to purge you and to make you white and at the appointed time deliverance will come which if it be a while deferr'd you shall be liberally pay'd for your forbearance Thus I have done with the second part of my Text and now I proceed to the third Branch of my text which I most aymed at the use which the Church makes of this goodnesse of God Blessed be the Lord c. The Hebrew word Barach when it is applied from the creature to God signifies Benedicere laudare offerre munus To Blesse to speak well of to offer a gift to praise This is our work this day and so without any more Preface I come to handle that lesson which is our maine duty viz. That the praising of God is the service which Gods people are to performe when ever God delivers them This is a Doctrine which needs much explication and application but little proofe No one lesson more inculcated in the whole Scriptures frequently commanded Call upon me in the time of trouble and I will hear thee and thou shalt praise me All that seek the Lord shall praise him Oh that men would praise the Lord for for his goodnesse foure times repeated in one Psalme At least an hundred times in one expression or other it is enjoyned in this book of the Psalmes Oh praise the Lord praise ye the Lord pressed and repeated almost in every verse of diverse Psalmes as if the Prophet knew not what other duty to call for 2. This duty was likewise typified in the old Law They had two sorts of sacrifices shadowing out morall duties some petitionary whereby they sought God for the mercies which they needed Others were Eucharisticall peace-offerings wherein their praises were rendred unto God and these was to be as constant as their Supplicatory or Expiatory sacrifices 3. The duty hath alwayes been practised by all Gods servants the time would fail me to tell of Noah Abraham Jacob Moses all the good Judges Kings Priests and Prophets whose Hallelujahs were as constant as their Hosannaes When ever they had sought God and found him their next work was to magnifie and praise him And for the rule and practise of the Christian Church I shall passe by many exhortations and examples and satisfie you abundantly with one place which is the fourth of the Revelation That Chapter is a description of Christs presence in the Christian Church and of all their service and carriage towards him there ye have the Lambe sitting upon the throne in the midst of his people there ye have also all the multitude of his Saints in all the foure quarters of the world shadowed out by the foure beasts there ye have the multitude of Christs Ministers shadowed out by the foure and twenty Elders sitting upon their seats Now mark what all the service is which these foure beasts and foure and twenty Elders perform to him that sits upon the throne it is expressed vers. 9. to be nothing else but to give glory honour and thanks to him that lives for ever and ever So that all Christian worship publique and solitary whatever the corps of it be the soul of it is nothing but honour and glory and praise to our God through Jesus Christ Many reasons might be given why praise and thanksgiving should be rendred unto God All excellency and honour is his originall due All good things are received from his hand freely Now common honesty requires that undeserved favours should be received with thankfulnesse A benefit received and a Return of praise are inseparable among all Civill Nations But I shall insist onely upon this one This service of praise is the onely Quit-rent or Homage which God hath reserved to himself for all the mercies which he bestows upon his Church Vnderstand it I beseech you I say what ever the Lord doth for his Church and people he hath reserved not a shoe-latchet save onely his praise and glory Which to understand know that there are three things meet in every mercy First the thing it self which is given suppose food rayment health life peace wife children or what ever we enjoy Secondly there is the sweetnesse of it the comfort which may be drawn out in the use of it Thirdly there is the glory of it or the commendation that may arise from it the honour or praise which exults out of it The two first God freely gives away he hath made nothing but he freely bestows he gives heaven to the Saints and Angels he gives the earth to the sonnes of men he gives all creatures living upon earth for their use And allows them to take all the sweetnesse and comfort which can possibly be drawn out of his free gifts le ts them drink and be filled with the juyce and marrow of every mercie onely his glory he will never part with his glory and praise he will give to none They say Quit rents and Royalties are so prized by Lords of Mannors that they will not sell them under thirtie or fourty yeers purchase But the Lords Royalty and Homage of praise and thanksgiving is more precious unto him then heaven and earth In somuch that it is all one in his account not to be acknowledged God and not to be praised Yea so deare is his praise and glory that it was the utmost and highest end he propounded to himself in creating upholding and governing this goodly frame of heaven and earth even that his glory and excellency might shine forth that as of him and by him so all things might be for him And as all things were made for his praise so the creature man was in speciall manner made to be a fit bayliffe or gatherer in of Gods Quit-rent of praises from all the rest of the creatures and to pay it unto himself And this David acknowledges in the 8. Psalme and magnifies as an infinite advancement of man above all the rest of the creatures that Gods glory which is above the heavens should be ordained to proceed out of the mouth of such a poore worme as man is Nay if we look yet further into it we shall finde that when all mankinde had sinned and sell short of the glory of God would not praise him and could not praise him the Lord therefore bought a peculiar family to himself by the blood of his Sonne that he might have a people of his own to praise him who might while they are here upon earth collect gather in and offer up the praises due unto his Name And therefore he cals his redeemed ones his sonnes and daughters which he hath created for his glory This is plainly taught in the 22. Psalme in the latter end whereof ye have a description of the Church or kingdome of Christ which as there is said shall be gathered out of all Nations and all sorts of people some that are fat and mighty
and easie rent of Thanksgiving to men who are but Instruments of mercie how much more to God the welspring and fountain of them all Secondly consider the excellency of the duty what a high and honourable service it is so high that though God be most worthy to be praised yet no creature is found worthy to praise him In our praises we are said to blesse honour exalt magnifie and glorifie God can any creature be thought worthy or able to do this to lift up God to make him a great God to put glory upon God yet God so interprets it he that praiseth me honoureth me Yea so excellent is this duty that it is the onely imployment of all the glorious host of heaven It is said in the Psalme that man did eat Angels food sure I am this is to do Angels work heavens work to bring heaven down to earth and to raise up poore dust to heaven to be enabled to praise the Lord what should I say more this praising of God is by Interpretation the doing of all that God requires Tully said that Gratitude to man is Maxima mater omnium reliquarum virtutum But what ever Gratitude to man be the Scriptures teach us that gratitude to God is the comprehension of all our obedience 3. Thirdly it is the comfortablest duty that ever we can perform partly because it is the sweetest evidence of our sincere love and faithfull dependance upon God we may pray for base self-love when we love not God but his gifts but a cordiall praising of him is a reall expression of our love to him and partly because God graciously accepts what ever comes under the notion of praise a female or turtle a handfull of wheat floure a pepper corn a cup of cold water a sigh or teare is most kindly accepted when presented as a peace-offering I will praise God with a song this shall please the Lord better then an ox or a bullock that hath horns and hoofs Who that loves God would stick at any thing in this duty so acceptable unto him It is pitifull to observe what pains and cost many poore seduced Papists are at out of a false conceit of meriting for themselves and theirs should not love and Gratitude to God and our Lord Jesus who hath merited all for us be more prevalent with us then self-love and blinde superstition in them 4 Fourthly I have one Motive more especially to presse upon you according to the duty of the day the consideration of the wonders I had almost said the miracles of this last yeer Could I lively draw them before your eyes that you might see what this yeer God hath done for you and wrought by you such whose affections are lame among you would leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumbe would sing This yeer we have seen the three Nations of England Scotland and Ireland in a posture of warre without blood shed Oh wonderfull This yeer we have seen our neighbour Nation come into England in a hostile shew with peaceable hearts oh wonderfull This yeer we have seen the same Nation after all mistakes cleared received into the bosome of their Soveraignes favour their loyalty and faithfulnesse acknowledged and with a friendly aid honorably and peaceably sent to their own homes and the two Nations faster cemented together in a league of love then ever heretofore oh wonderfull Nay yet more this yeer have we seen broken the yokes which lay upon our estates Liberties Religion and Conscience the intolerable yokes of Star-Chamber and terrible High-commission and their Appendances unsufferable pressures to many thousands all eased removed broken and swept away This yeer have we seen the two houses of Parliament and many ten thousands in the kingdome following their example enter into a Protestation promise and vow for defence of Gods true Religion against all Popery and Popish Innovations and superstition This yeer the Complaints of the Imprisoned outcast persecuted and afflicted we have seen and heard tenderly received into the high and honorable Court of Parliament and the faces of many proud enemies covered with shame This yeer for preventing future grievances the Lord hath put it into the heart of our gracious Soveraigne the Lords and Commons all to agree upon a Trienniall Parliament and this present Parliament to continue till all things be rightly established both in Church and Common-wealth that the foundations of the Land may be no more out of joynt that Liberty and Religion henceforth receive no dammage unlesse the State like the foolish woman in the proverbe plucks it down with their own hands Quadragesimus primus mirabilis annus Oh wonderfull yeer and so much the more wonderfull that all these things are done for us when our neighbour Nations round about us see no such dayes when Germany remains a field of blood when their Cities and Towns are desolate their wives ravished their children kill'd when many of them eat their dead carcasses and die for want of food yea when Gods sword rides in circuit round about us these great things are done for us and hopes of greater And which is most wonderfull all this done for the most unworthy and unthankfull Nation in all the world our God hath thus broke in over all the walls of separation which our sins have built up against us and called for vengeance upon us Me thinks Right Honourable and beloved every one of your hearts should say to God as the Prophet to the 〈◊〉 thou hast been carefull for us with all this care what is to be done for thee Lord what wouldst thou have us do to testifie that we are sensible of thy goodnesse Oh praise the Lord 5. And the rather because else God knows whether all these mercies may not be removed and destruction and miserie yet break in upon us When Tamar was to be delivered and twins in her wombe Zarah first put forth his hand and they tyed a scarlet threed about it and said this came out first but his hand was plucked in again and his brother broke out before him So mercie and judgement deliverance and ruine have seem'd to be long strugling in the wombe which should first break out upon us Deliverance hath now put forth the hand and we have tyed our scarlet threed about it and say this came out first Oh that Ingratitude cause not this hand to be plucked back again and destruction yet to break in upon us Ingratitude that Obex Infernalis as Divines call it that hellish stop may interrupt the course of all Gods mercies According to what God hath threatned that though he speak concerning a Nation to build and plant it if that Nation do evill in his sight he will repent of the good wherewith he said he would benefit them Quest What then is to be done or wherewith shall we be thankfull Answ Chrysostome once desired that he had a voice to speak to all the world
A Peace-Offering to God A SERMON Preached to the Honourable House of Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT At their publique Thanksgiving September 7. 1641. For the PEACE concluded between ENGLAND and SCOTLAND By STEPHEN MARSHALL Batchelour in Divinity Minister of Finchingfield in ESSEX Psalme 147. Praise the Lord O Jerusalem praise thy God O Sion for he hath strengthened the Bars of thy Gates and blessed thy children within thee He maketh Peace in thy Borders Published by Order of the said House LONDON Printed by T. P. and M. S. for SAMUEL MAN dwelling in St. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Swan 1641. TO THE HONORABLE House of Commons assembled in PARLIAMENT THe mercies which God hath shewed to these two Nations of England and Scotland giving us such great cause and matter of Thanksgiving causing our sheafe to arise and stand upright making us with Saul higher by the shoulders then all our brethren these mercies I say deserve so to be recorded that posterity should be compelled to read and admire them but who is sufficient for this thing It was said of Claudian that he wanted matter suitable to the excellency of his wit but where is the head or heart suitable to this matter Who can utter these mighty works of the Lord who can shew forth all his praise For my own part had I put my self upon this work to utter these mean conceptions upon this great subject before so great and honorable Audience I might justly have been condemned for abusing both the one and the other But you were pleased to command my service in preaching on the day of your publique and solemne Thanksgiving it may be because I was then neer at hand and after your Reverent attention had testified that you received them as the counsell of God you were further pleased expresly to desire me forthwith to print and publish what in my weaknesse I then delivered I suppose for the better memoriall of these great deliverances I could have pleaded much why these poore notes should not be exposed to publike view Treatises to be read by all should be long meditated often reviewed Excellent pictures should be engraven in brasse and not cast in clay the setting forth these mercies and quickning up answerable Thankfulnesse are above the Abilities of any man much more beyond the capacity of my self the weakest and unworthiest of many thousands But your Order left me not at liberty to do what I desired you have thus made them your own the more facile I shall hope to finde you and all Ingenuous Readers towards my weaknesses which not presumption but my obedience hath made thus publique This further encouragement I have little things have been accepted with God and man in testimoniall of Thankfulnesse a female a Turtle a handfull of wheat-floure by God himself a handfull of water a bunch of grapes c. by great Kings and Emperours And even under this Notion also I humbly present you with this ensuing discourse I have no more to say for my self but much I have to beg of God that you Noble Senatours and the Right Honorable Lords who joyned with you in this peace-offering may wholly consecrate your selves to advance his glory who hath done these great things for us all that your faithfull endeavours to do what is behind joyning with your Thankfulnesse for what is past the event may be answerable to your desires even the glory of God and the good and safety both of Church and Common-wealth which is the daily prayer of Your devoted servant STEPHEN MARSHALL A SERMON PREACHED before the Honorable House of Commons at their publike Thanksgiving The Preface to the SERMON RIght Honorable and beloved It was a priviledge and mercie which the Lord promised by the Prophet Isaiah That they should reioyce with Ierusalem who had mourned with her This mercie the Lord hath in great degree vouchsafed to my self this day the same good hand that cast it to be my lot though most unfit and unworthie to help this Honorable Assemblie in the day of their humiliation to dig pits in the valley of Bachah hath now designed me to sing with them in the valley of Berochah That after I had helped to carry out their precious seed with teares I should come with ioy and help to gather in their sheaves that after our Lamentations we should together sing Canticles and Halleluiahs unto our God Thus the Lord in mercie mingles rain and sunshine Oh that we had hearts suitable to all his administrations The duty of this day is to reioyce and to give praises unto God a service easier to the flesh then that of fasting and mourning but harder to the spirituall part In a day of humiliation even wicked men have affections stirring in them consciousnesse of evill guiltinesse of minde sense of wrath astonishing and oppressing feares arising from the apprehension of neare and unavoidable danger are naturall meanes to make even Pharaohs Ahabs and Ninevites mourne and humble themselves before God But in keeping a day of spirituall reioycing unto God little or no help is to be expected from the flesh and that is one reason why commonly dayes of thanksgiving are translated with much lesse affection life and savour then dayes of humiliation You should therefore have chosen Asaphs Ieduthuns and Hemans who might skilfully have helped you to lift up the praises of God but it s now no time to complaine of your choice neither will it be needfull if the Lord please to be present who can make the tongue of the dumbe to sing and can ordain his praise out of the mouthes of babes and sucklings trusting therefore his assistance I beseech you attend to his holy Word as you shall finde it written PSALME 124. verse 6 7 8. Blessed be the Lord who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler the snare is broken and we are escaped Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made heaven and earth I Studied to have found out a Text which might every way have been suitable with the mercies which this day we are to celebrate but I confesse I could not do it and I do greatly question whether GOD ever did such a thing for matter and manner as he hath now done for these two unworthy Nations This Text which I have chosen comes very neare in the matter and way of our deliverance very home to the duty which this day wee are to performe The Psalme is stiled a Song of degrees a title peculiar to fifteen short Psalmes set downe together whether they bee so called because they were to bee sung with an exalted voice or because they were to be sung upon the staires of the Temple where the Singers were to stand or whether for the supereminencie of the matter contained in them they being so full of short grave and
God must prove successelesse in the event how wise how cunning how strong soever they are who manage an ill cause against the Lord and against his Church though for a time with that little horn in the 7. of Daniel they may be very stout and speak very great things and make warre with the Saints and prosper though they may carry the ball long at their foot they can never winne the goale God will come in an adversary against them he will awake as one out of sleep like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine and put them to a perpetuall reproach Search all the Scriptures and you shall finde that this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord that no weapon that is formed against them shall prosper either their plot fails or the thing which they intended is turned another way Their plot failed not in the 6. of Daniel they aymed to get Daniel into the Lions den and in they got him but they little thought that the event should be Daniels preservation and exaltation and their own destruction So the devill and his Instruments failed not in their plot in getting Christ upon the Crosse but they little thought that this bruising of our Saviours heel should prove the breaking of the Serpents head The redemption of the Church and the leading of all the power of darknesse captivity captive Mark this all ye wisemen and great Polititians of the world that dare drive designes against the cause of God and his Church write it down and say your unworthy Minister taught you this day from God Though ye take counsell together it shall come to nought though ye speak the word it shal not stand for God is with us Hamans wife long ago could tell her husband if Mordecai was of the seed of the Jews he should never prevail against him but should surely fall before him Weigh therefore all your designes in the ballance of the Sanctuary lay aside all carnall and sinfull projects put your selves and all your reason under Christs footstool take Gamaliels counsell refrain from opposing those men who advance Gods work you cannot overthrow it lest haply ye be found even to fight against God Secondly this may be a mighty and wonderfull refreshing to all the servants of God in their deepest and heaviest pressures and afflictions though one deep call to another though thou seem to be cast beyond the Antarctick pole though all humane hope and help fail though thy heart fail and thy flesh fail thy God will never fail though thou art at thy wits end thou hast no cause to be at thy faiths end take Gods book in thy hand finde out the promises how God hath engaged himself to help at a pinch and when thou hast got a promise of deliverance then beleeve that heaven and earth shall be jumbled together rather then one jot or title of Gods promise shall not come to passe in due time Nay though he seeme to break his promise beleeve it not for so he seemed to do to Mary and Martha he sent them word Lazarus sicknesse was not to death and he seemed to fail for Lazarus died but they should have beleeved any thing rather then that that sicknesse should have been unto death Object But what if I can finde no promise that God will deliver me out of this strait I answer either thou art in covenant with God or not if thou be not in covenant if thou be an unbeleever an impenitent person I assure thee there is no promise in all this book of God that speaks one word of comfort to thee All Gods promises are yea and Amen to them who are in Christ Jesus I should wrong God and his truth and thy soul in speaking one word of comfort to thee But if in truth thou reliest upon Christ the bent of thy heart be turned to God and so thou be brought under the line of his covenant then I say to thee if there be no promise for thy strait thy strait is not greatly to be regarded God hath made promises to deliver thee from every evill work from what ever might hurt thee and thou needst not feare that which cannot hurt thee Thirdly and lastly Right Honorable and beloved how should this steel your spirits and raise up your hearts and make you with Jehoshaphat lifted up in the wayes of God you have great works to do the planting of a new heaven and a new earth amongst us and great works have great enemies they are attended with great dangers and oftentimes great fears ceize upon the spirits of Moses himself when he looks upon the work which he knows too great for him But could you remember that you walk not onely under Gods protection but under a promise that he will come in when ever you need him how boldly might you place your help in the Name of this God who hath made heaven and earth Set you your hearts to Gods work God hath set his heart upon you to deliver you and he can do it Darius set his heart on Daniel to deliver him and laboured it but could not do it But it is but for your God to command deliverance and it comes I may say the lesse because of all the experience you have had of Gods fulfilling this since your meeting together how often have you been at your wits end how often have you ebb'd and flowed and yet in all your extremities God hath come in beyond your expectation Trust still in this God seek him in his own way and say thus with your selves He is our rock our fortresse he will deliver us his truth shall be our shield and buckler Yet remember that I do not teach you that ye can never be left to suffer in a good cause that were to preach contrary to the Gospel all Christs disciples must take up their crosse and follow him you shall read in the 11. of Daniel ver. 33. That they that understand among the people and instruct many shall fall by the sword and by flame by captivitie and by spoil many dayes and when they fall they shall be holpen with little or no help but yet mark what follows their fall shall onely be as the silver fals into the furnace There are three ends why the Refiner of silver puts it into the fire First to try it whether it be pure or reprobate silver Secondly to better it to purge out the drosse Thirdly to burnish it to make it more beautifull So these shall fall to try them and to purge and make them white neither shall it be so long as their enemies please but even to the time of the end to the time appointed by God Resolve therefore upon it that if ye do suffer if evill do betide you in a good way and for a good cause your sufferings will be better for you then freedome from sufferings they shall be onely to try you