Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	harden_v	moses_n	pharaoh_n	4,537	5	10.9869	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93242	Judgement and mercy: or, The plague of frogges [brace] inflicted, removed. Delivered in nine sermons, by the late reverend and learned divine Mr. Iosias Shute, Arch-deacon of Colchester, and preacher at St. Mary Woolnoth, in London: with his usuall prayers before and after sermon. Whereunto is added a sermon preached at his funerall, by Mr. Ephraim Vdall. Imprimatur. Ja. Cranford. Octob. 29. 1644.	Shute, Josias, 1588-1643.; Udall, Ephraim, d. 1647. Sermon preached at the funerall of Mr. Shute.	1645 (1645)	Wing S3715; Thomason E299_1; Thomason E299_2; ESTC R200245	134,491	230

Spirit direct us vouchsafe good God to goe in and out before us Keepe in us a purpose never to sin confirm it more and more and upon every suggestion to sin let us call to minde our vowes and promises of better obedience and though we have dealt falsely before now make them more powerfull to restraine us If we fall by infirmity let our hearts smite us speedily restore us by repentance immediately evermore keep us from impenitencie hardnesse of heart and presumption the power of Satan and a downfall into sin Grant us all other things that thou in thy wisdome knowest better that we want then we to aske not for any merits of ours we disclaime them nothing belongs to us but shame and confusion but even for thy Names sake for thy promise sake for Iesus Christs sake the Sonne of thy love and our Saviour in whose Name we further call upon thee as he hath taught us saying Our Father which art c. THE FIRST SERMON Vpon EXOD. CHAP. 8. VERS 1.2 And the Lord spake unto Moses Go unto Pharaoh and say unto him Thus saith the Lord Let my people goe that they may serve me And if thou refuse to let them goe behold I will smite all thy borders with frogs THis Chapter hath three parts according to the three judgements here remembred The first judgement was the frogs from verse 1. to verse 16. The second was of lice from verse 16. to verse 20. The third of flies noysome flyes to the end of the Chapter In this first judgement which is of frogs we are to observe these three things First the denunciation of it Secondly the execution of it Thirdly the event of it The denunciation of it in the first 4 verses The execution in verse 5.6 The event of it is threefold First the Magicians doe the like verse 7. Secondly thence there is a remoovall of this judgement and the meanes of the same from the beginning of verse 8. to the end of verse 15. The third event is the obduration and further hardning of the heart of Pharaoh verse 16. Come again to the denunciation there are two things in it First Moses from God makes a motion to Pharaoh to dismisse his people verse 1. Secondly hee tells him upon his refusall of a judgement and there is First laid down what the judgement should be frogs Then the amplification of it from the generality in all his borders in his bedchamber in their troughs their baking-troughs and their ovens they shall be a vexation to them night and day And then for the noysomenesse of them that they should crawle about in all these places Now for the motion which is laid downe in verse 1. that I may not reciprocari serram as Tertullian speakes I will not draw my saw the same way againe I willingly omit many thinges that might bee observed in this verse First Gods manner of speaking to Moses Secondly Moses going in to Pharaoh Thirdly his manner of speaking to Pharaoh Thus saith the Lord Whereby hee would perswade him that hee was sent by God therefore he that sent him would not brooke a refusall Likewise in the fourth place how equall the motion of God was Let my people goe he requires his owne of Pharaoh And how they were said to be Gods people above all other people in the world To the end that they may goe and serve me The relation that is between God and his people it ties the people of God to serve him to observe him Againe how God would have them goe out of Egypt to serve him that is to offer sacrifice For hee would not have them serve him there where the Egyptians instead of joyning with them would deride them nay not only so but mischiefe them for such was the zeale of the Egyptians against sacrifice All these I willingly and purposely omit Now my beloved in this verse as it is a transition to that that followes I will onely remember you of three things The first is the obstinacie of Pharaoh The second is the longanimity and longsuffering of God The third is the piety and obedience of Moses all which are implied in this first verse First the obstinacie of Pharaoh hee had seene signes already the Rod turned into a Serpent and the rod of Moses devouring the Serpents of the Egyptians He had likewise seene that fearfull judgement the water turned into blood In which judgement both he and the prime of the land it may bee might escape more easily It is likely they might quench their thirst by wine or by some juyce or liquors but we must needs conceive that it went hard with the generality of the people that either must dye for thirst or drinke blood if they forbeare they dye if they drinke in probability they perish blood being so incongruous drinke for the body of man Besides this though he had seene the Magicians doe the like yet they could not remove the judgement the Lord in his meere mercy without any suit of Pharaoh or of his people put an end after seven dayes to that great affliction yet notwithstanding this see the obduration of the wicked mans heart he had need of a new judgement to rouze him My observation is this How many blowes a hard heart will indure before it breake or be mollified See it in Balaam he was not warned by the Asses turning out of the way nor yet by the Asses rushing against the wall to the bruising of his foot nor yet by the Asses lying downe under him and opening his mouth against him his heart was set he loved the wages of unrighteousnesse on he goes So with Balack the King of Moab whom he served The first time he builds seven Altars and sacrificeth on them and the second time seven and the third time seven with more opportunity and though he saw that every time it was like a piece charged against another that recoyled upon himselfe though hee saw how frustranious and empty all his intendments and purposes were yet for all that he goes on in the hardnes of his heart God sought meanes to reclaime him hee defeated his purposes but he would not yeeld as if hee had held it an honour to be tenacious of his resolution against God Thus it was with Saul what a number of blowes did God give that hard heart of his before it would melt Every time he disappointed him in his pursuit of David it was a blow given to molifie his heart if it might have beene yet he goes on to a greater degree of iniquity and impiety and he reinforceth and reneweth his cursed endeavours against an innocent man If the heart of man be but of a mettall that is hard enough God knowes yet it may be melted though it be iron as Gregory Nazianzen saith it will melt in the fire but if the heart of man be that heart of stone Ezek. 11.19 well may it be broken but melt it will not And it is not easily

horrour and to tempt him after forty dayes fast and when he was an hungry and to tempt him with that that might soonest move a hungry stomach with provision of bread all these advantages God gratified the devill with that his glory might be the greater and the confusion of the devill more So afterward he suffered himselfe to be apprehended and nayled to the crosse and then they thought they had advantage enough nay to give up the ghost and to die and to grapple with death in his owne trenches yet his glory was greater by giving the devill that great advantage It was a great advantage the Philosopher had against that poore man in the Counsell of Nice the cunning Sophister came upon him with many arguments The other man in the plainnesse of his spirit so answered him for all his advantage in learning the poore man bunged up his mouth and converted him to the Christian faith What an advantage had the Pope against Luther when he rose up What an unequall combate was between them The one a poore Monk and against him all of the Church of Rome Lather had temporall and spirituall authoritie all against him to bury him under yet the worke of God was made more glorious by this and he lighted a candleithat by Gods blessing shall never be put out Well for the use of this Let us not bee too much dejected when God gives some advantage to the wicked though they have advantage of number and provision There is not the greatest man in the world but God hath a hooke for his nostrills It may bee God gives them these advantages for their greater ruines he racks them high that they may fall into the greater mischiefe God is able to send an Angell that in one night shall kill so many in the Host of Senacherib God is able to send a Panick feare among the Assyrians that shall make them run away as if they were mad men and leave their furnished tents to their enemies God is able to make the Midianites turne their of words into each others sides God is able by looking our of the pillar to confound the Egyptians in that manner that there shall not be one man left to earry the newes of the oyer throw And give me lewe to tell you we of the protestant faith have occasion to glorifie God God of late hath abated the pride and pulled down the insolencie and presumption met with the mighty in their devises and left those to losse that were proud of their owne number and provision Blessed be the Lord for his goodnesse It is the Lords doing and it ought to be mervaitous in our eyes and that heart that is not affected with it I dare say it hath not the power of Religion in it And that is the second Reason A third reason may bee this Moses gives leave to Pharaoh to pitch his time Why It may be Pharaoh would have held it some disparagement and dishonour if he should not have constituted his own time therefore Moses doth not stand with him in this but gratifies him he could as easily do it in his time as if he himself had appointed it Though he were a man of great command he will not vie with Pharaoh now but if he thinke it an honour to appoint the time he shall Indeed the children of God so God may bee glorified they do not greatly stand upon preheminence He will not vie with Pharaoh now for matter of appointing a day Gods Children so God may be glorified stand not upon termes of dignitie or preheminence The Lord saith to Cain in the case of Abel if it be preheminence that thou lookest for his desire shall bee subject to thee he shall not stand with thee for it Aaron though he were the elder he doth not stand upon it but is willing that Moses should have the preheminence And David though he were anoynted King in reversion after Saul yet he used Saul with all respect he would not invade any of his honours he would not envie him the glory that God had put upon him he would stay the time and tarry the opportunitie that God was pleased to accommodate for his advancement and when he was moved with the taking of the daughter of Saul in marriage he was not greatly moved with that So our blessed Lord himself did not stand upon titles of the world when he might have beene made a King he would not he fled away Why The Fathers give divers reasons Chrysostome saith that same humour of the people for the making him a King it grew from their gluttony they thought he was a fit man to be their King that could fit their Epicurious palate he goes away rather Saith the same Father he would give us an example to despise the dignities of the world and the honours of the same So Gregory to the same purpose he fled to give us an example of contemning the honours of the world Cyrill saith he did go away because he would shew that his Kingdome was not of this world But Austin in his 25. tract upon John hits upon this reason he would not be made a King that hee might give no way to any sedition or rebellion against the Romans as if he should have said I live under authority I content my selfe to be as I am I desire not to invade the priviledges of Princes in the name of God let them enjoy them you shall not oppose me to their power to contradict their greatnesse I will not do it So hee alwayes carried himself as one that cared not for the dignities of the world and was willing to leave them to those they belonged to So he counselled his Disciples Matth. 23. The Rulers of the Gentiles rule over you leave those authorities to them it is not fit for you to exercise them And Paul was not much moved with the great breadth and traine that the false Apostles carried though they exalted themselves by great titles He grieved for the dispersing of their leaven but for himself he was content to be accounted as nothing so God might be glorified For the use of it It should teach us all as Moses here to be indifferent in matters of honour and preheminence so we may alway preserve Gods glory that that be not impeached leave them to those that desire them and hunt after them as Haman that could indure none at the banquet but himself As Pompey and Cesar the one would not indure an equall the other not a superiou● As the Pharisees that did all to bee seene of men ●●ery creatures of vaine glory And Diotrephes a man that loved preheminence 3 Joh. 9. Let us in the feare of God approve our selves to God to have our consciences upright to him And if once we know Gods favour towards us we will slight all the dignities of the world and leave them to those Camelions that live by that ayre And to come to the point intended they are

Feaver if the night hath not more troubled you The day is comfortable the night is unpleasing and there are variety of objects and intercourse of friends and talking one with another that mitigate the paine that a man is deprived of in the night I will not draw the threed of this loope further but come to make use of it God makes his judgements fearfull to Pharaoh in his bed chamber in the night Let us night and day feare God Let us ever know that hee is able to afflict us not only as he did them in our bodies but as in Deat 28.67 They shall feare saith the Holy Ghost and in the evening shall say would God it were morning for the feare that shall be upon them God is able to bring frogs into a mans bed as he did to Pharaohs to disturbe him faith Iob When I said my bed shall comfort not then thou didst terrifie me Iob 7.13 And in verse 3. he speaks of wearisome nights And what saith David Psal 77. In the night season my sore ran and ceased not The night was a trouble to him as well as the day and more too Sufficient to the day is the evill thereof saith Christ Mat. 6. I would God the day were sufficient for the evill but even in the night season griefes are continued and improved The safe mantle of the night that covers much wickednesse Those sonnes of flarknesse rush upon Christ at midnight Theeves rise in the night and doe mischiefe Aulus Gellius saith They doe their wickednesse in the darke Licentiousnesse marcheth in the night Solomon saw the young man goe to the whore in the darke Iob saith The drunkards watch for the twilight Paul saith They that are drunke are drunke in the night I confesse the times were more modest then they are now for now that fin is become Daemon meridianus a noon day Devill for men can make indentures in the streets by the third hour of the day But now if men would consider that as they take liberty to sinne in the night so God is able to punish them in the night as well as in the day it would be a meanes to restraine them God is able to make the night more uncomfortable by farre then the day Hee can take thy rest from thee that thou shalt tumble and tosse upon thy bed and that many nights together till thou grow wild and speake as frantickly and as distempered as a man in Bedlam God can make thy bed thy racke he is able to send thee such a disease as is able to be improved in the night and thy torment shall increase When other men take their repose thy paine shall keepe thee waking Therefore in the name of God be fearfull of offending him thinke upon God in the night thinke thy selfe alway in his presence and in his eye not only in the day when civill honesty may keepe thee good but in the night when none but the eye of God looks on thee And that I may not make another point of it because it falls in with this As thou must thinke of God in the night and stand in awe of him let thy bed-chamber bee privy to it at all times God plagued Pharaoh in his bed chamber It may be because he would shew that his judgements can penetrate the greatest privacie for the field and the hall and the bed chamber and the closet are all one to God It may be also in some proportion to the sinne of Pharaoh I will not speake of his lust in his bed-chamber because I have no ground for it but it is more then probable that in his bed-chamber he hammered those cruelties against the Israelites therefore God might make this place uncomfortable to him The bed-chamber hath been noted to have been guilty of foule finnes It was guilty of evill counsell in the King of Assyria against Israel 2 King 6.12 Elisha discovered it And in Mica 2.1 There are those that imagine mischiefe upon their beds It hath been guilty of licentiousnesse Reuben clymbed up to his fathers bed and so alienated his affection And you know the tricke of Amnon that counterfeited sicknesse 2 Sam. 13. and perswaded his father to send his sister to make him cakes and she comming to his bed side he drew her and forced her Solomon Prov. 7. speakes of the harlot that had decked her bed and saith to the wilde young man Let us take our fill of love till the morning And St. Paul puts chambring and wantonnesse together Rom. 13. Chambering The Syriack translate it uncleane sleeping places Nay let me goe further in the state of matrimony and faire wedlocke the bed chamber may be made a place of sinne I may not I dare not tell you how lest when I reprove sinne I teach it As wee chalenge the Popish Casuists that have brought sinne to an Art by discovering iniquitie they teach men that that they never minded This I may be bold to say That it is a shame to speak of the things that are done by some men in secret Eph. 5. It is possible for a man to be drunke with the wine of his owne Cellar The bed-chamber is guilty of much uncharitablenesse for though they have so much civility as to draw themselves farre enough from the hearing of their family yet man and wife abuse one another upon their beds by disgracefull speeches and so sleep in uncharitablenesse oft-times So also it hath been full of slandering of others there is the place of censure Therefore Solomon was cautious and wise Eccles 10.20 when God said Curse not the King in thy bed-chamber Well let mee renew my Exhortation The bed-chamber as private as it is let it be a sanctified holy place and let a man thinke God may smite him there as he did Pharaoh Ishbosheth was wounded and slaine upon his bed 2 Sam. 4. And God saith The sword shall enter into the chamber Ierem. 21.14 Let a man thinke the bed hee goes up to may be the altar he shall be offered on When he lyes downe to sleep he commends himselfe to his elder brother death and he may sleep and sleep his last let him recommend himselfe to God If he have vacancie from sleep that he cannot rest let him reflect on his owne wayes and examin his heart and be still spend the time in prayer to God that that is his dormitorie may be his or atorie Surely David considered these good thoughts when he made his chamber his chappell and so should every man Gods judgements seize on him there as we see it besell Pharaoh he visited him in his bed-chamber It is like enough that it would not move Pharaoh much that his borders were filled with frogs but they must come into his house and into his bed-chamber My observation is The greatest Princes in the world if they offend God are not exempted from judgements Thy bed chamber It is not the greatest honour nor potencie nor power that can priviledge

them from judgement Psal 76.12 Saith David there God will be terrible to the Princes of the earth And Psal 82. Te shall dye as men and fall as one of the Princes We have instances enow of this in Scripture Abimelech sinned and was punished a great Prince So Adonnibezeck So likewise another Abimelech was slaine by a piece of a milstone Iudg. 9. So we read of Ahab and Saul and Iezebel great Princes mighty in their times We finde it in Sennacherib that came against Ierusalem with such as hoast a great Commander And Nebuchadnezzar that walked upon his Babel he had a great and large command a great latitude of dominions So in the third Herod and all those persecuters of the Church that as wilde Bores of the Wood laboured to roote out the Vineyard of God Beloved if there were no more that we did meet with of God making them the objects of his judgements then that they sicken and dye it were no great thing For surely they consist of the same principles that other inferiour persons doe When Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar Live for ever he meant another life for in regard of his temporall life he knew he was like his Image though the head were of gold the feet were of clay Surely as they consist of soule and body as well as others they have no stronger tyes and ligaments to keepe soule and body together then meaner men they have no more power over their breath then other men they are subject to sicknesse and casualties But wee speake of them as they are the objects of Gods displeasure What may be the ground of this that those who are so great in the world that the Lord should get the conquest over them and make them instances of his wrath There may be divers reasons given of it First their sinne and not simply their sinne but as their persons are advanced so usually their sinnes are of the first magnitude Those that are great sinne with a high hand they thinke they may sinne with priviledge And they are apt to heare parasiticall flatterers as Alexander had that what likes them they may doe As Iulia told Bashiana It was for them to give lawes and not to take them Therefore the Lord meets with them to humble the proud to pull downe these arrogant ones as in Iob 40. He pulls downe the mighty from their seat As it was with Pharaoh here that was in his ruffe before Who is the Lord But now hee findes a God higher then hee Secondly Princes and great persons are usually exempted from the reproofe of men As for the Lawes oft-times they are as cobwebs the great flyes breake through them who dares say to a Prince Thou art wicked Nay one saith concerning the Pope it is not lawfull to say Why doth he so Now when they are not within the compasse of humane reproofe God strikes them In Levit. 20. when the people winke at such offences Then will I set my face against him and cut him off saith the Lord he will take the matter into his owne hands Thirdly the punishment of great persons makes more for the glory of God for the greater the instances of Gods judgements be the more remarkable is his justice the more legible characters are read in the world of his impartiality Therefore in Rom. 9.17 it is said concerning Pharaoh I have set thee up that I might magnifie my power and that my name might be knowne to the ends of the earth He set him up as he would sinne so he made him an instance remarkable of his displeasure that all the world might feare and tremble And indeed it went farre and neare for the Priests of the Philistines when they consulted about the Arke saith 1 Samuel 6. Harden not your hearts as Pharaoh and the Egyptians did For the Use of it it should teach all great ones in the world to be wise to kisse the Sonne last he be angry and so they perish from the right way I know they are apt to know their eminency Herod can easily entertaine the voyce of the people The voyce of a God and not of a man And the stomach of the Pope is not so squemish but he can digest that speech Thou art another God on earth But they shall know that if they use their power to injustice and doe that that is dishonourable to the Prince of Princes the Lord of Lords the hand of God will be upon them as well as upon the meanest subject Nay the more mighty they are the more grievously they shall be afflicted and though they be Gods before men yet they are but men before God Let the Lord put them in the ballance and sinde them too light He will blow them away with the breath of his displeasure Certainly he will get him honour by the confusion of those that stand up in contumacy against him To the greatest of them all it may be said as it is Hest 4.13 Thinkest thou to escape though thou be in the Kings house more then the rest of the Iewes So may I say If thou be a Monarch of the whole earth if thou irritate Gods displeasure thinkest thou to escape I will build my nest in the mountaines saith the Edomite who shall pull me downe He that sits in heaven shall laugh thee to scorne He bindeth Kings in chaines and Robles in fetters of Iron He that threw downe Lucifer from being a Prince of light so he shall serve thee In the second place it should teach men of inferiour condition and yet have something to beare themselves out with in the world Be not proud though thou have wealth it may be honour above thy brethren and art as Saul higher by the head then thy fellowes presume not too much thinke not to be free from judgements if thou offend For if thou wouldest give ten thousand rams and a thousand rivers of oyle the fruit of thy body for the sinne of thy soule it will not doe Riches availe not in the day of wrath but righteousnesse delivereth from death Prov. 11.14 Here an under officer or Sheriffe may bee feed to forbeare the execution of his office but it is not so with the arrest of God If God say to the rich foole This night shall they take away thy soule the Subpaena will not be answered but with his appearance if hee would give all his full barnes to be released Thirdly it is an item to all to admire Gods justice and impartiality and equity that sinites the tall Cedars as well as the low shrubs and thistles Should God avenge himself upon the common people that are called Cursed and connive at the sinnes of Princes there might bee some cause of wonder but when God shall punish one as well as another who shall dare to say but his wayes are equall Fourthly stand in awe to please him if hee punish Princes he will pesants if he smite the high Towers he will the inferiour Zeph. 1.8

counterfeits the workes of God how should we labour for fincerity And this will difference us from all the hypocrites in the world The Painter can paint the colour of flame and the bowing forme but not the heat So an hypocrite may goe as a Saint in outward performances he may fast and pray and communicate and give almes and what can he not doe but when it comes to sincerity of soule there is a broad difference they are wide the whole heavens Therefore let us labour to have our hearts upright and then God will passe by many infirmities where hee sees sincerity Far be it from us of being ambitious of so much holinesse as may make the world only believe that we are religious It is the fault of many that resort to the congregations to get an opinion Let us not desire to please men but to love God and to please him our care being alway to please God and not to deceive the world and cousen them We may draw a mist before their eyes easily to cousen them they judge by our words and workes and cannot goe further but God judgeth the heart If he see us as the apples of Sodome as a faire glove on a foule hand and like the Sepulchres that Christ speakes of that within are full of rottennesse we shall have the greater judgement There be too many of these braggers as Basil calls them those that make a shew of what they are not The time will come when God will wash off this seeming with rivers of brimstone An hypocrite certainly if there be any place lower in hell he shall have it So I have done with the third question One observation more before I leave the verse that shal be profitable These Magicians resembled the rod brought serpents and after turned the water into bloud and now the third time they satisfie Pharaoh so farre that he thinkes that they were true frogs that they brought so he seemed to stand out against the judgement of God for the time See how farre God suffers wicked practises to prosper and succeed the first second and third time There are many examples of this in Scripture Iosephs brethren you know what they did to their brother and how cleane they carried it away after they had dipped his coat in bloud and brought it to their old father the poore credulous old man he thought indeed a wilde beast had devoured him and so they stand as upright in his opinion as before This slept twenty years they went cleare David himselfe had a minde to Bathsheba he sends for her she comes and becomes pregnant by him he desires to enjoy her without a rivall her husband stands in the way he sends a letter and causeth him to be slaine every thing prospers according to his desire So Ahab and Iezebel shee gets letters written and sends to the Judges they entertaine them and subborne false witnesses Naboth is convinced condemned and stoned Ahab comes and takes possession there is not a rubbe in all these smooth paths So the accusers of Daniel they get the King to make an edict to trap the good man every thing succeeds they have not a rub till he comes and was cast into the den We see in experience the lustfull man here he layes a bait and sees a base fellow to be officious to him his minde is satisfied as Amnons was upon his sister So with the covetous man he that sets it downe with a full resolution that he will be rich he takes these and these unjust courses they prosper and succeed his ships come home his merchandize come in hee attaines that hee would have So the ambitious man he is officious with this courtier and flatters and soothes with that he ascends up by degrees all the rounds of honour till hee come to be the only man So the avengefull man hee attaines his purpose as we see Absolom he makes no question all is done and he himselfe shall not be detected by any body they were willing to punish Amnon and so he continues without repentance Some man may aske the reason how it comes to passe that these wicked businesses should succeed and prosper and goe on with incouragement First God will shew mercy to the vessells of wrath Rom. 9. that wicked men may be inexcusable when hee shall rise to judgement God shall say I was long before I pulled my hand out of my bosome Secondly the Lord doth it in just judgement because wicked men contemne his grace and favour for the further obduration of them As in Rom 1. when they turned the glory of God into the similitude of a beast that eateth hay God turned them up to their owne lusts to be transported with their owne affections and they received thereby the recompence of their sinne Thirdly God doth this for the triall of his children To goe no further then this instance Was it not a wondrous probate of Moses and Aarou to see these men prosper what the first second and third time to be successefull Moses comes with this perswasion to the land of Egypt that he should doe those signes in the fight of Pharaoh that should not only convince them but incline them to a dismission of the people and now to be matched with a company of Inchanters All their glory and authority lay upon these workes and now for these to doe these the first second and third time how did this set backe the worke of God For if Pharaoh were fomented in his obstinacie how could they expect deliverance this was a great probate of them and God intended it for that purpose For the Use of this remember alway that successe is a poore ground to justifie an action upon The heathen-man could say in his time Felix c. If one have successe in wickednesse it is accounted a virtue Dionysius after he had robbed Esculapius Temple and had a faire wind he thought that the Gods loved sacriledge And it may be Ieroboam loved Idolatrie the better because he heard of the Prophets punishment that was seduced that spake against the Altar And those in Ier. 44. thought well of offering cakes to the Queene of heaven because they had all abundance Like the argument that one makes for the restitution of the Idolatrie of Rome because it is a flourishing Commonwealth Among Bellarmines arguments one of his notes of the Church is Externall felicity The successe of things is but a poore ground to goe upon yet many men reason so in these times As the worldly man will say that the Minister saith oft that God will plague such and such sinnes as I know my selfe guilty of yet I finde no checke of conscience no man is able to controll mee I prosper in my bames as well as another man and my come is as thicke and my line holds my businesse prospers I thinke that God is not so offended with me as some ministers talke of Many a man nourisheth his heart as in a

day of slaughter because of successe Poore deluded soule that art conscious to thy self that thy wayes are naught and yet justifieth it because of successe God is a patient and long-suffering God and suffers people to goe on as he did Pharaoh into the middle of the sea and there cut off his chariots He suffers them to goe a while not that they shall alway prosper but to make the cup more bitter after long prosperity See it in all the examples before see if they did not repent themselves of that peace that they enjoyed Iosephs brethren carried it away smoothly but God comes to a sharpe reckoning in the conclusion they were in a great agony they knew not how to extricate themselves So David he went smoothly for a time but after it cost him many a teare he made his bed to swim So Ahab he wished a thousand times he had not meddled with the vineyard the sawce was so sharpe with the meat So Daniels accusers they reaped the judgement they intended against him the Lions had power over them they repented that ever they stirred that stone So many covetous men in the world that have gathered goods by oppression his line holds for a time it may be for his owne life but who hath not seen the judgement of God on his posterity that a man may read the fathers sin in the childes punishment So the revengefull the lustfull the ambitious man God comes home to them and so he will to others Men may laugh and rejoyce because of successe take heed when the reckoning is paid God will rise in judgement and then woe to those that thrive in wicked wayes It is the observation of a Father all things are said of the rich man Luke 16. in the time past There was a rich man and he fared deliciously every day and he was cloathed in purple and thou hast received all thy good So these people the time will come when they shall be forced to say they had their profit and their pleasure here according to their desire and so they have had all that good that ever they shall have they must be content with it there is no more now but an expectation of wrath and mischiefe the cup of the Lord is full it is mingled the wicked of the earth shall sucke the dregs of it In the second place censure not Gods providence nor justifie the wicked because they thrive and prosper in their wayes and courses and designes Fret not thy selfe for the wicked Psal 37. David was much taken with it Psal 73. he saith That his foot had nigh slipped when he saw the prosperity of the wicked Ieremiah desired to dispute with God upon this theame The broad spreading bay-tree of the wicked moves emulation in the children of God they thinke they have cleansed their hands in vaine But goe into the Sanctuary and there you shall see that God hath set them in slippery places Though their line hold here yet those lines tye them to judgement they shall be tyed as the vulture to the heart of Titius Pity them their woe is to come Where is the children of God having had hardship in this world shall have a blessed compensation in the world to come I should come to the second event the removall of this judgement I will only touch one thing in the front and so commit you to God It is like enough that Pharaoh sent to the Magicians to know if they could remove the judgement he found them unable or else he would not intreat Moses and Aaron to do it Here is that that will make Pharaoh unexcusable for it hath beene questioned whether Pharaoh were not excusable in holding out against the command of God and the commission of Moses because he was thus deluded by his Inchanters For say they how could he be perswaded that Moses came from God with a speciall command when his owne Inchanters did the like so they extenuate his sinne But suppose they did it by as great power and divine vertue as Moses and Aaron and he had no reason to think that Moses and Aaron were any better yet this is unexcusable that they could not remove the judgement So let men have never so many pretences there is somewhat that will hold conscience still that it will never give out of the hands of it The conscience will be hampered with something let the wicked man have ten thousand Apologies there is somewhat that will hold conscience whereby it will be snared to judgement Iosephs brethren can say much for themselves for the slaughter of the Sychemites that they did it in a way to vindicate the honour of their family Should he use our sister as a where but there is one thing that makes it hold sinne the abuse of the ordinance of God to make it a midwife to deliver them of their sinne So Saul may make a fair glosse that he had spared the goods of the Amalekites for sacrifice but there is one thing that holds him what is that that he had gone expressely against the command of God for he bad him spare none So Ahab had much to say for himselfe he came upon faire tearmes to Naboth for his vineyard he offered him money besides he knew what Ahab was But there is one thing that will have power over him what is that that his wife should have power over his seale to frame a letter to undoe the man So the Scribes and Pharisees they put it off Did we persecute this man Wilt thou bring this mans blood upon us we did it in zeale hee seemed to oppose the law of Moses but one thing will hold them to judgement because it was malice in them against Christ because he reproved them so plainly that they could never claw it off For the Use of it Never thinke when you come to Judgement of Apologies and fig-leaves that will be too narrow for your nakednesse away with these subterfuges and starting holes God never brings a man to judgement but he hath enough to judge him for by the testimony of his owne conscience as Pharaoh here that when he knew it must be of God yet he was hardened The conscience as it is a register in man at the day of Judgement it will be an accuser of man and justifie Gods most severe proceedings against him So much for this time THE SEVENTH SERMON Vpon EXOD. CHAP. 8. VERS 8. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron and said Intreat the Lord that he may take a way the frogs from me and from my people and I will let the people goe that they may doe sacrifice to the Lord. NOw we come to the second event that is the removall of the judgement Wee must consider First how it is motioned and intreated for in verse 8. Then how Moses engageth himselfe to performe it verse 9 10 11. Thirdly how he acts and performes it in deed and puts it in execution in verse 12 13 14. The first