God Joshua perswades Achan to a full and free confession from this way to give glory 〈◊〉 God though he knew that he should expose his life to danger yet let him give glory to God Jos 7. It is the counsell of David Psal 22.23 O ye of the seed of Israel glorifie the Lord. And it is the practise of David if you marke it Sam. 6. when he brought the Arke and danced before it and was reproached by his wife that relished not those good things saith he I have done it before the Lord which Tostatus interpreting saith I have done it to the honour of God thou sayst I am vile I care not if I were more base so God may be glorified I will be more vile It is that that God himself indents with man for Psal 50. Call upon me in the day of trouble I will heare thee and thou shalt glorifie me There is a supposition of a day of trouble and an imposition of a dutie we must call upon God and Gods composition Man must glorifie him and God will heare So you shall find it is the counsell of our blessed Saviour Let your light so shine before men that others may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven Matth. 5.16 It is that that our blessed Saviour sets downe in the first petition of the Lords prayer hallowed be thy name It is that that our blessed Lord in his practise had respect to Joh. 17.4 Father saith he I have glorified thee on earth It is that that Paul would have to be remembred in all our actions whether you eate or drinke or whatsoever you doe doe all to the glory of God 1 Cor. 10. The children of God have been so sensible of Gods honour that they have not dared to doe the least thing whereby they might impaire ir The sense of Gods honour made Abraham compose that jarre betweene Lot and him This is that that kept Joseph from satisfying the lascivious desire of his mistris This kept Mordecai from bowing to Haman he would not have stood to give that proud Persian reverence but for this First it was more then civill that he required Secondly he was an Agagite that God had cursed in both which respects he should have diminished the glory of God It was respect to this that kept Daniel from eating his portion of meate and the three children from bowing to the Image This made Paul and Barnabas so zealous that they flew in among the people when they would have sacrificed to them because it intrenched upon the honour of God Act. 14. This made Peter refuse the honour that Cornelius would have done and the Angel refuse it from the hands of John because they knew they should wrong God in his glory And this was the reason that the fathers of the Church when there was a motion made for the composing of differences betweene them and some Arian heretiques that stood up a little would have done it the least letter in the Alphabet Iota in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they would not lend a word not a syllable not a letter why because they were jealous of giving away the honour of God and that that belonged to his glory And what is the reason that we joyne not with those in the Church of Rome in giving such unlimited honour to the Virgin Mary and to other Saints but that we are afraid to take from God and give to the creature we must be jealous of his glory Why do we not pray to Saints as they doe because it is due to God and it is an impeachment of his honour since invocation is proper to him The children of God are so zealous of his glory that they regard not their goods no not their lives to set it forward Paul saith Phil 1.20 I rejoyce whether by life or death God shall be glorified hee cared not for his life So wee see in our blessed Lord himselfe Joh. 12.27 Father what shall I say free me from this houre but yet I came into the world for this houre glorifie thy name As man he desired the cup might passe from him but when he considered that God intended his glory in his suffiering Father saith he glorifie thy name what ever come Nay the Children of God have been so zealous to promote Gods glory that they have not regarded their owne salvation It is a notable instance of Moses who was conceited that if God should destroy the people now part of his glory would bee impaired saith he Lord if thou wilt doe this rase me out of the book of life Rather then Gods honour should be impaired among the heathen that were apt to take occasion to blaspheme God Moses was willing to forfeit his owne salvation So Paul for the same Israel hee was content to be Anathema for them The glory of God in their salvation was so deare to him Thus respective the children of God have ever been to bring glory to God in all their actions But one thing will bee questioned what man can give glory to God As Iohn Baptist said of Christ I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me God had need to give us glory and honour and he must give it us if we have any true honour Are wee like to bring glory to him to set forth his glory Was not God glorious and happy before ever there were Angels or men to praise him Saith Ambrose God is not the better if wee praise him or the worse if we dispraise him what can this worthlesse filme of flesh that tumbles up and downe our mouthes adde to the glory of God The schoolemen answer God accepts it to increase his glory ad extra though ad intra there bee no increase or diminution Therefore for the use of it it meets with a number in the world of whom the Apostles speech will bee verified they seek their owne but not the glory of God men build but as the builders of Babel to get themselves a name Marke saith Chrysostome to get themselves a name not God the glory So Calvin observes concerning that passage out of the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built for my honour c. Marke all is for himself not for the glory of God or the good of the State So there are a number that do almes they performe the worke but as the Pharisees not for the glory of God but for their owne prayse they do their works that they may be seen of men So there are a number that make profession of Religion what for the glory of God No to build up themselves in the opinion of the world that men may conceite of them to be religious So there are those that doe good works sometimes Is it for the glory of God No for their owne temporall ends or it may be as the Papists to merit by them that they may be said to be their own
Judgement and Mercy OR The Plague of Frogges inflicted removed Delivered in Nine SERMONS By that late Reverend and Learned Divine Mr. IOSIAS SHUTE Arch-deacon of Colchester and Preacher at St. Mary Woolnoth in London With his usuall Prayers before and after Sermon Whereunto is added A Sermon Preached at his Funerall By Mr. EPHRAIM VDALL Eccles 12. 10. The Preacher sought to finde out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth Imprimatur Ja. Cranford Octob. 29. 1644. London Printed for Charles Greene and are to be sold at his Shop in Ivie Lane at the signe of the Gun 1645. To the Christian Reader TO commend persons or things of worth in a perfunctory slight manner is little better then to dispraise them therefore I shall forbeare Encomiums of this worthy Author or his Labours lest I run that hazard Let his own Workes praise him in the gates Prov. 31.31 only lengthen thy patience to the thorow perusall of these ensuing Sermons and thou shalt finde that that may heighten thy esteeme both of him and them I am confident that those who were his usuall Auditors will herein finde his owne vestigia both for matter and phrase And my hope is that by the blessing of God many honest hearts may reape benefit by these his Labours Heb. 11.4 whereby he being dead yet speaketh that had not opportunity in his life time to partake of his indefatigable Ministery As for others as this worthy man once said of the chiefe in Magistracy upon occasion of the death of King Iames that when the body turnes traytor it is just with God to behead it so may I say for the Ministery when God in Mercy shall set up such burning and shining lights and men in stead of walking by them spit at them God is justly provoked to extinguish those lights Jer. 13.6 and leave men to stumble upon the darke mountaines But I shall no longer detaine thee from the worke it selfe but commit it and thee to the blessing of God H. W. Morning Prayer before the SERMON MOst glorious Lord God and mercifull Father in Jesus Christ we poore wretched and miserable sinners doe here prostrate our selves before thee humbly acknowledging that to thee belongs all honour and glory whose pure eyes can behold no iniquity and to us nothing but shame and confusion of face for our manifold transgressions committted against thee If we looke upon our selves as we lye in the loynes of our first parents we are a part of that tainted seed that might justly inherit thy wrath our understandings are darkened and our wills instead of conformity to thine are growne rebellious in as much as that by nature there is not one good thought in us but a pronenesse to all evill whatsoever And if we consider our selves in our actuall transgressions by our sinnes of ignorance our sinnes of infirmity and of doubting our sinnes against our owne knowledge and against our vowes and purposes and promises of better obedience Wee have greatly dishonoured thy glorious name and grieved thy good Spirit and weakened thy graces more and more within us and have justly exposed our selves to thy eternall curse Even at this time Holy Father in the middest of thy Temple we come before thee clogged with so many imperfections that if thou shouldest be extreame to marke what is done amisse the best of us were never able to abide it It is thine infinite mercie that we are not consumed and therefore doe we live to put up this poore imperfect prayer to thee because thy compassions fail not But O God though in our selves we be miserable and weak and forlorne suffer us to cast up our eyes to the hills from whence commeth our helpe to importune thee by the Gracious Name of Father and to intreat thee for the merits of the Sonne of thy love to be mercifull to us Remember thine owne promise that if we confesse our sinnes and leave them and come to thee in the Sonne of thy love we shall finde mercy Lord we renounce our former sinnes it grieves us that we can be no more sorry for the same By the blessed assistance of thy holy Spirit we intend to live more conscionably for the time to come And we come to thee for Christs sake desiring thee to speake peace to our soules through his bloud bury all our sinnes in his grave that they may never rise up in this world to shame us and to be a reproach unto us to terrifie our consciences to desperation to intercept thy blessings or our prayers or in the world to come everlastingly to condemne us And because the foundation of all our comfort stands in the assurance of this Lord multiply to every one of our soules the blessed evidences of this thy reconciliation Send the holy Spirit of thy Son into every of our hearts to renue us to that glorious Image of thine from whence we are fallen and that may worke every saving grace in us True faith in thy promises that though thou kill us we may trust in thee resolution in all good causes feare and reverence of thy glorious Majesty a groaning and daily mourning under our owne imperfections that ever we offended so good a God and so gracious a Father a good use making of all the afflictions and chastisements upon others And teach every one of us upon whom these dayes of our peace and prosperity and health are renewed who know not how soone we may be drawn to a reckoning to prepare our selves that whensoever thou shalt come neare us either by that generall or more particular judgements wee may be able to stand in the day of our visitation And because thou of thine infinite wisdome hast set apart the Ministery of thy Word to fit us for that time Lord blesse it at all times and at this time enable me that am to speake it the most unworthy of all the sonnes of Levi Lord cover all my sinnes and manifold imperfections in that mercy of thine that hath no measure and be pleased so to assist me by thy more particular helpe that I may deliver thy word boldly truly feelingly and sincerely Circumcise the hearts and eares of this people that they may heare attentively treasure it up in their hearts carefully and bring forth the fruit in their lives and conversations conscionably to thy glory and the assurance of their owne salvation in the day of Jesus Christ To whom with thee O Father and thy Blessed Spirit be ascribed as due is all honour and glory both now and for evermore Amen Evening Prayer before the Sermon O Lord our God great in Majesty and infinite in Power and in Jesus Christ our most mercifull and loving Father we poore and wretched sinners are here again by thy providence assembled in thy Sanctuary to be made partakers of the good of thy house But Lord what are we that we should tender any petition to thee unworthy we are to
them from judgement Psal 76.12 Saith David there God will be terrible to the Princes of the earth And Psal 82. Te shall dye as men and fall as one of the Princes We have instances enow of this in Scripture Abimelech sinned and was punished a great Prince So Adonnibezeck So likewise another Abimelech was slaine by a piece of a milstone Iudg. 9. So we read of Ahab and Saul and Iezebel great Princes mighty in their times We finde it in Sennacherib that came against Ierusalem with such as hoast a great Commander And Nebuchadnezzar that walked upon his Babel he had a great and large command a great latitude of dominions So in the third Herod and all those persecuters of the Church that as wilde Bores of the Wood laboured to roote out the Vineyard of God Beloved if there were no more that we did meet with of God making them the objects of his judgements then that they sicken and dye it were no great thing For surely they consist of the same principles that other inferiour persons doe When Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar Live for ever he meant another life for in regard of his temporall life he knew he was like his Image though the head were of gold the feet were of clay Surely as they consist of soule and body as well as others they have no stronger tyes and ligaments to keepe soule and body together then meaner men they have no more power over their breath then other men they are subject to sicknesse and casualties But wee speake of them as they are the objects of Gods displeasure What may be the ground of this that those who are so great in the world that the Lord should get the conquest over them and make them instances of his wrath There may be divers reasons given of it First their sinne and not simply their sinne but as their persons are advanced so usually their sinnes are of the first magnitude Those that are great sinne with a high hand they thinke they may sinne with priviledge And they are apt to heare parasiticall flatterers as Alexander had that what likes them they may doe As Iulia told Bashiana It was for them to give lawes and not to take them Therefore the Lord meets with them to humble the proud to pull downe these arrogant ones as in Iob 40. He pulls downe the mighty from their seat As it was with Pharaoh here that was in his ruffe before Who is the Lord But now hee findes a God higher then hee Secondly Princes and great persons are usually exempted from the reproofe of men As for the Lawes oft-times they are as cobwebs the great flyes breake through them who dares say to a Prince Thou art wicked Nay one saith concerning the Pope it is not lawfull to say Why doth he so Now when they are not within the compasse of humane reproofe God strikes them In Levit. 20. when the people winke at such offences Then will I set my face against him and cut him off saith the Lord he will take the matter into his owne hands Thirdly the punishment of great persons makes more for the glory of God for the greater the instances of Gods judgements be the more remarkable is his justice the more legible characters are read in the world of his impartiality Therefore in Rom. 9.17 it is said concerning Pharaoh I have set thee up that I might magnifie my power and that my name might be knowne to the ends of the earth He set him up as he would sinne so he made him an instance remarkable of his displeasure that all the world might feare and tremble And indeed it went farre and neare for the Priests of the Philistines when they consulted about the Arke saith 1 Samuel 6. Harden not your hearts as Pharaoh and the Egyptians did For the Use of it it should teach all great ones in the world to be wise to kisse the Sonne last he be angry and so they perish from the right way I know they are apt to know their eminency Herod can easily entertaine the voyce of the people The voyce of a God and not of a man And the stomach of the Pope is not so squemish but he can digest that speech Thou art another God on earth But they shall know that if they use their power to injustice and doe that that is dishonourable to the Prince of Princes the Lord of Lords the hand of God will be upon them as well as upon the meanest subject Nay the more mighty they are the more grievously they shall be afflicted and though they be Gods before men yet they are but men before God Let the Lord put them in the ballance and sinde them too light He will blow them away with the breath of his displeasure Certainly he will get him honour by the confusion of those that stand up in contumacy against him To the greatest of them all it may be said as it is Hest 4.13 Thinkest thou to escape though thou be in the Kings house more then the rest of the Iewes So may I say If thou be a Monarch of the whole earth if thou irritate Gods displeasure thinkest thou to escape I will build my nest in the mountaines saith the Edomite who shall pull me downe He that sits in heaven shall laugh thee to scorne He bindeth Kings in chaines and Robles in fetters of Iron He that threw downe Lucifer from being a Prince of light so he shall serve thee In the second place it should teach men of inferiour condition and yet have something to beare themselves out with in the world Be not proud though thou have wealth it may be honour above thy brethren and art as Saul higher by the head then thy fellowes presume not too much thinke not to be free from judgements if thou offend For if thou wouldest give ten thousand rams and a thousand rivers of oyle the fruit of thy body for the sinne of thy soule it will not doe Riches availe not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death Prov. 11.14 Here an under officer or Sheriffe may bee feed to forbeare the execution of his office but it is not so with the arrest of God If God say to the rich foole This night shall they take away thy soule the Subpaena will not be answered but with his appearance if hee would give all his full barnes to be released Thirdly it is an item to all to admire Gods justice and impartiality and equity that sinites the tall Cedars as well as the low shrubs and thistles Should God avenge himself upon the common people that are called Cursed and connive at the sinnes of Princes there might bee some cause of wonder but when God shall punish one as well as another who shall dare to say but his wayes are equall Fourthly stand in awe to please him if hee punish Princes he will pesants if he smite the high Towers he will the inferiour Zeph. 1.8
command them to ascend So the Septuagint is Fetch thou them forth We must acknowledge the power of God to be infinite Yet observe The workes that are his owne he attributes to men Aaron is said to bring them The bringing of Israel out of Egypt it was the worke of God with a mighty Arme none but God could doe it He assumes it oft-times I am the Lord that brought thee out of the land of Egypt So those holy people acknowledged Nehemiah and Daniel O God that broughtest us out of Egypt Yet this act is attributed to Moses and Aaron So God saith to Gedeon Iud. 6. Goe and deliver Israel yet it was God that must doe it So it is said of Samson and Shamger and Othoneele and Samuel that they delivered Israel And God saith to Moses Sanctifie to me the people against the third day yet God must sanctifie them So we see in the New Testament that conversion is attributed to Ministers and remission of sinnes Whose sinnes ye remit are remitted Nay and the saving of men 1 Tim. 4.11 This is the honour of Gods Saints God not only useth them but attributes to them what is done To arm them against discouragements though many things obstaculous to them lye in the way and confront them and be impediments to them yet let them be comforted in this the issue and effect that is wrought God will please to honour them with it he will part with some of his owne to give them he will put a splendour on Moses and make him glorious in the eyes of all the people God is content to give Iehu honour The sword of the Lord and of Gedeon Though indeed we must take heed if we be sensible of the honour that God puts upon men when he imployes them that we doe nothing to diminish the glory of God The Devill is so subtle and the corruption of mans heart is so great that he desires praise to himselfe So that oft-times the chiefe Lord suffers by the unfaithfulnesse of his Steward Let us take heed if God honour us for doing good things by him assume not so much to our selves whereby Gods glory may be diminished Let me apply it to those of the Church God hath honoured them exceedingly that he hath made them fellow workers with himselfe to dispense the great mysteries of the Kingdome And it is the observation of Chrysostome when the Prodigall returned the father doth not bid him goe to the wardrobe and take the best robe but he said to the servants Goe and fetch it He would have the servants imployed for the benefit of the sonne that the meanes might be brought in credit That shewes how much the world is beholding to the Ministers of the Word We are co-workers with God which as it may comfort us for the present so it shall adde to our crowne afterward But let us take heed that we give the glory to God and not take to our selves any thing that may diminish Gods honour Let us be of the spirit of Paul I laboured more then all yet not I but the grace of God in me Saith Austen Nos mandamus c. we do not give the increase we doe but helpe and this that we can helpe is not of our selves but the grace of God Paul may plant and Apollo may water but it is God that must give the increase Not unto us not unto us but to thy Name be the praise given So should be the speech of every one We are Stars but we are Stars in the right hand of our Blessed Lord and he is the Sun of righteousnesse So we have it by derivation from him we shine in a borrowed light Secondly for people since God hath advanced Ministers know the necessity of their calling though God made you without them he will not save you without them Know that you must reverence them for their workes sake Shew your respect by doing that which is commanded for therein lyes the especiall respect to a Minister when that is practised that he teacheth In the last place since God reckons things done by his servants as theirs when he doth it Let all people that doe any thing for God take heed of stroaking their owne heads It is the errour of Rome in doctrine and in practise they make mens good works meritorious and make themselves saviours When we have done all we can we are unprofitable and God workes all good things in us and all our works for us That as Austen saith It is certaine O God he that reckons up his owne merits what doth he reckon but thy gifts We may have comfort and contentment in our consciences and may glory in those things that God hath given us in the temptations of Satan but let us not ascribe that to our selves that belongs to God for God begins the worke and perfects it to his owne praise So much for that Now we come to the execution Aaron did so and upon the doing of it there came an innumerable company of frogs that covered Egypt here observe The wonderfull power of God how speedily and easily and at what a distance he can worke Aaron no sooner stretcheth forth his rod but this was done he doth it speedily And hee doth but stretch out the rod and all these creatures come abundantly And he doth but put forth the rod toward the river Saith Tostatus he was now in the Court of Pharaoh yet all this was done therefore he workes at a great distance Thus is the power of God remarkable in working quickly and easily and at a great distance I will not stand long on these things because in many passages we meet with it God at the first made the world and with a word He spake the word and all was made Therefore those Epicures and Atheists that aske what ladder and engine he had to raise this goodly frame they may be answered by that in the Psalme He made them by his word For as he speakes in his workes The heavens declare the glory of God so he works in his speeches Nay the very will of God not only his word but his will I will be thou cleane not only speake the word and my servant shall be whole but I will How soone and how easily and at what a distance did the Lord destroy the Army of Pharaoh in the red Sea Exod. 14. So I might tell you of Sodome Saith Tully the heathen God can doe all things without labour and defatigation Saith the old Poet All things are easie to God he knowes how to worke when he sits still Therefore for the Use of it in a word Let us stand in awe of God if the Lord can so easily and quickly and speedily and at such a distance worke it is in vaine to contend and strive against his power God doth not need to fetch an Army of men to overthrow poore sinners he can doe it by frogs by the least creatures by his word he can drowne the
counterfeits the workes of God how should we labour for fincerity And this will difference us from all the hypocrites in the world The Painter can paint the colour of flame and the bowing forme but not the heat So an hypocrite may goe as a Saint in outward performances he may fast and pray and communicate and give almes and what can he not doe but when it comes to sincerity of soule there is a broad difference they are wide the whole heavens Therefore let us labour to have our hearts upright and then God will passe by many infirmities where hee sees sincerity Far be it from us of being ambitious of so much holinesse as may make the world only believe that we are religious It is the fault of many that resort to the congregations to get an opinion Let us not desire to please men but to love God and to please him our care being alway to please God and not to deceive the world and cousen them We may draw a mist before their eyes easily to cousen them they judge by our words and workes and cannot goe further but God judgeth the heart If he see us as the apples of Sodome as a faire glove on a foule hand and like the Sepulchres that Christ speakes of that within are full of rottennesse we shall have the greater judgement There be too many of these braggers as Basil calls them those that make a shew of what they are not The time will come when God will wash off this seeming with rivers of brimstone An hypocrite certainly if there be any place lower in hell he shall have it So I have done with the third question One observation more before I leave the verse that shal be profitable These Magicians resembled the rod brought serpents and after turned the water into bloud and now the third time they satisfie Pharaoh so farre that he thinkes that they were true frogs that they brought so he seemed to stand out against the judgement of God for the time See how farre God suffers wicked practises to prosper and succeed the first second and third time There are many examples of this in Scripture Iosephs brethren you know what they did to their brother and how cleane they carried it away after they had dipped his coat in bloud and brought it to their old father the poore credulous old man he thought indeed a wilde beast had devoured him and so they stand as upright in his opinion as before This slept twenty years they went cleare David himselfe had a minde to Bathsheba he sends for her she comes and becomes pregnant by him he desires to enjoy her without a rivall her husband stands in the way he sends a letter and causeth him to be slaine every thing prospers according to his desire So Ahab and Iezebel shee gets letters written and sends to the Judges they entertaine them and subborne false witnesses Naboth is convinced condemned and stoned Ahab comes and takes possession there is not a rubbe in all these smooth paths So the accusers of Daniel they get the King to make an edict to trap the good man every thing succeeds they have not a rub till he comes and was cast into the den We see in experience the lustfull man here he layes a bait and sees a base fellow to be officious to him his minde is satisfied as Amnons was upon his sister So with the covetous man he that sets it downe with a full resolution that he will be rich he takes these and these unjust courses they prosper and succeed his ships come home his merchandize come in hee attaines that hee would have So the ambitious man he is officious with this courtier and flatters and soothes with that he ascends up by degrees all the rounds of honour till hee come to be the only man So the avengefull man hee attaines his purpose as we see Absolom he makes no question all is done and he himselfe shall not be detected by any body they were willing to punish Amnon and so he continues without repentance Some man may aske the reason how it comes to passe that these wicked businesses should succeed and prosper and goe on with incouragement First God will shew mercy to the vessells of wrath Rom. 9. that wicked men may be inexcusable when hee shall rise to judgement God shall say I was long before I pulled my hand out of my bosome Secondly the Lord doth it in just judgement because wicked men contemne his grace and favour for the further obduration of them As in Rom 1. when they turned the glory of God into the similitude of a beast that eateth hay God turned them up to their owne lusts to be transported with their owne affections and they received thereby the recompence of their sinne Thirdly God doth this for the triall of his children To goe no further then this instance Was it not a wondrous probate of Moses and Aarou to see these men prosper what the first second and third time to be successefull Moses comes with this perswasion to the land of Egypt that he should doe those signes in the fight of Pharaoh that should not only convince them but incline them to a dismission of the people and now to be matched with a company of Inchanters All their glory and authority lay upon these workes and now for these to doe these the first second and third time how did this set backe the worke of God For if Pharaoh were fomented in his obstinacie how could they expect deliverance this was a great probate of them and God intended it for that purpose For the Use of this remember alway that successe is a poore ground to justifie an action upon The heathen-man could say in his time Felix c. If one have successe in wickednesse it is accounted a virtue Dionysius after he had robbed Esculapius Temple and had a faire wind he thought that the Gods loved sacriledge And it may be Ieroboam loved Idolatrie the better because he heard of the Prophets punishment that was seduced that spake against the Altar And those in Ier. 44. thought well of offering cakes to the Queene of heaven because they had all abundance Like the argument that one makes for the restitution of the Idolatrie of Rome because it is a flourishing Commonwealth Among Bellarmines arguments one of his notes of the Church is Externall felicity The successe of things is but a poore ground to goe upon yet many men reason so in these times As the worldly man will say that the Minister saith oft that God will plague such and such sinnes as I know my selfe guilty of yet I finde no checke of conscience no man is able to controll mee I prosper in my bames as well as another man and my come is as thicke and my line holds my businesse prospers I thinke that God is not so offended with me as some ministers talke of Many a man nourisheth his heart as in a
submit to the government of the Shepherd That as Justinian the Emperour saith there may be a sweet harmonie between Prince and people that no string may be too high or too low that is the best musique in the eares of God If Pharaoh desire for his people how should they beg of God in the behalfe of their Soverain Paul when he wisheth that Prayers should be made for all men in the first place he puts Kings And it was the practise of holy people of God in former time Cyprian when they were charged with some rebellion We are far from that we wish well to the King saith he And his Master before him for so he calls Tertullian he professeth concerning the Christians that they begged of God in the behalfe of the Emperour they desired long life a secure regiment and reigne a safe house worthy Counsellors strong and valiant Souldiers c. Let not this be forgotten by us we are too defective in this many of us pray in private for our selves but when doe we remember our Governours O the light of our eyes and the breath of ournostrills is deprived of our prayers If it be a sin to forget a naturall father certainly it is no lesse to forget our politicall father The next thing to be observed which is the second generall is the promise that he makes I will let the people goe I will but touch one thing and so conclude you see here that now he cannot get from under the judgement what evapourates from him he will let the people goe that they may sacrifice If god reserve us God willing we shall observe that he did flie off from this But in the meane time somewhat he saith and promiseth and It is no strange thing that the worst of men have good motions sometimes This Pharaoh saith another time I have sinned And the sorcerers say after It is the finger of God And Balaam saith Let me die the death of the righteous Num. 23. And Saul may say he hath sinned and Ahab may humble himselfe and Felix may sometimes tremble and Agrippa will cry out he is almost made a Christian by Paul And it was never known of the most desperate adulterers the most bloudy men or oppressors or excessive persons but some time or other they did thinke ill of their own courses and did think that another way was better and it may be have had motions and resolutions tending to reformation The ground is the light that God puts into the consciences and the power that he hath indued it with that will sometimes put a man in minde of his abberations from the right way that this is not the course hee should take Again there is a generall illumination in the world that enlightens every man by this they come to have some notions But as Bernard saith in another case they come in frequently and passe away as speedily They are like the morning dew or the morning cloud soon dissipated not so good as Ephraims cake that was halfe baked they are soon gone as Tertullian saith of the flower it is a thing to look on and breath on and smell to and it is gone So it is with these motions of the wicked they passe away as smoke Therefore for the use of it Let us not be confident of the motions and flashes of the wicked unlesse they persist and continue in them there is little hope Nay let us not please our selves for motions that are like flashings of lightning in the soule they are not worth the talking of When motions come that are good cherish them keep them on foot that they may be actuated and perfected Thus God would have us to doe it is a sparke of the divine fire therefore the Lord would have it blown till it come to a flame If at any time we finde it dying as like enough the dear Saints of God may doe we must stir it up and excite the grace of God by the use of the Ordinances of God as the Apostle speaks And likewife by reflecting upon our many omissions and neglects and it may be suppression of motions by the consâ—â—â—â—â—tion of the fearfull account we must give one day for these neglects stir it up and keep it fresh and by the blessing of God there may come great matters That that is now a sparke may be a flame that that is like a cloud no bigger then a hand it may after mask the whole heavens That that is now as a grain of mustard seed it may be a great tree wherein the fowles of the air may make their nests Of all take heed of quenching and suppressing this Spirit of puting it out and that is done by wilfull grosse sins When God gives good motions if men would cherish them and keep them alive there might be much good in them but when they run into foul sins that waste conscience the graces of God die and all good motions are as far to seek as if they never had been This will add to a mans judgment when God shall put these things in his heart and he by untimely frosts nipps them in the bud whereas if he would cherish them they would come to great perfection and improvement THE EIGHTH SERMON Vpon EXOD. CHAP. 8. VERS 8.9 And I will let the people goe that they may doe sacrifice unto the Lord. And Moses said unto Pharaoh Glory over me when shall I intreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people c. THere is one thing that remaines of the eighth Verse remaining that I will speedily dispatch and so go on Pharaoh saith here I will let them goe that they may sacrifice to the Lord. Ubi potentiae Ubi superbiae saith one upon my Text. How now Pharaoh what is become of thy power what is become of thy pride not long since thou wast in thy ruffe and said Who is the Lord that I should seare him or let Israel goe Thou wert so farre from dismissing them that thou eldst more intensively hate them and multiply their sorrowes Thou didst contemne Moses and Aaron that came with a Commission from God and now behold thou art under a judgement and knowest not how to extricate thy selfe from this perplexitie now thou wilt let the people goe now thou acknowledgest God now thou suest to Moses and Aaron now thou art glad to dismisse the people Even thus it was and in that it was thus my observation must bee concerning The necessitie of afflictions All faire meanes would do no good with this man God was faine to take the rod in his hand and then wee see the issue so great is the necessitie of afflictions And it drives at divers things First afflictions make a man see his sinnes as wee see in the brethren of Joseph Gen. 41.21 In their trouble in Egypt they reflect upon their unnaturalnesse to their brother they confesse that the cause of this trouble and distresse was because they did not hearken to
water into wine at the marriage he did it not presently he stayed till all the wine was spent and there was generall notice almost taken of the defect of it then he causeth the water pots to be filled with water and bids the men draw and carry to the governour all these seemed to set back the worke but they set it forward for it caused all men to magnifie it and acknowledge it to be the immediate power of God So he dealt with the man at Bethesda all the people took notice of him he was a man that had been 38. years together and would faine have been put into the poole but he had never a friend to help him you see what Christ did he did but onely speak to him and so many of them acknowledged the wonderfull power of God So that man that was cured of his blindnesse John 9. our blessed Saviour was pleased to pitch upon a person that all the world took notice of and none could cure him he was borne blind So the man at the Beautifull gate Act. 3. there was a work wrought on him that was free from all exception therefore the Elders and the high Priests they confessed that not onely it was a great work but a miracle a great miracle and there was no exception against it Thus Gods people in all times labour to do their works that may be free from all exception and prejudice I would to God it might be so with us that in all the works that we do we might be free from all carnalitie and self-respects For the devillalies in the wind and puts into the hearts of those that are his own to take exception at any thing that is done well in the world If they do good works it is out of hypocrisie will he say or vain glory or respect to a mans owne profit Thus they slander godly peoples practise Therefore let us have a care to doe our works so as they may be free from all just exception Let us bee carefull to doe them in integritie of heart to approve our hearts to God Almighty and that will beare us out against all mens exceptions Art thou to doe a worke of charity and the devill will slander thee for vain glory shun the applause of the world spite the devill in that Againe doth the devill say thou makest charitie a matter of profit from men Make them the objects of thy charity that are notable to recompence thee as Christ saith that the world may say it is not a benefit put out to interest but make it a work of mercy Againe doth the devill slander thee that in the works of God thou doest them that God may prosper thee in thy basket and in thy store Make the devill a lier serve God in adversitie as well as in prosperitie So Job the devill slandered him so doth Job serve God for nought Therefore let us do as that holy man did when God frowned on him he served him and was patient under that hand of God that lay on him So much of the first reason A second is this Moses might thinke that Pharaoh might hold it for an advantage to prescribe the time He might think surely I shall now distresse Moses and put him by that he thinks of he thinks he shall presently go upon it no I will do what I can to hinder his thoughts and purpose he shall doe it in my time Pharaoh might thinke this an advantage to himself Moses is willing to yeeld that he might see he was able to do it And God sometimes gives advantage to the wicked that his own glory might be the greater A man would thinke there was a great advantage against the people of God Judg. 7. when the Army of Gedeon was defalked from 32000. to 300. and the other did lie as Grashoppers upon the earth yet you see what was the issue the barley cake that tumbled down as the man had it in his dreame overthrew the Tents of Midian God was willing they should have the advantage in regard of provision and number yet you see what became of it Was it not a great advantage that Saul had against David when hee required an hundred foreskins of the Philistines for a dowry with his daughter he thought it a great advantage and would puzzle him exceedingly thought hee is it not more probable that one David should die then a 100. Philistines yet you see for all this advantage David comes off with honour and in stead of an hundred hee gives him two hundred Was there not a great advantage on the part of Goliah against David I all Israel thought so for the very presence of that uncircumcised monster did worke terrour in their hearts and palenesse in their faces Was it not a great advantage he was tall and as the sonnes of Anak and David was a little man if it be true as he is described What was a poore sheephook to a speare that was as a Weavers beame was it not a great advantage to have a glittering sharpe Sword and the other but a few stones out of the brook That he should be armed Cap a pe and come against a naked man all the world gave him for lost yet you see though he had all this advantage and he thought so himself for he saith in scorne Come and I will give thy flesh to the fowles of the ayre for all this David layd him along and cut off his head The like we see in the Army of the Assyrians 1 King 20. They thought the children of Israel had advantage by fighting on the Mountains therefore if they did fight in the valleys they thought they should be victorious God is willing to give them the advantage into the valleys they come but have they better successe Nay though they have the advantage of the place and of the number too for it is said the people of God did lie before them as two companies of Kids and they were an infinite company yet wee see what was the issue So we may say of that great Army that came against Jehosaphat he saith Wee are not able to stand before this company So in the Army that Senacherib brought against Jerusalem rayling Rabshakeh bid them submit for all Israels dust was not enough for every man a handfull yet for all they had that advantage the Lord overthrew them by a few So God did give the Devill advantage against Job as much as he desired he did but desire to touch him he gives him leave to touch his goods his children his body that he made him the most fearfull spectacle that ever the sunne beheld yet when all this was done for all that Job was proved and the devill was confounded And our blessed Lord himself gave great advantage to the devill for his greater glory He suffered him to tempt him in the Wildernesse that wild place where there was nothing but beasts the place was enough to have filled his heart with
used fairely and kindly and not irritated and provoked contrary to the dignitie they maintaine Therefore whatsoever men except against the persons of men give the place the honour that is due So did Moses with Pharaoh he would not goe back from that hee had said lest he should impaire the honour of so great a Magistrate So much for that Be it according to thy Word A second thing I observe that is the cheerfulnesse of Moses undertaking this businesse for marke in common speech when we yeeld to a mans motion what say we Be it so I am content your word shall stand I will do as you have said this argueth a cheerfull and willing performance And Moses being about a worke of mercy to remove a judgement this cheerfulnesse sets out the worke Paul saith if a man shew mercy he should doe it cheerfully with hilaritie with a kind of pleasantnesse The same Apostle he forbids the contrary for he would not have men doe it out of sorrow or grudgingly inforcedly 2 Cor. 9.2 and he gives a very good reason for God loves a cheerfull giver If it be in that service that God requires for himself if it be an office of love to our brethren cheerfulnesse hath ever a speciall commendation 1 Tim. 6. rich men are wished to be ready to distribute That is the cheerfull affection that is spoken of And works of mercy are compared to sowing in the Scriptures Every man desires a faire seed-time so every man should give chearefully for the more cheerfull the seed-time the more expectation there is of the harvest It is said in Psal 112. The good man is mercifull the old translation reads it the pleasant the merry man is mercifull And Austin reads it the sweet man And why he gives a very good reason for it for saith he it maks a man sweet in the nostrills of God when hee is cheerfull in doing that that is good Whereas on the other side if it be necessitated and extorted from him saith Austin God will poure him out of his mouth as a man doth that that is unsavory and unsweet that troubles his tongue that is fit for nothing but ejection Now this cheerfulnesse when a man is to doe good should appeare three wayes First a man should find in his heart Deut. 15.10 saith the Lord thou shalt give him in his need and thou shalt not find thine heart grieved when thou givest Thou shalt not find thy bowels locked up so the word signifieth in the Epistle of John the locking up of a mans bowels A man must not find his heart straitned but be so cheerfull in his disposition for this purpose as if he rejoyced in the opportunities that God offers for the exercise of his charitie Secondly there must be cheerfulnesse in a mans countenance for if a man do a work of mercy with an austere look and a clouded brow he puts gravell into that bread he gives and soures the favour hee would bestow so as it is unacceptable Therefore Solomon speaks of a man with an evill eye and bids eate not his bread that when he sees a man eate his meat wisheth him choak't that when he gives a penny he casts an eye after it as if he wished it in his purse againe such a mans charitie would not be had if a man could be without it Thirdly there must be cheerfulnesse in a mans words Thus it is said that Joseph spake comfortably to his brethren And so Boaz to Ruth and David to the poore Egyptian servant And so our blessed Lord to the woman that came trembling before him and was afraid of being checked he did not onely comfort her but perfect the worke of mercy on her For the use of it it meets with many in these dayes there be those that their hearts are dead in them as Naballs like a stone there is no cheerfulnesse in their inward man they will doe but so much as the Law compells them and there is an end Or it may be when it is racked out with importunity and extreame solicitation that is done and nothing else which as Ambrose saith is to give not out of judgement but out of a desire to be free from importunity there are a number of these sponges in the world that suck a great deale but you must squeeze them before you can get any thing from them How do these ever think to have thanks of God he loves a cheerfull giver or of men when Seneca saith a man that receives a benefit from him he doth not receive it but it is wrung from him therefore he thinks not himself so obliged to requitall or to be responsary for such a favour Secondly you have those that if they enlarge themselves to any matter of bountie and charitie they brow-beate the poore those that need them they look so austerely and sullenly and superciliously as if they would eate them as if as the Baziliske they would kill them with their looks Thirdly you have those that if they do any thing they do it with such language and so rate the poore man as if he were a dog rather then a man and bore Gods Image as well as he The sonne of Syrack gives better counsell Blemish not thy good deeds with evill words for sometimes a good word is better then the gift and so it is Therefore in the second place it is a use of instruction to us all to find our hearts cheerfull upon the occasions that God ministreth for the exercise of our charitie We are about to commemorate the greatest favour that God ever did in sending his Sonne to take our nature and to die If our hearts be open it is well O let us blesse God for the opportunities he ministreth to us for the abilitie he hath given to us to refresh the bowels of those that are necessitated And let us thank God that wee are not in a condition of want but that God hath given us some abilitie to give Secondly let us be cheerfull in our countenance And thirdly in our words let us speake Gnaleb to the hearts of those that are in necessitie as the Hebrew is give them the comfort that is fit for them for with such sacrifice God is pleased So much for the yeelding of Moses Now he comes to the reason That thou mayst know that there is none like the Lord our God And now beloved while Moses assigneth this reason let all men be satisfied that thought Moses indiscreet in yeelding to the motion Now you see his ayme he intends the glory of God he intends to teach Pharaoh such a lesson as he never learned before If he had done it in his owne time he had not promoted the glory of God so much therefore now it makes him justifiable and makes him an example to us which shall be the observation In all our actions to ayme at the glory of God It is the Queene of all causes the end of all things the glory of
about it so the people cry out The Lord he is God not Baal but Jehovah for he exceeds all But this is not a thing that we need stand on we must come nearer For surely Moses intended that Pharaoh must know God to be the onely Lord. How could this be Moses no doubt understood that by this judgement on him and by the removing of it his eyes would be so in lightned that he should see there is none like God God is known in afflicting of judgments And that especially first when it is a strange judgement when it is a fearefull judgment As that judgment of Sodome when there came fire from heaven Saith Salvianus when God sent hell out of heaven fire and brimstone So when the earth swallowed Corah and his company it was a strange and fearefull judgement Secondly sometime a judgment is remarkable when it is unseasonable in regard of the time as the eclipse and darknesse at Christs suffering for it was not a naturall Eclipse God shewed his power he made the Sun withdraw his light and left the earth wrapped in obscuritie Thirdly Gods power is more remarkable when it is sudden such as that that Samuel brought upon the people that in the middest of harvest at his word there came thunder and lightning and abundance of raine that spoyled their indeavours For as Tostatus saith upon the place he looked not Astronomically he stayed not till there was a meete time of bringing things about but presently and that made it more fearfull to the people And as in the inflicting of judgments Gods hand may easily be seen and is remarkable so in the removing of it and that I thinke Moses intends For when a judgment hath been long upon a people and they have smarted soundly and have used all meanes they can devise and yet it is not removed in the end turning themselves to God and he removing it this makes them know the Lord to be God This was Pharaohs case to which Moses had respect when he said this That thou mayst know that there is none like the Lord. For you know the hand of God was heavy upon him by the Frogs they were such annoyance to him and his servants that they could have no meat dressed or be quiet in their beds it was a terrible incumbrance no question he consulted with the Magicians to remove them They could not do it God gave them leave to bring them but they had neither leave nor power to take them away God useth the devill sometimes in the execution of justice but never to doe a worke of mercy The bringing of the Frogs was a judgment the taking of them away was a mercy It was not for the devill to do that It is like enough that Pharaoh supplicated God all will not doe till Pharaoh desire Moses So that now when all is gone by the prayer of Moses he must needs know the Lord to be the God that there is none like him When Eliah told Ahab that there should be no raine in Israel but according to his word and that the drought should continue three years and six moneths you may thinke this that Ahab sought meanes for the preservation of the Cattell and consulted with his great God that he worshipped to remove this judgement it would not doe it must be the God of Elias that must doe it and that Elias that was the bridle of heaven as Basill calls him he must unlock heaven and poure out raine abundantly So the obduracie of the Philistims was so great that having took the Arke of God among them they indured seven moneths vexation of hemeroids and many people died yet they held out till at last they saw no time could cure it They consulted with their Priest and hee said go and make such an offering and saith he give glory to the God of Israel as if he had said it is not your Dagon nor all the means you can use that can free you from this judgement but acknowledg that it is Gods judgment that there is none like him Ionas râ—ns away from his commission and a whirlwind followes him and seizeth upon the whole ship they were all in danger through him They were not wanting to use all meanes to secure themselves every man called upon his God they unladed the ship and cast away whatsoever might be an incumbrance and hurt to them they left nothing unattempted they rowed with all sedulitie to bring it to land All would not doe it must be the God of Jonas that must doe it all their Gods could not do it There is none like the God of Israel So it was with Paul Act. 27. hee was in a great storme for three dayes they never saw Sun nor Star at the last Paul having revealed from God that they should all be safe he bids them take a good heart to themselves for none of them should perish but it was the God that Paul served that must do it and must help them in this extremitie and so he did Eusebius in the fifth book of his history Chap. 5. tells that under Marcus Aurelius the Emperour there was a Legion of Christian Souldiers The army was in great distresse for the enemy came close to them and they were exceedingly pinched for water The company of Christians betooke themselves to prayer thereupon the Lord sent such a thunder and lightning as discomfited the enemy and such abundance of raine that satisfied their thirst so that Army was after called the thundering Legion All that the Pagan Gods cannot doe the God of the Christians must do it there is none like him Therefore for the use of it Let this teach us when it pleaseth the Lord to send us deliverance to acknowledge his power to see Gods hand in it Though there may bee some subordinate meanes used give God the praise let him have all the glory I will but turne any of you back to some extremitie you have beene in by sicknesse of body some desperate case you have been drawn to was it thy wealth that would abate thy paine was it thy friends that could keep off thy fit was it thy former pleasures could give thee comfort Nay did it not increase thy vexation thy guiltinesse in the misusing of them and in the distempered abuse of them did it not increase thy dollour could the Physitians helpe thee did not they give thee for lost thy case was to be deplored till it pleased this God to whom none is like to rescue thee from the jawes of death Hast thou been left to tempests of mind to terrours of soule then tell mee and speake true from thy heart did all those carnall receipts of gaming drinking and businesse and whatsoever did all help were they not miserable comforters Physitians of no value till God spake to thy conscience peace and said to thy soule I am thy salvation thou hadst no comfort nor joy It is impossible it should be otherwise There is no
gathered this from Gods judgement upon Pharaoh in sending the loathsome frogs I would not have it thought that every one that hath a loathsome disease is like Pharach that he must of necessity be prophane and wicked For in the examples before recited we may finde David had a loathsome disease yet he was a man after Gods owne heart Iob had a fearfull disease he was full of blaines and sores and boyles yet God gave him a great testimony for his piety and justice above all the men of the East I could adde Lazarus that was highly in the favour of God yet he was full of sores And certainly Solomen saith Eccl. 9 All these shall fall alike to good and badmen we cannot determine of affection or disaffection I meane of the speciall love or hatred of God by these outward things Though the Church of Rome and Bellarmine goe too farre for he makes the end and calamities that light upon opposers of the truth to be a necessary argument of the Church a true note of it To that purpose he reckons strange judgements to fall on Calvin and Luther fearfull loathsome diseases So upon Zuinglius and Oecolampadius that he hath from Balsicke and others that have not more lines then lies rayling Pharaoh like We could answer them in their own weapons if we were disposed and tell them of some Popes One saith of Boniface the seventh that he ended his life very filthily And Iohn Stella saith of Boniface the eight he entred as a Fox he reigned like a Lion and dyed as a Dog We could tell them of Iohn thirteenth and some say the fourteenth that was slaine in the act of adultery by the immediate hand of God And of Alexius that dyed by the same potion of poyson he had provided for another Of Dresentius Leotomus Nehotman and other persecuters that had fearfull ends We stand not upon this because there is no argument convincing to be drawne from the calamity of a man to shew his goodnesse or badnesse But that that I intend is that God oft-times sends not only troublesome but noysome judgements as we see here upon Pharaoh The use of it as David saith Psal 4. Standin awe and sinne not God is the same God His hand is not shortned He can inflict a judgement upon thee whosoever thou art that besides the paine of it shall make thee abhorre thy sustenance The very smell nay the sight of it nay the hearing and sound of it And not only so but he can make thee so loathsome that even people that should tender their attendance shall be afraid to come near thee How loathsome a disease is that even that is ordinary the small pox in the extremity And for that other disease that carries the name that a man should not mention without horror and loathing what a loathsome disease it is and how odious it makes people those that are of honest and faire condition are afraid to eat or drinke with them So I have knowne some that have been afflicted with sores and boyles and ruptures that they have been a griefe to others and a burthen to themselves Therefore I say Stand in awe and feare for the Lord can doe what he hath done he can set ravenous beasts on us to teare us he can make frogs and toads crawle on us hee can make fiery diseases possesse us he can bring it home to us in a fearfull way if we rebell Therefore let us labour to serve him and to doe him honour and evermore to praise him not only in word but in worke for feare of an uncomfortable blow For it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of God So much for that They shall come upon thee and upon thy servants and upon all thy people Now this judgement was denounced Pharaoh might have conceived a thought the frogs shall come upon me but I have somewhat to helpe my selfe by my people and my servants about me I hope will keepe my person free The Lord takes away that poore hold and disableth him in that he thought of they shall not only be upon himselfe but upon his servants that they should be so far from from helping him that they should not helpe themselves The observation is that When God smites to some purpose he can make a man helplesse that all succour in the world shall faile Let him cast upon what hope he will and nourish expectation of this and that help when adversity comes the judgement of God shall have a full blow We have read of some famines wherein one neighbour hath not beene able to helpe another all of them have beene so generally troubled by that fearfull calamity and vexed by it that a man could not give his neighbour bread without being unnaturall to himselfe and unmercifull to his family When the Sword hath forradged a place the party that should secure his wife and children hath beene wounded and not able to helpe them And so in regard of the plague when it hath entred into some families and allowed no quarter at all but hath stricken all downe that not one hath beene able to helpe another God hath stricken some men with such diseases that the whole Colledge of Physitians were never able to give them a minute of ease Nay it may be the Physitian himselfe hath beene so smitten that he needed as much helpe as his patient This is ordinary I will not stand further upon the proofe The Use concernes us a little that is that we never cast our selves upon any earthly helpes without God let them seeme as firme as they will and able to sustaine us let us never cast our selves on them without God they will prove as clouds without raine as wells without water they will prove miserable comforters They will be to us as the King of Israel was to the woman in the siege of Samaria when she complayned of the fearfulnesse of the famine O saith he if God doe not help how shall I help Let the Philistins trust in Goliah when the time comes he shall not be able to save himselfe Let them delight in Dagon he shall be so far from secuting them that he shall be broken in peeces by a fall before the Arke The high Priests tell the Souldiers if they will tell a lie for them and officiate in that kinde for them they will beare them harmlesse the day of affliction will come that they shall not be able to helpe themselves Nay David disableth the very trust in Princes Psal 146. Trust not in Princes or any son of man for vaine is their helpe Isay 20. the three last verses It seemes the people of Israel were confident when they had an adversay came and threatned them with the Babylonian forces they sent to the Ethiopians for helpe they did not greatly care what that great man could doe Saith the Lord Goe and tell them the King of Caldea shall take Egypt prisoner and the Ethiopian captive so they
shall be ashamed of Ethiopia their rejoycing and Egypt their glory And then they shall say Loe this was our expectation and how shall we escape As if they had said these people are not able to helpe themselves they are made a prey to the devourer and how shall they be able to secure us Therefore I say againe Take heed of trusting in the arme of flesh We are but too apt to doe it We think if such an adversary should come we would doe this and that this friend and that money and policie shall doe us good and when the time of calamity comes we are as men that put into a Bay in a tempest we think we are safe and before we are aware we are upon a rocke and they finde not a haven and a faire station but matter of woe and lamentation There be certaine helpes in the world saith a Father by which we are more weakned then confirmed that prove as the reed of Egypt And to presse it on then we must not cast our selves upon vaine hopes of another world If in judgements temporall God can disable a mans friends and acquaintance and his owne thoughts perhaps shall not relieve him but he shall have a disturbed conscience what shall he doe when he appeares before the tribunall of God Let him then call to father or mother or friends he shall stand naked before that judgement and whatsoever plea he hath before thought of to subterfuge the judgement they shall be as fig leaves they shall not cure or cover him Therefore get Gods protection by well-doing and get into his favour by a godly life and then though father and friends forsake thee he will take thee up and be a sure protection to his people in the time of adversity So much for that There is a further aggravation of this judgement that is from the newnesse and the strangenesse of it Though I finde in stories that this judgement of frogs was after inflicted upon the world As Pliny tells us of a Towne that was unpeopled in France formerly by frogs And Paulus Orosius saith that the people of the City Abdera were so molested by frogs that they were faine to intreat Cassander the King of Maceden to get them another place to inhabit And Athenius tells us a strange story like this he saith in Onia in Barbania there fell a raine of frogs and filled the high wayes so abundantly that people could not step besides them and for a time they shut their doores that they might be quiet but it would not doe the frogs came into their baking troughs into their meat and drinke and molested and infested every part And not only so but they crawled upon their bodies and were so noxious to them that they determined to leave their Countrie Now I say though afterward God sent his judgement yet for ought I know this judgement of frogs was the first that ever was laid upon the world in that kinde And this added to the terrour of it For to suffer new terrours is a great aggravation of any judgement Isay 64.4 When thou diddest terrible things that wee looked not for then thou camest downe They were terrible things indeed that they never looked for or dreamed of or heard of in former times those terrible things So in Micah 5.15 The Lord saith he will execute judgement upon the heathen in such a manner as was never heard of Dan. 12.1 He speaks of troubles and such as there never was since there was a Nation to that time These strange unheard of judgements uncouth punishments adde much to the terrour of the plague Doe you thinke it was not fearfull to those of the old world to see it raine forty dayes together and not to cease till the very Arke mounted And to those of Sodome to see it raine fire who had ever heard of it before And marke that in Num. 16. when Moses would aggravate the judgement that God meant to send upon Corah saith he If these men dye the common death or if they be visited with the common visitation of all men thinke as you will but if God make a new thing and cause the earth to open and swallow them quicke in the pit then say they have provoked God to some purpose A new strange and not a common visitation and death for that was never heard of before that the earth should cleave and swallow them into hell These judgements that were laid upon Egypt were made patternes for after times I will punish you after the way of Egypt So that it seems that the Egyptians were the first instances of those great calamities God begun with them in this way they were the first So in this case it falls out as in examples of good so in the punishment of evill We say the way to heaven is short by example though it be long by precept The reason is this because when a man is commanded to doe a thing and is told that another doth it before him he is comforted he perswades himselfe it is in his factivity because another hath done it so in the punishment of sinne if it be somewhat that another hath suffered before it is some comfort If it be such a thing that never any suffered that a man can say that truly that Iob spake passionately that God had made him a Butt for such remarkable judgements as never were before This is a great aggravation Now you must know that these strange extraordinary judgements are for foule and extraordinary sinnes for when men will exceed their scantling and transcend in iniquity the Lord will make his plagues wonderfull In Deut. 28. And there are strange punishments to the workers of iniquity Iob 31. Wondrous strange plagues to those that have new sins For the Use of it it may satisfie us to the full for those judgements that God brings upon the world in these last times Wee still say that there are diseases growne among us that we have not heard of before sure I am they put the Physitians past their bookes many times let us not wonder at this for Affrica is not more fertile of monsters then these our times are fruitfull in iniquity I and in new sinnes I dare appeale to your owne observation what new strange oaths have beene minted of later times that our forefathers never heard of the foulest blasphemies against heaven not to be mentioned What new strange wayes of epicurianisme and gluttony how wity is that sinne in this age as if the spirit of Sardanapalus were in men who when he was satiated with all that was in use gave encouragement to any man by a crier to invent new I dare be bold to say that god the belly was never served with such uncouth service as now What strange wayes of drinking that were never heard of in the time of our forefathers the dayes then were more modest and free from that foule abominable corruption What strange unknown fashions in apparrell how