A PLOT To Disseize GOD of his RIGHT DEFEATED AND The CONTRIVERS Punished DISCOVERED IN A SERMON Preached in the Cathedral of S. Paul on the 15th of September 1661. Before the Right Honorable Sir RICHARD BROWNE Knight and Baronet Lord Mayor of the City of LONDON By THO. WOOD M. A. LONDON Printed by W. Godbid for R. Thrale at the Cross Keys at S. Paul's Gate entring into Cheapside M. DC LXI To the Right Worshipful The LADY LENNARD of West-Wickham in Kent and The LADY HARFLETE of S. Stephens neer Canterbury Grace and Happiness MADAMS I Have observed in you both which was partly a reason of joyning you together in this Dedication a constant respect in the worst Times towards the Old Clergy when the firmament of our Church was sadly and totally over-cast with Black Clouds of Novellisme and Heresie even then your Aspects were benigne and gracious and rais'd the drooping spirits of the Orthodox Professors round about you I bless you for it and God for you who is faithful and will most certainly put it to your account at the general Day of Retribution Particularly I the meanest in the Lords Vineyard and save for my sufferings hardly considerable have in reference to my Calling receiv'd many Civilities from you and must profess that as I always honour'd you both more for your goodness than your greatness so I conceiv'd my self oblig'd in gratitude to a publick acknowledgment and wanting other means have presum'd upon this way Madams let it meet I beseech you with a favourable interpretation 'T is a small Peice and was the fruit of my younger Studies If the Style be somewhat Lofty 't was like my Thoughts when I compos'd it Age and the Calamities of the Nation in which I had a share have since broken and humbled mee And 't is impossible without the wonder of a Miracle I should be made whole rais'd but by Dissolution Madams I commend it to you onely as a Remembrancer being able to add little to your Accomplishments in matters of Information It hath been preach'd in Three several great Assemblies and upon the request of some Friends is such as it is sent abroad into the world I fear not much but 't will indure the test and meet with the same good liking in the Reading which it had the happiness to do in the respective Deliveries of it It must needs pass the more currant with all that know your Ladyships if you deign to stamp it with your acceptance and approbations I pray for you and your Right Worshipful Bedfellows I rest MADAMS Your hearty Honorer and Servant in Christ Jesus THO. WOOD. 1 Kings 1. 7. And he took Counsel of Joab the son of Zerviah and of Abiathar the Priest and they helped forward of Adonijah My Design in the choice of this Scripture is to discover to this Honourable Corporation and others of this great Assembly A Plot. Not an imaginary one such as for ends of State you have had heretofore many obtruded upon you but a real Plot. A Plot tending to no less then the Disseizing of the Lord Paramount of Heaven and Earth God Almighty of his right withall if the time will allow it to manifest the Power of the same God in the Defeatment of it and his Justice in the deserved punishment upon the Delinquente I have not long since in a neighbour Assembly entred upon this Argument and by some that are somewhat prevailing with me am desired to finish it here The opening of the Story must not be omitted for 't is that which must give Light to every piece of the ensuing Discourse Several points will appear very intricate and dark in their Derivation without this I desire to make my way plain before me and rather to run the hazzard of censure for somewhat a large repetition then for Obscurity IN This Chapter we have two Brethren Competitors scuffling hard which shall mount the first Chariot in Israel Either had read his thoughts such a lofty Lecture that like those great Roman Cortivals they can indure nor Superior nor Equal A Kingdome is the prize they run for they strain the harder as knowing he that loseth loseth something of Natures Priviledge and must fall so much beneath a Brother as upon Humour or State-occasion to be reckon'd for no other then a Subject a Servant That which awakes them into action and puts life into their Resolutions is the hourly expectation and Likelyhood of the long and last Sleep of their Father in Death David though a King and so a God by his Office yet by nature he was a man and so like the rest of Mankind must dye His able Shoulders had for a good space of time undergone their share in the Burden of Government as a subordinate Assistant during the Reign of his Predecessor Saul and for nere Forty years he had steer'd the Affairs of State in chief so that now he was far gone into the second Infancy of his Life and could not continue long as having at least one foot on the Threshold of the House appointed for all Living This makes these two Brethren whom it only concern'd the one by nature the other by promise to bethink them early of their Interests And because in such a weighty affair bare right by the secret judgement of God and neglect of due afforded means for its supportation doth sometimes miscarry they underprop and fortifie it with the association of such Friends whose Power and Authority in the State might almost without the justice of any Title give credit and countenance to an adventurous Undertaker Adonijah is the first that steps up the Stage to act his part and he comes bravely on with Chariots and Horse and 50. Men to run before him Vers 5. We may take a measure of him in the 6. Verse and that from three material Circumstances his Education Personage and Birth all me-thinks after a sort prophecy and forespeak what he intended and seems to point him out not to a meaner Fortune then a Kingdome First The King his Fathers Affection towards him was not to be doubted of when David was a Man and his Son a Child he never displeased him and 't was not likely he would now go about to crosse him when himself was become Child and his Son Man He lov'd him but too well as we have a Say His continual indulgent cockering Carriage toward him we find noted in the Text and in probability not only as a peice of the Fathers Infirmity but of the Sons Incouragement too Something there was in it or else the Holy Ghost would never have left it upon record that his Father would not displease him from his Childhood to say Why hast thou done so Secondly Nature had plaid the Prodigal with him and conferred on him much of her Bounty for his Body He was a goodly man to look upon saith the Text and if we 'l credit the Conceits of some Philosophers the parts of his Soul must
envy and contempt Good in account at least to avoid scandal and discredit If the person that gives counsel be mean though he speak like an Oracle 't will be slighted nay cavilled at The Wise man observed some such thing in his time when he tells If a rich man spake the people kept silence but if poor they were ready to stop his mouth with that course quaere What fellow 's this Again though the men be great if they be not good too their advice though as good as Achitophel's will be liable to prejudice Hence if I rightly record the Lacedemonian Senators were exceeding coy of their Suffrages to a very profitable proposition for their Republick laid before them by a lewd great one yet under-hand caused the very same thing to be propounded by one of more upright conversation and it pass'd the House with great applause I might be long in this Argument but must call home I find out Adonijah's wisdome approvable in this particular too He communicates not his design with inexperienc'd Youngsters men either of loose Titles or leud Conditions but with such as were of conspicuous eminency acquainted with the very bowels and secrets of the State and that knew better then any how to steer him in his desired course Of such authority and reputation too by reason of their places and persons exceedingly countenance the action and draw multitudes of their dependants and others either out of fear love or opinion to declare themselves for him or to stagger at least and stand as Neuters The invincible Joab and the High Priest Abiathar these consult and advise with him nay they do more they help him forward And this Thirdly Manifests yet something more our young Princes wisdome too Many will give good counsel not out of any love to the person or cause but to screw themselves into trust that so upon occasion they may the more certainly overthrow both Vpon suspitious men therefore though they speak well we are never to lean so hard as should they treacherously slip aside to give out selves a fall Absolon was somewhat this way indiscreet in so suddenly embracing the advice of Hnshai the Atchite Again Some will give counsel yea and sincerely too but if in a business that imports danger they desire not to be seen in it You have not such great interest in them not so far engaged them to you as to cause them to do more then barely to advise when perhaps their countenance were as good as their counsel and would themselves assist in the execution 't were yet like to succeed much better For I think I need not ask leave to think That such as can soundly advise if they be sincere in the business and alike in other things are most fit to excoute as knowing best the extent breadth depth and length of their own counsels and able too at home to furnish themselves afresh upon the accidental miscarriage of any particular I must remember home again Our Adonijah's wisdome is herein remarkable too that such as he doth communicate his design withal he had before by benefits observance and other ways of courtesie and insinuation so firmly assured to himself as first to deal sincerely with him more to declare themselves for him most of all to run the hazard of their own counsel and really to engage themselves in it by action We find it in the last words They helped forward c. To sum up all together and so to make way to the main Observation We have here an able young man laying a strong foundation of greatness encouraged to it by the King his Fathers Love and that double bounty of nature comeliness of personage and eldership assisted in it by those of greatest power and sway in the State Abiathar the high Priest and Joab Captain of the Host who delude him not with Court-Holy-Water a piece of falshood a meer stranger for the most part to true Priests and right Souldiers but their works speak them as good as their words they afford him head and hands and hearts too in the business They advise him they help him forward And he that shall consideratively read thus far the story ignorant of what ensured afterwards would willingly I suppose venture his fortune in the same Bottome with the undertake For the design in the whole managing of it discovers such 〈◊〉 apparencies and probabilities of success as indeed 't is a matter of just marvel to think how it did miscarry But here we see Heavens Power and Prerogative how it easily alters and overthrows Projects that seem to be founded and rooted in Adamant The Lord doth whatever he will both in Heaven and Earth and should the whole world conspire in an insurrection to revense or alter one of his least decrees their attempts would prove as vain as ridiculous For he that dwells in Heaven would laugh them to scorn the Lord would have them in derision Psalm 2. 3. A remarkable place to this purpose is that in the Prophecy of Isaiah chap. 3. ver 9 10 11. Where we find a confederacy an association of divers persons nay in likelihood Nations too against the people of God Like that combination mentioned by the Psalmist Psal 83. 6 7 8. Gebal Ammon Amalek the Philistines with the Tyrians Assur and the children of Lot Edomites Ishmaclites Moabites Hagarens men of divers interests and not all of one and the same Religion neither though all aliens to the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers to the Covenant or like to come so neer and no neerer that holy League in France the cause of so much mischief to that Kingdome and by their example to others Well but for proof of the main Observation mark what God saith there by his Prophet Associate your selves together and ye shall be broken to pieces Gird your selves put your selves into a posture of war broken to pieces notwithstanding This judgment of being broken to pieces we find thrice repeated in that ninth verse to note the fulness centainty and in Gods time suddenness of such contrivers destruction and though they all lay their heads together to prevent it yet it will not do Take counsel together ver 10. it shall be brought to nought make a decnee it shall not stand and the Prophet shews his extraordinary Commission for this in the eleventh verse The Lord spake this to me with a high hand And it is just the same with the example in the Text. They take counsel here for Adonijah's succession but God as the Psalmist speaks breaks this counsel and brings to nought this device He hath said Solomon shall reign and he will not alter the thing that is gone forth of his lips Though all the Achitophels and Statists upon Earth project the contrary yet his counsel shall for ever and the thoughts of his heart from generation to generation Psalm 33. 11. Wisdome and understanding and counsel do bravely bring to pass mighty matters so long as they keep
or every blast of present Success that we believe not every spirit or powerful perswasion or great example for divers that boast themselves of God are not such many false Prophets are come forth into the world Let it be enough that by glorious glittering pretences we have been cheated out of our Religion Loyalty Property nay our very Reason that by strong dazeling delusions we have been cajol'd iuto such a Pit-fall from which only the Almighty power and extraordinary Goodnesse could redeem us If our own harms will not make us beware neither the Texts Example nor any humane Instruction can possibly work upon us And the next blow of Gods hand must needs be far heavier because we have so soon forgotten the grief of our former misery and the comfort of our present Deliverance Secondly for Comfort To stay our hearts as with Flagons of Wine when we consider that not one word of Heavens mouth made to our own souls or others shall fall to the Ground Is thy faith assaulted concerning the truth of Gods promises made either to the whole Church as the Body in the general or to thy self as a Member in particular Take heed of giving too far and free Entertainment to such Suggestions The Lords hand is not shortned He 's commonly better then his word as good as his word to be sure he is always Though for the present perhaps thou mayest perceive nothing lesse no Shadow of Likelyhood all thing to run to a Retrograde course to their seeming accomplishment Yet possesse thy Soul with patience stand and see the Salvation of the Lord rest upon his All-sufficiency believe with Abraham even above hope c. He doth divers times work out his ends by means in our shallow conceits apparently contrary He 's so good that he would not suffer evill to be unlesse he were also so powerful as to be able to draw good out of it Nothing can make void the purposes and promises of Heaven Though a Joab though an Abiathar though all men on Earth and Divels in Hell attempt their Nullity yet Maugre all Opposition they shall stand in force and be made good to those whom they concern that Word of truth hath spoken it not one word of whose Truth shall return empty Heaven and Earth shall passe away but c. Third for Direction to steer our course on the troublesome Sea of this World that so we may arrive at the Haven where we would be and that is in all our Intendments to take Heaven along with us not to depend upon new Truths pretended to be concealed for so many Generations and now revealed to I know not whom for I know not what fanciful purposes but to make Gods clear revealed Word with David our Counsellor and Warrant and then we shall be sure to have either the Summe of our Desires or that which is better for us Then either our purposes shall have a good Issue or else our failing in them shall be more for our Good Instance You of this City desire to be rich and in places of Honour and Eminency and such desires if attended with their due Qualifications are for ought I know not amisse neither Now Solomon tells us that riches and honour are in the hands of the Almighty Length of Dayes are in his right hand and in his left Riches and Honour Prov. And if we 'l credit the Divel he 'l tell us that all these are his too once to be sure we know he told the very Owner so to his Face Matth. 4. and where he is likely to gain more belief he will cettainly be more forward to boast his vain Title And were there not too many in the World that lent a willing ear to him the forbidden paths of Bribery Flattery Extortion Over-reaching Cozenage and Cunning would not be so crowded with Passengers and the allowable Road of Truth and Honesty fair upright and ingenious Dealing so thinly frequented But brag the Divel never so confidently of these and all other good things God is the true Proprietary and we must have and hold them of him if we will have and hold them at all or long or with Comfort We take an ill Match in hand if we go about to wrestle with him and wrest them from him by Violence God is a liberal God and yet in some Sense he 's a hand-fast God too maugre all the World he can keep his hands shut if he please and untill he be pleased to open it we cannot be filled with Plenteousnesse In all our Enterprises therefore let us be sure to have him to friend to have his allowance at least if not command in the main Intendments of our Life otherwise let me tell you 't is neither the Plotting of our heads nor the Sollicitousnesse of our hearts not the Drudgery of our hands nor the whole concurrence of our created strength improv'd by all accessory procurable Assistances that can finally render our attempts successeful Adam may make himself a Garment but it shall not cover his nakedness Jonah may build him a booth but it shall not defend him from the heat of the Sun Peter may toil all right at fishing but shall catch nothing Though we rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of sorrow yet is our labour in vain except the Lord give the blessing Psalm 127. 2. I might illustrate this by almost infinite instances out of Story Take the Texts example for all Here is an able eldest Son using the strongest humane means to settle himself in the Seat of his Father Ordering this affair with as much polity and discretion as the best heads in the Kingdome could furnish him with Many advantages he had of his Competitor both the Word and the Sword if I may so speak were on his side The High Priest and Captain of the Host The latter of which alone was so powerful in the State that David himself though a King well-beloved of his Subjects confesseth him too hard for him and for the murder of divers of his dear friends durst not punish him Yet see notwithstanding all these interests assistances probabilities Heaven overswaies and determines the contrary Go but to the latter end of the Chapter and there we shall read that Solomon is King So true is that of the holy Ghost the foolishness of God is wiser then mans wisdome and his weakness stronger then their power But stay was indeed God's hand in this business against Adonijah How then durst either Joab or Abiathar move so much as a finger for him Nay how durst he himself take counsel and plead his own Title when that Wonderful Counsellour and Supreme Judge both of Heaven and Earth was in the Cause his adversary 1. But indeed for him first I can easily satisfie my self without the puzzle of a wonderment A Crown is a strong temptation and where an apprehension of compassing it gets footing in the brain it infatuates corrupts our judgments and inveigles
us to any impious desperate undertaking Caesar thought a Kingdome worth an oath-breaking And I have observed it that Religion hath not such another shrewd enemy as ambition Look into the Annals of all ages search the Records of time from the beginning and you 'll scarce find one of a thousand that have let go their hold or relinquish'd probabilities of Soveraignty out of a meer respect to conscience Secondly For Joab too I marvel not at all at him A man he was it seems by the whole course and tenour of his actions of a violent over-heady spirit One that look'd no farther though a Subject and an Israelite for a Law then his own will He had slain Absolon expresly against the King's Commandement and Abner and Amasa against both Gods and the Kings And if he now beard Heaven by opposing with a high hand its decrees which had so often before set nought and slight by it what need we wonder But for Abiathar me-thinks to do so cannot but rouze our admiration For God's high Priest to set himself against God and to oppose his will and purposes must needs be to those that consider the circumstances of the story and person a matter of just astonishment Shall we say for him by way of excuse or extenuation that perchance he might not be clearly and throughly acquainted with God's will in this particular We would fain be as favourable to him as might be but this in reason allow him we cannot For then unless we 'll argue like Turks Solomon spoke amiss to him chap. 2. 26. When he told him he had deserved death for supposing him ignorant do but shew me what so great evil he had done But indeed faulty he was I make no question knowingly and presumptuously faulty too God had sent the Prophet Nathan to bestow a second name upon Solomon a name of such an happy signification as might almost alone direct Abiathar to the Almighty's intention Jedidiah the beloved of the Lord. And that some clearer intimation of God's pleasure was the ground of Davids oath to Bathsheba by the Lord that her son should reign after him may be more then probably conjectured For can we suppose that David a Prophet of the Lord would so resolutely without limitation or Saint James his reservation if the Lord will swear that Solomon should reign after him without a Warrant from him by whom Kings reign and the Thrones of Princes are established And that this being such a publick business and necessary to be known too should be concealed from Abiathar no circumstances can make likely I take no pleasure in this Argument Give me leave from hence only to note unto you That the best sometimes over-shoot themselves grosly That not a Miter not an Ephod not the holy Calling of Priesthood doth make us so universally good but that we sometimes run into a Premunire against Heaven transgress the Laws of our Maker like other men We are earthly Vessels kneaded of the same Clay shap'd of the same mould whereof all mankind are fashioned Prophets we are but yet like unto our brethren as Moses Men of God but yet but men and so subject to whatsoever sins are incident to man's nature as well as others Abiathar here though the High Priest and headman of the Church yet led aside by some corrupt respects goes about as much as in him lies to frustrate Gods promise and appointment He helps forward Adonijah Well but all this while we have condemned them how may we now justifie God Was there no partiality no iniquity in him to prefer the younger before the elder Primogeniture by his own Law had the priviledge of a double portion and doth he now for no wickedness neither that we read of bar Adonijah from this Prerogative Shall not the Judge of all the world do right Shall he do any man wrong that be far from him Answ Twofold 1. General 2. Particular First God is a free and liberal Agent He doth and may do whatsoever he will both in Heaven and Earth His will is the rule of Justice for though some will have Justice to be the reason of his will blasphemously enough if well sifted yet 't is confest on all hands that he wills nothing but what is just When therefore we hear him clearly enjoyning any thing we are not in our weak way to dispute the lawfulness of it but with all alacrity to hasten its execution For God is equally as unable to command as to commit injustice All his waies are judgment and truth Psal The Canonists affirm of the Pope nunquam ligat sibi manus he can never tie his own hands never limit and restrain his own power They write him down a God on Earth and therefore herein they will have him like the God of Heaven And your greatest Statists of Laws in Monarchies tell us that they bind only those that are under them A Coactive power they have not serve only for Direction to such as are above them Besides we grant that Laws may be dispenc'd withal nay nullified by the same power by which they were made and that the ground and reason of a good Law is alwaies justice though the letter in some particular application may be otherwise Hence that usual Say considering the unsufficiency of Laws to meet with those millions of circumstances one of which may alter a case Better a privaete mischief then a publick inconvenience These Observations some of them at least may not be perhaps in a Metaphysical transcendent consideration utterly incompatible with the Almighty For we find God for the present to have commanded contrary to the letter to be sure of his own Law As in the Israelites spoyling the Egyptians Nay in a weightier businesse then the Text holds forth we find the younger accepted the Elder rejected Nay for an Earthly Kingdome too the point in hand though attended with other Circumstances we find David preferred before Eliab Secondly But this Discourse of Gods absolute power to do whatsoever he will and that all being truly his both in Heaven and Earth he may dispose of his own as it pleaseth him will perchance scarce satisfie some and indeed let it be confest something farther and I conceive better may be said to the point Many things are holden in the World by Prescription Custome put into the Ballance with Law cleerly out weighs it and then time out of mind we deem no Title better Now Israels case was different from that of other Nations These had been from their very beginnings as Commoners left to the Light of the Law of Nature and to such Constitutions as they were able to make out from that But Israel was Gods Inclosure continued by his special particular care under Pupillage as his own peculiar and the Government amongst them to the very day of this Consultation went not by Succession but Election and in that they were never suffer'd to carve out to themselves whomsoever they fanci'd as