27. that is first more immediately by blasphemous speaking against the God of Hierusalem as against the Gods of the people of the earth which were 2 King 19.21 22. the worke of the hands of man 2 Chron. 32.19 Secondly mediately through the Loines of Hezekiah and such of his people as trusted in the Lord. Now what of all this rage of man against God and his servants The Text tells you what is predicated of it Shall praise thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It shall praise thee Or as the old Translation hath it it shall turne to thy praise Praise is nothing else but the exaltation of Excellency whereby it may be had in reverence and honour This is that which redounds unto God from the rage of man not intentionally on mans part as if he in his rage aymed at it for so God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10.4 But occasionally on mans part and efficaciously on Gods who brings light out of darknesse and good out of evill His Power and Providence so ordereth and disposeth all the malicious machinations and bloody designes of the most desperate men that they goe away with the shame his people with joy and himselfe with the honour And this he doth not onely by mastering them in their greatest rage and compelling them to acknowledge his power but also by giving such issue thereunto as shall produce effects quite contrary to those which they intended Thus the rage of Josephs brethren in selling him to the Ishmaelites turned to Gods praise As for you saith Ioseph Yee thought evill against me but God meant it unto good Genes 50.20 Nor is this spoken only in reference to what was already done and past as some would seeme to insinuate who render the Verb Totheka in the Present tense doth praise thee but as a Declaration of what God will ever doe in all time to come so often as the rage of man shall issue forth Therefore the best Interpreters render it by the future the rage of man shall praise thee making it to be not onely a voice of Thanksgiving but a conclusion of faith as before I touched So have you the first Proposition explained The Second followeth The rest of the rage This is the Subject of the later proposition which for substance is the same with the former Explication The rest of the rage to witt the rage of man Only it is differenced by two Circumstances which I must alike open One of the Circumstances is the changing of the number in the Originall Before it was Chameth rage in the singular number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now it is Chemoth rages in the Plurall which plainely supposeth the greatnes and the varietie of it The rage of the wicked is not small nor terminated in one plott or practice nor of one kinde but it is exceeding great ever working and multiplying by continuance so as there can be no wicked designe so barbarous no plott so bloody and Devilish but the rage of Gods enemies makes them ready for it and mad upon it If they once miscarry yea if they be often disappointed they are not discouraged but they will to worke againe and againe never giving over If one Plot faile they are ready with another and another of other sorts The Devill and their owne hearts make them fertile and bigge with all the inventions of Hell Justly then doth the Psalmist call them rages in the Plural For they are as Gad a Troop yea you may call their name Legion they bee so manie The other circumstance is in the word Sheerith translated the rest the remnant the remainder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this gives notice of the abundance of it Let never so much of it breake forth yet there is still move behinde that throngs after that which got out before And as it is with foule stomacks the best that comes up into the Bason is but filthy stuffe but that which is behind and comes last is farre more loathsome and bitter through the abundance of choller and gall so is it with the rage of wicked men the best is abominable but that which tarries behind and would come up in the Rere is most intolerable that is the bottome of the stomack the dreggs the most venemous and malignant part of the rage the letting out hereof would be the destruction of Gods people or some way or other dishonourable to our God This remnant it is of which the Psalmist speaking unto God saith Thou shalt restraine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt restraine This in the Hebrew is expressed in one word Tackgor which imports the begirting or binding of it in on every side that it shall by no meanes break out but shall be kept in as a Dog in a chaine as a Lion in his Denne how violent soever The Greek Septuagint in their Translation have wittily expressed themselves thus the rest of the rage shall keep holy day unto thee * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their meaning is that as men who are to keep an holy day to the Lord cease from labour doing no manner of work therein further than may directly tend to the honour and service of God so the rage of man further than God may get some honour out of it shall keep holy day too that is cease from working or acting it shall rest from labour in regard of breaking out how restlesse so ever it be within because it cannot get out But this is not all Tremellius in his Revised Translation supplies one word which makes the sense more complete and comfortable For thus Hee residuo aestuum accingis tuos Thou dost begirt thy people with the remainder of the rages That is thou dost not onely keep in the rage of thine enemies that it doe no hurt but thou makest that very rage which was intended for their destruction to become even as the walls of a Citie for their defence and protection The upshot of all is this That wicked men shall be so farre from attaining those ends which in their rage they drive at that they shall be sure to meet with a stop where they made themselves most sure of going on and be occasions of promoting the good of Gods party which they meant to destroy 1 Observation Thus farre the Explication The Observations which I shall now recommend unto you from the whole bee these Three 1. The observations The rage of the wicked against God and his people is bottomlesse and endlesse 2. Let the rage of wicked men be what it will it shall onely raise that Glory to God and benefit to his people which the wicked never intended and ever fall short of that issue which they chiefly projected 3. The experience of Gods over-ruling and mastering the rage of man in times past is an undoubted assurance of the like for all time to come I begin with the first The rage of the wicked against God and his people
all this Are we not a sinfull unthankfull stubborne People as ever tasted of mercy a seed of evill Doers that call God t Ier. 3.4.5 Father and yet doe as evill things as we can And yet for all this God hath opened his hand wider than ever we opened our mouths and crowned all our yeares and dayes with such loving kindnesse and mercy as never any Nation under Heaven received greater or enjoyed longer If therefore David upon the bare promise of a mercy could not but sit downe before the Lord as one in an Extasie crying out Who am I O Lord and what is my Fathers House that thou hast brought me hitherto How much more would our spirits be lifted up beyond all expression to glorifie his Great Name for so great a mercy actually conferred when we consider who and what we are that doe receive it 3. The deliverance is extraordinary 3. Look upon the Deliverance it selfe as extraordinary All the g Psal 111.2 Works of the Lord are great yet some greater than others But this is no lesse than the raysing up of a whole Kingdome from the dead For as h Heb. 11.17 Abraham is said to have received his Isaac from death in a figure when Isaac had been bound on the wood and the hand of his owne Father stretched out to kill him so wee in this Deliverance received our King Queen and Prince that then were our King that now is our Parliament Lawes Liberties Lives and Religion it selfe from the dead in a figure when all these were so neere to destruction that there was scarce a step between them and death and such a step as had been easily made had not the Lord to whom belong the issues from death stept in to prevent it 4. And altogether unexspected 4. Take this with you too that this great Deliverance was a mercy altogether unexspected For who apprehended any danger The work was so strange as wee could hardly credit when we saw it done It was with us as with Zion * Psal 126.1 When the Lord turned her Captivitie by Cyrus the Persian Wee were like men that dreame we could scarce trust our owne eyes to behold it or our tongues to proclaime it Men gazed on each other as people amazed And when the thing was found to be so indeed oh how our hearts glowed our affections fired our hayre stood upright our eyes sparkled our joynts trembled our spirits even failed with us to behold the wonder And then oh what might not God at that time have had from us Let him therefore not goe away now with lesse seeing his Mercy even that Mercy endures for ever to our benefit and comfort 5. Behold the Love of God in it 5. And all this as a fruit of his Love makes all to be yet more precious to a thankfull spirit i Isay 43.4 I have Loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life saith the Lord. If men yea if a whole Nation conspire against thy life he will redeem thee from that danger with the price of all theirs Hence it is even from his Love that he no sooner espies any enemies out against us but he armes presently as against enemies to himselfe and not onely Layes them at his own feet but even at k 2 Sam 22.41 Rom. 16.20 ours and gives us to wash our feet in the bloud of the wicked 6. Consider God hath gotten him honour 6. God hath gotten him praise from the wicked that sought our destruction and raysed himselfe a praise out of the very rage of those who sought our destruction and shall he not have it from those who enjoy this miraculous Preservation Shall he have it from his enemies and goe without it from his Servants and Friends The Lord forbid But oh farre and for ever farre be such neglect from every of You who being the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof ought of all others to triumph in his praise for these works of his hands It was a foule Blot to the Elders of Judah that after David was freed of the Rebellion of Absolom they who were * 2 Sam. 19.11 12. his brethren his bones and his flesh should be last in bringing back the King to his House But much greater would the staine and the sinne be in You the Elders of our Jsrael unto whom the Lord himselfe upon the same grounds that he hath elsewhere said l Psal 82.6 Yee are Gods now saith Yee are my brethren yee are my bones and my flesh should have cause to adde Wherefore then are yee the Last to bring the King back Why are You so backward to restore unto Him all that honour that so many Absoloms and sonnes of Rebellion have taken from Him Well If you be not first nay if You outstrip not all others in the Duty of Praise for so great a Deliverance from the rage of man 3. Observation You must exspect no lesse Wrath to break out from the Lord upon your selves and the Kingdome than befell Hezekiah and all Judah for m 2 Chro. 32.25 not rendring to the Lord according to a farre lesse benefit done unto him There be divers other excellent Vses of this comfortable Doctrine but I must lay them all by for haste to the Last Point which is this The third Observation The Experience of Gods over-ruling and mastering the rage of man in times past is an undoubted assurance of the like for all to come This Point so clearely grounded on the Text which speaks of future Deliverances built upon former mercies and so strongly bound downe with a confident asseveration in the front that surely it shall be even so I shall passe over with a light foot Nothing more common in Scripture than to conclude what God will ever doe from what once he hath done David even in his youth could be confident of this n 1 Sam. 17.37 The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the Lyon and out of the paw of the Beare he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine And afterwards when that unnaturall Rebellion of Absolom brake out so violently as made Hierusalem too hot for David 2 Sam. 15. causing him to flee whither he could by the way of the Wildernes yet even then after God upon his prayer had spoken comfort to him from experience of former deliverances David growes so secure that he that before durst not stay in his owne house for danger professeth now to o Psal 3.4 lie downe and sleep where he hath not an house wherein to put his head and he that durst not tarry in Jerusalem with all the power he could rayse against his sonne now professeth in a wild howling desolate Wildernes p Vers 5. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that have set themselves against mee round about Thus let God doe but any thing
we not the more cause to keep in with God Beware of going on in any course of wickednesse as you love your lives to say nothing of your souls lest God let loose the strong Buls of Basan and the young Lions that are greedy of prey upon you Yea beware lest mans rage and Gods wrath do meet and both fall upon you at once Oh how dreadfull must that needs be If Israel be once a people of Gods wrath f Isa 10.6 every base proud idolatrous Assirian shall tread them down like the mire in the street Even Sampson shall fall by the uncircumcised Philistines whom before he slaughtered by heaps Thus Israel found it in Joshua's time When they had once sinned in taking of the accursed thing even the accursed men of Ai shall be too good for them g Josh 7.4.5 three thousand Israelites shall not be able to stand against 36. of the enemies but flie and be smitten before them But on the other side if we labour to maintain peace with God if h Psal 3.6 ten thousands of people beset us round about we shall not be afraid no i Psal 46 2.3 though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea though the waters thereof roare and be troubled and the mountains shake with the swellings thereof We can never miscarrie by all the rage of all the enemies in the world so long as we betray not our own selves into their hands For there is a God that sets and orders all as we shall see in the next point to which I now come 2. Observation 2. Let the rage of wicked men be what it will it shall onely raise that glory to God and benefit to his people which the wicked never intended and ever fall short of that issue which they chiefly projected This point hath two branches which we must distinctly prosecute Branch 1 The first is this that be the rage which is permitted to break forth what it will The rage that breaks out turns to Gods praise it shall onely raise that glory to God and benefit to his people which was never intended by the wicked As for the wicked it is as far from their hearts to intend Gods glory in their rage as heaven from hell If God make them a Isa 10.4 the rod of his anger against a people of his wrath to do Gods work not their own you shall be sure to finde them like that Assirian King who being sent by God in such an errand b Vers 7. He meant not so neither did his heart thinke so but it was in his heart to destroy and to cut off Nations not a few Howbeit the most wise and omnipotent God who is alwayes zealous of his own glory and his peoples good intends himself praise from every spark of fury and extracts honour out of the least atome of each mans rage when or which way so ever it break out And this he doth 1. By diverting their power 1. By diverting it and driving it one way when they meant it another Thus Sennacheribs power was imployed against c 2 King 19. Tirhakah when all his rage was first bent against Hezekiah And what greater praise then thus to have d Prov. 21.1 the heart and the power of so great a King in his hand as the rivers of water to turn it whither soever he will 2. 2. By letting it go on till his hand may be clearly seen in quelling it By permitting mans rage sometimes to proceed so far as all may see a necessity of a Divine Power to give it a stop and behold an immediate arm of the Almighty in defeating of it Therefore God permitted Pharaoh to pursue Israel not onely to the banks but even into the midst of the Red sea that by destroying him there e â—xod 15.6 the right hand of the Lord might become more glorious in power 3. By extorting from his enemies an acknowledgement of his power and conquest in the midst of their rage 3. By making his enemies confesse he is against them So he did from that Dragon and his host which he slew in the Sea when they cried out f Exod. 14.24 Let us flee from the face of Israel for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians And so from that Atheisticall Don Pedro who seeing the terrible dissipation of that Invincible Armado in 88. professed that now he perceived God was turn'd Lutheran 4. By more praise from his own people 4. But more especially doth God receive honour and praise from his own whom he delivers from the rage of man Thus did he from Israel when they g Exod. 14.30 saw the Egyptians dead upon the shore h Psal 106.12 Then beleeved they his words and sang his praises Yea then they proclaimed him i Exod. 15.11 fearfull in praises doing wonders 5. By producing effects contrary to the intentions of wicked men 5. In producing effects of mans rage quite contrarie to those which men intended and expected If Josephs brethren will sell him his bondage shall procure his advancement yea and though they deserve it not their preservation k Gen. 50.20 As for you saith he to them ye thought evil against me but God meant it unto good to bring to passe as it is this day to save much people alive If Moses must be cast out into the mud to satisfie Pharaohs crueltie even Pharaohs daughter shall preserve him l Exod. 4 16. to be unto Pharaoh in stead of a God to plague Pharaoh while he lived and then to be an instrument of his destruction by that very element by which Moses should have perished When the bloody plot of Haman for the destruction of all the Jews drew neer to execution not onely himself and his ten sons handselled that very gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai but even all m Esth 9.1 the enemies of the Jews who hoped to have power over them found all turned to the contrary and that the Jews had rule over them that hated them If the rod of the wicked light on the backe of the righteous for some sin against God this also shall turn much to his praise for n Isa 27.9 by this shall the iniquitie of Jacob be purged to prevent destruction intended by the wicked and this is all the fruit to take away sin which mans rage never meant Yea if the rage prevail so far as to be the death of the righteous yet even this also shall turn to his praise by causing the death of one righteous man for righteousnesse sake to be the seed of many moe righteous that shall rise up in his roome Never such an increase of shining Christians as when Christianitie is under sharpest persecutions And as for such as loose their lives for Christs sake they are sure o Luk. 9.24 to save them that is for
by powder At Holbeach in Worcestershire wherewith they intended the destruction of so many And afterwards Catesby and Piercy the principals in that wickednesse were shot to death by one shot of a Musket and thereby found Gods own hand taking revenge by powder before the justice of man could seize upon them And not onely so but even Faux the appointed Executioner and Garnet the Arch-Devil to blesse their plot confessed to the praise of God as well as the rest at their execution the outragious wickednesse and odiousnesse of that hellish designe Nay further God raised up an everlasting * An Act for keeping of this Day for ever Pillar of Thankesgiving from that very Parliament which should have been blown up and produced effects quite contrary to those which the Traytors intended in preserving not onely the Persons but the Laws which they meant to destroy and in causing moe Lawes to be made against them who so wickedly provoked the Clemencie of the Prince and abused the lenitie and mercie they formerly enjoyed but in providing more carefully ever since for our preservation I need not tell you that the rest of the rage is happily restrained Your eyes behold it and we all sit under the blessing of it unto this day Onely take notice that God did it not by ordinary meanes Not by abating thâ—ir rage for Faux God restrained the rest not in an ordinary after his apprehension repented nothing more then his not giving the blow yea the whole crew afterwards brake forth into open Rebellion till some of them were slain and the rest taken in the height of their rage Not by diverting them for they received not the least interruption till all was ready for execution Not by taking off any of their Instruments for not a man of them was toucht by death sicknesse or arrest till after the very trains were laid to the powder and all prepared for the firing of it Not by arming the creatures against them for no creature once troubled them till they were found out almost too late to be Troublers of Israel Not by smiting them with Panick fears for they were never so high floan before the discovery with confidence of successe nor more desperately fearlesse after they knew that all was discovered Nor yet by setting them one against another for like Simeon and Levi they held too fast together 2. Use of the second Point even unto death but in an extraordinary manner But the Lord did it himselfe causing one of them who had taken three Oaths to conceale it and kept touch with his tongue by a writing to reveile it verifying that of the Wisest King that a Eccl. 10.20 that which hath wings shall tell the matter and affecting the King with a spirit of jealousie who ordinarily offended rather on the other hand and leading him to an interpretation of the Letter quite contrary to the common sense And not onely so but by sharpning the edg of all mens spirits against the Traitors See the Discourse of the Powder Treason in King James his Works in the Countries where they wandred to kill some of them and to apprehend the rest even before any Proclamation could overtake them and before the people who seised on them knew any thing of this particular Treason Thus He that sitteth in the Heavens laught them their rage and Counsels to scorne compelling them at length to acknowledge the finger of God in their Discovery and his arme in their most deserved Destruction O wonderfull Providence O admirable Justice upon them and Goodnes to his People 2. Use of the second Point Incitation to thankfulnes 2. How should this put all our hearts into a flame of the highest Thanksgiving to Him who hath done for us such wonderfull things When their Rage had concluded that We and all Posterity should for ever wallow in ashes b Nah. 2.7 taber upon our breasts and howle like Dragons for that irreparable Desolation the God of our Mercies hath prevented them broken the snare given us an escape and hurl'd them out of the Land of the Living as out of the midst of a Sling Therefore rejoyce in the Lord and againe I say rejoyce Rouse up your spirits call up your hearts and let all that is within you blesse his holy Name I hope I shall not need to set before you the Institution of a thankefull man nor to spend time in directing how to give thankes On Septem 7. 1641. that Work being excellently performed at your late Publique Thanksgiving Rather let me bestow a few words to incite you to the Duty because I finde every where more and more backwardnesse to it and coldnesse in it For however at first the meltings of most mens spirits were extraordinary their affections being soone upon the wing The necessitie of such an Incitation when the first newse of the Deliverance out-ran the report of the Danger Yet by Degrees men have so farre cooled that not onely too many of the ordinary sort doe wholly neglect this Day but not none of the Clergy also who have sometimes for their hyre declaimed vehemently against that Treason in the Pulpit begin in ordinary discourse to jeere this solemnitie of such a Deliverance and in derision to name it Saint Gunpowders Day Papists perswade their Novices that there was never any such thing Yea some once ours have arrived at so much giddinesse as to pronounce the keeping of this Day to be Will-worship and the religious enjoyning of it even by Parliament to be a trenching on the Libertie left us by Christ as if the binding of our selves as Gods people of old in their feast of c Esth. 9.27 Purim did to give publique thanks for an extraordinary Mercy were a violation of true Christian Libertie O shamefull Ingratitude O Impudent Ignorance And how carelesse the greater part of the better sort are become in observing this Day is a subject more fit for my teares than my tongue even in this Honorable Assembly Wherefore the better to quicken You to restore this Day to its former splender Motives to the Duty that the Great Work of the Lord done herein may be for ever more honorable and glorious Let Me present You with a few Incentives 1. Remember that 1. None but God could doe it none but the Almighty himselfe could possibly have wrought such a Deliverance for us d Psal 124.3 4. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up quick when their wrath was kindled against us Let this first settle upon our spirits that e Psal 118.23 24. this was the Lords doing and then it will soone be marveilous in our eyes so as Wee cannot but rejoyce and be glad in it 2. Think seriously what manner of persons wee were 2. He did it for people altogether unworthy of any mercy for whom he did
for him and let him alone to live upon that while he lives If God once lead him through green pastures q Psal 23.1 his resolution mounts high r Vers 4. Though I walk through the vally of the shadow of death I will feare no evill and he soone arrives at this Conclusion s Vers 6. Surely goodnesse and mercy shall follow mee all the dayes of my life Every mercy is an assurance of more Nor was Paul behind David in this divine Art of argumentation If God raise him out of his bed from the dangerous arrest of a desperate sicknesse he rayseth his faith higher than God raysed his body first setting downe the mercy received t 2 Cor. 1.10 Who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver then inferring hence in whom we trust that he will yet deliver And at another time reporting a gracious rescue from the rage of Nero u 2 Tim. 4.17 18. I was delivered from the mouth of the Lyon he concludes thus And the Lord shall deliver me from every evill work that is of evill men conspiring against him before he should have finished his course A truth so conspicuous in the eyes of the faithfull that they have pleaded this unto God himselfe Moses when he saw God in such a rage as to threaten the cutting off of all Israel at once falls to prayer and pleads with God for a Pardon of course because he had given them many before w Num. 14.19 Pardon I beseech thee the iniquitie of this people according to the greatnesse of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven them from Aegypt even untill now Never were the people nearer a dreadfull destruction and yet this one Plea turned God quite about and draws from him this answer x Vers 20. Lo I have pardoned them according to thy word So David in a great danger when the Philistines took him in Gath useth the same Plea for deliverance y Psal 56.13 Thou hast delivered my soule from death wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling Which manner of speaking plainly concludes that it cannot be otherwise Nay more Not onely deliverances given to our selves but to any others from the beginning of the world is an undoubted argument to assure all the people of God of the like issue in all their straits and distresses When Isaac was so strangely delivered beyond all exspectation the godly presently made this use of it and it grew to a Proverb in all exigents z Gen. 22.14 God will be seen in the Mount When all things are so desperate that no help can be expected yet the very delivering of Isaac on the Mount of Moriah shall then assure them of a gracious deliverance And it is Gods own plea to encourage Ioshua to go on where Moses left a Iosh 1.5 As I was with Moses so will I be with thee I will never fail thee nor forsake thee Which very Text the Apostle citeth as a Legacie bequeathed unto all Christians though not in being till many hundred yeers after Ioshua was dead to dehort them from covetousnes and to perswade to contentation of minde by a firm reliance upon God b Heb. 13.5.6 Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as ye have for God hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man shall do unto m◠What was once and but once spoken to one Ioshua an extraordinarie person called to an extraordinarie service wherein he was to encounter extraordinarie difficulties is made by the Apostle as a concluding Argument for all Gods people cast upon any strait to claim the like to the end of the world Reasons Nor will you strange at it if you consider the grounds of it For 1 From the nature of God 1. God is constant and unchangeable in all his proceedings because he is so in his nature If his people alter not too much he still keeps one tenor c Mal. 3.6 I am Jehovah I change not therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed His meaning is that therefore they still pertake of his ancient mercies formerly shewed to Iacob their father because God is so unchangable 2. From their constant interest in the Covenant 2. His people once in Covenant have alwayes the same interest in his wisedome power providence and goodnesse and so may ever plead that whereof they or any others have been at any time partakers Hence the Church long after David was gathered to his Fathers thus expostulates with God d Psal 89.49 Lord where are thy former loving kindnesses which thou swarest unto David in truth As if they should say be they not all ours by being in Covenant with thee as David was 3. God never begins a work but he goes through with it When he begins he will also make an end in perfecting mercies as well as in filling up plagues 3. From Gods perfecting what he begins It is a note of infamie upon a weak man to have it said of him This man began to build and was not able to make an end Therefore Moses knew what he did when he pleaded for further mercy to Israel on this ground that it would be said by the enemy e Deut 9.28 The Lord was not able to bring him into the land which he promised them Therefore Paul was so confident in this very thing that he that hath begun a good work in his people will also finish it unto the day of Iesus Christ Thus then we see clear grounds why one deliverance assures many moe Yet take this truth with this caution Yet observe a Caution Although God deliver his people all alike effectivè yet he doth not alwayes bind himself to give unto all his servants the same deliverance in speciè and in kind But when he doth it not in kind he doth it First in equivalence either the same 1. Deliverance may be in equivalence or another as good in it self and better for thee f 2. Pet. 2.9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly for manner and kind as well as for the meanes If life be best he will preserve thee alive If death be better even death shall be thy deliverance and thy greater gain 2. When God delivers not in kind 2. If not in kind yet such as satisfieth yet that deliverance which he doth bestow gives full satisfaction and perfect content so as other deliverance would not be accepted if it were tendred Those Primitive Saints that were exposed to Martyrdome g Heb. 11.35 would not accept of deliverance that is of an escape with their lives that they might obtain a better resurrection These things observed it ever holds good that The experience of Gods ordering and over-ruling the rage of man in times past is an undoubted assurance of the like for
Gods businesse the precedency of all other Your Affaires and Your beginnings promised much Howbeit I know not how it comes to passe but so it is that Gods Work lies yet undone Matters of Religion lie a bleeding all Government and Discipline of the Church is laid in her Grave and all putredinous vermine of bold Schismaticks and frantick Sectaries glory in her ashes making her fall their own rising to mount our Pulpits to offer strange fire to expell the gravest ablest and most eminent Ministers in the Kingdome if not out of their Pulpits yet out of the hearts of their people as a company of weak men formalists time-servers no Ministers of Christ but Limbs of Antichrist having no calling except from the Devill and to forsake our Assemblies as Babylonish and Antichristian so as in short time they will not leave us the face of a Church And yet no course is taken to suppresse their fury and to reduce them to order which as things now stand will never be till You put your hands to the Cure I know your businesses and diversions have been extraordinary yet in the midst of them all You have found opportunitie to vindicate and setle your own Rights and Liberties Therefore I hope You will finde both time and hearts to consider what is to be done for that God who hath done so much for You beyond all exspectation Farre be it from any among You to say it is not yet a time Remember how unkindly God took the neglect of his House by the Jewes whom he had restored from Captivitie albeit they forgat not the daily Sacrifice in the due place and were opposed by many potent enemies the Kings Great Officers in Judeah who procured from Artaxerxes Longimanus a c Ezra 4.21 Decree to stay the building of the Lords House which caused a cessation of forty-one yeares even d Vers 23. untill the second of Darius Nothus In this case much might have been said for laying aside the Work yet because the chiefe of the people did not constantly solicite the Persian Monarchs to reverse that Decree that the building might goe on but followed their own busines close built their own houses and seiled them sumptuously sowed their fields and omitted nothing for their own Estates and Liberties God did continually blow upon all and cursed every blessing When they marvailed at the matter He bad Haggai the Prophet to tell them the reason and to perswade them to reflect upon their own wayes as the onely cause thereof e Hag. 1.2 This people say the time is not come the time that the Lords House should be built To this the Lord makes answer f Vers 4. Is it time for You O yee to dwell in your seiled houses and this House lie wast Can you finde time for your selves and none for Mee Should I blesse you in pursuit of your own affaires whiles you neglect mine Nay Consider your wayes See what you have gotten in the issue by all the Labour you have taken for your selves while you have done nothing to set forward the House of your God Yee have sowne much and bring in little yee eate but you have not enough yee drinke but yee are not filled c. Thus it was with them although an Edict was still in force against building of the Temple because they did not cordially doe their utmost to obtaine the repeale of that Ordinance but rather made use of it to pursue their own businesse with more zeale and industry And hath not the same God begun the same course against us at this very time Consider your wayes When they who solicited the Cause of God humbly prayed that the matters of Religion might be put to some issue the disbanding of the Armies was thought more necessary to put an end to that charge When that was done what followed Was any thing done for God Surely You can best tell And what have wee gotten In stead of the former Armies God hath now laid upon You a businesse of more difficultie and likely to prove more costly and bloudy by kindling a fire in Ireland to the unspeakable persecutions and butcheries of the poore Protestant Party there and when those flames will be quenched or how far they may extend is known only to Him whose Cause I feare is not sufficiently taken to heart But this be sure of it will never be better but more and more occasion of exhausting your Estates which You have spent so much time to secure will be still administred so long as You shall deferre the building of the Lords House I meane the setling and securing of Religion and Discipline This is that unum necessarium which what ever some think will undoubtedly save all and without which all will be lost at home as well as abroad O therefore let mee be bold in the Name of the Lord whose Servant I am and whose Cause I now plead to give You the same Counsell that God by his servant Haggai gave to the Jewes who seemed to approve the Work but pretended many Lyons to be in the way g Hag. 1.8 Goe up to the Mountaine and bring wood and build the House and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord. What ever your own thoughts be lay them aside to consider seriously what God exspects from You. Try that Course and see what a blessing will follow how soone how strangely God will turne all things about remove all difficulties and work wonderfully for You and our poore Brethren in Ireland This is no Empiricall Dosis but a Probatum est For mark the issue of taking this Counsell in the Jewes Case Such as beleeved the Prophet and feared the Lord laid aside the hot pursuit of their own affaires and did as they were commanded They set upon the building of the Lords House And the next newse was h Hag. 1.13 Then spake Haggai the Lords Messenger the Lords message unto the people I am with you saith the Lord. That is now they should find him with them to purpose first in carrying up the building which beside the severall pauses and interruptions of the Work had been forty-two yeares That House was forty-six years in building Ioh. 2.20 at severall times laboured in and yet not finished and had then lain forty-one yeares together without so much as a stone laid in it Now it should goe up so fast that one foure yeares more should perfect the work For they i Ezra 6.15 finished it in the sixth yeare of Darius Nothus having set upon it in * Hag. 1.15 the second of his Reigne as before is shewed Nor did God thus prosper them in his own Work only but blessed them in all things else they took in hand for themselves And whereas before there was nothing but sidings and factions some * Neh. 6.10 c. and vers 17 18 complying with the Great Officers of the Persian and Medish