A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons now assembled in PARLIAMENT At their publike Fast November 17. 1640. Upon 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while yee bee with him and if yee seek him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you By STEPHEN MARSHALL Batchelour in Divinity Minister of Finchingfield in ESSEX Published by Order of the said House LONDON Printed by J. Okes for SAMUEL MAN dwelling in St. Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Swan 1641. A Sermon Preached before the Honourable house of Commons at their publick Fast 2 CHRON. 15. 2. The Lord is with you while yee bee with him and if yee seeke him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you THis portion of Scripture is a part of a Sermon preached to the whole body of the Kingdome of Judah and a fitter I do not know in all the Bible to be preached upon to the Representative body of a Christian State especially on a day when they are drawing nigh to God The more inexcusable should I be in adventuring to shew my weaknesse at this time in this place were I not able to call the most High to witnesse that nothing but conscience of my duty kept me with Jonah from running away from the Lords worke But Amos the herdsman must prophesie at the Kings Chappell when God commands him The speciall end of your meeting this day is to afflict your soules before God that so with Ezra you might seeke a right way for your selves and the weighty affaires of his Majesty and the whole State and the speciall errand I have to deliver from the Lord is to assure you of the same truth although in other words which Ezra told the Persian Emperour that the hand of God is upon them for good that seek him but his power and wrath against all them that forsake him viz. That God will be with you while you be with him Which Text that you may the better understand give me leave to carry you a little back and give you a plain view of the state of the Church of Iudah at that time In the dayes of Rehoboam there had beene an horrible apostasie from the purity of Gods worship Religion was very much corrupted and the forces of the Kingdome were exceedingly weakned And in Abijahs time things grew worse and worse But now when Asa being a godly man came to the Crowne he begins at the right end and makes it his first work to set upon reformation of Religion taking away the Altars of the strange Gods and the high places brake down the Images cut downe the Groves commanded Judah to seeke the Lord God of their Fathers and to doe the Law and the Commandements casting out whatsoever was a stench in the Lords nostrills and he prospered in whatsoever he put his hand unto This done hee then calls all his Nobles and Princes and Elders together and tells them that they had sought the Lord in matters of Religion and God had beene found of them and that now they should goe and fortifie the Kingdome and so they did in all the Cities and prospered But in the midst of this worke comes out Zerah the Cushite the Ethiopian or rather the Arabian Ethiopia lying beyond Egypt with an Army of a thousand thousand and three hundred Chariots it may be the greatest Army that ever you read of in any story with these he breakes in suddenly upon Asa But he humbles himselfe before God betakes himselfe to prayer tells the Lord that it was all one with him to helpe by many or few And in the Lords name hee went out to encounter with that huge Army over which the Lord gave him a glorious victory and the spoyle of the enemies Country to boote Now as they were comming backe to Hierusalem the Lord calls out Azariah the sonne of Oded to make the gratulatory Oration for their safe returne and conquest in these words that I have read and so forward to verse the eighth and so I am come to my Text In which that I may make as briefe a way as I can possibly to the matter that I shall insist upon two things are to be unfolded First the scope and intent of the Prophet and that is laid downe in the latter end of his speech Bee strong therefore and let not your hands be weake that is goe on with the good worke of Reformation of Religion wherewith you were in hand before the enemy interrupted you Secondly the arguments whereby this is pressed and they are two The first is taken from their owne present happinesse who were in Gods wayes The Lord is with you while yee are with him and if yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you The second is taken from the misery of the ten Tribes who were out of Gods way concerning whom he speaks to this effect That for a long time Israel that is the ten Tribes had bin without God without a teaching Priest and without law and as they had cast off God so God had cast off them howbeit if they would have sought to God and turned to him God would have bin found of them but they going on in the way of desperate apostasie the Lord vexed them every where in the City in the Country in the Family every where God was too strong for them as certainly God will make every one to know that he hath a hard match to encounter with that dares to beare Armes against the Lord And so from their misery hee presseth Asa and his people to go on in the right course to prevent the like for comming upon themselves This second Argument of the misery of the ten Tribes belongs not to my worke I betake my selfe therefore to the other wherein I shall spend the allotted time for this exercise namely The present happinesse of the Church of the Iewes that were in Gods way in which observe these two things First what the happinesse was that they enjoyed in these words The Lord is with you Secondly the Condition upon which they enjoyed this happinesse or the termes upon which they held it and that is First more generally propounded The Lord is with you while you are with him Secondly more particularly and exegetically expounded in the next words If yee seeke him hee will be found of you but if yee forsake him he will forsake you I begin with the first of them The present happinesse of the Church of the Iewes Iehovah is with you Where there is but one question to bee answered for the cleering of the Doctrine that I shall a while insist upon and that is what presence of God is here intended by the Prophet Iehovah is every where Whither shall I goe from thy presence Nay he is not onely present every where but he manifests
Secondly positively and affirmatively what it is It implyes these three things First to bee a holy people a Ieshurun a righteous Nation to be those that undertake the counter-part of the Covenant that as God makes himselfe over to be their God and their portion so they deliver themselves up to him as a people renewed and sanctified to become his portion That is a chiefe thing which the Scripture alwayes meaneth when it speaks a people to be with God that they must be a holy people separated from all iniquity unto God as was cleerely and largely opened in the morning Read over all the booke of God and you shall never finde that a people are said to come home to God but when they put away all their abhominations threw away all their lusts and Idolls to the Moles and to the Bats loathing and detesting themselves for them being as the Doves in the valley every one mourning for their owne iniquities fully determining and resolving never to returne to them any more And indeed if this be not done it is impossible for a people to be with God or to endure God to be with them For God is a devouring fire to wicked men and all wicked men to him are as Straw Hay Stubble and Waxe which the nearer they are brought to the fire the sooner they are devoured Therefore you shall read that the nearer wicked men have at any time beene brought to God the greater their misery And for my owne part I question not but if an ungodly man should bee lifted up into Heaven where God most manifesteth himselfe in glory he would there be most miserable Clemens Alexandrinus speaks of a Temple upon which was written No unholy thing must come neare this place This is Gods very inscription Hab. 1. 13. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evill and canst not look on iniquity Look over all the Epistles in the new Testament and you shall finde that however the externall profession of Christianitie admits men to the external priviledges of Gods presence yet unlesse they be inwardly renewed and sanctified there is no being nigh to GOD Iames 4. 8. Draw nigh to God and hee will draw nigh to you Cleanse your hands yee sinners and purge your hearts c. This is most cleare in that great worke of mans Redemption by Iesus Christ when God had created man holy and righteous God delighted to bee nigh unto him but so soone as iniquity was found in him there was a wall of separation built and a gulfe made that never could bee filled up till the Lord Iesus Christ by his infinite sufferings did it And when that worke is done by Christ the Lord will not communicate his Christ to any soule in the world but upon these absolute termes and God hath sworn that it shall be so that so soone as he hath delivered them and brought them neare to himselfe in calling them to participate that Redemption they should serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the daies of their life This is the first thing they must bee a holy people Secondly to be with God is to be true worshippers of him maintaining the purity of his Ordinances from Idolatry and Svperstition This is abundantly proved Hos. 11. 12. Ephraim saith the Lord compasseth me One would have thought that Ephraim was neare to God when he compassed him but saith God Hee compasseth me with lies What is that with Idolatry for it is usually expressed in the Old Testament that Idols are lies and lies are put for Idols as in Isa. 49. 20. Is there not a lie in my right hand Thus Ephraim that is the ten Tribes compasseth me saith the Lord but Iudah remaines faithfull with God therefore hee ruleth with the Saints What was Iudahs faithfulnes it was her keeping of the marriage Covenant with more care when in Hezekiahs time to which the Prophet referreth Religion was reformed and advanced then Iudah was faithfull with God For the more full understanding of this second branch let me commend one observation to you concerning all the Kings of Israel and Iudah after Solomons time the Scripture sets downe a character of every one of them that all the world might know what judgment God had of them You shall finde that of all the Kings of Israel though there were some very brave men yet there is not one of them that God acknowledged to have walked with him because they were all Ieroboamites worshippers of the golden Calves And when hee speakes of any King of Iudah hee ever singles out one thing as the chiefe matter of his commendation and that is how he stood affected in poynt of Religion Such a man was upright with God the meaning is all his dayes he maintained Gods worship And yet let mee tell you some of their moralities were no better than they should be Asa in the Text was a cholericke passionate man and covetous in his old age and many other weaknesses were found in him yet because hee went through-stitch in the reformation of Religion Asa's heart was said to bee upright with God all his dayes With this God useth to cover all their infirmities as with a veile But if any of the good Kings did but halt in this poynt God hath left it upon record as a blot upon their honours therefore are they blamed if through their default the high places were not taken away though the Idolls set up in those places were removed And in the new Testament throughout all the time of Antichrists apostasie the true Church of Christ that walked with him aright are described by this Character that they are a virgin company not defiled with women that is they were never guilry of the spirituall pollutions of that Apostaticall Church of Rome This was to be with the Lamb and to follow him wheresoever he goeth That is the second to keepe close to God in his worship Thirdly to be with God is to be on Gods side to be engaged in Gods cause to appeare in those things wherein God looks that all his friends should stand for him When the Levites would know neither Father nor mother but slay every man his brother or companion or neighbour that they might avenge Gods quarrell this was to be on Gods side When Elias was zealous for God at a time wherein all the Kingdome as he thought played the Apostates when Phinehas goes with his Javelin and executes vengeance on Zimri and Cosbi when men stand in the gap when in a word a people are for God and his cause as Iehoshaphat said hee was for Ahab I am as thou art and my people as thy people My horses as thy horses and my Chariots as thy Chariots this is to bee with God And indeed if this be wanting people cannot be interpreted to bee with God because God is not acknowledged in his due place unlesse they bee for him with
they all lie in the Deck charged as the sin of the Nation till by some publicke Act the fourth Commandement bee restored to its due place and honour Thirdly goe to another branch the poynt of preaching the Word The preaching of the Word is the Scepter of Christs Kingdome the glory of a Nation the Chariot upon which life and salvation comes riding such a treasure as that any wise Merchant would sell all to buy the field wherein this Treasure lies O that God would humble England for the great abuse of this invaluable mercy What little care hath the State in general taken to provide that Christ might ride in Triumph upon his white horse that the Word of God might spread into every corner of the Land But oh the cruelty that hath beene offered to many poore Congregations in taking away the bread of Life from their mouthes without any pitty as if the starving and murthering of soules for which Iesus Christ shed his blood were a matter of no moment And oh the spoyle and havocke that hath beene made among many faithfull and painfull Ministers for such trifles as will not endure tryall in the day of the Lords appearing Could wee as in a mirrour behold the great guilt wee lye under for these things and apprehend what great wrath is kindled against the Kingdome for them how would our hearts tremble before God this day Fourthly but above all the extreame daring bold audaciousnesse of a generation of men that have adventured as much as in them lies to corrupt Gods worship that not onely rejoyce to see the Idolatrie and superstition of Rome practised by others but have dared to set their thresholds by Gods threshold and to dresse out all Gods worship according to their owne fancies things too apparent to need any further proofe It may be some may think this is no great matter and much complaint need not be made against it a few distinctions will salve all that is done to quit it from Idolatry and superstition But as Lodovicus Vives saith of the Papists in his dayes that for ought he saw they in effect gave the same reverence to their Saints which the Pagans did to their gods So I may truely say of these men that notwithstanding all their distinctions little difference is to bee found betwixt their practise and the superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome Will some say let it be granted that men have been too blame as doubtlesse multitudes have been too bold in this kind yet God forbid that we should judge so farre as to make them as odious to God as if they were the bringers of Gods wrath upon the Nation as if they were as bad as whoremongers or blasphemers or that we should offer to compare them with the grosse Idolaters of the Church of Rome God forbid such a staine should bee cast upon them Thus some men draw a fine veile over these foule enormities Good Lord that the glorious light of the Gospell in eighty two yeares should not take away this filme from the eyes of men Judge you the case you that are husbands you that have a spirit of jelousie bee yee Arbitrators betweene the Lord and this Generation and say if a wanton looke in your owne wife if a whorish dresse if the giving or receiving of love tokens if the least degrees of dalliance would not render your owne wife more abhominable to you than the knowne fornication or adultery of any other woman whatsoever Doe you not know that the Church of Christ is his Spouse Do you not know that God is more easily provoked by a people among whom hee walkes than by any other people whatsoever I beseech you lay these things to heart And let the remembrance of this day helpe you in it This day eighty two yeares agone the Lord set up the Gospell among us and tooke us to be a nation in Covenant with him Oh the progresse that some nations would have made The thankfulnesse and fruitfulnesse that some people would have attained to in so long a time but that wee should grow worse and worse in poynt of Gods worship that we should hanker after Idolatry and Superstition and fall away worse than any of our neighbours that God hath visited so severely what shall wee say when God comes to reckon with us for these things Fiftly adde the horrible prophanation of the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper the promiscuous multitude every where not onely allowed but even compelled to the receiving of it Multitudes of whom know not whether Christ were a man or a woman nor how many Gods there be multitudes wallowing in all prophanenesse and licentiousnesse yet if they professe that they be no Papists almost every where they are admitted to the polluting of these reverend Mysteries as if we would compell the Lord to depart away from us And then if we should take in the third branch of ingaging ourselves in Gods cause how little zeale is there for God The wrongs and cruelties that are done to many the teares of the afflicted and oppressed and so few that will open their mouths or appeare to plead any cause which GOD will owne abundantly proclaimeth this Verily beloved were you all as innocent as Ezra was of the fact among the Iewes of the wretchednesse of the people of Israel If you did know what God looks for at your hands this day you would rent the very Caule of your hearts before the Lord and sit downe with him astonished and refuse to be comforted and wonder that GOD hath not wholly left us and delivered up our glory as a spoile and severely revenged the quarrell of his Covenant But to come nearer yet and bring it home into your owne bosomes what if you your selves bee guilty of these things You that are the flower of your Tribes the chiefe of the Thousands of England You that are lifted up above your Brethren whom GOD hath made the Head and not the Taile of the places where you live when GOD might have left you to be hewers of Wood and drawers of Water And hee hath made some of you Noblemen some Knights and Gentlemen and now called you to bee the Repairers of our breach to heale and prevent our ruine What if you your selves have a chiefe hand in these transgressions What if among you be found swearers cursers adulterers drunkards haters of Gods waies scorners of his Children and his Ordinances men who goe on in your sinfull wayes and resolve to doe so and because you are great will therefore bee children of Belial refusing to carry Gods yoake what if any such should be here The Lord of heaven forbid But if there should be any such I beseech you thinke what a Magor-mizzabib what a terrour round about you there will be when God comes to find you and to reckon with you Are you come to Fast and Pray before the Lord Doe you come to stand betwixt God and the
Nation when you wallow in such wayes as GODS soule abhorres Doe you such things as are rebellion against God and pull downe his vengeance on us Doe you call this an acceptable Day Doe you thinke the LORD will accept of any service at your hands Be ashamed and confounded and never rise up till GOD have broken your hearts and spoken peace to you in the bloud of CHRIST Let deepe humbling thoughts for these things bee now to your soules as those bitter Hearbes wherewith the Israelites of old did eate the Passeover But if you make nothing of all this but will goe on carelessely and walke contrary to God God will walke contrary to you the Lord will not be with you This is the first use for Humiliation Secondly I adde but another of Exhortation and I have done I beseech you pardon the Liberty which your call gives mee I were unworthy ever to speake more if I should not now speake freely You stand all this day before the LORD and have beene exercised in the Duties of Fasting and Prayer I beseech you tell mee in Gods presence or rather answer GOD in your owne hearts what was the thing you propounded to your selves was it to keepe a day for Formality because it is now a received thing in England in the beginning of a Parliament to keepe a Fast Or was it that by hanging the head as a Bulrush for a day you might expiate your sinnes with God and take a new Ticket to sinne againe As it was said of Lewis the eleventh that hee would kisse his Crucifix when he had done evill and then God and hee were friends and he might goe on in his old way againe If it bee so expect a sad reckoning for this dayes worke you deale with a God that will not be mocked by the greatest of you You shall reade in Ezek. 14. divers of the Elders came to the Prophet to inquire of God These men saith God have set up their Idolls in their hearts and they come to enquire of mee Tell them I will answer them with a witnesse I will set my face against them and make them a signe and a Proverb So I say from God to the greatest of you who brought your sins in the morning and purpose to returne to them in the evening and keepe such a solemne day onely for a formality and there an end God will reckon with you for it But if you desire indeed to meete God and to bee with God that God may be with you then weigh what I shall say from the Lord and if it appeare to bee his will then as you were taught in the morning draw it up into a Covenant Covenant betwixt God and your soules come and receive the Sacrament upon it and lye at Gods feet to obtain grace for performance My exhortation shall be answerable to the three branches of the Doctrine First resolve every one of you for his owne part to turne to God to cast out all your abhominations never to turne to any of your wicked wayes from this day forward It may bee this motion seemes harsh and will not easily downe because in our wretched dayes as the Turks use to account all fooles to bee Saints so men with us account all Saints to be fooles But this must be done necessary things fall not under deliberation To live in hell you would not to live with God you cannot hard it will bee to be damned impossible it will bee to bee saved unlesse with full purpose of heart you turne to God and become new creatures I must say to you as the Prince of Orange said to his souldiers at the battaile of Newport when they had the Sea on the one side and the Spaniards on the other If saith he you will live you must either eate up these Spaniards or drinke up this Sea So must you either conquer your lusts eate up the Spaniards or drink up the Sea the devouring Gulfe of Gods wrath and none of you know how soone this time may come that will yee nill yee yee must be be brought neare to God who is a devouring fire utterly to consume you if you be Straw and Stubble or to glorifie you if you be Gold The Pagan King of Niniveh saw this that without turning every man from the wickednesse that was in his owne hands there could bee no hope of escaping the wrath of God And therefore you who are Christians cannot expect that God should be with you in any thing that you take in hand till this bee done God will not onely loath you but the works of your hands also Secondly this done bee with God in matter of * Religion my meaning plainly is this be First such as cleave to the purity of his worship in your owne practise And then in your great Counsaile bee yee purgers and preservers of our Religion Looke throughly what is amisse and pluck up every plant that God hath not planted throw to the Moales and to the Bats every ragge that hath not Gods stampe and name upon it That it may be said of this Parliament in matter of Religion as it is said of Josiah There was never any like him before him nor any after him So there was never any Parliament before this nor never any after it that followed the Lord with all their heart and all their soule and all their might according to all the will of God And to provoke you give mee leave to give you a briefe view of the hedge that God hath made about the second Commandement The intent of that Commandement is that Gods people should worship him with his owne worship and his owne ordinances and never dare to tender to him the devises and traditions of men for a homage Now the Lord knowing the itch and pronenesse in men to be tampering in the worship of God to set their thresholds by his threshold hath set such a hedge about it that if a man did consider it seriously hee could not but admire that ever mortall man should dare in the matter of Gods worship to meddle any jot further than the Lord himselfe hath commanded it standing like the Cherubims and the flaming Sword which turned every way to keepe the way of the Tree of Life First he is a jelous God as if hee should say the matter of my worship is to mee as the marriage bed and I am a Husband easily provoked to jelousie which is * the rage of a man and will accept no ransome Secondly all such are said to hate God I will visit the sinnes of them that hate mee They all pretend that they are lovers of him They that made men kisse the Calves yet would have them sweare Iehovah liveth Jeroboam pretended nothing but respect to God and to Gods people when he set up his Calves so these men pretend reverence and veneration to Gods Ordinances but God protests that they all hate him
which may appeare by the odious names hee gives to their sinne calling it sometimes Rebellion as being a denying his Soveraignty Iosh. 22. 16. 22. Sometimes Apostasie Ier. 2. 13. Sometimes Adultery the most unpardonable sinne betwixt man and wife Ezek. 16. And sometimes Blasphemy Isai. 65. 7. Thirdly it is a sinne that hath vengeance and punishment intailed upon it to the Third and fourth generation The Iews say to this day that there was never any calamity betided their Nation since their comming out of Aegypt but there was an ounce of the Golden Calfe in it It is a sinne that GOD failes not to visit upon Children to the third and fourth Generation But now on the other side God will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keepe his Commandements How is that The Lord interprets them to love him that purely worship him As a man who finds his wife faithfull in the marriage bed judgeeth that shee loves him and that her heart is one with his what ever other infirmities shee may have Yea they are interpreted to keepe all his Commandements God will trust them for all his Commandements whom he finds faithfull in his worship Yea to a thousand Generations hee will remember them which is longer than this wicked world shall stand The kindnesse and faithfulnesse of them that maintaine and preserve the pure Religion and worship of God shall ever bee in the sight of God for them and their posterity Oh! let mee helpe your reckoning in the day of the LORD intreating you for the Childrens sake of your owne body to lay what I have said to heart that you may provide that the Ordinances of God bee neither taken away nor defiled that GOD may be purely worshipped in his owne way for time to come And that by a Generation of men who seeke onely to glory in our flesh wee bee not jugled our of our Religion nor mis-led in such a way of service as that Gods soule should take no pleasure in us Thirdly and lastly which is the comprehension of all the rest bee on Gods side ingage your selves in every cause which is Gods Owne what God ownes As Christ said You shall not have me alway that is in my person but the poore you shall have alway and when you will you may doe good to them So I say you have not Christ with you in his person but you alwayes have his Cause his Truth his Ordinances his Day his Ministers his Children the Teares of the afflicted all causes of Instice and Righteousnesse these are Gods causes God would have all his friends zealous for him and appeare for him his Church and his Cause And to inflame your hearts to this be pleased to consider these few incouragements First God hath deserved it at your hands that you should appeare for Him Hee hath appeared for you when none could His Sonne Iesus Christ gave his owne soule a ransome for your sinnes or else you had perished in Hell for ever Hee hath made you the Head rather than the Tayle Hee hath heaped upon you Honour Wealth and Friends and you can give no other reason why you are not more miserable than the poorest Vagrant that wants both house and home but onely this that GOD hath beene on your side Doth not hee then deserve to bee owned They say Love is loves Loadstone and loves Whetstone Secondly Gods Cause his Church and Children have few friends and many enemies and those enemies no Babies but Principalities and Powers Cruell Cunning Malicious and unweariable And more now than ever Satan knowes his time is short hee stirres up all his instruments as if one spirit possest them all And is it not a shame that the Lords friends should bee more backward in his cause than the vassalls of Satan are in their Masters I adde thirdly the Lord to punish the Pride Sloath Hypocrisie and Formality of his people hath of late suffered the enemies of the Church to prevaile exceeding farre The face of Christendome this day so miserably rent with Warres Sedition Heresies and Schismes is a most ruthfull spectacle Who can looke upon poore Germany and not even bee compelled to weepe over the Booke of the Lamentations againe And GOD knowes whose Lot is next Little quiet I feare is to bee expected in Christendome till the Beast his Kingdome be ruined Now wee know that the Lord accounts that the most seasonable time for his friends to owne his cause when the enemies are most violent against it then God saith Who is on my side who When the pressures of the Church are greatest the opportunities of appearing for the LORD are most seasonable and great are their Rewards who then sticke to him Every one would gladly embrace a glorified CHRIST but when the whole Councell shall reject him then with Nicodemus to plead for him this is honourable When hanging upon the Crosse his Disciples runne away from him then with Ioseph of Arimathea boldly before Pilate to shew love to him this is acceptable When the Jewes had an exalted Mordecay then the people of the Land would turne Iewes The Samaritanes would helpe to build the Temple when the Persian Emperour is a friend to the Church But our Lord saith let mee have the man that will not bee ashamed of me before a froward and adulterous Generation Marke he doth not say in a gracious Generation then no man will bee ashamed of him but in an adulterous and froward Generation Fourthly when you strike in on the LORDS side on his Churches side on his Causes side you shall not onely strike in with the best side with the best Cause but with the most prevailing with that side which must and shall have the victory at the long runne It would make a man never to be afraid to be ingaged in a quarrell where hee is sure of the Victory The Barke wherein Christ his Church and Cause are may bee tossed but can never bee drowned Populus Romanus saepe praelio victus nunquam bello The Romans lost many Battailes but they were never overcome in a set Warre at the long runne they crushed all their enemies So all the enemies that seeme too hard for Christs cause and his Church must perish Hee must rule till all his enemies be made his footstoole In Zacharie the 12. there are foure or five admirable expressions The Church is compared to a Hearth of Fire in the midst of a Wood Like a Torch of Fire in the middest of a Sheafe Whether the Wood or the Fire the Torch or the Sheafe will have the victory judge yee In verse the second shee is compared to a cup of Poyson that will end them who thinke to devoure it To an heavy Stone that will returne upon those to their ruine who endeavour to carry it away So shall it bee with all Nations that fight against the Church and cause of Christ And if
his presence every where every herbe shewes it all the Creatures speake God in them Nor onely so but oft-times the manifestation of Gods presence is the torture and misery of the people to whom he is present In Isai. 33. 14. when God sends them word that he would come among them presently it follows The sinners in Zion are afraid fearefulnes hath surprized the Hypocrite who among us shall dwell with devouring fire who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings And in Jer. 4. 23. the Prophet beheld the earth and loe it was without forme and voyd the mountaines and loe they trembled the nations and they were wasted to nothing what was the reason because of the presence of the Lord What presence then is here intended For that through Gods providence the mornings worke hath saved me part of my labour For in effect the presence intended in this Text is Gods presence in the Covenant of Grace in which he is so joyned with a people that they also are joyned unto him God to be joyned with a people and to be in Covenant with them in the Scripture phrase is all one So that the lesson which it affords is this The presence of God in his Covenant of Grace with any people is the greatest glory and happinesse that they can enjoy The Prophet here encouraging them to goe on and to feare nothing useth onely this sentence that God will be with them As if he had said you shall have all the happinesse that you can wish God will be with you In prosecuting this poynt I shall endeavour two things First to demonstrate the truth of it out of the Scripture Secondly to make a briefe application of it For the first see how cleere it is in the Scriptures in Deut. 4. 7 8. Moses speakes of the Israelites after this manner What Nation in all the world is so great as thou art All their neighbours should say surely this is a great people a wise a happy people I pray you what was their condition when Moses thus magnified them there were 600000 men of them in a desolate barren howling wildernesse There was not one house for a man to hide his head but onely floting Tents some covered with cloathes some with boughes No land that they could either sow or plough or reape No trading hardly a man that had two suits to his back but as some think as their bodies grew their cloaths grew as their feete grew their shooes grew wherein then was their happinesse Mark what Moses saith verse 7. What Nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things c There was their happinesse that Iehovah was nigh them and marched up and downe before them So you shall see in Exod. 33. the Lord was offended with the people for making of the golden Calfe In the beginning of that Chap. he speaks after this manner to Moyses Take this people and carry them to the Land that I have promised to give them It is a Land flowing with Milke and Hony I will send my Angell before you He shall drive out all the Nations and plant you in that goodly Country onely J my selfe will not goe with them for I shall be so farre provoked by their sinnes that I shall fall upon them suddenly and consume them But my Angell shall not leave them till they be setled in that good Land One would have thought that this had beene an excellent offer thousands would have esteemed it a glorious thing to have an Angell of God to goe and plant them in the goodliest Country that was under the cope of Heaven But marke how Moyses takes it O Lord rather kill us all in the Wildernesse let us never stir a foote if Thy presence goe not with us I pray thee if I have found favour with Thee goe with us thy Selfe well sayth God my presence shall goe Moyses presseth againe let it be that or nothing for wherein else shall it be knowne to the World that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight Is it not in that thou goest with us So shall we be separated I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the Earth This is the summe of that Chapter Againe you shall finde in Psalme 46. and Psalme 48. David strangely magnifies Hierusalem above all the Cities in the World Excellent are the straines of Rhetoricke flowing from the Spirit of God in setting forth the glory of that City which in a word was such as All the Kings of the Earth should come and looke on and stand amazed at it Without question Babylon or Niniveh excelled Hierusalem in Davids time for outward glory as farre as the City of London doth one of our meane Country Townes What was the glory of Hierusalem then You shall read in those Psalmes God was with them God is in the midst of her God is knowne in her Palaces And every where this is the thing he cries up it was a glorious place because Iehovah was there And in Psalme 144. The Pen-man of it so farre extols even the common mercies that God oft times bestowes upon a people that they then become Blessed When their Sonnes grow up as plants and their Daughters as the corners of the Temple polished after the manner of a Palace their Garners affording all store their Oxen strong to labour that there is no breaking in and carrying into Captivity Blessed sayth he are the people that are in such case But marke how hee gives a dash to all he had said in comparison of that he had to say of the blessednesse of Gods people Yea rather happy are the people whose God is the Lord You shall see also in the latter end of Ezechiel Chapter 40. and in Revelation 21. such an Hyperbolicall description of a most glorious City the new Hierusalem as never had parallell And what is the Glory of that City Read but the last words in the Prophesie of Ezechiel The name of that City from that Day shal be THE LORD IS THERE As if he had said would you have an abridgement of all the excellencies of this City and Temple This it is Jehovah is there And in Revelation 21. The Lord God Almighty and the Lambe are there On the other side you shall see it as plaine when the Lord threatneth the greatest plague and curse that can betide a Nation he never mentions other above this that He will depart from them As if hee had meant to strike them dead at a blow by saying He will leave them That place in Hosea Chapter 9. 11. is very remarkable As for Ephraim that is the Children of Israel the ten Tribes his glory shall flee away as a Bird that is suddainly swiftly irrecoverably he shall be utterly undone What is the matter The next Verse tels you Woe unto them when J depart from them If God goe woe comes all
put together amounts to thus much that Gods presence in his Covenant with any people implyes that they are dearly beloved of him that hee workes all their workes for them and shields and defends them against all their enemies I come now to the Application of it wherein because I chiefely intend the next poynt the Condition of Gods presence I will briefely make two or three Collections onely which I conceive may be most seasonable and sutable to your office and to the occasion of your meeting here this day First is it so that the glory and happinesse of a nation stands in the presence of God in his Covenant Then I humbly pray you all to take notice what are the greatest Evills and who are the most desperate Traytors against the King Church and State of England at this day I doubt not but you have a multitude of complaints of Grievances presented to the Parliament house all at least pretended to be contrary to the welfare of the State give mee leave to put up one Great One and to informe you who bee the Authors of the greatest Grievances and Evills that can possibly betide the Kingdome of England even they that would rob us of our God Solomon saith A man that wasts his Father and chaseth away his mother is a miserable wretch And I know if evidence should he brought into this Honourable assembly against any one that had deprived the King of a Subject you would think him worthy of severe punishment But higher if you should light upon one that should endeavour to deprive the King and Kingdome of a wise Counsellour and States man in the multitude whereof is the safety of the Kingdome But higher yet if any should be found that had lift up his hand against his Majesty the Lords anoynted who is the breath of our nostrills if any such should be discovered would you not say of them as she said to David Let the soule of my Lord bee bound up in the bundle of life and let the Lord sting the soules of his enemies as out of the middle of a sting yea would not every true hearted subject in the Kingdome say thus also O but Honourable and beloved they that would rob us of the glory of our King and Kingdome that would take away all our happinesse and protection and prosperity that would leave us naked to our shame that wee should become a scorne and spoyle are not they worse than any of the former You will say Who is he and where is he that dares presume in his heart to doe so I pray stay for a full answer till the next poynt touching the Condition of enjoying God be unfolded in the meane time take this in part I pray God there bee none such met this day to fast and pray before the Lord Every sonne of Belial every one that is a Rebell against God every one that workes wickednesse is that wicked Haman that sells Hester and all her people to destruction If there be any such here you will give me leave being Gods Minister and your Servant to discharge my Office faithfully Should there bee but one such I say among you that are called together to bee the Repairers of the breaches to such a one let me thus speak If thou be found to bee the Achan that keepes God from going out with our armies the Jonas that art ready to cast away the ship so that there is no hope of our safety till thou be cast out if thy conscience accuse thee that thou art a child of Belial an Idolater a superstitious person a prophane Esau lay this close to thy heart how miserable and wretched a man thou art that not onely adventurest thine own soule to most certaine ruine in opposing the Lord but as another Sylla thou pluckest out thy fathers purple haire and deprivest the Kingdome of the glory of it so that it may be written upon thy Grave-stone This man was the ruine of his King and Countrie And for the Lords sake Honourable and beloved take it to heart and lay it up with you that if Gods presence be our glory then those that would robus of it are our greatest enemies Think of them all as he upon lesse ground said of the Children of Dan. You have taken away my God and what have I more And secondly let me beseech you all in this your great Nationall Councell and Assembly to take seriously into your thoughts what may be the best way of lengthening out our tranquillity Beloved all the Nations in Christendome have beene in grievous perplexities many yeares round about us wee have beene hitherto kept as another Land of Goshen where light hath still shined when all others have beene in darknesse And I know the hearts of some of you have sadly expected when God should come and erect his Iustice seat among us or give the sword a Commission against us now you are met for this very thing to provide for our welfare for the Lords sake take care to keepe him with us if he goe all goes wee can never light our Candle if this Sunne bee set wee shall never fill our Buckets if this Fountaine bee shut up All your counsells and advising will be nothing if God say I will stay no longer in England Wee shall then bee a spoyle to any enemy a few unarmed men will bee too hard for us all It is recorded of the Palladium in Troy that while that Image remained there the City was impregnable and that till the Greeks lighted on that stratagem to steale that Idoll away they could never winne the City What ever fancy there was in that you know how much it concernes us to keepe our GOD with us let your maine care bee to fixe and settle him therefore among us and then wee are safe if you let him goe we are an undone people Thirdly if Gods presence in his Covenant bee the glory and safety of a people then may all of you undertaking any service for GOD and his Glory most comfortably and securely rest on God to defend and protect you against all dangers It is no question but your enemies are mighty malicious and cunning and it may bee they are digging as deepe as Hell for Counsell to doe you mischiefe in this great way and work that you are in But while you are with God God will bee with you Are not five Sparrowes sold for a Farthing saith our Saviour Are not you more worth than all the Sparrowes in the World are you not in Gods Worke As Caleb said The Lord is with us feare not them They shall all be bread for us Goe on boldly use what providence you can to prevent dangers but comfortably remember that the Name of the Lord is a strong Tower the righteous runne to it and are safe I will conclude this with a story of Luther which he tells of a Bishop of Magdenburg A Duke of
Saxony prepared warre against him the Bishop hearing of it falls to praying reforming of his Church and amending what was amisse One of the Dukes spies then in that City when he saw him make no preparation for defence came and asked him if he did not heare what the Duke was preparing against him Yes saith he I doe but Ego curabo Ecclesiam meam Deus pro me pugnabit I must looke to my worke and the defence of me belongs to God which when the Duke heard he disbanded his forces and acknowledged that hee should prove too weak to deale with that man that ingaged God in the quarrell against him So follow you on the work be yee for the Lord and comfortably rest your selves under Gods wing to prosper and protect you So much for their present happinesse The Lord is with you I proceed now to the second part the condition upon which this happines is to be enjoyed For God is with you while you are with him This Adverb while implyes First the duration of time how long God will be with you so long as you are with God so long and no longer for so it is used in the very next words of the Text If yee seek him he will be found of you but if yee forsake him he wil forsake you So David saith to Solomon Know thou the God of thy Fathers and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind if thou seeke him hee will bee found of thee but if thou forsake him he will cast thee off for ever Secondly While signifieth likewise the Degree and measure of Gods presence This is the beame by which GOD weighes out his presence the Standard whereby he measures it that is in what degree people are with God in that degree he is with them If they bee with God in outward formalities only God will be with them in outward blessings only If they be with God in all things as Amaziah was but not with a perfect heart God will be so with them if they be with God absolutely intirely as Iosiah and David and Hezekiah c. were with God God will bee so with them fulfilling that in Isai. 26. that the most upright God ballanceth out the wayes of the just hee weighes out their way and gives them a just proportion according to that in the eighteenth Psalme With the pure God will shew himselfe pure and with the froward hee will shew himselfe froward that is hee will deale with men as they deale with him This is fully laid downe in Levit. 26. where God saith if they walke humbly with him hee will walke graciously to them if they walke frowardly and stubbornly and contrary to him hee will walke contrary to them If they vexe him seven times hee will vexe them seven times So in the seven Churches when some of them had a few things for God God would be with them in a few things If they will have something contrary to God hee will ever have something against them and as their wayes are to him so the most High God will measure out himselfe to them and that is the Doctrine that I am to handle viz. God will bee with his people to bee their glory their portion prosperity and protection just as they are with him Before I proceede further with this poynt give mee leave by way of Caution to remove two or three stumbling blocks which lye in the way of many men First when you heare that God will bee with his people as they are with God take heede you understand it not as some who that they may set up the rotten Dagon of mans free will above the Arke of Gods free grace doe use out of such conditionall Scriptures to argue that God hath an antecedent undetermined uncertaine suspended purpose of doing good to a people which is moved changed or determined according to the ebbings and flowings of their carriage towards him A few words may serve in this assembly these conditions shew not the moving cause of Gods presence but describe the Subject or People with whom he is present the hand of the Diall makes not the Clocke to goe but shewes how it doth goe These Conditions quicken us to our duty and tell us upon what termes wee must look for God to bee with us but he himselfe is not thereby limitted but still at liberty to worke in us the Condition which himselfe requireth of us Gods love of Friendship which is his manifesting himselfe in his Covenant we cannot expect except we be with him but no Law is hereby laid upon his beneplacitum his free favour whereby hee workes both the will and the deed and causeth his people to walke in his wayes God gives conditions to us but takes none from us Secondly much lesse neede wee sticke at the glosse of the Papists who out of such conditionall Scriptures use to argue our performance of the condition formally to merit Gods gracious presence and so they will have it to bee rendred by him not as a mercifull giver but as a just Iudge The Scripture is plaine to the contrary our merit is nothing but Gods mercy Wee grant indeed Gods presence to his people is a reward of their obedience but it is a reward not of justice but of mercy So saith the Prophet David Thou O Lord art mercifull for thou rewardest men according to their works * Thirdly nor yet must wee thinke that when this Condition is required of a Nation that it is so limited that unlesse the universality of the people shall performe it the rest cannot expect Gods presence with them for that was never done no not in Davids nor in Solomons time But it is chiefely meant of the Princes Rulers Ministers and the face of the people whose wayes whether good or bad in regard of Gods nationall proceeding with them are ever interpreted to bee the wayes of the whole body These blocks removed I returne to the Lessou viz. That God is with his people while they are with him in the sense before given For the making this more profitable I shall endeavour First to shew you what in the Scripture language the being of a people with God doth implie Secondly to make application of it to our selves First what is it for a people to be with God I must shew first Negatively what it is not Secondly Positively what it is First Negatively it is not barely to beare Gods Name and to bee called his people It is not meerely to draw neare to him in the externall performance of certaine duties It is not to hang down the head like a Bulrush for a day though in fasting and prayer It is not to bring thousands of Rammes and ten thousand rivers of Oyle before God You know many and many people have done all these things yet God hath protested they were not with him nor hee with them
all their hearts and with all their soule and all their strength when he hath most neede of them If a woman will doe many things for her husband yet if her heart goe more after her Puppets her cloaths her servants than after him especially in times of his necessity her heart cannot beeinterpreted to be with her husband because he is not acknowledged in the due place of an husband So if there be any thing any cause any person that we rather ingage our selves for than for God and his cause wee cannot be said to be with God So now you have the meaning of the Condition of enjoying God while yee are with him It is 1 To be reconciled to God and to walk with him as an holy people 2 To continue with him in the purity of his worship 3 To stand by him in every cause which doth concerne his glory The deductions which might flow from this Doctrine for our use are many I shall confine my selfe to these two as being most sutable and seasonable to the time and your worke First matter of Humiliation and mourning before God for time past Secondly matter of Duty for time to come For the first Honourable and beloved you stand this day before the Lord to afflict your soules and though you bee the chosen men of your Tribes lifted up above your brethren yet you are now called not onely to bemoane your owne iniquities but to beare the iniquity of the whole Kingdome And me thinkes I looke upon you as upon the Prophet Ezekiel when he was to beare the iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah hee was to lye upon his side and to eate his bread made of Wheate and Barley and Beanes Lentiles and Fitches miserable coarse bread and baked with the dung of man and to drinke a little water for many dayes together How sad and heavy the Prophets spirit must needs be when he was thus to beare such a burthen is easie to judge Such a temper of spirit would this day well become you And now could I but speak to you from the Lord how sad things there are against England in this point of not being with God could you with patience and grace heare me and would the Lord affect my heart and yours in handling and hearing of them we should make this place a Bochim a place of weepers the stoutest heart would be as Queene Huzzab and her Ladies when they went into Captivity tabering on their breasts and mourning as Doves yea howling after the manner of Dragons Could I as in a mirrour set before your eyes how infinitely farre off the body of this Kingdome is from being with the Lord we should wonder that the Lord hath not wholly forsaken us long agone and that instead of injoying this liberty of pleading with God for our lives for our Prince and Countrey and for whatsoever is precious to us we are not left like unto Sodom and made like unto Gomorrah Take a view of all the three particulars mentioned in the point First are we an holy people I am now pleading Gods cause and though a poore unworthy man I stand betwixt God and a Kingdome I aske again are we an holy people Are our Princes our Rulers our Magistrates our Ministers and the body of the people holy Doe wee walke according to the rules of Christianity the summe whereof for the practicall part is laid downe in the ten Commandements and those expositions that our Lord gives of them Doe we walke thus I know there is no man here so ignorant as to imagine that we doe Alas the Prophets speech too well befits us Ah! sinfull Nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evill doers Children that are corrupters The whole head is sicke the whole heart is faint from the sole of the foote even to the head there is no soundnesse in it but wounds and bruises and putrifiedsores Aegypt was never more bespread with Locusts and Frogges than our Kingdome is with horrible prophanenesse uncleannesse oppression deceit and whatsoever is a stench in the Lords nostrills The generality of people wearing indeed the Lords Livery being Christned and doing the Devills work all the yeare long Nay is there any thing this day so hated as holinesse have we not gotten termes to scoffe down all goodnesse is not almost every man who will not sweare and be drunke and be deboyst as a Turke or worse cryed downe with the odious name of a Puritan That as Ambrose said of Paulinus a yong noble man of Rome at whom when he was converted to Christ and left the worlds glory to carry Christs Crosse there was more wondring than if a Mule had cast a Foale And as Bede said of the ancient Britaines immediately before their destruction by the Saxons that they were come to that height of wickednesse as to cast Odium in Religion is professores tanquam in adversarios God knowes many thousands are guilty of the same in this Land this day the measure of our iniquity seemes to be more than full O that our hearts could this day bleed for it Secondly see what wonderfull cause wee have to bee abased for all the injury the Land stands guilty of in abusing God in the poynt of his Worship which is the defiling of the marriage bed betwixt God and his people God hath visited all the Reformed Churches brought most of them almost to nothing yet passe over and see whether ever any of them have provoked the Lord in this kinde so much as wee have done Let mee name foure or five things too much practised and too little lamented God in mercy affect our hearts with them this day First the Articles of our faith the depositum the good thing committed to us which we received from our fore Fathers and should transmit entire to our posterity oh the miserable defection that wee have made from God adulterating thereof Tell mee beloved what one poynt what one Article of Faith controverted betwixt us and the Church of Rome is there that our Pulpits and Presses and University Acts have not beene bold withall as if we were weary of the Truth which God hath committed to us as if indeed for our not receiving the truth in love God were giving the Nation up to believe lies Secondly let me instance in the Lords Day a day which is a signe betwixt God and his people that He is their God that sanctifieth them That as Idoll-worshippers are knowne by keeping holidayes to their Gods So Gods people are knowne to bee his people by observing of his Holy day It is most true that our ancient Doctrine established is purer in this poynt than can be found in most of the Churches and excellent Lawes we have for the backing of it but I believe there hath not beene in all the Christian World such high affronts offered to the Lords day as of late hath beene in England and I am confident