VERSE IX Opened 418 Obs 1 To comit the same sins our ancestors did is greater than theirs was 419 Obs 2 God takes it ill when those whom he hath used to punish others for sin commit the same sins themselves ib Obs 3 Children of iniquity may escape once and again 423 VERSE X Expounded 425 Obs 1 When God hath a mind to bring about a thing he will gather a people 427 Obs 2 God will chuse his rod he will scourg us with ib. VERSE XI Obs 1 Such as are divided in prosperity shall be bound together in bondage 430 Obs 2 It is a sign of a carnal heart to avoid any work God cals to because it is difficult 431 Obs 3 Hypocrites are content with such services as bring present comfort ib. Obs 4 It is a sign of a carnal heart to seek present accommodation 432 Obs 5 God looks with indignation upon such as mind nothing but ease and delicacy 455 Obs 6 It is an honor for men to go thorough difficultiâ—s for God 439 Obs 7 Let no men boast they live more at ease than others ib. Use Comfort for the afflicted Obs 8. Those that for sake the true Worship of God 't is well if they come into the meanest condition among Gods People 441 VERSE XII Obs 1. Though the sins of people be great and judgments near we know not what an exhortation may do 441 Obs 2 The actions of men are seeds 445 Obs 3 They shal come up in the same kind ib. Obs 4 The seed lies in the ground rotting a while yet afterwards comes up ib. Obs 5 The seed sowen comes up through the blessing of God upon it ib. Obs 6. The better the seed is the longer it lies under ground 446 Obs 7 The Ministers of God are sowers ib. Obs 8 Large oportunities of doing service for God should be our riches ib. Obs 9 It is not every seed will serve the turn 447 Obs 10 As a man sows so shall he reap 450 Use Let the Saints set a price upon the actions of Righteousness 451 Obs 11 God will give abundantly above our good works 455 Obs 12 The hearts of men naturally are fallow grounds 456 Obs 13 It is high time to seek the LORD 474 Reasons 1 God hath been a long time patient ib. 2 Mercy is even going ib. 3 It is an acceptable time ib. Obs 14 It is time for England to seek God 478 Obs 15 God will come to sow Righteousnes in time 480 Obs 16 Sometimes God doth not presently rain Righteousness upon his people that sow it 481 Obs 17 Those that seek aright will continue seeking till God comes ib. Motives to continue seeking 1. Thou art doing thy duty 482 2. Thou canst not do better ib. 3. While you are waiting God is working good ib. 4. While thou art seeking thou art not without some dews 483 5. When he comes he will come more fully ib. Obs 18 To those that are content to seek God till he comes he will come with plentiful showers 484 Obs 19 The help of those that seek God is from Heaven 485 Obs 20 When God comes he makes his people fruitful ib. Obs 21 God comes in righteousness to them that seek him 486 Obs 22 Though the good we do be our own good yet God rewards us as though he got by it ib. VERSE XIII Obs 1 The fruits of false worship is the encrease of sin 490 Obs 2 A man is ready to trust in his own way 492 Use What a shame is it Saints should not trust in Gods way 495 Obs 3 When great men go along with Religion men think it must needs be right 497 Obs 4 Great Armies are the confidence of carnal hearts 498 Use Examine what your confidence is 499 VERSE XIV Obs 1 Tumults are a token of great wrath of God 500 Obs 2 Pollicy will not prevail if God be against us 507 Obs 3. Great is the rage of war if God let it out 508 Obs 4 The sins of parents many times comes upon little ones ib. Obs 5. The judgments of God when neer us should awaken us 509 VERS XV. Obs 1 Miserable judgments many times arise from causes we little think of 510 Obs 2 From places of Idolatry come the greatest evils to a Kingdom ib. Obs 3. False worship is the great sin God is provoked against a Nation for 511 Obs 4. God takes notice not only of mens sins but their aggravations ib. Obs 5. According to the greatness of sin is the greatness of wrath 512 Obs 6 When people have some enlightening then Gods displeasure breaks out upon them 514 Vse for England ib. Obs 7 God loves to draw forth great sinners to the light 516 Obs 8 God will make quick work with great sinners ib. The Names of several Books printed by Peter Cole at the sign of the Printing-Press in Cornhil by the Exchange in LONDON A PHYSICAL DIRECTORY or a Translation of the London DISPENSATORY Whereunto is added The Vertues of the Simples and Compounds And in the second Edition are 784. Additions the general heads whereof are these Viz. 1 The Dose or quantity to be taken at one time and Use both of Simples and Compounds 2 The Method of ordering the Body after sweating and purging Medicines 3 Cautions to all ignorant people upon all Simples and Compounds that are dangerous With many Additions in every Page marked with the letter A. Five Books of M r Jer. Burroughs lately published As also the Texts of Scripture upon which they are grounded VIZ. 1. The rare Jewel of Christian Contentment on Phil. 4. 11. Wherein is shewed 1 What Contentment is 2 It is an holy Art and Mysterie 3 The Excellencies of it 4 The Evil of the contrary sin of Murmuring and the Aggravations of it 2. gospel-Gospel-Worship on Levit. 10. 3. Wherein is shewed 1 The right maÌ„ner of the Worship of God in general and particularly in Hearing the Word Receiving the Lords Supper and Prayer 3. Gospel Conversation on Phil. 1. 27. Wherein is shewed 1 That the Conversations of Beleevers must be above what could be by the light of Nature 2 Beyond those that lived under the Law 3 And sutable to what Truths the Gospel holds forth To which is added The Misery of those men that have their Portion in tbis life on Psalm 17. 14. 4. A Treatise of Earthly-mindedness Wherein is shewed 1 What Earthly-mindedness is 2 The great Evil thereof on Phil. 3. part of the 19. vers Also to the same Book is joyned a Treatise of Heavenly mindedness and walking with God on Gen. 5. 24. and on Phil. 3. 20. 5. An Exposition with Practical Observations on the 4 th 5 th 6 th 7 th Chapters of the Prophesie of Hosea Twelve several Books of M r Will. Bridge collected into one Volumâ— VIZ. 1. The great Gospel-Mysterie of the Saints Comfort and Holiness opened and applied from Christs Priestly Office 2. Satans power to tempt and Christs love to and care of
word here that is translated Innocency signifies cleanness false worship whatsoever holines may seem to be in it yet they are not clean but Gods Worship is clean the fear of the Lord is clean it is such wickednes as if God should say You are never like to wash off the guilt of it as long as you live it is not so easie to get off the guilt of superstitious worship as men are aware of we cannot but acknowledg to our own shame that we have sullied our selves w th superstition formerly we had need wash and rinse our hearts again and again and be willing to lie abroad a frosting whol nights that we might be clensed from the filth that we heretofore have defiled our selves withal yea we should not think much nor mervail though the fire of Gods wrath comes out against us and burn hot and long if it may be but to purge us and not destroy us it is well for it is not easie to be clensed from superstition it is only the blood of the immaculate Lamb that is able to clense it this filth it sticks very fast And so much for the fifth verse VER 6. For from Israel was it also the workman made it therefore it is not God but the Calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces THE Prophet proceeds in his conviction of Israels sin with the threats of God against it For from Israel was it That is Their Idolatry was from themselves It was hard to get them off from their Idolatrous worship for it was from themselves Other people worshiped Idolatrous Images as being deceived either made to beleeve that they came from their gods as that wise Town-Cleark of Ephesus in his grave sage speech Acts 19. 35. saith their Image came down from Jupiter or else they were such as were brought from the Temples of other People whose Original they knew not But saith God My People are more sottish than any for from Israel themselves doth come these their Images that they do worship they have set them up themselves they know that the other day they were but pieces of wood overlaid with Gold and Silver for their Calves they were such kind of Idols as Israel invented themselves they were not the same as some think with the Egyptian Apis that Idol for that was bigger it was rather a Bullock and it was a live one and with several spots and divers things wherein it differed from the Calves that Israel worshiped so that the Calves of Israels worship it was their own invention Hence there is these Notes First That none are so sottish in wicked waies as Apostates Israel was more sottish than any people And Secondly To be devisers and inventors of evil and especially of any thing in the Worship of God of false worship it is a great aggravation of ones sin Those that are the first inventers and devisers of wickedness and especially of any false worship they are most wicked and abominable before God It was from themselves Thirdly What comes from our selves we will stick much to in the Worship of God For this is given as a reason why they could not be brought off from that false worship It was from themselves And hereby men shew that they honor their own Fancies and own Wills above the Will of God and the Mind of God We will a great deal more easily part with the Worship of God that comes from God than with Worship that comes from our selves For from Israel was it also There is somewhat in that likewise that is As formerly in the wilderness they set up a Calf so here again from Israel also Former examples of Gods wrath against their progenitors will not deter them they follow stil the guize of their Ancestors in false worship No sin is more haereditarie than Idolatry Hence the second Commandement only threatens to visit the sins of the Fathers upon the Children because Idolatry is so haereditary From Israel also The workman made it therefore it is not God There are Two Arguments why their Calf was not God First From the workman that made it Secondly Because it should be taken in pieces It 's the greatest folly to look upon that which hath its excellency from our selves to be superior above us and that in the highest degree To forsake that God that made us and to make that to be a God unto us that we have made our selves The Father looks upon his Child as inferior to him because he was the instrument of his being and so he may well If any man have maintainance by one or is raised by him he expect that he should be serviceable to him Only Idolatry makes men go against the very principles of reason They made it and yet they accounted it their god And an especial Note from hemce it That man by any work of his own cannot put a Divinity upon a creature They made it therefore it is not God Man by any work that he can do cannot put Divinity upon a creature no he cannot so much as put holiness into a creature all the workmanship of man by his consecratien or any thing that he can do cannot make stones and mortar to be holy so as now it should be a sin to use them to any common use man takes too much upon him to think to raise the creature so near to a Divinity he cannot by any work of his put any Religious respect on any creature so as that God shall be neerer to him or he neerer to God than in any other place Whatsoever is of mans work in Gods Worship it perishes in the use of it surely then mans creation cannot be God The work man made it therefore it is not God Indeed there is a creation of man that the Scripture speaks of that is called God but not truly not God really rather a Metaphorical God that creature that the Scripture speaks of in 1. Pet. 2. 13. he cals their Kings and Governors mans creation man made them and you know the Scripture calls Governors Gods I have said you are Gods I but it is said they die like men this text will shew it if man made them they cannot be Gods And the former Scripture tells us that Kings and Governors are mans creation In your books it 's translated mans Ordinance but it is in the Greek mans Creation man made them and therefore they are not Gods therefore we must not give them the honor of a God to subject our consciences unto them no neither are we bound to subject our outward estates and liberties and lives to their humors and lusts meerly to their own wills for this is proper to God to subject all to his will meerly because it is his will but seeing man made them they are not truly God and therefore they must not have the honor that is due to God If all the Art and Skill Power and
God hath appointed I shewed out of Joshua how their Progenitors was so provoked when there was made another Altar they did rise against them and made account to destroy them every one because of making any other Altar besides Gods but now they make many Altars Their Fathers were careful to keep themselves to one Altar but their successors they make many Hence note that We are ready to imitate our forefathers in that which is evil but not in that which is good Their forefathers were great enemies and were mightily incensed against adding but one Altar to Gods Altars but they will not imitate their forefathers in this good thing in standing for that one true Worship of God ordinarily when any thing is evil there we will imitate our forefathers but we leave them in that which is good If you would ask the reason why it came to pass that their Progenitors were so zealous for Gods own Altar and yet now their children after them make many Altars the reason may be this which will afford a Note of very great use unto us When their Progenitors came first into the Land af Canaan and Joshua assoon as they came in he did according to the Commandement of God by Moses set up an Altar and they seeing upon their first coming into the Land the goodness of God towards them they were much taken with this but now after they had enjoyed the Land a while after they begun to be setled to be warm in their nests and to prosper in the Land then they ventured upon this way of corrupâ—ing of Gods Worship and multiplying Altars and when they had once ventured and escaped unpunished then they thought they were sure and so by degrees they come to this excess in superstitious Worship The Note is this We must take heed to make any distance of time from the Commandement given or the Threatning denounced to make us to fear the breach of the Commandement less They were afraid of the breach of the Commandement soon after it was given but when there was a distance of time from the Commandementt and when they were setled in a way of prosperity then they ventured so that I say from hence our Note is That we must take heed that the distance of time or our setling in a prosperous condition doth not make us to fear the commandement less than we did fear it at first when we were not in such a setled way And for this you have a most excellent Scripture in Deut. 4. 25. saith the text there When thou shalt beget children and childrens children and shalt have remained long in the Land and shall corrupt your selves and make a graven image or the likeness of any thing and shall do evil in the sight of the Lord thy God to provoke him to anger When thou shalt beget children and childrens children and shalt remain long in the Land then thou shalt make graven images There was not so much fear that when they came first into the Land that they should make graven images when they first were delivered out of their bondage and God had made known his glorious Word unto them their hearts were a little warm but after they had lived long in the Land then they began to forget God and make graven images Just so it is with us for all the world when we are newly come out of afflictions then our hearts are kept a little warm and then we would serve God according to his own way but after we have continued long in the Land and been a while in a prosperous condition and pretty well nessel'd and find all things pretty well about us Oh! then we begin to be cool and for get the Lord in his way It hath been alwaies so and it is so not only in particular persons and Nations but Churches too ordinarily when people are delivered from superstitious vanities and come to worship God in his own way at first when they come to enjoy the Ordinances of God in the purity of them Oh! how glad are they and they bless God and their hearts are warmed and enlarged and their hearts do close one with another and what sweet union is there together at first but after they have lived a while in the Land after they have lived a while in the way of God and enjoyed him a little they begin to grow more cool and dead and begin to fall to wrangling and contending and so all that spiritualness and that heavenly heat that they had before it vanishes and comes to nothing I beseech you remember this text Deut. 4. 25. Take heed after you have abode a while in such a condition you thought when you came first into it you would never forget God Oh you blessed God and rejoyced in Gods Worship well your hearts are taken at first but look to your selves for after you have continued any long time it may prove to be otherwise with you Again further Ephraim hath made many Altars hath multiplied Altars so Hierom. So the Seventy hath gone on in way of multiplication They had some Altars at first and their fore-fathers made some and they afterwards made more and so stil every generation did multiply their Altars From thence the Note is this That Idolatry and False-worship doth not only continue in succession but in every age there will be an addition Oh my Brethren let the True Worship of God then not only continue but multiply Idolaters they will make this no argument Why should we be wiser than our fore-fathers No they will go beyond their fore-fathers in way of false Worship And yet how many among us wil be pleading against Reformation with this argument Why should not we content our selves with what our fore-fathers did our fore-fathers knew not of such new waies of Worship as you tell us of But now my Brethren if our fore-fathers reformed a little let us bless God for what they did but let us add more to raise up the Worship of God yet higher and higher as in Psal 71. 14. But I will hope continually and wil yet praise thee more and more The words may be read thus I will ad unto thy praise O Lord Thou hast had praise indeed formerly thou hadst praise from others Oh! but I will do something to add to thy praise I will praise thee more and more so every generation should strive to praise God more more to add to Gods praise to find out more of Gods Truths to add to the purity of Gods Worship and to cast out superstition more than our fore-fathers have done it was an argument of a great deal of praise in our fore-fathers to do what they did and I say we are to bless God for them that the Lord put such a spirit into them but know that that which was accepted of from our fore-fathers wil not be accepted of from us God expects
the vertues of their godly parents and then they may draw comfort from the godliness of their parents But lastly Hypocrites though degenerate will not only think to fare the better for their godly parents but they will think to have the same mercy as their godly parents had they little think of the difference that there is between Israel heretofore and that Israel that is now so basely degenerated It follows VER 3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good the enemy shall pursue him THEY cry We have known thee but they cast off the thing that is good they profess to know God in word but in works they deny him What is it to say We know God and to cast off the thing that is good Now the word that is here translated cast off signifies Hath put off a great way yea hath abominated the thing that is good doth not only forsake the thing that is good but to cast off with a kind of abomination the thing that is good Hath cast off the thing that is good That is First cast off God Himself who is as Anselme speaks of Him that Good in which there is all Good God the highest and chief good they have cast him off Secondly The thing that is good indefinitely That is they will not be ordered by any rule they care for the good of no body but only to have their own lusts satisfied But that which I think is most properly aimed at by this phrase The thing that is good is the Worship of God My Worship They say We know Thee but in the mean time they cast off that good thing Oh that Good Thing that which I hold indeed to be the thing that is good Hence observe The true Worship of God is the GOOD Thing by way of excellency We account our Estates are goods we use to speak in that kind of language the goods of such a man Is our Estates our goods Are they such good things Oh! what is the Worship of God then The Worship of God that 's the thing that is good by way of excellency above all our goods that 's the good thing that a spiritual heart can prize that 's that which God delights in and wherein his people enjoy so much communion with Himself that 's the thing by which God lets out so much good to His People it 's the safety protection the blessing of a Kingdom the purity of Gods Worship where that is all other good things will follow that 's THE Good thing and it is a sign of a gracious spiritual heart to prize the Worship of God in the purity of it as the good thing above all good things that a Kingdom is capable of Secondly Yet Gods own Worship is by carnal hearts of men repelled and cast off as evil if it sute not their own ends and designs The spirits of men rise against it they will not so much as examin things in any peaceable and quiet way but by prejudice because they see it not sutable to their own waies their spirits rise abominating that which God Himself prises Thirdly Though first men do but only leave God forsake the thing that is good yet at length they grow to such a ripeness in sin as they cast it off with abomination and that 's a great deal worse Meerly to neglect that which is good is an evil but to cast off that which is good by way of abomination Oh then the sin of a people is grown to an height then they are neer to Judgment indeed when they cast it off thus men who heretofore have been very forward in the profession of Religion and seem to love and delight in the thing that is good but by degrees their hearts were drawn from the waies of God now they cannot bear the sight of those things to be presented nor bear the hearing of those things their hearts rise against any that they see practice them they now shut their eyes and stop their ears and with violence repel the Truth according to those in Jer. 44. 16. As for the Word of the Lord that thou hast spoken to us we will not hear thee Oh! are there not some that heretofore have thought they have received much sweetness in the waies of God and now not only left them but their hearts rise against them and if any thing be spoken for them shut their eyes and ears and cast it off and even abominate such Let such take heed that God cast not them off for ever 1 Chron. 28. 9. it is a speech of David to his son Solomon If thou seek Him He will be found of thee but if thou forsake Him He will cast thee off for ever How much more if thou dost cast off the thing that is good Oh! my brethren let us take heed of casting off the thing that is good we may pass over many Truths that it may be God hath convinced us off but let us take heed of casting off any Truth for then we are ripe to Judgment then the Lord may justly cast us off for ever Lastly If wicked mens hearts be so vile to cast off God and his Worship that hath so much good how much more should we cast off with abomination that that is abomination it self How much more should we cast off false worship with abomination and say Get thee hence and so all kind of evil and sin that would stick so fast upon us In Rom. 12. 9. Abhor that which is evil to abhor it as wel as to abhor Hell it self it comes from a word that is used for Hell Thus we should learn from wicked mens casting off what is good to cast off that which is evil and wicked One thing further Whatsoever knowledg of God or profession we make of worshipping Him yet if we cast off any thing that is good this deprives us of any interest we have in God of any comfort in crying to God in our afflictions I beseech you take notice of this They cry to me my God we know thee but saith God they have cast off that that 's good The Note is To cast off violently and that against light any one thing that is good though it be meant of the Worship of God principally yet it is spoken indefinitely to cast off any thing that is good any truth of God it is that which doth deprive the soul of having comfort and interest in God or crying to God in the time of distress Oh thou sinner how dearly doest thou pay for thy beloved sin at what a dear rate doest thou buy every beloved lust of thine when as it doth deprive thee of all comfort and interest in God that otherwise thou mightest have in crying to God in the day of distress The enemy shall pursue him When the good of duty is cast off evil of punishment will come in By casting off that which is
further prove to be of great use to us never argue thus Why what hurt is there in it is it not very comely I cannot think but it may do a great deal of good these arguments are weak arguments in matters of Worship but to all these Arguments we must answer Is it written As Christ answered the Devil and his temptations it was enough to say it was written thus and thus So if you can but bring a word written against it and if you can put them unto it to shew what they would have you to do let them shew it where it is written in Exod. 39. we find in that chapter at least ten times it is said they did according to what the Lord had commanded Moses and in the conclusion of the chapter Moses blessed the people the people are blessed when in the matters of Worship they keep unto what is commanded And again As we must not make what we think the rule for worship so neither the Opinions of Learned men nor Custom nor Antâ—quity must be the rule of our Worship but what 's written I have written to them the great things of my Law they must keep to that whatsoever use we may make now of the Opinions of Antients and the like yet if the Antients themselves were alive they would abhor the use that many make of their quotations Cyprian in one of his Epistles saith We must not look what this man or that man that were before us he speaks of his predecessors what he did or what he taught but what he that was before all namely Christ who alone is the Way the Truth and the Life And so Augustin hath another Speech to the same effect speaking of the Antients of learned men saving all due respect that is due to them yet for us to think that we may not cast out even reject from their writings some things because they were learned men this must not be admitted for saith he such a one I 'le be in respect of the writings of other men and such a one would I have those that understand my writings to be to me I will not think of the writings of any other men before that there should be nothing cast out nor mended neither would I have any body think so of my writings And so Ambrose Where the Scripture is silent we must not speak Thus we see that those men for the maintaining of that which is evil they will make use of Quotationâ— and Antiquities yet we see the Antients did abhor this Christ and his Apostles they quoted none of the Learned men before them but Moses and the Prophets But you will say Though we must not take that which other men write to be the Rule yet that which other men write may help us to understand the Scripture Now I remember Luther hath such a Speech That Scripture should rather help us to understand mens writings than mens writings to understand the Scripture Many men they will make mens writings to be as a judg and to be the rule of understanding Scriptures not the Judg of Truth but the rule of understanding Scripture whereas saith he the Scripture should rather be the rule of understanding them And so Hilary saith he for the sense of Scripture and understanding them He is the best Interpreter that rather takes the sense from out of Scripture and by comparing one Scripture with another than bring any new sense therefore the understanding of Scripture is more by Scripture than by the Writings of any man living And yet still no question we may make use of the gifts of God in others but so as to keep us close to the written Word for the Rule yea and for the meaning of the Rule they may help us to see whether the Scripture will justifie this Truth or this sense for there lies the mistake Most people in the world will think this indeed That whatsoever any man writes if it be contrary to the Word we may not receive it but we must understand the Word in what sense they take it now we must not go so far For the Scripture written is not only that we might know what the Rule is but it is written that we might understand the meaning of the Rule and we must fetch out the meaning of Scriptures by Scripture Now so far as the Writings of men wil help us to fetch out the meaning of Scripture by Scripture so far we may make use of them but we cannot say this is the meaning because it is the judgment of such and such Learned men but such and such Learned men will give you Reasons and compare one Scripture with another to shew why it is the meaning of it and they will shew you the History of the time and shew you how to compare old and new Testament one with another and this is the use of Writers for understanding the Scriptures Then you wil say Why do we make use of Writers so much Why thus they shew how one Scripture looks towards another and to compare one Scripture with another and shew the coherence of things The sense of things is to be resolved in the Scripture its self and therefore we must keep our selves very close to what is written Written It was not so at first it was delivered but from hand to hand but afterwards when the Church began to multiply then the Word was written And this is a mighty blessing of God that we may have the mind of God written so as we may look into it and search to know the mind of God by reading it over and over again and taking it into our hands when we are lying upon our beds if we light a Candle in the night we may be reading and looking into the mind of God If we should only hear of such a Book that were in the world that were in China in the uttermost parts of the habitable world if we should hear that there were such a Book that God had written or that God had used men to write by an inspiration of His own Spirit a Book that was certainly indited by the holy Ghost every word of it wherein the Lord had revealed the great Counsels of his Will concerning Mans eternal estate if we should hear that there came such a Book down even from Heaven and this was in the uttermost parts of the earth Oh! what a longing desire should we have to see that Book What man or woman but would give their whol estate to have a week or a fortnights time to see and reade in such a Book as that is if one could he would be willing to travel to the end of the world to have the use of such a Book as that is No man need say Shall I go to the uâ—â—â—rmost parts of the earth for it is in your hands it is in your houses there is the Book wherein the great God hath written
his mind hath written all things unto you which concerns you Eternal Salvation hath written there whatsoever he would have you to know and beleeve to Eternal Life this it is that you have in your hands however we prize it now heretofore it hath been prized at an high rate How many of the Martyrs would venture their lives to keep but a few Leaves of Scripture in their houses But how vile is it then for us to neglect the reading of this written Word I have read of one Theodorus a Physitian at Constantinople that he sent to Gregory the great a great sum of money for the redeeming of Captives and Gregory he commends his Liberality but though he was so liberal and bountiful to redeem Captives yet he writ back again to him in way of reprehending him for not reading Scripture and uses this expression to him The Emperor of Heaven the Lord of the Angels and Men hath sent to you that which concerns your life and will you neglect to reade them with a fervent with a zealous spirit He would not but blame him even at that time when he sent such gifts to him it did grieve him to think that such a one so bountiful to the poor should so neglect the reading of Scripture Many men and women that have excellent parts and yet for all that they find but little savor in the Scripture There 's no books that are written that should take us off from this written Word although we have cause to bless God abundantly for what is written for those excellent helps which we have written yet we must take heed that there be no written book in the world take us off from this written Word of God Luther therefore hath such a speech I even hate mine own Books and I often times even wish that they were burnt that they might perish Why because I fear lest they should be any way of hinderance to men or withdraw them from reading the Scriptures and so he fals a comending the Scriptures It is the only fountain of all wisdom and further saith he I am even terrified I tremble at the example of the former age upon this Because saith he many Divines spent so much time in reading of Aristotle and Averres and other Writers and spent so little time in reading Scripture And the truth is it was that which brought so much ignorance into the world in the time of the School-men which was a time of great learning and yet the time of the greatest ignorance in the Mysteries of godlines because they minded Scripture very little but only turn'd things into Questions and Disputes that tended not according to Scripture though we may make use of the labors and gifts of other men yet look we especially to the written Word and let not other writings take us off from them hence we say the Scripture in way of excellency we must keep our selves to the written Word and therefore take heed of being led aside by any traditions of men that 's a most detestable derrogation from the written Word but we find in the Counsel of Trent speaking of the Scriptures saith one of the Cannons of the Counsel of Trent We saith he do receive Scripture and reverence Scripture but saith he moreover we receive and reverence traditions with the same affection of piety and reverence as we do the Scripture Those are the very words that all Papists are bound to hold and for them to deny any counsel there were death unto them It argues men to be in the dark to mind Traditions so As the Jews that 's the reason that they vanish so in their thoughts and understand the Scripture so little because they mind traditions as much as Scripture and more for so they say that divide a mans life into three parts one part mnst be spent in reading Scripture and two parts more in the two several parts of their Talmond which is their traditions and some of them say that this is one tradition among them that Moses did study the Scripture in the day time and those Talmoduical traditions that they have they were studied in the night and indeed it is night-work and it is a sign that the world is so much in darkness because they look so much at Traditions the written Word of God which we must look at more than if one came from the dead or if an Angel from Heaven came and preached to us But you will say That we must not look to it more than if God should reveal any thing to us suppose it were a voice of God from Heaven We have warrant to have regard to the written Word of God more than the voice of God from Heaven 2 Peter 1. 19. there it 's spoken of the voice that came down upon the transfiguration at the Mountain but saith the Apostle there We have a more sure word of Prophesie more more even than that was that is it is more sure to us and there is not so easie a way to be deceived by resting upon the written Word as if we look for Revelations from God we have a more sure word of Prophesie therefore it is not so much after Revelations that we are to look especially in such times as these are but to the written Word of God There is a Generation of men rising now if not risen that begin to have vile thoughts of the written Word of God and think to understand the mind of God otherwise they finding the written Word of God to keep their hearts too close and lay too strong bonds upon them but because they would fain be loose they would feign and imagin to themselves other waies of Gods mind but when they are rotten and it may be when their souls are perished eternally in Hell the written Word of God shall stand and be honorable in the eyes of his Saints I have written The Prophet doth not say he hath written but he brings in God saying I have written And that first upon these two reasons First To put the greater emphasis upon it for it is more for God himself to come and say I have written as if a Father or Master say to his Child or Servant I command you to do such a thing it is more than if a Brother or fellow-Servant should say my Father hath bidden or my Master hath bidden you to do such a thing Secondly Whosoever were the Pen-men of the Word it is I that write it I take it upon my self The Word is so much his that God claims not only the truths that are in the Word but the very ordering for the words and in 2 Pet. 1. 21. it is said of holy men they spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost they were carried on with a kind of violence as the word signifies and not only moved but carried on with a kind of violence to write what they did both
is in an high and honorable condition indeed Further The things of Gods Law are great in Gods esteem they are great because the great God thinks them so That is to be accounted great that the most judicious and wise men in the world judg so to be indeed that which a child thinks to be a great thing is no great thing a child may think a bauble to be a great thing so we may think things great indeed we think the things of the world are great for a man to have an estate it 's a great matter to have riches and honors and to be some-body in the world we think these to be great things But what are these in Gods eyes God despises all these things But that which the great God will think to be a great thing certainly that 's great indeed Now mark what a high esteem God hath of his Word in that place where Christ saith Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not one jot or tittle of my Word shall pass away As if Christ should say The Lord will rather withdraw his power from the upholding of Heaven and Earth than from making good any one jot or tittle of his Law you may think it a little matter to break Gods Law but God thinks it a great matter and God would have us to make a great matter of every thing that is written in Gods Law I am the willinger to enlarge my self in this because I know it is the ground of all the wickedness in mens hearts and lives because they look upon the Law as a little matter well though they dare sin against Gods Law for the getting of a groat or six pence but God saith I will rather lose Heaven and Earth than one jot or tittle of my Law shall fall and he will make it appear one day that the things of his Law are great things in Isa 42. 21. He will magnifie the Law and make it honorable You may vilifie it a company of wanton spirits we have that consider not what they say or what they do running away with the very word of the Law they think to vilifie it What have we to do with the Law and under that word not understanding what they mean they think to cast a vile esteem upon the Law let them do what they will yet God will magnifie his Law and as it is great in the thoughts of God so it is and shall be for ever great in the thoughts of the Saints the Lord will have his people to the end of the world have high thoughts of his Law the Saints they look upon the Law of God so great as they had rather suffer all the miseries and torments that any man in the world any Tyrant can devise than willingly to break the Law in any one thing surely they account it a great matter when a man shal be willing rather to lose his estate and liberty yea and life to suffer tortures and torments and all because he will not offend the Law of God in any one thing though he might escape all if he would nay saith a gracious heart Let all go rather than I will venture to break the Law of God in any one thing surely he looks upon the Law of God as very great Men of the world think them to be fools and why will you be content to suffer so much lose all your friends what venture to lose your estates which have such a fair way of living as you have what venture a prison and venture your life the world thinks they are but little things and trifles and men are more precise than wise and they need not trouble themselves so much If God would but shew to you how great a thing his Law is and all the threatnings which are revealed therein you would account your estates and lives and all your comforts as little and poor in comparison of that Law hence in Revel 6. 9. I saw under the Altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God and for the testimony which they held Wherefore were they slain Surely it was for some great matter that they would venture their lives it was for the Word of God and for the Testimony which they held And thus the Saints of God have ever accounted the Law of God a great thing I have written unto them the great things of my Law Hence from what hath been said we may have these Notes for Observation Here are Objects in the Word for men of the greatest spirits to exercise themselves about Many mens spirits are raised up and cannot endure to spend their thoughts and time about small matters and you shall have some mens spirits are so low that they think it happiness enough if they can be imployed in a gutter and get six pence or twelve pence a day to find them bread at night but others have great spirits Oh! let all those who have aspiring spirits and great spirits let them exercise themselves much in the Law of God here are objects fit for great spirits that will greaten our spirits And indeed there are no men in the world have great spirits but the Saints they have great spirits for they exercise themselves in the great counsels of God We account those men to be men of the greatest spirits that are imployed in State-affairs now the Saints they are lifted up above all things in the world and they look at all these things as little and mean and they are exercised in the great affairs of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ hence it is that the Lord would have Kings to have the book of the Law written and the Judges and it is reported of Alphonsus King of Arragon that in the midst of all his great affairs of his Kingdom he read over the Scriptures fourteen times with Commentaries upon them How many have we men of great estates and seem to be of great spirits that scarce mind the Law of God they look upon the Law of God as under them it may be if they can have a book of History and Wars they will be reading over that but for the Scripture it is a thing that hath little in it Another Note It is a special means of obedience to have high thoughts of Gods Law to convince and humble them for their disobedience for that 's the reason why the Prophet here speaks thus I have written to him the great things of my Law but they were accounted as a strange thing As if he should say If they had had the things of my Law to have been high in their thoughts they would never have done as they have done Psal 119. 129. Thy Testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul keep them I have high thoughts of thy Testimonies I look upon them as glorious things I see much of thy self in thy Testimonies and therefore doth my soul keep them He doth not
that were said against the strictest way of holiness but now he can be ready to listen to Objections As a man when he was intimate with his friend he could not endure to hear any thing that was said against him but now being estranged from him he can drink in any thing which is said against him Sixthly When the heart is estranged from the Word it wil put off thoughts and through examination of truths it will not search into things as it was wont to do but is willing to put off and shut his eyes and will rather search into any thing that may make against the Truth than that which will work for it I beseech you observe these workings of your hearts Seventhly There will be an engagement in some practice not allowed by the Word Then a man grows further estranged from his Friend when he doth not only refrain coming into his company but he will engage himself into some others that are against him Eighthly It comes to have a slight esteem of what before they thought had great weight in it there was a time when such such things were thought to have very great weight in them but now they are nothing they are of another judgment Just as when a man is estranged from his friend he thought before he had a great deal of excellency in him but now he esteems him not and this is the argument of the estrangement of his heart from him Lastly If men take not heed when they are by these degrees grown to be estranged from the Truth they will at length violently reject the Truths of the Word they will grow to be open enemies to the Truth Men that have bin familiar with Gods Word and Truth and made profession of them and seem'd to love them most by several degrees they have grown to be strangers from them and at length to be enemies to them Apostates have proved to be the most desperate enemies to the truths of God of any in the world take heed therefore of the strangeness of your hearts from the Truths of God lest you afterwards prove to be an enemy to God it 's an evil thing to account the Law of God a strange thing but much more to account it an enemy to us and our hearts to be an enemy to it Isa 5. 24. Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble and the flame consumeth the chaff so their root shall be rottenness and their blossom shall go up as dust why because they have cast away the Law of the Lord of Hosts and despised the Word of the holy One of Israel Oh! let us for ever take heed of this and therefore let our prayer be that of the Prophet David in Psal 119. 18 19. Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy Law And then it follows I am a stranger in the earth hide not thy Commandements from me Lord I account my self a stranger here in the world Oh! let not thy Word be a stranger to me I beseech you observe this Those men and women that account themselves strangers in the world will never account the Law of God a strang thing to them but such men as account themselves to be the inhabitants of the world they will have Gods Law to be a stranger to them Observe it and you shall find this to be a Note When your hearts begin to close with the things of the world you do not meditate in Gods Word so much as you did before nor delight to reade it but now if you can keep your heart from the things of the world to use them as if you used them not then this will be your prayer Lord hide not thy Commandements from me Oh thy Word is sweet unto me as honey and the honey comb One Note more about this They accounted this as a strange thing Men they have a strange way now a daies to estrange the Law from them and themselves from the Law That which their corrupt hearts will not close withal as for a rule of holiness that they will put upon Christ as if Christ had delivered them from it This is a strange way indeed of estranging themselves from Gods Law many men will eestrange themselves from the Law of God by too much familiarity in the world but for people to have this way by their familiarity with Jesus Christ because they come now to know Christ more therefore they should be greater strangers from the Law than they were before this is a strange way of estranging mens hearts from Gods Law The holy Ghost foreseeing such a generation which would be in the times of the Gospel that would boldly assert that whosoever the people of God were bound to under the old Testament yet in the new Testament they have nothing to do with the Law of Moses it is very observable In Malac. 4. 2. 4. the very close of the old Testament even then when there is a Prophesie of Christ to annex the old Testament and the new together saith the text there Vnto you that fear my Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings to you that fear my Name shall Christ arise what then then you shall have nothing to with the Law when Christ arises Mark then in the 4 th vers Remember ye the Law of Moses almost the last words in the old Testament and the Conclusion as if the holy Ghost should say now I have done revealing all my mind about the old Testament and you must never expect any more Prophets nor any further Revelations of my mind till the time of the new Testament but instead of the Prophets you shall have the Sun of righteousness arise Well then I hope they shall never have any thing to do with the Law of Moses more Nay but saith the holy Ghost Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant c. VER 13. They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifice of mine offering THE Jews might object Why how do we account the Law of God a strange thing do not we continue in sacrificing do not we offer our sacrifices to God why do you say we account the Law a strange thing From the connexion therefore this Note may be observed That men may continue in outward profession and performances of duties of Religion and yet the great things of Gods Law may be a strange thing to them They do offer sacrifices still and yet they accounted Gods Law as a strange thing to them Do not think that sufficient that you continue in outward profession of Religion Nay shall I say more I make no qustion but a man may continue in outward duties and yet Apostatize from God so far as to commit the sin against the holy Ghost and that 's evident from the example of the Scribes and Pharisees that Christ charges for commission of the sin against the
and those that have oppressed us that they should have their full power over us again oh our bondage would be seven fold more than it is And yet what cause have we to have our hearts tremble and shake when we think of our abuse of the beginning of Deliverance that we had but of all judgments let us pray to be delivered from that judgment that we may never go back again to our prisons But just with God it is that those who inherit their progenitors sins they should inherit their progenitors judgments You continue in their sins you shall have their Judgements also But were they ever carried into Egypt was this threat ever fulfilled No They were not carried captive into Egypt but they fled into Egypt for Refuge and there they lived and died miserably Hence observe All places are places of misery when God forsakes a people As all places are comfortable when God is with a people Many men take their course to seek to refuge themselves to help themselves and perhaps they have what they would have in part but when they have had what they would have even the having of what they desire proves to be the executiō of the wrath of God upon them you have a mind to go to Egypt you shall return to Egypt saith God It follows in the last verse VER 14. For Israel hath forgotten his Maker THEY have forgotten their Maker but I 'le remember them saith God When men think least of God then is Gods time to come upon them for their sins when they are in the greatest security of all whereas if you would remember your sins God might forget them or if you would remember God your sins should not be remembred but you forgetting God your sins are remembred It is an abominable thing for us to forget God by whom we had our memory by whom we are remembred we should never have been thought of if God had not given us what we have and therefore for us not to think of God it is a vile sin Now God is forgotten when he is not honored minded as our confidence help refuge our only good when he is not obeyed if we do but remember sin we cannot but honor him How many forget what manifestations once they had of God they are passed by from them and other things take up their thoughts Oh! what an appearing was there of God to many of your souls heretofore and what conference between God and your souls what lustre of Gods Spirit upon you and you thought you should never forget those things but now other things are in your hearts Oh! such men and women have cause to fear that they are under much wrath that they should forget their Maker God challenges remembrance under this title Remember thy Creator in the daies of thy youth There 's no creature but the rational creature that can reflect upon the cause of their being the first cause and therefore God would not lose the honor from this creature Indeed the Ox knows his owner and the Ass his Masters crib the beasts can take notice of those that bring them good things but to reflect upon the cause of their first being I say that 's proper to the rational creature and therefore it is an honor that God expects from you and will not lose it The word here Creator their Maker it is not now meant for Gods giving them their being but Gods advancing and blessing of them so as to bring them to that happy condition that now they were in They have forgotten their Maker Oh they have forgotten that God that hath advanced them So I find the words used in 1 Sam. 12. 6. The Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron but the words in the Original are the Lord that made Moses and Aaron that is when God call'd them to the publick work God made them Indeed for a man to be call'd to publick service is a great honor that God puts upon a man God makes a man then as many times we use that Phrase our selves if a man be raised to any preferment we say such a man is made for ever Oh that man which God casts his favor upon and delights to use in publick service that man is a made-man But they have forgotten the Lord that made them That 's the Note from hence It 's Gods favor that makes a man You have an excellent Scripture for this in Isa 43. 7. I have created him saith God for my glory I have formed him yea I have made him Here 's these three words together God doth not satisfie himself in this I have given him his being or all that he hath but he makes use of of these three several words to signifie how all our good comes from God I do not know such an expression we have in Scripture I have brought him out of nothing then secondly I have formed him I have put beauty and glory upon him yea and thirdly I have made him I have raised him to the height of all God hath created us all but hath he formed us We are to look at Gods forming as well as at his creation how God forms and fashions us unto his own will They have forgotten God their Maker That should have been the other Note That the greater height of excellency God raises any man to the more vile and wicked is the sin of forgetting God when they are advanced Many men will remember God when they are low but when God hath advanced them then they forget him and that 's worse But it follows And have built Temples How is God forgotten and they build Temples to the honor of God You accuse us of forgetting God our Maker What People in the world doth rememember God so as we do when we are at such charges as we are at The word that is translated Temples it signifies Palaces The Church is indeed Gods Palace but note from hence That when God is worshiped in any way but his own then God is forgotten Papists they set up Images and they say it is to put them in mind of God but the truth is they forget God in it Again When mens hearts depart most desperatly and furthest off from God they are many times very forward in superstitious worship As we know it in the primitive times the hearts of men did close most with the power of godliness and were more sincere in their worship but afterwards when they came to have peace in and after Constantines time when they had Temples then they forgot God most and grew superstitious When the Christians worshiped God in Dens and Caves of the earth they remembred God more than when they had glorious Temples built for them Men that have departed from God and have guilty consciences they must have something to satisfie their consciences Of late our Kingdom how desperatly was it departing from
of God When a man is crying for an Alms but for a piece of bread to be rejected is something but when a man is crying for his soul then to be rejected and by God himself this is more grievous Secondly The bread for their soul that is The bread they have to maintain their lives withal if they would offer that to the Lord it should not come into the house of the Lord to be accepted for by bread for their souls may be meant the bread that they have to maintain their lives for so we find the Scripture cals the soul the life of a man in Mat. 6. 24. Is not the life more worth than meat the words in the original are Is not the Soul of man It is here the bread for the soul that is the very bread that they have to maintain their lives their necessary bread that they have to live on although they should be willing to offer that to the Lord it shall not come unto him Now this is as if the Prophet should say to them Now you cannot be brought to them to offer your superfluity to God but your condition shall be such as if you would offer the necessary bread you have to preserve your lives if you would offer that to God God will not accept of it As if a man were so poor that he were ready to starve and yet for all that such a man would say Wel though I starve yet I wil offer this I have to live on and I would offer this to God rather than have it my self now you would think this should be an argument of a great deal of devotion But the case shall be now that though you would seek God with such earnestness yet the heart of God shall be so hardened against you as they will not be accepted Those who in time of prosperity are loth to deny their ease and loth to lay out any thing of their superfluity for God but time may come that though they should be willing to bite off their very nails and pluck out their eyes and tear their very flesh in indignation for their sin in respect unto God any way yet this God shall not vouchsafe to have regard unto Therefore this learn by it to seek God while he may be found and not to stand upon your own terms with God in the day of your prosperity and to say I cannot spare this and that for him but if we deny God now what is his due though we would give to him hereafter that that our lives lay upon yet it shall not be accepted 3. Bread for their souls that is they shall have no more bread than will serve for their very life from hand to mouth they shall have nothing to bring to the House of the Lord they shall be so put to it when they are in captivity they shall be kept so strictly as to have nothing but bread and water nothing but from hand to mouth they shall be far enough from having any thing to offer to the Lord to be accepted of him if they should think of bringing any thing to the House of the Lord alas what have they nothing but a little bread for their soul From whence the Note is this To have no estate to offer to God in his service in the waies of his publick worship is a great affliction It follows VER 5. What will ye do in the solemn day and in the day of the feast of the Lord NOW they shall remember their solemn daies their feasts and see themselves cut off from any further enjoying of them it must needs be a great sadning unto their spirits to think what daies once they had Oh what solemn times and feasts that they did keep to God for any to sit down in times of affliction and say I remember what daies of joy in the service of God I once had but now they are gone Oh! the daies that I was wont to have how sweet were they but all is now past and we must sit down in sorrow and affliction There was a time saith God by the Prophet that you would not suffer any to go up to the feast but now you shall be far enough from Jerusalem or any other place of Worship and the very remembrance of those solemn daies shall be grievous to you Oh! what will you do in those solemn daies Those solemn daies were daies of joy in Numb 10. 10. Thus I think some carry it they make those feasts to be the feasts that they should have gone up to Jerusalem in but I take not this to be the scope of the holy Ghost here but rather thus by the solemn Daies and Feasts of the Lord is here meant the solemn day of Gods wrath and vengeance upon them now for the making out of that I shall shew first that in Scripture the day of Gods wrath is call'd the solemn day and the day of Gods feast is the day of his wrath a day wherein God feasts First The solemn day it is the day of Gods wrath in Lament 2. 22. Thou hast call'd as in a solemn day my terrors round about so that in the day of the Lords Anger none escaped So that the solemn day is the day of the Lords anger there And Secondly The day of Gods Feast that time when God doth execute his wrath upon wicked men is the day of a feast to God In Revel 19. 17 18. verses besides other texts An Angel cried with a loud voice to all the fowls that fly in the Heavens Come and gather your selves together to the supper of the great God that ye may eat the flesh of Kings and the flesh of Captains and the flesh of Mighty men and the flesh of Horses and of them that sit on them and the flesh of all men both free and bond both smal and great it is the day of the Lords feast Now 't is a solemn day a day of the execution of Gods wrath because now God executes wrath publickly and brings much wrath together Thou hast call'd as in a solemn day my terrors round about You know that in the day of a petty Sessions there may be some justice done but more privatly But in a day of solemn Assizes when there is a full Goal delivery then judgment is done publickly so God executes justice sometimes upon men particularly but God hath his solemn day to execute his judgments publickly before all and then the Lord feasts The day of execution of Gods wrath upon wicked men is a day of feast upon this ground First Because the day of their feasts were daies of slaying sacrifices so they should now be slain and God would account even their bodies that were slain to be as sacrifices for this great feast of his In Isa 34. 6. The Lord hath a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in the Land of Idumea And in
Zeph. 1. 7. The day of the Lord is at hand the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice he hath bid his guests And then it shall come to pass in the day of the Lords sacrifice that I will punish the Princes and the Kings Children c. He hath bid his guests so here 's the feast of God and the slaughter of great men are here the dishes as it were of sacrifice that God would have at this his feast the Executioners of Gods wrath are now his Priests to kill his sacrifices Soldiers and Executioners they are turned the Priests of God for to kill his sacrifice for this his feast Hence in Jer. 6. 4. Prepare ye War against her it is in the Original Sanctifie the War and in another Scripture those that were the executioners of Gods wrath were call'd Gods Sanctified ones And then further A day of Feasting is a day of Rejoycing this day of the execution of Gods wrath upon sinners especially great sinners that do escape mens hands it is a day of Rejoycing to God as in a day of Feast And this word that is translated Feast it signifies Dancing it is a day wherein the Lords heart doth as it were leap within him because of joy God rejoyces in the execution of his righteous judgments upon them therefore Gods wrath in Scripture is call'd Wine They shall drink of the Wine of his wrath the Lord at length when sinners continue impenitent is as much delighted in the execution of his Justice as men can be in drinking of Wine In Deut. 28. 63. As the Lord rejoyced over you to do you good so the Lord will rejoyce over you for evil And in Ezek. 5. 13. Thus shall mine anger be accomplished and I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted It 's a very strange expression Oh! let us my Brethren take heed how we rejoyce in sin God may rejoyce in the execution of his Judgments upon us due to our sin Men have their daies in joy and mirth in sin and God hath his daies of joy and mirth in the execution of his wrath Oh! how sad is the condition of a creature when the infinite merciful God shall rejoyce in his ruin Surely then if God doth so rejoyce in the exceution of his wrath upon wicked men then the Saints also may rejoyce in Psal 58. 10. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked Taken from the custom of those Countries that were wont after their travels to wash their feet with cold water and that did refesh them so the blood of the wicked should be refreshment to the righteous Now this is not an insulting joy over them but rejoycing in the honor that God hath and in the good that doth come to the Church by the execution of such men both unto God and to his people So that it follows in Psal 58. 11. Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that Judgeth in the earth The Saints may look upon wicked men when they see them executed and pitty them as men but they may rejoyce in this because they see such a spectacle before them as makes this Scripture to be good Verily there a reward for the righteous verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth And in Psal 52. 6. The Righteous shall see and fear and laugh Mark though he may rejoyce yet he must have fear mixed with it he shall see and fear and laugh And note that Scripture is spoken of a great Courtier of Doeg one that was a most desperate enemy to Gods people one that watch'd all the waies he could to do mischief and especially to do mischief to David and he was the man that came and stir'd up the King against David this 52. Psalm is made concerning this Doeg and a Prophesie of his destruction saith the Spirit of God The Righteous shall see and fear and laugh If a man can keep his heart spiritiual sanctifying Gods Name in the beholding such an object those that are eminent wicked men brought to execution he may Lawfully according to the mind of God feast his eyes in the beholding of it such a day is call'd the Feast of the Lord. And the Lord doth not use to feast himself but he calls his Saints to feast with him in Prov. 11. 10. When it goeth well with the righteous the City rejoyceth and when the wicked perish there is shouting And this is according to Gods mind it should be so And therefore Christians above all men should be far from a proud insulting even over these men but yet when God laies an object before them wherein they may see the answer of so many prayers and the fruit of the cries of so many thousands that were oppressed yea of so many thousand conscience oppressed ones that have cried against such a one if at the stroke of God they with hearts lift up to him shall give a shout that shall come up to the Heavens this pleases God and the holy Angels and it is musick fit for the day of the feast of the Lord thus the Saints may do in the day of the feasts of the Lord. Yea but saith the holy Ghost here by the Prophet But what will you do the Saints may do thus when God makes this his feast in the execution of such eminent wicked men he calls you to it to rejoyce and bless his Name he bids you look here and see is it not good waiting upon me the Saints may do so and bless God But what will YOV do in the day of the feast of the Lord What will wicked men do in that day what will become of all your jolity what will become of all your stoutness and wilfulness of all your pride of all your scorning of all your vain hopes when this solemn day comes and when the feast of the Lord comes In Isa 10. 3. we have a Scripture paralel to this What will you do in the day of visitation what will you do and to whom will you fly for help and where will you leave your glory Can you tell what in the world to do You can tell what to do now you have your wills and pride it and stout it out now but what will you do in the day of visitation when Gods solemn day and this feast comes Oh! what can they do but as the great and mighty men Revelations 6. they cry to the hills to fall upon them and to the mountains to cover them for the great day of the Lambs wrath is come Those that are the most bold and presumptuous in their sins when this day of the Lord comes they shall be in the most miserable perplexity not knowing what to do they know not how to bear that which is
upon them nor how to avoid it nor what course to take what can you do in such a day For First All your comforts they are gone all such things that your hearts closed withal and made as Gods to your selves they are gone Secondly Now God himself fights against you in Isa 13. 6. Howl ye for the day of the Lord is at hand it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty But it may be you look only upon such and such men that are the Instruments No but it is a destruction from the Almighty and therefore what can you do Thirdly Conscience in that day that will terrifie you Fourthly You shall not know whither to go for help To the creature that cannot help you your vain hopes in the creature hath the very heartstrings of them broke you thought that you might shift and help your selves there but now you see there is no help there What then you cannot go to God then the very thoughts of God must needs be terrible to you and then what will you do Further For these miseries they are but the beginning of sorrows this day of the Lord it is but a preparation for another day there is yet a more solemn day of the Lord in coming than this present Oh! what will ye do in the day of the Lord Howsoever a man may resolve to set a good face upon a thing Oh! but my Brethren though you cannot see daunting in a countenance yet did you but see the black bosom and the woful guilty spirit that there is by sin within you would know that they could not in the world tell what do do in the day of the Lord. It 's strange what a man may do even before death in the presence of men although his own conscience tells him quite otherwise and though men are ready to be taken with dying mens expressions yet many times there is much deceipt in them Why you will say What a man doth profess when he is ready to die certainly it must needs be a truth There is a notable story concerning this that Bishop Latimer hath in one of his Sermons he tels of the desperate stoutness of a certain mans heart even when he was to die as he was â—iding he comes to a place where the execution of a man was to be he turns aside and when the people saw him they made way and he comes to speak with the man and both he and all that were about him could not get out of him to give glory to God for the guiltiness of the fact for which he was to be executed but stood out in it that he was not guilty and when they could get nothing out of him they turned the ladder and the rope being cut and he down they thought the life had been gone from him but at length they saw a little motion in him and by rubbing and chaâ—ing of him they got life so as he was able to speak and then he confest all that he was guilty of those very things that he had took upon his death that he was not Thus it 's possible for men in the stoutness of their hearts even at the last rather to venture their souls upon it and well may they that ventur'd their souls so much before upon other things think that they may make bold with God at such a time as this is But howsoever there is much dejection of spirit and they know not in the world what to do Well it 's happy for us to consider what we do and to lay to heart what we have done that so in such a day of the Lord as this we may know what to do the Servants of God who have walked conscionably before him they know what to do in the day of publick calamity ` For first ' They can bless God that ever they knew him that ever they knew his waies that ever he put it into their hearts to fear his name Secondly They know what to do in a day of calamity they can exercise their faith upon that Word in which the Lord hath caused them to trust they can make it to be the support of their souls and the joy of their hearts even in such a day Thirdly They know what to do they can sanctifie God Name in his righteous judgments they can see mercy and the love of a Father in the sorest and heaviest afflictions that do befall them Fourthly They know what to do they can ease their souls by powring them forth into the bosom of a gracious and reconciled Father Fifthly They know what to do they can see beyond all these present evils they can see Immortality and Glory they can see that on the other side a little beyond these troubles and afflictions there is an everlasting joy and day of peace coming to them A Job can tell what to do he can profess that though God kill him he would trust in him A David can tell what to do In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy consolations refresh my soul A Habacuk can tell what to do Although the fig-tree should not blossom nor fruit be in the vines the labor of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no heard in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord yet will I joy in the God of my salvation Thus you see the Saints they know what to do in such a day and this is the excellency of grace that it can never be put so to it in any strait but it can tel what to do as David said to Achish in 2 Sam. 28. 2. Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do So the Saints in time of common distresses they should set their graces so on work that all may see what their faith and humility and patience can do that they may be able to say well you shall see now what the Servant of the Lord can do If one should say to one that hath made profession of Godliness You spake much of the excellency of grace but what can you do with it The answer that such a one may well give is this When you cannot tell what to do in the world nor which way to turn your selves yet through Gods mercy I can tell what to do Grace will be able to carry a man through fire and water that faith of mine and the grace that I have gotten by the Word that you can scorn at it 's that doth through Gods mercy enable my soul to rejoyce yea to triumph in Tribulations Can you do that You can rejoyce now when you are in a Tavern but in the day of Tribulation when a dismal day shall come to the world what will you do then I thank God I have that that can rejoyce my heart in such a day as this is and that that
his appearing Oh! that I could tell how to sweeten these times I speak unto you of God by providence hath cast me upon this Scripture I know not how to give you the mind of God in this Prophesie by being thus plain The watchman of Ephraim was with my God and their hatred in the house of his God Only one Note by the way that Arias Montanus hath upon the words saith he This Phrase Hatred in the house of his God it 's taken from such men as live in some great families and seem'd to have a great deal of power with their Lords and abuse the power they have with their Lord being continually by his table bed side they are a means to cause a great deal of hatred and at length to undo others and themselves So these Prophets are just like these men they are in the house of God and seem to have much intimacie with God in his House but the truth is they abuse this their intimacie to the hurt of themselves and to the hurt of others And thus much for the Explication of the Eighth Verse It follows VER 9. They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the daies of GIBEAH THeir wickedness hath deeply rooted its self so the word here signifies there 's little hope to prevail with them labor what you can their superstitious and Idolatrous waies have gotten such deep root in their hearts that there is no getting of it out Sin and especially that sin of superstion so deeply roots its self in the hearts of men if it be let alone but a little time that there is no getting of it out And indeed there is little hope of the Reformation that is now in hand that ever we should see it come to the full beauty and perfection of it until even God himself either by some extraordinary hand of his should root out those superstitious principles that there are in many men or at least by his own hand root out those that have such superstitious and Idolatrous principles rooted in them We wonder that men cannot be taken off from superstitious waies Oh! they are deeply rooted it 's not an easie matter to eraditate those waies and vile words of theirs it 's a blessed thing to take sin betimes and you that are young that have not other wickedness and especially superstition rooted in you you are those that it's like God will make use of for the bringing this Reformation to perfection you shall see the glory of it it may be when others are gone and dead you shall come to see what God intended in all these stirs that have been among us we find by experience the fruit of this in the hearts of men what a deal of stir was there to take them off at first Oh! but the root abides still in mens hearts and there 's this experiment of it of the depth and root that superstition take in mens hearts That though men be content not to practice those superstitious waies that they did before because now the times do not favor them yet this we find that men cannot be brought to leave off those things as sinful but as inconvenient they will be content to forbear the practice of them but you have but few men I had almost said but few Ministers but so far I may be bold to say that many Ministers but especially those who were any thing forward in superstitious waies such as did not before account them a burden those though they do leave them off at this time yet not as things that are sinful they never could be brought to that to acknowledg them to be sinful and so to charge themselves in sinning against God but they are content to leave them off as things that are inconvenient and as may be burdensom to other men but the leaving them off after such a way is no other but if the times should favor them again there is a principle retained in their hearts so as they would be in readiness to submit to them again and to do them as formerly this bitter root of Superstition abides in their hearts that 's the meaning of this phrase they are deeply rooted that is their superstition and false worship is deeply rooted in their hearts Well let their superstition be rooted as deep as it will yet as Christ saith in Mat. 15. Every plant that my Father hath not planted shall be rooted out God will either root thee out or the superstition of thy heart out of thee And seeing the false worshipers have superstition so rooted in their hearts Oh! how should the true worshipers of God have the truth rooted in their hearts never to be rooted out so Saint Paul in Col. 2. 7. Rooted and built up in him and stablished in the faith c. They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the daies of Gibeah This must cost us a little further time for the opening of it fully Rooted in their evil waies as in the daies of Gibeah What hath this reference to the Scripture doth note the City Gibeah for two notable things one that it was the City of Saul and so then upon that some carry it thus That as heretofore they cast off my Government when they chose Saul to be their King over them so now they cast me off as then formerly they did But I think that 's not the scope but rather As in the daies of Gibeah This hath reference to that notable story that you have in the 19. and 20. chapters of Judges there you shall find what was done in the daies of Gibeah You shall find the story of a Levite that had his Concubine gone from him and playing the whore he went to fetch her again and as he was returning home the substance of the story is this as he was coming home he would not go by no means as his servant would have had him to Jebus because those that lived there were not of the Children of Israel but he would be sure to lodg in a City that did belong to the Children of Israel and when he comes to Gibeah there expecting to have protection from that City being they were of the Children of Israel yet he found it quite otherwise the people of the City were notorious abominable wicked people and they came by violence in the night to break open the doors where he lodged that they might commit sodomy and filthiness with him but they obtaining him not get his Concubine and abuse her all night together one after another till with a long abuse of her they kill'd her and she lay dead at the door upon which horrid thing this being committed in a City that did belong to the People of God this Levite takes a knife and cuts his Concubine being dead into twelve pieces and sends them all abroad throughout the coasts of Israel and bad them think upon it and consider what should be
give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts But rather according to most Interpreters I think this expression is rather an expression of Commiseration that is foreseeing the lamentable condition that the ten Tribes should be in ere long the Prophet pities their condition and would fain come in and pray for them and he begins Give them O Lord saith the prophet and then he makes a stop as if he should say but O Lord what shall I say for them Give them but Lord I know not what to ask for them I am at a stand when I consider what they are what the many mercies they have had already what warnings they have had how hardened they are in their sin and how thy word is gone forth but Lord give them shall I say Lord give them deliverance give them peace give them prosperity still Lord I dare not that I cannot ask all means have been used for to bring them unto thee and yet they stand out against the Lord thou knowest they are deer to me they are of my flesh and I should be glad that they might be saved but thy glory is dearer to me then they are and therefore for that I cannot pray and therefore the Prophet praies Give them seeing all this misery must befal them what shall the enemies be let out upon them shall they and their children be made a prey to the Murderer Lord rather let no more be born of them rather let those children that otherwise should have been born and might have lived in their own Land Lord God 〈◊〉 them not be born rather than come to live to so great misery so he doth not pray for a miscarrying womb and dry breasts absolutely but compartively From whence the Notes are First That mens sins make many times Gods Ministers and his Saints at a point that they know not what to say in prayer Truly though there hath bee a mighty Spirit of prayer through Gods mercy in the Kingdom yet considering that since God hath come to shew himself willing to deliver us and Christ hath been coming even upon his white Hors in peace to take the Kingdom to himself since that time such a spirit of Malignity hath appeared against Christ and his Saints as ever was in the Kingdom it puts many of the Ministers and Saints of God to a non-plus in their prayers and straightens their very hearts in the day of their fasting when they are to seek God that the Lord would give forth mercy The Lord knows that the condition we are in is more unfit for mercy than we were at the very first day Thus a Nation thus particular people may put the Servants of God to a stand in their prayers and straighten their hearts Oh! were it that people had gone on in the imbracing of Reformation as they seem'd to do at the first Oh! how enlarged would the herrts of the Saints have been in prayer Oh Lord give England mercy give England deliverance And then a second Note is this That the fruitfulness or the barrenness of the womb it is from God Give them give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts This is from God in Gen. 30. 2. when Rachel cried for children Give me children or else I die the text saith that Jacobs anger was kindled against Rachel and said Am I in Gods stead Paulus Phagius that learned man saith that the Hebrews have this speech that there are four keys that are in Gods hand that he gives not into the hand of any Angel 1. The Key of the Rain and that you have in Deut. 28. 12. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure the Heaven to give thee rain unto thy Land in his season 1. There 's the Key of Food in Ps 145. The eyes of all wait upon thee and thou givest them their meat in due season thou openest thine hand and satisfiest the desire of every living thing 3. There 's the Key of the Grave in Ezek. 37. 12. Behold Oh my people I will open your Graves and cause you to come up out of your Graves 4. And lastly The Key of the Womb and that is in Gen. 38. 22. These four Keys God keeps in his own hand and therefore Gods providence is to be observed in this and there ought to be a submission to his hand in it Thirdly Sin may bring such evil time upon a people as better those who live to such times had not been born or died before those times had come Give them a miscarrying womb and a dry breast if they should have children that should live to endure all the miseries of those times that are coming they had been better not to have been born or have died long before this time saith the Prophet We must take heed of wishing this upon every little affliction that doth befall us as it is the frowardness of many people even with God himself that if their children do but anger them to wish they had never been born or cold in the mouth many years ago I wish I had gone to your Grave Parents many times are ready to wish their children that they had never been born of them but this is frowardness against God himself and wickedness those that are so ready to wish their children had not been born they are the least sensible of the sin that doth cause the affliction upon which they do wish such a thing as that is Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts First There may be either such miserable slaughters as that Parents might even wish that they never had any Children Or Secondly They may live under such cruel tyranny for their souls and bodies Or thirdly They may be drawn from God by false Religion and so may be in a condition worse than if they had not been born Hence Parents to whom God denies children or takes them away they should quiet themselves in Gods dispose especially in such times as these are it may be God hath taken away your children to deliver them from greater evils as in the house of Jeroboam there was but one child that had any good in it and saith God That child shall die and gives the reason Because it had some good in it So that God takes away many that he hath the most love unto and lets others to live that he hath not so much love unto Yes some may say If I were sure that their souls were safe though God doth take them away if I were sure of their salvation then I would be content That 's true indeed If your children were saved what hurt is that to be taken away here and received to Heaven and there to live for ever with Christ not to sin or sorrow more but howsoever you may satisfie your selves in these three things First That they are under an indefinite promise though not an
smite upon his thigh Oh! that we may smite upon our own hearts But it follows Their Princes are Revolters and Ephraim is smitten Only a word more from the connexion of these two All their Princes are revolters and Ephraim is smitten From thence the Note is If God leaves those who have the chief Government in their hands to revolt the people then will be smitten Oh! pray much for them and let not them that have the chief Government in their hand think much that people enquire into their way and that they use all means that they can to keep them upright for if they should revolt they would not only undo themselves but undo us it concerns us to enquire how it is with them and to be solicitous about them and they must not bid us that are beneath them to let them alone and meddle with our own business and follow that which concerns us certainly it concerns us much what they do were it indeed that if they miscarried they only should be smitten then we had less to do to look after them but if they revolt we are smitten If a child should in all humility and reverence beseech his father to leave off such and such a sinful way or to take heed of it that he be not carried by such and such counsels if his father should say Meddle you with what you have to do the child might well answer Oh father I hear in the Word of God that God doth visit the sins of the fathers upon the children and I may feel of these sins of yours when you are dead and gone therefore I beseech you Oh father consider what you do I say the same might be answered if we should Petition and labor with our Governors in all humility to take heed of any evil Counsel and if they should bid us lock to what concerns us we may well answer We have heard in the Word that when the Princes are Revolters the People are smitten that if Governors should any way revolt from any former Protestations the People is like to be smitten it is we know from the revolting of many of our Lords and Members of that High Court that we have been smitten so as we have been Now many of them have revolted to the Enemy and these that have been the Members of that Court I say their revolting have been the cause of such a sore smiting which we have had Further It cannot free Ephraim from being smitten smitten because their Governors are evil they cannot excuse their sin by that Perhaps the People would plead thus What could we do we could not help it those that were in Government they enjoyn such things and if we did not obey them they would undo us we were not able to bear their smiting of us therefore we were forced to yield Oh! better endure the smiting of man than the smiting of God it is a fearful thing to fall into the Hand of the Living God The apprehension of Gods hand smiting is that which should humble the hearts of sinners very much It 's a notable Scrip-which you have in 2 Chron. 26. 20. of Vzziah that when he saw that he was smitten though he were stout and proud before yet when he was smitten he made hast out of the Temple It 's no longer standing out for the Lord hath smitten So when we apprehend God smiting it is no standing out against the great God but we had need make hast to reform And thus much for this expression It follows Their Root is dried up But though we be smitten we hope we may grow we may lose our leaves and some of our boughs but we hope that we shall spring again perhaps these are the vain apprehensions of some men but never look to making their peace with God no saith God I 'le not only smite to take off your leaves and branches but I will smite the very root that shall be dried up There 's difference between the pruning and lopping off a tree and the drying up of the root of it there may be help so long as the root remains alive I will never trouble my self any further saith God with them I have already smote off their boughs and that doth no good I will dry up the very root now It 's a great aggravation of Gods smiting when he smites at the root every smiting it is not a drying up of the root it is the base unbelief of our hearts the discontentedness frowardness fullenness of our vile spirits that makes us thus to conclude almost upon every stroke of God that he intends our undoing if he doth but smite us so as a few leaves are but shaken off or that our branches are but shak'd we are presently ready to conclude that God intends to blast us and to dry up the very root and ruin us utterly how often in our unbelief when by temptations we have been shaken and the leaves of our comforts have been shaken off our enlargements and the like how often we conclude Oh! the Lord is coming against me and he will certainly blast all all that I seem to have the very root of all my hopes and comforts will presently be blasted Oh! this I say is the evil of our hearts it comes from our fullenness frowardness and unbelief ever so to conclude it may be God intends only to prune thee and to take away superfluities that so the sap may go down more at the root that thou maiest have more Humility and Self-denial and Faith that thou maiest have more exercise of the Root-Graces Humility Patience Faith Self-denial and God perhaps smites only to make the sap go down more to the Root-Graces though thou concludest that he will dry up the Root presently In this smiting wherewithal the Lord hath smote us we hope that he intends not to dry up the root but we may say of it as in Isa 27. Hath be smitten him as he smote those that smote him or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him The godly party may suffer much but I make no question but the ungodly party hath suffered as much and by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin and in the 4. verse God tells us that fury is not in him God is fain to make an Apolegie to his people when he is a smiting though I smite you yet not so as those that smite you but in the day of the East wind I stay the rough wind and fury is not in me but by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit thereof to take away his sin But God hath his time to dry up the roots of sinners and the roots of Nations 1. God dries up the roots of many that have made fair profession in former times they have had
latter end of the former Chapter he would not hearken to the Lord he would not hear the Word of the Lord the Lord threatens to cast him away because he hearkened not to him from whence Luther hath this Note The Word is like a fruitful rain there can no true fruit be without the Word those that will not hearken to the Word no mervail though they be empty it is the Word that makes fruitful it is that that is as the fruitful rain Those that leave and forsake the Word observe them how fruitless they are what empty spirits they have many that heretofore were forward in hearing the Word and loved it the Word was delightful to them Oh! then they were fruitful but since they have been taken off from the Word converse with them now and you shall find their spirits empty and their lives empty and there 's no men in the world so empty as those that would worship God in another way than the Word appoints men that would think to worship God after their own fancies and waies Oh! how empty are they in all their Worship they tender up to God But the main Note and Observation is That emptiness in those that profess themselves to be Gods People is a very great evil Oh! it is a great charge upon those that grow in Gods Vinyard that profess themselves to be Gods to be charged with this That they are empty an empty Vine When we would speak of a man contemptuously as one that hath no natural or aquisite excellency in him we say such a one is an empty or a slight fellow and that 's the meaning of the word that you have in Mat. 5. 22. Whosoever calls his Brother Racha shall be in danger of the counsel the word Racha it is empty it is as much as if he should call his Brother an empty fellow for that 's the signification of the word Empty And in Jam. 2. 20. Knowest thou not O vain man that faith without works is dead The words are Oh empty man knowest thou not O empty man that faith without works are dead There 's many that keeps a great deal of noise of Faith and of Gods free-Grace and yet are extream empty men and understand little of the true excellency of the Covenant of Grace Knowest thou not O empty man that Faith without Works is dead Speak as much as thou wilt of Faith and Gods Grace yet if there be no Works thou art an empty man Nature will not endure emptiness some of the Phylosophers have said that the world would rather be dissolved than there should be any vacuity creatures will move contrary to their nature rather than they will suffer a vacuity Certainly an emptiness in the souls of Gods people it is the worst emptiness that is in the world For First It is the most unnatural thing for a Vine to be empty And secondly For the Saints to be empty they are a dishonor to their Root that they do profess they are upon Christ he hath all the fulness of the God-head in him And of his Fulness we are to receive Grace for Grace To grow upon him upon such a root and yet to be empty Oh! what a dishonor is this to Jesus Christ Thirdly This frustrates the Lord of all the care and cost and charge that he is about if thou wert another plant that grew in the wilderness it were not much but a Vine and one in Gods Vinyard and yet fruitless Oh this is a sore evil Fourthly There 's no blessing upon thy soul if thou beest an empty Vine in Isa 65. 8. As the new Wine is found in the cluster and one saith Destroy it not for a blessing is in it If there be Wine in the cluster then a blessing is found in it but otherwise destroy it No blessing is found in those that are of empty spirits Fiftly If there be grace it is the Divine Nature its self and cannot that bear fruit It is an evil in a Vine to have but a little moisture to shoot forth in leaves and bear no fruit yea but what is that unto Grace that is the Divine Nature its self the most glorious thing in the world Therefore for Christians to be without fruit is an exceeding great evil Doest thou know what fruit is One gracious action that comes from the sap of the Root that is in Christ it is more worth than Heaven and Earth any one gracious Act I say it is more worth than Heaven and Earth Oh the fruit of the Saints is fruit to eternity and to be without this fruit must needs be a great evil those that are empty and without fruit you know they are said in John 15. to be but as branches not branches they that bear no fruit are said to be but as a branch and then such a branch as must be cut off God will cut them off cut off those branches he will cut them off from their profession and suffer them to fall so as they shal not continue in their eternal profession and they shall wither he will curse their very common gifts that they have 6. Oh! how many that heretofore seemed to flourish yet but leaves and bearing no fruit now their leaves are gon too and their common gifts are taken away from them and not only withered but shall be cast away cast away from God and out of the hearts of the Saints and men shall gather them the men of the world they shall catch them and so they shall joyn with them and they shall make use of them and they shall be cast into the fire and burnt cast into the fire not for a fiery tryal but cast into the fire that they may be burned these are the threatnings against those that bear no fruit It is the glory of Gods People to be filled with the fruits of Righteousness Phil. 1. 11. To be filled with the Spirit Ephes 5. 18. Yea to be filled with all the fulness of God Ephes 3. 19. So it is expected of the Saints that they should be filled with al the fulness of God Oh! how contrary is this to emptying And surely fil'd the Saints should be with fruit because they are the very fulness of Christ the fulness of him that fills all in all In Ephes 1. last verse the Church is said to be the fulness of Jesus Christ himself And shall the Church be an empty Vine when as it is the very fulness of Him that fils al in al 7. An empty spirit is fit for the Devil to come to possess Mat. 12. 24. he found his place empty and then he comes in where the Devil sees an empty spirit there 's a fit place for him to come It is an evil thing for you to grow upon Gods ground and to cumber it to cumber any part of Gods ground it may be if thou wert gon there
defend but by being zealous and forward for his waies they hop'd to have promoâ—ion by him they did not fear to be questioned for any thing no matter whether they went against Law or not they could shelter themselves under the power and favor of the King the Pomp and Glory of the Court that was a great thing in their eyes they were bold in their Idolatrous way and oppression because of the power and greatness of the King who should controul them in any thing that they did But now saith the Prophet You have had your day you have had your time that you could thus shelter your selves under the power of the King and do what you list and oppress and rage and no body durst meddle with you because of the power of the King but now the case is altered But now they shall say We have no King Had they no King Yes Hoshea was their King but the meaning is It 's all one as if we had no King his power is so broken that the truth is he cannot help us Saith Drusius upon the place he cannot protect us which is the property of the King and therefore it is as if we had none now they shall say We have no King Alas he is not able to save himself he can do nothing for us his Pomp his Power Bravery is in the dust he is distressed himself and we are miserably disappointed of our hopes we are undone who can help us now whither shall we go what shall we do our consciences upbraid us now for our bold presumptuous wickedness Oh! how far were our hearts from the fear of the Lord we dar'd the God of Heaven and all his Prophets we boldly ventured upon those waies which we were told yea which we knew in our very consciences were a provocation to the Lord we set up our own worship we pleased our selves we made our wills to be the rules of all our actions that we did we took liberty to satisfie our lusts we mingled our own waies with Gods Ordinances we subjected Religion to publick ends we were riged we were cruel towards those who differed from us we upheld the Authority of the King against God and his People and now God hath justly brought this distressed estate upon us that now the Kings Power that we trusted so in is now broken and in a manner gone Oh! now we see we feared not the Lord we have none to help us now we now know what it is not to fear the great God God is above us and therefore now what can a King do to us what could he do for us Suppose we had him again Alas our misery is beyond his help seeing God is provoked with us and hath forsaken us what should a King do for us And thus in this short Paraphrase you have the scope of the words as if the People should have spoken in this manner But now the question is what times doth this refer to Now they shall say We have no King c. When did they say so The times that this refers to seems to be those that we reade of in 2 King 17. If you read that Chapter you shall find the times that this hath reference to then they might well say We have no King because we feared not the Lord What then should a King do to us For the Observations from it the first is this It 's a great evil for a People not to have the Protection and the Blessing that might be enjoyed in the right Government of a King over them A great evil And they complain of it as a great evil and so far their complaint is right That they are now deprived of the Protection and good that otherwise they might have had from the right Government of a King over them And my Brethren our condition is even such in regard of the personal presence and protection of a King in those regards we may almost use the same words as here and say We have no King among us And whether it be better for a People to have no King or to have no Protection from their King But that which is contrary to Protection is a Question fitter to be discussed and determined in a Parliament than in a Pulpit and to them I shall leave it But the Church of God shall never have cause to make this Complaint That they have no King in Psal 29 10 11. The Lord sitteth King for ever The Lord will give strength unto his People the Lord will bless his People with peace In Psal 45. 6. Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever the Scepter of thy Kingdom is a right Scepter Psal 145. 13. Thy Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and thy Dominion endureth throughout all generations Psal 149. 2. Let the Children of Zion rejoyce in their King Because we feared not the Lord. It is a great evil not to fear the Lord. Fear ye not me saith the Lord who have placed the sands for the bounds of the Sea It 's an evil and a bitter thing that the fear of the Lord is not in men For God is a great God infinitly above us cloathed with Majestie and Honor trembling frames of heart becomes his presence non like unto the Lord great and mervailous are his works Oh! who would not fear him God hath infinite authority over us to save or to destroy us he hath us all at an infinite advantage by the least word of his mouth to undo us his wrath is insupportable Who among us shall dwel with the devouring fire who amongst us shall dwel with everlasting burnings Darest thou a vile wretch presume to rebel against any word of the Lord when the next word may sink soul and body into the bottomless gulf of eternal horror and despair Who art thou that doest not fear the Lord Doest thou not fear the Commanding Word of the Lord when the next word that proceeds out of his mouth may be a destroying word to undo body and soul for ever Secondly They said We feared not the Lord. And observe In times of prosperity when men have the favor and countenance of great Ones then there is little fear of God among them Now they said We feared not the Lord. Oh! those times when we had the favour and countenance of great Men there was little fear of God among us So long as men have any confidence in the Creature so long they see no need of God their hearts are swollen with pride God is not in all their thoughts they say to God Depart from us we do not desire the knowledg of thy Waies They set their hearts and tongues against the God of Heaven they can venture upon any thing then to tell them it's sin against God it 's a poor dry business it 's nothing at all with them how vile and foolish are the hearts of wicked men that the enjoyment
of such poor things as they have in the Creature should imbolden their hearts against the great God of Heaven and Earth yet thus it is men little consider but even those things that their hearts do so much rest upon they are absolutely at the dispose of this God whom their hearts do not fear But note let the Saints of God take this Note with them Shall creature confidence take mens hearts off from Gods fear Then let Gods fear take your hearts off from creature confidence Certainly there 's a great deal more reason Oh! 't is infinitely irrational that creature confidence should take the heart from Gods fear but it 's infinitely rational that Gods fear should take our hearts off from creature confidence Thirdly Now they shall say We feared not the Lord. The taking from a People the protection of and benefit they might have by Kingly Power is a punishment of the want of the fear of God in them We have no King we are deprived of the benefit of the good that we might have the protection that we might have by Kingly power it is because we feared not the Lord what evil we feel in this let us attribute it to the want of the fear of God in our selves and in the people of the Land We complain of those that are about the King and of Her that lies in the Bosom of the King and of the evil of his own heart in part but whence is it that God hath left him either to them or to any evil in his own spirit The Lord in this punishes the sins of the People 't is usual for God to punish the sins of the People in leaving Governors unto evil courses in 2 Sam. 24. 1. you have a remarkable Scripture for this saith the text there And the Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and what then And he moved David against them to say Go number Israel and Judah The Anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against them to what God lets temptations be before David for to fall into that sin that might bring evil upon the people It was because the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel It 's because that a people fear not God therefore it is that the Lord leaves Kings leaves their Governors to those evil waies that they are left unto and therefore learn we when we hear of any evil that is done by countenance of Kings or any power learn we to lay our hands upon our own hearts and say even this is because we feared not the Lord how easie had it been with the Lord to have wrought upon his heart Oh! what prayers hath been sent up unto the Lord for the heart of one man never since the world began more prayers for the heart of one man but the Lord hath seem'd even to shut his ears against the prayers of his people now let us lay our hands upon our hearts God hath denied our prayers it is because we have not feared him now certainly there hath been but little fear of God amongst us and little fear of the great God is still to this day among us And that 's the third Observation We have no King because we feared not the Lord. And then the Fourth is this The times of Gods Wrath and Judgments forces acknowledgment from men that they did not fear God When God comes against them in waies of wrath now they can acknowledg that they feared not God should the Prophet have come to them before and told them Oh! you are a wretched vile people there is no fear of God among you Why wherein do not we fear God as in Malac. 1. they would not be convinced but Now shall they say c. Now when the wrath of God is upon men now they shall say we see now apparently we feared not the Lord. As it 's said of Cardinal Wolsie when he was in distress Oh saith he Had I but served God as well as I served the King it would have been otherwise with me than it is but I sought to please the King rather than God and now I am left in this distressed estate He would have scorned that any should have told him before that he pleased the King more than God but afflictions they will draw forth acknowledgment for in afflictions God appears dreadful to the soul it is no dallying and trifling and putting off then we see we have to deal with an infinite Glorious and dreadful God and in times of affliction now conscience will brave over men it will not be quieted and still'd so as in the times of prosperity but it will speak as we reade of Zebul in Judges 9. 38. saith Zebul Where now is thy mouth wherewith thou saidest Who is Abimelech So saith conscience in times of affliction to wretched creatures Where now is that bold and presumptuous heart of thine Thou scornest at fearing and trembling before God and slightest his Word but where now is that proud wretched heart of thine And in times of afflictions now are mens hearts abased and humbled and therefore now they are ready to say It is because they feared not the Lord. Mark here they do not when they are in afflictions and troubles say I we may thank these kind of people there were a company of factious people and they would not yield to any thing and we may thank them for all this you hear no such words Oh no but it is Because we feard not the Lord. When the heart is in any degree humbled it will not put off the cause of evils to other men or other things but will charge its self as the cause of the evils that are upon it Oh how much better my Brethren were it for us to see the want of the fear of God by his Word to us and his Spirit in us than by his wrath against us or his stroke upon us Let us every day examine our hearts How hath the fear of God been in me this day hath the fear of God acted and guided me in al my thoughts counsels and actions this day How happy were it when we ever lie down to rest to have such a short meditation Hath the fear of God been the thing that hath Acted and Governed and Guided me in my course this day But it follows What then shall a King do to us or for us Suppose we had him now he is gone but if we had him what good would he bring to us if we had him As if they should say we speak much concerning our King but now we have not the King with us as he was but if he were with us again what should he do for us what would our condition be better than it is And indeed what good had their Kings done for them The People of Israel they were very desirous of a King they must
proud swelling words they swear and curse for so the curse in swearing signifies cursing as well as swearing they swear and curse what our Images be broken down what shall we be brought under and made to serve our enemies We scorn it we defie all that shall have such a thought as this is we will do this and that we will have our minds we will die for it else we will enter into Leagues with such and such we will get such and such to conjure together with us I 'le warrant you we shall make our party thus and thus thus they speak great things that they will do yea that they will thus they speak words in making a Covenant with Oaths of Vanity so you may reade it And indeed if men could prevail with great Words and daring Expressions and bold Resolutions and desperate Oaths and wicked Curses then may some hope to prevail against the God of Heaven and his Saints but saith he These things shall do them no good And indeed these things should never move us though we hear our Adversaries speak proud swelling words and say what they will do threaten Monsterous things let us not be troubled at it for they do but hasten the Wrath of God against themselves In the mean time while they are swearing and cursing and making brags and boast what they will do the counsels of the Lord they work their ruin and work the good of his people they spake words such kind of Words They speak words swaring falsely in making a Covenant What hath this reference to What Covenant did they make And wherein did they swear falsely Some think it hath reference to the Covenant that the People did make with Jeroboam at the first and so with his Successors that is thus The People came to him and took their Oaths and entred into solemn League that they would stand by him in the breach that he made from the house of David that they would stand by him in opposing those that would not yeeld to him in the Alteration of Worship For their Princes would not probably have been so strongly set upon the Alteration of the waies of Worship had not the People joyned themselves freely to him by way of Oaths and Covenant now when he saw that the People came in floking and willing to yeeld to the Oath which he would give them upon this he was confirm'd in the way that he went in and so they took Oaths in Covenanting with Jeroboam which were but Oaths of vanity for so the same word that signifies False signifies Vain in the Hebrew tongue so I find Arias Montanus and Vatablus take the words as having reference to that But now others and that more probably understand this Covenant and Swearing to be the Covenant that they took with the Assyrians and with the Egyptians the story of which you have in the fornamed place in 2 King 17. Hoshea sent Messengers to So King of Egypt and brought no present to the King of Assyria as he had done year by year First he had Covenanted with the King of Assyria and that was broke and then they would Covenant with So King of Egypt and so they swore falsely in in making a Covenant with the Assyrians and the Egyptians Now the Observations are That Carnal hearts in their straights have no God to go to therefore they take shifting courses As a Dog that hath lost his Master will follow after any for relief And secondly It 's an evil thing in straights for men that profess Religion to combine with wicked men God professed he will not take the wicked by the hand neither should we it 's a sign the cause is evil when men can have no other help but by combining with wicked and ungodly men Just thus it is for all the world with our adversaries at this day to the Parliament all men generally that have any profession of Godliness they see they cannot have help that way therefore combine and bring into Covenant Irish Rebels Papists any People in the world If it were Turks or Jews or any in the world to help themselves withal this is the wickedness of mens hearts And then thirdly There is no trust to be had to wicked men in their Oaths and Covenants let their Protestations be never so solemn their Oaths their Covenants it is but only to gain time to work about some advantage that they cannot work about for the present while they have any opposition If they have not things under their power as they desire they will promise you any thing in the world but when once they come to get power in their hands then who shall require the fulfilling of their Promises their Oaths their Covenants And therefore certainly when we have to deal with those that we have had experience to be false we must ever retain this conclusion except we see an apparent change in their hearts for that 's not enough that they are willing to take Covenants that 's no new thing but till we see that God hath wrought some mighty work upon their hearts we must carry this conclusion Certainly if they can they will ruin us therefore our condition cannot be safe but to be so as they can do us no hurt That 's the third Note And then the fourth is this That Breaking Covenant though with wicked men is a very great wickedness God will be revenged for it I have heretofore spoken of falseness and falseness in Covenant and Promises and shewen you the example of Saul and Zedekiah therefore I shall not look back to those things God loves humane societies which cannot be preserved but by faithfulness Faithfulness it 's the speech of a Heathen it 's the common safety of all men I remember I have read of the Romans that they did so esteem of Faithfulness by the light of Nature in Covenants that they accounted Faithfulness to be a Godess and they built and dedicated a Temple unto fidelity as to a Godess in which Temple all their Leagues Truces Covenants and Bargains were sworn which were so Religiously observed that whosoever broke them was to be held as a cursed and damned creature unworthy to live in humane societies And the Egyptians would punish Perjury with death Among the Indians the fingers and toes of Perjured persons were cut off And I have likewise reade when Tissaphernes the Persian warred against the Grecians he broke Covenant with the Grecians Now Agesilaus when he saw that they had broke their Covenant he rejoyced at it greatly saying thus For saith he by this means he hath made the gods to be his enemy and our friend wherefore let us boldly give him battel We know how our enemies have broken their Covenants from time to time and their Conditions that they have made themselves yea even lately in that Town that we hear such good of now
them to maintain that way of theirs they had countenance from men of Power they had strength enough to crush any that should oppose them That 's the Note that lies plainly before us When the outward strength of a Kingdom goes along with a way of Religion then men think it must needs be right and that all men are but weak men that appears against it Mark the connexion They trusted in their way that is as I find generally Interpreters go The way of Religion And then their Mighty Men these two are put together so that you see the Note is very evident before you that 's the way that generally men will trust in and men will go that way were the scale turn'd and the strength of the mighty men went another way As now Suppose that the strength of the Kingdom of the ten Tribes had been bent to go up to Jerusalem to worship and not to worship at Dan Bethel Do you think there would have been almost any considerable party that would not have gone up to Jerusalem but worshiped at Dan Bethel but when the strength of the Kingdom held the other way when the mighty Men and the way of Religion went both in one the generality of the people went that way that the mighty men went This is the vanity and the exceeding evil of mens hearts that which way soever the mighty men go that way they will trust in There are very few that will deliberatly say so I will go that way that I see the mightie men go in But this is a secret byass poise upon the spirits of men w ch inclins them to harken to what may be said for that way not willingly to what may be said for another And secondly It is such a poise upon their spirits as makes them to be willing and ready to let in any probability if there be but the least probability for the way that the mighty men go on in they take in that and when they have taken in one probability that makes way for another and another and so they drink in more and more so com to be strengthned for that way so as to put off the strength of any thing that can be said against the way except it be so apparent as whether they will nor no they must be forced to sin against their consciences directly if they go another way I say when the spirits of men are byassed by seeing the strength of the Kingdom go in a way though perhaps they may have some good lie at their hearts yet there is that corruption in mans heart that except we can make the other way so cleer that notwithstanding all shifts and all kind af reasonings that may be they shal be self-condemned in their own consciences that their consciences shall tell them they go directly against their light I say except we can come thus we cannot prevail with mens hearts when the sway of a Kingdom goes another way And there are many Truths of God that concerns his Worship that cannot be made so cleer but that a man may have such a diversion to satisfie his conscience in this That I in going another way do not go against my conscience God would have us that what is most likely to be his mind that way to go without any consideration of any outward respects Now if there be a temptation for outward respects that they will come into the ballance do but turn the ballance and suppose in your own heart that all outward respects were in the other ballance that all the mightie men were of the other way what would your hearts think In Revel 13. 3. That when Power and Authority was given unto Antichrist The whol World wondred after her So it is ordinary that way that the mighty men go that way mens hearts will generally go Oh! the little honor that Jesus Christ hath by us Our hearts are swayed for the most part by carnal Arguments and carnal Motives Again They trust in their way and in the multitude of their Mighty Men. Great Armies are the things that are the Confidence of Carnal hearts when they can get a great Army up of a multitude of Mighty Men let there be never such threats in the Word yet if they think they have strength enough to bear them out they bless themselves in that Oh! let us take heed of this Carnal Confidence Through Gods Mercie the Lord hath given us now that we have the multitude of Mightie Men on our side let us take heed that our Faith do not eb and flow as our Armies do and I wil give you one Scripture that shews how far a gracious heart is from making flesh his Arm Cursed is that man you know the Scripture that maketh flesh his Arm. But an example of a godly man to shew how far he was from trusting in an Armie of mighty men in 2 Chron. 14. 11. It is nothing saith Asa with thee to help with many or with them that have no power Why Lord though we have no power yet thou canst help us Why did Asa speak thus Had he no power You shall find in the Chapter a little before that Asa had five hundred and fourscore thousand valiant fighting men Almost six hundred thousand valiant men that he had at that time when he is pleading with God Lord thou canst save where there is no power We account it a great Army if we have twentie or thirtie or fourty thousand men he hath almost six hundred thousand men and yet goes to God and praies Lord thou canst help where there is no power And yet further from the connexion of these two Their way in which they trusted That is The way of Religion they thought that was good But had they had nothing else to trust in but that their trust would not have been very sure From thence the Note is this That those who trust to any way of their own had need of creature strengths to uphold them It 's a Note of very great use they had need of bladders to be under their arm-holes if they trust in a way of their own But now if the Way be the Way of God that a man hath confidence in why then though all outward helps should fail him though all encouragements should fail in this world though we should see the creatures at never so great a distance yet the heart that hath confidence in Gods way hath enough to uphold it here 's the difference between men trusting in their own way and in Gods way Indeed when men trust in their own way so long as the Sun shines upon their way that they have external helps they can go on confident but let outward helps fail and their hearts sink within them But now when the heart is upright with God and trusts in the Word and Promises then it is able to say with Habakkuk in Chap. 3. 17.
for doing so And in another place he tells that the Citizens suffered more by them than when the Enemies took it so that when the enemies took it they thought that it was rather a relieving of their miserie than bringing evil upon them because the evil of the Tumults was so great among them My Brethren we should rather bear much than be any fomenters of the raising of Tumults take heed of that you know not what the end of such things will be A Tumult shall arise among them In Amos 2. 2. Moab shall die with Tumult When God intends the sorest scourge of all utterly to destroy a people he suffers Tumults to be among them I find some take this word Tumult A Tumult shall arise that is only meant the Confusion of the hearts of people when the enemies should come upon them that they should be all in a Confusion not knowing what to do through fear and terror altogether As suppose on a sudden an Army should come against a Citie people would be wringing of their hands and running up and down from place to place and paleness in their countenances and not knowing what in the world to do all in perplexity and tumult Thus God threatens it should be with them As if he should say You are jolly and brave now but when the Assyrians come out upon you then your hearts shall fail and you shall all run together and not know what to do the women and children shall cry not knowing how to help your selves and so shall be brought into a confused Tumult This is the sense that some carries it in But the sense may very well go either of these waies It is a mercy that God hath not tried us this way We live in our houses and follow our tradings and lie down and sleep in quietness and rise again but we cannot imagin what woful distractions there would be in the spirits of people in the Citie if there were a considerable Army encamped round about it Perhaps some of you here have been in places where the enemies have come suddenly so that you know what this Tumult in the spirits of men and women means Bless God I say that the Lord hath delivered us from such Tumults as these And the Power and Providence of God in Government of the World by a few in keeping people from Tumulting and so bringing all to Confusion it is to be acknowledged and his Name to be sanctified The word that is translated Tumult it doth indeed seem to import this The crying of fearful creatures those that are terrified and scar'd it signifies the crying out of them Oh! 't is a great mercie for the heart of a man to be so stablished that when all dangers shall be apprehended yet they can find their hearts fixed in God and not in a tumultuousness presently A righteous man it 's said of him in Psalm 112. 7. That when he hears ill tydings his heart is fixed but it is a greater blessing that when we see the Armies before us and hear the neighings of Horses and clattering of the Speers then to be fixed Oh! we should labor in the time of peace to make our calling and election sure In Psalm 57. 7. My heart is fixed O God my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise Awake my Glory awake Psaltry and Harp I my self will awake early I will praise thee O God c. When was this that David cries to awake and to give Glorie to God and sing praise and that his heart was fixed It was when Saul persecuted him it was when he was in danger of his life when Saul pursued him to take away his life yet My heart is fixed my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise saith David even at that time So in Psal 46. 2 3. We will not fear though the earth be removed though the mountains be carried into the midst of the Sea though the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof Selah This Psalm was wont to be called Luthers Psalm for in times of trouble he would say Come and let us sing the 46. Psalm Many Scriptures we might have to this purpose I remember the storie of Archimedes that when the Citie of Siracuse was taken and the enemies came in with their drawn swords and hack'd and slew whom they pleased and abundant of blood-shed there was yet he was so setled upon the drawing of his Lines being a Mathematition that when the Soldiers came in with their swords drawn he was drawing his Lines about his Art Which of you could if you were at prayer or any serious duty if you should hear of the breaking in of Adversaries Could you have your hearts fixed in a setled constant way fixed upon God in such a time as this is As outward Tumults in Cities and Countries are very great evils so are likewise Spiritual Tumults in the heart when God seems to come against the Souls as an enemy I have a place for spiritual Tumults that is the trouble and destraction of the heart in the time of the apprehension of Gods absence in Psal 40. 2. He brought me up saith the Psalmist out of an horrible pit Now the word is in the Original the very same word we have here From the pit of Tumultuousness Oh! it 's true as if he should say my heart was fixed indeed yet at other times I found my heart in a tumultuous condition when I apprehended God not coming in according as I expected yea but the Lord did bring me up out of the pit of tumultuousness Oh! hath not this been the condition of some of you in time of trouble of your spirit when you have apprehended the absence of God from you Your hearts have been all in a tumult hath the Lord delivered you Remember the Psalm The Lord hath delivered me out of the pit of tumultuousness I was in a tumultuous condition my heart was even overwhelmed but the Lord hath delivered me out of the pit of tumultuousness And then in Psal 61. 2. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee when my heart is overwhelmed Lead me to the rock that is higher than I. Remember that Scripture likewise And all thy fortresses shall he spoiled What are strong holds for the safeguard of a people when the strong God is against them You have made Lines and Fortifications Oh! but the strong God is against you In Nahum 3. 12. All thy strong holds shall be like Fig trees with the first ripe figs if they be shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater And now my Brethren blessed be God we know this Scripture to be true in a way of mercy God hath made our enemies so to us and not in a way of Judgment God might have made our strong holds so to them this