all this Are we not a sinfull unthankfull stubborne People as ever tasted of mercy a seed of evill Doers that call God t Ier. 3.4.5 Father and yet doe as evill things as we can And yet for all this God hath opened his hand wider than ever we opened our mouths and crowned all our yeares and dayes with such loving kindnesse and mercy as never any Nation under Heaven received greater or enjoyed longer If therefore David upon the bare promise of a mercy could not but sit downe before the Lord as one in an Extasie crying out Who am I O Lord and what is my Fathers House that thou hast brought me hitherto How much more would our spirits be lifted up beyond all expression to glorifie his Great Name for so great a mercy actually conferred when we consider who and what we are that doe receive it 3. The deliverance is extraordinary 3. Look upon the Deliverance it selfe as extraordinary All the g Psal 111.2 Works of the Lord are great yet some greater than others But this is no lesse than the raysing up of a whole Kingdome from the dead For as h Heb. 11.17 Abraham is said to have received his Isaac from death in a figure when Isaac had been bound on the wood and the hand of his owne Father stretched out to kill him so wee in this Deliverance received our King Queen and Prince that then were our King that now is our Parliament Lawes Liberties Lives and Religion it selfe from the dead in a figure when all these were so neere to destruction that there was scarce a step between them and death and such a step as had been easily made had not the Lord to whom belong the issues from death stept in to prevent it 4. And altogether unexspected 4. Take this with you too that this great Deliverance was a mercy altogether unexspected For who apprehended any danger The work was so strange as wee could hardly credit when we saw it done It was with us as with Zion * Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned her Captivitie by Cyrus the Persian Wee were like men that dreame we could scarce trust our owne eyes to behold it or our tongues to proclaime it Men gazed on each other as people amazed And when the thing was found to be so indeed oh how our hearts glowed our affections fired our hayre stood upright our eyes sparkled our joynts trembled our spirits even failed with us to behold the wonder And then oh what might not God at that time have had from us Let him therefore not goe away now with lesse seeing his Mercy even that Mercy endures for ever to our benefit and comfort 5. Behold the Love of God in it 5. And all this as a fruit of his Love makes all to be yet more precious to a thankfull spirit i Isay 43.4 I have Loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life saith the Lord. If men yea if a whole Nation conspire against thy life he will redeem thee from that danger with the price of all theirs Hence it is even from his Love that he no sooner espies any enemies out against us but he armes presently as against enemies to himselfe and not onely Layes them at his own feet but even at k 2 Sam 22.41 Rom. 16.20 ours and gives us to wash our feet in the bloud of the wicked 6. Consider God hath gotten him honour 6. God hath gotten him praise from the wicked that sought our destruction and raysed himselfe a praise out of the very rage of those who sought our destruction and shall he not have it from those who enjoy this miraculous Preservation Shall he have it from his enemies and goe without it from his Servants and Friends The Lord forbid But oh farre and for ever farre be such neglect from every of You who being the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof ought of all others to triumph in his praise for these works of his hands It was a foule Blot to the Elders of Judah that after David was freed of the Rebellion of Absolom they who were * 2 Sam. 19.11 12. his brethren his bones and his flesh should be last in bringing back the King to his House But much greater would the staine and the sinne be in You the Elders of our Jsrael unto whom the Lord himselfe upon the same grounds that he hath elsewhere said l Psal 82.6 Yee are Gods now saith Yee are my brethren yee are my bones and my flesh should have cause to adde Wherefore then are yee the Last to bring the King back Why are You so backward to restore unto Him all that honour that so many Absoloms and sonnes of Rebellion have taken from Him Well If you be not first nay if You outstrip not all others in the Duty of Praise for so great a Deliverance from the rage of man 3. Observation You must exspect no lesse Wrath to break out from the Lord upon your selves and the Kingdome than befell Hezekiah and all Judah for m 2 Chro. 32.25 not rendring to the Lord according to a farre lesse benefit done unto him There be divers other excellent Vses of this comfortable Doctrine but I must lay them all by for haste to the Last Point which is this The third Observation The Experience of Gods over-ruling and mastering the rage of man in times past is an undoubted assurance of the like for all to come This Point so clearely grounded on the Text which speaks of future Deliverances built upon former mercies and so strongly bound downe with a confident asseveration in the front that surely it shall be even so I shall passe over with a light foot Nothing more common in Scripture than to conclude what God will ever doe from what once he hath done David even in his youth could be confident of this n 1 Sam. 17.37 The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and out of the paw of the Beare he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And afterwards when that unnaturall Rebellion of Absolom brake out so violently as made Hierusalem too hot for David 2 Sam. 15. causing him to flee whither he could by the way of the Wildernes yet even then after God upon his prayer had spoken comfort to him from experience of former deliverances David growes so secure that he that before durst not stay in his owne house for danger professeth now to o Psal 3.4 lie downe and sleep where he hath not an house wherein to put his head and he that durst not tarry in Jerusalem with all the power he could rayse against his sonne now professeth in a wild howling desolate Wildernes p Vers 5. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against mee round about Thus let God doe but any thing
ever to live in glory so that for them p Phil. 1.21 to die is gain and q Rom. 8.37 in all these things they are more then Conquerors through him that loved them Thus every way the rage of man brings honour to God and good to his people and that upon these grounds Reason 1 1. God never put power into the hands of wicked men but for his own holy ends Therefore Wicked mens power is onely for Gods ends if they use that power to rage against his servants he must and will carrie on his own work let them intend what they list Now Gods end in raising such men is r Exod. 9.16 to shew in them his power and that his Name may be declared in all the earth How but by his Å¿ Exod. 14.17 getting honour upon them in the strongest pursuit of their rage against the godly as he did upon Pharaoh and all his host when they would have devoured Israel Reason 2 2. God cares not a rush for the greatest and proudest Sennacheribs in the world that rage against his people God will break the wicked rather than they should hurt the godly in comparison of any one poore servant of his own oppressed by them * Psal 105.14 he will suffer no man to do them wrong but will rebuke even Kings for their sakes that rage against them yea s Psal 2.9 break them to pieces like a potters vessell * Psal 69.14 and scatter them like hay in a whirl-winde or ships in a tempest rather than not make his people gainers by their rage So he dealt with Pharaoh Sennacherib and many moe This being his peremptorie resolution that t Rom. 8.28 all things shall work together for good to them that love him and therefore the rage of the wicked how much soever they hate them God outshoots them in their own bowe Reason 3 3. God delights to out-shoot the wicked in their own Bowe If u Psal 37.14 they bend their bowe to slay such as be of upright conversation he will shoot that arrow of their wrath further then ever they intended it and stick it fast in their own bosomes * Psal 45.5 If Pharaoh shoot at Israel Gods first-born the arrow shall fall short but then God takes it up and he shoots it into the very heart of Pharaohs w Exod. 4.22 23. first-born and he is sure to die for it Thus if the devill will still animate the rage of Herod and the people of the Jews to kill Christ that very arrow which gave Christ his deaths wound shall be the x Hos 13.14 death of death it self and the destruction of the grave and give the greatest blow to the devil and his kingdome that ever he received Little thought Satan when in his rage he prosecuted Christ to death that the death of Christ should be the saving of a world the rescuing of many millions of souls out of his power and the destruction of the kingdome of darknesse But so home did God shoot this shaft out of the bowe of his Crosse that y Heb 2.14 15. by death he destroyed him who had the power of death that is the devill and delivered them who through fear of death were all their life time subject unto bondage I have now given you the first branch of the Point the other follows which in effect is this Branch 2 The rage of the wicked shall never extend so far as to do the work they intended God makes mans rage fall short of their aime but shall ever fall short of that which they chiefly projected It is true that their rage sometimes goes very far and doth much mischief but never beyond what may stand with the honour truth and goodnesse of God and with his Covenant made to his people When the enemie begins to make himself sure of his will upon the godly and to say z Exod. 15.9 I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoile my lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword mine hand shall destroy them Then God steps in and sets their bounds far shorter then wicked men promised to themselves saying to them as to the raging sea a Job 38.11 Hitherto shalt thou come but no further and here shall thy proud waves be stayed And this he doth many waies 1. Sometimes by filing off the edge of that roughnesse and malice that is in them and constraining them to mildnesse and gentlenesse contrary to their very natures 1. By filing off their roughnes and malice and setled resolutions long before taken up Thus he restrained the rage of b Gen. 31.22 Laban against Iacob c Gen. 32.28 who shortly after also as a Prince prevailed with God to prevail with Esau that had long vowed his death so that at their meeting the rage and malice of Esau was tyed up and d Gen. 33.10 Iacob saw his face as if he had seen the face of God so well was Esau pleased with him 2. Sometimes 2. By giving them work elsewhere by giving them so much work elsewhere that they have neither leisure not power to pursue the godly any further We saw it e 2 King 19.8 before in Sennacherib and we may see it in f 1 King 22.27 28. Ahab at Ramoth-Gilead when he intended a further persecution of Michaiah as likewise in Iulian * Greg. Naz. Orat. 4. in Iulian who resolving to destroy all the Christians found a necessity to go first against the Persians by whom he was overthrown and so disabled from satisfying his rage upon the others Thus God often gives Tyrannicall Princes businesse enough abroad when he findes them studious to destroy their best Subjects at home 3. 3. By spoiling them of the instruments of revenge Sometimes by dispoiling them of the Instruments whereon they relie as g Exod. 14.25 he took off the chariot wheels of the Egyptians in their pursuit of Israel either by rending from them a great part of their Dominions as from h 1. King 12. Rehoboam when he resolved to go on in his oppression of his petitioning Subjects or by weakning that strength which remains with them as he did that of the Assirian when he thought none could stand before him i Isa 10.16 sending among his fat ones leannesse and under his glory kindling a fire or by infatuating their counsels making k Isa 19.11 the Princes of Zoan fools and the wise Counsellers of a persecuting Pharaoh to become brutish and causing them to fall by their own counsels as l Theodor. hist li. 3. ca. 20. Iulian before the Persians when in a bravado he would needs burn his ships to put the more necessitie of valour into his Souldiers or by infatuating themselves that they cannot understand good counsel when it is before them as in Rehoboam case * 1. Kin. 12. but rather follow that
which is directly given for their destruction and to countermine their own plots as when m 2 Sam. 17.7 8. Absolon followed the advise of Hushai against that of Achitophel which would have carried his designe that Hushai by his counsell prevented And indeed this is one of the greatest misfortunes of a Prince as a grave n Phil. de Co. min. ll 5. c. ult Author speaketh and a sad symptome of his approaching ruin when God smites him in his wits as he did Rehoboam to follow the counsels of those who were brought up with him and knew how to fit his humour and to reject the counsels of graver men who advised nothing but for his prosperity and honour 4. By arming his creatures against them 4. By arming his creatures against them to suppresse their rage as he did the o Iudg. 15.20 stars against Sisera the waters frogs lice flies hail locusts and other things against Pharaoh and even an Angel against the host of Sennacherib Thus God raised a mighty winde from heaven against p Aug. de Civit Dei li. 5. ca. 26. Eugenius the Tyrant that beat his Souldiers weapons out of their hands when they were to fight against the Christians under Theodosius 5. By panick fears 5. By panick fears and strange apprehensions without any ground as a meere casuall dreame q Iudg. 7.13 of a Midianite frighted an innumerable army and rendred them unable to stand before 300 unarmed men So the Moabites were overthrowne by occasion of r 2. King 3.22 23. a colour of blood upon the waters caused by the Sun rising very red in the morning and shining on the waters between the Sun and them 6. By making them fall one upon another 6. By setting the enemies of his people one against another Thus in that great host of Midian and Amaleck that came out against Israel s Iudg. 7.22 the Lord set every mans sword against his fellow throughout all the host And the like we have read in Iehoshaphats time when t 2. Chron. 20.22 23. the children of Ammon Moab and Mount Scir destroyed each other 7. By setting them against themselves 7. By turning their own swords upon their own brests Thus Achitophel Judas Pilate Nero and others have done u 2. Sam. 17. Achitophel hanged himself when his counsell for the destruction of David was rejected v Mat. 27.5 Tertul. Apolo cap. 5. Euseb li. 2. ca. 7.8 Iudas did the like when he had betrayed his Master Pilate the condemner of Christ and Nero the persecuter of Christians did both fall by their own hands without effecting what either the one or the other had mainly intended 8. By discovering their closest plots and counsels before they take effect and a Treason discovered is lost Thus did he discover the plot of x Esth 4.1 Haman against the Iews of the y Act. 23. Iews against Paul And so God did strangely open that plot of the Earles in the North combining with the Pope and Spain against Queen Elizabeth by a stranger without the Kingdome in so much as the Pope openly said z Hieron Catenae ubi supra That never any Conspiracie was more advisedly begun nor concealed with more constancie and consent of minds being not at all opened by any of the conspirators Thus doth God provide that rather then the rage of man shall take place to his dishonour * Eccle. 10.20 a bird of the aire shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall tell the matter You may take the Reasons in a word Reasons 1. Because Gods power will carry on his own counsels 1. The power of God is such that whatsoever a Pro. 19.21 devices be found in the hearts of men yet the counsell of the Lord that shall stand Let their rage be what it will yet not theirs but Gods will must be done b Pro. 21.30 There is no wisedome nor understanding nor counsell against the Lord. 2. All wicked men and devils are in Gods hand 2. All men devils are in Gods hand and how furiously soever they rage yet they can run but to the end of their chain They may rage but c Psal 2.4 God laughs them to scorn The devill himself may lay about him but God holds him in his hand sometimes d Rom. 16.20 bruising him sometimes e Rvel 20.2 binding him but alwayes mastering and over-powering him that f Mat. 16.18 the gates of hell shall not prevail against his Church and people 3. God is engaged by promise to his people that keep his wayes 3. Gods promise is to beat down all weapons that g Isa 54.17 no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise up against them shall they condemne and he pronounceth this to be the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Therefore God is bound to restrain all that wrath 1. Vse of the second Point which would enervate the faith of his people in such a promise and disappoint them of performance Thus having given you both branches of the second point I descend to the Vses The Vses 1. Behold all this fulfilled to our selves And first Behold all this fulfilled this day not in our cares onely as the Treason was but in our eyes too What the Rage of man upon this day was you have alreadie heard Now see how this rage so far as it was permitted did turn to Gods praise and how powerfully he restrained the rest Their rage turned to his praise How strongly was their plot laid how secretly carried how neer the execution how probable the successe how confident the Instruments of their expected issue How boldly did they vaunt that they had gotten God himself into the Conspiracie God and man had conspired to punish the wickednesse of that time said the Author of that Letter which occasioned the miscarriage of all mistaking the Devill for God Yet even then we see how admirably God turned all this rage to his praise by preserving of those that were appointed to die and by giving them up as a prey to death who had destinated so great a sacrifice to Death of so many at once Insomuch as the greatnesse of the danger did not more smite the world with a just amazement than the extraordinarinesse of the deliverance took all men with high admiration God permitted it so far that all might see his hand as clearly in the rescue as in the deliverance of Daniel in the Lions den and his judgement on the Traitors as in the destruction of Daniels enemies by the same creatures that touched not him One spark of fire flying out of the Chimney where they were drying powder to make resistance first brought divers of the principall Conspirators by the wounds received from the powder kindled by that spark to acknowledge the justice and vengeance of God upon them
for him and let him alone to live upon that while he lives If God once lead him through green pastures q Psal 23.1 his resolution mounts high r Vers 4. Though I walk through the vally of the shadow of death I will feare no evill and he soone arrives at this Conclusion s Vers 6. Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my life Every mercy is an assurance of more Nor was Paul behind David in this divine Art of argumentation If God raise him out of his bed from the dangerous arrest of a desperate sicknesse he rayseth his faith higher than God raysed his body first setting downe the mercy received t 2 Cor. 1.10 Who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver then inferring hence in whom we trust that he will yet deliver And at another time reporting a gracious rescue from the rage of Nero u 2 Tim. 4.17 18. I was delivered from the mouth of the Lyon he concludes thus And the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work that is of evill men conspiring against him before he should have finished his course A truth so conspicuous in the eyes of the faithfull that they have pleaded this unto God himselfe Moses when he saw God in such a rage as to threaten the cutting off of all Israel at once falls to prayer and pleads with God for a Pardon of course because he had given them many before w Num. 14.19 Pardon I beseech thee the iniquitie of this people according to the greatnesse of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven them from Aegypt even untill now Never were the people nearer a dreadfull destruction and yet this one Plea turned God quite about and draws from him this answer x Vers 20. Lo I have pardoned them according to thy word So David in a great danger when the Philistines took him in Gath useth the same Plea for deliverance y Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my soule from death wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling Which manner of speaking plainly concludes that it cannot be otherwise Nay more Not onely deliverances given to our selves but to any others from the beginning of the world is an undoubted argument to assure all the people of God of the like issue in all their straits and distresses When Isaac was so strangely delivered beyond all exspectation the godly presently made this use of it and it grew to a Proverb in all exigents z Gen. 22.14 God will be seen in the Mount When all things are so desperate that no help can be expected yet the very delivering of Isaac on the Mount of Moriah shall then assure them of a gracious deliverance And it is Gods own plea to encourage Ioshua to go on where Moses left a Iosh 1.5 As I was with Moses so will I be with thee I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Which very Text the Apostle citeth as a Legacie bequeathed unto all Christians though not in being till many hundred yeers after Ioshua was dead to dehort them from covetousnes and to perswade to contentation of minde by a firm reliance upon God b Heb. 13.5.6 Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as ye have for God hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man shall do unto m◠What was once and but once spoken to one Ioshua an extraordinarie person called to an extraordinarie service wherein he was to encounter extraordinarie difficulties is made by the Apostle as a concluding Argument for all Gods people cast upon any strait to claim the like to the end of the world Reasons Nor will you strange at it if you consider the grounds of it For 1 From the nature of God 1. God is constant and unchangeable in all his proceedings because he is so in his nature If his people alter not too much he still keeps one tenor c Mal. 3.6 I am Jehovah I change not therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed His meaning is that therefore they still pertake of his ancient mercies formerly shewed to Iacob their father because God is so unchangable 2. From their constant interest in the Covenant 2. His people once in Covenant have alwayes the same interest in his wisedome power providence and goodnesse and so may ever plead that whereof they or any others have been at any time partakers Hence the Church long after David was gathered to his Fathers thus expostulates with God d Psal 89.49 Lord where are thy former loving kindnesses which thou swarest unto David in truth As if they should say be they not all ours by being in Covenant with thee as David was 3. God never begins a work but he goes through with it When he begins he will also make an end in perfecting mercies as well as in filling up plagues 3. From Gods perfecting what he begins It is a note of infamie upon a weak man to have it said of him This man began to build and was not able to make an end Therefore Moses knew what he did when he pleaded for further mercy to Israel on this ground that it would be said by the enemy e Deut 9.28 The Lord was not able to bring him into the land which he promised them Therefore Paul was so confident in this very thing that he that hath begun a good work in his people will also finish it unto the day of Iesus Christ Thus then we see clear grounds why one deliverance assures many moe Yet take this truth with this caution Yet observe a Caution Although God deliver his people all alike effectivè yet he doth not alwayes bind himself to give unto all his servants the same deliverance in speciè and in kind But when he doth it not in kind he doth it First in equivalence either the same 1. Deliverance may be in equivalence or another as good in it self and better for thee f 2. Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly for manner and kind as well as for the meanes If life be best he will preserve thee alive If death be better even death shall be thy deliverance and thy greater gain 2. When God delivers not in kind 2. If not in kind yet such as satisfieth yet that deliverance which he doth bestow gives full satisfaction and perfect content so as other deliverance would not be accepted if it were tendred Those Primitive Saints that were exposed to Martyrdome g Heb. 11.35 would not accept of deliverance that is of an escape with their lives that they might obtain a better resurrection These things observed it ever holds good that The experience of Gods ordering and over-ruling the rage of man in times past is an undoubted assurance of the like for