you one Caveat Cyprian Ibidem take heed of that prostitutae vocis venalis audacia of painting a rotten cause with the varnish of Sophistry and Eloquence Nazis this is to cast the flowers of Rhetorike upon a sepulcher This is cum lingua scortari to constuprate nay murder justice when by your Midwifry you should bring it to light Alas what good shall all fees do you when the great judge shall frowne and your owne consciences shall vomit up all ill gotten goblets then the clearer you have bin in your practise here the more comfort shall you meet at another barre and the brighter shall you shine in another firmament You of the severall Juries Jury Be faithfull in the discharge of your oaths this day be neither partiall nor rash steere your course twixt rigorous severity and foolish pitty for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be prodigall of mercy is as dangerous to a Common-wealth as too much rigour As a Tyrannicall governour is better then at none all A little blood seasonably shed do's prevent a greater torrent afterwards therefore endeavour to temper mercy and judgment together Be not meal mouth'd in concealing or mineing the abuses of the County bring them to the physitians of the State that they may be healed be not indulgent to swearers and drunkards say not all is well when sin eccho's so loudly like the Amalekites cattle in the eares of Samuel this is to exempt them from the answer of men and to expose both your selves and them to the vengeance of God As for those that wait on either Court to give in their Testimonies Witnesses I need only to mind them of the awfull Majesty of God by whom they are to sweare even the almighty God of truth therefore take heed of invoaking him to justify a lye Solemne oathes were to be taken before the Altar 1 King 8.31 which was a signe of Gods presence that the greater feare and reverence might be wrought in men therefore still we lay our hands on the book a false oath will recoyle into your owne bosomes and the venome of it will drink up your owne spirits the greatest mischeife will be to your owne soules D. Zouch Perjury saies a learned Civilian is worse then Atheisme the Atheist denies there is a God and lives accordingly but the forsworne man acknowledges there is a God sweares by him yet derides him such persons make this land to groane and mourne Let these words Jer. 4.2 be alwaies in your thoughts in your hearts Ex. 28.36 thou shalt sweare in truth in righteousnesse in judgment so shall righteousnesse unto the Lord be set up in the midst of you The gates of Bath-Rabbim shall this day shine and you shall make preparation to enter through another gate you shall passe from the gate of Sion to the gate of heaven from the Areopagus or Hill of justice to the holy Mount of eternall mercyes From Bath-rabbim the daughter of a multitude to Rabbim a multitude indeed from one assembly to another from a mixed Assembly of an handfull of men to the generall Assembly and Church of the firsthorne nay to an innumerable company of Angells and to the spirits of just men made perfect And now me thinks I am so rapt up and ravisht with this advantageous exchange of ragges for robes and dirt for gold that I find my spirits quite mov'd into another channell I must leave preaching and begin to pray that God of his infinite mercy would in his good time make us all free of that Jerusalem which is above Ps 82. v. 1. God standeth in the congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the gods THere was no Nation under heaven to be compar'd with the children of Israel for hapinesse and glory in that God was so nigh unto them in all things that they call'd to him for as Moses makes the challenge in their behalfe Deu. 4.7 And indeed happy are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are the people which after this manner have the Lord for their God and David gives the reason for in his presence there is fulnesse of joy Ps 16.11 Are not we happy upon this account at this present if we knew but our owne happinesse may not we take up Moses his gantlet and answer his challenge May not we confront our Goshen with the Israelites Canaan and compare the Lords going out before us in his word and spirit with his going before them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night We have not only a title to Gods generall presence as he fills heaven and earth For so he is alwaies about our paths and about our bedds either to smile a Ubi non est per gratiam ibi est per vindictam or frown upon us b Act. 17.27.28 for in him we live move and have our being Whither shall I go from thy spirit or whither shall I flee from thy presence Ps 139.7 8 9. But now I hope we are all met together in the name and feare of God here at the mercy seate at the Aâ—ks of the Testimony and then God will not onely treate with us by his delegates his Angells but God himselfe will vouchsafe to give us a meeting We have his owne promise for 't Mat. 18.20 Where two or three are met together in my name there am I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the midst of them there is his speciall gratious propitious saving presence He stands in the Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodian so that t is no paradox to affirme that this place is heaven it selfe Rome is there where the Emperour is the court is there where the supreme magistrate do's reside and Heaven it selfe is there where God vouchsafes his speciall presence and therefore the Church of God is so often call'd the kingdome of heaven in the Gospell But we have another advantage of Gods presence at this juncture of time The gods are come downe unto us in the likenesse of men and where these gods upon earth are assembled the God of heaven will not be farre off God standeth in the Congregation of the mighty he judgeth among the gods Basil speaking of this book of the Psalmes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 55. calls it a common treasury or storehouse of all wholesome doctrines standing in the midle or center of the scriptures as if the lines of the whole book of God met in the book of the Psalmes Here are seasonable lessons for men in all conditions Art thou under the harrowes and sawes of outward affliction art thou roaring with Heman under spirituall desertions art thou stretching thy selfe upon thy bed of languishing art thou opprest imprisoned derided Here are Elegies mournfull dities whereby thou mayest empty thy soule or allay thy sorrow Art thou elevated or dilated with inlargements of heart dost thou flourish as the palme tree or sprout as the cedar in
secret glances and comforts them by hidden impulses and whispers as it were by a voice behind us Only let us try the Spirits by bringing them to the touchstone of the word to the law and to the testimonie if they speake not according to this word there is no light in them Es◠8.20 It hath been unhappy Sophistry to argue à bene conjunctis as if those glorious promises of the Covenant of grace that we shall all know the Lord and r Taught of God i by Christ who was God in a humane shape wheras before they were taught by Prophets who were men only So D. Lightfoot 3. par Har. p. 166. all be taught of God did oppose or exclude other meanes of knowledge as altogether uselesse whereas they are subordinate God and his Spirit teaches by his word therefore whatsoever suggestions sprout forth from our own hearts or what injections come from without let us weigh them in the balance of the Sanctuary before they pass for the Auchentike and genuine issues of the Spirit If we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other doctrine let him be Anathema Things revealed belong to us and our children If any shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him the plagues that are written in this book Rev. 22.18 If we should give scope to our wilde and luxuriant phansies and then fall down to and adore the deformed Chymera's and Brats of our own braines as those that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divine or falling down from heaven we should soon adulterate the worship of the true God and kisse the Calves of our own imaginations this is to open a flood gate to let in a torrent of Atheisme 3. Assertion Which is an Argument to confirme the Being of the divine nature à posteriori from the exercise of his power and justice here below He judgeth in the earth He commands over all things and Persons by his Soveraignty He defends the good and punishes the evill in the execution of justice He does not only reside in Heaven and take his ease and pleasure there although the Heavens being the chiefest part of his workmanship doe in a special manner set forth the glory of God and God is therefore said chiefly to dwell in the Heavens yet I say he is not so in Heavens yet I say he is not so in heaven as not to mind the affaires of this inferiour world ut nec irâ nec gratiâtangi as not to be provoked with the insolencies and profanenesse of the wicked or not to favour the righteousnesse of the just as the s Lactantius lib. 3. Epicureans said of their gods David teaches farre sounder Divinity Psal 121.4 Though God be on high yet he humbleth himselfe to behold the things both in heaven and in earth and here in the text He judges in the earth This judging here does not referre to the judgment to come at the last day when there shall be a generall convention of quicke and dead before the Lords dreadful Tribunal though so t is most true affore tempus that there will be a time when God will ride his circuit here in a solemne manner so that a man shall say verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth but that is not the scope of this place T is in the present tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that now judgeth or is now judging the earth and the inhabitants thereof and therefore it must be understood of a Judgment on this side the Judgment of the great day and so God judges the earth or in a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. the earth three manner of waies First By a providentiall ordering and wise disposall of all the affaires of all creatures Secondly In releiving the oppressed and pleading the cause of the innocent Thirdly In overthrowing and plaguing the wicked doers 1. God judges in the earth by a providentiall ordering and wise disposall of all affaires and all creatures The earth it selfe receives strength and vertue from his providence to bring forth fruits for the service of man and grasse for the Cattle and after b See Dr Hackwells Apol. so many thousand of yeares teeming is not yet exhausted made feeble or barren nay it is supported only by the word of Gods power as if we should see a vast globe of iron or lead dangling in the aire without any visible engine to hang upon or any pillars to support it Job askes the question whereupon were the foundations of the earth fastened chap. 38.6 And he returnes an answer chap. 26.7 He hangeth the earth upon nothing So also hath he dealt with the sea that is moderated and kept within bounds that it should not returne to Cover the earth Ps 104.9 He that made the Red sea a wall on the right hand and a wall on the left hand to the children of Israel and made the swellings of Jordan to stand on an heape by the same wonderfull providence hath he shut up the sea which Naturalists say is higher then the land with doores and said hitherto shalt thou go and no further Job 38.8 10 11. God did not make the world at first and then left it at randome to stand or fall by chance and fortune but by the same power he still supports it He goes about the Circle of all the Earth and tells all her walls and bulworks He sees all under the whole heavens and looketh to the ends of the earth Job 28.24 His eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth 2 Chron. 16.9 Therefore the earth is said to be made continually He looks not only upon the rulers and great potentates of the earth but he has respect to the poore and needy to the meanest Israelite that is wronged by the mightiest Aegyptian in the world Nay the least and most despicable things are under his ken He disdaines not to look after the haires of our heads or to observe the very sparrowes that fly in the aire We are so short-sighted that we cannot judg of nor discerne the just quantity or quality of the vast heavenly bodies much lesse can we distinguish the Inhabitants of the Coelum Empyraeum the heaven of heavens But he that dwells in that inaccessible light can judg of the least creature that crawles upon the earth or the smallest atome that moves in the aire Use Let no extremity extort from us any doubting or repining complaints as if God did at any time cast us out of the compasse of his care as David once lamented that he was cast out of the sight of his eyes let our condition be never so deplorable let the commotions of the earth be never so violent and confused yet let us rest our selves and stay upon this that God judgeth in the earth we are under his eyes that sustaines all creatures by his power that feeds the young ravens and clothes the lillies of the field by his mercifull providence And as this Doctrine rightly
should be the Saviour of the world Israel must see the Aegyptians behind and the sea before no way but be slaine by the sword or perish in the water before God prepare them a way through the sea The Disciples that sailed with Christ in the ship Mat. 8.24 were first suffered to be almost swallowed up in the sea so that they came crying Master we perish we perish and then vers 26. he rebuked the wind and the sea and they obeyed him The match was near the gunpowder before the intended Tragedy of England was discovered and disappointed How easy were it to reckon up a whole cloud of Martyrs whom God suffered to come to the stake and then shewed himselfe to them either by giving them courage against the terrours of death or by taking away the sense of their sufferings so that they fell a f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil leaping and skiping for joy and laid themselves down in the flames as in a bed of roses Strike sayes Anaxarchus when they were battering him with clubbes for ye doe not g 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cle. Alex. beat Anaxarchus but only his caske or out-side as if with Steven they then saw heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of his Father Now God does thus judge for his people when they are reduced to the greatest exigency First Reason to exercise our faiths that we may know how versari inter aspera to depend upon God though we see nothing nisi pontus aequor but sea and tempestes to believe that he will be mercifull to us though in outward shew he may seeme bent do destroy us This is the very height of faith to be like Abraham Rom. 4.18 Above hope to beleive in hope or like Jehosophat 2 Chron. 20.12 When a numerous host came against him we have no might against this great company but our eyes are upon thee this is to trust God though he kill us Secondly that he may get himselfe the more glory It is a great deale of glory for a Physitian to cure a disease when grown desperate and in the eye of man past cure so for God to help when in a helplesse condition makes more glory to redound to him therefore the Lord quickned Sarahs Wombe when dead and our Saviour raised Lazarus when he had layen foure dayes in the grave When David had shewed that the Lord is a present refuge in time of trouble Psal 46.1 It followes vers 10. I will be exalted among the heathen I will be exalted on the earth So Esa 59.19 after the Prophet had shewed how the Lord releiveth his Church in a desperate condition it followes so shall they feare the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the Sun Vse Le ts not be dismayed though we be placed on the very pinacle of dangers though there be troubles without and terrours within though we sit in darknesse and have no light yet as t is Esa 50.10 Let us trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon our God for doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth in the earth I have read of one who was used to say when the Church was at a low Ebbe be of good cheere for now God is working some great worke for his people for when men are at a stand and gaze one upon another then God takes the matter into his own hand then t is good to stand still to see the salvation of God He will be a Guardian and a Champion to his Servants against all the Potentates of the earth that shall foame and swell against them Therefore let us carry our selves innocently and justly to God and men and then let us commit our causes to the Lord as a faithfull Judge 3. God judgeth in the earth by overthrowing and plaguing the wicked doers and taking vengeance of them therefore the Septuagint reades the text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judging them in the earth that is those cruell and wicked Judges mentioned in the former part of the Psalme To judge is most frequently taken in this sense So he is said to judge h 1 Sam. 13. Elies house He is said to judge Jerusalem i Ezck 16.38 as Women that breake wedlocke and shed bloud are judged when he gave her blood in fury and jealousie but to transcribe a multitude of texts to this purpose would be to guild gold and to seeme to suspect your ignorance in the Scriptures Now both the matter and the manner of Gods judging the wicked and his taking vengeance on them will appeare by these two theses following 1. God judges the wicked when they are in the ruffe of their pride and in the height of their presumption Pharaohs Charriot wheeles were taken off when he was in the heate m Ex. 14. of his pursuit after Israel I will pursue I will pursue saies Pharaoh Not Israel but they owne ruine saies the Lord. When n Dan. 4.30 Nebuchadnezzar was boasting of his great Babel and Belshazzar quaffing in the bowles of the Temple the one was doom'd to eate grasse with the beasts of the feild the other did but cast up his eyes and reads his owne sentence upon the wall Corah Dathan and Abiram have no sooner let go their proud and rebellious words against Moses and Aaron but the Lord provides them a grave with a trap doore or a posterne gate to let them downe quick into hell When Lucifer was aspiring above the o Esa 14.14 15. starres saying I will ascend above the heights of the clouds I will be like the most high then he received an answer that he should be brought downe to hell to the sides of the pit p Acts 12. Herod was stroke with a stinking and nasty disease when in his royall robes he owned the Acclamation of the people that made him a god Julian opened his mouth to blaspheme Christ and e're he could shut it it was stopt with an arrow shot into it from heaven therefore in this 58 th Psal v. 9 The Lord is said to take away the wicked as with a whirle wind both living and in his wrath in the midst of his fury whil'st he is grinding and gnashing his teeth against the poore and innocent therefore Fret not thy selfe because of evill doers neither be thou envious rather pitty them against the workers of iniquity for they shall soone be cut downe like the grasse and wither as the green herb Psal 37.1 2. and vers 35.36 I have seene the wicked in great power magna vi erumpentem Jerom breaking forth like lightning and spreading himselfe like a Cedar in Libanus what becomes of that lightning and this Cedar why both vanish away like some meteor some mushroome or like Jonahs gourd He passeth away and was not I sought him but his place could no where be found Sic confundantur domine So let thine enemies perish O Lord but let them that feare thee
as had remarkable blemishes might not serve in the Sanctuary that 's a sad text Cant. 5.7 The watchmen and keepers of the wall themselves smote and wounded the Church and tooks away her vaile the badge of modesty and subjection as if she had been a strumpet or the subject of reproach Gen. 24.65 1 Cor. 11.10 Eze. 23.25.26 Farre be it from me to speak in the behalfe of eyes blinded with ignorance as blind as beetles Seeres per Antiphrâ—sin eyes that are blâ—erâ—yed nay blood shotten with Heresie and blasphemy eyes full of adultery covetousnesse or any uncleanesse that have in them not only the motes but whole beames of sin eyes like those of Basiliskes charming and bewitching eyes red with wine and distorted with envy sparkling with anger better my tongue should cleave to the roofe of my mouth or my eyes start out of my owne head then be an advocate for such eyes as these where ministers are bad they are like Origen when he wrote amisse none worse Jer. 24.3 or like the basket of naughty figges in Jeremiahs vision very naughty Yet as I will not be their proctour so I need not be their prosecutour They have their vigilant Judges also tiding their Circuits Mal. 3.5 who are swift witnesses against them like the flying role Zach. 5 to out off such rotten members from the sanctuary of the Lord that with Hymenaeus and Alexander they may learne not to blaspheme Onely I pray that such as act in that Authority may be actod themselves with a spirit of moderation lest the sound and rotten Sarah and Hagar Rachell and Leah should suffer together lest Sion and the High places be cover'd with mourning and the sonnes of Levi instead of purgeing and purifying should be Confounded I have but one thing more to leave with you Judges my Lords 1. viz. where you find eyes qualified as these in the text for Gods sake for the Churches sake * Tunica cornea Chriâ—â—allina palpebrae supercilium Nyssen for your owne soules sake be gentle and tender towards them Imitate Nature it selfe which hath wrapt the Eyes in severall Covers set skulls lids and browes to shelter and guard them from injuries Indeed I do not wonder in these times that men do so bandy against the ministers of the Gospell their deeds are very evill and therefore they hate the light they are deformed and so care not for the glasse of the word they are light and chaffy and so loath to be fann'd and winnowed nay rotten and loathsome and therefore they startle at this two edged sword of the spirit lest they should be dissected and bleed under reproofes whereas they are setled on their lees and hate to be reformed Sin is almost full and come to its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 growen ripe and calls for the sickle of Gods judgment Adulta vitia Omne in praecipiti vitium to cut us downe The Master of the house is call'd Beelzâ—bub Christ is robb'd of his due and cloath'd with reproach and shall his meniall servants go free when persecution begins at the house of God nay le ts comfort our selves Magnificentissimum cum Deo periclitari Nazians Si nos ruimus ruet Christus Luther that we are imbark't upon the same bottome and are fellow sufferers with Christ himselfe I say againe let 's praise our God who hath set bankes to the fury of men to restraine it seeing they are so wrathfully displeased against us cursed be their wrath for t is feirce and their rage for t is cruell This has bin Satans stratagem in all ages as of the Philistims towards Sampsons and the wolves in Demosthenes towards the sheep first to demand their dogges and then make a covenant with them or as the fowle which carries dust into the aire in her clawes and then lets it downe with the wind that it may fall into the eyes of that beast whereon shee desires to prey so Satan presumes he can more easily captivate and worry the soules of men when their seers and leaders are taken out of the way Though I do not wonder at this yet I should wonder that Christian Magistrates should stand by Davenant Quaest 17. and stand still to see those eyes pull'd forth seeing the next stroak is most like to be at their throates if Jesuited Papists according to their principles cannot be good subjects to Protestant princes I leave it with knowing men whether Lèyden and Munster may not send forth as dangerous Emissaries to governors as Rhenes and Doway As for you right worshipfull Justices of the peace Justices t was the saying of a King of this Nation K. James his speech in the starre Chamber that he did respect a good Justice of the peace as he did those next his person as much as a privy counsellor I am sure good lawes are but dead ordinances a bell without a clapper except you put life unto them they are but notionall and in the Theory 〈◊〉 if you do not execute them and reduce them unto practise and act the Acts of Parliament I am not come to blame your backwardnesse herein I know your zeale I speak of those I know against Ale-houses sabboth breakers swearers revells in our parrishes when by complaint we addresse our selves unto you you dare owne and countenance the ministers of the Gospell Even in this very age you are ready to compose and umpire differences in these contentious daies Go on still as you need not doubt of incouragement from the honorable Judges here so may you lesse feare to be rewarded by the judge of heaven and earth quick and dead hereafter I hope you of the honorable profession of the Law Lawyers will save me a labour Mihi tam familiare est omnes cogitationes meas tecum coÌ„ municandas iâ—sdeÌ„que te vol praeceptis vel exemplis monere quibus ipse me moneo Plinius Epist lib. 4. Epist 24. your owne hearts cannot but dictate unto you what mine has suggested unto me viz. to be so much the more cautious and circumspect by how much the world is more clamorous and querulous against us this is the best way to confute the calumnies of men even by our integrity I say our integrity because you are call'd sacerdotes justitiae the priests of justice and so you will come under the compasse of my text and must be as the fish-pooles in Hâ—shbon It was a grievous complaint in Cyprians time Innocence was not Innocentia non est ubi defenditur In Epis ad Donatum where t' was pretended to be defended and men were lawlesse amidst the lawes whilst they pleaded the law of men they brake the law of God Solomon long before had observ'd the like Eccle. 3. 16. I saw under the Sun the place of judgment and unrighteousnesse was there I saw the place of righteousnesse and lo iniquity was there now that it may not be so amongst you let me give
number to note the mystery of the persons in the unity of the divine nature like creavit dii Gen. 1.1 3. This God do's not neglect the affaires of the world but though Heaven be his throne yet he do's providentially dispense equity and justice among the sons of men He keeps his sessions and rids his circuits here below He Judge sin the earth But before we speak of these parts in the body of the text there is something worth noting from their connexion with the context and is implyed in the first word so that which joynes this verse with the former parts of the Psalm and shewes this to be an illation from them what did God so suddenly as with a whirlewind overthrow those wicked Judges who Lorded it over his people did He make those Lions melt like snailes did he confirme the joynts of his people which were a little before trembling and smiting one against another as if they had been so many forlorne wretches expos'd and cast forth and no eye to pitty them as if they had been floating with Moses upon the sea in a basket of bulrushes without any pilot to guide them and even ready to cry out with the disciples Master carest thou not that we perish did he then command a calme and bring them to the haven where they would be did he turne their howling like dragons and chattering like cranes under the whipps and sawes of tyrannicall task-masters into a song of joy and triumph did he dismantle himselfe of that cloud wherein for a time he had so inveloped himselfe that he seemed not to behold the pressures of his people did he I say then step in to his peoples rescue by breaking their yokes as in the day of Madian and Kissing them with the Kisses of his mouth So that a man shall say verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtlesse there is a God that judgeth in the earth Obs Though the passages of Gods providence may seeme so rugged and uncouth as if they were destructive to his Church and likely to put out the eye of his owne glory yet our God will so dispose of them in the close that they shall have an advantagious tendency to the setting forth of his Honour and our good What could seeme of more dangerous consequence to the world then the fall of Adam the death of Christ and the commission of sinne yet Adams fall made way for Christ who was the Saviour of the world and put us into a better a more certaine condition then we were in the first Adam When Satan had thought to have Cut off this Saviour and prevented him that he should not accomplish the work of our redemption by combining the Jewes against him and putting it into the heart of Judas to betray him yet herein they did but a Non fiunt praeter dei volunta tem quae contra ejus voluntatem siunt Cal. Insti lib. 1. cap. 18. further the work of our Salvation and fulfill the determinate Councell of God concerning the same Act. 2.23 In shedding his blood they did but Compound a plaister for our wounds for by his stripes we were Healed Nay God can so order and dispose of sinne it selfe that thereby also he will get b Dei consiliis militant qui ejus consiliis repugnant Honour to his justice and the manifestarion of Gods Justice in the exercise of his severe judgments may make way for the declaration of his mercy not only unto others Rom 11.11 as through the fall of the Jewes salvation came unto the Gentils the Rebellion of Absolom tended to the stablishment of Davids throne as Seneca sayes of the sturdy oakes the more they are tossed with the winde the more firmely the are tooted in the earth and the destruction of i the foure great Empirs of the world the Lion the Beare the Leopard the dreadfull beast with iron teeth terrible Horns Dan. 7.4 5 6 7. c. was to this end that thereby a way might be made for the Ancient of dayes that out of their rubbish a stone might be brought forth without hands and therefore t is observable that the revolutions and tumblinges downe of those mountanous kingdomes were not casual but directed and ordered by the providence of God even those wheeles were full of eyes round about Eze. 10.12 Moreover Gods Crosse providences bring forth peace and comfort to the same persons Joseph k Negotiatio est aliquid amittere ut majora lucretis Tert. pag. 136. Galli faces Romae intulerunt Sed civit as non deleta nec obruta sed expiata sed lustrata videatur Flor. lib. 1. cap. 13. had not been raised to that preferment in Egypt had he not been solde to the Midianitish Merchants Ruth had not been married to Boaz had there not been a famine in her own country periissem nisi periissem If I had not been undone I had been undone indeed may many a man truly say All my fiery trialls have served to refine me and make me the more glorious and resplendent Awake O North-winde and come thou south blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out Cant 4.16 was the prayer of the Church not only the l warme Southerne gales of prosperity D. Sibbs in locum conduce to the welfare of the Church but even the nipping boâ—sterous blastes from a contrary Coast from the North doe often make the graces of Gods people more fragrant and vigorous 1 Vse Let 's admire the wisdome and power of God whâ—se wayes are thus past finding out who can bring health out of sicknesse and life out of death who is such an excellent Physitian as can m D. Renolds on Psal 110. v. 1. p. 126. Let us deny our owne wisdome and give glory to God acknowledging that there is wiser counsel in every thing we suffer then we can attaine M. Paul Bayne on Eph. 1.11 Rev. 19.6 Ps 46.2 temper the most poysonous herbes make the most unlikely means and instruments to worke forth most glorious ends though nothing but gall and wormewood be in the premises yet the conclusion shall be sweer and comfortable though the Assyrian Sennacherib breath forth nothing but rage and tumult against the Lord and his people yet he shall feele a booke in his nose and a bridle in his lippes and be turned backe by the way by which he came Esa 37.29 The Lord reignes though the earth be never so unquiet the multitude shall cry Alleluja for the Lord omnipotent reigneth therfore will we not fear though the earth be moved and though the mountaines be cast into the midst of the Sea The Church can never be in a desperate and deplorable condition which has such a Chymist alwaies at hand who can bring gold out of drosse Although the n Habak 3.17 18. Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines yet I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the