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A17142
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Dauids strait A sermon preached at Pauls-Crosse, Iuly 8. 1621. By Samuel Buggs Bachelor of Diuinitie, sometime Fellow of Sidney-Sussex Colledge in Cambridge: and now minister of the word of God in Couentrie.
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Buggs, Samuel.
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1622
(1622)
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STC 4022; ESTC S106913
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31,160
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62
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cunning Apothecarie may either serue as an Antidote to preuent sinne or a Cordiall to such as haue surfetted on the sowre grape of Sinne. This text is then a fit place for a Preacher of Repentance for here is much water wherein if I shall wade but shallow it is not that I feare to wet my feet for to doe any good I am yours as you are Christs but I haue iust cause to feare that either some stormes of your molested patience or my fainting heart through mine owne weaknesse may sinke both me and my poore meditations to the bottome How Dauid fell into this straite Some there haue beene who as they were ignorant of the worlds originall Phys 1. so also of the rule and gouernment of the same and did therefore father many particular passages vpon fatall necessity But Aristotle and the rest which followed Etiam comite ratione did soundly confute and worthily explode this their error as finding a necessity of the dependance of all effects vpon some certaine causes which yet they being but flesh and blood discerned onely to be naturall But we who haue the true prospectiue glasse of the word of God may easily discerne though a farre off a supreme power guiding and ruling all particular occurrences whatsoeuer Mat. 10.29 to the fall of a sparrow from the house or a haire from our heads which as it hath an interest in all things so also in this strait of Dauid that as Iacob speakes Gen. 28.16 The Lord is in this place and I knew it not so the Lord had a hand in this strait though men be not aware of it For warre I know it is oftentimes the cursed issue of boundlesse ambition as it was in Alexander Vnus Pellaeo iuueni non sufficit orbis Aestuat infaelix angusto limite mundi Iuu Sat. 10. Or as in the Romanes that they might be rerum Domini or as in the proud race of Ottoman now aduancing his Moony standards in Polonia Or else it may bee conceiued by the seed of couetousnesse as in Pyrrhus the Epyrote Philip of Macedon to grow rich by the spoile of others as though God and Nature had giuen them the impropriation of all Or else this fire may bee begotten by collision of slint and steele as in Simeon and Leuy to reuenge the rape of Dinah Gen. 34.25 1 Sam. 15. or as in Saul who smote the Amalekites for a former iniurie proffered to the wandring Israelites But at this time there was no warre in hand or if there had the arme of Israel and his bow was so strong that had Almighty God stood but as an indifferent spectator the glory could not in all probability haue departed from Israel For Famine it may proceed from the supine negligence of a people who had rather begge then labour yea almost sterue then labour and so liue idlely quasi per se daret omnia tellus Ouid. or else when some shall labour and others eate the labours of their hands Iudg. 6.11 When Gideons wheat without hiding shall feed Midian or the Chaldaeans and Sabaeans spoile Iob of his Cattell and prouision Iob 1.15.17 Or by the horrible gluttony drunkennesse and excesse of the time by prodigious prodigall vsage of the good creatures of God Acts 11.28 as it came to passe in the daies of Claudius Caesar of whom Xiphiline reports that he was wont indulgere cōuiuiis effusissimè But there was now no Famine In vita Claudii that for the Gibeonites being staied by attonement as appeares Cap. 2 1. The land now gaue her increase and abounding as it did with milke and honey might bee a sufficient Cornucopia to relieue all the families of Israel So that neither nature on the one side nor men on the other were like to be the cause of this strait this by way of probability Pestilence when I consider this last plague and punishment although there may be some naturall reason of it giuen yet this comming so suddenly without any preuious disposition of aire or bodies I cannot but conclude that it was an immediate arrow shot from Gods quiuer Verè opus et digitus Dei Amos 3.6 Nor could this kind of euill haue beene in the City if the Lord himselfe had not wrought it This makes the measure of Dauids sorrow before pressed downe now to runne ouer when he apprehends not onely the Starres of heauen to fight against him Iudg. 5.20 as they did against Sisera but euen the Lord of heauen with his owne hand and stretched out arme Hee whose valour whilome laughed at the sterne visage of Goliah feare and trembling is now come vpon him and sorrow as vpon a woman in trauaile with an enemie hee might fight or from him flee but now seeing it is God with whom he cannot fight from whom he cannot flee Now he is in a great strait But shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right Gen. 18.25 Indeed in Gods eternall predestination and election no man ought to enquire as why Iacob is loued and Esau hated Rom. 9.13 because the Potter may doe with the clay as he listeth But if the question be made in this particular it shall fully appeare that God sought no quarrell against Dauid nor sought occasion to deuoure or wast the sheepe of his pasture Ios 7.13 Why was Israel discomfitted at Ai was there not an execrable thing amongst them Why did both wind and water conspire the wracke of Ionah was not he profugus Ion. 1.12 a run-away from God Pone poenam supponis culpam For surely the mercy of God being so great in pardoning sinne when it is committed may fully perswade vs that he will neuer punish till it be committed Propter me haec tempestas saith Ionah Ionah 1.12 Propter me haec pestis may Dauid say vntill man be actor of sinne God is neuer author of punishment Iudg. 16.30 Os 13.9 The Philistims house fals not vpon Sampson vnlesse his owne hands pull it downe Israels destruction is not but of her selfe Non tellus cymbam tellurem cymba reliquit For as Adam had not beene mortall had he not beene sinfull no more should his posterity euer smart but by the sore of sinne When sinne is finished if we haue not occasion to glorifie Gods mercy in pardoning vs we shall be compelled to acknowledge his iustice in punishing vs. Theorem 1. Hence obserue that preuious sinne is alwaies the cause of subsequent misery yea it is proprium omni soli though not semper to haue sinne the prodromus the fore-runner of iudgement and the onely prologue to the said Tragedy of one man or the generall ruine of many Had not Dauid numbred Israel Gad had not threatned it God had not punished it The Heathen themselues could so farre iustifie their supposed gods in this kind as to confesse that when sinne preuailed not before Hor. Carm. lib. 1. Od. 3.
clad in a roabe of immoderate raine and showers drowning the worlds plenty and the earths prouision Sometimes bearing on her shoulders heauens of brasse and treading vnder her feete the earth of iron Sometimes attended with Caterpillers innumerable to eat vp the fruits of the earth Pale and leane she is more then the picture of death Mors in illa as well as mors in olla and which is more genus miserabile lethi When God who giues to man the breath of life shall denie bread to maintaine life when Winter shall be turned into Summer and Summer into Winter Psal 127.2 when a man shall rise earlie and eate the bread of carefulnesse and at night be to care for his bread when men shall Sow much and bring in little Hag. 1.6 when the haruest shall be little and the labourers many when one shall plant another water and God shall denie increase is not this a great Strait And yet all these are but initia dolorum Ah my Lord now thinkes Dauid shall these eyes behold my poore Israel running and whining like dogs Psal 59 and cannot be satisfied Shall I see cleannesse of teeth and leannesse of body in all my Land Can I endure to see an Asses head sold for 80. pieces of siluer and a cab of doues doung for 20 pieces Shall I see a birth-right bidden for a messe of pottage and will not be taken Shall I behold my poore people like Pharaohs leane kine Shall I heare them crie Oh giue vs bread or we perish for hunger Shall I see mothers re-womb and re-entomb the fruit of their body for want of food Three yeeres Famine haue we felt already and a second siege will turn flesh and bloud into skinne and bone my people must become meat for wormes as hauing none for themselues This punishment is greater then can be borne This is too great a Strait The second Seale being opened forth comes Warre riding vpon a red Horse and he vnbridled A time when all things are carried by force of Armes and not of Reason A time wherein Pyrrhus regards not the aged head of Priam nor yet the sacred Altar whereto he flies A time wherein old Iacobs head is sent with sorrow to the graue and that not sine caede vulnere A time wherin Rachel may weepe for her children and will not be comforted because they are not A time Paradoxall vnto nature wherein Parents burie their Children A time when men must either fight and so runne vpon a sodaine death or flie and so lead a tedious life A time of out-cries of Fathers for their Children their liuely images when Widowes weepe for their second selues their husbands when Orphanes lament the losse of Parents their onely stayes when old men are comfortlesse widdowes helplesse children haplesse men women and children all hopelesse Dauid himselfe had been a Man of warre from his youth and had been eye-witnesse of the lamentable euents of Warre 1. Sam. 17. That he feared it not witnesse two hundred foreskinnes of the Philistines witnesse the fall of Goliah witnesse the sons of Ammon whom he put vnder axes sawes and harrowes Wheresoeuer he marched death and destruction mustered in his face Saul hath slaine a thousand but Dauid his ten thousand this was Vox populi and very true Well then thinkes Dauid I will fight three months with the proudest enemie that dare set foot vpō the land of Israel thus hauing thought he speakes Nay but Gad replies Dauid thou must not fight but flie three months Now then he is in a wonderfull Strait now his troubled soule cannot but presage much euill He vsed to pursue Psal 18.42 and now must he be pursued He did 〈◊〉 his enemies as small as the dust before the wind and now he must flie as dust before the wind If it were for a day hee might the better beare it though the Sunne should stand still to lengthen that day Ios 10. but three months will make the streetes of Ierusalem streame with bloud the people made a heape of dead bodies and the Citie a heape of stones God despited the people destroyed the Temple defiled Oh then I cannot endure this wondrous Strait Pone tertium O man of God let mee heare the third euill that though I haue done wickedly I may chuse wisely The third Seale being opened Pestilence issues forth vpon a blacke Horse killing with sicknesse and death This seemes to be the fairest choice as proceeding from the immediate hand of God and being but for three dayes and so shortest of continuance But yet it is a grieuous punishment Storehouses may serue against a Famine Dauids Citie wals or if not those his liuing walls his Souldiers his Worthies may meet his enemies in the gate but Pestilence flieth by night and killeth at noone day One cries Oh my brother come not nigh me for I am infected Another barr'd in by command shut vp by sicknesse and worse pend in by sorow cries out at a window O my Father O my brother either now breathing their last or by this time dead Some going if any so dare to the sad funerall of their friends before they returne to their owne home finde their long home O bellum Dei contrà homines The house may shield men and cattell from the hayle flight may saue from the Sword soiourning in another country may preserue from Famine but in this contagion at home our houses stifles vs abroad the ayre infects vs. Behold now beloued Dauids Strait If I should say no more oft his subiect this Citie knowes what kind of misery it is Etenim pars magna fuit How was it almost made desolate and her marchandize whilome like that of Tyrus almost decayed When hee that had walkt by night was in more feare to haue met the dead then the liuing A wofull time when there shall be more neede to weede the pauement then to mend it more cries of the Vespillo Who is here dead then of the Trades-man What doe ye lacke O time of desolation dulnesse and discontent Now I beseech you againe haue a regard of Dauids Strait and consider if euer sorrow were like vnto his sorrow wherewith the Lord afflicted him in the day of his wrath Lam. 1.12 Neuer could the irons enter so neare to the soule of Ioseph as this sorrow to the heart of Dauid See we now these three things propounded as Salomon said of the pleasures of the world Vanitie of vanities and all is vanitie so may Dauid say of the fruit of sinne death of deaths and all is death Saint Paul was in a wonderfull Strait betwixt two life and death Dauid is betwixt three and each is death Famin a pinching death Warre a cruell death Pestilence a noysome death Surely a most wonderfull Strait Now in the next place that which is vltimus aerumnae cumulus 2. Ineuitable and makes Dauid absolutely miserable that now he is like the Israelites