consolation God never suffers his children to meet with a huge unremoveable difficulty like the stone before the doore of the Sepulcher but he sends some Angell or other to remove it away 5. You have an incouraging Captaine even the Lord Jesus who is the great Peace-maker Who is our peace when the Assyrian is in the Land Micah 7. 9. He hath taken downe the partition wall he hath made our peace with God Let the deepes of our civill warre call upon the deepes of peace that are in Christ Let us beseech the great Peace-maker to take downe the great partition wall betweene King and Parliament to make Father and Sonne of one mind If Christ makes the peace it must needs be good Jesus Christ came into the world when the Jewes were in the saddest condition in the depth of slavery for the Scepter was departed from Iudah and in the depth of divisions for they had so many severall Sects as they could hardly tell what Religion they were off In this sad condition Shiloh came Let us beseech Jesus Christ to come into England in this low estate and to bring peace with him even that Christ who descended into the lowest parts of the Earth for our sakes and whose love is a depth that cannot be fathomed Ephes. 3. 17 18. The deepes of our misery call upon the depth of his love and mercy that God for Christ sake would pardon our abysse of sinnes both personall and nationall and bring us out of our abysse of miseries both personall and nationall 6. You have incouraging company you have the Lord of Hosts to accompany you and I may say without the least degree of uncharitablenes you have the major part of Gods people on your side 7. You have incouraging weapons prayers and teares fasting and humiliation As Ambrose spake to Austins mother by way of incouragement That a Sonne of so many teares could not miscarry So may I say and I hope proove a true Prophet That a Nation of so many prayers and teares shall not be destroyed God never yet destroyed a Nation wherein there were so many of his children praying fasting humbling themselves and especially at such a time when they are entring into a solemne Covenant of reforming their lives as now we are if they indeavour to doe these things with all their heart and soule 8. You have incouraging threatnings against the enemies of Gods Church God hath threatned Zach. 12. 2 3 6. to make Jerusalem a cup of poyson and all that offer to swallow Ierusalem shall be poysoned with it to make Jerusalem a burdensome stone and all that thinke to crush Ierusalem shall be crushed by Jerusalem to make him like a fire and all his enemies like wood to be devoured by him God hath threatned concerning the plots of your enemies Psalm 64. 5 6 7 8 9 10. This Scripture is this day fulfilled in your eares The Lord give us grace to declare his works and wisely to consider of his doings God hath likewise accomplished those two rare Scriptures Psal. 7. 14 15 16 17. Psal. 9. 15 16. Let us adde our part Let us praise the Lord according to his righteousnesse let us sing praise to the name of the Lord most high Higgaion Selah 9. You have the incouraging providence of God The great and wise God who is our Father hath from all eternity decreed what shall be the issue of these warrs There is nothing done in the lower House of Parliament upon earth but what is decreed in the higher House of Parliament in Heaven All the lesser wheeles are ordered and over-ruled by the upper wheeles An excellent Story of a Young-man that was at Sea in a mighty tempest and when all the passengers were at their wits end for feare he onely was merry and when he was ask'd the reason of his mirth he answered That the Pilot of the Ship was his Father and he knew his Father would have a care of him Our heavenly Father is our Pilot he sits at the sterne and though the Ship of the Kingdome be ready to finke yet be of good comfort Our Pilot will have a care of us Are not five sparrowes saith Christ sold for two farthings and not one of them is forgotten before God One sparrow is not worth halfe a farthing You shall not have halfe a farthings worth of harme more then God hath from all eternity decreed God hath all ourenemies in a chaine And if a child saw a Lion or a Beare in his deare Fathers hand chained so as he might be secure his Father could keepe the chaine from being burst he would not be afraid And this we are sure God can doe A 1000000. Cyphars stand for nothing unlesse a figure be joyned to them All men and devils are but cyphars without God An hoast of men is nothing without the Lord of hoast The devill cannot goe beyond his tedder Ob. But God permits the enemy to exercise great cruelty upon his own people and to take away the lives of his choisest servants witnes the Noble Lord Brooke and now lately that worthy Gentleman M. Hampden Answ. 1. Let us not be troubled that God permits our enemies to doe us so much hurt but rather be comforted that they can doe nothing but what our wise and most loving God permits and fore-decrees for the good of his children 2. I answer with our blessed Saviour Feare not them that can but kill the body and after that can do no more It is no great matter in Christs opinion to have the body killed The body is but the Cabinet the Iewell is the soule And if the Iewell be safe in Heaven no great matter to have the Cabinet broken It is said of King Iosiah that he should goe to his grave in peace and yet he died in a battell He that dyeth with the peace of a good conscience dieth in peace though he be killed in a battell Blessed is the man that breaths out his last breath in doing God service He that dies fighting the Lords battels dies a Martyr An excellent thing for a Minister to die preaching and a souldier die fighting It is but winking with our eyes as the Martyr said and we are presently in Heaven Blessed and twice blessed are those that die in the Lord and for the Lord 3. God many times takes away his choisest servants because we idolize them too much as he did the King of Sweden And also because he would teach us to trust only to his helpe who will deliver us by weake instruments when he takes away strong and able Instruments that he may have all the glory Lastly You have incouraging experiments And surely if any Nation under Heaven may reason from experience and rely upon experiences this Nation may God hath delivered us from the Beare and the Lion from the Spanish navy in Eighty eight and since from the Gun-pouder Treason from Civill warres betweene Scotland and England And when there
of Iron He toucheth the Mountaines and they smoake If thou beest as a Mountaine in greatnesse and thy sinnes as Mountaines in greatnesse God will make thee smoake c. Great men must labour to be like the great God who is as great in goodnesse as in greatnesse Deus optimus maximus like unto Iob who was the greatest man in the East and the best man in the East O that I could engage great men this day in sense of Gods goodnesse expressed in this wonderfull Deliverance for which weare come to blesse God to serve God with all the Ingredients for the time to come better then ever they have done for the time past Oh that you would enter into a solemne Covenant to sweare no more to commit adultery no more to be irreverent negligent cold hypocriticall in Gods service no more to mock and scoffe at Gods servants no more Greatnes without goodnesse is like the greatnesse of a dropsie man it is thy disease not thy ornament Riches without righteousnesse is like a golden ring in a Swines snout like a Sword in a mad mans hand like an Vnicorns horne which while it is upon the head of the Unicorne is hurtfull and deadly but when it is taken off it is very usefull and medicinall Honours and riches when in a wicked mans custody they do much hurt but when bestowed upon good men they doe much good It is a most blessed conjunction when Religion and Righteousnesse meet together It is like a precious Diamond in a gold-ring Indeed Religion is good wheresoever it is As a pearle is good though it be in the dirt it is a pearle but it is obscured by the dirt in which it is When goodnesse is seated in a poore man it is like a jewell in a leaden ring like a candle under a bushell But when goodnesse meets with greatnesse it is like a Candle upon a hill that gives light heat and influence to all the Country round about Let no great man thinke it a disparagement to serve God to weare his livery and to appeare on his side For it is Gods service onely that can make you truly honourable Since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast bin honourable saith the Prophet Isaiah 43. 4. The men of Beraea were more noble then the men of Thessalonica because they received the word with all readinesse of mind and searched into the Scriptures daily whether those things were so Act. 17. 11. This is the greatest Nobility to be a true servant of the great God A King may give great Titles to a great man but he cannot make a great man A King may cause a man to be called noble but he cannot make a man truly noble A King may command us to call a Lion a Lambe but a King cannot make a Lion a Lambe It is the noble mind that makes a man truly noble This God onely can give To contemne the world and all worldly things to mind the things of eternity to conquer our lusts to have communion with the great God to stand for God when all the world opposeth him this is true nobility This will make thee noble in this world and in the world that is to come I say againe Let no great man account it a disparagement to be Gods servant Let him not only consider the example of Ioshua a Prince and Ruler and of David and Paul before named but also of Constantine the great who was so attentive to the word when it was preached and so reverent as that he would sometimes stand up as Eusebius saith all the while And when his Courtiers rebuked him saying It would tend to his disparagement He answered That it was in the service of the great God who is no respecter of persons Take the example of Theodosius who is reported to have written out the New-Testament with his owne hand accounting it as a speciall Jewell and out of it he read every day praying with his Empresse and with his sister singing of Psalmes c. Suffer me to adde the third time Let not great men thinke it a disparagement to become Gods servants and to serve him strictly and precisely If these examples will not move you consider the Angels of Heaven who are our Fellow-servants and are said by a kind of excellency To doe his Commandements hearkning to the voice of his word The Angels serve God with a great deale of alacrity and chearefullnesse and therefore they are said to have harpes as a signe of their chearefull mind The Angels serve God with a great deale of diligence and sedulity And therefore they are said to have wings and to fly They serve God with a great deale of zeale and ardency and therefore they are said to be a flaming fire And therefore also the title of a Seraphim is given unto them The Angels serve God universally They follow the Lambe wheresoever he goeth They serve him constantly sincerely The Angels alwaies behold his face Mat. 18. 10. They serve him day and night Revel. 7. 15. Oh that the Lord would make you more and more Angelicall in his service to doe his will upon earth as it is done in Heaven Let me adde an example beyond all examples even the example of Iesus Christ himselfe who is called Gods servant Esa. 42. 1. And he was a worshipper of God Joh. 4. 22. A diligent keeper of Gods Sabbath Luk. 4. 16. He used Praier in his familie Luk. 9. 18. He was wont to pray secretly by himselfe Luk. 5. 16. And he used this custome of Prayer morning and evening In the morning Mark 1. 35. rising up a great while before daie And for evening Mat. 14. 23. And this was his custome to doe Luk. 22. 39. He went as he was wont to the Mount of Olives And sometimes he would pray all night long Luk. 6. 12. And this worship Christ did with as much submission and devotion as ever any servant did Luk. 22. 41. Mat. 26. 39. If Christ did all this surely it is no dishonour for the greatest Emperour to doe that which Christ hath done As you are called Christians so you must imitate that Lord and Master by whose name you are called Let no man wonder that I spend so much time to perswade great men to be exemplary in Gods service and to be diligent and zealous For if I could convert but one great man this day I should doe a great deale of service by way of eminency For as he said In uno Caesare multi insunt Marij in one great man there are many inferiours contained As it is in Printing the great difficulty is in printing the first Sheetes and when one is printed it is easie to print hundreds by that So the great worke of our Ministery is to convert great-men if they were once converted hundreds would follow their example When the great wheele of a Clocke is set a moving all the inferiour wheeles will move of
times to know what Israel ought to doe It is wisedome to observe times so as to know our duty But it is damnable wickednesse to serve the times and not the Lord to ring changes as the times change 3. To reprove such that choose to serve themselves and not the Lord That set up themselves as God and doe whatsoever is good in their own eyes and make their wills their Scripture This is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} This is selfe worship and selfe Idolatry which is the greatest Idolatry of all It is the greatest curse under Heaven for God to give a man over to himselfe to live as he list Psalm 81. 11 12. Rom. 1. 26. I have read of one given over to the Devill for his good but never of any given over to himselfe but for his damnation And therefore Austin prayeth Lord deliver me from my selfe Let it be our prayer Lord give me not over to my selfe Fourthly I am to reprove such that choose to serve sinne and not the Lord It is one thing to be a sinner another thing to be a servant of sinne A servant of sinne is one that gives himselfe over to the service of sinne that is bound apprentise to sinne Observe the difference betweene Paul and Ahab Paul was sold under sinne but it was against his will But Ahab sold himselfe willingly to worke wickednesse Many such Ahabs that serve sinne as the Centurion servants served him If sinne bid goe they goe Such a slave was Herod to his Herodias Felix to his Drusilla Such servants are swearers and drunkards that are at the service of their Oathes and Cups There are many men that are slaves to the Mammon of iniquity That doe not only possesse money but are possessed of money that are had of money that with Iudas will sell Jesus Christ himselfe for 30. peeces of silver There are many that are slaves to their preferments that say with Agrippina concerning Nero Peream ego modo ille imperet That sell their part in Heaven to get a little honour here upon earth And to speake my mind plainely there are two sinnes which are as two mighty Loadstones to draw hundreds from the Parliaments side Covetousnesse and Ambition Could the Parliament feed these sinnes as well as they are fed at Oxford our miserable distractions would quickly be at an end What made Baalam goe to Balak At first he said If Balak would give me his house full of gold and silver I cannot goe beyond the word of the Lord but yet afterwards being mad after the wages of iniquity he went and did much hurt to Gods people but it was to his own ruine at last and this will be the end of all those that are the servants of sinne The Apostle speakes excellently For when ye were servants of sinne ye were free from righteousnesse What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death In which words the Apostle teacheth us that the service of sinne is both shamefull and damnable First it is shamefull For to serve sinne is to serve the Devill Ioh. 8. 44. Oh that the world would beleeve this that when they serve pride and covetousnesse and ambition c. they serve the Devill And therefore Cyprian brings in the Devill upbraiding Christ Ostende mihi tot servos qui tibi c. Shew me if thou canst so many servants that have served them so diligently and so willingly as I can shew that have served me If the Devill should appeare in humane shape you would think it horrible Idolatry to adore him and yet when you obey sinne you doe this and worser then this for sinne is worser then the Devill The Devill is Gods creature but sinne hath nothing of God in it Sinne is the Devils excrement as Barnard saith And it must needs be a loathsome service to be servant to so vile a thing Secondly It is a cursed and damnable service for the wages of sinne is death How comes it then to passe that sinne hath so many servants Because sinne deales with sinners as the Philistims did with Sampson First it puts out our eyes that we should not see the vilenesse and cursednesse of sinne and then it puts us in the mill to grind as sinnes slave And therefore Christ sent Paul to the Gentiles to open their eyes c. Acts 26. 18. This was his first worke The Lord open our eyes to see the shamefulnesse and damnablenesse of sinnes service 2. To reproove those that make Ioshuas choise but not with Ioshuas ingredients That choose to serve God but doe not serve him undividedly everlastingly sincerely zealously reverently c. We live in an age wherin God had never more servants and yet never lesse service as one saith There are many Divines but few that live like Divines So God hath many servants but few that doe him service There are some that divide betweene the service of God and the service of sinne like the false Mother that would have the child divided As Cambden reports of Redwald King of the East-saxons the first Prince of this Nation that was baptized yet in the same Church he had one Altar for Christian Religion another Altar for Heathenish religion So there are many such false-worshippers of God that divide the rooms of their soules betweene God and the Devill that sweare by God and by Malcham Zeph. 1. 5. that sometimes pray and sometimes curse that sometimes goe to Gods house sometimes to a Play-house that are of a Mungrill-religion halting betweene God and Baal Heteroclites in Religion but God cannot endure this division This is to set thy threshold by Gods threshold Ezek. 43. 8. This is to set the Arke and Dagon together which God will never endure God cares not for one halfe of thy heart if sinne and the Devill hath the other halfe There are others that serve God but their service is but as a morning cloud and as an early dew it quickly vanisheth of whom I may say justly that which Nabal did unjustly of David There are many servants now a dayes that breake away every man from his Master Many now a dayes and more in our dayes then in former dayes We live in an Apostatizing age wherein there are many falling Starres but few fixed Starres Many that were once whiter then milke as Rubies and polished Saphires in regard of their glorious profession but now they are blacker then acoale they are withered and become like a stick That were yesterday Gods people but to day are turned enemies To these I say as S. Peter doth Better they had never known the way of righteousnesse c. 2 Pet. 2. 20. This relapse makes thy condition the worse as relapses in all kinds are most dangerous And it is also a signe thou esteemest the service of sinne
that seemed to you as a god how miserably I am inforced to depart from you all In the Old World there were Giants and mighty Anakims men great in power and greater in sinne Their sinnes were Giant-like and God sent a mighty flood to destroy them The sinnes of Superiours as they are more visible then the sinnes of inferiours as the Ecclipse of the Sunne is sooner seene then the Ecclipse of a Starre and a wart upon the face is sooner seene then upon another part so also they doe a great deale more hurt and therefore their condemnation shall be the greater They doe more hurt two wayes by imitation and by imputation 1. By imitation Therefore Ieroboam is said to make all Israel to sinne because his Idolatrous example made all Israel to sinne When Saul fell upon his Sword his Armourbearer seeing the King to doe so fell also upon his Sword and killed himselfe When great men fall into sinne they fall as men that fall in a croud drawing many others downe with them The Persians thought a crooked Nose to be a great ornament because their Emperour Cyrus had a crooked Nose And because Alexander the Great had a wry Neck his Courtiers did all strive to goe awry with their Necks The bodies of men are not so subject to be infected by the illnesse of the aire as the soules of men by the vices of their Rulers Secondly By imputation For though it be a certaine truth That God never punisheth an innocent Nation The soule that sinneth shall dye Yet it is as certaine That God doth oftentimes take an occasion to punish a sinnefull Nation by imputing the punishment of the Rulers sinne upon the people or rather by punishing the people for their sinnes and the Ruler in the people Quicquid delirant Reges plectuntur Achivi David had sinned in numbring the people and for this sinne 70000. of his people must perish by the plague No doubt the Israelites were grievous sinners and so it is expresly said 2 Sam. 24. 1. But the most just God at the same time punished the people and David also in the losse of his subjects As it is no wrong in a Judge to make the back of a Theefe pay for the sinne which his hand hath committed no more is it injustice in God to punish the members of a politick body when the head is in fault So neere is the union betweene Prince and people and so prone are the people to follow the sinnes of their Princes and so to partake of their punishments And therefore if the sinnes of great men bring poore people into miseries it is just and equall that great men should be brought into misery for those sinnes for which they bring others into misery But besides this There are two other reasons why God will be sure to punish great men when they are great offenders 1. Because the punishing of great men doth a great deale more good then the punishing of others For hereby it appeares that God is no respecter of persons Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that doth evill and first upon the Rulers and Nobles and then upon others And hereby also inferiours and poore people are kept under subjection to Gods law when they perceive that their superiours cannot escape without Gods severe chastisement As in a Schoole when the Master picks out one of the greatest youths in the Schoole and whips him for a fault all the little boyes sit and tremble and learne to avoid those faults for which they see their betters punished Thus when Goliah the great was slaine all the Philistimes fled away presently The beholding of Gods severe punishments upon great ones will be a notable Sermon to make inferiours godly and religious 2. Because unles God did punish great men they would escape altogether unpunished Great men by mony by might and authority by friends and through feare for the most part are free from Civill and Ecclesiasticall censures And therefore it behoves the high Iehovah to take them into his own hand and to bring great men into great pressures if they sin greatly against him I have read a notable speech in a Popish writer That few Confessours of rich men are saved that is in our English language Few Noble-mens Chaplaines are saved And the reason he gives is Because they are subject to flatter their Lords and Masters for hope of preferment and so to bring the guilt of the bloud of the soules of their Lords upon their owne soules Now that I may not be guilty of this fault let me speake my mind freely to you that are Gentlemen and Noble-men here assembled this day First let me tell you that great places as they are great abilities and opportunities to doe God service and great blessings if improved accordingly So if they be not improoved for that end they are great curses they are soule-traps silken-halters golden damnations And there cannot be a greater signe of a man that hath his Heaven in this life then to be great and wicked rich and wicked And therefore Abraham tels Dives Luc. 16. 25. Remember sonne that thou in thy life time hast had thy good things but now thou art tormented Gregory the great never read this Text but it made him tremble and it may justly cause all such as are cloathed in purple and fare deliciously every day to tremble Consider further that Text 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called There are some noble men called but not many There are but few that are great and rich here and great and rich hereafter A Text to be trembled at by great men The Ostrich is not able to fly high as the Larke because her wings are so big The Moone is never in the ecclipse but when it is in the full and then it is most distant from the Sunne Fullnesse of outward prosperity and happinesse should indeed be maximum vinculum obedientiae the greatest bond of obedience but yet it proves for the most part maximus laqueus Diaboli the greatest snare the Devill hath to entrap our soules This is the reason why so few of the Noble-men and Gentlemen of the Kingdome appeare on the Parliaments side in this great time of necessity Not many mighty not many noble are called Thus it was in Christs time The great men and the great Schollars crucified Christ and the poore received the Gospell The followers of Christ were a company of poore people and silly women This made the chiefe Priests say Joh. 7. 48 49. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him But this people who knoweth not the Law are accursed Thus it was in Christs time and thus it is in ours Poore Lazarus goeth to Heaven when rich Dives is carried to Hell Surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum nos cum nostrâ doctrinâ mergimur in profundum