shall know that I am the Lord God shall restore them to life and more to strength and more to beauty and comelinesse acceptable to himselfe in Christ Jesus Your way is Recollecting gather your selves into the Congregation and Communion of Saints in these places gather your sins into your memory and poure them out in humble confessions to that God whom they have wounded Gather the crummes under his Table lay hold upon the gracious promises which by our Ministery he lets fall upon the Congregation now and gather the seales of those promises whensoever in a rectified conscience his Spirit beares witnesse with your spirit that you may be worthy receivers of him in his Sacrament and this recollecting shall be your resurrection Beatus qui habet partem Apâ—â— 20.6 sayes S. Iohn Blessed is he that hath part in the first Resurrection for on such the second death hath no power He that rises to this Judgement of recollecting and of judging himselfe shall rise with a chearfulnesse and stand with a confidence when Christ Jesus shall come in the second Auâ— And Quando exacturus est in secundo quod dedit in primo when Christ shall call for an account in that second judgement how he hath husbanded those graces which he gave him for the first he shall make his possession of this first resurrection his title and his evidence to the second When thy body which hath been subject to all kindes of destruction here to the destruction of a Flood in Catarrhs and Rheums and Dropsies and such distillations to the destruction of a fire in Feavers and Frenzies and such conflagrations shall be removed safely and gloriously above all such distempers and malignant impressions and body and soule so united as if both were one spirit in it selfe and God so united to both as that thou shalt be the same spirit with God God began the first World but upon two Adam and Eve The second world after the Flood he began upon a greater stock upon eight reserved in the Arke But when he establishes the last and everlasting world in the last Resurrection he shall admit such a number as that none of us who are here now none that is or hath or shall be upon the face of the earth shall be denied in that Resurrection if he have truly felt this for Grace accepted is the infallible earnest of Glory SERMON XXII Preached at S. Pauls upon Easter-day 1627. HEB. 11.35 Women received their dead raised to life againe And others were tortured not accepting a deliverance that they might obtaine a better Resurrection MErcy is Gods right hand with that God gives all Faith is mans right hand with that man takes all David Psal 136. opens and enlarges this right hand of God in pouring out his blessings plentifully abundantly manifoldly there And in this Chapter the Apostle opens and enlarges this right hand of man by laying hold upon those mercies of God plentifully abundantly manifoldly by faith here There David powres downe the mercies of God in repeating and re-repeating that phrase For his mercy endureth for ever And here S. Paul carries up man to heaven by repeating and re-repeating the blessings which man hath attained by faith By faith Abel sacrificed By faith Enoch walked with God By faith Noah built an Arke c. And as in that Psalme Gods mercies are exprest two waies First in the good that God did for his servants He remembred them in their low estate Ver 23. Ver. 24. for his mercy endureth for ever And then againe He redeemed them from their enemies for his mercy endureth for ever And then also in the evill that he brought upon their enemies He slew famous Kings for his mercy endureth for ever And then He gave their land for an heritage for his mercy endureth for ever So in this Chapter the Apostle declares the benefits of faith two wayes also First how faith enriches us and accommodates us in the wayes of prosperity By faith Abraham went to a place which he received for an inheritance And so By faith Sarah received strength to conceive seed Ver. 8. Ver. 11. Ver. 34. And then how faith sustaines and establishes us in the wayes of adversity By faith they stopt the mouthes of Lions by faith they quencht the violence of fire by faith they escaped the edge of the sword in the verse immediatly before the Text. And in this verse which is our Text the Apostle hath collected both The benefits which they received by faith Women received their dead raised to life againe And then the holy courage which was infused by Faith in their persecutions Others were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better Resurrection And because both these have relation evidently pregnantly to the Resurrection for their benefit was that the Women received their dead by a Resurrection And their courage in their persecution was That they should receive a better Resurrection therefore the whole meditation is proper to this day in which wee celebrate all Resurrections in the Root in the Resurrection of the First fruits of the dead our Lord and Saviour Christ Iesus Our Parts are two How plentifully God gives to the faithfull Divisio Women receive their dead raised to life againe And how patiently the faithfull suffer Gods corrections Others were tortured not accepting c. Though they be both large considerations Benefits by Faith Patience in the Faithfull yet we shall containe our selves in those particulars which are exprest or necessarily implyed in the Text it selfe And so in the first place we shall see first The extraordinary consolation in Gods extraordinary Mercies in his miraculous Deliverances such as this Women received their dead raised to life again And secondly we shall seethe examples to which the Apostle refers here What women had had their dead restored to life againe And then lastly in that part That this affection of joy in having their dead restored to life againe being put in the weaker sexe in women onely we may argue conveniently from thence That the strength of a true and just joy lies not in that but that our virility our holy manhood our religious strength consists in a faithfull assurance that we have already a blessed communion with these Saints of God though they be dead and we alive And that we shall have hereafter a glorious Association with them in the Resurrection though we never receive our dead raised to life again in this world And in those three considerations we shall determine that first part And then in the other The Patience of the Faithfull Others were tortured c. we shall first look into the examples which the Apostle refers to who they were that were thus tortured And secondly the heighth and exaltation of their patience They would not accept a deliverance And lastly the ground upon which their Anchor was cast what established their patience That they might obtaine a better Resurrection
pleasure of God In which first part you have also had the qualification of the person that came this day to establish Redemption for us that in Him there was fulnesse infinite capacity and infinite infusion and all fulnesse defective in nothing impassible and yet passible perfit God and perfit man and this fulnesse dwelling in Him in Him as he is Head of the Church that is visible sensible meanes of salvation to every soule in his Church And so we passe to our second part from this Qualification of the person It pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell to the Pacification it selfe for which it pleased the Father to doe all this that Peace might be made through the bloud of his Crosse In this Part St. Chrysostome hath made our steps our branches It is much sayes he 2 Part. that God would admit any peace magis per sanguinem more that for peace he should require effusion of bloud magis quod per ejus more that it must be His bloud his that was injured his that was to triumph Et adhuc magis quod per sanguinem Crucis ejus That it must be by the bloud of his Crosse his heart bloud his death and yet this was the case He made Peace through the bloud of his Crosse There was then a warre before and a heavy warre for the Lord of hosts was our enemy and what can all our musters come to Bellum ante if the Lord of Hosts of all Hosts have raised his forces against us There was a heavy war denounced in the Inimicitias ponam when God raised a warre betweene the Devill Gen. 3.15 and us For if we could consider God to stand neutrall in that warre and meddle with neither side yet we were in a desperate case to be put to fight against Powers and Principalities against the Devill How much more when God the Lord of Hosts is the Lord even of that Host too when God presses the Devill and makes the Devill his Soldier to fight his battles and directs his arrowes and his bullets and makes his approaches and his attempts effectuall upon us That which is fallen upon the Jews now Basil for their sinne against Christ that there is not in all the world a Soldier of their race not a Jew in the world that beares armes is true of all mankinde for their sin against God there is not a Soldier amongst them able to hurt his spirituall enemy or defend himselfe It is a strange warre where there are not two sides and yet that is our case for God uses the Devill against us and the Devill uses us against one another nay he uses every one of us against our selves so that God and the Devill and we are all in one Army and all for our destruction we have a warre and yet there is but one Army and we onely are the Countrey that is fed upon and wasted From God to the Devill we have not one friend and yet as though we lacked enemies we fight with one another in inhumane Duels Vbi morimur homicidae Ad milites Templa Ser. 1. 〈◊〉 as St. Bernard expresses it powerfully and elegantly that in those Duels and Combats he that is murdered dyes a murderer because he would have beene one Occisor laethaliter peccat occisus aeternaliter perit He that comes alive out of the field comes a dead man because he comes a deadly sinner and he that remaines dead in the field is gone into an everlasting death So that by this inhumane effusion of one anothers bloud we maintaine a warre against God himselfe and we provoke him to that which he expresses in Esay My sword shall be bathed in heaven Inebriabitur sanguine Esay 34.5 The sword of the Lord shall be made drunk with bloud Their land shall be soaked with bloud and their dust made fat with fatnesse The same quarrell which God hath against particular men and particular Nations for particular sinnes God hath against all Mankinde for Adams sin And there is the warre But what is the peace and how are we included in that That is our second and next disquisition That peace might be made A man must not presently think himselfe included in this peace Pax. because he feeles no effects of this warre If God draw none of his swords of warre or famine or pestilence upon thee no outward warre If God raise not a rebellion in thy selfe nor fight against thee with thine owne affections in colluctations betweene the flesh and the spirit The warre may last Gellius for all this Induciarum tempore bellum manet licet pugna cesset Though there be no blow striken the warre remaines in the time of Truce But thy case is not so good here is no Truce no cessation but a continuall preparation to a fiercer warre All this while that thou enjoyest this imaginary security the Enemy digges insensibly under ground all this while he undermines thee and will blow thee up at last more irrecoverably then if he had battered thee with outward calamities all that time So any State may be abused with a false peace present or with a fruitlesse expectation of a future peace But in this text there is true peace and peace already made present peace and and safe peace Bernard Pax non promissa sed missa sayes St. Bernard in his musicall and harmonious cadences not promised but already sent non dilata sed data not treated but concluded Non prophetata sed praesentata not prophesied but actually established There is the presentnesse thereof And then made by him who lacked nothing for the making of a safe peace Esay 9.6 For after his Names of Counsellor and of the Mighty God he is called for the consummation of all princeps pacis A Counsellor There is his wisdome A mighty God There is his Power and this Counsellor This Mighty God this wise and this powerfull Prince hath undertaken to make our peace But how that is next per sanguinem Peace being made by bloud Is effusion of bloud the way of peace Per sanguinem effusion of bloud may make them from whom bloud is so abundantly drawne glad of peace because they are thereby reduced to a weaknesse But in our warres such a weaknesse puts us farther off from peace and puts more fiercenesse in the Enemy But here mercy and truth are met together God would be true to his owne Justice bloud was forfeited and he would have bloud and God would be mercifull to us he would make us the stronger by drawing bloud and by drawing our best bloud Gen. 34. the bloud of Christ Jesus Simeon and Levi when they meditated their revenge for the rape committed upon their sister when they pretended peace yet they required a little bloud They would have the Sichemites circumcised but when they had opened a veyne they made them bleed to death when they were under
child is borne unto us a Son is given He was not given he was not borne in six hundred yeares after that but such is the clearenesse of a Prophets sight such is the infallibility of Gods declared purpose So then if the Prophet could have made the King beleeve with such an assurednesse as if he had seene it done that God would give a deliverance to all mankinde by a Messias that had beene signe enough evidence enough to have argued thereupon That God who had done so much a greater worke would also give him a deliverance from that enemy that pressed him then If I can fixe my selfe with the strength of faith upon that which God hath done for man I cannot doubt of his mercy in any distresse If I lacke a signe I seeke no other but this That God was made man for me which the Church and Church-writers have well expressed by the word Incarnation for that acknowledges and denotes that God was made my flesh It were not so strange that he who is spirit should be made my spirit my soule but he was made my flesh Therefore have the Fathers delighted themselves in the variation of that word so far as that Hilarie cals it Corporationem That God assumed my Body And Damascen cals it Inhumanationem That God became this man soule and body And Irenaeus cals it Adunationem and Nysen Contemperationem A mingling says one an uniting saies the other of two of God and man in one person Shall I aske what needs all this what needed God to have put himselfe to this I may say with S. Augustine Alio modo poterat Deus nos liberare sed si aliter faceret similiter vestrae stultitiae displiceret What other way soever God had taken for our salvation our curiosity would no more have beene satisfied in that way than in this But God having chosen the way of Redemption which was the way of Justice God could do no otherwise Si homo non vicisset inimicum hominis non justè victus esset inimicus saies Irenaeus As if a man should get a battaile by the power of the Devill without fighting this were not a just victory so if God in mans behalfe had conquered the devill without man without dying it had not beene a just conquest I must not aske why God tooke this way to Incarnate his Son And shall I aske how this was done I doe not aske how Rheubarb or how Aloes came by this or this vertue to purge this or this humour in my body In talibus rebus tota ratio facti est potentia facientis Even in naturall things all the reason of all that is done August is the power and the will of him who infused that vertue into that creature And therefore much more when we come to these supernaturall points such as this birth of Christ we embrace S. Basils modesty and abstinence Nativitas ista silentio honoretur This mysterie is not so well celebrated with our words and discourse as with a holy silence and meditation Immo potius ne cogitationibus permittatur Nay saies that Father there may be danger in giving our selves leave to thinke or study too much of it Ne dixer is quando saies he praeteri hanc interrogationem Aske not thy selfe overcuriously when this mystery was accomplished be not over-vehement over-peremptory so far as to the perplexing of thine owne reason and understanding or so far as to the despising of the reasons of other men in calculating the time the day or houre of this nativity Praeteri hanc interrogationem passe over this question in good time and with convenient satisfaction Quando when Christ was borne But noli inquirere Quomodo saies S. Basil still never come to that question how it was done cum ad hoc nihil sit quod responderi possit for God hath given us no faculties to comprehend it no way to answer it That 's enough which we have in S. Iohn Every spirit that confesses that Iesus is come in the flesh is of God 1 Ioh. 4.2 for since it was a comming of Iesus Iesus was before so he was God and since he came in the flesh hee is now made man And that God and Man are so met is a signe to mee that God and I shall never bee parted This is the signe in generall That God hath had such a care of all men Virgo is a signe to me That he hath a care of me But then there are signes of this signe Divers All these A Virgin shall conceive A Virgin shall bring forth Bring forth a Son And whatsoever have been prophesied before she shall call his name Immanuel First a Virgin shall be a mother which is a very particular signe and was seene but once That which Gellius and Plinie say that a Virgin had a child almost 200. yeares before Christ that which Genebrard saies that the like fell out in France in his time are not within our faith and they are without our reason our faith stoopes not downe to them and our Reason reaches not up to them of this Virgin in our text If that be true which Aquinas cites out of the Roman story that in the times of Constantine and Irene upon a dead body found in a sepulchre there was found this inscription in a plate of gold Christus nascetur ex Virgine ego credo in eum Christ shall be borne of a Virgin and I beleeve in that Christ with this addition in that inscription O Sol sub Irenae Constantini temporibus iterum me videbis Though I be now buried from the sight of the sun yet in Constantines time the sun shall see me againe If this be true yet our ground is not upon such testimonie If God had not said it I would never have beleeved it And therefore I must have leave to doubt of that which some of the Roman Casuists have delivered That a Virgin may continue a virgin upon earth and receive the particular dignity of a Virgin in Heaven and yet have a child by the insinuation and practise of the Devill so that there shall be a father and a mother and yet both they Virgins That this Mother in our text was a Virgin is a peculiar a singular signe given as such by God never done but then and it is a singular testimony how acceptable to God that state of virginity is Hee does not dishonour physick that magnifies health nor does hee dishonour marriage that praises Virginity let them embrace that state that can and certainly many more might doe it then do if they would try whether they could or no and if they would follow S. Cyprians way Virgo non tantum esse sed intelligi esse debet credi It is not enough for a virgin to bee a virgin in her owne knowledge but she must governe her selfe so as that others may see that she is one and see that shee hath a desire and a
disproportion betweene us Illis qui nihil Esay 40.15 and so the first exaltation of his mercy towards us Man is sayes the Prophet Esay Quasi stilla situlae As a drop upon the bucket Man is not all that not so much as that as a drop upon the bucket but quasi something some little thing towards it and what is a drop upon the bucket to a river to a sea to the waters above the firmament Man to God Man is sayes the same Prophet in the same place Quasi momenntum staterae we translate it As small dust upon the balance Man is not all that not that small graine of dust but quasi some little thing towards it And what can a graine of dust work in governing the balance What is man that God should be mindfull of him Vanity seemes to be the lightest thing that the Holy Ghost could name and when he had named that he sayes and sayes and sayes often very very often All is vanity But when he comes to waigh man with vanity it selfe he findes man lighter then vanity Take sayes he Ps 62.9 great men and meane men altogether and altogether they are lighter then vanity When that great Apostle sayes of himselfe that he was in nothing behinde the very chiefest of the Apostles 2 Cor. 12.11 and yet for all that sayes he was nothing who can think himselfe any thing for being a Giant in proportion a Magistrate in power a Rabbi in learning an Oracle in Counsell Let man be something how poore and inconsiderable a ragge of this world L. 1. de rerum generatione is man Man whom Paracelsus would have undertaken to have made in a Limbeck in a Furnace Man who if they were altogether all the men that ever were and are and shall be would not have the power of one Angel in them all whereas all the Angels who in the Schoole are conceived to be more in number then not onely all the Species but all the individualls of this lower world have not in them all the power of one finger of Gods hand Man of whom when David had said as the lowest diminution that he could put upon him I am a worme and no man He might have gone lower Ps 22.6 and said I am a man and no worm for man is so much lesse then a worm as that wormes of his own production shall feed upon his dead body in the grave and an immortall worm gnaw his conscience in the torments of hell And then if that which God and God in the counsaile and concurrence and cooperation of the whole Trinity hath made thee Man be nothing canst thou be proud of that or think that any thing which the King hath made thee a Lord or which thy wife hath made thee Rich or which thy riches have made thee an Officer As Iob sayes of impertinent comforters miserable comforters so I say of these Creations miserable creations are they all Only as thou maist be a new creature in Christ Jesus thou maist be something for that 's a nobler and a harder creation then the first when God had a clod of red earth in his hand to make me in Adam he had more towards his end then when he hath me an unregenerate and rebellious soule to make a new creature in Christ Jesus And yet Ille illis to this man comes this God God that is infinitely more then all to man that is infinitely lesse then nothing which was our first disproportion and the first exaltation of his mercy and the next is Ille illis Illis qui hostes that this God came to this man then when this man was a professed enemy to this God Si contrarium Deo quaeras nihilest saies S. Augustine If thou aske me what is contrary to God I cannot say that any thing is so for whatsoever is any thing hath a beeing Illis qui Hostes and whatsoever hath so hath in that very beeing some affinity with God some assimilation to God so that nothing is contrary to God If thou aske mee Quis hostis who is an enemy to GOD I cannot say that of any thing in this World but man That viper that flew at Saint Paul was not therein an enemy to GOD Acts 28. that viper did not direct it selfe upon S. Paul as S. Paul was a usefull and a necessary instrument of Christ But S. Paul himselfe was a direct enemy to Christ himselfe Tu me thou persecutest me saies Christ himselfe unto him And if we be not all enemies to God in such a direct opposition as that we sinne therefore because that sinne violates the majesty of God and yet truly every habituall and deliberated sinne amounts to almost as much because in every such sinne we seeme to try conclusions whether God can see a sinne or be affected with a sinne or can or cares to punish a sinne as though we doubted whether God were a present God or a pure God or a powerfull God and so consequently whether there be any God or no If we be not all enemies to God in this kind yet in adhering to the enemy we are enemies In our prevarications and easie betrayings and surrendring of our selves to the enemy of his kingdom satan we are his enemies For small wages and ill paid pensions we serve him and lest any man should flatter and delude himselfe in saying I have my wages and my reward before hand my pleasures in this life the punishment if ever not till the next The Apostle destroyes that dreame with that question of confusion What fruit had you then in those things Rom 6.21 of which you are now ashamed Certainly sin is not a gainfull way without doubt more men are impoverished and beggered by sinful courses then enriched what fruit had they says the Apostle and sin cannot be the way of honour for we dare not avow our sins but are ashamed of them when they are done fruitlesness unprofitableness before shame and dishonor after and yet for these we are enemies to God and yet for all this God comes to us Ille illis the Lord of Hosts to naked and disarmed man the God of peace to this enemy of God Some men will continue kinde where they finde a thankfull reciver Luke 6.35 but God is kinde to the unthankfull sayes Christ himselfe There may be found a man that will dye for his friend sayes he but God dyed for his enemies Then when ye were enemies you were reconciled to God by the death of his Son To come so in-gloriously he that is infinitely more then all to him that is infinitely lesse then nothing that was our first disproportion and the first axaltatation of his mercy to come shall we venture to say so so selfe proditoriously as to betray himselfe and deliver himselfe to his enemies that was our second is equalled at least in a third ille illis he to them that is unus omnibus 2 Cor. 5.14
dereliction on Gods part he cals not upon him by this name not My Father but My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Mat. 27.37 But when he would incline him to mercy mercy to others mercy to enemies he comes in that name wherein he could be denied nothing Father Father forgive them they know not what they doe He is the Lord of Hosts Luke 23.24 There hee scatters us in thunder transports us in tempests enwraps us in confusion astonishes us with stupefaction and consternation The Lord of Hosts but yet the Father of mercies There he receives us into his own bowels fills our emptinesse with the blood of his own Son and incorporates us in him The Lord of Hosts but the Father of mercy Sometimes our naturall Fathers die before they can gather any state to leave us but he is the immortall Father and all things that are as soone as they were were his Sometimes our naturall Fathers live to waste and dissipate that state which was left them to be left us but this is the Father out of whose hands and possession nothing can be removed and who gives inestimably and yet remaines inexhaustible Sometimes our naturall Fathers live to need us and to live upon us but this is that Father whom we need every minute and requires nothing of us but that poore rent of Benedictus sit Blessed praised glorified be this Father This Father of mercies of mercies in the plurall David calls God Miserationum Psal 59.17 Numb 14.19 Psal 51.1 Misericordiam suam His mercy all at once God is the God of my mercy God is all ours and all mercy Pardon this people sayes Moses Secundùm magnitudinem misericordiae According to the greatnesse of thy mercy Pardon me sayes David Have mercy upon me Secùndum multitudinem misericordiarum According to the multitude of thy mercies His mercy in largenesse in number extends over all It was his mercy that we were made and it is his mercy that we are not consumed David calls his mercy Multiplicatam and Mirificatam Psal 17.7 Psal 31.22 It is manifold and it is marvellous miraculous Shew thy marvellous loving kindnesse and therefore David in severall places carries it Super judicium above his judgements Super Coelos above the heavens Super omnia opera above all his works And for the multitude of his mercies for we are now upon the consideration of the plurality thereof Pater miserationum Father of mercies put together that which David sayes Psal 89.50 Vbi misericordiae tuae antiquae Where are thy ancient mercies His mercy is as Ancient as the Ancient of dayes who is God himselfe And that which another Prophet sayes Omni mane His mercies are new every morning And put betweene these two betweene Gods former and his future mercies his present mercy in bringing thee this minute to the consideration of them and thou hast found Multiplicatam and Mirificatam manifold and wondrous mercy But carry thy thoughts upon these three Branches of his mercy and it will be enough First that upon Adams fall and all ours in him he himselfe would think of such a way of mercy as from Adam to that man whom Christ shall finde alive at the last day no man would ever have thought of that is that to shew mercy to his enemies he would deliver his owne his onely his beloved Son to shame to torments to death That hee would plant Germen Iehovae in semine mulieris The blossome the branch of God in the seed of the woman This mercy in that first promise of that Messias was such a mercy as not onely none could have undertaken but none could have imagined but God himselfe And in this promise we were conceived In visceribus Patris In the bowels of this Father of mercies In these bowels in the womb of this promise we lay foure thousand yeares The blood with which we were fed then was the blood of the Sacrifices and the quickning which we had there was an inanimation by the often refreshing of this promise of that Messias in the Prophets But in the fulnesse of time that infallible promise came to an actuall performance Christ came in the flesh and so Venimus ad partum In his birth we were borne and that was the second mercy in the promise in the performance he is Pater miserationum Father of mercies And then there is a third mercy as great That he having sent his Son and having re-assumed him into heaven againe he hath sent his Holy Spirit to governe his Church and so becomes a Father to us in that Adoption in the application of Christ to us by the Holy Ghost and this as that which is intended in the last word Deus totius Consolationis The God of all Comfort I may know that there is a Messias promised and yet be without comfort Consolatio in a fruitlesse expectation The Jews are so in their dispersion When the Jews will still post-date the commings of Christ when some of them say There was no certaine time of his comming designed by the Prophets And others There was a time but God for their sins prorogued it And others againe God kept his word the Messiah did come when it was promised he should come but for their sins he conceales himselfe from Manifestation when the Jews will postdate his first comming and the Papists will antidate his second comming in a comming that cannot become him That he comes even to his Saints in torment before he comes in glory That when he comes to them at their dissolution at their death he comes not to take them to Heaven but to cast them into one part of hell That the best comfort which a good man can have at his death is but Purgatory Miserable comforters are they all How faire a beame of the joyes of Heaven is true comfort in this life If I know the mercies of God exhibited to others and feele them not in my self I am not of Davids Church Psal 59.1 not of his Quire I cannot sing of the mercies of God I may see them and I may sigh to see the mercies of God determined in others and not extended to me but I cannot sing of the mercies of God if I find no mercy But when I come to that Psal 94.19 Consolationes tuae laetificaverunt In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soule then the true Comforter is descended upon me and the Holy Ghost hath over-shadowed me Mat. 5.4 and all that shall be borne of me and proceed from me shall be holy Blessed are they that mourne sayes Christ But the blessednesse is not in the mourning but because they shall be comforted Blessed am I in the sense of my sins and in the sorrow for them but blessed therefore because this sorrow leads me to my reconciliation to God and the consolation of his Spirit Whereas if I sinke in this sorrow in this dejection
in our warres but his peace and that after this fast which in the bodily and ghostly part too we performe to day and vow and promise for our whole lives he will bring us to the Marriage Supper of the Lambe in that Kingdome which our Saviour Christ Jesus hath purchased for us with the inestimable price of his incorruptible bloud Amen SERM. LV. Preached upon the Penitentiall Psalmes PSAL. 6.8 9 10. Depart from me all ye workers of iniquitie for the Lord hath heard the voyce of my weeping The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed let them returne and be ashamed suddenly THis is Davids profligation and discomfiture of his enemies this is an act of true honour a true victory a true triumph to keepe the field to make good one station and yet put the enemy to flight A man may perchance be safe in a Retrait but the honour the victory the triumph lies in enforcing the enemy to fly To that is David come here to such a thankfull sense of a victory in which we shall first confider Davids thankfulnesse that is his manner of declaring Gods mercy and his security in that mercy which manner is that he durst come to an open defiance and protestation and hostility without modifications or disguises Depart from me all yee workers of iniquity And then secondly we shall see his reason upon which he grounded this confidence and this spirituall exultation which was a pregnant reason a reason that produced another reason The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will heare my prayer upon no premises doth any conclusion follow so Logically so sincerely so powerfully so imperiously so undeniably as upon this The Lord hath and therefore the Lord will But then what was this prayer that wee may know whether it were a prayer to be drawne into practise and imitation or no. It is not argument enough that it was so because God heard it then for we are not bound nay we are not allowed to pray all such prayers as good men have prayed and as God hath heard But here the prayer was this Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed let them returne and be ashamed suddenly But this is a malediction an imprecation of mischiefe upon others and will good men pray so or will God heare that Because that is an holy probleme and an usefull intergatory we shall make it a third part or a conclusion rather to enquire into the nature and into the avowablenesse and exemplarinesse of this in which David seemes to have been transported with some passion So that our parts will be three the building it selfe Davids thankesgiving in his exultation Divisie and declaration Depart from mee all yee workers of iniquitie and then the foundation of this building For God hath heard and therefore God will heare and lastly the prospect of this building David contemplates and lookes over againe the prayer that he had made and in a cleare understanding and in a rectified Conscience he finds that he may persist in that prayer and he doth so Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed let them returne and be ashamed suddenly First then we consider Davids thankfulnesse But why is it so long before David leads us to that consideration Why hath he deferred so primary a duty to so late a place 1. Part. to so low a roome to the end of the Psalme The Psalme hath a Deprecatory part that God would forbeare him and a Postulatory part that God would heare him and grant some things to him and a Gratulatory part a sacrifice of thankesgiving Now the Deprecatory part is placed in the first place Vers 1. For if it were not so if we should not first ground that That God should not rebuke us in his anger nor chasten us in his hot displeasure but leave our selves open to his indignation and his judgements wee could not live to come to a second petition our sinnes and judgements due to our sinnes require our first consideration therefore David begins with the deprecatory prayer That first Gods anger may be removed but then that deprecatory prayer wherein he desired God to forbeare him spends but one verse of the Psalme David would not insist upon that long When I have penitently confest my sinnes I may say with Iob My flesh is not brasse nor my bones stones that I can beare the wrath of the Lord but yet I must say with Iob too If the Lord kill me yet will I trust in him God hath not asked me What shall I doe for thee but of himselfe he hath done more then I could have proposed to my selfe in a wish or to him in a prayer Nor will I aske God Quousque how long shall my foes increase how long wilt thou fight on their side against me but surrender my selfe entirely in an adveniat regnum and a fiat voluntas thy kingdome come and thy will be done David makes it his first worke to stay Gods anger in a deprecatory prayer but he stayes not upon that long he will not prescribe his Physitian what he shall prescribe to him but leaves God to his own medicines and to his own methode But then the Postulatory prayer what he begs of God employes six verses as well to shew us that our necessities are many as also that if God doe not answer us at the beginning of our prayer our duty is still to pursue that way to continue in prayer And then the third part of the Psalme which is the Gratulatory part his giving of thanks is shall we say deferred or rather reserved to the end of the Psalme and exercises onely those three verses which are our Text. Not that the duty of thankesgiving is lesse then that of prayer for if we could compare them it is rather greater because it contributes more to Gods glory to acknowledge by thanks that God hath given then to acknowledge by prayer that God can give But therefore might David be later and shorter here in expressing that duty of thanks first because being reserved to the end and close of the Psalme it leaves the best impression in the memory And therefore it is easie to observe that in all Metricall compositions of which kinde the booke of Psalmes is the force of the whole piece is for the most part left to the shutting up the whole frame of the Poem is a beating out of a piece of gold but the last clause is as the impression of the stamp and that is it that makes it currant And then also because out of his abundant manner of expressing his thankfulnesse to God in every other place thereof his whole booke of Psalmes is called Sepher tehillim a booke of praise and thankesgiving he might reserve his thanks here to the last place And lastly because naturall and morall men are better acquainted with the duty of gratitude of thankesgiving
then when he was in his displeasure if God have turned to him when he was turned from him and stroakt him with the same hand that struck him God will much more perfect his own worke and grant his prayer after if God would endure to looke upon him in his deformitie he will delight to looke upon him then when he hath shed the light and the lovelinesse of his owne countenance upon him It is the Apostles argument as well as Davids If when we were enemies Rom. 5.10 we were reconeiled to God by the death of his Sonne much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life When David found that God had heard his Supplications the voyce of his suffering of his punishment he was sure he would heare his Prayer the voyce of his thankfulnesse too And this was Davids second reason Oratio for his alacrity and confidence that God would never be weary of hearing he had heard him and he would heare him still he had heard the Supplication and he would heare his Prayer for this word which signifies Prayer here is derived from Palal which signifies properly Separare As his Supplication was acceptable which proceeded à Suppliciis from a sense of his afflictions so this Prayer which came Post separationem after he had separated and divorced himselfe from his former company after his Discedite his discharging of all the workers of iniquitie must necessarily be better accepted at Gods hand He that heares a Suppliant that is a man in misery and does some small matter for the present ease of that man and proceeds no farther Ipsum quod dedit perit That which he gave is lost it is drowned by that floud of misery that overflows and surrounds that wretched man he is not the better to morrow for to dayes almes Et vitam producit ad miseriam that very almes prolongs his miserable life still without to dayes almes he should not have had a to morrow to be miserable in Now Christ onely is the Samaritane which perfected his cure upon the wounded man He saw him Luk. 10.33 sayes the text so did the rest that passed by him but He had compassion on him so he might and yet actually have done him no good but He went to him so he might too and then out of a delicatenesse or fastidiousnesse have gone from him againe but to contract he bound up his wounds he powred in oyle and wine he put him upon his own beast he brought him to an Inne made provision for him gave the Host money before-hand gave him charge to have a care of him and which is the perfection of all the greatest testimony of our Samaritans love to us he promised to come againe and at that comming he does not say He will pay but He will recompence which is a more abundant expressing of his bountie Christ loves not but in the way of marriage if he begin to love thee Hosea 2.19 he tells thee Sponsabo te mihi I will marry thee unto me and Sponsabo in aeternum I will marry thee for ever For it is a marriage that prevents all mistakings and excludes all impediments I will marry thee in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies and in faithfulnesse many and great assurances And as it is added Seminabo te mihi which is a strange expressing of Gods love to us I will sow thee unto me in the carth when I have taken thee into my husbandry thou shalt increase and multiply Seminabo te and all that thou doest produce shall be directed upon me Seminabo te mihi I will sowe thee to my selfe therefore thy soule may be bold to joyne with David in that thankfull confidence He hath heard my supplication and therefore He will heare my prayer He lookt upon me in the dust of the earth much more will he doe so having now laid me upon Carpets he lookt upon me in my sores sores of mine enemies malice and sores of mine own sinnes much more will he doe so now when he hath imprinted in me the wounds of his own Sonne for those that were so many wounds upon him are so many starres upon me He lookt upon me may David say when I followed the Ewes great with young much more will he doe so now now when by his directions I lead out his people great with enterprizes and victories against his enemies First David comes to that holy noblenesse he dares cast off ill instruments and is not afraid of conspiracy he dares divorce himselfe from dangerous company and is not afraid of melancholy he dares love God and is not afraid of that jealousie that he is too religious to be imployed too tender conscienced to be put upon businesse he dares reprehend them that are under his charge and is not afraid of a recrimination he dares observe a Sabbath he dares startle at a blasphemy he dares forbeare countenancing a prophane or a scurrill jest with his praise he dares be an honest man which holy confidence constituted our first part Depart from mee all yee workers of iniquity And then he grounds this confidence upon an undeceivable Rocke upon Gods seale God hath heard me therefore God will heare mee And when God heares God speaks too and when God speaks God does too and therefore I may safely proceede as I doe which was our second Consideration And then the third which remains is that upon this he returnes to the consideration what that was that he had done he had either imprecated or denounced at least heavy judgements upon his enemies and he finds it avowable and justifiable to have done so and therefore persists in it Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed let them returne and be ashamed suddenly All cleane beasts had both these marks they divided the hoofe 3 Part. and they chewed the cud All good resolutions which passe our prayer must have these two marks too they must divide the hoofe they must make a double impression they must be directed upon Gods glory and upon our good and they must passe a rumination a chawing of the cud a second examination whether that prayer were so conditioned or no. We pray sometimes out of sudden and indigested apprehensions we pray sometimes out of custome and communion with others we pray sometimes out of a present sense of paine or imminent danger and this prayer may divide the hoofe It may looke towards Gods glory and towards our good but it does not chew the cud too that is if I have not considered not examined whether it doe so or no it is not a prayer that God will call a sacrifice You see Christ brought his own Prayer Si possibile If it be possible c. through such a rumination Veruntamen yet not my will c. As many a man sweares and if he be surprized and askt what did you say he does not remember his owne oath not what he
swore so many a man prayes and does not remember his own prayer As a Clock gives a warning before it strikes and then there remains a sound and a tingling of the bell after it hath stricken so a precedent meditation and a subsequent rumination make the prayer a prayer I must think before what I will aske and consider againe what I have askt and upon this dividing the hoofe and chewing the cud David avowes to his own conscience his whole action even to this consummation thereof Let mine enemies be ashamed c. Now these words whether we consider the naturall signification of the words Impreeatoria or the authority of those men who have been Expositors upon them may be understood either way either to be Imprecatoria words of Imprecation that David in the Spirit of anguish wishes that these things might fall upon his enemies or els Praedictoria words of Prediction that David in the spirit of Prophecy pronounces that these things shall fall upon them If they be Imprecatoria words spoken out of his wish and desire then they have in them the nature of a curse And because Lyra takes them to be so a curse he referres the words Ad Daemones To the Devill That herein David seconds Gods malediction upon the Serpent and curses the Devill as the occasioner and first mover of all these calamities and sayes of them Let all our enemies be ashamed and sore vexed c. Others referre these words to the first Christian times and the persecutions then and so to be a malediction a curse upon the Jewes and upon the Romans who persecuted the Primitive Church then Let them be ashamed c. And then Gregory Nyssen referres these words to more domesticall and intrinsicke enemies to Davids owne concupiscences and the rebellions of his owne lusts Let those enemies be ashamed c. For all those who understand these words to be a curse a malediction are loath to admit that David did curse his enemies meerly out of a respect of those calamities which they had inflicted upon him And that is a safe ground no man may curse another in contemplation of himselfe onely if onely himselfe be concerned in the case And when it concernes the glory of God our imprecations our maledictions upon the persons must not have their principall relation as to Gods enemies but as to Gods glory our end must be that God may have his glory not that they may have their punishment And therefore how vehement soever David seeme in this Imprecation and though he be more vehement in another place Let them be confounded and troubled for ever yea let them be put to shame Psal 83.17 and perish yet that perishing is but a perishing of their purposes let their plots perish let their malignity against thy Church be frustrated for so he expresses himselfe in the verse immediately before Fill their faces with shame but why and how That they may seeke thy Name O Lord that was Davids end even in the curse David wishes them no ill but for their good no worse to Gods enemies but that they might become his friends The rule is good which out of his moderation S. Augustine gives that in all Inquisitions and Executions in matters of Religion when it is meerly for Religion without sedition Sint qui poeniteant Let the men remaine alive or else how can they repent So in all Imprecations in all hard wishes even upon Gods enemies Sint qui convertantur Let the men remaine that they may be capable of conversion wish them not so ill as that God can shew no mercy to them for so the ill wish falls upon God himselfe if it preclude his way of mercy upon that ill man In no case must the curse be directed upon the person for when in the next Psalme to this David seemes passionate when hee asks that of God there which he desires God to forbear in the beginning of this Psalme when his Ne arguas in ira O Lord rebuke not in thine anger is turned to a Surge Domine in ira Arise O Lord in thine anger S. Augustine begins to wonder Quid illum quem perfectum dicimus ad iram provocat Deum Would David provoke God who is all sweetnesse and mildnesse to anger against any man No not against any man but Diaboli possessio peccator Every sinner is a slave to his beloved sin and therefore Misericors or at adver sus cum quitanque or at How bitterly soever I curse that sin yet I pray for that sinner David would have God angry with the Tyran not with the Slave that is oppressed with the sin not with the soule that is inthralled to it And so as the words may be a curse a malediction in Davids mouth we may take them into our mouth too and say Let those enemies be ashamed c. If this then were an Imprecation a malediction yet it was Medicinall and had Rationem boni a charitable tincture and nature in it he wished the men no harm as men But it is rather Pradictorium Praedictoria a Propheticall vehemence that if they will take no knowledge of Gods declaring himselfe in the protection of his servants if they would not consider that God had heard and would heare had rescued and would rescue his children but would continue their opposition against him heavy judgements would certainly fall upon them Their punishment should be certaine but the effect should be uncertaine for God only knowes whether his correction shall work upon his enemies to their mollifying or to their obduration Those bitter and waighty imprecations which David hath heaped together against Iudas Psal 109 Acts 1.16 seeme to be direct imprecations and yet S. Peter himselfe calls them Prophesies Oportet impleri Scripturam They were done sayes he that the Scripture might be fulfilled Not that David in his owne heart did wish all that upon Iudas but only so as fore-seeing in the Spirit of Prophesying that those things should fall upon him he concurred with the purpose of God therein and so farre as he saw it to be the will of God he made it his will and his wish And so have all those judgements which we denounce upon sinners the nature of Prophesies in them when we reade in the Church that Commination Cursed is the Idolater This may fall upon some of our owne kindred and Cursed is he that curseth Father or Mother This may fall upon some of our owne children and Cursed is he that perverteth judgement This may fall upon some powerfull Persons that we may have a dependance upon and upon these we doe not wish that Gods vengeance should fall yet we Prophesie and denounce justly that upon such such vengeances will fall and then all Prophesies of that kinde are alwaies conditionall they are conditionall if we consider any Decree in God they must be conditionall in all our denunciations if you repent they shall not fall upon you if
to splendor He hath preserved this Church from perplexities If they say we are perplexed with differences of opinions amongst our selves let this satisfie them that we doe agree all in all fundamentall things And that in things much nearer the foundation then those in which our differences lie they differ amongst themselves with more acrimony and bitternesse then we doe If they thinke to perplex us with the Fathers we are ready to joyne that issue with them where the Fathers speak unanimously dogmatically in matters of faith we are content to be tried by the Fathers If they thinke to perplex us with Councels we will goe as farre as they in the old ones and as farre as they for meeting in new Councels if they may be fully that is Royally Imperially called and equally proceeded in and the Resolutions grow and gathered there upon debatements upon the place and not brought thither upon commandment from Rome If there be no way but Force and Armes if they will admit no triall but that God bee blessed that keepes us from the necessity but God bee blessed also that he preserves us from perplexity or not being able to defend his cause if he call us to that triall And therefore let them never call it a Perplexity in us let them never say that we know not what to doe when we acknowledge the Church of Rome to be truly a Church for the Pest-house is a house and theirs is such a Church But the Pest-house is not the best ayre to live in nor the Romane Church the best Church to die in Thou hast preserved me from perplexities may the Primitive Church say and so may the Reformed too and so also may every particular soule say which is a Consideration that from the beginning we proposed for every Part and are now come to it in this When we were upon this consideration in our former Part Anima we shewed you that no over-tender or timorous soule might hide it selfe in a retired life from the offices of society but though every particular age bring a new sin with it every complexion a new sin every occupation a new sin every friend a new sin that must be loved for his sake yet Para te foro Thou art bound to come abroad and trust upon Gods hiding thee there from tentations and so assure thy self that he will preserve thee from perplexities Now wee consider in the Schoole Perplexities which are such onely by mis-understanding and Perplexities which are such in the true nature of the thing Those of the first kinde perplexities in a mis-understanding should fall upon no man perplexities of the second kinde in the nature of the thing it selfe can fall upon no man Of the first kinde this is an example A man sweares to conceale all his friends secrets and he tells him of a treasonable purpose against the State Either way he must offend Against his oath if he reaveale it or against his Allegeance if he doe not This is no perplexity for in a right understanding he must know that such an Oath bindes not Of the second kinde there was an example in Origen who must by the commandement of the Persecutor either offer sacrifice to an Idol or prostitute his body to an adominable abuse with another man Which should he doe Neither God gives a man an issue in such cases by death August Et vitam potiùs finire dèbet quà m maculare He is bound to give his life rather then to staine his life This timorous soule then feares where no feare is He would hide himselfe he is loath to come into the world because he thinks hee must needs sin Hee needs not Is there a necessity laid upon him that he must die as rich as the richest of his profession and that he cannot doe without sin That he must leave his wife such a Joynture and his children such Portions and all that he cannot doe without sin First all that he may doe without sin We have seene in all Professions honest men die as rich Mark 10.29 as dishonest If thou do not he that hath said There is no man that hath left wife or children for my sake but shall have a hundred fold here and everlasting life which is a blessed Codicil to a Will that was abundant before will also say There is no man that hath left wife and children poore for my sake but I will enlarge my providence upon them even in this life and my glory in the next And this was our second Part considered in the Church and in our selves Thou shalt preserve c. There remaines yet a third Part 3. Part. that as God hides us from tentations that they reach us not or preserves us from intricacies and perplexities so that they hurt us not so if they doe yet he compasses us with a joyfull Deliverance as our former or with songs of Deliverance as this Translation hath it that is imprints in us a holy certitude a faire assurance that he will never forsake us And this voyce we may heare from the Church first and then from every particular soule for to both as we have told you all the way doe all the parts of this Psalme appertaine As it is an exaltation of Gods indignation Compasse Lament 3.5 when he is said to Compasse by way of siege so Jerusalem complaines He hath builded against me he hath compassed me with gall and travell he hath hedged me about that I cannot get out So God threatens I will camp against thee round about Esay 39.3 and I will lay siege against thee for this intimates such a displeasure of God as that he does not onely leave us succourlesse joylesse comfortlesse in our selves but cuts off those supplies which might relieve us He compasses us he besieges us hee camps round about us that no reliefe can enter so when his love and mercy is expressed in this phrase that he compasses us it signifies both an intire mercy that no enemy shall break in in any part whilst he doth compasse us and a permanent and durable mercy that as no force of the enemy so no wearinesse in himselfe shall make him discontinue his watches or his guard over us but that he will compasse us still Thy faithfulnesse is round about thee sayes David to God that is our first comfort Psal 89.8 that God compasses himselfe with his owne faithfulnesse that is is never unmindfull of his owne promises and purposes And then He is round about our habitations Psal 78.28 God compasses himselfe with his owne faithfulnesse and then he compasses us with himselfe That as Satan told God one day after another Circuivi terram perambulavieam Job 1.8 I have compassed the earth and walked it round Job 2.2 but could never say that he had broke into Iobs quarter for hee found the impossibility in that The Lord had made a hedge about him Where note that Gods first
our prayers In a Sermon God speaks to the Congregation but he answers onely that soule that hath been with him at Prayers before A man may pray in the street in the fields in a fayre but it is a more acceptable and more effectuall prayer when we shut our doores and observe our stationary houses for private prayer in our Chamber and in our Chamber when we pray upon our knees then in our beds But the greatest power of all is in the publique prayer of the Congregation It is a good remembrance that Damascene gives Non quia gentes quaedam faciunt Damase à nobis linquenda We must not forbeare things onely therefore because the Gentiles or the Jewes used them The Gentiles particularly the Romans before they were Christians had a set Service a prescribed forme of Common prayer in their Temples and they had a particular Officer in that State who was Conditor precum that made their Collects and Prayers upon emergent occasions And Omni lustro every five yeares there was a review and an alteration in their Prayers and the state of things was presumed to have received so much change in that time as that it was fit to change some of their Prayers and Collects It must not therefore seeme strange that at the first there were certaine Collects appointed in our Church nor that others upon just occasion be added Gods blessing here in the Christian Church for to that we limit this consideration is that here He will answer us Therefore here we must ask Here our asking is our communion at Prayer And therefore they that undervalue or neglect the prayers of the Church have not that title to the benefit of the Sermon for though God doe speake in the Sermon yet hee answers that is applies himselfe by his Spirit onely to them who have prayed to him before If they have joyned in prayer they have their interest and shall feele their Consolation in all the promises of the Gospel shed upon the Congregation in the Sermon Have you asked by prayer Is there no Balme in Gilead He answers you by me Yes there is Blame Esay 53.5 Hee was wounded for your transgressions and with his stripes you are healed His Blood is your Balme his Sacrament is your Gilead Have you asked by prayer Is there no Smith in Israel 1 Sam. 13.18 No meanes to discharge my selfe of my fetters and chaines of my temporall and spirituall Encumbrances God answers thee Yes there is He bids you but looke about and you shall finde your selfe in Peter case The Angel of the Lord present A light shining Act. 12.7 and his chaines falling off All your manacles locked upon the hands All your chaines loaded upon the legges All your stripes numbred upon the back of Christ Jesus You have said in your prayers here Lord from whom all good counsails doe proceed And God answers you from hence The Angel of the great Counsell shall dwell with you and direct you You have said in your prayers Lighten our darknesse and God answers you by mee Esay 60.19 as he did his former people by Esay The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Petition God at prayers and God shall answer all your petitions at the Sermon There we begin if wee will make profit of a Sermon at Prayers And thither wee returne againe if we have made profit by a Sermon in due time to prayers For Confes l. 1. c. 1. that is S. Augustines holy Circle in which hee walkes from Prayers to the Sermon and from the Sermon next day to Prayers againe Invocat te fides mea sayes he to God Here I stand or kneele in thy presence and in the power of faith to pray to thee But where had I this faith that makes my prayer acceptable Dedisti mihi per ministerium Praedicatoris I had it at the Sermon I had it saith he by the ministery of the Preacher but I had it therefore because thy Spirit prepared me by prayer before And I have it therefore that is to that end that I might returne faithfully to prayers againe As hee is The God of our salvation that is As he works in the Christian Church he answers us If we aske by prayer he applies the Sermon And He answers by terrible things in righteousnesse These two words Terribilia per Iustitiam By Terrible things in Righteousnesse Terribilia per Iustitiam are ordinarily by our Expositors taken to intimate a confidence that God imprints by the Ordinance of his Church that by this right use of Prayer and Preaching they shall alwayes be delivered from their enemies or from what may bee most terrible unto them In which exposition Righteousnesse signifies faithfulnesse and Terrible things signifie miraculous deliverances from and terrible Judgements upon his and our enemies Therefore is God called Deus fidelis The faithfull God for Deut. 7.9 that faithfulnesse implies a Covenant made before and there entred his Mercy that hee would make that Covenant and it implies also the assurance of the performance thereof for there enters his faithfulnesse So he is called Fidelis Creator We commit our soules to God 1 Pet. 4.19 as to a faithfull Creator He had an eternall gracious purpose upon us to create us and he hath faithfully accomplished it So Fidelis quia vocavit Hee is faithfull in having called us 1 Thes 5.24 That he had decreed and that he hath done So Christ is called Fidelis Pontifex Heb. 2.17 A mercifull and a faithfull high Priest Mercifull in offering himselfe for us faithfull in applying himselfe to us So Gods whole word is called so often so very often Testimonium fidele A faithfull witnesse an evidence that cannot deceive nor mislead us Psal 19.8 Therefore we may be sure that whatsoever God hath promised to his Church And whatsoever God hath done upon the enemies of his Church heretofore those very performances to them are promises to us of the like succours in the like distresses he will performe re-performe multiply performances thereof upon us Esay 25.1 Thy counsails of old are faithfulnesse and truth That is whatsoever thou didst decree was done even then in the infallibility of that Decree And when that Decree came to be executed and actually done in that very execution of that former Decree was enwrapped a new Decree That the same should be done over and over againe for us when soever wee needed it So that then casting up our account from the destruction of Babel by all the plagues of Egypt through the depopulation of Canaan and the massacre in Sennacheribs Army to the swallowing of the Invincible Navy upon our Seas and the bringing to light that Infernall that subterranean Treason in our Land we may argue and assume That the God of our salvation will answer us by terrible things by multiplying of miracles and ministring supplies to the confusion of his and
which makes him a man hee hath the Image of God in him and by that is capable of grace and glory and therefore that wee may not hate which excludes all personall and all nationall hatred In that which makes him an enemy he hath the Image of the Devill infidelity towards God perfidiousnesse towards man Heresie towards God infectious manners towards man and that we must alwaies hate for that is Odium perfectum A hate that may consist with a perfect man nay a hate that constitutes love it selfe I do not love a man except I hate his vices because those vices are the enemies and the destruction of that friend whom I love Inimici tui Dei sunt inimici God himselfe hath enemies Thine enemies shall submit sayes the text to God There thou hast one comfort though thou have enemies too but the greater comfort is That God cals thine enemies his Psal 105.15 Nolite tangere Christos meos sayes God of all holy people you were as good touch me Psal 17.8 as touch any of them for they are the apple of mine eye Our Saviour Christ never expostulated for himselfe never said why scourged you me why spit you upon me why crucifie you me as long as their rage determined in his person he opened not his mouth when Saul extended the violence to the Church to his servants Acts 9. then Christ came to that Saul Saul why persecutest thou me Cains trespasse against God himselfe was that he would binde God to an acceptation of his Sacrifice And for that God comes no farther Gen. 4.6 Ver. 11. but to Why doest thou thus but in his trespasse upon his brother God proceeds so much farther as to say Now art thou cursed from the earth Ieroboam suffered Idolatry and God let him alone that concerned but God himselfe But when Ieroboam stretched forth his hand to lay hold on the Prophet 1 King 13.4 his hand withered Here is a holy league Defensive and Offensive God shall not onely protect us from others but he shall fight for us against them our enemies are his enemies And beloved Magnitude potentiae it is well that it is so for if we were left to our selves we were remedilesse It is his mercy that we are not consumed by his indignation by himselfe But it must be the exercise of his power if we be not consumed by his and our enemies for there is but that one way in the text that can bring these enemies to any thing that is In multitudine virtutis tuae In the greatnesse of thy power It must be power Intreaty Appliablenesse Conformity Facility Patience does not serve It must be Power and His power To assist our selves by his enemies by Witches or by Idolaters is not his power It is Power that does all for the name that God is manifested in in all the making of the World in the first of Genesis is Elohim and that is Deus fortis The powerfull God It is Power and it is His power for his name is Dominus tzebaoth The Lord of Hosts Hosts and Armies of which he is not the Generall are but great insurrections great rebellions And then as it is Power and His power so it is the greatnesse of his Power His Power extended exalted It is in the Originall Berob In multitudine fortitudinis in thy manifold power in thy multiplied power Moses considers the assurance that they might have in God Deut. 20.4 in this That God fought their battails The Lord your God goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies and save you There was his power declared and exercised one way and then in this That he had afforded them particular Laws for their direction in all their actions Religious and Civill To what Nation is God come so neare what people have Lawes and Ordinances such as we have So that where God defends us by Armies and directs us by just Lawes that is Multitudo fortitudinis The greatnesse of his power his power magnified his power multiplied upon us Now Mentientur through this power and not without this power this double power Law and Armes Thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee sayes our text And then is all the danger at an end shall we be safe then Not then The word is Cacash and Cacash is but Mendacem fieri to be brought to lie to dissemble to equivocate to modifie to temporize to counterfait to make as though they were our friends in an outward conformity And there are enemies of God whom no power of Armies or Lawes can bring any farther then that To hold their tongues and to hold their hands but to withhold their hearts from us still Iosh 9. So the Gibeonites deceived Ioshua in the likenesse of Ambassadors Ioshuahs power made them lie unto him So Pharaoh deceived and deluded Moses and Aaron Every Act of power brought Pharaoh to lie unto them I direct not your thoughts upon publique Considerations It is not my end It is not my way My way and end is to bring you home to your selves and to consider there That we are full of weaknesses in our selves full of enemies sinfull tentations about us That onely the power of God his power multiplied that is The receiving of his word that is the power of Law The receiving of his corrections that is the power of his Hosts can make our enemies our sinfull tentations submit and when they do so it is but a lie They returne to us and we turne to them againe In the greatnesse of thy power shall thine enemies submit unto thee But then Consolatio which is our last step and Conclusion even this That these enemies shall be forced to such a submission to any submission though disguised and counterfait is in this Text presented for a Consolation There is a comfort even in this That those enemies shall be faine to lie that they shall not dare to avow their malice nor to blaspheme God in open professions There is a conditionall blessing proposed to Gods people O that my people had hearkned unto me O that Israel had walked in my wayes Psal 80.15 What had been their recompence This. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto them Should they in earnest No truly there is the same word They should have lyed unto them they should have made as though they had submitted themselves and that God presents for a great degree of his mercy to them And therefore as in thy particular Conscience though God doe not take away that Stimulum carnis and that Angelum Satanae though he doe not extinguish all lusts and concupiscencies in thee yet if those lusts prevaile not over thee if they command not if they divert thee not from the sense and service of God thou hast good reason to blesse God for this to rest in this and to call it peace of conscience So hast thou reason too
a phrase very remarkeable by David He bringeth the winde out of his Treasuries And then follow in that place Psal 135.7 all the Plagues of Egypt stormes and tempests ruines and devastations are not onely in Gods Armories but they are in his Treasuries as hee is the Lord of Hosts hee fetches his judgements from his Armories and casts confusion upon his enemies but as he is the God of mercy and of plentifull redemption he fetches these judgements these corrections out of his treasuries and they are the Money the Jewels by which he redeemes and buyes us againe God does nothing God can doe nothing no not in the way of ruine and destruction but there is mercy in it he cannot open a doore in his Armory but a window into his Treasury opens too and he must looke into that But then Gods corrections are his Acts as the Physitian is his Creature God created him for necessity When God made man his first intention was not that man should fall and so need a Messias nor that man should fall sick and so need a Physitian nor that man should fall into rebellion by sin and so need his rod his staffe his scourge of afflictions to whip him into the way againe But yet sayes the Wiseman Ecclus. 38.1 Honour the Physitian for the use you may have of him slight him not because thou hast no need of him yet So though Gods corrections were not from a primary but a secondary intention yet when you see those corrections fall upon another give a good interpretation of them and beleeve Gods purpose to be not to destroy but to recover that man Do not thou make Gods Rheubarbe thy Ratsbane and poyson thine owne soule with an uncharitable misinterpretation of that correction which God hath sent to cure his And then in thine owne afflictions flie evermore to this Prayer Satisfie us with thy mercy first Satisfie us make it appeare to us that thine intention is mercy though thou enwrap it in temporall afflictions in this darke cloud let us discerne thy Son and though in an act of displeasure see that thou art well pleased with us Satisfie us that there is mercy in thy judgements and then satisfie us that thy mercy is mercy for such is the stupidity of sinfull man That as in temporall blessings we discerne them best by wanting them so do we the mercies of God too we call it not a mercy to have the same blessings still but as every man conceives a greater degree of joy in recovering from a sicknesse then in his former established health so without doubt our Ancestors who indured many yeares Civill and forraine wars were more affected with their first peace then we are with our continuall enjoying thereof And our Fathers more thankfull for the beginning of Reformation of Religion then we for so long enjoying the continuance thereof Satisfie us with thy mercie Let us still be able to see mercy in thy judgements lest they deject us and confound us Satisfie us with thy mercie let us be able to see that our deliverance is a mercy and not a naturall thing that might have hapned so or a necessary thing that must have hapned so though there had beene no God in Heaven nor providence upon earth But especially since the way that thou choosest is to goe all by mercy and not to be put to this way of correction so dispose so compose our minds and so transpose all our affections that we may live upon thy food and not put thee to thy physick that we may embrace thee in the light and not be put to seeke thee in the darke that wee come to thee in thy Mercy and not be whipped to thee by thy Corrections And so we have done also with our second Part The pieces and petitions that constitute this Prayer as it is a Prayer for Fulnesse and Satisfaction a Prayer of Extent and Dilatation a Prayer of Dispatch and Expedition and then a Prayer of Evidence and Declaration and lastly a Prayer of Limitation even upon God himselfe Satisfie and satisfie us and us early with that which we may discerne to be thine and let that way be mercy There remaines yet a third Part 3 Part. Gaudium what this Prayer produces and it is joy and continual joy That we may rejoyce and be glad all our dayes The words are the Parts and we invert not we trouble not the Order the Holy Ghost hath laid them fitliest for our use in the Text it selfe and so we take them First then the gaine is joy Joy is Gods owne Seale and his keeper is the Holy Ghost wee have many sudden ejaculations in the forme of Prayer sometimes inconsiderately made and they vanish so but if I can reflect upon my prayer ruminate and returne againe with joy to the same prayer I have Gods Seale upon it And therefore it is not so very an idle thing as some have mis-imagined it to repeat often the same prayer in the same words Our Saviour did so he prayed a third time and in the same words This reflecting upon a former prayer is that that sets to this Seale this joy and if I have joy in my prayer it is granted so far as concernes my good and Gods glory It hath beene disputed by many both of the Gentiles with whom the Fathers disputed and of the Schoolemen who dispute with one another An sit gaudium in Deo de semet Whether God rejoyce in himselfe in contemplation of himselfe whether God be glad that he is God But it is disputed by them onely to establish it and to illustrate it for I doe not remember that any one of them denyes it It is true that Plato dislikes and justly that salutation of Dionysius the Tyran to God Gaude servato vitam Tyranni jucundam that he should say to God Live merrily as merrily as a King as merrily as I doe and then you are God enough to imagine such a joy in God as is onely a transitory delight in deceivable things is an impious conceit But when as another Platonique sayes Plotinus Deus est quod ipse semper voluit God is that which hee would be If there be something that God would be and he be that If Plato should deny that God joyed in himselfe we must say of Plato as Lactantius does Deum potius somniaver at quà m cognoverat Plato had rather dreamed that there was a God then understood what that God was Bonum simplex sayes S. Augustine To be sincere Goodnesse Goodnesse it selfe Ipsa est delectatio Dei This is the joy that God hath in himselfe of himselfe And therefore sayes Philo Iudaeus Hoc necessarium Philosophiae sodalibus This is the tenent of all Philosophers And by that title of Philosophers Philo alwaies meanes them that know and study God Solum Deum verè festum agere That only God can be truly said to keepe holy day and to rejoyce This