bounds we are taught that they whom God employeth without their knowledge and Privity do only seek their own ends neither is God in all their ways 3. As this passing over signifieth the short joy of their victory so it teacheth that an ungodly man can never be an happy man nor a sinful man a wise man for in short time he will lose that what he hath unjustly gotten for though God intended the taking away of the Iews land from them he intended it but for a time he meant the Jews a sharp chastisement not an eradication I understand those words of a cessation from any further prosecution of this warre against the Jews for he shall carry away some captive into his own land and the meaner sort he shall leave behind to husband Judaea and so shall cease And this doth strengthen our former doctrine that those whom God useth as instruments of his Justice shall at length desist God will not suffer them beyond his decreed time 3. They shall offend Let no man mistake this place as if God did lay upon them a necessity of offence but he doth out of his Prescience foretell that they will offend God as with all their other sinnes so particularly with this their service done to him They are stirred up to this warre by God Doctr. and it is his just will to punish the Iews yet the Chaldaeans that execute this will do offend which was before proved by their evil intention and will after more appear in the close of this text wherein we have charged the action upon God and the evill of the action upon the Chaldaeans Doct. 2 2. God foreknoweth the sins of men He foreknew the fall of Adam and provided a remedy for it in his eternal counsel He foreknew the sins of the old world and provided a judgment to punish them He foreknew the sinnes of his Israel and therefore he made all his promises conditional and referred them to their obedience He foreknew the trespasse of Judas the cruelty of the Iews the injustice of the Romanes against his sonne and he made his death medicinal and cordial for his Church and a ruine to the enemies thereof the same stone which was the corner stone of the Church was a rock of offence to her enemies This is the ground of Gods Justice against the Chaldaeans in the next section of this chapter for fore-seeing how they would offend He did also fore-decree how he would punish them He is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a seer for all things are manifest in his sight the eye of the Lord is over all the world he seeth both the good and the bad God foreseeth offences before they be come into the hearts of men as Christ knew Judas would be a â—raitour before Judas knew it himself 2 Reg. 13.8 and God by his Prophet told Hazael how cruel he should be before Hazael was King and when Hazael though such wickednesse could not have bred in him Am I a dog that I should do this great thing And Christ told Peter that he would deny him when Peter protested against it very strongly 1. Because he knoweth the heart in which sinne breedeth and knows how apt it is to conceive sinne He knoweth whereof we be made 2. He foreseeth the temptations wherewith man shall be tempted 3. He knoweth what measure of strength and vertue is gone out from him to man to enable him against these temptations Vse 1. Let no man therfore flatter himself that he can commit any sinne so secretly that the eye of God shall escape it he knoweth our thoughts long before there can no darknesse hide us from this eye but the darknesse is as light as the day to him darknesse and light are both alike And if God foresee offences to come much more doth he remember sins past and observe sins present 2. Let this stirre us up to the feare of the Lord which is a continual putting of us into the presence of God and filleth us with fervent prayers to God to keep us from sinne either from the desire of it or from the committing of it or from the punishment of it by giving us strength to resist sinne tempting us or at least to hate the evil which we do against the law of our mind transported by the law of our members or to give us the grace of repentance that we may turn to him and break off our sins by righteousnesse and godly life This is that petition in our Lords Prayer Lead us not into temptation Which petition followeth that former forgive us our trespasses for whom God pardoneth them Satan tempteth most both because he despighteth God and because relapse into sins once pardoned is a double danger And he prayeth God not to lead him into the temptation because we must not only remember with grief the sins we have committed but we must consider with feare what sins our infirmities may fall into Into which God leadeth us by withdrawing his grace from us or from which he keepeth and preserveth us by his assisting grace The foresight of God is in respect of himself and his own perfect knowledge infallible and certain that will come to passe which he foreseeth and this is his wisedome though man have a free will to do evil yet he knoweth how far this his free will shall mislead him And for that cause he hath set such a guard of Angels about the just to keep them in all their ways that they fall not to take them up again when they fall and he hath given his word and lanthorn to their feet to guide and direct their paths Yet we may say that this foresight of God may be in respect of the means conditional and so God may foresee such an event upon some secret condition which yet by means may be prevented and not succeed A great example hereof in Davids story He heareth that the Philistims do rob Keilah David goeth against the Philistims 1 Sam. 23. and overcometh and saveth the men of Keilah Saul hearing of it armes his forces to surprize Keilah secretly David asketh of God Vers 12. Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul The Lord said They will deliver thee up Here God foresaw a sinne in the men of Keilah which was never committed but Saul had sent and God knew the corruption of the heart of those men and gave warning Here his foresight in respect of himself was certain which was that David should take this warning to escape But in respect of the successe it was conditional because it hath reference to the means of evasion So God foresaw the death of Ezechiah by his conditional will deferred but by his revealed will present and his revealed will doth not always make necessity of event but sometimes it is a warning to escape it Thus God foreseeth the spawning of sinne in mans life in the seed or root thereof which is
of the Jews shall be resetled there before the end of the world as it was after the return from the captivity of Babylon so that though there have been interruption of possession for so many years there shall be no impeachment of title but their right doth run on till the time appointed for the restoring of them Concerning the calling of the Jews and the restoring of them to the Church St. Paul hath prophecyed so plainly Rom. 11. as there can be no doubt thereof But for the restoring of them to the land of promise we have no good ground in holy Scripture 1 Because they have forfeited their estate therein which they held with condition of obedience When thou shalt beget children Deut 4.25 and childrens children in the land and shalt have remained long in the land and shall corrupt your selves and make a graven image or the likenes of any thing and shall do evill in the sight of the Lord thy God to provoke him to anger I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from of the Land whereunto you goe over Jordan to possesse it ye shall not prolong your dayes upon it but shall utterly be destroyed And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations This is not without hope for as by sin they lost their inheritance there so by repentance it was recoverable When thou art in tribulation Verse 3. and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and be obedient to his voyce He will not forsake thee nor destroy thee nor forget the Covenant with thy Fathers This proves their tenure conditional and their restitution to this land after their return froÌ„ captivity was also upon the same condition of obedience as appeareth in the words of Christ How often would I have gathered thy children together Moâ—h 23.37 38 39. even as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold the house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you you shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. That place is plain that the habitation of Jerusalem that is Domus vestra and the temple of which our God said Domus mea now become by abuse Domus vestra shall be desolate till the second comming of Christ 2 The Prophesies do speak plain Thus saith the Lord of hoasts Jer. 19.11 even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh a potters vessell that cannot be made whole again My conclusion therefore is that Though the argument drawn from the free gift of that land to the people measuring out the same to the tribes do serve to comfort their captivity in Babylon with hope of restitution yet now in these times and ever since the dispersion of the Jews for the cause of Christ this can minister no comfort at all to that nation to promise them their land again I come to matter of instruction 1 These words aime not at the generall scope of this Section in which is declared that The remembrance of Gods former mercies is a sweet consolation of present afflictions 2 Because he nameth the measuring out of the land of Canaan to the tribes the driving in sunder the nations the scattering of the mountains the bowing of the hils 1 Docemur We are taught The best form of thanksgiving is that which maketh perticular commemoration of the mercies of God to his Church or to any member of it 2 That the matter of thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of all benefits as received from the hand and free gift of God 3 From the phrase and manner of speech here used we are taught that figurative forms of speech are in use in holy Scripture In thanksgiving 1 Doct. let us be perticular in our commemoration we have Davids example for it Prayse the Lord Psal 103.2 O my soul and forget not all his benefits so he stirreth up himself to remember them to remember them all The two Psalmes 105.106 are full examples of this perticular thankfulnesse and they are good guides to such as would learn it This is necessary Reas 1 1 Because the more perticularly we recompt the favours of God to us the more we discerne Gods love to us as in the example of this people Deut. 4. Moses saith That God had done much for this people never so much for any read from Verse 32. ad finem 38. And all those favours grew out of one root Because he loved thy Fathers It is the Apostles note Ecce quantam charitatem behold how great love Sic Deus dilexit mundum God so loved the world 2 Seeing Gods temporall favours are not always bestowed in love but are made rods to whip the ungodly Reas 2 this is a certain rule that these favours of God are evermore tokens of his love to such as are thankfull for them and to none else 3 They that keep an inventorie of their receipts Reas 3 and are always reckoning and reporting the bounty of God to them shall finde that their receipts of favours have been more and greater then their issues of prayers For how many great blessings have we from God that we never prayed for so that God giveth us much more cause of thanksgiving and prayse of his name then of prayer and supplication 4 Thanksgiving is a work of justice as David Reas 4 it well becommeth the just to be thankfull and again give to the Lord the glory due to his name that is for every perticular benefit perticular prayse and thanks Thanksgiving doth put us in mind of our unablenesse to requite God Reas 5 we cannot make him amends for his favours done to us we shall finde that our wel-doing extendeth not to him we must therefore do good to all propter Dominum for the Lord. 6 Thanksgiving doth put us in mind of our unworthinesse Reas 6 as Mephibosheth to David What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a de ad dog as I am Jacob Non sum dignus I am not worthy David himself What is man 2 Sam. 9.8 that thou art so mindfull of him 7 If we will forget God will remember us as to David Reas 7 I anointed thee King over Israel I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into his bosome Domus Israel Domus Judae Surely Vse we have not well taken out the lesson of thanksgiving to God for to shuffle it up with generall God be thanked for all comes if but coldly and is a poor rependam for all the benefits bestowed upon us St. Augustine upon those words of David And forget not all his benefits saith pro quibus bonis primo quia es cum non esses sedest lapis deinde quia vivis sed vivit pecus
the Prophet will give God no rest till he heare and answer for the Prayer of the just if it be fervent prevaileth with God zeale is an holy fire the flame of it ascendeth to heaven and penetrateth all the passages till it come to God Cold and perfunctory devotions intermitted and given over do not prevaile with God they please him best that use most violence for the kingdome of heaven suffereth violence 3. Vnto thee he directeth his prayers aright for Baals Priests may cry from morning to night may cut and lance their flesh and make many signes of zeale and earnest importunity without successe because their God heareth not his eyes see not his ears hear not his hands handle not there is no breath in his mouth to give them answer But the cry of the Prophet went up to God who beholdeth ungodlinesse and wrong that he may take the matter into his own hand Thus farre we have seen what the Apostle did 1. He cried 2. He cryed loud 3. To God 2. What cause had he to cry For violence this is fully and largely exprest in the second part of his contestation with God ver 3 4. I therefore only observe here two things 1. That he complained not without great provocation for violence was Gods own complaint and quarrel against the old world The earth is full of violence Gen. 6.13 and behold I will destroy them with the earth It was Gods quarrel against Edom for thy violence against thy brother Iacob shame shall cover thee Obad. 10. and thou shalt be cut off for ever 2. We consider where this violence was not of Esau against Iacob but of Iacob against Iacob as Isaiah describeth it Every man eating the flesh of his own arme Manasseh Ephraim and Ephraim Manasseh Isa 9. ult and both of them against Judah Civil and Domestick warres in the bosome of the Church grievances and vexations one of another these differences it is likely that the Prophets had laboured to compound and used all meanes to settle Peace there but it appeareth that they prevailed not therefore he complaineth 3. With what Successe 1. Thou wilt not hear the Cry of the Prophet was to awaken the Iustice of God to chasten his People for this violence for so desperate was the disease of the Church that they needed the sharpest Physick to heal it even the rod of God to correct them Yet God is so slow to wrath and so long-suffering that he would not hearken to the voice of his Prophets as yet to pull his hand out of his bosome though they said with David It is time for thee Lord to put to thine hand 2. Thou wilt not save 1. Thou wilt not succour them that suffer violence against the hand of their oppressours as his not hearing is to be imputed to his mercy and patience so his not saving is to be imputed either to his wisedome putting his children to the trial of their faith by afflictions or to his Justice making one of them who have corrupted their wayes a rod to scourge the other neither of them being as yet worth the saving till he had humbled them The text thus cleared the doctrines which grow upon this stemme and first branch of the Prophets contestation are these 1. That the weapons wherewith the holy servants of God do fight against sinne are their Prayers to God 2. That one necessary ingredient in our Prayers is earnestnesse and importunity 3. That the zeal of Gods glory and the love of Peace cannot dispense with tumule and combustion in the Church of God 4. That God sometimes suspendeth the desired successe of the earnest Prayers of his most faithful servants when they do pray according to his will and doth not heare them by and by Of the first of these first 1. Doctr. The weapons wherewith the holy servants of God do fight against sin is their Prayers I find that this People to whom God had sent his Prophets rising early and sending them were grown incorrigible and therefore even the Prophets that loved them and wished them well having no other way to reform them were now put to it to pray against their violence to God They that had wont to stand in the gap to turn away ingruent judgements do take such offence at their ungodlinesse that they are put to it to pray to God against them Thus Ioseph carried the evil report of his brethren to his father and made them to be shent wherein he did a brotherly office to seek their Reformation The spleen of Habakkuk is not against the Persons of his brethren they are not so much as named here he cryeth out of violence And so Saint Paul saith The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse of men David did thus in a case of violence Psal 109.3 4. They compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without cause For my love they are mine adversaries but I give my selfe unto Prayer Ego oro Quaere How doth it stand with the rules of charity to complain to God of our brethren and to stirre up his indignation against them Sol. I confesse that this asketh an especial tendernesse in the servants of God for to begin here without using other means to reclaim our offending brother may shake the walles of our charity and may accuse us of want of love therefore all those ways of charity must be first tried as to admonish privately or not speeding so joyn another with thy self in the private chiding of his sinne after failing to communicate the matter to the Church If all these supports which we do owe to our brother will not keep him up then let him be as an heathen and then is Davids Prayer in season Let the heathen know that they are but men But in my text here was the body of the Church diseased the members parts of the body in armes one against another only some few of Gods holy servants lived with grief in their righteous souls to behold the ungodly conversation of men nefariously wicked and carelesse of religion therfore what other way was left them but that of David I will yet pray against their wickednesse take away their ungodlinesse and thou shalt find none The Prophets and Seers of former times have had speciall Revelations of the Will of God concerning the ungodly of the earth whereby they might as boldly use imprecation as deprecation or supplication We that come short of their measure of the spirit must not dare to go to the farthest extent of their liberty in Prayer to pray against our brethren only thus farre we may with Habakkuk cry out unto God and make our moan to him for violence 1. Committing our cause and the care of our safety unto him as to a faithful Creator and so the care and safety of our brethren 2. Desiring God to bring to an end the wickednesse of the ungodly and
read and they returned saying Never man spake like that man If they that run from the word may be taken thus with a glance upon it you may soone conceive what effect it may work in those that run to it that are swift to hear that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse If they that hear or read the word immediately aliud agentes may perceive the mind of the Lord by the plain opening thereof much more they that come of purpose and run to it that come with appetite and desire after it with delight in it with purpose to profit by it and with due Preparation of the heart by earnest Prayer for the holy blessing of God upon the Ministry and hearing of it therefore quid Scriptum est quomodo legis what is written how readest thou 2. The assurance that he gives of the performance of his purpose in due time The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie Next verse It will surely come it will not tarry This is Rhetorically set down For 1. Here is veritas decreti the truth of the decree The Vision is yet for an appointed time 2. Here is veritas verbi the truth of the word it shall speak it shall not lye 3. Here is veritas facti the truth of the deed It will surely come it will not tarry 1. Decretum the Decree The Vision is here put for the thing seen as you have heard and that is the declaration of Gods just judgment in the cause of his Church against the Chaldaeans for he saith the time is appointed meaning in his own holy and fixt decree which is unchangeable 2. Verbum the Word God will speak his minde by this Vision and declare what he intendeth against the Chaldeans and therein he will deal truely and faithfully for he is truth he cannot lye For these be two Premises or Antecedents to one conclusion for we may conclude both wayes 1. The Decree of God is past Ergo veniet non tardabit he shall come he will not tarrie 2. The Word of God is past Ergo. From thence we are taught Doctr. That whatsoever God hath decreed or spoken shall certainly take effect in the appointed time The holy word of Scripture confirmeth this Indeed who should alter Gods decrees for he himself will not I may say truly he cannot change them for the Apostle saith he worketh all things after the councell of his will Eph. 1.11 And the Will of God is himself And he cannot deny him self 2 Tim. 2.13 Neither can he repent as Samuel told Saul The strength of Israel will not lye nor repent 1 Sam. 15.29 for he is not a man that he should repent And if God himself be without variablenesse and shadow of change his Will being established by his counsell and wisdom we may be sure that there is no power beneath him that can swerve him from his own ways for the wiseman saith There is no wisdom nor understanding Pro. 21.30 nor counsell against the LORD One reason may serve of this Doctrine God is equall infinite in his wisdom justice and mercie to conceive him infinite in power to do whatsoever he will and not infinite in wisdom to decree whatsoever he will do were to make him a Tyrant not a King but David saith The Lord is King and we do ascribe it to him Tuum est regnum potentia thine is the Kingdom and power for power without equall proportion of wisdom must needs degenerate into cruelty This wisdom foreseeth all things that shall be this wisdom decreeth all things that he will do which his power after in the times appointed doth performe and bring to act Against this Doctrine is Objected Object 1. Why then do so many texts of Scripture tell us that God repenteth Sometimes he repenteth of the good that he hath done for to make man upon the earth was a good work yet it is said And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth Gen. 6 6. and it greived him at his heart So to make Saul King over Israel was a good work for it was his own choise yet himself saith It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 Sometime God is said to repent of the evil that he hath done malum poenae the evil of punishment is there to be understood So after the great plague when David had made a fault in numbring the people When the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil 2 Sam. 24.16 and said to the Angel It is enough stay thy hand And concerning his Word we have frequent examples in Scripture of events contrary to the letter of his Word For example His word was to Hezekiah by Isaiah set thy house in order for thou shalt dye non vives Yet Hezekiah did live 15 years after that his word was to Nineveh by Jonah 40 days and Niniveh shall be destroyed yet yet it fel not out so and the story saith God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to them Joh. 3.10 To all we answer Sol. 1. That the Will of God that is his counsell decreeing what he will do is constantly the same and unchangeable as we have taught 2. Where it is in Scripture charged upon God that he doth repent we say with Chrysost it is verbum parvitati nostrae accommodatum a word accommodated to our weaknesse Hom. 22. in Gen. For we are said to repent when we change our mindes now the God of wisdom and power never changeth his minde but sometimes he doth change his operations there is not mutatio mentis but mutatio dextrae Exclesi as St. Aug. Paenitudo dei est mutandorum immutabilis ratio by which he without changing of his own decree maketh alterations in the disposition of things mutable This for want of understanding in us to comprehend the ways of God is called repentance and greif in God but as Aug. saith Non est perturbatio sed judicium quo irrogatur poena as Saint Paul I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh 3. I approve that received distinction of the Will of God 1. Voluntas signi of the Signe 2. Voluntas beneplaciti of his good Pleasure 1. God doth reveal his ways to the sons of men and sheweth them what he would have them do and openeth to them the knowledge and tendereth to them the use of fit means to performe that which he would have them and so it is said he would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of his Truth According to this revealed Will of God he doth offer mercy to all and he doth withall threaten judgment to such as forsake their own mercy as Jonah saith And when he seeth cause to call in either his mercy from them
me out of his belly shall flow rivers of the water of life John 7.38 These be sure proofs of sincere faith which though it be weak yet it will gather strength and being able to fight will in the end be made able to overcome all our enemies 3. How faith may be preserved This seemeth a needlesse question because we have cleare evidence of Scripture that sincere faith cannot be lost True it cannot finally be lost it is assured to God but we must preserve it so as that in temptations and afflictions we may not be cast down with fear that it is lost Neither that we do bear our selves too bold upon it so farre as to presume Therefore we are bound to the use of all those means ordained by God to preserve faith If it be an hypocritical or a temporary Faith it may be lost if it be a true Faith this is one certain sign of it The same means that breede Faith in us the same means do nourish it therefore If thou standest by Faith be not high minded but fear It is a Tenet of the Church of Rome Rom. 11.20 and it is now revived of late by the Anabaptists in a book of the last yeer that a man may finally fall away from saving grace And many false shewes are made out of Scriptures not rightly understood to maintain this heresie I say no more but as the Apostle doth Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall He that is once assured of his standing 1 Cor. 10.11 cannot fall because the same Spirit which witnesseth to our spirits that we are the sonnes of God doth also teach us all things and bring all things to our remembrance which Christ hath taught us The means are The Word the Sacraments Prayer 1. The Word for as we are born anew by the immortal seed of the Word so we must as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby 2. The Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper for these also serve to strengthen Faith 1. By visible representations to the sense of the inward graces of Gods spirit that walking here by Faith and not by sight we may have something to fasten our eye upon which may be to us as the brazen serpent lifted up 2. By the vertue of consignation because these Sacraments are the Seals of Gods Covenant of grace obliging God the giver to continue his love to us and reciprocally binding us to return duty and love and obedience to him 3. By the efficacy of mediation because they be the means in the Ordinance of God whereby he doth convey his spiritual graces to us so that Baptism is called the cover of regeneration and by Baptism Christ is put on The Supper of Christ presenteth Christ to us our spiritual food and therein we do eat and drink his body and blood This admonisheth us to be swift to hear and to neglect no opportunity for the same To renew our Baptism by often repentance to frequent the Table of the Lord as the feast of our souls This advanceth our ministry of these by which this Serpent is lifted up on high and set on a pole for all that desire health to look upon it They that are carelesse and negligent in these things will soon make shipwrack of that temporary faith that they seem to have for they that live in the neglect of these things do forsake their own mercy and declare plainly that their Faith is not sound and sincere but their whole righteousnesse is like the morning dew soon dried up 3. Prayer 1. for that shewes of whom we hold not of our selves but of God 2. That bringeth us into Gods acquaintance and familiar conversation whereby we do more perceive Gods love to us and declare our love to God 4. How Faith must be used The handling of this point draweth in the third word of my text which is life The just shall live by Faith The right use of Faith is to live by it as I have shewed in the exposition of the words 1. There is use of it in the natural life 2. In the spiritual life 3. For the eternal life 1. In the natural life for 1. In prosperity 2. In adversity there is use of it 1. In prosperity 1. Faith is a shield to bear off all the flattering temptations of the flesh Heb. 11.24 the world the Devil so it is said of Moses By Faith Moses when he was come to yeers refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter And by Faith Joseph when he was tempted by his unchaste mistris whose offer tendered him all sensual delight refused her and would not sin against God 2. Faith is the contentment of the righteous in those things that they possesse they beleeve them to be the gifts of God and they are satisfied with his allowance so by Faith Daniel was content with his pulse and refused the Kings meat they that do beleeve that God knows better then they what is good and sufficient for them are content with what they have 3. Faith is the acknowledgment of all our good from God for thanksgiving is a work of Faith and giveth God his due 4. Faith dependeth upon God for the time to come Psal 16.5 as David saith thou maintainest my lot I have set the Lord alwayes before me Psal 16.8 he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Upon which ground the faithful do build things hoped for and commit their wayes to the Lord. They cast all their care upon God for he careth for them And surely it is for want of Faith that the filii saeculi hujus the men of this world do rise so early and go so late to bed and eate the bread of carefulnesse robbing God of his service and breaking the Sabbath and often doing wrong to their brother to build up themselves it is a signe that they dare not trust God A strange inference 1. For we beought nothing with us into the world 2. We cannot deny but that whatsoever we have or possesse in the world it is the gift of God for aperiente manum de implet omnia we have no interest in any thing being born in sin the right is in him the gift from him 3. We must confesse that very little will serve our necessities whilest we do live in the world 4. We shall carry nothing away with us and why should we discruciate our selves with cares for others seeing that is the care of God our children also are his inheritance I know and beleeve that our children are under the Covehant and Promise of grace Ero Deus tuus seminis tui Let us study to breed them to the love and service of God let us not waste unthriftly what we may spare from our own necessities and for the charge of their education Let us use all honest and lawfull means to provide for them Thus are we discharged
my People have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters Jer. 2.13 and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water Again this Take heed least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Heb. 3.12 The heart that distrusteth in God departeth from him therefore he saith it is a People that do erre in their hearts because they have not known my ways The corruption then is in the heart for if that did love truly it would trust God wholly for where we love faithfully we trust boldly But the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not 2 Cor. 4.4 That answereth his question Who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth Infidelity is the root of all evils in us for we cannot fear any threatning where we do not believe any danger We cannot hope for any benefit where we do not believe any promise for infidelity doth take away all wise do me from us This makes us to withdraw our selves from the Lord and it is a note of the wicked man neither is God in all his wayes Thus saith the Lord Jer. 17.5 Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arme and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert Vers 6. and shall not see when good cometh but shall inhabit the parched places in the wildernesse in a salt land and not inhabited Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord Vers 7. and whose hope the Lord is For he shall be a tree planted by the waters Vers 8. and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh but her leafe shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought neither shall cease from yeilding fruit I need not say more of this Argument Here is reason enough given why you should commit your way to the Lord why you should cast your care upon him why you should not leave him to trust to your selves David saith He made us and not we our selves he saw us imperfect in the wombe he fashioned us Thy hands have made me and fashioned me he took me from the Wombe He addeth Vpon thee have I depended ever since I hung upon the breasts of my mother When we are hungry he giveth bread that strengthneth mans heart When we had not wit and understanding to shift for our selves who fed and cloathed and preserved us then surely his hand is not shortned but his arme is stretched out still Suppose that without him we could get bread Man liveth not by bread only Suppose that without him we could sowe much seed It is only he that giveth increase Let us observe the examples of Gods judgments upon such as forsake God and trust their money or their friends or corrupt means to preserve them One day telleth another The Chaldaeans trust not in God their own net is their god their own yarn is their idol they kisse their own hands But fear yee the Lord all his Saints and trust in him for he never faileth them that trust in him I have blamed some for buying and selling on the Sabbah They have answered that they are poor and are forced to it to help to feed them Is not this infidelity they dare not trust God for their meat they dare trust to their own ways against the precise Commandment of God Unlawful recreations on the Sabbath are so defended poor labouring men that work all the six days must have some time to refresh themselves But I would fain know by what indulgence they may dispense with the law of the Sabbath God hath bidden thee to remember to keep the whole day holy if thy recreations be holy thou keepest the law if unholy thou breakest it When some are detected of fraud and theft their plea is their necessity Here is a root of infidelity for doth God lay a necessity upon any man to break his law He hath laid on thee a necessity of labour if that will not do he hath given the rich charge of thee The truth is that this root of infidelity doth yet remain in the hearts of most of us and is the cause of all the sins that are committed For the light of the Gospel doth shine much more clear now then ever it did in this land and the knowledge of the truth is more spred then ever before here Yet never was there greater corruption of manners nor more cunning shifts devised for the advancing of mens particulars The crying sins of the Jews Injuries done between man and man Corruption and contempt of Religion Corruption of Justice To all these our land doth plead guilty Where 's the fault Have you not heard have you not been taught the ways of the Lord have you not been admonish't of your duty have you not been chidden and threatned for these things hath not the seal of Gods judgments written within and without with lamentations mourning and wo been opened and read to you Hath not God rained examples thick of his justice and judgment against high and low for these things why then is not this amended There is a root of infidelity we do not we dare not trust God and from hence comes 1. In some Atheisme they live without God in the world 2. In others Epicurisme they live all to delight 3. In others temporizing and following and serving men 4. In others heresie embracing their own opinions 5. In others Apostacy from religion and faith 6. In others hypocrisie seeming what they are not 7. In most carnal security not caring for threatnings 8. In many wilful ignorance not caring for the knowledge of God But thou man and woman of God fly these things know the Lord the more thou knowest him the more thou lovest him the more thou servest him the more thou trustest him and the more he blesseth thee 2. Ambition that he may set his nest on high Ambition is a limbe of pride and it is well set forth in my text it is a building of a nest on high it is but a nest that the ambitious man doth set up but he would have it high to overlook all yet that doth not make it safe for there be clouds that can carry fire from below to consume it and there is lightning from above to inflame it and there is tempests and strong winds to shake it And the axe is laid to the root of the tree in which the nest is built and with the fall of that tree the nest comes to the ground The highest tree for a subject to build his nest in is the favour of the Prince yet David saith Trust not in Princes for there is no help in them their breath departeth they return to the earth and their thoughts perish It may be that he that fitteth next in the
day and night and thou shalt have none assurance of thy life In the morning thou shalt say would God it were even and at even thou shalt say would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart which thou shalt fear and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see Here is unquietnesse even upon the bed of rest the reason is given Isa 28.20 For the bed is shorter then a man can stretch himself on it and the Covering narrower then he can wrap himself in it For there is no Peace to the wicked man It is one of Satans suggestions that the way of righteousnesse is painful and denieth a man the content of his heart And from hence arise these flattering temptations Shall I labour and travel all my days to sustain my life with mine own pains when a little violence will strip my neighbour out of all that he hath gotten together and make it mine own Shall I make conscience of an oath or a lye when it may get me more wealth in an houre then my labour shall earne in a year Shall I work my self when I may make prize of the labours of other men and drink down merrily the sweat of others brows Shall I sit low and be despised in the world when I may lay my neighbours on heaps under me and raise up my self upon their ruines Shall I undergo the charge of a family and the care of posterity when rich gifts and fair words may subdue change of beauties to my welcome desires and lusts of the flesh Shall I expect a slow and lingring advancement by the worth of vertue in the service of God when I see the servants of Mammon carry all honours and preferments before them Shall I be humble when I see the proud happy Mal. 3.15 shall I live a godly life when they that work wickednesse are built Let us here observe how these wicked ones do work to compasse their ends they labour in the very fire the fire of hell The Way of Peace they have not known 2. The next point casteth up the account of their gettings and it is anoughts a meer Cypher in Arithmetick Vanity very Vanity Is it riches then is it a thing corruptible it is a thing uncertain and little of it is for use and what profit hath the Possessor thereof in the surplusage but the beholding thereof with his eye When a man considers his wealth gotten by oppression and injury how can he but think it may be so lost as it was gotten Is it the favour of Princes and great men True they be gods upon earth but they die like men at last and they change their minds often before they die One day Haman rides about in Pompe he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mordecay waiteth at the lane gate another day Mordecay is set upon the Kings beast and Haman leadeth the horse and proclaimeth him honourable and the next day Haman is hanged and Mordecai rules all under the King Is it honour that thou labourest for that also is vanity Honour is in honorante as Aristotle saith it is very unhappy for a man to have his honour without himself his pride within him and his happinesse without him Wise Salomon that had all temporal felicitie in the fullest measure and all of the gift of God yet called all those things Vanity of Vanities I will shut up this point in the words of David Doubtlesse man walketh in a shadow and disquieteth himself in vain Ps 39.6 3. Is it not of the Lord Many crosse betydings befall the ungodly and they never observe who opposeth them It is the Lord that bringeth all the labours of the ungodly to losse and vanity that when they come to thrash their crop of travel in the world they find nothing but strawe and chaffe To expresse his power to do this he is here called the God of Hosts for all things serve him and he resisteth the proud he and his Hosts He layeth their honours in the dust he disperseth their riches and giveth them to the poor he spoiled them of all their treasures he that exalted them made them low he that gave to them taketh away They had need be made to see this therefore he saith Nonne ecce à Domino hoc is it not of the Lord In the time of the Persecutions under the bloody Emperours if at any time they succeeded not in their wars they cried Christiani ad furcas ad leones Christians to the gallows to the lyons they saw not the hand of God against them this makes Balaam smite his Asse he seeth not Gods Angel In the processe of humane affairs they that go on in these sins which God himself threatneth with woe though they find these sins profitable and to afford them large revenews that they live plentifully upon the wages of unrighteousnesse yet have they many crosses in their ways many great losses they sustain these they impute to second causes and lay great blame upon those whom they do oppresse because they stand not to it whilst oppression grindeth them they observe not the hand of God against them yet saith God Is it not of the Lord of Hosts that they weary themselves for very vanity It is a great matter to know who it is that protecteth his servants that crosseth the designes of their enemies David prayeth for Gods saving help to them and That they may know that this is thy hand Ps 109 27 that thou Lord hast done it For let all offenders in this kind of oppression and indeed in all kinds of bold and presumptuous sins know that they sin with an high hand They are a People that provoke God to anger continually to his face Isa 65.3 if you observe the text well you will find two things in it and they are two great judgments and both of the Lord. 1. Is it not of the Lord of Hostes that the People shall labour in the very fire and shall weary themselves 2. Is it not of the Lord of Hosts that the People shall labour for very vanity For the hand of God is in both for their punishment both in putting them to extreme labour and in turning all their labour into vanity He asketh the question as if he should say Come now and let us reason together to what do you impute it that this People take such pains and prosper so ill do you not perceive that Gods hand is in it and that I the Lord do undo all that they do 1. It is of the Lord that they labour in the fire For God saith Ego creo malum labour and travel is the curse of man the wages of sin In labore vesceris in sudore vultus Here is fire that melteth and dissolveth us into water All the pains that is taken here on earth to do evil is of the Lord. 1. In respect of the strength and wit used therein for in him we live and move he planted
I have waited for thy salvation for thy Jesus 2 This repetition of salvation Doct. 2 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people even for salvation teacheth us That God hath taken upon himself the care of the preservation of his Church Therefore he goeth before them for salvation and he doth never leave them nor forsake them 1 God hath many gratious titles Reas 1 which do assure his love and favour to us He is cal'd Jehovah so we live move have our being in him He is callrd by Job The preserver of men Saint Paul addeth especially of the elect for their salvation is a peculiar grace no common favour And so his right hand both supporteth and guideth us that vve neither stray out of the vvay nor fall in the vvay He is called our Shepherd and so we come to want nothing for he leadeth us both to the green pastures and to the waters of comfort He is called the husband of the Church and Christ preserveth her to him sine macula ruga without spot or wrinckle and Christ teacheth us to call him our father so as a father hath compassion c. The Lord is our King of old he maketh salvation in the middest of the earth All these titles declare him no Non-residont from his charge he is always Incumbent For ipse est qui dat salutem 2 Because the Church committeth it self to him Reas 2 and casteth her care upon him and he never failed them that trust in him Saint Paul I know whom I have trusted Commit thy ways to the Lord and trust in him and hee shall bring it to pass 3 The Church of God giveth him no rest Reas 3 but by continual supplications importuneth his saving protection saying O Lord I pray thee save now O Lord I pray thee now give prosperity he hath commanded her so to do To seek to aske to knock and invocation is one of the marks of Gods children He that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved They are called the assembly of Gods armies and their prayers be their weapons Heaven is their abiding City which they besiege and Christ saith the violent take it by force For multorum preces impossibile est contemni 4 Christ himself always prayeth the Father for his Church Reas 4 that God would keep it and he saith to his Father I know that thou hearest me always This comfortable Doctrine serveth to refresh the grieved soul in time of affliction Vse the smart of Gods rod doth many times puts us into fits of impatience and murmuring and the delay of Gods saving help doth often stagger our weak faith that the man after Gods one heart doth sometimes feare that God hath given him over In great losses as of our honours and preferments of our libertie of our wealth of our dear friends it is some time before wee can recover from this shaking fit of feare that God hath forsaken us and we say Why standest thou so far off O Lord and hidest thee in due time Psal 1◠1 in time of affliction But when we remember thou art with me it establisheth our footsteps it strengtheneth our weak knees and comforteth our sorrowfull hearts and biddeth us Rejoyce in the Lord again it saith Rejoyce so David I waited patiently for God and so he comforteth his soul Psal 43.5 Wait on God for I will yet give him thanks for the help of his presence he is my present help and my God So then if present issue appear not out of affliction let us not faint in our troubles but perswade us that God is with us and the rock of our salvation will not fail us 2 This sheweth that we need not seek further for salvation Vse 2 then to God himself and his anointed seeing they are always with us It is a foolish and idle superstition and idolatry to seek our salvation from or by the means of Angels or Saints or the mother of our Lord when we have both him and his anointed Messiah that is both the giver and the mediatour of salvation with us This foolish devotion of the Roman Church of making way by Angels and Saints hath three great defects which all the wit of Rome and hell could never cover or conceal 1 It hath no Commandement to require it 2 It hath no example to lead us to it 3 It hath no promise in Scripture to reward it Whom have I in heaven but thee and I have none upon earth Psal 73.25 that I desire besides thee They be our glorious fellow creatures we honour God for the good that they have done in his Church We believe that they pray for our happy deliverance from all miseries of life and the society of their lives We imitate their holy examples and do strive to follow them in their vertues and pray for the graces of God that sanctified them on earth But for our salvation we know that he is always with us that saveth us and his anointed doth never forsake us that keepeth us from evill We hear him saying Come unto me and he calleth us not to heaven to him but Lo I am with you to the end of the World he is neer unto all that call upon him and he is easily found of them that seek him 3 This doth give us fair warning to take heed that we do not leave our God and live in sin Vse 3 for he is not so neer us but that our selves may separate between him and us for it is also true that God putteth a great deal of difference between an ungodly and godly man as Solomon saith The Lord is far from the wicked Pro. 15.29 but he heareth the prayer of the righteous And as God is far from them so is salvation as David saith Psal 119. Salvation is far from the wicked Verse 155. As we tender the favourable protection and love of God let us take heed of sin Behold Isay 59.1 the Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear But your iniquities have separated between you and your God Verse 2. and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear 4 Seeing our salvation is of him Vse 4 onely by his anointed let us remember that we are called Christians after his name not onely Christum Lo I am with you and Spiritum Christi whom I will send you from the father but we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very anointing it self left and deposited in the Church as S. John saith But ye have an Vnction from the holy one 1 Joh. 2.2 If we keep this Unction we are sure of this salvation therefore grieve not the spirit of God resist not the holy ghost receive not the grace of God in vain And so let the enemy of mankind and his agents do their worst to annoy us our salvation is bound up in the bundle of life with
case of Nineveh God pleaded with Jonah for the infants But God never forsaketh us till we first forsake him not then if there be but animus revertendi he is patient and long suffering but when we come once to two evils To forsake him the Fountain of living waters and to dig to our selves cisterns of our own making then he can no longer forbear when we grow A sinfull nation a people laden with iniquity Isai 1.4 a seed of evill doers children that are corrupters forsaking the Lord provoking the Holy One of Israel to anger going away backward No wonder If he make our Countrey desolate burn our Cities with fire let strangers devour our land in our presence and lay it desolate as overthrown by strangers Where we are guilty to our selves of provocation Vse 1 of the Lord against us we have cause to lay all the blame upon our selves and to say We have gone away from thee and have not hearkned to thy voice therefore art thou displeased with us Seeing the Justice of God doth set him against us we are also to acquite him of any hard measure towards us and to say just art thou O Lord and just are thy judgments But especially this stirreth us up to divert this wrath to come for to that purpose God giveth warning by threatnings not in judgment to punish and torment us before our time with the fear of them and after in their time with the sense of them but to admonish us to fly from the anger to come for Jeremy was sent on this very message to this people and he threatned them from God as Habakkuk here doth yet with this caution of repentance For Jeremie being required by King Zedekiah to enquire of the Lord concerning Nebuchadnezzar King of Babel If the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderfull works that hee will go from us Jer. 21.2 Jeremie through the whole Chapter resolveth him that God is purposed to deliver his people and their Land into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar yet in the next Chapter he bringeth this comfortable message from God to the King Thus Jer. 22.1 saith the Lord go down to the King of Judah and speak there this word And say hear the Word of the Lord O King of Judah that sittest upon the throne of David thou and thy servants and the people that enter in by these gates Thus saith the Lord execute you judgment and righteousnesse and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressour and do no wrong do no violence to the stranger the Fatherlesse nor the Widow neither shedinnocent bloud in this place For if you do this thing indeed then there shall enter in by the gates of this house Kings sitting for David upon his throne riding in Chariots and on horses he and his servants and his people But if ye will not hear these words I swear by my self saith the Lord that this house shall become a desolation c. This declareth that the threatnings of God when he menaceth our sins with judgments are like Jonathans arrows shot rather to give us warning then to hurt us Which admonisheth us that whensoever any fear surprizeth us of wrath to come upon our land either in the corruption of our religion or in the perturbation of our peace or in the fear of falf friends that may kisse and betray or in the dearth and scarcity of the necessaries of life in any in all these fears the change of our ways the repentance of our sins the amendment of our lives will ever make our peace with our God and turn away these threatned and feared evils from us for godlinesse hath the promises both of this life and of that which is to come 2 Let us consider the instruments in this action called his troops The armies of the Chaldaeans Doct. by which Israel is to be punished are the troops of God God owns them as Jeremiah telleth Zedechiah Thus saith the Lord God of Israel Jer. 21.4.5 Behold I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands wherewith ye fight against the King of Babylon and against the Chaldaeans which besiege you without the wals and I will assemble them into the midst of this City And I my self will fight against you with an out-stretched hand and with a strong arm even in anger and in fury and in great wrath So he told them before in this Prophecy I raise up the Chaldaeans a bitter and hasty nation Hab. 1 6. which shall march through the breadth of the land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs From whence we have learnt That God ordereth this war against his people which Doctrine we have at large handled in the Prophecy of Obdiah We learnt also that God punisheth one evill nation by another and those whom he employeth in the correction of his enemies he protecteth and prospereth in their wars and he is very carefull to pay them wages as in the service of Egypt against Tyrus which Nebuchadnezzar did Ezek. 29.20 I have given him the Land of Egypt for the service wherewith he served against it because they wrought for me saith the Lord God For God can make use of wicked men to ferve in his troops for the punishing of such as rebell against him Therefore let no man say the Turk is an enemy to God and to Religion he serveth Mahomet he is an infidell and therefore he shall not prevail against us Let no man say the Pope is a man of Sin and a mainteiner of Idolatry an usurper upon the royall prerogatives of Jesus Christ he advanceth himself above all that is called God and is worshipped hee is an incroacher upon the rights and honours and power of Princes and usurpeth a transcendent jurisdiction over them a mainteiner of treason and murther of Kings a Coiner of Articles of Faith an hider of the Word of God a maker of counter-laws against the Law of God therefore neither he nor his religion shall ever prevail against the Professours of the truth of God For if these sins be found in our land which God conditioned again in Judah that is If just judgment be not executed and righteousnesse practised if the spoiled be not delivered from the hand of the oppressour if wrong be done to the stranger the poor the Fatherlesse and the Widow Turk and Pope Papists and Infidels may be gathered together into the troops of God and employed against us and prevail against us for we are no better then Judah nor deerer to God then his own people And if he please to punish Christendome or the professours of his truth by these if once they become Gods troops they shall prosper and carry all before them 2 The misery in the patient the Land of Israel threatned as you hear in the trees Here are named the chief trees for fruit the fig-tree the vine and the olive Non omnis fert omnia
my salvation 19. The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places To the chief singer upon my stringed Instruments THis is the last part of this Psalme it endeth in consolation notwithstanding all these afflictions of the Church threatned though they shall fall upon it and it must needs suffer this sharp Visitation Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. It is the Apostles counsell Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and here the Church doth so the Apostle resumeth it again I say rejoyce and the Church here resumeth it I will joy in the God of my salvation shewing the reason and ground of her joy Psal 13.5 which is Gods salvation My heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation The Lord God is my strength they are the words of David and he is more full and Rhetoricall in the expressure thereof I will love thee Psal 18.1 2. O Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortresse my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation my high tower David speaks like one in love with God for he doth adorn him with confession of praise and his mouth is filled with the praise of the Lord which he expresseth in this exuberancy and redundance of holy Oratory the Church addeth He will make my feet like hinds feet this also is borrowed of David in the same Psalme He maketh my feet like hinds feet and setteth me upon my high places Psal 18.33 that is he doth give swiftnesse and speed to his Church as St. Augustine interpreteth it transcendendo spinosa ambrosa implicamenta hujus saeculi passing lightly through the thornie and shadie incumberances of this world He will make me walk upon my high places David saith he setteth me upon my high places For consider David as he then was when he composed this Psalm it was at the time when God had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul For then God set his feet on high places setting his Kingdome and establishing him in the place of Saul The Church here hoping to obtein of God the like deliverance by faith apprehendeth the same mercy and favour of God that God will again restore them to their high places and establish them in the same that is in the free and undisturbed possession of their own land and the liberties thereof Isaiah 58.14 Those are called high places Deut. 32.13 because God was exalted in them in the profession of Religion and God exalted them above all other places of the world by his speciall favour as it is said Non fecit taliter St. Augustine goeth higher in the mysticall surveigh of these words and looketh up to the future glory of the Church saying Super Coelestem habitationem figet intentionem meam ut impleat in omnem plenitudinem Dei The last words of the Psalm are a dedication thereof to the use of the Church dedicating it to the chief singer to be fitted to the Church musique that it may be sung in the congregation The words are taken from Davids Psalmes Doct. 1 and applyed to this perticular occasion of the Church From whence we are taught what use we may make of Davids Psalms in our frequent reading and meditation of them Our Church hath divided the Psalms into so many equall portions for our reading that in every thirty days such as can read may read over the whole book of Davids Psalmes and it is no great task for every one of us so to read them over privately in our houses the benefit is great that will redound to them that shall do this for this will our experience finde that St. Augustine long ago hath testified of the book of Psalms that it is Communis quidam bonae doctrinae thesaurus a common store-house of good learning it will instruct the ignorant it will draw on forward those that are incipients it will perfect those that are proficients it will comfort all sorts of afflictions veteribus animarum vulneribus novit mederi recentibus remedium applicare it knows how c. He that would pray to God may make choice here of fit forms dictated by the Spirit of God to petition God upon all occasions whatsoever he would desire of God either to give him or to forgive him He that would make confession of his sins to God is here furnished accommodated with the manner of searching and ripping up of the conscience and laying the hid man of the heart open before God He that would make confession of praise hath his mouth filled with forms of praise to set forth the goodness of God either in perticular to himself or in general to the whole Church He that is merry and rejoyceth in the Lord may finde here the musique of true joy and may from hence gather both matter and manner of Jubilation you see that the Church in my text resorteth to this store house of comfort He that findeth himself dul and heavy in the duties of Gods service may here finde cheerfull strains of musique to quicken his dead affections and to put life into them Many are too well conceited of their own sufficiency for those holy services of God so that in confession of sins in prayer or in praysing God they over-ween their own measure of the spirit of God and are too much wedded to their own forms of addresse to God But let no man despise these helps the best of us all need them the most able amongst us shal abate nothing from his own sufficiency to borrow of them we are sure that the Holy Ghost hath indited them and if a wise judgment do make choice and fit application of them to our severall purposes and occasions we cannot more holily or more effectually expresse our selves then in them the sweet singer of Israel hath furnished us plentifully by them 2 Before I come to handle the text in the parts thereof let me return your thoughts to the former verse where the Church putteth her own case in great affliction supposing the good land flowing with milk and hony touched and accursed for their sakes so that neither their best fruit trees nor their common fields nor their fruits nor their flocks and herds shal yield encrease yet saith she Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Teaching us that where there is the true joy of the Holy Ghost no temporall affliction whatsoever Doct. 2 though it extend even to deprivation of the necessaries of life can either extinguish or so much as eclipse that joy but that as a light it will shine in darknesse The Book of God is thick sown with examples and promises with doctrine and use with assertions and experience of this truth and it is so sealed to the perpetuall consolation of the
stormy winde and the tempest as David saith the flood of many waters shall not come neare them This faith he builds upon a good foundation For 1. From the eternity of God he may conclude that the love wherewith he loveth his Church is an eternal love and therfore not to be subject to the power of time 2. From the holinesse of God he may conclude that all the faithful Jews being an holy seed shall have his favour Against this it may be objected that God hath revealed himself to the contrary for he hath before threatned to raise up the Chaldaeans a fierce and terrible nation that shall go through the bredth of the land and shall run like an Eagle and an evening wolfe only for prey What hope then can there be against these The Prophet answereth that objection Thou hast ordained them for judgement and mighty God thou hast established them for correction That is God by his might hath armed them against the Jews to execute his judgement on them and for castigation and correction of them Vers 13. not for eradication He proceedeth then to expostulate and dispute with God concerning this judgement to be executed upon the Jews by the Chaldaeans Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity This is a further Confession of the holinesse of God to whom he attributeth pure eyes such as cannot behold evil and look upon iniquity because that holinesse cannot approve ill and that justice cannot wink at it and leave it unpunished Otherwise videre malum non est malum to see evil is not evil Gods general view of all things doth set his eye upon the good and evil So the Sun shineth upon the just and the unjust but God is a God that loveth not iniquity neither shall evil dwel with him he abhorreth all them that work wickednesse David saith His soule abhorreth them So that the Prophet here acquitteth God from any hand in the evil of these Chaldaeans although he stirreth them up against the Jews he is wise to use them as instruments of correction but he is too pure and holy to be Partaker in their sins From hence groweth the Expostulation following Seeing thou art so pure and holy that thou abhorrest evil and hatest all the workers of iniquity Why dost thou look upon them that deale treacherously Why dost thou O holy and just God look on whilst the Chadaean betrayeth thy People Mr. Calvin reads Transgressores Montanus Praevaricatores Jun. Perfidos whom the Kings Bible followeth This the Prophet Isaiah calleth a grievous vision The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously Isa 21.2 and the spoiler spoileth For the Chaldaean did invade the Jew both cunningly by treason and violently by force He urgeth God further Why holdest thou thy tongue when the wicked man that is the Chaldaean an idolater and a bloody man devoureth the man that is more righteous then he that is devoureth the Jew who as bad as he is is a better man and more righteous then the Chaldaean He wondreth at the softnesse and forbearance of God that can see and be silent to behold so much iniquity He proceedeth in his complaint Vers 14. Thou makest man as the fishes in the sea where the great ones do prey upon the small ones and as the creeping things that have no ruler over them and therefore feed upon one another who have no law to awe them but quo quis est valentior eo violentior so the Jews are to the Chaldaeans a prey But the words following do shew another thing intended not a reference of these creatures one to another but all of them to the fisherman so the sense is thou seemest to esteem the Jew no more then thou dost the fishes on the sea or the creeping things on the earth For it followeth They take up all of them with the angle Vers 15. they catch them in their net and gather them in their dragge The Chaldaeans are the Fishermen the Jews the fishes and for these they have 1 The Angle whereby is meant their fishing for a single Person 2. Their net let fall to catch more 3. Their dragge for whole sholes of fish so that here is no evasion he that escapeth the angle shall fall into the net or if he escape the net the drag shall sweep him away and bring him to the shore So that he reby all way of evasion seemeth stopped against the Jew he is put into the hand and power of the Chaldaean as a draught of fish into the hand of the Fisherman And all this while the Fisherman thinketh he doth no man wrong as the Poet saith Nec patitur Tyrrhenum crescere piscem For the fish of the sea is esteemed his that can catch him so shall the Chaldaean fish Judâ—a as if the Jews were fishes not men and as if there were no Providence to take care of them no owner to call them his Therefore they rejoyce and are glad There is no compassion in them of chaldaea toward the Jew but as the Fisherman rejoyceth in his draught of fishes and never looketh upon them with any pity of their lives but is glad that he hath gotten them So shall the Chaldaean be glad when the Jews are in his net that he may carry them into captivity This victory doth not only make the Chaldaean glad but he is proud too and boasteth in his own strength and attributeth his prevailings to his own power as it followeth Therefore they sacrifice unto their net Vers 16. and burn incense unto their dragge that is they do thank their own arme and armies for their victories and as Iob saith They kisse their own hands because thereby they come to have a fat portion and plenty of meat so that they give no glory to God yea before the Prophet saith from the mouth of God that they would ascribe the prosperity of their warres to their god i.e. to their idol now they will grow so proud that they will thank their own wit and power for all The Prophet concludeth with a passionate expostulation Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the Nations Vers 17. Seeing they are a People so lawlesse so mercilesse so proud O Lord wilt thou give way to them still and shall they possesse all that they catch which he calleth emptying of their net and shall they not spare continually to slay the nations Shall they passe thus from nation to nation and shall they still conquer is all fish that comes into their net De verborum interpretatione bactenus In the further handling of this section I observe as in the former two things 1. The summe and contents of the whole section 2. The parts thereof 1. The summe hereof is this whereas the Prophet at first beholding the sins of the Jews was moved with an holy indignation against them and with zeal of Gods glory which turned him into a chiding
expostulation with God for bearing so much with them and therefore did stirre up God to judgement to chasten them in the first section of this chapter Now that God hath answered him in the second with declaration of his purpose to punish the iniquities of the Jews by the Chaldaeans whom God would stirre up to fight against them and to prevail Now in this third section the Prophet is as much troubled and grieved at their punishment as he was before at their sin Now he chides as fast and disputes as hotly against the remissenesse and patience of God toward the Chaldaean as he did before toward the Jew Before he pleaded the cause of the glory of Gods Iustice in punishing the iniquity of the Iews now he pleads the glory of Gods mercy in sparing them The first part was imprecation this deprecation And herein the Prophet doth declare his mixt affection to the Jews for out of his hatred to their sins he desired their correction but now out of his love to their Persons he prayeth against their punishment so farre that it may be moderate as in Ieremies Prayer Correct us O Lord yet in thy judgement not in thy fury lest we be consumed and brought to nothing Which teacheth us that Religion hath the bowels of compassion Doctr. Truly they have no true religion that have no mercy This is given us in precept with a sicut Reason 1 Luk. 6.36 Be yee merciful as your heavenly father is mercifull there is nothing wherein the image of our God doth more shine in man then his mercy because that is the heavenly nature the wisedome of God is too high for us the power of God too great for us the justice of God too strict for us all these vertues of the Godhead be out of the reach of our imitation The furthest that our Saviour goeth in the patterne and president of wisedome is est ote prudentes ut serpentes Wisedom Be yee wise as serpents In innocency Innocentes ut columba be ye innocent as doves it is not estote prudentes ut pater vester Be yee wise as your heavenly father Concerning fortitude The mother of Samuel saith Fortitude Non est fortis sicut deus Sicut leo Salomon hath it siout quorcus Amos hath it Concerning Iustice let us take the righteous men at their best Justice then Iustus fulgebunt ut sol the righteous shal shine as the Sun but to misericordes ut pater vester We must strive to imitate him in mercy that is the divine nature because it is super omniâ— operadei above all the works of God and that is the humane nature also because it is called Humanity and therefore wel-becometh the man of God 2. There is nothing that every one of us doth more stand in need of then mercy Reason 2 without which all the frame of nature would shake and dissolve it is anima mundi the soul of the world it is the juncture of every limb thereof it is the garment that hideth our nakednesse it is the grave the sea that burieth that swalloweth all our reputed sinnes it is the taylour to our backs the cater to our bellies the soule that quickneth us the strength that supporteth us the grace that saveth us the power that raiseth us the glory that crowneth us And they that shew no mercy shall have none 3. The consideration of our own infirmities doth plead for our mercy to our delinquent brother Reas 3 not to make the most of their faults and scrue their punishment to the uttermost rather to save our brethren Ga. 6.1 and to pull them out of the fire least we also be tempted for we have many suits to God for pardon of our own sinnes and therefore by the law of Justice let us do as we would be done to that is sollicite the favour of God for our brethren and although the zeale of Gods glory do put us to it to pray for their correction that they may be amended yet considering how bitter the medicine is that healeth sinne let us entreat the Physitian to look but on the corrupt humours in the body of the Church to purge them to take no more blood from the body thereof then may stand with the health of the body 4. It is a more easie suit to obtain the mercy of God Reas 4 then to stirre up his anger for as he is slow to wrath and long-suffering and when he doth begin to chide he will not keep his anger continually so he is rich in mercy abundant in goodnesse oleum supernatat vino the oyle swims above the wine Christ his sonne the character of his fathers glory of his mercy the true coppie of that sicut Pater vester qui est incaelis as Our father which is in heaven Of whom Saint Augustine sweetly commenting upon his pater ignosce eis father forgive them saith De utilet paen l. 1. he left them not quojusque ejus jam sanguinem possent bibere credentes quem fuderant saevientes they know how to drink believing the blood which they shed raging which is called in the Psalmist Multitudo dulcedinis Saint Hilary upon the Parable of the parable in the vineyard saith Ad spem omne tempus est liberum In Ps 129 mercedem non operis sed misericor diae undecimae horae operarii consequuntur God loves to be sollicited for mercy 4. Because in the contrary Ionah had a chiding from God himselfe Reas 4 that he stood more upon the credit of his office then he did upon the honour of his God that sent him being so angry at Gods sparing of Niniveh Wherein God himself pleaded the cause of his own mercy and justified his suspense of the threatned judgement against Iohan c. David had good cause to choose to fall into the hands of God rather then into the hands of men for with God there is mercy And had Niniveh been in the hand of Jonah their fasting with sackcloth and repenting should not have cleared nor calmed the storme threatned God said in Niniveh there were more then six score thousand Persons that knew not the right hand from the left there were a great many more in the nation of the Jews many also that served God with a true heart many that was not yet com to the height of sinning of whom there was hope many that had drunk deep already to the Cup of affliction by the sins of others who had thereby provoked God Therefore Habakkuk could do no lesse then stand in the gap now and keep out some of this wrath To make use of this doctrine Vse and of the holy example of this Prophet let me use the words of the Apostle to you Put on therfore as the Elect of God holy and beloved Col. 3.12 bowels of mercies kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering Forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have aquarrell against
1. For his Godhead that none other but he should be called God or esteemed 2. For his Worship not to be given to creatures 3. For his name not to be taken in vain 4. For his Sabbath to be kept holy And it is our first petition sanctificetur nomen Hallowed be thy name and for our conformity with him For I am the Lord your God ye shall therfore sanctifie your selvs Levit. 11.44 and yee shall be holy for I am holy So there is 1. Sanctitas increata an increate holinesse in God 2. Creata Created in man as a beam of that heavenly light a stream of that full fountain in our God This uncreated holinesse which is the attribute of God is the absolute perfection of Gods nature and attributes his full goodnesse not only that wherein he is good in himself but in his operations also 2. The Consequent From hence the Prophet concludeth that God cannot do more to his Church then correct it he cannot utterly destroy it because he is holy so is his Church his correction of the Elect is only a fire to purge out their drosse which will go out of it selfe when the combustible matter is spent Hear God himselfe I am the Lord the Holy One the Creator of Israel your King Isa 43.15 This People have I formed for my self Vers 21. they shall shew forth my praise I but our sinnes spoile all He addeth I Vers 25. even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins The Church of God is semen sanctum an holy seed God cannot forsake it he is Sanctus Creator an holy Creator and he is Sanctus Redemptor an holy Redeemer of it as the holy text stileth him You see here Applicat that as Christ saith This is life eternal to know thee Let us study God and his attributes for from thence we derive whatsoever we are or have they are our light of direction our staffe of supportation From the wisedome of God we have all intellectual illumination From the Iustice of God all our integrity From the Holinesse of God all our Sanctification From the Eternity of God our immortality From the Omnipotency of God our strength And as by our faith we cleave to him so we are made Partakers of the divine nature The juice of this text is the Prophets faith which from the Holinesse and Eternity of God doth resolve That this judgement of God Doct. threatned against the Jews is no more then a temporal chastisement according to the doctrine taught out of Obadiah Though God afflicteth his Church yet he loveth her still This perswasion of deliverance from evils is found in natural men but either it is grounded upon an opinion that they have of fortune such make chance their God or it is built upon the consideration of the vicissitude of things which maketh sundry mutations Informes hyems reducit Jupiter Hor. Car. 2. Od. 10. idem Summovet non se malè nunc olim sic erit God sendeth fowl weather and faire if it be ill now with us it will not be so hereafter This is but cold comfort to hope only in the change of times and so to look for better days Some acknowledge a Deity and ascribe all alterations to that not knowing the true God as Aeneas comforted his company Durate vesmet rebus servate secundis Continue and reserve your selves for better times Dabit Deus his quoque finem God will put an end to these your sufferings But that which comforteth the Saints of God in afflictions is their faith in the Eternity and Holinesse of God from whence they gather assurance that they shall not miscarry under the rod of God he is eternal therefore they shall not perish he is holy therefore he will but correct not destroy and hereof they make this use 1. They do not limit God to a set time when he shall deliver them so Daniel waited for the deliverance of Israel from Babylon seventy years The Church waited till the fulnesse of time for the promised Messiah 2. They do not limit God to any set means of deliverance Mordecai did see that the preferment of Hester was a likely means to save the Iews from the fury of the decree which Haman had procured against them and he putteth her to it to use her mediation with the King for it but he builded not his hopes in that means for he said to her If thou altogether hold thy Peace at this time Esth 4.14 then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Iews from another place The promise made to Abraham concerning his seed was in nature despaired by the old age of Abraham Sarah yet was not Abraham out of hope but when Isaac the sonne of Promise was come God afterward commanded him to be offered in sacrifice yet did not that weaken the faith of Abraham for he built upon the word of the promise and not upon the possibility of the means For he that promised was faithful 3. They do not limit God to the measure of affliction for they know that whatsoever the judgement be which God inflicteth upon his Church it cannot exceed a fatherly correction So Job Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Job 13.15 4. They are not discouraged in the faith of Gods mercy though they feel the contrary and therefore being in one contrary they do believe another Thus even when they feel the burthen of their sinnes they believe their justification for the heavy-laden seeke Christ for case When they feel misery they believe blessedneesse for they know Blessed are they that mourne When they feel correction they believe for he chasteneth every sonne whom he receiveth When they feel themselves forsaken of God they believe themselves interested in his favour as David and Christ My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Both forsaken in respect of their feeling neither in respect of their faith 5. They by faith are ever in the Presence of God Ps 16.8 so David I have set God always before me for he is at my right hand therefore I shall not be moved So it is said of Moses being in danger in Aegypt Heb. 1◠27 By faith he forsook Aegypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible Thus strongly do they build whose foundation is not laid it any possibility of their own merits to deserve deliverance and of their own wit and cunning to decline evils or of their own strength and power to resist them or evade them or the vicissitude of things to change them but trust in the living God and make him their hiding place Whereas the Prophet saith Doct. 2 that God had ordained the Chaldeans for judgement that is for the execution of his judgement and hath established them for correction Docemur we are taught That God is the Author of
very earth for their enemies to go over them and this is the punishment of their pride for Pride must have a fall and these towring fouls of the ayre must be turned into creeping worms of the earth 2. They have no ruler over them this is here set forth as a point of especial note to expresse the unhapinesse of a People to be without a ruler and therefore Anabaptists are wise polititians that would have no Magistrate but the punishment of the Iews is just that they should be without a ruler Because they did so much abuse Authority and rule that the very Seat of judgement were corrupted the wicked is Plaintiffe and the godly defendant The wicked compasseth about the righteous therefore wrong judgement proceedeth Better no rulers at all then such as David describeth Thou seest a thief and thou consentest with him a Companion of thieves whose Iustice is like that on Sarisbury plain Deliver thy purse Perchance on both sides But rule and Magistracy is the ordinance of God as St. Paul teacheth and God by his subordinate rulers on earth carrieth a sword and not in vain without this as when there was no King in Israel every man doth what seemeth good in his own eyes Which doth utterly destroy the body not only disfigure the face of a Common-wealth 5. Observe also here the outrage of the ungodly when they finde any way open for their violence Note 5 for they come in like a floud that hath made it self way through the weak banks and deluge all Here is Angle and Net and Dragge as before The wicked compasseth about the righteous which way shall the righteous escape As if aman did fly from a Lyon and a Beare met him or went into an house and leaned his hand on a wall and a Serpent bit him Amos 5 19 This made David so earnest with God not to fall into the hands of man There is nothing more cruel then a multitude of ungodly men that have no fear of God before their eyes Certum est insilvis inter spelaea ferarum malle pati the teeth of these dogs the hornes of these buls of Basan the hornes of these Unicornes the tusks of these wild Boars the pawes of these Lyons and Bears are mentioned in Scripture often to expresse the the fury and outrage of the wicked As Edom cried in the day of Jerusalem Rase it Ps 11.3 If the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do Judge now is it not a great grievance to see and feel the force and fury of the wicked carry all before them and neither their own conscience nor the lawes of men restrain them and God sit still look on and hold his peace this is that which grieves the Prophet to the heart But God that seeth it hath pure eyes and hath a right hand that will finde out all his enemies Amos will tell us that God hath his Angle too and his Net and his Dragge I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar Amos 9.1 and he said I will slay the last of them with the sword he that fleeth of them shall not fly away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered Though they dig into hell there shall my hand take them though they climb up into heaven thence will I bring them down And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottome of the sea thence will I command the Serpent and he shall bite them And though they go into captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them I will set mine eyes upon them for evill and not for good Let us not be discouraged for the Wiseman saith comfortably to us If thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province Eccl. 5.8 marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they Our Common-wealth grew foul the hand of the oppressor was stretched out and they that pretended to be the Physitians of the diseases of this State gave it a potion of deadly wine that it grew sick and drawing on even to death the hearts of true Patriots failed them The poor cried out the rich could not say of that which he possessed Haec mea sunt these are mine seats of justice instead of judgment yeelded wormwood ecce clamor and behold a cry even the loud voyce of grievances But God awaked as one out of sleep and what the angle of the Magistrate and the net of the King could not take the drag of the Parliament is now cast out to fetch it in and we have gracious promises that we shall see Religion better established and Justice better administred the moths that fretted our garments destroyed the Caterpillar the Canker-worm and the Palmer-worme the Projectors of our times that devoured the fruits of the earth and drew the breasts of the Common-wealth dry into their own vessels both detected and punished yea that we shall see Ierusalem in prosperity all our days it is the musick of the voyces of both Houses of the Parliament and he that is rector Chori the Mr. of the Quire doth set for them both Let Peace be within thy wals and plenteousnesse within thy Palaces This fils our mouths with laughter and our tongues with singing The Keeper of Israel is awake and hath not been an idle Spectator of those tragedies that have been acted here amongst us he hath but tarried a time till the abominable wickednesse of the sons of Belial was found worthy to be punished One note more remaineth The Prophet doth find that all this evil doth not come upon the Jews by chance Note 6 by the malice of Satan or the proud covertous cruelty of the Chaldaeans for he faith to God Thou makest men as the fishes of the sea Here is the hand of God and the counsell of God in all this And God taketh it upon himself as you have heard before Behold yee among the heathen Vers 5. and regard and wonder marveilously For I will work a work in your days which you will not believe Lo I raise up the Chaldaeans c. For though sin brought in punishment Vers 6. yet Gods Justice is the Author of all evils of this kind and the inflicter of punishment Tu domine fecisti saith the Psalmist Thou Lord hast done it And I have taught you that the wisedome and goodnesse of God can make use of evil men for the correction of his Church They be ingredients in the dose that God giveth to his diseased People to purge them Therefore let not our hearts fret at those rods which have no strength to use themselves but rather stoop to the right hand of God who manageth them for our castigation We have no fence against these judgments but a good
gold that is tried will be divided from the drosse and that drosse deserveth a melting If the punishment be for example know that God will never give so ill example as to punish an innocent If men do like men in execution of Gods judgments know that God knows why he suffereth them so to do for he searcheth the hearts and reins Thus many condemned to death by the law according to probable evidence professe their innocency at their death yet can finde in the book of their conscience evidence enough to condemne them worthy of death for something else The use of all is seeing God is just and punisheth not but where he findeth sin stand in awe sinne not Vse do your best to keep from the infection lest you come under the dominion of sinne abstaine from all appearance of evill from the occasions and means of offence resist Satan quench not the spirit that should help your infirmities redeem the time in which you should do good and strive to enter into that rest Thus doing what punishment soever we suffer it is rather the visitation of peace then the rod of fury and God will turn it to our good The punishment here threatned 1. Just reprehension shall not all these take up a parable against them and say woe to him that encreaseth that which is not his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I remember the question of our Saviour to his Disciples Whom say men what I the Son of man am It is wisdome for any private man more for a great State to enquire what fame it hath abroad The wisdome of State is such as one government hath an eye to another I speak not only of confederate Nations which have lidger eyes in each others Common-wealth but even of enemy-states and such as stand neither in termes of hostility nor in termes of confederacy they have their secret intelligence and thus they know and judge each of other Nebuchadnezzar was a most potent Prince yet his neighbours did not approve his wisdome they did condemne his violence and cry out wo be to him I understand this to be a great punishment to this mighty King to be justly condemned for injustice and to deserve the curse of his neighbouring Nations For extremes do ever carry the evill words and the evill wishes of all that love vertue and they cry woe to him that encreaseth greedily and covetously that which is not his and woe to him that wasteth prodigally that which is not his The wisdome of policie doth hold violence and oppression hateful in great Princes and it calleth them pusillanimous and idle that will not stirre in the just defence of their own But there is sapientia saeculi hujus the wisdome of this world which calleth all his own which he can compasse directly or indirectly justly or unjustly which Saint Paul doth call enmity with God just Princes are tender in that pursuit holding that axiome of Caesar irreligious and unjust Si jus violandum regni causa And therefore sapientia quae est desuper the wisdome from above cryeth hand off invade not usurp not aliena jura other mens rights be content with thine own for woe be to him that increaseth non sua that which is none of his own Princes that manage the sword of justice which is gladius Dei the sword of God must be tender how they draw that sword against God that committed it to them and every attempt that their power maketh for that which is not theirs doth arme it self against God Mr. Calvine observeth well Manent aliqua in cordibus hominum Justitiae aequitatis principa ideo consensus gentium est quaedam vox naturae there abideth in the hearts of men certaine principles of justice therefore the consent of Nations is a certain voyce of nature Those Princes that care not what Nations do think and speak of them but pursue their own ends against the streame and tyde of Jus naturale natural right do run themselves upon the just reprehension of other States which wise and religious Princes do labour to avoid 1. Because the private conscience in these publike persons can have no inward peace where publike equity is violated 2. Because the old rule of justice is built upon the divine equity of nature and confirmed by experience of time that Male parta facilè dilabantur evill gotten goods soon consume 3. Because all that love this jus naturale will soon finde both will and means to resist encroachments fearing their own particular as all hands work to quench a fire But what cares Nebuchadnezzar or Alexander or Iulius Caesar so they may adde Kingdom to Kingdom and what cares his holinesse of Rome so that he may be Universal Bishop what other Kings and Bishops say of them To make this point profitable to our selves for we speak to private persons The Rule is general All that encrease their own private estate by oppression and injustice multiplying that which is not theirs making prize of all that they can extort from their brethren buying them out of house and home wearying them with suits of molestation spending the strength of their bodies with immoderate labours at so short wages as will not sustaine them with things necessary Such though their power do bear them out in their unjustice yet do they undergo the hard opinion and censure of all that love righteousnesse and they do bear the burthen of many curses Let them lay this to heart and take it for a punishment from the hand of God 2. The Derision Taunted What do these men but lade themselves with thick clay This also may passe for a sharp punishment Kings and great persons are not priviledged from the tooth of a Satyre from the keene edge of an Epigram from the bold affront of a libel We live in the age of fresh and quick wits wherein it is not an easie thing for eminent persons to do evill and to escape tongue smiting and wit blasting pens and pencils a hand up to blazon great ones and their actions and inferiour persons want not eyes upon them to behold them nor censures to judge them nor rods to whip them I must not draw from this place any authority to legitimate contumelies and disgraces and that which we call breaking of bitter jests upon another selling our salt cheap 1. Therefore understand that bitter Taunts Satyrs and Libels may be evill and unlawful and yet God may make a good use of them to lash and scourge those that deserve ill and they that are so girded and jerkt shall do well to do as David did to confesse that God sent Shimei to curse and as for Shimei he shall see that God will finde a time to pay him too That this is a punishment sent from the hand of God we have full evidence from the witnesse of Holy Scripture even in this case The Prophet Isay threatneth the Chaldeans with this judgement Thou shalt take up this Proverb the Margent
case for thou also shalt drink and thy nakednesse discovered 3. The avenger shall do thee right is the Lord The Cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee 4. Shameful spewing shall be thy glory 5. The violence of Lebanon shall cover thee and the spoil of beasts I may resolve all these particulars to this total that God will take the punishment of this sin into his own hand and shall turn his Cup unto them and they shall do him right therein But for our better direction in this passage let me observe 1. Who will punish this sinne God himself 2. How he will punish 3. Why he will punish 1. Who will punish this drunkennesse It is the Lord Is it not he whose glory the Babylonians have given to their idols yea in the pride of their heart assumed it to themselves is it not he whose People they persecute and destroy cruelly whose goods they gather greedily whose fruits of the earth they abuse to surfet and drunkennesse it is for such as these that God saith I form the light and create darknesse Isa 45.7 I make peace and create evil I the Lord do all these things God hath ever declared himself an enemy to this sin you may see it clearly in the first example of it in Noah upon whom God â—aid two great punishments which show how much that sin offended him 1. That his own son should expose him to shame 2. That this fault should be kept in eternal Record in the living book of the Holy Word You may see it in Lots example wherein God would have it appear 1. How strong liquor may prevail against a strong brain 2. How easily a good man and one that feareth God may be overtaken with it by temptation 3. How horribly he may oftend in it 4. How temptation may relapse him into it and in the sins which follow it 5. God would have us see his just indignation against this sin in the punishment of it In both these the first we read of transgressing in wine God doth declare his judgments upon this sin of drunkennesse 1. Because this sin doth much defare the image of our Maker in us which is chiefly stamped in our spiritual and intellectual part For let reason once fail and man ceaseth to be himself the time and becometh like to a brute beast 2. Because Gods love is violated by drunkennesse do you remember how sharply God punished old Eli the Priest of the Lord for not reproving his ungodly sons to whom he said Thou honourest thy sons more then me 1 Sam. 2.29 The drunkard loveth his strong drink above the Lord therefore he threatneth them Awake ye drunkards and weep and howle all ye drinkers of wine because of the new wine Joel 1.5 for it is cut off from your mouth Observe it that he biddeth drunkards awake both because drunkennesse doth beget drowsinesse quia vigilando dormiunt for they say and do they know not what and he showeth them that as soundly as they sleep they shal not sleep out his judgment but shall feel the storme thereof it is a contrary course that God holdeth with them that love and serve him for he biddeth them Come my People enter into thy chambers Isa 26.20 and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast There is a question in the cases of conscience in the Canon Law Vtrum ebrietas excuset à peccato Quest Whether drunkennesse may excuse from sin we have many examples of men in their drink some speaking profanely and lewdly to the dishonour of God swearing and blaspheming others depraving and slandering their neighbours others furiously smiting and hurting some killing their excuse is alas they were not themselves and their drunkennesse is the excuse of their fault I find it favourably judged in the Canonists Excusat ebrietas non à toto sed à tanto it excuseth not altogether but in part Some go further and search whether the drunkennesse be a common disease of the Party and that he useth in his drink to behave himself so and in that case being found culpable he is adjudged to be irregular but if a man be by the temptation of such whom he taketh to be his friends overtaken with drink who is known to be one that useth not to commit that fault the law doth favour such a one Others resolve it thus Ebrius est irregularis ut ei imputantur ad poenam omnia quae sequuntur I find in this example that God doth threaten to visit these Chaldeans for the sins committed in their drunkennesse because it was wilful Vide lege Exod. 21.28 29. The school distinguisheth well between voluntary and involuntary drunkennesse They call that voluntary drunkennesse when men do sit at the wine till it inflame them knowing the strength of wine and their own weaknesse and seek it with delight in it Oxe used to gore Involuntary they call that which overtaketh a man not using not loving it who also is sorry for it and wary to decline it hereafter and that they hold excuseth à tanto in part Me thinks this should be a great argument to disswade drunkennesse Vse and to make men afraid of it for God is the punisher of it the God that formed thee and gave thee being the God that took thee from thy mothers wombe the God that hath preserved thee from thy youth up until now That great God who breweth and filleth a Cup and maketh all the wicked thereof drink it off dregs and all Ps 75.8 This Isay calleth The Cup of the Lords fury and he giveth his own children a taste of it not ad ruinam but ad dignam emendationem Isa 51.17 not to their ruine but amendment it is called also The Cup of trembling God himself calleth it The wine cup of his fury Jer. 25.15 It is called in Ezechiel Deep and large Ez. 22.32 And as the Apostle saith speaking of the judgment to come Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2 Cor 5.11 If men will not be perswaded let him that is filthy be filthy still let him that is a drunkard be a drunkard still But as the Apostle St. Peter saith if we look well about us The time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles 1 Pet. 4.3 when we walked in lasciviousnesse lusts excesse of wine revellings banquettings c. Yet better late then never for if God have taken the matter into his hand David will tell you that that hand of God is strong strong is thy hand saith he this is dextra subveniens suis suscipit me dextera tua Psal 63.8 and it is dextra inveniens Thy hand shall find out all thine enemies thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee Psal 21.8 It is a fearful thing to fall into that hand
wherein he prophecyeth the birth of Christ in Bethlehem In both these Prophecies we observe that the promise of God hath not only assured the spreading of true Religion but the assemblies of beleivers to certain places for instruction that they may bee taught vias Domini the ways of the Lord. Never was there Religion in the world without some places of publick-Worship for meeting of people together Even in Adams time there was a place where Adam and his children met to offer sacrifice and Cains flying from the presence of the Lord was his wilfull excommunication from that place And in truth they that would have no Churches may aswell cry down Religion and the publique ministry of the Word and pluck down the hedge which God hath planted about his Vine and lay all common Understand us rightly we do not affix holinesse to the place nor think any speciall sanctity inherent in it but seeing God is by a singular right become master of the house that is separate to his use as the Apostle saith judge I pray you is it comely that wee put not difference between Gods House and our owne houses It is observed that Christ when he purged the temple purged only that part of the temple which was set apart to prayer and hearing of the Word because that use of the Church was to continue in the time of the Gospel and after he had cast out the oxen and the doves which were provisions for sacrifice then he citeth that place and reneweth the sanction My house shall be called an house of prayer to all nations which is a sanctification of all Churches to the Worship of God That this was so understood Know that before they had any Churches built for the publick exercise of Religion they had some places of meeting which they called Aedes sacras holy houses of which the Apostle putting difference sayth have ye not houses to eat and drink in Cor 1 1◠22. despise ye the Church of God Here be our own houses for common and natural moral and civil use here is the Church of God the place of assembling of the Congregations to the Worship and service of God No sooner is a place consecrate to this use but it is a Temple of Gods So when Jacob had set up a stone for a pillar Gen. 28.19.22 in the place where he dreamed and had the vision of the ladder he called the name of it Bethel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods house And after At his returne he came to that place and having first put down all the strang gods Gen. 35.7 he built an altar to the Lord and called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good of Gods house It is palestra in which we do meet with God to wrestle with him in our fervent prayers and supplications He by his word wrastleth with us to overcome both our ignorance and impiety And therefore as Jacob Gen. 32.31 so may we call our Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the face of God for there God did look upon him And in the times of the Gospel these houses of prayer have had several tittles Aedes sacrae in respect of their succession to them and Templa in respect of their succession to that at Jerusalem Tectum amplum some derive it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Propter dedicationem 2. Propter usum 3. Propter jus perpetuum 4. Propter sabbatum For there is Dominica in Dominico thence came the word Kirke Yet in use in Scotland And Ecclesiae in respect of the meetings there When David could not come to the sanctuary of God he worshipped toward it Hear the voyce of my supplications Psal 7. Ps 28.2 Dan. 6.10 when I cry unto thee when I lift up my hands towards thy holy temple Daniel being farre from the temple opened his window toward Jerusalem and prayed three times a day The Temple is a type of Heaven where the Saints of God do meet to praise God which is the worship that is done to God in heaven And I heard a great voyce out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men Rev. 21.3 and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God This Mr. Brightman understandeth of the Church of the Gentiles where God is seen So doth James Brocard an Italian understand it of the Church delivered from Poperie and Mahometry and all haeresie But Master Bullinger better advised saith that as in the former part of this Revelation hell is described so in this chapter heaven is set forth And that as you see in the similitude of a tabernacle so doth Junius and Napier well interpret this place I conclude then that all the Churches wherein the Christians meet to call upon God are the temples of Gods presence wherein God is invisibly resident both to give his Spirit where he thinketh good and to direct our service of him and to receive our prayers and sacrifices of thanksgiving and to communicate to his servants the ordinances of his grace the means of their salvation 2. As God is in these temples made with hands and declareth his presence in his house in his Word and Sacraments and in the solemne meetings of his children so is he in heaven which is his highest temple whereof these are but types and figures We beleive in him as maker of heaven and we pray to him our father which art in heaven this place he himself calleth his habitation I dwell in the high and holy place 1. In heaven Yet as Solomon saith The heaven of heavens is not able to containe him Isa 57.15 2 Reg. 8.27 So he is there as in the most excellent part of his creation but not comprehended there for there he is most purely worshipped thence cometh our Sicut in Coelo The heathen gods are no where in heaven they are not that is the temple of the true God in earth they are not for they are no gods that have residence in earth and have no power at all in heaven As the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 8.4 We know that an Idol is nothing in the world Here by the name of Idol is not meant the material image representing their god for that is a bodily substance to be seen and felt and it is in the world but he speaketh it de numine the divinity is a non ens For he addeth that there is no God but one and whereas many be called gods in heaven and in earth as there be many gods and many Lords yet he saith there is but one God the rest are nomina not numina For there were that worshipped the Sun the Moon and the starres these as creatures and second causes do us good but they serve our God When our God is in his Temple all those help to make up the quire of them that praise him For the heavens declare the glory of
kind of study since the Church cast out Musick 2 In respect of Gods service the more pompe and solemnity is used the more glorious is the house of God made and the more differing from our common house of habitation 3 In respect of our selves we have need to have the help of outward things to draw us on with delight to entertain our thoughts with cheerfulnesse to incite and move our affections to quicken our devotion and to blow the fire of our zeal and to relieve our naturall wearinesse in Gods service These reasons brought in the song and instruments into the Church and gloriously was it setled in Solomons time in the temple according as his Father David had left it in the tabernacle where he designed to that service men of cunning 288. 1 Chrom 25.7 Ob. But Christ and his Apostles and the primitive Church had no such musique in Churches Sol. They had no Churches but in their meetings they sung Psalmes so did Christ and his Apostles in the roome where he kept his last Passeover and in the Emperour Trajanes time Mat. 26.30 which was before the death of St. John Pliny writeth to the Emperour of the manner of the Christians this one amongst the rest that They did meet together early in the morning and sung Hymns to their Christ But after Religion had found favour with Princes and began to appear in peace then came in Churches and Church Ornaments then were Liturgies devised and used then were instruments of musique intermixed with the service and God glorified in all St. Aug. Confess 9. Cap. 6. Quantum flevi in Hymnis Canticis svave sonantis Ecclesiae tuae voces illae influebant auribus meis eliquabatur veritas tua in cor meum ex ea aestuebat inde affectus pietatis currebant lachrymae benè mihi erat cum eis In the next Chapter hee tels how the Arrians attempted the taking of Ambrose B. of Millain whom they accused of heresie and Justina the Empresse bearing them out in it they meant him a mischief he went to the chief Church and much people followed him ready to dispatch their holy Bishop St. Augustine and his Mother were amongst them and there Aug. saith Tunc institutum ut Hymni Psalmi canerentur more orientalium Ecclesiarum ne populus moeroris taedio contabesceret quod ad hodiernum diem retentum est c. The Hymns and Psalmes were ordained to be sung c. Ob. It is a means often to carry away our thoughts more with the tune then with the matter St. Augustine maketh it one of his Confessions that he was so transported Sol. And may not the same happen in our singing of Psalms let us not lay our faults to the charge of the Church what good shall we go about but we shall finde Satan busie to divert us from it Obj. It is costly to maintain Musique in our Churches and that mony were better bestowed on the poor and other better uses Sol. What better bestowed on the poor then upon God himself is the cheapest religion the best they had poor in the time of the Law and yet that hindered not the magnificence of the Temple and the Ornaments thereof and the maintainance of Gods worship alit pauperes 288. in Templo ut ante The earth hath not the like glory now to shew as that of Gods House And shal Aaron that vvas but for a time be thus glorious and shall Melchizedeck a Priest for ever vvant honour It is true that it hath been policy in these later times to keep the Church lean and to strip it out of all outward pomp and to transfer Gods inheritance into the hands of strangers But remember the great Commandement Thou must love God above all things and so doing he shall have the best of all that thou art the best of all that thou hast Our prayer is Sicut in coelo as in heaven and Christ promises is to the just that they shal be as the Angels of God in Heaven Reve. 15.3 there they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and David saith Blessed is the people that can rejoyce in thee Psa 89.15 we have more cause to use both voices and instruments in his praise because he hath redeemed us from Satan hath made us all Priests of the high God to offer to him the calves of our lips and with such sacrifices God is well pleased Ver. 2. O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid O Lord revive thy work in the middest of the years make known in wrath remember mercy THis vvhole Psalme as it is in the composition of a mixt kind of verse so in the matter of it mixt for it consisteth 1 Of supplication and petition ver 2. 2 Of celebration of the prayses of God 3 15. 3 Consternation before God ver 16 17. 4 Consolation in God 1 Of the supplication O Lord I have heard thy speech that is all that thou hast said in the former Chapter in defence of thy justice and in propheticall revelation of thy holy will both concerning thy Church how that shall be afflicted and concerning the enemies of thy Church how they shall be punished in the end And I was afraid fear came upon me when I heard thee recompt thy judgements O Lord revive thy work in the middest of the years here be three quaeries 1 What he meaneth by the vvork 2 What by the middest of the years 3 How this work should be revived 1 Thy work Lyranus saith Opus tuum in punitione Chaldaeorum qued fiet virtute tua magis quà m humana 2 Beza by the work of God here understandeth the Church of God the people of Israel So do Tremelius and Junius for they parellel this place vvith those vvords of God in the Prophet Isa Ask me of things to come concerning my sons Isa 45.11 and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Where he calleth his Church opus manum my work Thus doth Master Calvin here understand statum Ecclesiae the state of the Church vvhich is called The vvork of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the most excellentest part of his work wherein he is most glorified So David prayeth for the Church under that appellation Psa 138.8 Forsake not the works of thine own hands So doth Isaiah name them Thy people also shall be all righteous Isa 60.21 they shall inherit the Land for ever the branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Isa 61.3 So in the next Chapter Christ is anointed for the good of his Church Isa 61.3 that they may be called the trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord. 3 Novv there is such a correspondence betvven the head and the body betvveen Christ and his Church that sometimes that vvhich is literally spoken of the Church is mystically applyed to Christ Jeremie expressing the great
misery of the Church Lam. 1.12 bringeth her in thus complaining Have ye no regard all ye that pass by the way consider and behold if ever there were sorrow like my sorrow Yet this complaint of the body is so fit for the head the grief so surmounting that the uniform judgments of the Ancients of the Church have applyed them to Christ either in his Agony in the Garden or on the Cross where also hee sed Davids bewailing and passionate moan My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me So the wonder of God in Hosea spoken of Israel literally Ex Aegypto vocavi filium meum Verse 11.1 that God by mighty hand brought Israel out of Aegypt are applyed and verified in him by the Evangelist St. Matthew Mat. 2.15 From hence the mysticall sense of those words doth express the head of this body of the Church that is Jesus Christ for his Incarnation was the work of God He was made of a woman and vvas made under the Law So that this is a prayer to God to send his Son into the world This agreeth vvell with the comfort before given to them The just shall live by Faith That faith is in the promised Messiah and that is it to which the ancient Fathers do apply this place as being the most excellent work of God for the good and comfort of his Church St. Augustine maketh this whole Psalme a prophecy of Christ Consideravi opus tuum saith he Quid hoc est Revel Dei 18.32 nisi novae recognitae salutis hominum ineffabilis admiratio Idem in Oratione contra Judaeos Arrianos Paganos Cap. 13. St. Jerome paraphraseth this petition thus Deprecor Domine ut quod promisisti expleas finito tempore reddas Christâ—m tuum Ribera a learned Jesuite saith that this Exposition doth passe most currant with the ancients he nameth Eusebius Euthenius Rupertus Theophilact all of reverend antiquity and one saith for the most part seniores saniores the elder the sounder Arias Montanus one that hath taken as much pains in the Bible as ever any one man did in latter days saith this Note this Song doth begin at the name of God which of all other in holy Scripture Divinam naturam maximè significant doth especially signifie the divine nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a note which God revealed unto Moses a name for the most part used in the old Testament saith he Vbi negotium Messiae agitur where the businesse of the Messiah is handled 2 What is ment by in medio annorum in the midst of years here I must give you to understand that the 70 Interpreters do render this part of the text in other words and in another sense yet agreeing well with the mystery of godlinesse that is the Incarnation of Christ They read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine doth receive that interpretation so do many more for great is the authority of the 70. And we find often in the new Testament that their translation is cited by the Apostles and not the originall in the old Testament I will not quite passe over this reading of the 70 as neglecting it though in the end I do not mean to follow it because many great judgments have embraced it This is observed in these Interpreters that often in their translations they do not strictly observe the words of the originall but rather expound the sense of the place often they do adde something especially in the prophecies which they think do point at the Messiah whereby they declare that that prophecy is to be referred to Christ So do they in this place and to shew that they understand this place of the Messiah they adde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which St. Augustine doth understand either figuratively in medio duorum Testamentorum or literally in medio Mosis Eliae with whom he spake in the mountaine when he was transfigured or in medio duorum latronum between whom he was hanged when he was crucified Others of late following the tradition that lay in the manger between an Oxe and an Asse that were feeding there understand these two living creatures in the midst of whom the Wisemen that came from the East found Christ Yet Eusebius and Theophilact read not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an acute accent in the first syllable which signifieth living creatures but with a circumflexe in the last 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie lives in medio duarum vitarum quia venit in mundum habens duas vitas alteram mortalem humanam alteram immortalem divinam I onely make this use of these exposition to shew you how of this old place hath passed for a testimonie of the Prophets fore-sight and prophecying of Christ But reading as we do in medio annorum here also sundry interpretations are given for some do referre this to that time which St. Paul speaketh of But when the fulnesse of time came Gal. 4. God sent his Sonne So the Prophets prayer is that God would remember to perform his promise of the Messiah in medio annorum that is in the fulnesse of time for it is certain that from Christ to the end of the world the world is in a state of declination Lyranus saith that these years here meant are from the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem to the rebuilding thereof finished for he saith there were 52 years from the destruction of the temple to the first year of the reigne of Cyrus from thence to the sixt year of the reigne of Darius vvere 46 years for so long it is said the temple vvas in building In the midst not in medio Geometrico but Arithmetico the Prophet prayeth God to revive his vvork of restoring the people to their liberty and possessions But I chuse to follovv the Exposition of the 70 Interpreters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum temporis opportunitas fuerit when there shall be a fit time vvhich leaveth it at large to God to take his ovvn time and that seemeth to have been the judgment of Tremelius and Junius vvho render it interea temporis as vve in English in the mean time So Beza Master Calvin doth goe vvith the former exposition of the fulness of time for he saith the Church vvas but grovving and coming on till Iesus Christ came in the flesh but then it grevv up to a ripeness so that the coming of Christ was the grovving up of the Church ad aetatem virilem to the age of a man 3 Vivifica revive the margent readeth preserve thy work that is maintain thy Church and keep it from the povver of her enemies till thou sendest a Redeemer to recover it from the injuries of time and the violence of the ungodly for the time of the Church under persecution is the vvinter of it in vvhich it seemeth dead and prayeth God to quicken and revive it by the sending of his Son In the midst of the years make
vvhose hearts do smite them and vvhose consciences do accuse them that though the zeal of Gods house do bring them to Church yet the fear of their unvvorthiness doth make them stand a far off beating their breasts and not daring to lift up their eyes to heaven These had need of comfort we must labour to put metall into such by telling them that he whose face they seek is God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort David is a full example of a distressed man Psal 119.107 fearing and yet praying for he confesseth I am very sore afflicted yet he prayeth God to quicken him he saith My soul is continually in my hand he was even ready to yield it up yet the comfort that he had in God established his heart And herein God is most gratious for when our sins come in our sight and we are horribly afraid of Gods judgments even then God sendeth his Spirit to us not to take away our infirmities quite but to help them not to turne our sorrow into joy but to sanctifie our sorrow and to supply it with sighs and groanes and this addition of fear and grief doth also mend devotion To such we must say that though he to whom we pray be in Heaven yet he is our Father and though great and glorious be his Majesty yet he is the preserver of men David calleth him our Sun and Shield the brightnesse of this Sun may dazle our weak sight but the protection of this shield will save us from danger Be strong then and God shall establish your hearts he shall anoint you with the oile of gladnesse and he shall say to your soul I am thy Salvation 2 Subjectum Vide divis supr Pag. 29. This prayer is for the Church that is for all those that then were the visible society of such as worshiped the onely true God It is the duty of every child of God Doct. and member of the Church to pray to God for the whole body of the Church The Church at this time was within a pale and confined to the house of Abraham not in his whole bloud for Ishmael was excluded in Isaac was the promise not in his whole bloud for Esay was excluded Jacob was Israel and prevailed with God of him came the Fathers and in his seed was the Church continued This Church was now threatned with deportation and sundry great judgments the Prophet teacheth them how to pray one for another To this there are great motives 1 The direction of Christ in the Lords Prayer which calleth God our Father and in the processe of it sheweth that the Church of God is still included Give us forgive us lead us not 2 The content that we give to God in these generall prayers which the Apostle doth well expresse I exhort that first of all prayers c. be made for all men For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.1 3.4 who will have all men to be saved All are or may be members of the Church of God for ought we know 3 The benefit that we reap hereby is great for thus we come to have our portion in the charitable prayers of others Ambrose Si prote rogas tantum prote solus rogabis Hâ—xam 1. si autem pro omnibus rogas omnes pro te rogabunt 4. It is a true rule that extra Ecclesiam non est salus without the Church there is no salvation Acts 2.47 it is said that God added to the Church daily such as should be saved the reason hereof is because Christ is no where to be found as a Saviour but in his Church and the meanes of salvation Preaching Prayer and Sacraments they are only found in the Church Without are dogs enchanters Revel 22.15 c. Christ is the good Shepheard and he hath his fold all the sheep that are without must be brought to that fold as himself saith alias oves habeo quae non sunt de ovili hoc illas oportet adducere I have other sheep c. they shall hear my voice Joh. 10.16 and there shall be one fold and one Shepheard Therefore there is no safety in singularity they that forsake the Church forsake the fold the unity of spirit not the singularity is the bond of peace We are members one of another the common safety of the body communicateth perticular safety to all the members of the body In the temporall state the peace of perticular persons is included in the peace of the whole kingdome therefore Jeremiah saith to the Church then in deportation Seek the peace of the City Jer. 29.7 whether I have caused you to be carried away captives and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace Much more shall we have peace in the peace of the Church seeing Christ bequeathed his legacy of peace not to some parts and members of his Church but to the whole body thereof Joh. 14.27 Pacem meam do vobis I give unto you my peace It must be so understood for as he left his Spirit the Comforter so he left his peace the comfort not to his Disciples onely but to all the Church therefore pray all that it may be well with thee in communi bono in the common good This teacheth us to incorporate our selvs in the communion of Saints per communionem pietatis et charitatis by the communion of piety and charity to be one anothers Orators but especially to study and pray for the peace and welfare of the Church let us consider it is the Spouse of Christ it is a Lilly among thorns it is a flower in the field not only open to all weathers but to the tooth and foot of the beasts of the field Satan going about seeking to devoure it Let our prayers to God resist Satan and fight the Lords battail against him We heare of the troubles of the Church in other countreys we heare of the tyranny of Popery and the oppressions of faithfull professours if we give them no other help yet let our prayers give God no rest till he have mercy on them and give them deliverance This teacheth us to maintain truth and peace amongst our selves let not the wounds and soars of a Church that is heresie and schisme and separation be so much as named amongst us as it becommeth the Saints of God let not the common enemy of our Religion hope to build upon our ruines and to raise up himself by our fall to strengthen his peace by our contentions to be-night our clear and glorious Sun-shine of the Gospel so many happy years crowned with peace and the fruits of peace propagation with his Egyptian and Cymmerian darknesse Let us be of good comfort their darknesse dare not come so near our light for our light will discover it their errour dare
not come so neer our truth our truth will confute it and the God of Truth wil not suffer his truth to fail Yet if our unthankfulness to God for his light so long shining in our Church if our evil lives so unanswerable to our outward profession if our contentions so displeasing to the God of peace our want of zeal and devotion in prayer do turn away the face of God from us we may thank our selves and his justice may say Perditio tua ex te Thy destruction is of thy self 2 The Petitions these are three vide p. 29. 1 Revive thy work in the middest of the years that is as we have expounded it literally in the mean time preserve thy Church In which Petition we are taught That the Church of God is the work of God 1 Doct. ye have heard it so acknowledged by God himself Ask me concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands Isa 45.11 command ye me Wherein God confesseth his Church to be his own work and therefore so comprehended in his care that they may challenge his protection Again He calleth his Church thus The Branch of my planting the work of my hands Isa 60.21 that I may be glorified And David upon this prayeth Forsake not the works of thy own hands Psal 138.8 The reasons why the Church is thus called Because the Church is not an Assembly that doth gather themselves together as we say That Birds of a feather do fly together but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a congregation of such as the free election of grace hath called out of the world by the ministery of the Word of God and the Sacraments The first Church of God in whom God was glorified consisted of Angels intellectuall spirits whereof many kept not their first estate but were excōmunicated never to be redeemed The first Church of God on earth were our first Parents whom God created in his image The Creation miscarried by the fall of our Parents who might have stood if they would The election of grace remained unchangeable and continued a Church in Adam in Abel in Seth which separated from Cain and his issue in Noah and Sem and in Japhet perswaded to the tents of Shem in the calling of the Gentiles so that all that have the election of grace do come to be members of the Church by vertue of an effectuall calling election designeth them vocation declareth them to be the members of the Church and both these are the work of God Will you take it from Gods own mouth who saith Levit. 20.26 Ye shall be holy unto me for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that you should be mine The Church is called the work of God in respect of his perpetuall presence with it and preservation of it both by his own speciall providence which is the priviledge of the Church also by the subordinate ministery of his holy Angels 1 For his own providence he hath declared it in a promise I will not sail thee Josh 1.5 nor forsake thee in which promise what interest the Church hath and every member thereof the Authour to the Hebrews shevveth Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as you have Heb. 13.5 for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man shall do unto me For which gratious protection 1 Pet. 4.19 St. Peter willeth us to commit our souls to him in wel-doing as to a faithfull Creatour so called saith Lyranus quia secure conservat gloriose coronat non relinquit opus He not onely buildeth but standeth to reparations 2 For the ministry and subvention of Angels the Psalmist saith Psal 91.11 12. He hath given his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes They shall bear thee up in their hands Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them Heb. 1.14 who shall be heirs of Salvation The Church of God is called the Work of God to honour God for God is not so glorious in any thing that he hath wrought as in his Church for therein mercy and truth met together righteousnesse and peace kissed each other our election adoption is to the praise of the glory of his grace Ephes 1.6 Is 60.21 You heard himself say of his Church The work of my hands that I may be glorified For God is more glorified in those things which he hath wrought by Jesus Christ in our flesh and in those things which he doth for his sake then in all the other works of his hands This will one day appear it is revealed already in part to us for whatsoever God did work sine verbo incarnato without the word incarnate it all shall fail and come to dissolution or to a worse condition that is an eternall being in wo. For example the heavens and the eath shall all perish and new shall be made in their place a nevv heaven and a nevv earth vvherein God vvill plant righteousnesse The Angels that fell and the reprobate shall suffer eternall flames What remains now but Angels and just men the elect Angels and the holy Church of God the one sort elected in Christ established in blisse by Christ the other redeemed by Christ these are reserved to glory the just shall be as the Angels of God in heaven In this Church then God is most glorified The Church is called the Work of God to give honour to it here on earth for God would have the World knovv that he owns his Church and that they are a peculiar people a chosen generation a royall Priesthood that he delighteth in in them And again the faithfull delight in nothing but what he hath vvrought in them and from them So Augustine bringeth in the Church saying Opus tuum in me Domine vide non meum nam meum si videris damnum tuum si videris Coronas Behold thy work in mee c. It is Davids glory I am thine All things else have the same maker that have any being but the Church hath the honour of curious and costly vvork all the rest of the vvorks of God are not vvorth the cost that he bestovved in the vvhite vvashing of this vvork To turn this point into profit 1 Seeing vve are the vvork of God in regard of election of grace of creation and protection this teacheth us to live godlily righteously and soberly in this present vvorld and to keep our selves unspotted of the vvorld 1 For election Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us that we should be holy and without blame before him in love 2 For creation Ephe. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that we should walk in them 3 For all his other favours as that we are a royall priesthood
we have done these things and therefore unlesse we redeem the time and amend our ways our consciences will tell us that his servants we are whom we obey and the servants of sin must look for the wages of sin that is death But let us do no more so seeing the Lord is our strength let our strength be the Lords let it serve him for himself our brethren for his sake Another use of this point I learn from the song of Moses Vse 2 the man of God and of the children of Israel after they came out of the red sea The Lord is my strength and song let him that is our strength Exod. 15 ◠be our song also that is let us praise him with joy and thanksgiving it is the honour that David giveth to the Lord as his strength is always from him so he promiseth My song shall be always of him he desireth that his mouth may be fil'd with his prayse all the day long these be called the calves of the lips of them that confesse his name they are sacrifices of righteousnesse and they please God better then bullocks that have horns and hoofs this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasonable service It followeth there and it is another use of this point Vse 3 The Lord is my strength I will prepare him an habitation In which words though literally there be a propheticall reference to the Tabernacle of God which God did after appoint to be erected and consecrated to his speciall worship and further yet to the building of the Temple at Jerusalem the joy of all the earth yet in thankfull retribution to God for the strength that we have from him every faithfull soul must within it self erect an habitation for God and his anointed Know you not that your bodies are the temples of the holy ghost doth not Christ dwell in us by faith is not the soul the body of the Church is not the understanding and intellectuall part the holy of holies the chancell of the Church where the glory of God dwelleth and where the memorials of his mercies are kept is not the heart the altar wherupon all our sacrifices of thanksgiving the incense of our praiers are burnt Is not the mouth of them that confesse his name the beautiful porch of this Temple Doth not Christ stand at our doors and knock and desire our entertainment O let us receive him he is our strength there is not a stronger man to come in and bind him and cast him out that day we receive him that day is salvation come home to our house Let him not come in as a guest and sojourner to tarry a night and be gone let him have the rule of the house Christ will then tell us that the Kingdome of God is within us and where he ruleth there is peace which passeth all understanding 3 The next ground of their hope is a strong faith that he will make my feet like hynds feet That is he will give me a swift escape out of all my affliction and I shall come again out of captivity The Lord will loose the bonds of his Church and give her deliverance out of all her troubles Doct. This is a good ground of hope Because it is one of Gods honourable titles to be a deliverer so is he called in this 18 Ps v. 2. Reas 1 From whence these words are taken so Thou art my help and my deliverer Psal 70.5 Thus David honoureth God with that great title for it includeth a confession of prayse both of the power of God able to deliver and of his wisedome and love applying that power to the comfort of his afflicted Church Because it was the office of his anointed the Son in whom he was well pleased Reas 2 to deliver his people from the hands of all their enemies He gave redemption to his people He shall save his people from all their sins he confesseth it his errand hither He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted Isai 6.11 to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Because God knoweth the weaknesse of his Church Reas 3 and though he chasten them with the rods of men yet will he not take his mercy utterly from them Psal 125.3 lest the righteous should put forth their hand unto wickednesse This hath speciall vertue to comfort us both Vse 1 Generally in our whole life and 2 especially in the severall crosses and distresses incident to the body of the Church or any member of the body 3 And individually to each perticular person in their personall vexations and unrest 1 For the generall calamities incident to life Job saith Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery If a man have no time of respiration from sorrow if his body be in sicknesse his mind in grief his estate in poverty his person in prison suppose him as much afflicted as his time and strength can bear yet death determineth all and setteth the oppressed and the prisoner free as Job saith 2 The Church or any part of it be it afflicted and driven into corners persecuted as in the time of the ten bloudy persecutions and as at this day the Protestants are cruelly pursued both in our neighbour France and in the Palatinate and in Bohemia Ministers banished as raisers and strivers of sedition which was laid to the charge of Jesus Christ and after of St. Paul The Lord hath ever heretofore been a deliverer of his Church and his hand is not shortned our hope is that he will also make his Saints hearts glad by a timely deliverance and will give them hinds feet to escape from the arrow that fleeth after them by day and from the dogs that hunt and pursue them with open mouth 3 In the case of personall grievances how can we either in dangers feared or in oppressing griefs and pains receive any peace to our souls but in the faith of deliverance believing that no miseries can so environ us but that there may be found an open way out of them so David saith Many are the troubles of the righteous Dominus ex omnibus liberet This admonisheth the afflicted to Vse 2 call upon God for this deliverance and to seek it no where but in his hand wo be to them that go to Egypt for help it was the undoing of Israel their trust in the broken staffe and reed of Egypt And they that trust to Idolatrous nations to help them in their distresses and wants thrust thorns into their own eyes and goads into their own sides and their trust shall be their ruine Israel did finde it so and smarted sharply for it This also as all other favours of God either possessed or expected doth awake us to a duty of service of our God Vse 3 for we are servi quasi servati and we must serve him that we may be