no warning either from the sonne of God or by the calamities of their brethren Now if any amongst us be as great hypocrites as they were they bee as grievous sinners as guilty of Christs bloudy death and liable to as grievous punishments either in this life or in the life to come as they were A Pharisaicall hypocrite none can be unlesse his soule bee so wedded to some branches as hee conceives them of holy doctrine or zeale to Gods word that he would rather suffer his soule and body to be dissolved then be divorced from his opinions That will not be ready as opportunity serves to persecute all such even unto death as will not comply with him or maintaine his faction And this kind of hypocrisie alwaies presupposeth some other sinnes which breed it alwaies include some other sins or errors which feed and strengthen it That error which breeds hypocrisie is a zealous desire to be extreamly contrary in all or most points unto them whom they undoubtedly know to contradict the truth as well in some opinions as practises Satan may instill other erroneous opinions into his scholars and yet must be inforced to play the sophister before hee can draw them to admit of his intended conclusions that is lewd or wicked practises but if he can once insinuate immature perswasions or strong presumptions of their irreversible estate in Gods favour hee needs no help of Sophistry to inferre his intended conclusions This antecedent being swallowed hee can inforce the conclusion by good Logicke by rules of reason more cleere then any Syllogisme can make it then any philosophicall or mathematicall demonstration For it is an unquestionable rule of reason presupposed to all rules of Syllogisme◠or argumentations that an universall negative may bee simply converted as if no man can be a stone then no stone can be a man the rule is as firme in divinity that if no hypocrite no envious or uncharitable man can enter into the Kingdome of heaven then no man that must enter into the Kingdome of heaven that is irreversibly ordained to eternall life can bee an hypocrite can be an envious or uncharitable man Whence againe it will cleerely follow that if the former opinions concerning mens personall or nationall irreversible estate in Gods favour have possessed mens soules and braines before its due time albeit they doe the selfe same things that rebels doe that hypocrites that envious or uncharitable men doe yet so long as this opinion stands unshaken they can never suspect themselves to be rebellious to be hypocrites or uncharitable That which indeed and in the language of the holy ghost is rebellion will bee favourably interpreted to be the liberty of concience in defence of Gods lawes envy hatred and uncharitablenesse towards men will goe current for zeale towards God and true religion To illustrate or confirme these observations touching the originall Symptomes of pharisaicall hypocrisie by the example practice of these Iewes according to the order in which they have been now proposed The first originall was in the overprising of the rigid reformation of their forefathers prophanesse Their father 's worshipped stocks and stones the images or statues of heathen Gods these latter sought to bee so extreamly contrary to the heathen or to the practises of 〈◊〉 forefathers in this particular that they would 〈…〉 any civill use of pictures and their unrelenting zeale to maintaine this rigid reformation was the originall of that rebellion wherein they perished after they had continued it seventy yeares more or lesse For Herod the great having erected a golden eagle upon the wals of the Temple not with purpose to have it adored but in testimony of his gratitude and alleageance to the Roman Emperour some of their Rabbins or great masters did teach their schollars to deface it though they dyed for it and death in this holy quarrell was accounted Martyrdome Afterwards they were pressed to admit a statue of the Roman emperour in their Temple but not urged as I take it to adore it And this did blow the coales of former dissention and was the originall of that finall rebellion under Nero. Now if they had not apprehended this rebellion as an holy warre or had not affected to become Martyrs in defence of true religion they might easily have deprecated this eye-sore or grievance at the Roman deputies hands as the wiser sort of them sometimes had done But howsoever these latter Iewes almost from the time of their returne from Babilon did increase the measure of their forefathers grosser sinnes by too nice and rigid reformation of them and added pharisaicall hypocrisie unto them as a new disease of the soule scarce heard of before yet this hypocrisy though epidemicall to this Nation had not the strength to bring forth that monster of uncharitablenesse which did portend the ruine of this mighty people untill they were invaded by the Romans For from the time that this Nation was brought into subjection by Pompey the great their Church-governours did allow and appoint dayly sacrifices to be offered for the peace and tranquillity of the Roman empire and security of the emperours But a little before the fulfilling of this prophecy in my text there arose a sect which did condemne this custome after an hundred yeares continuance as unlawfull as contrary to the Law of God as a pollution of the Temple And it is a point observable by such as read the history of Iosephus that of all the iregularities or prodigious villanies committed in the Temple during the time of the siege as the tumultuous deposition of their high Priests and murther of them and others of better place the faction surnamed by themselves the Zealous were the chiefe Authors and a betters The fruit of this their blind and misguided zeale was to misinterpret the murther of their brethren which would not comply with them in their furious projects to bee the best service the only sacrifice then left to offer unto God for the daily sacrifice of beasts did cease for want of provision they having plenty or sufficiency of nothing but of famine Now to parallel the sinnes of our Nation of this present generation specially with the sinnes of the latter Iewes As for sinnes against the second table no man of unpartiall understanding or experience can deny that wee farre exceed them unlesse it bee for murther only disobedience to parents to magistrates adultery fornication theft false witnesse-bearing and coveting their neighbours goods are farre more rife amongst us then they were or could be amongst them at least in the practice The keene edge of some few give us occasion to conjecture what the bloudy issue of misguided zeale would be could it once get as strong a back as it had in these Iewes when there was no King in Israel or in that Anarchy wherein every one did that which was pleasing in his owne eyes Againe no man not surprized with a Iewish slumber but may cleerly see how
Israel to exhibite the petitions of his heart to his God and to receiue answere from him And so we may obserue that from this time forward the consecration of this house and the solemnity which Solomon here used did come into the style and forme of this peoples prayers made as it were an additionall to the Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Iacob But what expresse proofe have we that Solomons owne prayers at this time for these prerogatiues of this house were heard This fully appeares from the subsequent miracle wherewith this petition was signed as with the immediate hand of God 2. Ch. 7. 1. 2. Now when Solomon had made an end of praying the fire came downe from heaven and consumed the burnt offring and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the house and the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord had filled the house This kinde of answer by fire was alwayes most satisfactory to the busines or proceedings that were or might be in question by this answere God did determine the controversies betweene Elias Baals Priests by the like effect of fire from heaven consuming the fat of the sacrifice the calling of Aaron to the Priesthood by Gods immediate appointment not by man was put out of question And so was the consecration of the Sonne of God to his everlasting Priesthood confirmed by the visible apparition of the Holy Ghost in tongues of fire which was the accomplishment of both the former miraculous apparitions from heaven the one at the consecration of Aaron the other at the consecration of this materiall Temple 3 But admitting every branch of Solomons petition was on Gods part fully granted yet will it be demanded whether the practise did pursue the grant or what remarkable successe or issue the practise found To both parts of this demand two or three instances which are upon sacred record will suffice The first from the practise of good Iehosaphat in that strange exigēce or extremity of danger whereunto the Kingdōe of Iudah was brought in his dayes by the malitious confederacie of Moab Ammō and Mount Seir. As was the danger so was this good Kings feare exceeding greate and the greater it was the better motiue he had to pray more heartily according to that patterne which Solomon prescribes 2. Chron. 20. 5. c. And Iehosaphat stood in the Congregation of Iudah and Ierusalem in the house of the Lord before the new Court and said O Lord God of our Fathers art not thou God in heaven and rulest not thou over all the Kingdomes of the heathen And in thine hand is there not power and might so that none is able to withstand thee Art not thou our God who didst driue out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and gavest it the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever And they dwelt therein and have built thee a Sanctuary therein for thy name saying if when evill commeth upon us as the sword iudgement or pestilence or famine we stand before this house and in thy presence for thy name is in this house cry unto thee in our affliction that thou wilt heare and help c. As the forme of his prayer was peculiar such as was not used before this house was built so the successe was extraordinary and such as this people had never tasted before unles it were in the destruction of Pharaoh his mighty army The victory which Gedeon had over the Midianites was miraculous in respect of their multitude which was vanquished and of their paucity which vanquished them yet in that miraculous deliverance there was the sword of the Lord the sword of Gedeon They fought for victory but in this mighty discomfiture of 3 nations more potent then Midian which had combined for the overthrow of Iudah here was only the arme of the Lord the use of mans sword or arme of flesh is utterly prohibited by the Prophet Iahaziel v. 17. Ye shall not need to fight in this battell set your selves stand ye still see the salvatiō of the Lord with you All that Iehosophats royall presence or person did undertake or performe for the accomplishment of this victory promised was to exhort his people not to bee valiant in fight but to put their confidence in the Lord of Hostes. v. 20. They rose early in the morning and went forth into the wildernesse of Tekoah And as they went forth Iehosaphat stood and said Heare me O Iudah and the inhabitants of Hierusalem believe the Lord your God so shall you be established believe his Prophets so shall ye prosper And so they did For this victory was more compleat and more beneficiall to the King and people then any victory which David had gotten over the enemies of God though purchased with his peoples blood For as it is v. 25. When Iehosaphat and his people came to take away the spoyle of them they found amongst them in abundance both riches with the dead bodies and precious jewels which they stript off for themselves more then they could carry away and they were three daies in gathering of the spoyle it was so much For the Lord mighty in battell had turned the strength and weapons of death and war which these confederates had prepared against Iudah upon themselves The most remarkeable circumstance in this sacred story was that the coales and fire of that fatall diffention which brought universall destruction upon these three armies did then begin to kindle when the men of Iudah and Hierusalem began to praise the Lord with sweet harmony as well of heart and spirit as of voice v. 23. When they began to sing and praise the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir which were come against Iudah and they were smitten For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir utterly to destroy and slay them and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Mount Seir every one helped to destroy another Such power there is in the songs of the Sanctuary when they are rightly set by the Priest and taken up by unanimous consent of prince and people united in heart with the feare of God and with loving affection one towards another and towards Gods Church Here was more then an accomplishment of that branch of Solomons petition in this Chapter v. 34. They went out indeed unto their enemies by the way which God had appointed them but the way which he had now appointed them was not to fight with them but to believe in him who can save us as well with a few as with many can maintaine the cause of his people as well without the industry or endeavours of man as with them And for this cause Iehosaphat and his people did praise him with like confidence for the assurance which he had given them by his Prophet of future victory as
about the same time wherein Haman was advanced and by his advancement enabled to doe a remedilesse mischiefe to the Iewish nation had not the Lord as the wise man speakes made one thing against another If we would rightly survey that rare deliverance of Iehosaphat and his people before mentioned the particular meanes by which it was wrought were but ordinary not miraculous but the coincidence or concurrence of such meanes was more then miraculous Seeing the spirit of Godhath concealed the particular occasions of that unexpected hostility betweene the children of Ammon and Moab and the Edomites we have no reason to suspect them to have beene any other then such as the Lord heretofore hath wrought and yet may worke betweene the confederate enemies of this kingdomes peace for our good if we shall be thankfull or betweene our freinds or confederates for the advantage of the enemy if we shall continue enemies unto our God In a word in that rare and admirable deliverance there was no particular rare or unusuall in respect of those times unlesse it were Iehosaphats and his Nobles firme reliance not to the arme of flesh or probable appearance of meanes ordinary but upon the mercy and loving kindnesse of the Lord in whose wisdome they knew was treasured up variety of meanes ordinary unknowne to them as all sufficient to save as if the whole armory of his power by working miracles had beene used for their defence If Christian states would throughly parallell Iehosaphat and Iudah in this God in this age would parallell the successe by the like extraordinary disposition of meanes ordinary As his mercy endureth for ever so the treasure of his wisdome for effecting their good which love him is inexhaustible It is not necessary that he should interpose his creative power or worke miracles for bringing forth successe extraordinary and miraculous For of meanes ordinary whereof he hath infinite store already created a small number by his all-seeing disposition may suffice for any purpose He can without miracles save with a few as well as with many The letters or elements of all speech or language are not many few more in number than the yeares of our youth or non-age yet the possible compositions of these few are so various and copious as to afford severall words sufficient not only to signify the diversity of things that are by name but to expresse their natures and properties enough to decipher all the actions or undertakings of men throughout all ages How unsearchable then are his wayes how incomprehensible the secret courses by which he brings calamity or prosperity upon any nation who can with greater facility compose the severall rankes of his creature even all things that are then the Printer can doe his few letters And albeit all the visible meanes which may bee thought to conspire for our woe or for our weale may be to mans apprehension apparently the same which have beene manifested in former times yet his wisdome by secret addition or subtraction of some petty occurrences may quite alter the successe which from some former models wee feare or hope with lesse adoe than a critique permitted to correct a presse can doe the sence and meaning of the exactest writer by the dispunction or inversion of points or letters How many devices soever there be in man's heart yet as Prov. 19. 21. Solomon saith there is a counsell of the Lord and that must stand It was a grave Christian-like advice which the heathen Cambyses from some broken apprehensions of the great wisdome of his Gods or divine powers did give unto Cyrus his sonne when he first undertooke that quarrell with the Armenians which gave occasion to that great warre which by the counsell of the Lord he happily accōplished against Babylon The summe of his advise was this That hee should run no hazard either of his owne person or of his charge without sacrificing to the Gods and receiuing directions from them For men saith he in the choise of their actions or undertakings doe but rove by guesse not acquainted with the fountaines whence true goodnesse must be derived or the secret issues by which it runnes Many instances hee there brings of men which had wit or power to compasse the particulars which they most affected which yet have strangely miscarried in the maine chance and as it were ran counter from that end or marke at which all men by nature make ayme The resultance of his many instances or his experiments to this purpose is That humane wisdome at the best hath no more skill to chuse what is best for it selfe then as if a man should come to a lottery where hee must bee content with the lot which he drawes he hath a freedome of will or power to chuse this before that but none to make the prize of what hee chuseth that was set before But as for the immortall Gods they know all things as well past as to come and will direct their friends being consulted to chuse that which is good and decline evill But as for such as are not their friends there is no necessity that they should take the like care for them We may adde though all men by nature be enemies unto the true and only God yet is there is no necessity laid upon any so to continue All the nations of the earth have better meanes of reconciliation unto God then the Temple of Hierusalem or the service of it was unto the nation of the Iewes wherein it stood God saith the Apostle was in Christ reconciling not this or that man but the world unto himselfe All the nations of the earth as you heard before had their interest in the Temple built by Solomon The demolishing of it or the 2d Temple built by Zerubbabel reedified and adorned by Herod can be no prejudice to any particular nation of the earth much lesse to any christian nation least of all to this most orthodoxall nation But what Is that way or meanes of reconciliation unto God which we now have more excellent then the Iewish nation had whilest Solomons Temple stood Certainly the Sonne of God did use no Sophisme or aequivocation He spake more then Metaphors even sacred mysteries when he said unto the Iewes Destroy this Temple and in three daies I will raise it up Iohn 2. 19. For albeit his words as the Evangelist instructs us were literally meant of the Temple of his body and though the Iewes did pernitiously erre in not construing them so yet the same words had a farther emblematicall mysticall or spirituall sense importing thus much that the Iewes by destroying the Temple of his body should destroy that very Temple wherein they trusted and that within three dayes it should be raised with him to a more excellent state or manner of being than it had The materiall Temple was signed or marked unto destruction by the rending of the vaile at the houre of his death and though the visible building or so much of
us For the unerring eye of his all-seeing providence and omnipotently stedfast hand by which he wields the scales of justice would not have suffered his consuming wrath to come any nearer to us then we were come unto the full measure of our iniquity 10 The first thing which then was or now is to be enquired after is what were the extraordinary and speciall sinnes which drew Gods iudgements so neare upon us These were not the cruelty of lawes enacted against professors of that religion which these traitors professed as they as foolishy as impiously alleadge nor was the negligence or connivence of such as were put in trust with the execution of these lawes the cause of the iudgement then threatned as some others out of misguided zeale suspect Of such negligence or omission or of whatsoever else may give any advantage to the adversaries of our peace and religion there were some positive causes in our selves God only knowes how many but of these we cannot but take notice which the Prophet Micah expresseth or some like unto them as sacriledge oppression and bribery in the layty Simony and time-serving in the Clergy luxury prophanenesse and hypocrisie in both Now when the professors of true religion shall give undoubted proofe of their constant and impartiall zeale against these foule enormities or for enquiring after the most enormous delinquents in all these kindes there will bee good hope that the lawes already enacted or projected against idolatry against superstition and false religion shall have their wished successe But suppose that upon the occasion or opportunity which these idolatrous miscreants had in a manner thrust into the hands of our law-makers the suppression of idolatry and superstition throughout this land had been more exact and more compleat then that which Hezekiah in the beginning of his raigne had wrought in Judah Was there any probability that those other diseases which Micah mentions would have beene one jot abated any likely-hood that the most amongst us would not have learned that song or ditty by heart is not the Lord now amongst us or the Antiphony unto it would have been no evill can come upon us Other grosse exorbitancies usually come within the stroake of the civill sword and lye open to the execution of wholesome lawes but for snipping this secret hypocrisie or presumptuous leaning upon the Lord though in the professors of true religion the severest execution of wholesome lawes or exercise of the civill sword hath no force or dint the cure of this disease properly belongs unto the Divine and the method to cure it is contrary to the ordinary course of law or physicke wee must breake a generall custome of this people and teach them not to rare their affections unto truth by their opposition unto false-hood not to measure their zeale and love to true religion by their hatred of false religion These be the very rootes of that hypocrisie or presumption which Micah so deeply taxeth in the state of Iudah the chiefe ingredient in the leaven of the Pharisees But lest more of this people should slide into an errour too common unto many as if such a reformation of religion as they affect would acquit or secure the state and kingdome from all danger of Gods threatned judgements let us here behold the severity and mercy of our gratious God Mercy I say towards us and severity towards our brethren professors of reformed religion in neighbour nations whom he hath of late subiected to the enemies sword and other calamities of warre for what transgression in particular hee only knowes but surely not for those transgressions which some out of discontented zeale conceive to be the only cause of his displeasure against this nation whensoever any crosse or calamity befals themselves for no man can suspect those foraine Churches which he hath visited of late were deepely guilty either of connivance to superstition or to much favouring Arminianisme However the righteous Lord by chastising them doth fore-warne us to examine and judge our selves and if we find no other causes or probable occasions to feare the approach of the like Iudgements upon our selves yet even this alone will in the day of visitation make a great addition to our generall accompt that we did not humble our selves with feare and trembling whilst the Lord did humble and correct them whilst his hand was heavy upon such of our nation as were sent abroad for their succour Our consciences will one day accuse us when wee shall have occasion to seeke the Lord that we have not for the yeares late past besought his goodnesse with greater feare and devotion to remoove the rod of his wrath from them But did the Lord in this interim direct no messengers of his wrath unto us within our own coasts Did mortality and famine only follow the campe abroad or townes besieged in other nations The famine Gods name be praised for it hath not for many yeares beene either universally spread throughout this land or extraordinary grievous upon any greater portion of it and yet hath left so deepe impression in some native members of this great body as may evidently convince the rest of great stupidity in not sympathizing more deepely with them And stupidity or dulnesse in any member whilst other suffer is an infallible Symptome of a dangerous disease oft-times a certaine prognosticke of death and hee were but an indocile Christian that could not by those knowne calamities which much people of this land have suffered from this messenger instruct himselfe how easie it is for the righteous Iudge to bring such calamity upon this kingdome by this messenger alone as would move even the most malicious and cruell enemies that we have had to bemoane our case although we were fully assured of a constant peace with all other neighbour-nations that have any power or ability to annoy us by the sword or any practice of hostility Rome in her growth in her height of greatnesse and in her declining dayes had received many grievous wounds was subiect in all estates to fearefull calamities and disasters yet never in such a lamentable and ruefull plight as the famine had brought her to if wee may iudge of her inward griefe either by her bitter outcries or by the deiected and gastly dresse in which one of her sonnes then living hath set her forth Si mea mansuris meruerunt moenia nasci Iupiter auguriis si stant immota Sibillae Carmina Tarpeias si nec dum despicis arces Advenio supplex non ut proculcet Oaxen Consul ovans nostraeve premant pharetrata secures Susa nec ut rubris aquilas figamus arenis Haec nobis haec antè dabas nunc pabula tantùm Poscimus ignoscas miserae pater optime genti Extremam defende famem satiavimus iram Siqua fuit lugenda Getis flenda Suëvis Hausimus ipsa meos horreret Parthia casus After a solemne resignation of all clayme title or interest to all former victories