rejoyced over you to do you good and to multiply you so the Lord will rejoyce over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought Deut. 28.63 2. There can be no suitablenesse of affections and dispositions where persons are not agreed What one loves the other will hate what one desireth the other abhorreth what delights the one vexeth the other If one of them be merry the other will be sad or sullen or angry And this must needs make them shun all walking and converse together This also is the case between God and men untill they be agreed There is no suitablenesse of disposition but rather an antipathy If God love the good and hate the evil men will hate the good and love the evil Mich. 3.2 If God delight in him that is upright in his way Prov. 11.20 the same man is an abhomination to the wicked Prov. 29.27 If they know he delights not in such or such a thing they will make choice of that the rather they choose that wherein I delight not saith the Lord Isa 65.12 If God rejoyce in doing good they will rejoyce in doing evil When thou doest evil then thou rejoycest Ier. 11.15 And upon this ground it is that God and they cannot walke together For therefore it is that the Lord seems there to stand and wonder at his peoples coming into his house What hath my beloved to do in my house as if he should say what mean they to come so neer me that are so crosse to me in disposition we can have no entercourse together we must needs forbear company There must be agreement in disposition before there be a walking together with any content and affection 3. They who are not agreed do ever crosse and clash in all their projects and designes so as if they do happen to converse together for a while by reason of some common relations or publike imployments they will yet under-hand at least undermine and thwart one another as Hushai did Achitophel h 2 Sam. 17.14 So it is with men whom the Lord is pleased sometimes so farre to walke with as to make use of them in some speciall services that he sets them upon They may perhaps carry on his worke so long as Gods way and theirs lye together but they have ever a designe of their own in their eye contrary to Gods designe and they will carry on their own whatever become of His. Therefore God useth them so farre as to bring his own counsels to passe by them and in the conclusion he falls upon them and breaks them to pieces when he hath no further use of them And so he that can be content to walke with them that is to assist and prosper them while they be imployed in doing his worke will walke no longer with them when his worke is done Thus Gods end in sending the Assyrian as the rod of his anger against an hypocriticall nation was only to humble them for their sins But the Assyrian meant not so neither did his heart thinke so He meant to make a conquest of them for himselfe not to subdue them unto God The issue therefore was that when the Lord had performed his whole worke upon mount Zion and upon Ierusalem he would punish the fruit of the stout heart of the King of Assyria and the glory of his high looks Isa 10.11 So Gods end in setting up Iehu to cut off the house of Ahab was to execute justice on Ahab for his Idolatries Iehu is willing to undertake the service the reward whereof was no lesse then a Kingdome And so farre as concerned the destruction of Ahab let Iehu alone he would not be long about it For no sooner was he anointed although but in a private room but he vigorously set upon it i 2 King 9.13 But when he had cut off Ahabs house he so much minded a Crown that whatever his Zeal for the Lord was he would rather be as grosse an Idolater as ever Ahab was then hazard the losse of a Kingdome so suddenly and easily gotten by destroying those Idols which Ahab worshipped Therefore however God rewarded him according to his promise with a lineal succession to that Crown to the fourth generation yet this word being made good the Lord would walke no longer with him but avenged upon the house of Iehu that very blood which by Gods command he shed in Jezreel because of his hypocrisie and selfishnesse in the doing of it And so the Lord utterly destroyed both him and his house 4. Where there is no Covenant stricken there can be no constant walking together although there should be a kinde of truce or temporary agreement for a season Men that desire a firme and perpetuall amity and entercourse use to settle their agreement by the strongest bond of a mutuall Covenant as Ionathan and David Now then when men will not come to a Covenant keeping as well as a Covenant making with God it is impossible they should long agree or walke together Their hearts will fit loose from each other and every trifling occasion will make a breach It is an everlasting Covenant that is the foundation of perpetuall friendship and of walking constantly together in a way of love Therefore when God would assure his people that he would walke with them for ever in a way of grace and love he saith I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turne away from them to do them good Jer. 32.40 And they also do the like with him Ier. 50.5 Come say they and let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Covenant that shall not be forgotten Where then there is no Covenant smitten there can be no constant walking together because such are without God in the world Ephes 2.12 that is without any solid interest in him or league and agreement with him that may be a foundation of constant mercy from him And now Right Honourable and Beloved give me leave in the Vse and application of this Point to deal plainly and faithfully as for God and from God before whom ye are come this day to humble your souls and to seek of him a further blessing upon your selves and all the three Kingdomes yea so to take hold of God as to prevail with him to walke together with us in a way of blessing and mercy for ever And first this Point will helpe us to judge what is like to Vse 1 be the issue and event of all those concussions and convulsions under which we labour in this time of universall earthquake that at present seems to the eye of sense at least to threaten the demolishing and swallowing up of all the Churches of Christ and how farre we may expect Gods walking with us in our troubles It cannot without great ingratitude and impudence be denied that He hath graciously walked with our Parliament all the time of their sitting even five years together within five dayes * This Parllament
THE NECESSITY OF Agreement with GOD OPENED IN A SERMON Preached to the Right Honourable the Noble House of PEERS assembled in PARLIAMENT Vpon the 29th of October 1645. being the Monethly Fast By C. BURGES D. D. Preacher of the Word to the City of London Published in Obedience to an Order of their Lordships LONDON Printed by G. Miller for Philemon Stephens at the Signe of the golden-Lion in Pauls Church-yard 1645. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HOVSE OF PEERS Assembled in PARLIAMENT Most Noble LORDS THE main designe of this plain Sermon is to awaken men not yet agreed with GOD out of their golden dreams of nothing but Halcyon dayes and mountains of perpetuall prosperity which the almost innumerable glorious Victories heaped on your Armies seem to promise To effect this I have endeavoured to put all upon the Triall of their Agreement with GOD which being the soul of my Text ought to be the chief subject of my Discourse I have therein insisted most upon the examining our performance of the Nationall Covenant which notwithstanding your pious command to whet the people upon it every Fast day is so much neglected yea despised that he is by some ranged among the dissolute that now will take it and it is made one character of the godly party which they who say stand apart appropriate to refuse it Uniformity which we have Covenanted to promote is become a scorne And they who being sensible of the mischiefs of no Government in the Church presse the setling of a Discipline according to our Covenant do every where hear Rigid Presbyterians Persecutours worse than Bishops and what not but what they are None know now how to Time things but they who while out the times to prevent the setling of any thing at all My Lords it is our happinesse and your honour that you have continued with Christ in his temptations and remained faithfull in the midst of a perfidious generation when the enemy had his hour For what Tiberius once spake to Nero and Drusus in the Senate Tacit. Annal. lib. 4. Ita nati estis ut bona maláque vestra ad Rempublicam pertineant may be much more said of you who are so borne for the Publike that you are engaged in honour to promote that what ever become of your selves There is no Publike act of yours if good but the whole Kingdom fares the better for it no evil that you commit but all the Nation suffers by it Be faithfull unto Christ who had never more need of your Zeal and let him alone with your safety and honour untill he give you a crown of life It is not enough that you act when acted unles you also quicken others to more expedition in that great busines of the Government of the Church It is not sufficient that your selves come up to an Agreement with God unlesse as Josiah you do your utmost with all vigour to draw others into the same also Nor will it suffice that you do good your selves if you wittingly suffer others to do evil against God and Christ without exercising that authority which God hath put into your hands against them You remember Galba who though innocent of much harm which passed under his name yet because he permitted them to commit it whom he ought to have bridled or was ignorant of that which he ought to have known lost reputation and opened a way to his own destruction The Lord of Lords guide quicken and prosper you in all the great affairs which are under your hands make you more and more zealous for Jesus Christ that he may yet further honour you above all your Noble Progenitours and give you hearts so to improve this homely piece that it may further your Account and not rise up in judgement against you in the great day of the Lord Jesus in whom I am and ever shall be Your Lordships most humble servant C. BURGES THE NECESSITY OF Agreement with GOD. AMOS 3.3 Can two walke together except they be agreed I May begin my Sermon with the words of Cyril a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyr. Alex in loc This is a deep Riddle and a darke speech For better unfolding of it be pleased to cast your eyes on the first verse of this Book which will afford some light to these words and to the whole Prophecie There you shall first meet a poor Herdsman of Tekoah a City of Judah six miles south from Jerusalem to wit our Prophet a man bred up among Cattle and a gatherer of sycomore-trees b Amos 7.14 15. suddenly * Amos ruborum mora distringens repentè Propheta effectus est Hieron ad Heliodor called of God as he followed the flock and sent unto Israel yea to prophesie even at Bethel the Kings Chappel and Court and there to denounce destruction to the King and Kingdome by the Assyrian as he after c Amos 7.9 10 11. did There also shall ye discover the People to and against whom he prophesied namely Israel not the whole progeny of Jacob but only the ten Tribes revolted from Rehoboam These being the major part of Israel carried with them that Name Sometimes they are called Ephraim from Jeroboam their first King who was of that Tribe as that party which adhered to the House of David was named Judah because that was the Family from whence sprang their Kings That these Prophecies were directed to these ten Tribes is further manifest by that of Amaziah the Chief Priest of Bethel Chap. 7.12 13. O thou Seer flee thee away into the Land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesie there but prophesie not again any more at Bethel c. which shews plainly that he prophesied only to Israel in that place where Jeroboam the first had erected one of his Calves There Amos for his boldnesse against the Calves received many affronts from Amaziah the Priest and at length a mortall blow with a Club on his head by Amaziahs sonne after which he was carried home to Tekoah where he soon died of that wound as we have it from Epiphanius d In vit Prophet and sundry others e Hieron Doroth. Isidor alijque In that first verse thirdly may you perceive the time when he prophesied It was in the dayes of Vzziah King of Judah and in the dayes of Jeroboam the sonne of Joash King of Israel two years before the earthquake a most remarkable circumstance The mention of those two Kings discovers Amos to have been contemporaneous with Hosea and Joel yea with Isaiah too whose Father he was not although some have so conjectured albeit he began somewhat after them and finished his course many years before them by means of that untimely death but now expressed These Kings reigned long Jeroboam 41 years Vzziah 56 years computing from the 16th year of his age only To the end therefore it might be more exactly known about what time of their severall reignes Amos prophesied it is said two
years before the earthquake This was at the time wherein Vzziah being lifted up with his many successes under pretence of extraordinary devotion for many victories obtained against the enemies of Judah would needs go in person into the Temple and burne incense The Priests withstood him as attempting that which was lawfull for none but the sonnes of Aaron only He grew wroth with them Whereupon saith Iosephus e Antiq. li. â— ca 11. God smote the place with an earthquake and him by a beam of the Sunne through a crevisse of the Temple on his mouth which brake forth instantly into a lothsome leprosie for which he was not only thrust out of the Temple by the Priests but himselfe also hasted to go out and was put from his Government to the day of his death 2 Chron. 26. The earthquake which then happened shook all Ierusalem and was very dreadfull For thereby a great part of a mountain on the west of Ierusalem in a place called Eroge was torne off from the residue and removed four furlongs out of it own place and cast partly into the high way and partly into the Kings gardens saith Iosephus This so astonished and affrighted the people that they fled from it with exceeding great fear so as this accident became extraordinary famous in all Iudah and Israel Of this mention is made in Zech. 14.5 where God threatning a sore judgement to the enemies of Christ tels them yee shall flee like as yee fled from before the earthquake in the dayes of Vzziah King of Iudah This happened in the 27th of Vzziah as is agreed by almost all Chronologers who with one consent tell us that it fell out at the same time that Vzziah was smitten with that lothsome Elephantiasis Iunius indeed dissents but his reason is easily answered For albeit Vzziahs leprosie was very remarkable yet an earthquake in Israel was more rare and accounted more prodigious Lepers were common but earthquakes never happened but upon some extraordinary occasion which concerned the generall Amos began his Prophecies two years before that Prodigie which must needs be near the end of the reign of Ieroboam the second the sonne of Ioash of the line of Iehu For Ieroboam began his reign in the 15th year of Amaziah f 2 King 14.23 father to Vzziah who lived 14 years after Ieroboam began g Ibid. ver 2. And so it must be about the 39th of Ieroboam when the word of the Lord came first to Amos. This exact calculation of time is here of great use for it lets us in to a clear knowledge of the state and condition of Israel at that time when Amos uttered these words It was when Israel who had been often sorely plagued with forreign and intestine judgements were now through Gods melting compassions towards them for the Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Iacob much eased and freed of many pressures their evil neighbours who had invaded them and encroached upon them being vanquished and dispossessed of what they had usurped and all by the valour and industry of this Ieroboam whom God made a great instrument to save them as is evident 2 King 14. At this very season they not improving the mercy God sends Amos to prophesie destruction to the whole Kingdome and to utter these words now read unto you by way of appeal unto themselves to convince them of the impossibility of the continuance of that blessing while they stood off with so much pertinacie from the Lord. For if they should as like enough they would plead Can these things befall us Are not we Abrahams seed Hath not God struck a Covenant with us hath he not done many and great things for us Just as Iudah Jer. 3.4 5. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me My Father thou art the guide of my youth will he reserve his anger for ever To which God makes answer first by way of concession in the verse before my Text It is true You only have I known of all the families of the earth that is in respect of love care bounty and priviledges Secondly by way of Commination of the greater judgement as a just catastrophe of their ingratitude and rebellion Therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities And lest they should thinke this to be strange severity Thirdly He appeals to themselves making them the Judges in their own case whether it were possible to be otherwise saying Can two walke together except they be agreed Which interrogation comprehends in it a more vehement denial than a bare negative could expresse and must be resolved into this proposition Two cannot possibly walke together except they be agreed Your selves being judges For the better clearing of these words we must a little further inquire into the subject or Persons here spoken of and then into the Actions here predicated of them and by way of supposition attributed to them for the more full conviction of Israel 1. The subject is an aggregate made up of severall persons or parties here called Two Who these Two should be Expositors agree not Some understand it of God and the Prophet some of Iudah and Israel some of God and the Assyrian as agreeing to come up together to destroy Israel others of Salmanazer and Nebuchadnezzar agreeing to devour both Israel and Iudah But none of these expositions seeme so genuine and proper as that which tells us that the expression is Parabolicall and therefore must first be understood or supposed indefinitely of any Two that can be imagined to walke together for the Appeal lyes first in Thesi whether they think it possible to be true of any Two in the world not only men but birds beasts any thing This being first agreed upon they are then to consider of what Two in hypothesi he here spake this Parable and to whom God meant they should apply this Apologue in particular And that is to Himselfe and them For these two are more plainely declared before to be I and You. Ver. 2. that is the Lord who spake against them and the children of Israel against whom he spake Ver. 1. These are the two parties by them desired but by him denied to walke together they being not yet agreed as they ought 2. Let us also inquire into the Actions which here by way of supposition are attributed to these parties and they are two walking together and agreeing together this being the ground of the other 1. Walking together if we take it in thesi and in the first acception imports any sociable familiar friendly congresse or companying together either in a journey as those two Disciples going to Emaus Luk. 24.17 or in some short walke of pleasure or delight as David and Achitophel walking to the house of God in company Psal 55.14 Hence is it translated to signifie Gods walking with his people in a way of mercy which is here intended rather than walking of his people with him in a way of
completing of all agreements when men to prevent disagreements cement themselves by an indissoluble League So did David and Ionathan Their agreement grew up into a Covenant that their love might receive no interruption or abatement This was done twice l 1 Sam. 18.3 1 Sam. 20.16 17. over to make all more sure and the reason is given because each loved the other as his own soul Where love makes the agreement it will do all it can to perpetuate it Thus God covenanteth with his people That he will never depart from them to do them good Jer. 32.40 And they when they come up to a full agreement with him enter into an everlasting Covenant never to be forgotten Jer. 50.5 Yea even wicked men perfect their agreements by a Covenant witnesse those in Isa 28.15 who said We have made a Covenant with death and with Hell are we at agreement which argues a Covenant and a full agreement to be all one who ever be the parties that so agree Thus you have an explication of the words in their latitude with reference to their scope to the circumstance of time when they were spoken and to the condition of the Persons to whom they were directed Now put all together and it results to this maine Conclusion which I take to be the Doctrine of this Text. viz. How kinde soever God hath been unto a people by his presence with them his appearing for them and blessing of them for a long time together yet there is no possibility that this should hold alwayes unlesse they be perfectly reconciled unto God and come up to a full agreement with him This is I confesse a plain Point but of such great and universall concernment that should I spend the whole time allotted for this Exercise in the very repeating of it over and over again I might well avow it as sometimes Latimer said in a Sermon at Court touching those words Take heed and beware of covetousnesse to be the best spent time that ever I had the happinesse to imploy in such an honourable Audience and the best service that ever was performed to you if God should please to set it home upon your spirits But because such I should soon preach to the bare walls by running such a course I shall therefore 1. Give you some Scriptures that declare Gods minde in this particular 2. Adde some Instances of Persons and Nations upon whom this hath been made good 3. Inquire into the Grounds why it must be so 4. Shut up all with some Vses 1. For Texts of Scripture positively declaring this to be Gods will one you have in Eccles 8.11 12. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times and his dayes be prolonged that is not only spared but abundantly blessed for all blessings are often comprehended under length of daies m Exod. 10.12 Ephes 6 2 3. Prov. 3 2. ver 16. Psal 91.16 yet surely I know saith the Wise man it shall be well with them that fear God which fear before him that is they shall fare well alwayes as being agreed with him for fearing of God is put for covenanting with God Ier. 32.40 But it shall not be well with the wicked neither shall he prolong his dayes which are as a shadow because he feareth not before him He may prosper a while but a night of misery is drawing on that will easily eclypse all his momentany happinesse and that for want of agreement with God which is the same with not fearing of God as from that place of Ieremy but now alledged is fully manifest Another Scripture you have in Prov. 11.18 The wicked worketh a deceitfull worke but to him that soweth righteousnesse shall be a sure reward Wicked men many times pretend very fair for God they have many specious and glorious pretences to varnish over and carry on their private interests and selfe ends They can worke upon and make advantage of every humour of every season If gain be the likeliest lure Demetrius knowes how to raise a whole City in an instant to banish Paul and his company from Ephesus if he but once tell them Sirs ye know that by this craft we have our wealth This is argument enough to uphold the grossest Idolatry in the world among men that care for no other godlinesse but gain Acts 19. If Religion be in fashion they can with Herod make great shew of devotion and court Iohn Baptist with extraordinary respects hoping that their fawning upon and complementall complying with a man so eminent among the people may make them passe for religious men and carry on any designe under colour of Religion with which the multitude they know are some times more moved then with their own gain or liberties But however they may cousen uncautious men for a while yet mendacia non diu fallent hypocrisie will at length be unmasked their glozings will be in time discovered and then all that they have done will prove but a deceitfull worke to themselves as it was before unto others Yea their craft will deceive none so much as themselves Only they who are upright and sincere with God that sowe righteousnesse as men that are agreed with God and are for God in uprightnesse reap a sure reward because God walkes for ever with them The end of such men is peace n Psal 37.37 As this is the Rule of Gods proceedings with particular persons so is it the course which he professeth to hold with whole Nations and Kingdomes Witnesse Ier. 18.9 10. where he saith At what instant I shall speak concerning a Nation and concerning a Kingdome to build and to plant it which is to walke with it if it do evil in my sight that it obey not my voice which is all one with not agreeing with him I will repent of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them that is I will walke no longer with them Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur This is Gods Rule of walking with Persons and Kingdomes 2. Come we next to some instances and examples of Persons and Nations with whom God hath so proceeded 1. For Persons Look upon Eli and his house Saul and Vzziah as sad examples in this kinde As for Eli and his house God had done great things for him and so had walked with him very graciously for a long time together The Office of High Priest was setled upon him by speciall grant of God himself when in ordinary course it pertained to Eleazar o Num. 20.26 1 Chro 24.1 2. after Nadab and Abihu his elder brethren were cut off Ithamar from whom Eli sprung being the youngest p Num. 3.2 1 Chro. 6.3 sonne of Aaron And Eli the first High Priest of Ithamars house as Josephus affirmes q Antiq. 5. ca. ult and Abulensis r in 1 Sam. 2. q. 28. proves But when God saw the wickednesse of Elies sonnes and his remissnesse towards them God after all this honour sent him this
no King therefore no Kingdome saved by the multitude of an host m Psal 33.16 They are but vain words to say I have counsell and strength for the waare n 2 King 18.20 How soon can the Lord make that good upon England which he once brought upon Egypt Isa 19.11 The Princes of Zoan are fools the counsel of the wise Counsellours of Pharaoh is become brutish c. Let them tell thee now what the Lord of Hosts hath purposed upon Egypt ver 12. The Princes of Zoan are become fools the Princes of Noph are deceived they have also seduced Egypt even they that are the stay of the Tribes The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof and they have caused Egypt to erre in every worke thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit ver 13 14. So that we see it is neither strength nor policy Armyes nor Counsels that can save a people not agreed with God To all such the Lord saith Woe unto them for they have fled from mee Destruction unto them because they have transgressed against mee though I have redeemed them yet they have spoken lyes against mee that is they have made false protestations and vowes unto me of that fidelity and service which they never performed as some expound that of the Prophet Hos 7.13 Therefore woe unto them But you will perhaps plead we are agreed with God we have entred into solemne League and Covenant with him What lack we yet To this I answer that it is not the making but the keeping of a Covenant with all integrity and zeale that argues our Agreement with God For as there be some who in words professe to know God yet in workes deny him So are there not none who make a great deal of stirre to enter into a Covenant and seem for a while to be as zealous as Josiah to bring all others into the same bond also yet are Covenant-breakers and further off from true Agreement with God then many of the ignorant brutish heathens who are strangers from the Covenant of promise without hope and without God in the world o Ephes 2.12 For Covenant-breakers are ever neere of kin to haters of God Rom. 1.30 31. and so cannot truly be nor said to be agreed with him To the end therefore we may be the better and more Vse 2 deeply humbled before the Lord this day which is solemnly set apart for that purpose let me adde a second Vse of Examination and Tryall whereby we may better discerne whether yet we be agreed with God or not To search and try our wayes p Psal 3 40. is not only our duty but the constant practice of all Gods people Now for tryall call to minde what hath bin said in Explication of the Text and Confirmation of the Doctrine For I love to inculcate the same things rather then to abound in variety because I desire more to profit than to please 1. If we be agreed with God we are reconciled to him Rule 1 Reconciliation is the first thing in Agreement where Enmity hath gon before And by Reconciliation I meane not only the pacifying of Gods wrath towards us by removing the guilt of sinne but the purging out of that naturall enmity and malice that is in our mindes and whole man by wicked workes against the holy nature and minde of God so as there is no longer that studyed and industrious thwarting and crossing with him in our conversation and actions which is dayly to be found in enemies not reconciled Now then is the way wardnes Trial. malice and fiercenes of our natures taken off and our hearts subdued unto God Is the inward frame of our spirits for God for Christ for the things of God Have we friendly and cheerfull countenances towards God his wayes and servants Have we kissed the sonne as they who are content or desirous to submit to his Scepter Or have we not rather sent him a message of defiance by our words and actions to let him and all the world know we will not have this man reigne over us * Luk 19.14 If it be thus flatter not your selves with vaine imaginations Do not thinke a few good words or the taking of a formall Covenant will satisfy him he hath already declared your doom Those mine enemies which would not that I should reigne over them bring hither and slay them before me Luk. 19.27 Rule 2 2. If we be agreed with God our spirits wils and affections are wholly for God there is a suitablenes correspondency sympathy with God we love hate rejoyce greive and exercise every affection as we finde God to stand affected Gods joy gains losses will be accounted our own If he be dishonoured reviled reproached we lay it to heart as falling upon our selves If any wrong be done to him in his name Ordinances House we presently kindle at it as done to our selves For thy sake saith David I have borne reproach shame hath covered my face the zeale of thine house hath eaten me up and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me Psal 69.7 9. Trial. Try then the present frame of our affections by this rule Have we learned to deny not only ungodlines and worldly lusts but our own selves our wit wisdome deerest affections and to bring our hearts to an exact compliance and correspondency with the Lord thorowout Do we study and observe his disposition as men study the humours and inclinations of their Prince do we love hate rejoyce greive where God doth and as God doth Nay rather do we not love what God hates and hate what he loves Do we not hate the power of Godlines rejoyce in iniquity repine at a thorow Reformation greive to see that worke so likely to prosper to the prejudice of our greatnes profits interests pleasures lusts c. If this be our case if we deal with God as Peninnah with Hannah when she provoked her sore to make her fret q 1 Sam 1.6 The Lord will be quit with us and as we provoke him by our crossenes and peevish disposition he will provoke us with a witnesse and resolve as Deut. 32.20 I will hide my face from them I will see what their end shall be for they are a crosse piece a very froward generation Their disposition is very averse from mine there is no sutablenesse between me and them in affections therefore no constant walking together 3. Where there is agreement with God there is no driving Rule 3 on of designes counsels ends of our owne that may thwart or prejudice Gods If God require our service ayd assistance our answer will truly and readily be like that of Jehoshaphat to Ahab I am as thou art my people as thy people my horses as thy horses 1 King 22.2 And we will be with thee in the warre 2 Chron. 18.3 We will not be biassed by correspondences compliances self-ends ambition any thing but
all his party they heartily close with his children and servants where ever they meet them and are enemies to all that are enemies to God It is so in all firme Leagues and Feuds He that loves him that begat loves him also that is begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 And this Commandement have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also 1 Joh. 4.21 On the contrary If they meet with Gods enemies they dare make this appeal to God Psal 139.21 22. Do not I hate them O Lord that hate thee and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies Trial. Now consider seriously how you stand affected to the faithfull servants of Jesus Christ Are you for them indeed are they in your hearts to live and die together do you countenance and encourage the faithfull Ministers of Christ Nay rather is not their fidelity to Christ interpreted pride and ambition after exorbitant power are not the godly your greatest eye-sores are they not looked upon as a company of silly ignorant rash peevish men because they will not bow or bend in matters of Religion to humane inventions of any Authority nor depart so much as an hairs bredth from their principles Or if they be sometimes made use of in case of necessity when things cannot be carried on without them are they not afterwards by some cast aside as people not owned or worthy of any respect especially if a new generation of projectors men that are more malleable and fit to be moulded to serve turnes arise and present new notions projects Or if we do make shew of some respect to this or that eminent man as Herod to the Baptist is it in truth of heart for the graces of God shining in them or rather to grace our selves by countenancing of them And how stand we affected to all wicked men are they not our chief at lest our ordinary companions Do we not set more by a scurrilous wit a Buffone then by an holy humble Christian whose speech may administer grace to the hearers Who are the most usuall companions of many that have given themselves out Reformed There is no surer triall of a mans inward temper of spirit then by choice of his company Jehoshaphat may in Courtship comply with Ahab but he shall surely smart for it shouldest thou helpe the ungodly and love them that hate the Lord Therefore is wrath upon thee from before the Lord 2 Chron. 19.2 Let them look to it who do as he did that while they run such a course they may not foolishly dream that God and they are agreed for this bred a quarrell between God and Jehoshaphat although a godly Magistrate and eminent for holinesse of life Thus have I endeavoured to bring all to the Test whereupon I doubt it will appear that we are not the people we would be taken to be being yet very farre from that agreement with God which we stand in need of and rest upon as actually made up between him and us nor can promise to our selves that continuance of Gods walking with us which we do expect but have just cause to fear his sudden departure from us and the exposing of us and the Kingdom to much more wo and misery then ever we have yet felt or feared Vse 3 Wherefore suffer the word of Exhortation unto a two-fold duty 1. Be deeply humbled before the Lord this day for our want of agreement with him that hath done so many so great things for us for that great enmity and malignity that yet remaineth in us against the God of our mercies for our crosse affections and peevish passions whereby we are apt upon all occasions to fly out against him for all our carnall corrupt and base ends and designes which thwart and oppose the wise holy and good purposes and counsels of our God for our standing out and refusing to come into the bond of his Covenant or dealing unfaithfully in it for our want of Zeal for Christ in doing our utmost in our severall places and callings to promote the Reformation of Religion in the Kingdoms of England and Ireland not only in Doctrine and Worship but in Discipline and Government according to our Covenant for our great lukewarmnesse in not endeavouring as we ought to extirpate superstition heresie schisme profanenesse and what ever is contrary to sound Doctrine and the power of godlinesse whereby we do in great part partake of other mens sinnes and bring our selves into apparent danger to receive of their plagues for want of that reality impartiality and constancy in preserving the Priviledges of Parliament and liberties of the Kingdome which we ought upon all occasions to expresse many growing weary of the Parliament and clamouring against it as one of our greatest grievances and abusing the Liberties of the Kingdome to all licentiousnesse and confusion for want of courage and faithfullnesse in the discovery of all Incendiaries Malignants and evil instruments that do palpably and openly hinder and oppose that Reformation of Religion which we have bound our selves by Covenant to promote or that secretly undermine and way-lay all endeavours of Peace between the King and his people or that labour to make division between the two Kingdoms or factions and parties among the people contrary to our Nationall League and Covenant for want of zeal in doing all we can according to our places and interests to maintain and preserve that blessed Peace so happily setled between England and Scotland that they might remain conjoyned in a firme League and union to all posterity and that justice may be done upon the wilfull opposers thereof for our great unwillingnesse constantly to assist and defend all those that in this common Cause of Religion Liberty and Peace of the Kingdomes enter into the Nationall League and Covenant for our aptnesse to be withdrawn from that blessed Vnion and Conjunction to the other side or at lest to a detestable indifferency or neutrality in the Publike Cause which so much concerneth the glory of God the good of the Kingdoms and the honour of the King for our not humbling our selves even unto this day for our own sinnes and for the sinnes of all the three Kingdomes for undervaluing the Gospel for not receiving Christ into our hearts and walking worthy of him in our lives for want of a true and unfeigned purpose desire and endeavour for our selves and all others under our power and charge both in publike and private in all duties we ow to God and man to amend our lives and each one to go before another in the example of a reall Reformation that the Lord may turne away his wrath and heavy indignation and establish these Churches and Kingdoms in truth and peace Finally for want of that Christian and brotherly charity and unity that every where appears in many sad rents and dangerous divisions that daily in all places abound
threatning greater desolation then the sword of the enemy or any other judgement that is upon us You see what a long roll what a black catalogue may be brought in against us how many sins we have to spread before the Lord this day what great what scarlet sins we are guilty of who yet are apt to put farre away the evil day to grow confident that our danger is over that we shall never see that adversity which have come upon others in the Kingdome and that God is now so fast tied to us as never to depart from us nor to give over walking with us in all wayes of mercy and grace This day is set apart for solemne serious publike humiliation and Sermons upon this day are or should be so managed as to helpe us in this duty to set our sins before us with their severall aggravations that we might draw the more water of godly sorrow out of our rocky hearts and pour it out before the Lord as Israel at Mizpeh a 1 Sam. 7.6 O therefore be afflicted and mourn and weep rend your hearts put your mouths in the dust through shame and confusion of face and out of desire to be humbled to the utmost before the decree of Englands ruins bring forth desolation before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords anger come upon you b Zeph. 2.2 as the Prophet speaketh Take heed of turning these monethly humiliations into formalities lest we provoke God more by our hypocriticall mock-fasts then by any other our sins for which we pretend to be humbled on such daies as these Beware of that bull-rush humiliation which the Lord complains of Isa 58.8 Who derides not that ridiculous folly of Lewes the 11th who wore a Crucifix in his hat in testimony of great devotion and so often as he had sworn an Oath or committed other grosse offence he would take off his hat and kisse his crucifix thinking that a sufficient satisfaction for his fault and then go sin again as much as before But there is somewhat more to be done by those that would indeed make their peace and agreement with God Surely it is meet to be said unto God I have borne chastisement I will not offend any more That which I see not teach thou me if I have done iniquity I will do no more Job 34.31 32. 2. This leads me to the second branch of the Exhortation and which is the other main part of this dayes duty namely to labour before we depart this place to bring our hearts to come up to a full and perfect agreement with God This is one of the great errands of all the Ambassadours of Christ namely to pray all to whom they come in Christs stead as though God did beseech you by them to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5.20 Let the power of the death of Christ be applyed by faith to eat out and kill that naturall malice and enmity that naturally rageth in every one of our bosomes against God Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evil concupiscence and covetousnesse which is Idolatry for which things sake the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience Col. 3.5 6. Bring your hearts to a perfect compliance with God in affections resolutions and in all your actions away with all self-love and self-ends Men of private designes will betray the Kingdome Religion and all the world if it were in their power if temptations and opportunities be offered rather then be frustrate of their own ends what ever shew of zeal for Christ and the Publike they pretend unto in the carrying on of the Publike Cause It was Calebs comfort happinesse and honour that in managing the publike service of Israel committed to him by Moses he followed God fully Numb 14.24 An excellent paterne for you that are the heads and guides of our Tribes who are now leading this poor sinfull Nation thorow a sharpe and tedious wildernesse where we are to march thorow rivers of blood towards a firme and well grounded Peace and perfect Reformation If any of you have private ends in this publike worke which God forbid we shall be bought and sold as sometimes Esther and her people were not only for bond-men and bond-women Esth 7.4 but to be destroyed to be slain and to perish Be sure of this nothing but a firme agreement with God and the power of godlinesse can keep any of you all firme and constant to the Cause of God and his people Achitophel was a man of as deep wisedome and as great a pretender to the interests and service of David and the Kingdom as is possible for any mortall to be towards any King or Kingdome in the world Yet when Absolom by wiles and promises of greater place and preferment set upon him he could not stand before such temptations Only an Hushai a faithfull plain publike-spirited man held it out and at length had the happinesse to overthrow the counsels of a farre deeper and subtle Counsellour then himselfe and thereby saved both a King and Kingdome It is the honest plain downright-hearted Counsellour that scornes all private ends out of supernaturall principles that shall carry it at the long runne and live to see all the Achitophels of the time sent to hell in a string or in some other dresse Renue Covenant with God this day and do it heartily it is a chief worke of the day If David and Jonathan thought it necessary to enter into Covenant a second time 1 Sam. 20.16 who had never violated their first agreement thinke it not superfluous but a matter of necessity to renue that Covenant which we have every day broken and that with a very high hand by walking contrary unto him for which he hath brought the sword upon us to avenge the quarrell of his Covenant d Lev. 26.24 25. But do it in sincerity for all haltings in a Covenant are the greatest provocations that men obnoxious to wrath can possibly commit that great sinne against the Holy Ghost only excepted Rest not here thinke it not enough to renue Covenant but minde it and keep it When thou vowest a vow unto God deferre not to pay it for he hath no pleasure in fooles Eccles 5.4 Therefore God made a Law to binde men to performance even of voluntary vows to which they were no way tyed but by their own voluntary choice Deut. 23.21 22. When thou shalt vow a vow unto the Lord thy God thou shalt not slack to pay it for the Lord thy God will surely require it of thee and it would be sinne unto thee I beseech you therefore to consider all that you have Covenanted but especially in matters of Religion and Reformation And herein let your selves be first firme and unmoveable in such Truths as all the people of God have unanimously imbraced as being undoubtedly founded on the word of God Shift