it self even to us For if at this day theeves and witches and adulterers c. are held worthy of punishment how much more are heretikes seducers blasphemers who poison mens souls rob God of his glory confound the whole order of the Church c. See Rom 13.4 1 Pet. 2.13 14. and hold to that old Rule Non distinguendum ubi scriptura non distinguit Men must not distinguish where the scripture doth not that his father In whose heart there is naturally an Ocean of love to his own child as we see in David toward Absalom in old Andronicus the Greek Emperour in our William the Conquerour and Maud his wife toward their unnaturall sonne Robert Curtuoise whom she maintained out of her own coffers in his quarrell for Normandy which the king her husband knew Speed 452. and took as a cause rather of displeasure then of hatred as proceeding from motherly indulgence for advancing their sonne that begat him This is twice here repeated for honours sake to these zelots who forgat all naturall and carnall respects for the vindication of Gods glory and his sincere service See Mat. 10.37 with the Note there thou shalt not live sc to do more mischief and to draw more souls to the devil Non Catilinae te genui sed patriae said Aulus Fulvius when he slew his own sonne taken in Catalines conspiracie I begat thee not for Catiline but for thy countrey More to be commended a great deal then Philip that bloody king of Spain who said openly that he had rather have no subjects then Lutheran subjects that he would not leave a Lutheran in his dominions that if he thought his shirt smelt of that heresie he would tear it from his own back And out of a blind zeal he suffered his eldest sonne Charles to be murthered by the cruel Inquisition because he seemed to favour our profession For which noble exploit that mouth of blasphemy Hieron Catina the Pope gave him this commendation Non pepercit filio suo sed dedit pro nobis He spared not his own sonne but gave hm up for us O horrible for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord Lies in hypocrisie doctrines of devils 1 Tim. 4.12 Rev. 2.24 depths of Satan that artificer of lies and father of them Joh. 8.44 which yet he would fain father and fasten upon the God of Amen or of truth as he is called Psal 31.5 like as varlets beget bastards and lay them at honest mens doors to be kept Thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord. This is to substitute the devil in the place of God or to transform God so as that he should nothing differ from the devil No wonder therefore though he that break the least commandement and teach men so Mat. 5.19 be called least in the kingdom of heaven especially if he pretend Gods authority for it as the false Prophets of old and the Swenckfeldien heretikes alate entitle themselves The Confessours of the glory of Christ For this is the highest indignity or rather contumely that can be put upon God It is a more detestable evil then to kill an innocent man yea to commit parricide or treason Imo quaecunque poterunt numerare scelera non pervenient od hoc crimen saith Calvin upon the text Let Sectaries and Seducers look to it those harmlesse hornlesse creatures as they would be accounted shall thrust him thorough when he prophesieth As Phineas did that stinking couple in the flagrancie of their lust Num. 25.8 and as Levi in like case consecrated himself to the Lord even every man upon his sonne and upon his brother Exod. 32.29 He said unto his father and mother when Gods glory required it I have not seen him neither did he acknowledge his brethren nor know his own children Deut. 33.9 All naturall relations and self-respects should be drown'd in the glory of God and the good of our own and other mens souls They should be even swallowed up thereby as the fuell is by the fire and as the sorcerers serpents were by Moses serpent or the fat kine by the lean Verse 4. The Prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision Of their Midianitish dreams which they had first dreamed and then told it for gospel to their fond neighbours They shall be so clearly convinced that they shall blush and bleed to think how they have been besotted how many souls they have murdered how oft they have even stradled over hell-mouth and yet have been preserved 2 Thess 2.10 12. See the Note This makes them shame and shent themselves in the presence of God and his people Ezra 9.6 saying O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee my God for our imquities are increased over our head and our guilt is grown up to the heavens This was fulfilled in those Scribes and Pharisees that afterwards became beleevers and said with Saint Paul Beware of the concision For we are the circumcision Philip. 3.2 3 which worship God in the spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no considence in the slesh Luther revolted from the Popish religion which he had held and maintained taking it for an honour to be called Apostate by them that is as he interpreted it One that had fallen off from the devil Bugenhagius when he first read Luthers book de captivitate Babylonica pronounced it to be the most pestilent piece that ever was published Qui fidem diabolo datam uon servavit But afterwards when he had better considered he grew ashamed of that rash censure and protested that Luther onely was in the right and all that held not the same that he did were utterly deceived Latimer was of the like mind after that he had once heard Bilneys confession Vergerius after he had read Luthers books with purpose to confute them Denckius and Hetserus two great Anabaptists in Germany retracted their former false doctrines and repented of their licentious and abominable practises Sâ—ultet Annal. the former of them being converted by Occolampadius grew ashamed of his pretended visions and died piously at Basile The later was beheaded at Constance for his multiplied adulteries Ibid. which first he sought to defend by Scripture but afterwards died very penitently confesting his former filthinesses giving glory to God and taking shame to himself These two were learned men well skilled in
valiant in fight turned to flight the armies of the aliens subdued kingdomes fought the Lords battles Heb. 11.32 34. They saw by faith what is on the other side of the shore of this mortality and that put mettle into them The valour of the Gauls was admired by the Romans it proceeded from that instruction they had from their Druides The life of the K of Sweden by M. Clark of the immortality of the soul The Swedes upon the same ground shewed incredible courage in the late German warres running into apparent danger like flies into the candle saith One as if they had not seen it Faith fears no colours What brave spirits hath God raised up amongst us alate fighting as it were in blood to the knees for Religion and liberty resolved either to vanquish or die as the Black Prince 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with that Lacedemonian either to live with the Gospel or to die for it And how valiant the restored Jews shall once be upon their enemies the Turks who now hold their countrey till their iniquities be full who can tell Sure it is that Israel after their victory over Gog shall spoil those that spoiled them and rob those that robbed them saith the Lord God Ezek. 39.10 And then perhaps it is that the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together as a prize or booty gold and silver and apparell in great abundance Look how Abraham stripped the four kings of their plunder Gen. 14.16 Gideon the Midianites Iudg 8. David the Amalekites 1 Sam. 30.18 Iehosaphat the Ammonites they were three dayes in gathering the spoil it was so much 2 Chron. 20.25 so it may fall out one day with their posterity The Jew Doctours as they have a saying that whatsoever befell unto the Fathers is a figne unto the children so of Abrahams victory over the four kings they write that it befell unto him to teach that four kingdomes those kingdomes spoken of in Daniel should stand up to rule over the world and that in the end his children should rule over them and they should all fall by their hand R. Menachem on Gen. 14. and they should bring again all their captives and all their substance Verse 15. And so shall be the plague of the horse of the mule of the camel All the beasts of service made use of by the enemy shall consume in like sort as their masters First for a punishment to their owners who must needs suffer losse thereby Hence Saul was so sedulous in seeking the lost asses Secondly to shew how God is displeased with and will severely punish all that are instrumentall to the Churches calamities or serviceable to their sinne The serpent is cursed cut shorter by the feet and made to wriggle upon his belly yea confined to the dust for his diet So God curseth and abhorreth all instruments of idolatry Esay 30.22 Num. 31.22 23. Deut. 7.25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire the very visible heavens because defiled with mans sinne are to be purged by the fire of the last day Verse 16. Every one that is left of all the nations i.e. that hath escaped the plague verse 12. and is beaten into a better mind as those Hunnes that vanquished by the Christians concluded that Christ was the true God and became his subjects God had promised before to subvert the Churches enemies but here to convert them which is farre better And it shall appear to be so as conversion cannot be hid you cannot turn a bell but it will make a sound and report its own motion See Gal. 1.23 for they shall even go up sc to the Temple which stood upon mount Moriah to worship the king the Lord of Hosts Esay 16 1◠to send a lamb or an homage peny to the Lord of the whole earth and to keep the feast of Tabernacles In a due manner which had not been rightly done a marvellous thing all along during the reigne of David Solomon and all those succeeding Reformers till about these times as appears Neb. 8.16 17 19. The sence of this text is that the converted Gentiles shall joyn with the Jews in the sincere service of God according to his will and not according to their own brains and fancies that they shall worship him with the same rites in the same places and assemblies which they do that Jehovah may be one and his name one amongst them as verse 9. that there may be no more Jew and Gentile Barbarian or Scythian bond or free but Christ may be all and in all Col. 3.11 That those two sticks being joyned into one Ezek. 37.16 all Israel may be saved Rom. 11.26 and raised as from the dead verse 15. the Gentiles also may have their part in the same resurrection All this is here set forth in such termes and under such types as were then most in request as of going up to the Temple keeping the feast of Tabernacles c. All which expressions are parabolicall symbolicall and enigmaticall framed to the capacity of the Jews much addicted to these legall rites and shadows then in use but now done away Col. 2.17 Heb. 10.1 whatever the Jews conclude from this text for their continuance under Messias his kingdome Christians have their feasts or holy-dayes too 1 Cor. 5.8 yea their feast of Tabernacles in a mystieall sence 1 Pet. 2.11 Heb. 11.1 9. Verse 17. Even upon them shall be no rain i. e. Nullam misericordiam assequentur saith Theodoret They shall get no good at Gods hand Judaea was sumen totius orbis as One saith a very fat and fertile countrey but yet so as that her fruitfulnesse depended much upon seasonable showres the former and latter rain and the Prophet seemeth here to allude to that of Moses Deut. 11.10 c If God did not hear the heaven and the heaven the earth the earth could not hear the corn wine and oil nor those hear Jezreel Hos 2.19 Judaea was not like that countrey in Pliny ubi siccitas dat lutum imbres pulverem where drought made dirt rain made dust but if the heaven were iron over them the earth would soon be brasse under them and not yeeld her increase See Psal 65.9 Esay 30.23 and then where would they be quickly sith Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est life would be lost if not maintained by daily food Rain is in Scripture put 1. Properly for water coming out of the clouds Deut. 11.11 Prov. 16.15 nourishing the herbs and trees 2. Metaphorically for Christ his Gospel and his graces wherewith the souls of men are made fruitfull in good works Esay 45.8 Deut. 32.2 Hos 6.3 The want of rain is on the contrary made here and Rev. 11.5 a signe of a curse It waiteth not for the sonnes of men Mic. 5.7 but it accomplisheth what God appointeth Esay 55.10 11. Why it falleth here and now we know not and wonder Vers 18. And if the
quamdiù expediat that covenants are to be kept so long as a man shall see cause Eos foedera nescire That which was anciently said of the Thracians is now verified of the papists that they keep no covenants with heretikes especially The Turks taught by them say There is no faith to be kept with dogs that is with Christians Their leagnes grounded upon the law of Nations and solemnly confirmed by oath have with them no longer force then standeth with their own pleasure and profit And if Turks and Papists onely were truce-breakers and fedifragies it were the better to be born with But what shall we say to those Christianecategori as Bellarmine saith a certain sort of heretikes were called of old those blots and botches of Christian religion and holy society that can say and unsay at pleasure De. eccles triumph l. 2. c. 11. make vows to God in their distresse and break them as fast when delivered Just like those Jews in Ieremy chap. 34. that set free their servants when the enemy lay before the walls but reduced them into bondage when the siege was raised though they had cut the calf in twain and passed between the parts thereof a most solemne way of sealing up covenants So dealt their fathers before them Psal 78.34 35 36 37. And so dealt here their Nephews after them They profaned the covenant of obedience to Gods commandements that their fathers for themselves and their successours entred into But should men thus play with covenants as children do with nuts should they slip them at pleasure as Monkeys do their collars should they snap them in sunder as Sampson did his cords Had Shimei peace that brake his oath to Solomon or Zedekiah that kept not touch with Nebuchadnezzar c. Verse 11. Judah hath dealt treacherously Judah the consessour as his name imports Iudah that once ruled with God and was faithful with the Saints Hos 1.12 Indâ—â—h in whom God was known his name was great in Israel Psal 76 2. Prospers conceit was that Iudai were so called because thy received us Dei the law from Gods mouth whence Ioscphus calls the Common wealth of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a God government For to them pertained among sundry other precious priviledges recited Rom. 9.4 5. the Covenants that is 1. The moral law in two tables 2. The giving of the law that is the Judicial law 3. The service that is the seremonial law which was their Gospel whence Iudea is called the glorious land Dan. 11.41 or the land of delights or ornaments as the Hebrew hath it a pleasant land or a land of desire Ier. 3.19 because as it is Ezek 20.6 15. it was the glory of all lands Jerusalem the metropolis was not onely the most famous of all the cities of the East as Pliny confesseth it Psal 31.21 but also of the whole world si insignia Dei spectemus benesicia as one saith if we consider Gods marvellous kind csse shewed to it in a strong city as David hath it But as ingentia beneficia flagitia supplicia the greater the priviledges of any place or people are the more hainous are their offences and the more hideous their punishments so sell it out with this nation so advanced so obliged so shamelesly so lawlesly wicked They were but newly returned from captivity scarce yet warm in their nests when they fell afresh to their old trade of treachery doing wickedly with both hands earnestly Abomination was committed in Israel and in Jerusalem even such as Gods soul abhorred and was ready to be loosened or dis oynted from them Ier. 6.8 because in the land of uprightnesse they dealt unjustly and would not behold the majesty fâ—he Lord say 26.10 Indah had profaned the holinesse of the Lord which he loved that is the very place that he had espied out for himself and that was dedicated to his name and service the holy and separate land the Isle as it is called Tsai 20.6 though part of the continent because compassied about with Gods favour as with a shield Psal 5.12 In such a consecrated countrey to act their villany was no small aggravation of their wickednesse this made it swell like a toad in the eyes of the Almighty it was an abomination Filthynesse in a stewes in a strumpet is nothing so odious as in a pretended Virgin A nettle on the waste is better born with then in a garden To see the Devil in hell is no wonder but what makes he in Paradise England was anciently called the kingdom of God it may much better be so called now Auglia regâ—â—â—i Del. Pol. Vhg. that Gospel of the kingdom is preached amongst us It was also called Albion quasi Olbion Happy or fortunate the fortunate Island say some or ab albis rupibus from the whitenesse of the rocks True it is we were black all over with superstition first Pagan and then Papagan But Christ hath made us white again as snow in Salmon And do we again sully and soil our selves with sinnes filthinesse with that unclean kitchin-stuffe do we profane the holinesse of the Lord which he loved to drive him away from us by degrees as those Jews did Ezek 8.9 10 11. sinne is the leaven that defiles our passeover and urgeth God to passe away and depart from us Sin is the snuff that dimmes our candle-stick and threatens the removall of it Let those that live in Gods good land but not in Gods good Laws as Aristotle complained of his Athenians to like purpose Laert. l. 5. c. 1 and as Seneca said to the Romans that they were become more filthy since they had bathes to wash in look forward to the following verse and tremble at that utter destruction there threatened to such Disperdet Dominus c. And thereunto Saint Paul seemeth to allude 1 Cor. 3.17 If any man defile the Temple of God him will God destroy and hath married the daughter of a strange God This is that particular sin whereby they had dealt treacherously against their brethren profaned the Covenant polluted the Church and committed abomination in Israel they had married with women of a strange worship and joyned in affinity with the people of those abominations as holy Ezra phraseth it Chap. 9.14 and withall setteth it forth for such a sin in those newly-returned captives as he thinks heaven and earth might well be ashamed of A sin it is flatly forbidden in both Testaments Deut. 7.3 2. Cor. 6.14 and reasons added as 1. Danger of defection at least from former forwardnesse but most commonly of infection as in Solomon 1 King 11. Nehem. 13.26 what 's the reason the Pope will not dispense in Spain and Italy if a papist marry a Protestant yet here he will but in hope to draw more to them See 1 King 12.25 and 2 King 8.27 2 Great inconveniency as 1. Of grief to the godly parents Gen. 26.35 and 27.36 2. Ill education of
Latimer tells them they shall cough in hell the widow A calamitous name she is called in Hebrew from her dumbnesse Almanan because death having cut off her head she hath lost her tongue and hath none to speak for her A vine whose root is uncovered thrives not so a widow the covering of whose eyes is taken away joyes not God therefore pleads for such as his clients and takes special care for them the Deacons were anciently ordained specially for their sakes Act. 6.1 1 Tim 5.3 and Pharisees doomed to a deeper damnation for devouring widows houses Mat. 23.14 and Magistrates charged to plead for the widow Isai 1.17 as judge Job did Chap. 31.16 and all sorts to make much of her and communicate to her Deut. 24.19 20 â—â— and the fatherlesse We are Orphans and fatherlesse saith the Church Lam. 5.3 And we are all Orphans said Queen Elizabeth in her speech to the children of Christs Hospital let me have your prayers and you shall have my protection That Hospital was founded by her brother King Edward the sixth for the relief of father lesse children after the example of the ancient Church which had her Orphanotroph Orphan-breeders With God the fatherlesse findeth mercy Hos 14.3 and all his vice-gods are commanded the like Psal 82.1 2 3 4. unlesse they will consult shame and misery to their own houses and Joab-like leave the leprosy to their little ones for a legacy Better leave them a wallet to beg from door to door then a cursed hoard of Orphans goods and that turn aside the stranger The right of strangers is so holy saith Master Fox that there was never nation so barbarous that would violate the same When Steven Gardiner had in his power the renowned Peter Martyr then teaching at Oxford Act. and Mon. fol. 1783. he would not keep him to punish him but when he should go his way gave him wherewith to bear his charges and fear not me This is set last as the source of all the former evils See the like Rom. 3.18 and Psal 14.1 where Atheisme and irreligion is made the root of all the sin in the world Gods holy fear is to the soul as the banks are to the sea or the bridle to the horse it was so to Isaac who reigned in the reverend fear of God when he saw that he had done unwilling justice durst not reverse Jacobs blessing though prompted to it by natural affection and Esaus howlings Gen. 27.33 It was so to Job Joseph Nehemiah Daniel c. who could easily have born out their oppressions by their greatnesse And indeed whereas other men have other bits and restraints great men if they fear not God have nothing else to fear but dare obtrude and justifie to the world the most malepart misdemenours because it is facinus major is abollae Juvenal the fact of a great one who do many times as easily break through the lattice of the laws as the bigger flies do through a spider-web as Anacharsis was wont to say of his Scythians Exod. 18. Hence Jethro would have his Justice of peace to be a man fearing God And this qualification he fitly placeth in the midst of the other graces requisit to him as the heart in the body for conveying life to all the parts or as a dram of musk perfuming the whole box of oyntment Exod. 18.21 Nothing makes a man so good a patriot as the true fear of Gods blessed name and a zealous forwardnesse for his glory goodnesse and good causes This this alone is it that can truly beautifie and adorn all other personal sufficiencies and indeed sanctifie and blesse all publick imployments and services of state Whereas on the contrary sublat à pietate sides tollitur take away piety and fidelity is gone as we see in the unjust judge Luk. 18.2 in Abrahams judgement of the Philistines Gen. 20.11 and in Constantinus Chlorus his experiment of his Councellours and Courtiers whence that famous Maxime of his recorded by Eusebius He cannot be faithful to me that is unfaithful to God religion being the ground of all true fidelity and loyaltie to king and Countrey Hence that close connexion Fear God honour the king And that again of Solomon My son fear thou the Lord and the king and meddle not with them that are given to change Prov. 24.21 Verse 6. For I am the Lord I change not I am Jehovah This is Gods proper and incommunicable name It imports three things 1. That God is of himself This Plato acknowledged calling God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julius Scaliger by a wonderful word calleth God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One that hath his being or existence of himself before the world was Esay 44 6. 2. That he giveth being to all things else for in him they both are and consist He sustains all both in respect of being excellencies and operations Heb. 1.3 The greatest excellencies in us do as much depend upon God as the essigies in the giasse upon the presence of the face that causeth it 3. That he giveth being to his word effecting whatsoever he speaketh Hence when either some special mercy is promised or some extraordinary judgment threatened the name of Iehovah is affixed See Exod. 6.3 Esay 45.2 3. Ezek. 5.17 The Ancient Jew-Doctours make this distinction between Elohim and Iehovah By Elohim say they is signified Middath dir a quality or property of judgment By Iehovah middath Rachamim a quality or property of mercy And here unto they apply that text Psal 56.11 In God Elohim I will praise the word in Iehovah I will praise the word that is five â—ure agat mecum five ex aequo bono whether he deal strictly with me or graciously I will praise him howsoever But this distinction as it holds not alwayes so not here For to shew the certainty of the judgement denounced verse 5. is this subjoyned I am Iehovah c. And if Iehovah come of Hovah which signifies Contrition or destruction as Heronymus ab Oleastro will have it what can be more sutable to the Prophets purpose it is somewhat like that in Esay chap. 13.6 Shod shall come from Shaddai destruction from the Almighty or from the Destroyer as some interpret Gods Name Shaddai I change not I am neither false nor fickle to say and unsay to alter my minde or to eat my word Psalm 89.34 The eternity of Israel cannot he nor repent said Samuel to Saul and it was heavy tidings to him as Ahi ah said to Ieroboams wife 1 Sam. 15.29 I come unto thee with heavy tidings For he is not a man that he should repent Men are mutable and ther 's no hold to be taken of what they say Of many it may be said as Tertullian of the Peacock all in changeable colours as often changed as moved Italians all as Eneas Sylvius said of Italy Novitate quadam nihil habet stabile ther 's no taking their words Of
Luk. 16.15 because they were but skin-deep and not heart-sprung therefore they were not a button the better for them God loves and looks for truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 he looks that men should do his will from the heart Ephes 6.6 and serve him in their spirits Rom. 1.9 In doing whereof there is great reward Psal 19.11 praemium ante praemium that Euge of a good conscience this the stranger medleth not with conceives not of the wealth of Gods pilgrims standing more in Jewels and gold things light oâ— carriage and well portable then in house and land His servants have that here that doth abundantly pay them for their pains afore-hand righteousnesse being it own reward and they knowing within themselves that they have in heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10. But hereaster oh the rich recompence that God shall make them oh the heaped up happinesse of such at the last when these vain talkers in the text and all that are of their mind shall roar out Nos insensati We fooles counted their lives madnesse But now c. See more of this in the following Note on ver 16. doctr 5. what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance The Chaldee hath it Quod mammon adeptisumus what mammon or wealth have we gained Mammonists are all for gain their very godlinesse is gain still they have an Eagles-eye to the prey when they seem to sly highest toward heaven If they may not get by God they soon grow weary of his work What shewes soever they make of better sure it is their belly is their God they mind earthly tings These will follow the chase as Jonathan till they meet with the hony-combe or as a curr followes his master till he meet with a 〈◊〉 These come to Christ as that young Pharisee did hastily but the 〈…〉 because they consider not that with the Lord are durable rich's Prv. 8.18 and that godlinesse as it hath many crosse so it hath many conâ—â—â—ts against 〈◊〉 Virtus lecyâ—â—â—â— habet in malis like as no countly hath more venomous creatures then Egypt 〈…〉 Antidotes This there Sensualists having not the spirit understand not 〈…〉 hence their complaint of a disappointment casting a stirr upon Gods 〈…〉 as those spies did upon the promised land Num. 14. and ready to run back into Egypt toth air flesh-â—ots garliâ—k and onions there Lo this is the guise of 〈…〉 wath whom thâ— ' the best religion that brings greatest advantage 〈…〉 thiâ— life if the Ark bring a blâ—ling with it as it did to Ohed-Edom it 〈…〉 upon as worthy of entertainment but if a plague of poverty 〈…〉 these Philistines will be glad to â—id their hands of it The garishnesse of ho 〈◊〉 wealth and pleasures do so â—azle their eyes that they think it the only happinesse to have and to hold Such fooles they are and such great beasts if David may judge Psal 73.22 to fly a fooles-pitch and to goc hawking after that that cannot be had as Solomon faith Pro. 23.5 Or if had yet cannot be held as being of swisrest wing and 〈◊〉 soon gone as a post that passeth by Godlinesse hath the preomise of â—â—th lives and we read of some godly men in scripture that were richer then any other But God will have it sometims to be otherwise that godimesse might be adâ—â—â—â—d for it self and to shew that his people serve him not for 〈…〉 Iob 1.9 But that none serves God for nought no not so much as 〈◊〉 a dâ—â— or 〈…〉 See before ch p. 1.10 that 〈◊〉 have kept his ordinances which if they had done indeed they would never have thâ—â—â—â—gged much less blasphemed they would have accused themselves 〈…〉 livine providence they would have said with holy Ezra All this is come upon us for our â—vill deeds and for 〈…〉 and thou our God hast punished us less then our iniquities deserve Aâ—â—â—â—test thou not be justly angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should the no remnant nor eseaping Ezr. 9 1â— 14. Thus the good wheat falls low at the feet of the fanâ—er when thâ— chaff 〈◊〉 and flyes at his face Thus the sheep when shorn Hâ—at and lookes downward whereas the hang rbit wolf lookes up and howlesagainst heaven Hypocrites use to wrangle with God and expostulate the unkindness of his non-acceptance of their services as Esay 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore have we aslicted our soule and thou takest no knowledge God was in their opinion far too short and much behind with them and therefore much to blame and they must give him the telling of it They do so and they have their answer So they shall have here in the following verses and the next chapter which ought not to be divided from this as some conceive They upbraid the Lord as with their observances so with their humiliations and that we have walked mournfully Or in black the habit of mourners whence that of the Heathen Oratour Athenienses non nisi atrati c. The Athenians are never so good as when they are all in black that is under some heavy affliction And a great Satesman of this kingdome had this verse written upon his study door Anglica gens est optima flens pessima ridens Great Brittain all in black is in its best condition But what is it to wear sackcloth 1 Kâ—ng 21.27 and walk softly with Ahab when he had sold himself to do wickedly what is an humbling day without an humbled heart not only an irreligious incongruity but an high provocation like Zimri's act when all the congregation were weeping before the dore of the Tabernacle Surely God may say to such pretenders as Isaac did to his father Behold the fire and the wood but wher 's the lamb for a sacrifice or as Jacob did to his sons that brought him the bloody coat Loe her 's the coat but wher 's my child your garments are black but your hearts and lives are much blacker Go cleanse your hands ye sinners and purisie your hearts you double-minded Be afflicted in good earnest and mourn to some purpose and weep soak and souce your selves in teares of true repentance let your sorrow for sin be deep and downright turn your laughter to mourning and your joy to heavinesse Jam. 4.8 9. And then come let us reason together saith the Lord. All these unkind contestations shall cease and all loving correspondencies shall passe betwixt us God had said as much as all this before to them verse 7 10 11. Sed surdo fabulam their adamant was too hard to be mollified Their bulrushes though bowed down for a day while some storm of trouble was upon them was now so pierkt up as if it would threaten heaven witnesse their continued contumacy their robustious language in the next verse also stouting it out still with God Verse 15. And now we call the proud happy Such
then to the observation of the ceremoniall and judiciall Law But it is ordinary with those Jew-Doctours to corrupt the Text for their own purpose adding and altering at their pleasure The judiciall law was fitted to the jews and was the best that they could suffer as Solon said of the Athenian Lawes The ceremoniall law was their Gospel pointing them to Christ and therefore abolished by him as having no use in the Church after his death but by accident As for the Morall law called here by an excellency the Law of Moses it is established for ever in heaven Psal 119.89 and albeit some duties of certain commandements shall cease when we come to heaven yet the substance of every one remaineth This perpetuity of the morall law was noted by engraving of it in stone Exod. 34.27 2 Cor. 3.7 The Jewshave a saying That God hath more respect to the letters of the Law then to the stars of heaven Mat. 5. And Christ either alludes to or confirms it in that saying of his Heaven and earth shall passe before one jot or tittle of the Law passe Think not that I am come to destroy the Law viz. the Morall Law or the Prophets who presse Morall duties as explainers of the law they do as it were unfold and draw out that Arras which was folded together before These therefore together with the Law of Moses must be daily and duely read and remembred Lege Melachim meum meum inquam meum quicquid enim didicimus tenemus nostrum est rolog in lib. Reg. Scripturas sanctas memoriter tenebat His rom calls the books of Kings his own because by the frequent use and reading of them he had got them by heart and as it were made them his own Of Paula he testifieth that she had most of the Scriptures by heart Of Nepotian likewise that with daily reading and continuall meditation he had made his heart Bibliothecam Christi the Library of Christ See my True Treasure pag. 315. Verse 5. Behold I will send you Elijab the Prophet Not Elijah the Thishite as the Septuagint corruptly read and the Popish Expositours make no smail use of it to prove that the Pope is not Antichrist because Enoch and Elias are not yet come and yet are to come in his time before the day of judgement as they sondly fable to preserve the Elect in the faith of Christ and to convert the Jews But we have better Interpreters of this Text. 1. An Angel who applies it to Iohn Baptist Luk. 1.17 2. Christ that Angel of the Covenant Mat. 17.10 11 and 11.14 Hear ye him against all Antichrists Agitatours Saint Mark begins his Gospel with these very words of Malachy to let us know that this Elias is the Baptist who is called Eliah the Prophet because of the like gifts calling and ministery office of reforming habit people with whom they dealt c. The like almost may be said of Lather a third Elias for boldnesse courage zeal knowledge successe c. But yet we see no footing in this Text for Lucas Osianders conceit viz. that the Prophet here pointed at Luther as well as at John Baptist and that men must receive his Doctrine or else look to be smitten with a curse Howbeit this is more passable and possible then that of the Jesuites who presume to controul Christs own Exposition and give out that as the Devil stirred up Luther to call the Pope Antichrist so God raised up them to resist Luther But what a mad fellow was that Spaniard of whom Severus Sulpitius writeth that professed himself first to be the Prophet Eliah and afterward when he had gained authority Lib. 1 de vita S. Martini fere in calce to be The Christ carrying himself so cunningly in his collusion that Bishop Ruffus was led away with the errour beleeving in him and adoring him as God for which he was justly deprived of his dignity Had we not need receive the truth in the love of it lest God give us up to the efficacy of errour 2 Thess 2.10 lest being first infatuated we be seduced and then being seduced we be damned as Austin glosseth on that Text before the coming of the great and dreadfull day of the Lord Great in respect of the good and dreadfull or horrible in respect of the wicked as Montanus interprets it paralelling it with Mat. 3.12 Or great because it shall be a beginning of great changes both to the godly and the ungodly and dreadfull to the bad yea and to the best also at first till they have recollected and better bethought themselves as Another senceth it as taking it of the last day which is the generall mistake of Popish Expositours and that upon this ground because Christs first coming was an acceptable time and a day of salvation But though it be so to Gods people yet to others it was terrible as hath been shewed in the Note on Chip 3. verse 2. and is so described Luke 2.34 and 3.9 17. and 19.44 Mat. 21.44 Esay 11.4 He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with his two-edged sword he shall slay the wicked See the like Râ—v 2.16 And by his Ministers he doth it still 2 Thes 2.8 2 Cor. 2.15 16. 2 Cor. 10.6 Vengeance is as ready in Christs hand as in the Ministers mouth for the disobedient Some read the words thus Before the day of the great and dreadfull Lord come like as others read that Jam. 2.1 Have not the glorious faith of our Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons Both readings are good and the Text will bear both Verse 6. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children c. John Baptists office and efficacie is here described He shall as a powerfull instrument by preaching repentance Mat. 3.2 and prevailing as he did with all sorts even to admiration so that all men mused in their hearts whether he were the Christ or not Luke 3.10 12 14 15. convert sinners from the errours of their way reduce them to the faith of the old Patriarches make them unanimous in the love of God and of one another and tye them up together as it were by his Baptisme For the multitude of beleevers were of one heart and one soul Act. 4.32 animo animaque inter se miscebantur as Tertullian phraseth it neither was there any controversie at all amongst them as One ancient Greek copy subjoyneth there Controversies there were great store among the Jews when the Baptist came As Joseph found his brethren in Dothan which signifieth Defection so did he They were all gone out of the way and being led aside by the errour of the wicked they were fallen from their own stedfastnesse Many strange opinions and dotages they had taken up and were wofully divided specially by those three different Sects Pharisees Sadduces and Essenes which the Prophet Zachary calleth three shepherds that were to be destroyed in one moneth
at Johns coming Zach. 11.8 The Pharisees were held the best of those three si ad legem respexeris saith Tremellius if you look to the law and Saint Paul who was once a Pharisee of the Pharisees calleth them the most strictest Sect of the Jewish religion Act. 26.5 like those district ssimi Monachi among the Papists and yet there were seven sorts of Pharisees Talm. tract Suta cap. 3. as we find in their Talmud Hence much alienation of affection amongst them and great animosities father hating sonne and sonne father for truths sake as Mat. 10.35 So powerfull should John be in his Ministery that although the leprosie were gotten into their heads and were therofore held incurable Lev. 13.44 yet he should tuen the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdome of the just to make ready a people prepared for the Lord Luke 1.17 All head-strong and bâ—utiâ—h affections should be calmed and corrected as Isa 21.6 7 8. and the peaceable v. isdome from above inâ—tilled lam Eph. 4.3 3.17 so that they shall indeavâ—ur to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace And albeit some jarrs may fall out a betwixt Paul and Barnabas yet Gods people can soon pecce again and reunite Job Worver in Polymath Vt 〈◊〉 percussus non laeditur into no dividitur quidâ—m sed resundit â—esâ— spissior redit c. As the ayre divided by a stone or stroke soon closeth and thickencth the more Certainly there is no such onenesse and entirenesse any where as among the saints their love is spirituall Cant. 6.9 The very Heathenâ— acknowledged that no people in the world did hold together and love one another so as Christians did Tacitus observeth of the Jews that there was misericordia in promptu apud suos but contra omâ—â—s alios hostile odium mercy enough for their own countreymen amongst them but hostile hatred against all others they use to say that there is no Gentile but deserves to have his head bruised c. But John Baptist by hiâ— preaching made Jewish Pharisees and Roman soubliers according to the phrase that Josephus useth of him to convent and knit together in baptisâ—ne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antiâ—dib 18. cap 7. 〈◊〉 I conte and sinite the earth with a curse that is lest coming I smite c. For there is no doubt to be made of his coming and as little of his smiting if men amend not These words menace as many as resisted Iohns ministry with utteâ— destruction whether it be done against the whole nation or against a mâ—â— only Iob 34.29 The Romans came and took amay both their place and their Nation not for leâ—â—ng Christ alone as they feared Iob. 11.48 but for laying wicked hands upon him and putting to death the Lorn or life Act. 2.23 Iohn also preached damnation to them Mat 3. and so did our Saviour Aâ—at 23. where by eight dreadfull woes as by so many links of an adamantine chain he drawes chose irreformable hypoerites down to hell their place and thâ—n lâ—aves them to be reserved unto judgement S. Jerome waâ— called 〈…〉 the Churchthunderbolt Mr. Perkins was a most caâ—â—st preacher and would prâ—n unce the word Damne with such an Emphasis M. Fullers Holy State 90. as lest a 〈…〉 in his Auditouts eares a good while after And when Catechist of Christ-coâ—â—eage 〈◊〉 pâ—unding the commandernents he applyed them so home that he made his hearers hearts sall down and their hairs to stand opright almost And surely this 〈◊〉 the way to work upon hard-harted sinners whence the Apostle bids Tâ—ns rebuke with all autâ—oâ—ty and then turning him to the people as Carvin sâ—â—â—th it chang th â—â—em not to despise him for so doing Tit. 1.15 The Apeille knew well that men are for most part of delicate eares and can 〈◊〉 abide plain dealing Ahab hates Micâ—iah and hath him in prison ever since that creadsull denunciation of displeasore and death for dismissing Benhadad for he was probably that disguised Pâ—ophet for which he was ever since sast in prisâ—n deep in disgrace But truth must be spoken how ever it be â—â—ken and those that will not be pricked at heart as Act. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. â—ut take up bucklers to ward oss the blow must have the sword of the spirit sheathed in their bowels and bâ—thed in their blood for mall this we are a sweet savour unto God 2 Cor. 2.15 yea though a savour of death unto death The barren earth must be smitten with cuâ—sing and they that minde earthly things Terra autem sunt qui terrona sapiunt saiâ—â— A sbon have damnation for their end De civ Deil. 20. c. 29. so that St. Paul cannot speak of them 〈◊〉 teares of compâ—ssion Philip. 3.18 19. Oh that it might expresse from them teares of compunction Oh that they would be forewarned to slee from the wrath to come Oh that they would think upon eternity and by breaking â—fâ— their sins disarme Gods indignation justly conceived against them He therefore threateneth that he may not smite he proceed not to punish till there be no remedy 2 Chron. 36.16 Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger sacit An unâ—â—ly patient makes a cruell Physician O that we could all resolve to deal by our sins as Levis King of Fiance did by the Popes Bulls whereby he required the fruits of vacancies of all Cathedrall Churches of France Speed 496. about the year 1152. he cast them into the fire saying he had rather the Popes Bulls should restin the fire then his own soul should fiy in heil For a perclose of all take an observation of Amamas and before him of Baxtorfes that in many Hebrew Bibles the last verse save one of this Propesy as also of Ecclesiastes Isaiah and Lamentations is repeated again in the end thereof though without pricks lest any thing should be thought added to Gods word Factum hoc ex Scriharum decreto c. This the scribes thought fit to do either for the dignity of those repeated verses that the Reader might again ruminate and remind them or else as some will have it because all those bookes end in threatenings and sad speeches And therefore lest the Sun of Righteousnesse should seem to set in a cloud or not to shine upon the departing passenger they thought sit to leave the verse before to be last as being sweet and full of comfort that the Reader might Sampson-like goe his way feeding on that hony-comb Laus Deo in aeternum The Righteous mans Recompence OR A TRUE CHRISTIAN CHARACTERIZED AND ENCOURAGED Out of MALACHI 3.16 17 18. Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord harkened and heard it and a booke of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and thought upon his Name CHAP. I. The Text opened and analyzed THAT which was anciently spoken of Iohn Baptust who was
darknesse but reproove them rather s Eph. 5 11. with a number more that I might add with ease That one of Solomon for all My son saith he if sinners entive thee consent thou not If yet they say Come with us let us lay wait for blood c. Cast in thy lot amongst us let us all have one parse My son walk not thou in the way with them resrain thy foot from their path t Pro. 1 10 11 14 15. For their way in the issue of it is the way to hell going down to the chambers of death u Prov. 7.27 Even that second death as the scripture tearms it which though hand joyu in hand w Prov. 16.5 and they muster up and unite their forces as hoping haply to scape in the croud or to carry it away cleanly because a multitude yet they shall never be able to avoid or abide For the wicked be they never so many of them shall be turn'd into hell and whole nations that forget God x Psal 9.17 This the Patriarch Noah that I may shew you secondly the practise of the point in some particular examples of ancient and later times this I say Noah beleeved ere he saw and therefore lived to see what he had afore beleeved not whole Nations only but a world-full of wicked people swallowed up together in one universall grave of waters their spirits being now in prison 〈◊〉 in everlasting chaines under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day y 1 Pet. 3.19 The foresight whereof by a lively faith being warâ—â—â— of God of things not seen as yet z Heb. 11.7 made him walk uprightly with God evea in his geaeration a Gen. 6.9 Now for him to walk alone in a divers way to a worid of wicked people as Chrysoscome hath it b Solus ipse diversâ â—mbulavit viâ virtutem malitiae praeferens c. Chrysost Hom. 22. in cap. 6. Genef to keep himself unspotted in such a foul season as anotherspeakes of him c inter corruprissimos minere incorruptnÌ„ Pare in Gen 6 nay like a right orient and illustrious planet not only to hold out a constant counter-motion to that of the vulgar but also to shine so fair with a singularity of heavenly light spirituall goodnesse and Gods sincere service in that daâ—kâ—st midnight of damned impiety this was that whereby he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousnesse which is by faith e Heb. 11.7 The next in the Apostles roul there remembred and registred is Abraham that precious man pall'd as a brand out of Vr of the Chaldees from whence he went forth forsaking father f Iosh 24.2 house and friends who served other Gods beyond the slood not knowing whither he went saith the text g Hâ—b 11.8 nor much daring so long as he had God by the hand For whom also his first care was where ever he came setting up Altars to Jehovah h Gen. 12.6 7 8. 13.4 18. in the mid'st of those Idolaters and making open profession of his service before the people or the land which was a reall confutation of their heathenish fopperies Thus Aoraham then and thus after him Johua by his example which he therefore useth and urgeth in that parliament he called and held at Shechem a little afore his death I took your father Abraham saith he there in Gods behalf from the other side of the flood c. i Josh 24.2 whose children ye shall shall well approve your selves if ye walke in the sheps of his fâ—ith k Rom. 1.12 by putting away the â—trange gods from among you as he and serving the Lord l Josh 24.14 In which holy practue however you come off choose you this day whom you will serve though in evils of sin there be no choise whether the gods of your sathers leyond the slood Malorum non est electio Aâ—â—â—t or tke gods of the Amornes in whose land ye dwell but as for me and my house we will serve Jehoveh The time would fail me to tell of Job who would not part with his Integrity to die for it m Job 27.5 6 though instigated thereunto by the wife of his bosome n Job 2 9 Chrysostom set on doubtlesse by the Devil who of all the parts of his body had leâ—t his conâ—ue onely free from blisters if haply he might be drawn to curse God therewith and die To tell you next of David who therefore loâ—ed Gods statutes exceed ngly because min had made void his Lâ—w o â—sal 119.126 127. and Psal 39 2 resolving first uqon filence among wicâ—ed company could not hold his spirit so burnt c. p 1 King 19.10 Rom. 11.3 Of Elias who though alone and singular continued therefore zealsus for the Lord of Hosls because they had argg'd down has Aâ—â—s c. Of Micaâ—ah who would not flatter the King though 400. false prophets had done it afore him q 1 King 22 Of Obadith that fea ca God 〈◊〉 in a common defection r 1 King 8.12 c. Look to the New Testament and there you have our Saviour eaten up with the zeal of his Fâ—â—â—ers house when by all sorts polluted s Joh. 2.17 his Apostles soon after his departure resolving to obey God even comora goutes against whatsoever opposition and not to swim down the stream of the times for any menaces of the Council t Act. 4. Pâ—â—ul that heavenly spark burning in spirit against a Church full of unbeleeving Jewes at Corinth u Act. 18.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intus apud se aestuabat prae zeli ardore and openly contesting with the Gentiles at Athens about their senselesse superstition w Act. 17. So he gave thanks afore meat in the midst of Infidels Act. 27.25 What should I stand longer to tell you of Timothy so abstemious and temperate among the luxurious Ephesians x A people so dehauched that they made a law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let there bee never an honest man amougst us And it is storied that they therefore cast our one Hermodorus as by an ostracisme because he was a good busband and a temperate man that Saint Paul was fain to prescribe him a â—â—le wine for hish alihs 〈◊〉 y 1 Tim. 5.23 Of Antipas who held forth the word of life even to the death where Savans â—hâ—one was z Rev. 2.13 Of Neâ—o's family to whom Saint Paul sends salutations a Philip. 4 22. Of Polyâ—â—â— that blessed Martyr of sâ—â—us Christ who being sollicited by the Tyrant to do sacrifice to the â—doll and so to provide for his own safety as diverse others had done before him Fourâ—core and â—dde yzers sud he have I served my Master Christ and â—e never deceived me an shill I now desem him God forbid me any such wickednesse I scorn to be delivered upon any such dishonourable termes b
righteous run to it and are safe e Pro. 18 10. safe Iâ—ay it not from the common destruction yet surely from the common disâ—raction those slinging frights horrible amazements and woefull perplexities wherewith the hearts of those that sear not God are miserably pestred and even eaten up mâ—â—e day of evill Thou shalt be mad for the sight of thine eyes that thou shalt see f Deut. 28.34 saith God to such And again they shall be at their wits ends g Psal 107.27 nay at their lives ends for fear and for looking after those things that are comming upon them h Luc. 21.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nabal for example whose heart even dyed within him ten dayes before he died upon the apprehension of his late danger and he became as a stone i 1 Sa. 25.37 But now 't is otherwise far with those that fear God that fear before him k Eccl 8.12 God is our refuge and our strength saith the Church a very present help in trouble Therefore will we not fear though the earth be remooved and though the mountains be carried into the miâ—st of the Sea l Psal 46 1 2. In pavidos ferient ruinae Hor. See an instance in David he having made God his fear could sing a requiem to hiâ— soule m Psal 116 7. Quid timet hominem hemo in sinu dei positus Aug. rock it asleep in a holy security and not once be afraâ—d for ten thousands of people that had hemmed him in and desperately given out that salvation it self could not save him out of their hands n ps 3.2 5 6 8 Against all which blasphemie and bravadoes of his enemâ—es he encourageth himself in the Lord his God and comfortably concludes the Psalme with Salvation is of the Lord and I have devoted my self to his fear o Psa 119.38 therefore I cannot miscarry so long as he is in safety If a child have his father by the hand though he be in the dark he is not afraid so is it with us whiles by saith the mother of this fear we sit and see him that is invisible p Heb. 11.27 at our right hand q Psal 16.8 to support and save us A second effect of Gods holy fear is a carefull thinking upon his name a reverencing of the commandements r Pro. 13.13 a conscionable endeavour of doing his whole will to the obedience whereof this fear doth strongly incline and enable us For which cause it is that the Lord having delivered his law in great terrour wisheth that the heart of his people might be alwayes fraught with his fear Å¿ Deut. 5 29. which might be as a domesticall chaplaine a faithfull monitour in their bosomes to quicken them to obedience And the preacher in this respect compriseth in this one grace alone all other vertues and dutyes t Eccl. 12.15 because it involves and carryes along with it a religious care of all the commandements though never so harsh and uncouth even to the denying of a mans self in all his selves 1. For his naturall self Isaac was reind in by this religious fear from reversing Jacobs blessing though naturall affection within and Esau's roarings without prompted him thereunto but he did not he durst not do it because he trembled with a great trembling exceedingly u Gen. 27.33 when now he saw that he had done unwilling justice 2. For his carnall self â—his own ease honour comfort prosit and other personall respect and conveniences see it in Jonah who after he had known the terrour of the Lord w 2 Cor. 5.11 in the heart of the sea in the belly of the whale how willing was he on his way to Nanveh x Ion. 3 3. So the Prophet Esay after he hâ—d â—â—en God â—â— his majâ—sty was so subdued by his fear to the obedience of his will that no sooner could the Lord say whom shall â—â—enâ— but he replyed here am â— sand 〈◊〉 y Esay â— 8. though before he were wondrous unwilling to so unwelcome an er and. 3. in his spirituall self his own undeâ—itanding judgement reasâ—n I mean Abrahuâ— was excellent at this for as in beleeving the promise of a son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he censâ—â—ed not the drynesse of his own body nor the deadnesse of Sarah's wo â—nb he cared not for that but silencing his Reason esalted his saith giving glory to God z Rosq 18 19 so in parting with him again at Gods appointment he conserred not with slesh 〈◊〉 blood as St. Paul speake in another case a Gal. 1.16 but getting up early b Gen 22.3 which shewed his wilâ—ingnesse on his way he went an end with the work and therefore heaâ—d from heaven Now I know that thou fearest me c. c ver 12. 4. Lastly in his second self wise and kind ed a Iob who retained his integrity and â—â—nyed himself in his wicked wife that bad him cuâ—â—e God and dye d Iob 2.9 The Septuagint help Ioby wise to scold adding a whol verse of semal passion I must now saith she gâ—e wander and have no place to rest in c. for he feared God and so eichewed that evill also The like we may say of Moses the servan of the Lord who after he had met God in the Inn and was surprized with his fear not only circumcised his son though to the great disconteâ—t of his froward wife e Exod. 4.26 but also sent her away upon that occasion and trouble as it is likely to her fathers house again who met him at Eoreb and reslored him his wife and children f Exod. 18.2 Thus the fear of God fame a man to an umversall self-denyaâ—l and makes him willing to be whatsoever the Lord world have him to be in every part and point of dut than which I know not what â—uâ—er signe can be shewed of a sancâ—isied soule Thirdly for the companions of Gods fear they are such as do accompany salvtion g Heb. 6 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Scholiaâ—â— Ps 119.155 â—eas 3. which as far 〈◊〉 the wickâ—d as they are from se 〈◊〉 Gods shatuâ—es h. These are First sound judgment and saving knowledge of God and his will our selves and our dutyes Hence they are set so neer together in the prophet The spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord i Esay 11.2 ver 3. And in the next verse This same spirn shall mâ—kâ— him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord to discerne of things that be excellent such as none of the pâ—â—n as of this woâ—ld ever knew but God hâ—th revedeâ— them to us that desire so fear his 〈◊〉 with Neâ—â—on â—b k Neh. 1.11 by that spiâ—it of his that sâ—â—rcheth ad thâ—â—gs 〈…〉 things of God causing us for a largesse to know the things thâ—t are sreâ—ly given us of God l 1 Cor. 2.10 And this way it
a Psal 77.9 and that Zion said The Lord hath forsaken me my God hath forgotten me b Esay 49.14 The Butler may forget Ioseph and Ioseph his former toyl and fathers house c Gen. 41.51 but God cannot forget his people whom he hath chosen d Rom. 11.1 Can a woman forget her sucking childe e Esay 49.15 possibly she may some tigresses have proved unnatural to their own birth and bowels f Rom. 1.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but so cannot God He is not unjust to forget your labour of love g Heb. 6.10 or if he should as I abhor to imagine beold there is a book of remembrance written before him for them that fear the Lord and that think upon his name A borrowed speech for our better apprehension from kings and great personages who use for memories sake to keep a catalogue a calendar of such as whom they minde to reward for some special service as Ahasuerosh did Mordecai when he had read his name in the roll of those that had deserved well of the king h Est 6.3 So Tamerlane had alwayes by him a catalogue of the names and good deserts of his servants which he daily pernsed Knol Tu r hist p. 227. Those stout rebels above my text were grown so bold and bedlam as to give out that Gods service was nothing worth and that it was a course of no profit to keep his ordinances i Mal. 3.13 14 15. The contrary whereunto is here vouched and the truth vindicated God saith our prophet both hearkened and heard the holy language of his people and so sealed up his dear respect unto them for present and also caused a book of remembrance to be written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his name and so setled it in his heart to requite them for the future That like as in the work of creation there went with Gods dixit his benedixit and with his ordinavit his ornavit so in the administration of all things especially in that which is special and proper to the elect with his remembrane there goes a recompence and with his regard a reward Note hence That God doth perfectly remember Doctr that he may plentifully requite all the good srvices done him by his saints and people SECT I. The truth confirmed by Scripture HE not only harkened and heard what good things passed between them here but registred up and ingrossed the same in his book of remembrance called elsewhere the book by a specialty k Dan. 12.1 the writing of the house of Israel l Ezek 13.9 the writing to life in Jerusalem m Isa 4.3 the book of life n Philip. 4.3 the book of life of the lamb o Rev. 21.27 wherein he records and where-out he will relate at last day all the good works of his children p Mat. 25. not once mentioning their sins and infirmties which he hath promised to remember no more q Heb. 8. Our labour of love he will not forget but be ever mindfull of his covenant r Psal 115.5 The Lord hath been mindfull of us saith the Church and as an effect thereof he will blesse us He will blesse the house o Israel He will blesse the house of Aaron He will blesse them that fear the Lord both small and great ſ Ps 115.11 12 Cornelius for instance he feared God winh all his bouseholde and he made good proof thereof for he gave much almes to the people and pray'd to God alway and therefore both his prayers and his almes came up for a memoriall before God t Act. 10.1 2 4 Thus God remembred his Noah u Gen. 8.1 Abraham x Gen. 19.20 Rachel y Gen. 30.22 Joseph z Psa 105.20 whose fetters he changed into a chain of gold his rags into fine linnen his stocks into a charret his goal into a palace Potiphars captive into his Masters Lord the noyse of his chains into Abrech and all because heremembred his Creatour in the dayes of his youth a Eccles 12.1 and thereby kept himself pure from the great Transgression b Psal 19.13 SECT II. The truth confirmed by six Reasons THe ground of which gracious dealing in God is first his incomprehensible wisdome Reas 1 and fore-knowledge The Lord hath the Idoea the perfect platforme and paern within himself of all persons and things together with the severall occurrences of either Hence it is that he knowes all things Simul semel together and at once not successively or by discourse collecting one thing from another as we do but in one simple and eternall act knowing and comprehending all things He need but reflect upon himself and there he seeth all things before him as in a glasse So that to speak properly there is neither foreknowledge nor remembrance in the Almighty all things both past and future being ever present with him Tine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect and in thy book were all my members written which in continuance were fashioned when as yet there was none of them c Ps 139.16 In this fore-knowledge of God so we call it for teaching sake as in a book are recorded the persons birth quality and death of every man and woman together with their severall deeds and practises that they may receive according to what they have done in the flesh whether good or evill d 2 Gor. 5 And this is our first ground of this point Known to the Lord are all his works from the begining e Act. 15 18 The Lord knoweth them that be his f 2 Tim. 2.19 Yea he knowes the whole way of the righteous g Psal 1. ult And this his knowledge of them and their good works is a knowledge of singular apprbation yea of infinite delight and complacency which makes him wait to shew them mercy h Esay 30.18 Heremembreth saith the Psalmist when he writes up the people when he makes up his jewels i Mal 3.17 that such a man was born k Psal 87.5 6 there and that being born by a second birth and having followed him in the regeneration l Mat. 19.28 they shall not lose the things they have wrought but receive a full reward m 2 Ich. 8. Secondly Reas 2 God is just and faithfull hence his remembrances and remunerations of his peoples services Not of duty I must tell you but of mercy it being a mercy in God even to reward men according to their works n Psal 62.12 were they better then they be or can be To thee O Lord belongeth merey for thou rewardest every one according to his works n Psal 62.12 But this by the way We were drawing a second reason for the point from Gods justice and faithfulnesse And this we borrow fom the Apostle Heb. 6.10 God saith he is not unrighteous to forget your works and
that ye may see the inequality of the comparison our light and momentary affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and an eternal weight of glory In which text there is well observed to be a triple Antithesis with a more then superlative description of heavens happinesse 2 Cor. 5.14 Mr. Leigh of the promises Hicsi usquam Claudicat ingenium delirat linguaque mensque Lucret. by an hyperbole above an hyperbole For for affliction here 's glory for light affliction a waight of glory a heavy massy substantial glory for momentary affliction an eternal excessive weight of glory A lively losty kinde of expression but such as falles far short of that inexplicable felicity that abides us and is wrought out unto us by our shortest sufferings Words are too weak to uter it Thirdly Rev. 21.4 consider that it s here that God must meet with us or no where Hereafter there shall be no more death nor sorrow nor crying nor pain Here we must have it or in a worse place This world is our purgatory our little-ease our wash-house our place of penance penalty pilgrimage Here he rubs off our rust scours off our scurf hewes us as in the mount to be living stones in the coelestial Temple 〈◊〉 â—â—9 54. Here he fines us files us polisheth us thresheth us out of the husk that we may be meat for the masters tooth as that Father phrased it In a word this is all the hell we are like to have let us make us merry with it and sing sweet songs as David did in this house of our pilgrimage Home's hard by In the mean while fourthly life is a mercy though never so full of misery A living dog is better then a dead lion Eccles 9.4 Lam. 3.39 Ioseph is yet alive that 's more then Joseph is the second man in the land Why is living man sorrowful Man suffers for his sin q. d. Suffer he never so much never so long he receives but the due desert of his evil deeds as that penitent thief told his fellow And that he yet lives amidst all and cuts not off as a weaver the thrum of his wretched life Hezekiah held it a precious indulgence The reason whereof he yeelds a little after The grave cannot praise thee they that go down to the pit cannot hope for thy truth Death cannot celebrate thee that is dead men cannot be exemplary and so shine before men that they may see their good works Esay 38.12.18.19 and glorifie thee The living the living he shall praise thee as I do this day the father to the children shall make known thy truth Adde hereunto for a fist consideration that no man is so hard beset with sorrows behinde and before but he hath some lucida intervalla some refreshings some respits and breathing-whiles betwixt Iobs case is not every mans nay it is scarce any mans to be visited every morning to be tried every momâ—â— to be held uncessantly on the rack and not so much liberty left him as while he swallows his spittle This was an hard case and might be any of ours as well as Jobs Now that it is not see ground of patience nay of thankfulnesse to that God that might have doomed man at first to be ever in sweating out a poor living called therefore the life of his hand Esay 57.10 because it is upheld by the labour of his hand and women to be ever labouring in the extream paines of child birth neither yet to be saved after all 1 Tim 2.15 no though she should continue in faith and charuy and holinesse with sobriety Sixthly God is with us al the while we are in durance optimum solaâ—ium sodaliâ—â—um can we have better company He goes along with us into the fire as with the three children and into the water as with Ionas yea though hel had closed her mouth upon us and swallowed us up into her bowels yet it must in despite of it render us up again because God is with us and for us Hels stomack could not long hold us no more then the whale could brook Ionas which if he had light upon the marriners he would devoured and disgested twenty of them in lesse space Seventhly God accounts what we suffer now sufficient for all and lookes upon us as those that have been judged already yea that have received double for al our sins The time is now that judgement begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 And when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11.32 Abiathar though worthy of death shall live because he had been formerly afflicted with David So shall we which have suffered with Christ raign for ever with him Psal 94.12 Prov. 6.23 2 Cor. 7.6 Esay 30.13 Sustine tu illum qui sustinuit te Sustinuit ille te dum tu corrigeres vitam malam sustine tuillum dum coronet vitam bonam Aug. Esay 26.9 1 Pet. 5.6 who else had been but dead men had not God chastised us and taught us in his law by those corrections of instruction that are the way to life Lastly consider that God that comforteth the abject hath set a certain time for our deliverence a day to do us good in waiting mean-while to shew mercy and counting as it were the slow minutes till we become capable Iob. 13.36 Now shall he wait upon us and sall not we wait for him Yea we have waited for the Lord saith the Chruch in the way of thy judgements And humble your selves under the mighty hand of God saith Peter and he will lift you up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the opportunity of time To prescribe to the most wise God were intolerable presumption and to antevert his season dangerous precipitancy to set him a time with that king of Israel 2 King 6.33 to send for him by a post with those Bethulians either be must save us now or not at all how can he endure it Rebeccah was too nimble with her If it be so why am I thus as ill-advised when she said I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. And she and her son Jacob should have had the patience to wait Gods leisure for the blessing and not to have gotten in by the back-door But we are all naturally impatient of delaies and too ready to think we should sow and reape both in a day As our grand-mother Eve who having received the promise of a Messiah thought that her first-borne Cain must needs have been the Man and therefore as pleased with the conceit thereof she said I have gotten that Man that famous Man even the man Christ Jesus of the Lord. But she was fairely deceived and so are all such like to be as are in like hast and cannot frame with patience to wait for the Lord as David-Psal 40.1 Yea to pant and somtimes to faint as Ieremy with
sundred from their â—ouls for a season are not separated at all from Christ as neither was Christs body sundred from his Deity when laid in the grave A substance there is still preserved by a secret influence proceeding from Christ as a head This substance is by rotting in the grave refined and shall by the same influence be raised incorruptible This rotting of the body is but as the rotting of corn under the earth that it may shoot up into an harvest or as the melting of a battered piece of plate in the fire that it may be brought forth of a better fashion Hence they are said to sleep and to sleep in Jesus and to be dead in Christ who shall raise our vile bodies and make them like unto his glorious body c. like unto the Angels in heaven Mat 22.30 nay like unto God himself whom they shall resemble as children do their father Luke 20.36 Hence they are called children of the resurrection in a like sence as when God raised up Jesus again he said as the Apostle Paul applies it Thou art my Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 1 5. pro quo Graecus interpres reddidit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unde posteà emanavit eorum error qui resurrectures negarunt Mali resurgent sed non beneficio resurr Christi sed illius maledictionis vi quo die comederis mâ—rieris ad condemnationem Malcolm this day have I begotten thee Act. 13.3 Reprobates also shall rise again though some of the Ancients grounding upon that Psal 1.5 thought otherwise but after an other manner by another mean and for another end They shall be dragg'd as malefactours out of the prison of the grave and driven before Christs tribunall by vertue of his judiciary power and of the curse of the law to be tumbled thence into torment Rev. 1.7 but the Elect shall be raised as members of Christs body by vertue derived from his Resurrection 1 Cor. 15.20 22 45. A second priviledge they shall then have is priority in the Resurrection for the dead in Christ shall rise first and those that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air 1 Thes 4.16 17. Thirdly elevation or lifting up the head for joy when all the wicked shall wail for wo Revel 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 21.36 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consistatis .i. ita apparentis ut judicis vultum sententiam sustinere possitis Beza and look gastly their hearts failing them for fear of what will follow The godly shall then stand before the Son of man with much courage and confidence Rom. 8.33 34. Luk. 21.36 Fourthly Collection by the Angels who shall easily discern them from the rest as the servants of the house do their masters harvest or as the corn from the tares their lively looks also shall distinguish them Fifthly Assumption to meet the Lord in the air and ascension in a cloud in manner as Christ himself ascended 1 Thes 4 16 17. For as birds being hatched do flie lightly up into the air which being egges were a heavy and slimy matter so the bodies of Gods Elect which by nature are massie and ponderous being hatcht as it were by the Resurrection Zanch. de oper Dei shall be made pure powerfull nimble and able to mount up into the heavens Sixthly Aggregation or gathering together to the signe of the Son of man 6. Math. 24. Cartwr Hist Christi in Mat 24.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 2.14 that flag not of defiance but of deliverance that he shall then hang out those colours that he shall then display for an ensigne or royal standard that his people may repair unto not to give battle to the enemy but to share with the Conquerour to divide the spoil and take part in the triumph 2. Cor. 2.14 Seventhly Collocation or placing them at his right hand as Solomon did his mother for honour-sake when the goats shall be on the left Math. 25.33 where our Saviour seems to allude to that in Deut. 29.11 where the six free-born tribes blesse the people from mount Gerizim on the right hand and the six other curse from mount Ebal on the left Eightly Inchoation or taking beginning of the judgement from them 8. Math. 25.34 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ita ut nihil ad eam salutem possit amplùs defiderari Beza in loc For the separation being made then shall the king say first to them on the right hand Come ye blessed c. glad to see them as Jacob once to see Ioseph or as ever any father to see his childe that had been long absent Thus as judgement here began at Gods house insomuch as the righteous scarcely were saved so there the judicial sentence shall take beginning from the righteous who shall thenceforth be saved with a mighty salvation to the utmost Heb. 7.25 Ninthly Commemoration or an honourable recital of all their good parts 9. Luk. 7.44.45.46 and practises as once of that good womans that washt his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head together with an open declaration of all their righteousnesse desired or done 2 Cor. 5.10 and that with such fervency of affection in the judge that he will see and set forth nothing but their goodnesse not so much as once mentioning their faults and frailties Math. 25.34 to 41. For in this day of making up his Jewels he will spare them as a man spares his own son that serveth him their good works onely shall follow them Rev. 14.13 Tenthly Pronunciation of that sweetest sentence of absolution 10. Math. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world A speech that breathes out nothing else but crowns scepters kingdoms glories beauties Angelical entertainments beatifical visions unutterable exstasies sweetest varieties felicities eternities Lastly Execution of the sentence and first upon the wicked For although the godly shall first be sentenced yet the wicked shall first be executed and all for the saints sake 1. That they may rejoyce when they see the vengeance being wholly swallowed up with a zeal of Gods glory Psal 58.10 and 79.10 2. That they may more fully acknowledge the greatnesse of their own felicity in the sight of the others remedilesse misery For these shal go away into everlasting punishment into eternity of extremity but the righteous into life everlasting Mat. 25.45 Math. 19.28 1 Cor. 6.2.3 They shall not onely sit with Christ as Assessours and approvers of this righteous sentence but the judgement once ended they shall triumphantly ascend with him into heaven and there enjoy the most exquisit and unmixed pleasures the highest pitch of preferment plenty without want and fulnesse without satiety Rev. 6.9 10. For their apparrel it shall be long white robes washed in the blood of the lamb such as betoken
perfect purity clarity dignity and festivity For their habitatition they are stately Mansions in a lightsom city For their company the sacred Trinity the glorious Angels the crowned Saints Ioh. 14.2 Rev. 21.23 And if it be such an honour to converse familiarly with kings and great personages what is it then with the King of glory and all those heavenly courtiers to enjoy the company of the blessed Patriarches Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessours our dearest friends and acquaintance whom it is probable we shall know as Adam did his wife upon the first sight in paradise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysâ—â—â— and as Peter and Iohn did Moses and Elias in that glimps of heavens glory they had in the monnt Sure it is we shal perfectly love them as our selves and rejoyce in their happinesse as much as in our own whereby our joyes shall be according to their innumerable number multiplied and increased Next for their dignity and glory they shall sit upon Christs throne with palms in their hands and crowns on their heads Now beyond the excellency of a crown mortal mens wishes extend not But the crown we are speaking of is a crown of glory 1 Pet. 5.4 A crown of righteousnesse 2 Tim. 4.8 A crown of life Iam. 1.12 an incorruptible crown 1 Cor. 9.25 A crown not consisting of some precious thing without us Corona significat absolutionem consummationem perfectionem evinciendo capiti destinatur quae absolutiss eminentissima pars est Scultet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12.4 but of royal excellency such as wherewith our souls and bodies bedight and adorn'd shall out-shine the sun in his strength what shall I say more but indeed why do I say so much For as one being asked what God was answered Si scirem Deus essem So if I should undertake to describe heaven it were requisit that I should have been at heaven And yet he that had been there St. Paul I mean could say no more then that he had heard there wordless words words unspeakable not possible to be uttered And when he doth speak of heavens happinesse he commonly useth a transcendent kinde of expression as finding words too weak for such a purpose Lo thus shall it be done to the man whom the king immortal will honour in the day when he makes up his Jewels Consider him well as God bad the devil do Iob and know that there is none like him in the whole earth again Goe forth saith the spouse and behold King Solomon with the crowns wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals So say I behold the godly Christian as crowned with all the forenamed priviledges and prerogatives Cant. 3.11 look upon him as once the city of Shushan did upon Mordecai when the king would do him honour and then tell me whom you have to esteem and account of to set up and side with to prize and prefer in your best affections and expressions Not the rich but the righteous not the great but the gracious not the worlds minions though never so accomplished with all the ornaments of nature art pollicie preferment but Gods Jewels and darlings righteous and religious persons Psal 16.3 Sapè sub attrita latitat sapientia veste Heb. 11 Sic Bruti baculus apud Plutarch cujus intùs solidum aurum corneo velabatur cortice Joh. 6. Esay 53 2Vt templo Dei corporaliter in eo habitantes Bez. those excellent ones of the earth in whom was all Davids delight and should be ours also Despise them not for their outward meannesse the true treasure is carried in earthen vessels and there may be a precious pearl in a leathern purse Iohn Baptist had a girdle of skin about his loins and Elias was a rough hairy man for his outward habit it was course and homely Those ancient worthies went about the world in shipskins and goat-skins but they were like the Ark whose out-side was of goats-hair and badgers skins but the inside pure gold Christ himself whom that Ark typified was hid for awhile under the carpenters son The carnal Capernaites could see nothing in him more then in another man how can this man said they give us his flesh to eat he had no form nor comlinesse saith that Evangleical Prophet and when we shall see him there is no such beauty that we should desire him And yet in him the God-head dwelt bodily that is personally and in him were hid all the treasures of wisdom and worth Colos 2. And the like may be said of many a poor Christian cast out by the world as unworthy their company or countenance but readily received and highly honoured by God himself the blessed spirit and all men that have their senses exercised to discern good and evil But as the root of Iesse was rugged and unsightly so are his branches many of them Howbeit the kings daughter is all glorious within that 's her comfort black she is Cant. 1.5.6 vide Plin. lib. 6. c. 28. Solin cap. 36 Psal 83.3 See Ptov. 15 24 but comly as the curtains of Solomon as the tents of Kedar which were rough but rich as pitcht in the deserts of Arabia Gods servants are called his Hidden ones According to the fashion of the wealthy he pleaseth himself in hidden treasure It is enough that his own eyes behold his Jewels and such to whom the father shewes them The ideots of the world set a very low rate a light price upon Gods precious ones but it s all the wit they have for wisdom is above to the foolish saith Solomon he cannot skill of it It sufficeth to wisdom that she is justified of her children who know how to do her reverence in what garb soever she please to shew her self I know thy poverty saith Christ to one of the seven churches but that 's nothing Rev. 2 Jam. 2.5 God hath chosen the poor of this world rich in faith to be heires of his kingdom in Christ Who can have the face to despise any one for his outward wants and indigence when Abraham the father of the faithful and heir of the world had not a foot of land that he could call his own more then a burying-place when Christs mother was not wealthy enough to bring a lamb for her purification when Christ himself had not twenty pence at hand to pay the tribute mony nor a pillow to rest his head on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Syllarium vocabat Caesar Dio. Act. 12. when tired out with hard toile and travel And who o't'other-side would admire any for his worldly wealth and outward magnificence when Pharaohs horses had costly trappings Cant. 1.8 and the Midianites camels had chaines of gold about their necks Iudg. 8.26 when Dives ruffles in his silkes every day and Herod glitters in his cloth of silver who yet to the eye of heavenly wisdom were no better then so many stinking carcases stuck
Christo Calvin in loc He looks upon such as serve him in sincerity as upon sons and daughters 2. That he will surely shew like mercies and mildnesse to his children in their faults and failings in their wants and weaknesses as the kindest father would do to his dearest son that serveth him For the former point The promise of pardon is here fitly made sub patris parabola saith Gualther under the similitude of a father Figuier in loc And the sense is thus much saith another Interpreter although I seem for a time to the blinde moles of the world to be negligent of those that are diligent about me of my best and busiest servants yet I think upon them still as my dearest children and when I may be thought most carelesse and cruel towards them then am I a most propitious and sin-pardoning father fully reconciled unto them in Christ for there comes in the kinred according to that of our Saviour in his message by Mary to his distressed disciples after his resurrection I ascend unto your father Iohn 20.17 and my father mine and yours and therefore yours because mine For as many as received him saith St. Iohn to them he gave priviledge to become the sons of God Ioh. 1.12 And again when the fulnesse of time was come saith another Apostle God sent forth his son his natural onely begotten son made of a woman and so by personal union of the two natures in one Christ his son by a new relation Gal. 4.4 according to that This day have I begotten thee and all to the end that we may receive the adoption of sons That we which by nature were children of wrath and by practise children of the devil might by divine acceptation and grace be made the children of God who had predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Ephe. 1.4 5. to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved One. SECT I. Reasons hereof drawn from the causes IN which heavenly Text Reas 1 we have the first and chief ground of this doctrine drawn from the causes of our spiritual sonship 1. The fundamental and original cause Gods decree of election by grace we have an act for it in Gods eternal counsel According as he hath chosen us in Christ before the soundation of the world c. For which cause also the predestinate are called the Church of the first-born who are written in heaven Heb. 12.23 And whom he did foreknow saith Saint Paul them he did predestinate also to be conformed to the image of his son like him in glory as well as in sufferings like in being sons as he is a son that he might be even according to his humanity the first-born among many brethren Rom. 8.29 2. The meritorious and procuring or working cause of our adoption is here set forth to be the Lord Christ in whom he as a father hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things Ephe. 1.3 but all in Christ and all in this order A christian by the Gospel is made a beleever Now faith afteran unspeakable manner engrafteth him into the body of Christ the natural son and hence we become the adopted sons of God it being the property of faith to adopt as well as to justifie ratione objecti by means of the object Christ up whom faith layeth hold For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.26 Children I say not by creation as Adam is called the son of God Luk. 3. because he was produced in the similitude of God but by marriage and mystical union with Christ the fecond Adam the heir of all who hath 1. Laid down the price of that great priviledge Heb. 9.15 even his own most precious blood redeeming us thereby that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons Gal. 45. 2. He hath sealed it up to us by his spirit that earnest of our inheritance Eph. 1.13 called therefore the spirit of adoption and the spirit of Gods son as springing out of his death Rom. 8.15 Joh. 16.14 Gal 4.6 and procured by his intercession For because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba father 3. Here is the motive and impulsive cause and that is the good pleasure of his will Joh. 1.12 1 John 3.1 2 Tim. 1. vlt. his absolute independent grace and mercy was the sole inductive He giveth us this dignity saith St Iohn in his Gospel And what more free then gift he sheweth us this love saith he in his epistle because it was the time of love that we should be called the sons of God So that our Adoption is not a priviledge purchased by contract of justice Rom. 8.23 Prov. 16.4 but an inheritance cast upon us of free grace and goodnesse The Lord shew mercy to Onesiphorus in that day when our adoption shal be crowned with its ful accomplishment Lastly here we have the final cause of our adoption â—heprâ—â—ise of the glory of his grace This is the end God propounds to himself in this as in all other his works as having none higher then himself to whom to have respect for he is the most highest God hath made all things for himself yea the wicked also for the day of evil viz. for the glory of his Justice and power as he told Pharaoh Rom. 9.17 but especially of his grace sith all that his justice doth in the Reprobation of some tendeth to this ultimate end of all that the riches of his grace may be the more displayed in the election of others SECT II. Reasons from the effects of his father-hood A Second reason followeth from the effects and those are no lesse demonstrative of the point then the causes Reas 2 These are 1. Gods fatherly affections 2. His expressions both which speake him a father to all his For his affection first to his people Albeit they be but his Adopted children yet he loves them more then any naturall father doth his own bowels Jam. 1. ult Hence he is called the father by an eminency as if there were no father to him none like him none besides him as indeed there is not originally and properly Called he is the father of all mercies Eph. 3.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Paternitas paerentela Math. 23.9 the fountaine of all that mercy that is found in any father all is but a spark of his flame a drop of his ocean Yea he is stiled the father of all the fatherhoods in heaven and earth Whence also our Saviour Call no man saith He your father on earth for one is your father even God To enter comparison in some few particulars First a father loves freely not so much for that his child is witty or wealthy Patriam amat quisque nonquia
magna sed quia sua Sen. ep 66. sic et prolem De mercatore pro filijs suis duobus captis seipsum offerente ut filijs servatis ipse interficeretur lege Sozom. lib. 7 cap. 24. or wel-favour'd as for that he is his There needs no other argument to a father but that this is my child So is it with God Deut. 7.7 Ezek. 36.32 Secondly a father loves hugely there is an ocean of love in a fathers heart he loves his child as well if not better then himself as Joab twitted David with his excessive love to his unnaturall Absolom There is also an immense incomparable incomprehensible love in God toward his children an hyperbole an excesse of love a love passing knowledge Eph. 3.19 And that passeth all the dimensions It is higher then heaven Psal 36.5 deeper then hell Psal 86.13 longer then the earth and broader then the sea Psal 98.4 Psal 104.24 a transcendent boundlesse bottomlesse love truely exalted above the love of naturall parents which yet is wonderous great Psal 103.13 Esay 49.15 But infinitly short of Gods love it makes not the tith of it Thirdly a father loveth constantly and unchangably yea though his child be never so untoward and disobedient as David did his Amnon and his Absâ—â—em even to the last of them did he love them So and much more then so doth God his children For as himself is an everlasting father so is his love everlasting Esay 9.6 49.14 His compassions faile not Lam. 3.22 He cannot grow out of kinde nor be weary of loving Having loved his own saith the evangelist to the end he loved them Ioh. 13.1 Frown he can if need be hate he cannot hide his face he may for a while but his heart is ever earning towards them his bowels are turned within him his repentings are kinled together scoâ—â—e them he doth other-whiles with the rods of men Hos 11.8 Psal 89. Esa 57.7 8 9◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1 Psal 27.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 13. but the sure mercies of David he will never take from them Naturall parents may prove unnaturall not so our heavenly father he is all bowels they may hate where they loved they may loath whom they liked but he rests in his love Zeph. 3.17 He hates putting away Hos 2. Davids father and mother may cast him out but then God will gather him Father Abraham may forget us and Israel may disown us Esay 63.16 But God hath said I will not leave thee I will not not not forsake thee The Fathers and governours of the Church may under a faire pretence of zeale cast us out and say let the Lord be glorified but then shall God appeare to our joy and they shall be ashamed Esay 66.5 The fathers of our flesh are mutable and fickle-minded Jam. 1.17 but with the father of light is no shaddow of change his love lasteth to all eternity without any alteration SECT III. Other reasons from the effects of his fatherhood NExt as Gods affection to his children is more then fatherly so are his expressions and provisions for them too For 1. Besides his eternall electing them to the adoption of children Eph. 1.4 It was he that took us out of the womb Psal 22.9 Hos 13.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 28.19 that we might not Ephraim-like that unwise son stay over-long in the birth and dye before we saw his marvelous light It was he that baptized us into his own name whereby we are called as a childe by his fathers 2. He loves the very places they first breathed in the better for their sakes Ps 86.7 and the very ground they tread upon Hence Judaea the seate of the church is called a delightsome land Mal. 3.12 the glorious land Zach. 7.14 â—om 4.13 Psal 89.12 the land of desires or ornaments Dan. 11.41 yea Canaan for this is called the whore world and Tabor and Hermon is put for the East and West of the world 3. He chargeth all sorts as they love him to love his lambs his little ones to handle them gently for his sake He feeds them with sincere milk streaming from those full-strutting breasts of consolation the lively oracles he brings them forth butter in a lordly dish Judg. 5.25 he makes them ready and unready Esay 66.11 Act. 7. Ezek. 36.25 as new-borne-babes lulling them asleep in a holy security shifting them in their scapes by the clean water of his spirit in their sanctification and the clean linnen of Christs righteousness in their justification He keepeth them from fire from water the fire of temptation which the Dragon spers and the water of persecution which he spews out of his mouth as a flood Rev. 12.4 15 to drown theâ—t avelling church and to devour her babe as soon as it was borne All this God doeth for his children assoon as they are any thing Afterwards as they grow up to any bignesse he beares them in his bosome as a nursing-nursing-father bears the sucking child Num. 11 1â— carries them in his armes till such time as they can go Esa 46.4 guides them with â—is eye when they begin to finde their feet I taught Ephraim also to go 1 Thes 2.7 taking them by their armes Hos 11.3 leads them in his hand as a horse in the wildernesse Es 63.13 If the way be too rough for their tender feet or too long for their short legs he lifts them over by his spirit he chargeth also his angels to bear them in their hands who are as glad of such an office as the servants are to get their yong master in their armes It 's certain that no yong Prince goes better guarded and attended then a childe of God Heb. 1. ult Next for their diet and apparrell God feeds his children with the kidnyes of wheat with the hidden Manna with the bread of life with the best of the best fat things full of marrow Gen. 47 12 Luk. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diog apud Plutarch Prov. 15.15 wines on the lees well refined Isa 25 6. Thus he nourisheth them as Ioseph did his fathers family in Egypt as a little child is nourished And for appaâ—rell they have it of the finest Bring forth the best robe and the best ring c. the righteousnesse of the saints even the red upper-coat of Justification and the white under-coat of sanctification They are ever in their holy-day cloaths their festivall apparrell every day-being the christian mans holy-day and he having within him a continuall feast 6. For their teaching and tuition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ioh. 16.8 Eph 5.9 Cant. 2.4 Such comfort there is in Christs presence though but in the womb as it made Iohn to spring Luc. 1 Shindler Pentag Buxtorf Lexic Cartw Harm The North is a nippingwind the South a cherishing wind but both for the saints D. Sibbes they are all taught of God
Esay 54.13 who 1. by his word makes them wise to salvation gives subtlety to the simple and to the youg man knowledge and discretion 2. by his spirit of revelation convinceth them of their false principles refells their fallacious reasonings unteacheth them the devils learning and then leads them into all truth and goodnesse for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodnesse righteousnesse and truth And of this teaching speaketh St. Paul 1 Thes 4.0 and St. Iohn 1 Epist 2.27 7. Next for their delight and recreation he allowes them his garden to walk into his wine-cellar to go down into He pleaseth himself wondrously in their company be they but two or three of them he is in the midst as once he made the third with those two going Emaus He sets them between his legs as it were so some read that text Deut 33.3 He loved tho people and as an effect thereof they sat down at thy feet or they were set between thy feet as the fathers darlings Moreover when he hath them there he rejoyceth over them with joy yea he rejoyceth ouer them with singing Zeph. p 3.17 like as earthly parents dandle dance and sing their little ones upon their knees Further he is wondrous choyce and chary of his children so that he cannot abide the cold wind should blow upon them The sun must not smite them by day nor the moon by night and what wind soever blow whether North or South and what more contrary then those they must blow good to Gods children Cant. 4. ult In a word he thinks nothing good that he hath to himself except they may share a part And is not this the part of a loving parent 8. Lastly for matter of maintenance and outward subsistence your heavenly father knowes that ye need these things also Mat. 6.32 and it 's enough for you that he knowes it He holds them to hard-meat sometimes but then they have it of free-cost when the wicked pay deare for their tid-bits and dainty morsels Their meat is sawced and their drink spiced with the wrath of God Iob 20.14 their very table is a snare to them The Inne-keeper gives his guests the bests dishes but reserves the inheritance for his children so here God gives his people mony in their purses so much as will serve turne to beare their charges home to buy them necessaries and to keep them true men at least though they have not to lavish and riot because he knows their weaknesse that way and therefore holds them mostly to straight allowance Not out of niggardize I must tell you for he could beteeme them more meanes and so he doth also to some of his better children that have grace to use it and make them friends with it But the less he allowes them here the more he layes up for them in heaven Psal 89.28 31 19. And when they are once come to the full stature of a man in Christ for now they are in their nonage the whole inheritance shall be given them of the father Rom. 8.16 They shall have power over all creatures Rev. 2.26 and possession of that new heaven and new earth 2. Pet. 3.13 And if these be not the expressions and provisions of a bountifull father pray y' what is SECT IIII. God no Father to the wicked what ever they pretend to him NOw for Application Doth God the Lord look upon such as sons and daughters as sincerely serve him Use 1 How then think we doth he look upon all such as serve not God but Mammon as serve not the Lord Christ but their own bellies their base lusts this present evill world nay the God of this world Matth. 6. Rom. 16. 2 Cor. 4.4 Ioh. 8. 1 Ioh. 3.8 Ver. 9.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose works they do and will do and are therefore of their father the devill This saith St. Iohn entitles the devill to a man for he that commits sin is of the devill that 's flat And again In this the children of God are manifest and the children of the devill He that is borne of God doth not commit sin Well he may slip into it of infirmity and at unawares Gal. 6.1 A sheep may slip into a slough but delights not to wallow in it He doth not work iniquity on set purpose he doth not sell over himself to sin with Ahab Rom. 6. Eph. 4. he doth not hire out his members as weapons of wickednesse working all uncleannesse with greedinesse No this is not the guise of a childe of God but of an impe of hell of a brat of fathomlesse perdition They have corrupted themselves saith Moses Deut. 32.5 their spot is not the spot of his children they are a perverse and crooked generation And yet who so forward as these to claime kindred of the Almighty to fawn upon God and call him father Wilt thou not from this time saith He to Idolatrous Israel that had in this behalf an whores forehead a wainscot face hatcht all over with impudence wilt thou not from this time cry unto me My father my father art thou not the guide of my youth Will he reserve his anger for ever will he keep it to the end Here were good words Sed quid verba quaero facta cum videam How canst thou say Judg. 16.15 Ier. 3.2 3 4 ◠thou lovest me when thy heart is not with me Behold saith God in the same place thou hast spoken and done evill things as thou couldest thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredomes and wickednesse and hast thou yet a sace to call me Father Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God 2 Ioh. 9. He that walketh not in the steps of Abrahams faith Obj. Sol. hath not Abraham to his father Rom. 4.12 what-ever he pretends to him with those braving Jews Ioh. 8. Tell me not here that God hath blessed you as a father sustein'd you with corne and wine Gen. 27.37 given you of the fatnesse of the earth and of the dew of heaven c. for Esau had as good a portion as this and yet a cast-away and Abraham gave the moveables to the children of the concubins whom he lesse respected but Isaac had the inheritance Oh but we are children of the free-woman Obj. Sol. borne and bred in the bosome of the church and enjoy many outward priviledges So did Esau and yet was hated of God so did Iudas and yet a firebrand of hell Obj. Sol. Mat. 3. Neither is it any such businesse as many make of it that they have had their Christendome For unlesse they be withall baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire with the spirit of judgement and of burning Esay 4.4 whereby they have so put on Christ as that they are become the children of God by faith in him Gal. 3.26 27. It s pity that ever Font-water was spilt upon their faces Saul was circumcised and yet David calls him
Cushite Psal 7. Title or Ethiopian and unregenerate Israel is to me as Ethiopia saith God Amos 9.7 and as Gomorrah Esay 1.10 notwithstanding all their externall services and sudibrious devotions Christ shall one day rid his house and wash his hands of all such unworthy hang-byes and powerlesse pretenders Depart from me shall they hear to their everlasting amazement Go get ye to the gods whom ye have chosen Esay 51.1 Look to the rock from whence ye were hewen and to the hole whence ye were digged see what your father the devil will do for you for I le take no further charge of you his work ye have done and his wages ye shall have And sith ye have runne out with the Prodigall and loathing such wholesome fare as my house afforded ye have fed hungerly on those murthering morsels of iniquity the devils husks therefore shall they stick in your throats like the envenomed arrows of the Almighty thoroughout all eternity SECT V. Terrour to those that maligne or misuse Gods children BUt secondly Vse 2 is God a Father to all faithfull Christians how ill-advised then are all such as either by their violent hands or virulent tongues misuse or maligne them yea that offer them the least affront or offence despite or displeasure For know they not whose children they are and to whose charge they belong Shall not God avenge his own though he bear long with them Very Infidels and worse will defend their own Very beasts will see to the safety of their young ones and spend their lives freely for their rescue Amongst fowls the Phoenix is famous and the Pellican much more for reviving her dead birds with her heart blood Now is there mercy and good nature in a man in a bird in a beast in the creature in the unreasonable creature also and can we without blasphemy or extreme injury It is a Spanish proverb He that wipeth the childs nose kisseth the mothers check Gen. 4. Num 12.14 imagine worse of God It 's more then evident to him that hath but half an eye or doth observe any thing at all in Gods word or works that as he taketh notice of smallest curtesies even to a cup of cold water to requite them so of their least or lightest indignities and injuries to repay them be it but a frown or a frump Cain shall answer it before the Lord if he but lowre upon Abel Miriam shall be a leper seven dayes at least and stand ashamed of her fathers spetting in her face if she but mutter against Moses An Ammonite or a Moabite shall be bastardized and banished the beauty of holinesse the threshold of the Sanctuary to their tenth generation merely for an omission because they met not Gods first-born Israel with bread and water in the wildernesse How much more because they hired Balaam to curse him Deut. 23.3 4. which when he could not do God turning his curse into a blessing unto his children because he loved them verse 4. yet for that he shewed his good-will to have done it and moreover taught Balac to lay a stumbling-block before Gods Israel to eat things sacrificed to Idols and to commit fornication Rev. 2.14 therefore was he slain by the sword of the Lord. Gen. 34.31 For is she not our sister should be make our sister a whore said those two brethren in iniquity which if it seemed a sufficient plea to them as likewise to Absolom in the behalf of his sister Tamar for that barbarous and bloody massacre how shall the Lord drench and drown the sword of his justice in the bowels of such as wrong his children to his face and do them all the despite that may be Esth 7.8 what will they force the Queen also in the house will they offend Gods little-ones rake into his bowels pollute his presence with the slaughter or but misusage of his children Job 9.3 Had Zimri peace that slew his Master Hath ever any waxed fierce against God and prospered Look to it all ye that smite any child of his either with hand or tongue 'T were better a milstone were hanged about your necks and your selves drowned in the depth of the Sea then that ye offend one of these little-ones Mat. 18.6 10 if a beleever For I tell you Christ tells you that in heaven their Angels do always behold the face of their heavenly Father waiting for a commission to do speedy execution on the enemies of his children SECT VI. Try your title to God as a Father Marks EXhortation and first to try our title to God as a loving Father Vse 3 by our care to serve him as obedient children There be sundry distinctive notes of a child of God sparsed here and there up and down the Scriptures but that in the Text shall suffice for the present and it is infallible I will spare them as one spares his own sonne that serves him Every sonne then of his serves him we see and not as a slave his Lord but as a son serves his father How 's that First cheerfully and willingly Every one that is born of God serves him with gladnesse Psal 100.2 loves to be his servant takes hold of his covenant counts it his meat and drink to do the will of his heavenly Father in whose house therefore he hath a name better then of a sonne or daughter Esay 56.6 Next reverently with a filiall fear and awfull respect to God as his father whose favour he finds better then life and whose displeasure he fears and hath felt more bitter then death Heb. 12.27 1 Pet. 1.17 Psal 2.11 How fearfull is this place said Jacob where yet he had seen visions of love Gen. 28 Thirdly confidently and with an humble boldnesse as well assured of his Fathers both assistance and acceptance treating with him ever and anon by affectionate prayer as God hath no dumb children and making his requests known unto him with affiance of accesse and successe in all his suits which the phrase of crying Abba Father also importeth See Heb. 4.16 Sincerely and entirely both 1. For subject not having a heart and a heart as that desperate Neapolitan said he had one for God and another for the devil not carrying two faces under a hood as one wittily saith of Haymo and Remigius which double-dealing is most detestable in a child toward his father we say of an arrant dissembler He would not spare to cozen even his own father and no good child will offer it But serving him with singlenesse of heart yea with all the heart Dent. 10.12 Rom. 12.1 2 Cor. 6.20 and all the soul presenting our bodies also as a whole burnt sacrifice which is our reasonable service yea glorifying him with both our spirits and bodies which are the Lords Not offering to detain from him that hath bought us with a price any part of his purchase for why should we lie to the Holy Ghost All Gods children are such as
will not lie Esay 63.8 Act. 5.3 4 but obey from the heart that form of doctrine whereunto denying themselves they have been delivered rather seeking to be good then seeming to be so 2. For object Every true child of God obeys his father in all as well as in any part or point of duty Rom. 6.17 He is a doer of righteousnesse 1 Joh. 3.10 a fulfiller of all righteousnesse Mat. 3. 1 Joh. 3.10 something at least he is doing at it as he is able and this distinguisheth him from a child of the devil saith St. John he follows after it as Solomons expression is as a man follows his trade wherein use makes mastery he lifts at the latch though he cannot do open the door he shews his good will and is humbled for his failing when either he misseth of his work or marres it in the manner So purifying himself by the practise of mortification as God is pure in some truth of resemblance and all out of a right hope that he is his child 1 Joh. 3.2 3. Constantly and unweariably A good child will be serviceable to his father in whatsoever he can so long as they two shall live together Semblaby Gods children serve him in righteousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of their lives Luk. 1.75 Thus David as he swore himself to Gods service and promised to dwell in his house for ever without shifting his service so he performed it accordingly for he served out his whole time as an Apprentice to the trade Act. 13.36 22. and spent all his dayes after he was once bound in doing all the wills of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one as well as other Lastly unanimously with the rest of his fellow-servants with one consent and one shoulder as the scripture speaketh Zeph. 3.9 observing our Lords last charge the same in effect with that of Joseph to his brethren Fall not out by the way but bee at peace among your selves loving one another out of a pure heart fervently For by this shall your selves know that ye are my children 1 Joh. 3.10 13. and by this shall all men know Heb. 4 that ye are my disciples if ye love one another and seale up this love by stirring up your selves among your selves to love and good workes Lo These are the signes of such a servant of God as he will own for a son and account of as a Jewell to be made up in his Magazine If ye be such ye are made for ever As if otherwise SECT VII Settle this that ye are Gods children and how MY second Exhortation is that ye give no rest to your eyes nor sleep to your ey-lids till you have secured and settle this to your selves it being a matter of that moment that without nothing can be safe nothing comfortable Now to become children of God there is no other way under heaven then to passe thorough the narrow womb of repentance and be born againe For flesh and blood cannot inherit 1 Pet. 1.3 Gal. 5.21 and all unrighteous persons are utterly excluded from the benefit of Adoption 1 Cor. 6.9 10. And yet such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified And how justified but by the name that is by the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ apprehended by faith which adopts as well as justifies And how sanctified but by the spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.10 11 Homo templum Dei Deus ara hominis whose office and operation it is to transfuse the divine nature into us and to erect that faire fabrick of the new man in our hearts for a temple to himself that he may dwell in us and walk in us yea secretly and sweetly say to us being now separated from all il I courses and companies I will be a father unto you 2 Cor 6.1.6 17 18. and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty SECT VIII Let all Gods children know their Father and how INstruction to all such as are received into the number of Gods children Vse 4 as ever they expect his blessing or respect their birth-right to discharge that duty that this dignity calles for And first to know their father So to know God as a child doth his father not only with an apprehensive but an effective knowledge that unites the heart unto him labours not only after an union but a unity with him We are all by nature like runagate children who would never have kept neer their parents house Hos 4 but assembled themselves by troopes in harlots houses with the prodigall where whordome and wine and new wine hath taken away our hearts the things of this life are so neer and naturall to us so present and pleasant that we cannot ascend into heaven to learne wisdom to get the knowledge of the Holy One Prov. 30.3 4. The spirit of fornication hath so besotted us that we have not so much as a mind to look toward God Hence that complaint I have brought up children and they have rebelled against me The ox knoweth his owner and the asse his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Do ye thus requite the Lord Isa 1.2 3 Deut. 32.6 Psal 14.3 Esa 64.7 Judg. 18.24 Isa 65.1 1 Chron. 28.9 O foolish people and unwise Is not he thy father c But there is none that understandeth and seeketh God none that stirrith up himself to take hold of God c. Gracelesse and heedlesse impes we are all that will not once take knowledge our of father or cry after him though lost as Micah did after his lost idols albeit we have so tasted of his sweetnesse and he hath said Behold me behold me unto a nation that was not called by his name But thou Solomon my son know thou the God of thy fathers yea God thy father for I will be his father and he shall be my son said the Lord to David 2 Sam. 7.14 Telemachus apud Homer Odyss a. 1 Ioh. 2 13 We use to say and we have it from the Greeks that he is a wise child that knows his father But he is no child of God that knowes not him for his father I write unto you babes saith St. Iohn because ye have known the father Loe he is not yet a babe in Christ that hath not some knowledge of this that God is his father True it is that the most gray headed and most experienced Christian knowes but in part and imperfectly because he is taught but lamely we prophecy in part 1 Cor. 13.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exod. 33. Isa 6.2 Pet. 3.18 Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lumen de lumine we see here but as in a glasse obscurely we see but Gods back-parts the later end of his traine we hear of him here by the hearing of the eare but it is no more then as the later end of a sentence or
so much only as the Eccho resounds But we must be getting and growing in this grace even in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ He is the brightnesse of his fathers glory and the expresse image of his person The beam of the Sun is not so like the body of the Sun the character on the wax is not so like the seal that imprints it nay milk is not so like milke as Christ is like his father He is up and down the self-same that his Father is they differ in nothing Christus est alius à patre non aliud but that the one is the father and not the son the other is the son and not the father Hence that of our Saviour to Philip when he said Lord shew us the father and it sufficeth us Jesus saith unto him Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me Ioh. 14.8 9 hath seen the Father and how sayest thou then shew us the Father The very same All-powerfull God who in fellowship of his sacred person hath a soul and body glorified the same spirituall nature is the nature of the Father As if the same soul and body that is in you were communicated with the person of your child Well might our Saviour therefore say If ye had known me ye should have known my father also John 14.7 Oh learne and labour therefore to profit more and more in the mystery of Christ to know him better in his natures in his offices in his workes both of Abasement and Advancement of Humiliation and Exaltation but especially to know him as St. Paul did for the other you may easily know out of every Catechisme to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.10 This is the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus ver 8. this is life eternall Ioh. 17.3 We know no more of God and his will then we practise and have experience of Christ is said to know no sin because he did none and Eli's sons knew not the Lord though priests because they feared him not they deteined the truth they knew in unrighteousnesse as those Philosophers did Rom. 1.18 SECT IX Let them thankfully acknowledge his free grace in their adoption and why A Second duty we owe to God as his children is thankfull acknowledgement of that never-enough adored depth of his singular love in our Adoption The absolute and independant freedome of his grace herein was such that without any the least colour of cause or shew of reason in us without any defect on his part or desert on ours He drew us out of the most vile and servile condition that could be into the glorious liberty of the sons of God David was to be gathered to his fathers Psal 132.11 Esay 9.6 1 Tim. 1.17 Psal 2. and it was therefore a singular favour to him that he should have children to sit upon his throne after him But God is the King immortall as St. Paul stiles him the everlasting Father as Esay and therefore needs no son to succeed him But if he did he had a son of his own as like him as is possible whom also he hath set as King upon his holy hill of Sion Amongst men those that have children of their own if they adopt another mans childe it is commonly because their own are unfit for succession either from some bodily weaknesse as not likely to leave issue or for basenesse of spirit and badnesse of behaviour as uncapable and unfit for government Now none of all this can without horrible blasphemy be said of the Lord Christ But admit the case had so stood with God that it had been requisite he should have adopted any for his sons and heirs the good Angels might have drawn away his affection from us by their holinesse or the evill angels his compassion for their wretchednesse or he could for a need of very stones have raised up children to himself to be heirs of his kingdome in Christ It was his will only and nothing else that moved his will to set his love upon us as we may see both in the type Deut. 7.7 and in the truth Eâ—h 1.5 Surely as there was no defect or need in him so there was as little merit or desert in us For whereas in the civill adoption as when Pharaohs daughter adopted Moses Mordecai adopted Esther Jacob the two sons of Joseph there is something in the Adopted that moveth the Adoptant cither some outward inducement as kindred beauty favour c. or some inward as the gifts of the minde understanding ingenuity hopefulnes c. there was nothing at all in us to move God to such a mercy For outward respects there was neither kindled to mâ—â—te him for our father was an Amorite Ezek. 16.3 4 5 6. Christ calls his spouse first his Love and thâ—n his fair one Câ—â—t 2.10 Homo est inversâ—s decalogus Eph. 2.1 2. our mother a Hittite we were the sons of the perverse rebellious woman as Saul reproached Ionathan nor yet beauty to intice him for we were in our blood in our blood in our blood when he spread the skirt of his garment over us and said unto us Live Blood is so many severall times there named to note our extreme filthinesse so little amiable were we when he set his love upon us And for any inward motive grace which is the only thing that God looks after Psal 14.2 is not at all to be found in the naturall man Nay he stands acrosse and is quite contrary to it as being acted and agitated by the devill and held captive as a slave by him at his pleasure Loe this was our estate thus the Lord found us when he came to adopt us And indeed Adoption to speak properly as it is a borrowed terme from the civil law imports as much For it is the raking of one foâ— a son who is for present in some servitude to another And so Lawyers distinguish it from Arrogation which is say they the chusing of one for a son that is free his own man not under the command of another But such alass was not our case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3.23 for both Jews and Gentiles were shut up under sin fist shut up close prisoners in the devills dungeon whose works we did as slaves and could not but do them whose image we bear as sons and could not but resemble him being as like the devill as if we had been spâ—tout of his mouth and had perished together with him in our own filth and blood like that forlorne infant Ezek. 16. had not he of his mere grace and goodnesse when it was thetime of loves said unto us Live yea when we were weltring in our blood he said Live Oh let the deep and due consideration of this matchlesse mercy and free favour ravish and
affectiâ—â—â— hearts to greatest cheerfulnesse and thankfulnesse let it swallow up an â—â—â—â—oâ—tents and make us send up many an humble joyfull and praisefull heart to him SECT X. Let them honour their father and how A Third duty we are to performe to God as a father is Reverence according to that in the Prophet Mal. 1.6 A son honoureth his father If then I be a father wher 's mine honour and that in the Decalogue Honour thy father and thy mother which saith St. Paul it the first commandement with promise Promise I say of long life to him that by honouring them lengtheneth his parents life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hiâ—rocl Reverence and loving respect to parents never went unrecompenced as in Iapheth Isaac Ruth others much lesse shall that to God for them that honour him he will honour Here then we are 1. 1 Sam. 2. to have an high and honourable esteem of God in our hearts lifting up and laying open those everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in Psal 24. and come in state in his own likenesse Ignorant people cast him into a dishonourable mould as it were they have bald and base conceits of God they think him altogether such a one as themselves or worse they change the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man c. Psal 50.21 Rom. 1.13.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6.16 they dishonour him and therefore he gives them up to passions of dishonour or vile affections For as a king will take it ill to be entertained no otherwise by his subjects when he comes amongst them then if he were some Knight or meaner man so will God when we have low conceptions of him when we glorifie him not as God when we enlarge not his roome and let him in-dwell richly in us when we conceive not of him as the onely potentate represent him not to our thoughts in the apprehension of one that is in and of himself All-sufficient Omnipotent onely wise and in Christ our most merciful father yet still our father in heaven who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans works 1 Pet. 1.17 whom therefore if we call father we must passe the whole time of our sojourning here till he send for us home infear Lo this is to honour God in our hearts And this is that that is required so often in scripture under the term of magnifying God or making him great and of glorifying God or making him glorious so he is pleased to account of it when we get so far as to conceive of him above all creatures and that is when he comes into our hearts as a king of glory far above all the glory that can be found in earthly princes 2. We must honour him in our speeches both to him and of him 1. In our prayers to God we must take unto us words neither too curious Verba nec lecâ—a sint nec neglecâ—a nor too carelesse we must speak supplications with the poor publican we must addresse our selves unto him in lowliest manner as the Prodigal did Father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I am no more worthy to be called thy childe A servants place in thine house is too good for me Briefly our words to God in prayer must be as the words use to be of a childe to his father humble earnest and direct to the point avoiding vam babblings This is to be sober in prayer 1 Pet. 4.3 Eccles 5.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interparlance 1 Tim. 2.1 Omnino oportet nos oraâ—iotionis tempore curiam intrare coelestem in qua Rex regum stellaâ—â— sedet solâ—â— c. Quant â— ergo cum reveremia quanto timore quanto illuc humilitate accedere debet epalude suâ— procedens repens vilts ranuncula Bern. Lev. 19.12 when considering that God is in heaven and we on earth considering the infinite distance and disproportion between him and us therefore our words are few We are allowed to parle with God by prayer to use an holy and humble familiarity and to come boldly unto the throne of grace but yet we must so couch our petitions that all needless heartlesse repetitions superfluous endlesse digressions tedious and unnecessary prolixities be carefully avoided Humble and pithy prayer findes freer accesse to God and returns with better successe to us 2. As we must thus honour our heavenly father in our speeches to him so in our speeches also of him to others Take heed that we take not up that great and terrible name of his unreverently lightly loosely disrespectfully for he hath vowed that he will hold none guiltlesse he hath sworn that no vain swearers or other dishallowers of his name shall ever enter into his kingdom Reviling of parents was banishment by Plato's laws death by Gods laws Exod 21.17 How shall they escape that bore thorough the glorious and dreadful name of God tossing it in their common talk as filthy dogs do stinking carrion that swear in â—â—st and not in judgement that play with oathes as apes do with nuts not considering that there is a large roll of ten yard long and five yards broad full of curses against the swearer and that shall rest upon his house which he calls his castle and where he thinks himself most secure Zach. 5.2 Oh what will become of those hellish mouthes that belch out blasphemies against him whom yet they daily call Our father which art in heaven so ordinarily and so openly that some of them are become very inter ections of specch to the vulgar S. Edw. Sands and other-somemere phrases of gallantrey to the braver as one complaineth How should we grieve at this as those good men did when David was reviled by Shimei how should our hearts rise to hear our heavenly father thus dishonoured surely good blood will not belie it self 3. God is to be honoured as a father in our whole conversation remembring that we are ever in his eye and should therefore walk before him in an holy bashfulnesse as ashamed and afraid to do any thing unworthy of his presence or that may give him discontent It was ordered in Moses law that when any went forth of the camp to ease nature they should dig a hole with a paddle and cover their excrements And why For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp therefore shall it be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee Deut. 23.13 14. Now there was more in this law then every man looks unto Sin is the souls excrements St. Iames therefore calls it the superfluity of naughtinesse Jam. 21. Hâ—b 1.13 Amos 3.3 2. Sain 12.9 〈◊〉 10.33 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 4.13 Gen. 27.12 41 Prov. 17.2 as Samuels and 〈◊〉 sons as â—onathan the four Gâ—rshom the son of Menesseh or as some copies have it the son of Moses In
accuratissimis libris Num suspensum est supra â—lâ—as literas in signum cam siteram adesse vel abesse pesseâ—ut sit silius Mosis Manassis 2 Reg. 21. istius prosapiâ hujus imitatione Buxtorf Tiber. Amam Coronis in reference to the dung of the beasts that were slain in sacrifice Now God is of purer eyes then to behold sin with patience in his own especially for can two walâ— together and they not be agreed David is grievously threatened for despising God his father that is for daring to do that before him that he would not have done before a childe of a dozen yeers-old Cornelius and his company set themselves as in Gods view looked him ful in the face and carried themselves accordingly so must we remembring that al things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do Iacob feared to displease his father lest he should get himself a curse and not a blessing yea that profane Esau would not offer to attempt any thing against Iacob his brother during his fathers dayes for fear of displeasing him Epaminondas rejoyced in nothing more then that he had done noble exploits and atteined great victories whiles his parents were yet alive that they might share with him in the comfort and credit thereof Oh let it be our constant care so to carry our selves that we may not shame our fathers house as Solomons fool but to get him honour from others Mat. 5.16 that they may see and say that we are the seed that the Lord hath blessed Esay 61.9 It is not for noble mens sons to be lingering and lodging in the stable or gate-house that 's a place for grooms and hindes much lesse to be found filling muck-cart the No more doth it sute with the sons of God to be loading themselves with thick clay to have their hands elbow-deep in the world to busie themselves about many things with neglect of the one thing necessary to run sqeaking up and down the world as rats and mice good for nothing but to devour victuals This is not to walk worthy of God their father and of Christ their elder brother SECT XI Let them resemble their father and wherein GOds children must resemble him M. Rob. Harris Math 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb as well as reverence him The child is but the father multiplied the father of the second Edition as One speaketh like him ordinarily both in countenance and condition The Pharisees were so like their fathers they were the worse again Isaac trod in his fathers foot-steps and heyred him even in his infirmities Gen. 26.7 Constantines sonnes exactly resembled their father in his good parts and practises We must also be followers of God as dear children 1. In light 1 Joh. 1.5 being transparent as a chrystall glasse with a light in the midst of it 2. In love Ephes 5.1 2. for have we not all one father Mal. 2.10 Ephes 4.5 6. love therefore as brethren 1 Pet. 3.8 fall not out by the way Gen. 45.24 let there be no difference for we are brethren and the Canaanite is in the land Gen. 13.7 8. How can we look our father in the face or expect his blessing when we know that he knowes there is dissention amongst us Oh how happy and pleasant a thing it is brethren to be at unity there surely it is that God commands the blessing Psal 133.1 3. He never came at Abraham that we read of till the breach betwixt him and Lot was made up again live therefore at peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you 3. In mercy Luk. 6.36 loving them that hate us blessing them that curse us doing good to them that persecute us for so shall we be the children of our heavenly father who doth good both to the just and to the unjust causeth his sun to shine and his raine to fall not onely upon flowers and fruit-trees but also upon briers and thorns of the wildernesse such incarnat devils as march up and down the earth with hearts and hands as full as hell with al manner of malice and mischief Such a childe of God was Elisha that feasted his enemies Steven that prayed for his persecutours and that Martyr that when he could not obtain a fair hearing before Steven Gardner cryed out Send me to my prison again among my frogs and toads which will not interrupt me whiles I pray for your Lordships conversion 4. In sanctifying the sabbath Exod. 20.11 Esay 56.5.6 by resting not only from corporal labour but spiritual idlenesse Acts Mon. as God rested on that day from creating and yet works hitherunto in preserving and upholding all things by the word of his power The baser sort of people in Sweth-land do alwayes break the sabbath Davids desire by Rob. Abbot p 16 saying that its onely for gentlemen to keep that day And in many places amongst us Gods sabbaths are made the voyder and dunghill for all refuse businesses But the Pharisees taking it for granted that Christ had done that he could not justifie on that day where in they were mistaken rightly conclude If this man were of God he would not have broke the sabbath day this not the guise of Gods children 5. Lastly 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Pet. 1.14 15 in all holy life and pure conversation according to that Be ye holy as I am holy pure as I am pure perfect as I am perfect Our lives should be as so many visible commentaries upon Christ's life we should preach forth his vertues Coloss 2.6 1 Joh. 2.6 and expresse him to the world in all his imitable praises and practises Then we are said to walk in Christ yea to walk as Christ walked when we resemble him not as an image doth a man in out-ward lineaments onely but as a son doth his father in nature and disposition in affection and action Our utmost good consists in communion with God and conformity to him in keeping inward peace with him that he abhor us not because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters Deut. 33.13 and in seeking and keeping if it be possible and as much as in us lies peace with all men and holinesse for such shall both see God which is not every mans priviledge Heb. 12.14 and be counted and called the sons of God Math. 5.10 they shall have both the comfort and credit of divine Adoption SECT XII Let them love their Father and how to expresse their love IF God be our Father it 's but fit we should love him 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Avi magis amant nepotes quà m suosliberos Heidfeld Cos amoris amor Joh 3.16 God having tied parents and children together with cords of love saith Nazianzen Love I grant though of a fiery nature yet contrary to the nature of fire herein descends rather then ascends Hence grandfathers oft love their grandchildren better then their own But love
him saith David that is whatsoever thou wouldst that God should bestow upon thee cast it first upon him by faith and it shall be effected Rom. 8. Qui misit unigenitum immimisit spiritum promisit vultum quid tandem tibi negaturus est Bâ—r. de tem he shall bring it to passe Away with the spirits of bondage to feare againe we have now received the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba father yea for an unquestionable pledge of his infinite love he hath given us his son how shall he not then together with him give us all things also That 's St. Pauls argument If ye which are evill can give good things to your children how much more wil your heavenly father give to them that ask of him that 's our Saviours argument Whereunto let me adde this God made himself known to be our gracious and provident Father Mat. 6 A Christian is crowned not only in his cradle with K. James but before he is born as Sapores K. of Persia was For his father dying left his mother with child and the Persian Nobility set the crown on his mothers belly acknowledging thereby her issue for their Prince Heyl. Geog. p. 64 Mat. 6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 23.3 before we could know our selves to be his children He formed us in the womb crudled us there like cheese curiously wrought us in those lowermost parts of the earth as an Artificer when he hath some speciall piece of work to do retires into some private room out of the sight of others whilest we were there he filled two bottles of milk for our entertainment into the world whereinto we no sooner came but he entred into covenant with us to be our God and Father hee signed and sealed this covenant by the Sacrament of Baptisme the solemne seal of our adoption And all this before ere we knew what was done unto us And will hee now forget to do us good when we know and acknowledge him when we pray unto him and by faith depend upon him It is not possible He feeds the fowls and clothes the lillies to whom he is no father And will he not much more do so for you Oh ye mall faiths A child whiles he hath his fathers favour cares for nothing never troubles himself to think where he shall have his next meal or a new suit of clothes let him but please his father and those things shall be provided to his hand Again let a child walk in dark and dangerous places so long as he hath hold of his father he fears not Did we but stirre up our selves to take hold of God wee should be secure yea though we walked in the vale of the shadow of death with David we should never be heard to say as Heathens that have no interest in God What shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewith shall we be clothed so long as our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things and will not fail to provide them in a competent measure The men of Gods hand it may be shall have more then wee because they have their portion here with the prodigall But we need not envie them that for it is but an estate for life granted them in the utmost and most remote part of our inheritance Psal 17 Will a child think much a father should give a pension for life out of this or that whiles he hath far greater things left him yea the inheritance also of that out of which an annuity is granted for a time to some other Children ought not to lay up for their parents but parents for their children saith the Apostle And Oh how great things saith the Prophet hast thou laid up in store for them that fear thee Now 2 Cor. 12.14 will he give us a crown and deny us a crust provide heaven for us and with-hold earth from us Ask onely and it shall be given you the earth is the Lords and the fulnesse thereof In your Fathers house is bread enough Shall the prodigall call so confidently for his childs part shall Esau go so roundly to his father for the blessing Luk. 15.12 Gen. 27.34 And do we stand doubting whether we were best speak or hold our tongues and not fall down with Esther before Ahashuerosh or with Achsah before her father Caleb and beg the upper-springs of spirituall blessings and the nether-springs of temporall comforts which he with-holds haply for a time with an unwilling willingnesse that he may hear of us and have our prayers which though never so poor and imperfect yet he is much taken with as a naturall parent is with the pratling and stammering of his own above all the plain speech of all the children in the Town besides SECT XIV Comfort of Adoption where are shewed the Priviledges of sonnes privative and positive COmfort to all Gods faithfull servants Vse 5 they are sonnes and daughters to the Almighty and count you that a small matter Is it nothing to be son-in-law to a king saith David What pains did Jacob take night and day to be but sonne-in-law to Laban who changed his wages ten times and ever for the worse Joseph and Daniel were for their good service highly advanced but not adopted But every servant of God is a sonne and every sonne an heir Great was the glory of our first Parents in Paradise had they held it and yet if they had what had they gotten more then a confirmation of their present estate or at most the reward of their service wages for their work they could never have attained to this honour Joh. 1.12 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be the sons of God This St. Iohn in his gospell calls a dignity an eminency a royalty And in his first epistle he stands and wonders as transported with an extasy of admiration at it 1 Ioh. 3.1 And well he might For this saith the psalmist is to be set above the Kings of the earth it interesteth and inrighteth a man to the inheritance of heaven and earth The possession of the earth is as yet deteyned from God children by the wicked for a time as the promised land was from Israel by the Amorites but they have great things mean-while in reversion even heaven with all its happines whither they may comfortably look up and boast on better ground then Nebuchadnezzar did of his Babel 1 Pet 1.4 Is not this mine inheritance Am I not kept by the power of God to that salvation reserved for me in the heavens Yea they may comfortably lift up their eye as God bâ—d Abraham toward heaven and tell the starrs if he were able so they their glorious priviledges This Moses well understood and therefore chose rather to suffer as a son Heb. 11. then to scape as a bastard he preferr'd the reproach of Christ before the honour of being the son of Pharaohs daughter and the possibility of being heir to two
shall stop him If Salomon delight to search out the secrets of wisdom what shall be hid from him If Somson delight in Daliance what will h not dare to do for it if Ahashueroh delight in Esther what may not she have of him If the Lord delight in us saith Caleb then be will bring us into this land of giants and give it us As if he hath no delight in me said David behold here I am let him do to me as seemeth good to him But now the Lord doth delight in every David and will shew him yea seal up unto him the sure mercies of day He delights in mercy saith the Prophet yea such a mercy saith the Apostle he rejoyceth against judgement and glories over it as over his adversary whom he hath subdued Hence it was that he erected himself of old not a judgment-seat but a mercy-seat in the midst of his people as one that settled himself to shew them mercy When the Judge sate him down in the gates of Israel it was to do justice Psal 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. When the scorner sits him down in the chair of pestilence he will scoff to some purpose so now that God sits in his mercy-seat he will surely shew mercy with ease yea a multitude of mercies When a man hath setled himself in his seat it 's supposed he is at ease and a small matter shall not raise him God is never more at ease as I may say and better pleased then when he is in his mercy-seat in his throne of grace Hence he is said to rise out of his place Heb. 4.16 to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity Esay 26.21 and to do his work his strange work when he is to do justice Esay 28.21 It is an act neither so proper to him for it is his strange work nor so pleasant to him for he riseth out of his place to do it which is a kinde of diseasement and a pain to him especially from whom mercie flows as freely and as naturally as light from the sun hony from the comb water from the well-spring He quits himself in it as well apaid thereof he rests in his love and will seek no farther Zeph. 3.17 This mercy-seat was the cover of the Ark where the two tables of the Law lay to note the blessednesse of those that receive mercy their iniquity is forgiven their sin is covered Again from this mercy-seate Psal 32.1 scituate not between the Seraphim those flaming executioners of justice Isa 6. but between the Cherubims as ministers of mercy the Lord shewed himself Act. 7. and gave forth the lively oracles as St. Steven stiles them Once he spake from the burning bush or smoaking mountain so terrible that Moses himself said I exceedingly fear and quake This was mount Sina in Arabia But we are come to mount Sion c. Heb. 12.21.22 and upon all the glory now there is a covering or mercy-seat Isa 4.5 The tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them Rev. 21.3 Jerusalem which is from above is now called the throne of the Lord and all nations flock unto it Jer. 3. God puts them among the children of his love and saith to each of his Thou shalt call me my father and shalt not turn away from me Jer. 17.19 Therefore are they before the throne of God answerable to the ancient mercy-seat serving him day and night in his temple Rev. 7.15 Where the Angel of his presence Jesus Christ offers their services powring in of his incense with the prayer of all Saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne Rev. 8.3 And hence it is that the good Lord pardoneth every one that prepareth his heart to seek God 2 Chr. 30.18 19. though he be not clensed according to the purification of the Sanctuary that he winks at small-faults shall I say and spares them as a man spares his own son that serves him nay that he pardoneth iniquity and passeth by transgression or treason he retaineth not his anger for ever seem he never so much displeased and all because mercy pleaseth him which puts the prophet to his patheticall exclamation by way of wonderment Who is a God like unto thee c. SECT III. ANd that is the rise of our second Reason from God Reas 2 who therefore spares his people as a father his childe that they may 1. praise him for present yea for ever Cretae Jovis est imago auribus carens ait Plutarchus Non enim convenit audiri ab eo quenquam qui omnium dominus sit princeps Plut. Mor. Lucianus fingit cancellos in coelo per quos Jupiter certo tempore homines respiciat quo solummodo tempore petentes exaudiantur Psal 48.10 Tollens iniquitatem peccatuÌ„ scelus sic enim exprimitur magnitudo clementiae quod non levibus tantum delictis det veniam sed graviss quibusque sceleribus Calvin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim 1.14 that he may fill their mouths with laughter and their tongues with triumph that they may say among the heathen The Lord hath done great things for them that they may say among the saints Their Rock is not as our Rock our enemies themselves being judges Oh who is God like unto thee â— The Gods of the Nations are idols And we know that an idol is nothing and that of nothing nothing comes of such dung-hill deities no mercy is to be expected they cannot work beyond the sphere of their activity But our God is in the heavens and as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him He is a great God and a great King above all Gods And as himself is great so is his mercy and so also is his glory For according to thy name O Lord so also is thy praise unto the ends of the earth Now what is Gods name Heare it from his own mouth Iehovah Iehovah God mercifull and gracious c. forgiving iniquity transgression and sin that is all sorts of sins though never so heavy never so heinous Naturall pollution actuall transgression stifneckt presumption all sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven to the sons of men saith our Saviour how much more the involuntary slips of the saints their unavoidable infirmities their sins of daily incuâ—sion for which also there is provided a pardon of course it needs no more but suing out It is the glory of a man to pass by a transgression saith Solomon Prov. 19.11 And it makes no lesse for the glory of God that he pardons the iniquity of his people that he multiplyeth pardons as they multiply sins Esay 55.7 that where grace aboundeth then doth grace superabound or abounds to flowing over as the word there signifieth that they cannot commit more then he will remit Surely hereby the power of our Lord appears to be exceeding great and as true as he liveth
righteousnesses of the Saints Revel 19.8 the pure Lamb of God having covered us with his own fleece and as it were exchanged suits with us clothing himself with our nature that he might again clothe us with the divine nature Daniels Hist of England so that Christ puts on us and we put on him as once Edmund Ironfide and Knute the Dane did by exchange of garments sealing up thereby a sure peace Christ becomes ours and we become Christs and both together make up but one mysticall Christ For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members being many are but one body so also is Christ that is mysticall Christ the Church 1 Cor. 12.12 Now to bring what hath been said home to the point in hand Look how that King could remember no hostility in Themistocles whiles he saw in his arms the smiling countenance of his own sonne and heir whom he had taken up And as David could discern no defect or deformity in lame Mephibosheth whiles he beholds in him the feature of his friend Jonathan so neither doth our heavenly Father regard our infirmities whiles he looks upon us in the face of Christ and finds us framed anew according to the image of Christ in whom he is abundantly well-pleased SECT VIII Let none suck poyson out of this sweet Point FOr Application Vse 1 Of this comfortable point we may well say as the Prophet doth in another case Esay 28.9 To whom shall we teach this Doctrine who is fit to hear and receive it This is meat for children not off all for dogs not draff for swine Let it therefore be limited to Gods children that fail of infirmity not laid hold on by his enemies that go on in iniquity And that they may not let us bound the point and mound it too that no beast break thorow to this mountain of mercy lest he be thrust thorow with a dart that no oxe nor asse fal into this pit by turning Gods grace into wantonnesse lest at length he fall into the bottomlesse pit that no spider suck poison out of this flower lest he burst and his bowels gush out with Judas Acts 1.18 and so he go to his place In a word that none stumble at this good word of God being disobedient thereunto 1 Pet. 2.8 lest he stumble and fall and never rise again Hos 14.9 Which to prevent two things would be considered First that though all men have their spots and therefore deserve not to be spared yet as wicked mens spots are not the spots of Gods children so neither is their speed For their spots first Hear what God saith of the one They have corrupted themselves their spots are not the spots of my children they are a perverse generation Deut. 32.5 Phil. 2.15 As of the other They are saith he blamelesse and harmlesse the sonnes of God unspotted in the midst of a wicked and wayward generation Where it is easie to observe a flat opposition a palable difference The naturall man is all overspread with the bright spot of sins-leprosie Spots they are and blemishes saith St. Peter in the abstract 2 Pet. 2.19 sporting themselves with their own deceivings having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease to sinne Such an habit and even necessity of sinne they have by long trading contracted that if the Ethiopian can change his skin or the leopard his spots then may they also do good that are inured to evil Jer. 13 23 Sinne is in such no otherwise then spots are in a leopard not by accident but by nature such as no Art can cure no water wash off For why they are not in the leopards skin but in the flesh and bones in the sinews and inwards And this to say truth is the case and condition of us all by nature Whence also it is that the just man slips seven times a day and Non datur malum punicum in quo nen inest granum putre dixit Crates 1 Joh. 3.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in many things we offend all saith St. James Apostles and all and that none can say his heart is clean Howbeit though a godly man sin yet he doth not commit sin he doth not sinne sinningly for his seed remaineth in him The oil of Gods Spirit wherewith such a one is anointed setteth the colours which are of his own tempering so sure on and maketh them cleave so fast together that it is impossible he should return to his own hue Christ also that offereth himself without spot to God his Father hath so purged their consciences from dead works that they thenceforth serve the living God acceptably lifting up their faces before him without spot yea they are stedfast and need not fear Job 11.5 Lo this is the comfortable condition of the children of God This is their spot on earth and this is their speed in heaven But now the ungodly are not so Neither their spot nor their speed is as that of the Saints For first the lepers lips should be covered according to the law their breath is infectious and offensive To the wicked God saith What hast thou to do to declare my statutes c. Psal 50.16 Quia non indigebat imn undorum laude Neque enim speciosa laus in ere peceatares Theophyl in Luc. 4. Psal 4.3 Psal â—6 â—6 In Graecorum sacris sacerdos exclamabat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quis hic Respondebaut qui aderant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Erason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 13.8 In fermento totajacet uxor Plaut Mic. 1.5 Tubulus quidam paulò supra Ciceronem praetor fuit homorâ—m projectè improbus ut ejuâ—â—omen non horrinis sed vitâ—â— esse videretur Lips antiq lect Our Saviour suffered not the devils to speak because he needed not the service of such high words befit not a fool saith Solomon Even David himself till thoroughly purged from his two more grievous sinnes was suspended from the comfort of the covenant and disabled for holy duties Psal 51.15 For know ye not saith He that the Lord hath set apart the godly man for himself And thence inferres the Lord will hear when as such a One I call unto him But if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me If I cast but a leering look toward some lust or have but a moneths mind to it If there be in me but an irresolution against any evil much more a deliberate purpose to run into it God that cannot see evil will not hear the prayers nor bear the manners of such a David How much lesse of gracelesse and profane persons whose whole lump is leavened whose whole hide is spotted whose whole frame is corrupted being evil onely evil and evill continually Who lastly are so transformed into sinne that it is even predicated of them according to that of the Prophet What is the transgression of Iacob is it not Samaria And what are the high-places of
Iudah are they not Ierusalem God as he seeth no sinne in his children so he seeth nothing else but sinne in others Their morall vertues are with him but splendida peccata glistering sinnes their civil praises nothing set by Jer. 8.8 Sinne in such is said to be the old man as if sinne were alive and the men dead as if they were totally turn'd and transform'd into sinnes image What marvel then though the Lord be farre from the wicked when he heareth the prayer of the righteous Prov. 15.29 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifice of mine offerings and eat it but the Lord accepts it not Now even amidst their sacrifices will he remember their iniquity and visit their sinnes Hos 8.13 Where it is remarkable that in scorn He calleth their sacrifices flesh ordinary flesh such as they sell in the shambles See the like Jer. 7.21 And in a like sence Hos 9.4 Their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord that is the bread for their naturall sustenance The Prophet speaks there of that meat-offering Levit. 2.5 appointed for a spirituall use yet called the bread for their life or livelyhood because God esteemed it no other then common-meat Semblably such now-adayes as come in their sinnes to the Lords Supper they receive the bare elements and because no more a curse with them Obed-Edom was blessed for the Ark the Philistines cursed Panem Domini non panem Dominum wheresoever the Ark came amongst them there came destruction The ordinances if they be not proper to men are deadly God saith of those that frequent them as Solomon said of Adonijah 1 Kin. 1.52 if he will shew himself a worthy man there shall not an hair of him fall to the earth but if wickednesse shall be found in him he shall dye SECT VIII Reproof of such as censure hardly of God NExt here 's ground of just and sharp reproof of sundry such Use 2 as being otherwise very honest and good people are yet herein much to be blamed and censured that they censure so ill of God Luk. 19.21.22 worse of themselves and worst of all others For God first they repute and report him an austere man a strict and severe Lord a hard and rigorous task-master such as reaps where he sowed not gathers where he scattered not exacts more then he affords requires more then they are able to perform Now if they were ungodly an irreligious men that thus quarrelled their Lord as once those murmurers in the wildernesse were that esteemed Gods house a prison-house Num. 14.3 of greater bondage and basenesse then Egypt it self it were the lesse to be wondered at and the better to be born withal For such being out of Christ are yet under the rigor and coaction of the law as it requires perfect obedience and that by their own strength which because it is imposible as now Gal. 5.3 Rom. 6 they die without mercy But for a childe of God that is no longer under the law but under grace that hath Christ formed already in his heart of whose fulnesse he hath received grace for grace that hath the spirit of God for his guide Neh. 8.10 Psal 119.24 2 Cor. 12.9 the joy of God for his strength the word of God for his learned counsel and the grace if God to be sufficient for him sufficient I say to supply that which is wanting to forgive that which is committed to impute Christs righteousnesse to uphold him in his weaknesses to raise and restore him in his lapses and in all to spare him as a man spares his own son that serveth him what reason is there that such a man should complain of a hard master or cry out of an unreasonable task indeed if God would accept of no service but that which is perfect bear with no failings though never so involuntary cast out every such thing as were not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary there were no dealing with him no standing before him no encouragement to come a near him in his works and worships If thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities saith the Psalmist O Lord who should stand But there is forgivenesse with thee that thou mayest be feared that is served whic else thou wouldest not And upon this ground let Israel hope in the Lord not run away from him and repine against him as Cain did for that were to add iniquity to their sin as Samuel told the terrified people 1 Sam. 12.20 21 for with the Lord there is mercy the most powerful attractive Rom. 12.1 to those that have not put off humanity whence the cords of kindnesse are called the cords of a man Hos 11.6 not to be drawn to God by them is bestial and with him is plenteous redemption a cornu copia of comfort a horn of salvation enough and enough for us all were we never so many of us He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities Psal 130.3 4 7 8. Be not ye therefore murmurers against God as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer sith those thins were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come SECT IX Reproof of such saints as censure hardly of themselves and their performances SEcondly such of Gods servants as are here censurable as censure over-hardly of themselves 2 Cor. 10.10.11 as if no children because not obedient in all things as it were meet These are those over much wicked Eccles 7.17 according to some that will needs condemn themselves to die before their time think too vilely of their own persons and performances denie if not belie the work of Gods grace in their hearts not wisely distinguishing betwixt nullity of grace and imperfection weaknesse and utter want of it to their I know nor how great spiritual hurt and hinderance These consider not that the law admits of a dispensation in the gospel that the tenour of the new covenant requires no set measures of grace and that if there be a willing minde God accepts according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not takes any thing in good worth where there is a desire of doing better and for the rest spares us as a man spares his own son that serves him Away then with that male-contented sowernesse seen in some saints also Gods whinnels you may call them for they are ever crying and puling when they should rather sing at their work and rejoyce in their priviledges this would please their father best as if a man have ever a little cricket among his children that will be merry and make him merry this is the fathers darling Oh blessed are those that dwell in thine house saith David they shall be alwayes praising thee Psal 84.4 And for nothing more surely then for this fatherly and gracious disposition towards thy poor servants that desire to fear thy name Neh. 1. Heb 12.18 are
motive sufficient to set in and go on to lay the last stone of Gods spirituall building with joy He rules not over his servants with rigour as the Egyptians did over the Israelites he puts them to no drudgery as the Israelites did the Gibeonites but measuring the deed by the desire and the desire by the sincerity he takes all in good part that they do willingly though never so weakly And for what 's wanting in their work he spares them as a man spares his own son that serves him To conclude this first Exhortation He requires no more of us then he gives and gives so much as shall suffice to his acceptation How is it then that we stand here idle all day long and do not lay our bones to work in his Vineyard SECT XII Give God the glory of his fatherly goodnesse NExt we addresse this Exhortation to Gods faithfull children And so this doctrine of his fatherly dealing with such as serve him in sincerity should in-force upon them a threefold duty 1. of thankfulnesse to God 2. of mercy to men 3. comfortable enjoyment of themselves Let God be praised our brethren pittyed and our selves acheared For God first how should we not only justify him from hard suspitions and aspersions of rigour but also glorify him for his singular love to us herein that he is content to take any thing well at our hands that is but done with honest hearts To quicken you hereunto consider 1. that he requires no more of us then he gives 2. gives us to do what he requires 3. makes the best of that little we do and remits the rest First he requires no more then he gives expects not the gain of ten talents where he hath given but five nor of five where he hath bestowed but one but that every man be doing something according to his modell and measure of grace received Cursed be that cozener saith the Prophet that hath in his flock a male and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 1.14 But he is not accursed that brings no better because he hath no better to bring Of a little God is content to take a little as in Jeroboams son in whom there was found a little good and God took him for it and as in the Church of Philadelphia who had but a little strength and yet for that little is highly commended and not blamed for any thing as the rest were Where no gold was to be had goats-hair was as well accepted Revel 3.7 O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Quicquid vis non potes factum Deus reputat Aug. The poor widdow went as farr with her two mites as some other with two millions And those beggars that never were able to deal an almes shall yet hear Come ye blessed c. for ye fed me hungry clothed me naked c. that is ye would have done it if it had laine in your power and to what ye were able ye were not backward Secondly he gives us to do that which he requires to be done which made Austin pray Give Lord what thou commandest and then command what thou wilt I will put my Spirit into you and cause you to walk in my statutes Ezek. 36.27 saith God in the new-covenant Christ will not break the bruised reed Gal 2.9 Joh. 5. Mat. 12.20 21 nor quench the smoaking flax Every man cannot be a strong pillar as James and Cephas or a flaming torch a burning and a shining light in Gods house as John Baptist What though he be but a bruised reed Christ will not break him What though he be but a smoaking week of a candle Christ will not quench him A smoaking week is offensive to the smell and is soon quenched according to that Esay 43.17 they are quenched as tow which is a thing soon done But Christ will not do it tho but he will attemper himself to their infirmity till he hath supplied them with light more full and strength more solid till he hath brought forth judgement to victory that is a smaller measure of grace to full perfection of conquest over whatsoever corruption He will not reject the corn for the chaffe the wine for the dregs the gold for the drosse but purging out all our drosse and taking away all our tinne Esay 1.25 he will correct and cure us of all wants and weaknesses till we come to a perfection of purity Ephes 5.26 to the full measure of a man in Christ Ephes 4.13 Thirdly he makes the best of that little we do when he perceives it to proceed from great love as in Mary that loved much and out of her love anointed Christs head with that precious ointment It is likely that she had no further intent then to shew her love in doing our Saviour that honour usuall at feasts and to refresh his spirits by the sweet scent of that ointment But the Spirit of God directed that fact for a funerall-service and Christ defends her against Judas and the rest that she had done it against the day of his buriall Joh. 12.7 Joh. 12.7 In the same Chapter at his triumphant riding into Jerusalem the children sang the disciples shout Hosanna in the highest the Pharisees fret at both the Lord Christ defends both The children he defendeth from Psal 8.2 Out of the mouth of babes c. the disciples he defendeth from the necessity of their duty wherein had they failed the very stones would cry out Luk. 19.36 40. And yet the Disciples themselves how much lesse the children understood not what they did at that time Indeed when Jesus was glorified then that they had done these things unto him Joh. 12.16 But that whether ignorance or incogitancy was never laid to their charge through Gods fatherly love and indulgence to his whom he spareth as a man spares his own sonne that serves him and is therefore to be praised of them thoroughout all eternity SECT XIII Bear with others weaknesses and forbear harsh censures SEcondly Let Gods Saints be exhorted to look as God doth upon the infirmities of their brethren with a more favourable and forbearing eye not thinking it strength of grace to endure nothing in the weaker sort but bearing with them and beleeving all things straining to a good opinion of them where there is but the least probability to indure it 1 Cor. 13.7 Take not up every evil report you hear of another from a tale-bearer as you do wares from a pedler but frown upon such and be ready to make apology In particular 1. Judge no man by the outward appearance or common-hearsay for so you may beseem to condemn a dear child of God and approve a detestable heretike and incarnate devil St. Pauls companions that were the very glory of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 8.23 were counted the sweepings of the world and off-scouring of all things The precious sonnes of Sion comparable to fine gold were esteemed as earthen pitchers Lam. 4.2
no other way to utter it vent himself by an exclamation Oh how excellent is thy loving kindnesse O God! The clouds may commend thy faithfulnesse the mountaines thy righteousnesse the great deep thy judgements but who or what can set forth thy goodnesse Psal 36.5 6 7. It is beyond all that heart of man can conceive or tongue of Angels expresse Having therefore such a mercy to make use of such a father to do service unto how is it that we are so dull and disconsolate how is that we serve not the Lord with gladnesse and come before him with singing Psalm 100.2 A son feeling the love of his father creeps neerer under his wing or elbow and is welcom So here Yea but I am so weak and worthlesse Obj that I doubt much whether I am a childe or not How weak say thou be no stronger then a childe newly quickned in the womb Sol. the very first-springings in the womb of grace are precious before God Co. 2.13 And you hath he quickned to assure the weak saith One that though they be but as the childe that lies in the womb and have not so much as the strength of a babe new-born they are accepted with God Quickned I trust I am saith another and born anew to God Obj but it s so little I know and lesse that I can do that I have no great joy of my self for though God spareth some yet it is as a father spares his son that serveth him A childe Heb. 5.11 12 Fractu â—st or est 〈◊〉 liber orum sed injantra dulcior Sence 〈◊〉 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lun 365. Pater libros non reijeit quod aegâ—oâ—i claudi debiles deformes sint sed chariores â—ibet mollius tractat c. Spin. de justi christi Ob. during his nonage is very infirm ignorant wayward does few chars in the house makes many So is it also in Gods house for he hath sons of all sizes Such children in grace were the Disciples during the bridegrooms abode with them such also were the contentious Corinthians 1 Epist 3.1 2 3. the dull and droanish Hebrews milk-sops and babies at first who yet afterwards came to be his proper men tall Christians The greatest giant hath been in swadling-clouts the learnedst Doctour hath been in his horn-book and he that now doth God best service time was when he did him little enough But parents delight as much in their younger children that play about the house as in those bigger that can earn their livings If we can but call Abba father or but name the name of the Lord in prayer and so depart from evil 2 Tim. 2.19 he is much taken with it His ears are open to their prayers saith David to their breathing saith Jeremy as a kinde mother watcheth and listeneth to the least whimping of her childe Yea because the soul is sick the service is twice welcome as if a sick childe reach us any thing we count it more then to send another on a laborious errand Oh but I do not onely not serve my heavenly father but disobey and displease him and that often Is any childe turned out of doors because dabbled Sol. No but if he be for a while yet afterwards he is whipt and taken in again I am so vile and froward Ob. I cannot take a whipping but am ready to fret at it or to faint under it What father will abandon his childe because being weak Sol. and wearyish he is therfore thwart and waspish and cryes himself out of breath it may be when corrected especially if he have been otherwise a good-natured childe and well-deeded Ey Ob. but I am none of those I am such a childe as no father would away with Thy father is God and not man and will do more then any earthly father or friend else will or can do Sol. Jer. 3.1 And when my father and my mother forsake me the Lord takes me up Ey but if the Lord should take me up yet it would not be long ere he turned me out again for my naughtinesse Ob. Not so for he hates putting away Besides the servant abideth not in the house but the son abideth Joh. Sol. 8.35 The servant if he cannot do his masters work to his minde is dismissed and packt away as that young man of Egypt that was servant to an Amalekite was cast off by his master because three dayes afore he fell sick and became unfit for service But a son 1 Sam. 30.13 albeit he be not able to do any thing to speak of is retained and cherished because a son If I were so good a childe as some I know and could do such service as they I should be very cheerful Ob. 1. They that have more grace have more to account for that which thou hast is thy fathers allowance Sol. be contented Imploy and improve thy stock and thou shalt have more 2. Omnis Christianus Cruci anus Luther Thou knowest not their pressures and grievances whom thou so admirest thou seest but the best of them they have also enough to do with themselves if you knew all little do others know where their shooe wringeth them Every Christian is a Crucian 3. I told you before that God requires no more then he gives and yet gives also as much as shall suffice to his acceptation In Eucharisticis licebat offerre panes fermentatos ut osienderetur deum ferre nestram infir mitatem Alsted Matth. 6.28 one may be a good servant though he be not the best in the countrey All the good grounds brought not forth a like quantity of fruit some not the third part as others did and yet that little they did was good and ripe fruit and themselves were grounds respected of God and blessed by him He calls our good works the fruit of the vine and loves to taste of them though they relish stil of the old stock The vine is the weakest plant vet very fruitful The lilies spin not and yet are gorgeously attired God wil greatly glorify himself in the branch of his planting in the work of his hands so that a little one shall be come a thousand and a small one a strong nation I the Lord will hasten it in his time Esay 60.21 4. You have more cause of comfort in that little you have then of discouragement in that more that you want sith it is a far greater work to beget grace where it is not then to increase it where it is Look therefore on others bitternesse for imitation and incitation but not for slavish dejection and self-blinding Disgrace not thine own graces because of other mens perfections and precedencies but be thankfull if Christ be formed in thee to any degree and that thou hast any thing to do about God Only whatsoever thy hand sindeth to do do it with all thy might And then he that followeth after righteousnes as a servant
Iohn Careles 110.1 When the righteous shine as bright as silver upon the celestiall shelf as that martyr said and surpass us as farr as the lily doth the thorns Cant. 2.2 or as the gold doth the coals in the goldsmiths shop yea they are the throne of Christ Exod. 17.16 his Iewels Mal. 3.17 his ornament Ezek. 7.20 the beauty of his ornament and that set in majesty ib. a royall diadem on the head of Jehovah Esay 62.3 and so they shall one day appear to be though now they do not 1 Ioh. 3.2 it shall be no hard matter to discern them Between the righteous and the wicked Here they are together in the church militant and ever have been Sinners in Sion Isa 33.14 sacrificing Sodomites Isa 1.10 a devill in Christs family Ioh. 13.10 All men have not faith 2 Thess 3.2 all the Lords people are not holy Num. 16.3 that any are 't is just wonder What is man that he should be clean and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous Iob 15.14 None are so but such as are arraied with that fine white linnen and shining the righteousnesses of the saints Rev. 19.8 that twofold righteousnesse Imputed and Imparted of Justification and of Sanctification See both 1 Cor. 6.11 and seek after both by Christs Merit and Spirit by his Value and Vertue He is Iehovah our righteousnesse Ier. 23.5 and of his fulnesse we all receive Ioh. 1.16 He it is that makes us to differ from the wicked of the world that have hearts full of hell and are ever either hatching cockatrices eggs or at best weaving spiders webbs vanity or villany is their whole practise The best among them would serve god and yet retain their lusts too as Solomon thought he could follow sinfull pleasures and yet keep his wisdome And with such we must converse whiles in this world Tares will be with the wheat goats among the sheep righteous and wicked together God permits it so to be for the glory of his free grace and for the triall and exercise of his people Our care must be the greater for evill men indanger good men as weeds do the corn as bad humours the blood or an infected house the neighbourhood We must resolve as Ioshuah to serve the Lord howsoever because a difference shall be one day set between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Where we see that not serving of God not sacrificing is a sinne Eccles 9 2. Not robbing onely but the not relieving of the poor was the rich mans ruin Not gluttony onely but overmuch abstinence may overthrow the body Omission of diet breeds diseases so doth omission of duties and makes work for hell or for the Physitian of our souls Let us therefore have grace whereby we may serve God with reverence and godly fear Heb. 12.27 Serve him as old Zachary in his Canticle saith we should do Luke 1.74 75. First out of sense of his dear love in our deliverance by Christ whereinto the deeper we dive the sweeter Servati sumus ut serviamus This will make us love to be his servants Esay 56.7 fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.12 Secondly serve him without fear slavish fear serve him with an holy security in full assurance of his gracious assistance and acceptance yea though thorough infirmity we misse or marre his work yet he will spare us Mal. 3.17 Thirdly serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse in all parts and points of duty shew your integrity both for subject and object not picking or chusing ' your work nor sticking at any thing but willing in all things to please God He doth not Gods but his own will that doth no more then himself will Fourthly serve him sincerely in holinesse and righteousnesse before him or as in his presence Set the Lord ever at your right hand look him full in the face approve your hearts and lives unto him do him but eye-service and it sufficeth Fifthly serve him constantly all the dayes of your lives hire your selves to him for terme of life why should you desire to shift or fleet where can you mend your selves either for fairnesse of work or fulnesse of wages Can the son of Iesse give you vineyards c. said Saul to his servants so may God say Can the world do for you as I both can and will if you cleave to me with full purpose of heart Sure it cannot c. FINIS An Alphabeticall Table of all the Principall things contained in this whole WORK A ABstinence Pag. 265 Admonition rejected p. 60 61. the best need it p. 480. Râ—ch 1. admonished by an Hermite p. 321 Adoption the whole Doctrine of it p. 912 913 914 915 916 c. Adultery goeth along with idolatry p. 69 70 71. punished p. 57 664 Affliction is Gods thorn-hedge p. 27. 't is usefull p. 26. humblâ—th us p. 89. teacheth us 90. maketh us pray ib. is Gods vocall instruction to us 377. Comforts under it 385. Difference of afflictions that befall saints and sinners 414 421. Saints are thereby purged 591 592 661 662. tried 593. gratified 593. How to live by faith in affliction 888 889. Despondency under affliction reproved 890. Suffer it patiently 891 892. though not presently delivered 893. Helps thereunto ib. 894. God a Father to his afflicted 928 Alchymy a pick-purse p. 420 Alexander M. meeting the high-priest p. 520 Ambition unsatisfiable p. 422 Amos who p. 221 Amurath 3 stabbed to death p. 579 Angels readily serve the Saints p. 504 537. and why 504. they are our Gardians 512. heavenly spirits c. 537 Anger rash the evil of it p. 326 Antiquity falsified by Papists p. 561 Apostasie p. 67. Apostates 74â— it is very dangerous 178 Apparrell pride in it condemned p. 448 Assurance labour after it p. 153 208. be not unsetled 618 Astrologie judiciary condemned p. 446 Atheists practicall p. 450 B BAal who p. 30. Baalim what 37 B. Babingtons three-leaved book p. 686 Baptisme promised p. 583 Bastards reproached p. 652 Bath of Christs Blood p. 660 Beauty lovely p. 281. stained with evil manners 408 Be Best in worst times and why 695 696 697 698 c. Blasphemy punished p. 676 Blood-guiltinesse wofull p. 406 Borbonius anagrammatized p. 23 Bribery condemned p. 73 354 382 C CAlling of the Gentiles p. 623 Get a lawfull Calling p. 309 Calvins Institutions when and why written p. 273. Calvin belied by A Lapide p. 601 Cardinals pompous creation p. 25 Censure not others harshly p. 936 937 940 Chemarims who p. 446 Children soon corrupted p. 83. unnaturall children 384. degenerate children 642. a fathers huge love to his children 585. Sennacherib why slain by his own sons 399 Church described by her afflictions p. 594. restlesse here 504. is invincible 527 576. is under persecution 594. she shall be delivered 887. onely she must pray for it 888. she is married to Christ 897 hath him for her Head 13 Christ his yoke is
thinking on earthly things p. 863 Sect. 11. Directions to the Means of fruitfull thinking on Gods holy Name Where 4 Hinderances to be avoyded and 7 helps to be used p. 864 Sect. 12. The Conclusion p. 866 The Contents of the second Part of the Righteous Mans Recompence CHAP. I. The Text divided p. 866 Sect. 1. That God is Lord of Hosts What these Hosts are why called Hosts what it is to be Lord of Hosts 867 Sect. 2. The Pope will needs be Lord of Hosts p. 869 Sect. 3. Wo to rebels against the Lord of Hosts p. 870 Sect. 4. Tremble before this mighty Lord of Hosts p. 872 Sect. 5. Trust in his power for fulfilling his promises p. 873 Sect. 6. Stoop to his power and submit to his Soveraignty p. 874 Sect. 7. Set his power awork by prayer The power of prayer p. 875 Sect. 8. Be comforted in the consideration of his Power where divers objections of weaker Christians are answered p. 877 878 879 880 CHAP. II. The Lord will find a fit time to make up his jewels from the worlds misusages p. 881 Sect. 1 2 3 4 5. p. 882 883 Reasons from Gods Providence Power Truth Goodnesse and Justice ibid. Sect. 6. Reasons from the Saints themselves p. 884 Sect. 7. When God will make up his jewels p. 885 Sect. 8. Comfort under publike calamities p. 887 Sect. 9. Comfort under personall crosses and grievances p. 888 Sect. 10. Reproof of frowardnesse and faintheartednesse in affliction p. 890 Sect. 11. Exhortation to diligence in duty p. 891 Sect. 12. Exhortation to patience in misery p. 892 Sect. 13. Helps to patient waiting upon God for deliverance p. 893 CHAP. III. God will own and honour his Saints p. 895 Sect. 1 2 3 4 5. Reasons and grounds of this gracious dealing of his p. 896 897 Sect. 6. It shall be farre otherwise with the wicked p. 899 Sect. 7. Terrour to those that set themselves against the saints p. 900 Sect. 8 9 10. Exhortation to honour them that fear the Lord and what great cause men have and shall have so to do p. 902 903 904 c. Sect. 11 12. Exhortation to practise holinesse that hath so great honour put upon it and why p. 907 908 Sect. 13. Let the saints fee their dignity and be thankfull p. 909 Sect. 14. Let the saints see their duty and be carefull p. 910 CHAP. IV. God is a Father to all his faithfull servants p. 911 Sect. 1. Reasons hereof drawn from the causes p. 912 Sect. 2 3. Reasons taken from the effects of his Fatherhood p. 913 Sect. 4. God no Father to the wicked whatever they pretend to him p. 914 915 Sect. 5. Terrour to those that maligne or misuse Gods children p. 916 Sect. 6. Try your Title to God as a Father Marks p. 917 Sect. 7. Settle this that ye are Gods children and how p. 918 Sect. 8. Let all Gods children know their Father and how p. 918 Sect. 9. Let them thankfully acknowledge his free grace in their adoption and why p. 919 Sect. 10. Let them honour their Father and how p. 920 Sect. 11. Let them resemble their Father and wherein p. 922 Sect. 12. Let them love their Father and how to expresse their love p. 923 Sect. 13. Let them depend upon their Father both for prevention of evil and provision of good p. 924 Sect. 14. Comfort of Adoption where are shewed the priviledges of sonnes privative and positive p. 925 926 CHAP. V. God will pity and pardon his people their wants and weaknesses p. 927 Sect. 1 2 3 4. Reasons from God out of Micah 7.18 19. p. 927 Sect. 5 6. Reasons respecting the saints themselves who are 1 pure in heart 2 perfect in Christ p. 931 Sect. 7. Let none suck poyon out of this sweet point p. 932 Sect. 8. Reproof of such as censure hardly of God p. 934 Sect. 9. Reproof of such saints as censure hardly of themselves and their performatices p. 934 Sect. 10. Reproof of such as uncharitably censure others p. 936 Sect. 11. Exhortation to put your selves into Gods service p. 937 Sect. 12. Give God the glory of his Fatherly goodnesse p. 938 Sect. 13. Bear with others weaknesses and forbear harsh censures p. 939 Sect. 14. Take comfort and courage notwithstanding infirmities and failings in the manner p. 941. Errata Faults escaped in the Commentary PAge 2. line 30. read in the gall p. 7 l. 5. wall r valley ib l. 7. Tent r. â—eal p. 12 l. 32. spirituall r. spitefull p. 15. l. 53. required r. reserved p 18. l. 53. r. directly p. 24. l 49. Collier r. Caloier p. 35. l. 28. r. Non mea sunt p. 38. l. 18. lack r. like p. 41. l. 43. duties r. deities p. 44. l. 15. sutable r. suable p 55. l. 5. harts r. houses p. 56. l. 55 Edomites r. Sodomites p 60. l. 46. r. derided p. 62. l. 9. r. blind shall be darkned p. 73. l. 11. And r. a pull p. 77. l. 27. scribes r. stripes p. 78. l. 13 r. world p. 92. l. 43. r acquired p. 95. l. 42. taking r. talking p. 107. l. 1 r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 128. l 2. r. observing ib. l. 4. priests day r. devils-day p. 137. l. 29. r. marred p. 141. l. 35 r. Deaster p 166. l. 38. r. Cyrils p. 189. l. 56. r. quieted p. 193. l. 39. r. mansit p. 194. l. 29. r. relieve p 242. l. 23 r. Zegedline p 261. l. 38. r. heatlesse p. 270. l. 29 r. others p. 290. l. 18. r. Cabbalists p. 291. l. 6. r. fat and. p. 295. l. 35. r. alive p. 296. l. 51. r. Zopyrus 55. Cyneas l. 56. r. Pyrrhus p. 299. l 38. r. Pyrgopolynices p. 310. l. 40. r. due p. 314. l. 30. r. thin p. 315. l. 48. r. promises p 316. l. 2. r. right hand p. 317. l. 3. r affatu p. 321 l 32. r. excused l. 34. r. sum 35. r. conceived p. 326 l. 23 r. becagna ib. l. 6. r. zeal p. 331. l. 6. r. quartaa p 334. l. 8. r. pour out p. 365 l. 33. r. eat p. 372. l. 7. r. theirs ib. 32. dele sin p 374 l. 53. r. dejected p. 384. l 45. r. well p. 400. l. 31. r. Poliorcetes ib. l. 35. r. Dissipatores p. 405. l. 6. r. Leb p. 420. l. 53. r. devoting p. 429. l. 47. r. angle p. 435. l. 6. r imposture p. 437. l. 34. r. that when p 438. l. 18. r. speciall p. 441. l. 29 r. grievous p. 455. l. 53. r. mawmets p 449. l. 54. r. nihil p. 452. l 14. r. Gaius p. 458. l. 26. r bare p 459. l 35. r. premises p. 465. l. 41. r. listlesnesse p. 471 l. 9. r. mad p 472 l. 19. r. certè non p. 486. l. 6 r acclamation p. 490. l. 40. r. e. rat p. 513 l. 51. r. crattle p. 527. l 33. r. unpassable ib. 58. r. somewhere p. 548. r. mors est p. 550. l. 49 r. few true and ponderous p 580. l. 43. r. can the waters flow p. 587 l 46. r. ministery therefore p. 589. l. 58. r. scattered and shattered p 610. l. 12. r. whilome p. 614. l. 5. r. Of one not at all ib. l. 16 r. glove p. 616 l. 48. r. they p. 634. l. 47. r. pestilenâ—e p. 635. l. 37. r. contrary to prevent p. 637. l. 8. r. falsifie p. 642. l. 19. after father Asa adde Manasseh degenerateth into Ahaz p. 648. l. 1 r. by Gods good laws p 650. l. 35. r. fletu p. 664 l 24. r. adulterium ib. l. 52. r. light p. 677. l. 24. r. a slurre p. 684. l. 16. r. inferiour bodies Faults escaped in the Righteous mans Recompence Pag. 695 l. 57 r. caring p. 708. l. 46. r. character p. 810 l. 54. r. set and serious p 823. l. 3 r. vice p. 824 l. 31. r. trading p 825. l. 33. r. he heard and took p 843. l. 44. r. we cannot better convince p. 849 l. 36. r. mock p. 851. l. 18. r. light p. 852 l. 0 r. fat abrood p. 854 l. 10. r. jog ib. 50. r. conservation p. 860 l. 10. r. teachers p. 801. l. 16. r. creatures p. 965. l. 12. r. extracting p. 871. l. 21. r. with them p. 876. l. 7. r. from the p. 879 l. 6. r. invisible p. 883 l. 14 r. dicere p. 890. l. 3. r. frowardnesse p. 897. l. 38 dele and such p. 899. l. 28. r. waxed p. 900. l. 40. r. Doegs p. 907. l. 39. r. coveting p. 911. l. 33. r. good p. 927. l 38. r. setling ib. l. 41. r. frailties p. 929. l. 24. r. David ib. 25 r. as rejoyceth ib. l. 41. r. quiets p. 936. l. 15. r. baffled p. 938. l 43. r. exhortation p. 939. l. 38. r. then remembred they that ib. l. 52. r induce p. 940. l. 47 r. flow of heart p. 943. l. 6. r betternesse ib. l. 53. r. slandered Gods house-keeping