vs. Gideon cannot conceiue of himselfe as an exempt person but puts himselfe among the throng of Israel as one that could not be sensible of any particular comfort while the common case of Israel laboured The maine care of a good heart is still for the publike neither can it enioy it selfe while the Church of God is distressed As faith drawes home generalities so charity diffuses generalities from it selfe to all Yet the valiant man was here weake weake in faith weake in discourse whiles hee argues Gods absence by affliction his presence by deliuerances and the vnlikelihood of successe by his owne disability all grosse inconsequences Rather should he haue inferred Gods presence vpon their correction for wheresoeuer God chastises there he is yea there he is in mercy Nothing more proues vs his then his stripes he will not bestow whipping where he loues not Fond nature thinkes God should not suffer the winde to blow vpon his deare ones because her selfe makes this vse of her owne indulgence but none out of the place of torment haue suffered so much as his dearest children He saies not we are Idolaters therfore the Lord hath forsaken vs because we haue forsaken him This sequell had been as good as the other was faultie The Lord hath deliuered vs vnto the Midianites therefore he hath forsaken vs Sinnes not afflictions argue God absent Whiles Gideon bewrayeth weaknes God both giues him might and imployes it Goe in this thy might and saue Israel Who would not haue looked that God should haue looked angerly on him and chid him for his vnbeliefe But he whose mercy will not quench the weakest fire of grace though it be but in flax lookes vpon him with compassionate eyes and to make good his owne word giues him that valour he had acknowledged Gideon had not yet said Lord deliuer Israel much lesse had he said Lord deliuer Israel by my hand The mercy of God preuents the desire of Gideon if God should not begin with vs we should be euer miserable if he should not giue vs till we aske yet who should giue vs to aske if his Spirit did not worke those holy grones and sighes in vs we should neuer make sute to God He that commonly giues vs power to craue sometimes giues vs without crauing that the benifit might be so much more welcome by how much lesse it was expected we so much more thankfull as he is more forward When he bids vs aske it is not for that hee needs to be intreated but that he may make vs more capeable of blessings by desiring them And where he sees feruent desires he stayes not for words and he that giues ere we aske how much more will he giue when we aske He that hath might enough to deliuer Israel yet hath not might enough to keepe himselfe from doubting The strongest faith will euer haue some touch of infidelity And yet this was not so much a distrust of the possibility of deliuering Israel as an inquiry after the meanes Whereby shall I saue Israel The salutation of the Angell to Gideon was as like to Gabriels salutation of the blessed Virgin as their answeres were like Both Angels brought newes of deliuerance both were answered with a question of the meanes of performance with a report of the difficulties in performing Ah my Lord whereby shall I saue Israel How the good man disparages himselfe It is a great matter O Lord thou that speakest of and great actions require mighty Agents As for me who am I My Tribe is none of the greatest in Israel My Fathers family is one of the meanest in his Tribe and I the meanest in his family Pouerty is a sufficient barre to great enterprises Whereby shall I Humility is both a signe of following glory and a way to it and an occasion of it Bragging and height of spirit will not carry it with God None haue euer been raised by him but those which haue formerly deiected themselues None haue been confounded by him that haue been abased in themselues Thereupon it is that he addes I will therefore bee with thee as if he had answered Hadst thou not been so poore in thy self I would not haue wrought by thee How should God be magnified in his mercies if we were not vnworthy How should hee be strong if not in our weakenesse All this while Gideon knew not it was an Angell that spake with him He saw a man stand before him like a Traueller with a staffe in his hand The vnusualnesse of those reuelations in those corrupted times was such that Gideon might thinke of any thing rather then an Angell No maruell if so strange a promise from an vnknowne messenger found not a perfect assent Faine would hee beleeue but faine would hee haue good warrant for his faith In matters of faith we cannot goe vpon too sure grounds As Moses therefore being sent vpon the same errand desired a signe whereby Israel might know that God sent him So Gideon desires a signe from this bearer to know that his newes is from God Yet the very hope of so happy newes not yet ratified stirres vp in Gideon both ioy and thankfulnesse After all the iniury of the Midianites he was not so poore but hee could bestow a Kid cakes vpon the Reporter of such tidings Those which are rightly affected with the glad newes of our spirituall deliuerance studie to shew their louing respects to the messengers The Angell stayes for the repairing of Gideons feast Such pleasure doth God take in the thankfull indeuours of his seruants that he patiently waites vpon the leysure of our performances Gideon intended a dinner the Angell turned it into a sacrifice He whose meat and drinke it was to doe his Fathers will cals for the broth and flesh to be powred out vpon the stone And when Gideon lookt he should haue blessed and eaten he touches the feast with his staffe and consumes it with fire from the stone and departed He did not strike the stone with his staffe for the attrition of two hard bodies would naturally beget fire but he touched the meat and brought fire from the stone And now whiles Gideon saw and wondred at the spirituall act he lost the sight of the Agent He that came without intreating would not haue departed without taking leaue but that he might increase Gideons wonder and that his wonder might increase his faith His salutation therefore was not so strange as his farewell Moses touched the rocke with his staffe and brought forth water and yet a man and yet continued with the Israelites This messenger touches the stone with his staffe and brings forth fire and presently vanishes that he may approue himselfe a spirit And now Gideon when head had gathered vp himselfe must needs thinke He that can raise fire out of a stone can raise courage and power out of my dead breast He that by this fire hath consumed the broth and flesh can by the feeble flame of
made to bee seene he ouerlookes all Israel in height of stature for presage of the eminence of his estate from the shoulders vpward was he higher then any of the people Israel sees their lots are falne vpon a noted man one whose person shewed he was borne to be a King and now all the people shout for ioy they haue their longing and applaud their owne happinesse and their Kings honour How easie is it for vs to mistake our owne estates to reioyce in that which we shall find the iust cause of our humiliation The end of a thing is better then the beginning the safest way is to reserue our ioy till wee haue good proofe of the worthinesse and fitnesse of the obiect What are wee the better for hauing a blessing if we know not how to vse it The office and obseruance of a King was vncowth to Israel Samuel therefore informes the people of their mutuall duties and writes them in a booke and layes it vp before the Lord otherwise nouelty might haue beene a warrant for their ignorance and ignorance for neglect There are reciprocall respects of Princes and people which if they be not obserued gouernment languisheth into confusion these Samuel faithfully teacheth them Though he may not be their iudge yet he will be their Prophet he will instruct if he may not rule yea he will instruct him that shall rule There is no King absolute but he that is the King of all gods Earthly Monarchs must walke by a rule which if they transgresse they shall be accountable to him that is higher then the highest who hath deputed them Not out of care of ciuility so much as conscience must euery Samuel labour to keepe eauen termes betwixt Kings and Subiects prescribing iust moderation to the one to the other obedience and loyalty which who euer endeauors to trouble is none of the friends of God or his Church The most and best applaud their new King some wicked ones despised him and said How shall he saue vs It was not the might of his Parents the goodlinesse of his person the priuiledge of his lot the fame of his prophesying the Panegyricke of Samuel that could shield him from contempt or winne him the hearts of all There was neuer yet any man to whom some tooke not exceptions It is not possible either to please or displease all men while some men are in loue with vice as deeply as others with vertue and some as ill dislike vertue if not for it selfe yet for contradiction They well saw Saul chose not himselfe they saw him worthy to haue beene chosen if the Election should haue beene carried by voices and those voyces by their eyes they saw him vnwilling to hold or yeeld when hee was chosen yet they will enuy him What fault could they find in him whom God had chosen His parentage was equall his person aboue them his inward parts more aboue them then the outward Malecontents will rather deuise then want causes of flying out and rather then faile the vniuersall approbation of others is ground enough of their dislike It is a vaine ambition of those that would be loued of all The Spirit of God when he enioynes vs peace with all he addes if it be possible and fauour is more then peace A mans comfort must be in himselfe the conscience of deseruing well The neighbouring Ammonites could not but haue heard of Gods fearfull vengeance vpon the Philistims and yet they will be taking vp the quarrell against Israel Nahash comes vp against Iabesh Gilead Nothing but grace can teach vs to make vse of others iudgements wicked men are not moued with ought that fals beside them they trust nothing but their owne smart What fearfull iudgements doth God execute euery day resolute sinners take no notice of them and are growne so peremptorie as if God had neuer shewed dislike of their wayes The Gileadites were not more base then Nahash the Ammonite was cruell The Gileadites would buy their peace with seruility Nahash would sell them a seruile peace for their right eyes Iephtha the Gileadite did yet sticke in the stomacke of Ammon and now they thinke their reuenge cannot be too bloody It is a wonder that hee which would offer so mercilesse a condition to Israel would yeeld to the motion of any delay Hee meant nothing but shame and death to the Israelites yet hee condescends to a seuen dayes respit Perhaps his confidence made him thus carelesse Howsoeuer it was the restraint of God that gaue this breath to Israel and this opportunity to Sauls courage and victory The enemies of Gods Church cannot bee so malicious as they would cannot approue themselues so malicious as they are God so holds them in sometimes that a stander-by would thinke them fauourable The newes of Gileads distresse had soone filled and afflicted Israel the people thinke of no remedie but their pittie and teares Euils are easily grieued for not easily redressed Onely Saul is more stirred with indignation then sorrow That GOD which put into him a spirit of prophesie now puts into him a spirit of fortitude Hee was before appointed to the Throne not setled in the Throne he followed the beasts in the field when he should haue commanded men Now as one that would be a King no lesse by merit then election he takes vpon him and performes the rescue of Gilead he assembles Israel he leads them he raiseth the siege breakes the troops cuts the throats of the Ammonites When God hath any exploit to performe he raiseth vp the heart of some chosen Instrument with heroicall motions for the atchieuement When all hearts are cold and dead it is a a signe of intended destruction This day hath made Saul a compleat King and now the thankfull Israelites begin to enquire after those discontented Mutiners which had refused allegeance vnto so worthy a Commander Bring those men that we may slay them This sedition had deserued death though Saul had beene foiled at Gilead but now his happy victorie whets the people much more to a desire of this iust execution Saul to whom the iniurie was done hinders the reuenge There shall no man dye this day for to day the Lord hath saued Israel that his fortitude might not goe beyond his mercy How noble were these beginnings of Saul His Prophesie shewed him miraculously wise his Battell and Victory no lesse valiant his pardon of his Rebels as mercifull There was not more power shewed in ouercomming the Ammonites then in ouercomming himselfe and the impotent malice of these mutinous Israelites Now Israel sees they haue a King that can both shed blood and spare it that can shed the Ammonites blood and spare theirs His mercy winnes those hearts whom his valour could not As in God so in his Deputies Mercy and Iustice should be inseparable wheresoeuer these two goe asunder gouernment followes them into distraction and ends in ruine If it had beene a wrong offered to Samuel the
call for the blood of the Gibeonites though drudges of Israel and a remnant of Amorites Why this There was a periury attending vpon this slaughter It was an ancient Oath wherein the Princes of the congregation had bound themselues vpon Ioshua's league to the Gibeonites that they would suffer them to liue an oath extorted by fraud but solemne by no lesse â—â—me then the Lord God of Israel Saul will now thus late either not acknowledge it or not keepe it out of his zeale therefore to the children of Israel and Iudah he roots â—ut some of the Gibeonites whether in a zeale of reuenge of their first imposture or in a zeale of inlarging the possessions of Israel or in a zeale of executing Gods charge vpon the brood of Canaanites he that spared Agag whom he should haue smitten smites the Gibeonites whom he should haue spared Zeale and good intention is no excuse much lesse a warrant for euill God holds it an high indignitie that his name should be sworne by and violated Length of time cannot dispense with our oathes with our vowes The vowes and oathes of others may binde vs how much more our owne There was a famine in Israel a naturall man would haue ascribed it vnto the drought and that drought perhaps to some constellations Dauid knowes to looke higher and sees a diuine hand scourging Israel for some great offence and ouer-ruling those second causes to his most iust executions Euen the most quick-sighted worldling is pore-blind to 〈◊〉 all obiects and the weakest eyes of the regenerate pierce the heauens and espy God in all earthly occurrences So well was Dauid acquainted with Gods proceedings that he knew the remouall of the iudgement must begin at the satisfaction of the wronged At once therefore doth he pray vnto God and treat with the Gibeonites What shall I doe for you and wherewith shall I make the atonement that I may blesse the inheritance of the Lord In vaine should Dauid though a Prophet blesse Israel at the Gibeonites did not 〈…〉 lesse them Iniuries done vs on earth giue vs power in heauen The oppressor is in no mans mercy but his whom he hath trampled vpon Little did the Gibeonites thinke that God had so taken to heart their wrongs that for their sakes all Israel should suffer Euen when we thinke not of it is the righteous Iudge auenging our vnrighteous vexations Our hard measures cannot bee hid from him his returnes are hid from vs It is sufficient for vs that God can bee no more neglectiue then ignorant of our sufferings It is now in the power of these despised Hiuites to make their owne termes with Israel Neither Siluer nor Gold will sauour with them towards their satisfaction Nothing can expiate the blood of their fathers but the blood of seuen sonnes of their deceased persecutor Here was no other then a iust retaliation Saul had punished in them the offence of their predecessors they will now reuenge Sauls sinne in his children The measure we mete vnto others is with much equity re-measured vnto our selues Euery death would not content them of Sauls sonnes but a cursed and ignominious hanging on the Tree Neither would that death content them vnlesse their owne hands might bee the executioners Neither would any place serue for the execution but Gibeah the Court of Saul neither would they doe any of this for the wreaking of their own fury but for the appeasing of Gods wrath We will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul Dauid might not refuse the condition Hee must deliuer they must execute Hee chooses out seuen of the sonnes and grand-children of Saul That house had raised long an vniust persecution against Dauid now God payes it vpon anothers score Dauids loue and oath to Ionathan preserues lame Mephibosheth How much more shall the Father of all mercies doe good vnto the children of the faithfull for the couenant made with their Parents The fiue sonnes of Adriel the Meholathite Dauids ancient riuall in his first loue which were borne to him by Merab Sauls Daughter and brought vp by her barren sister Michol the wife of Dauid are yeelded vp to death Merab was after a promise of mariage to Dauid vniustly giuen away by Saul to Adriel Michol seemes to abet the match in breeding the children now in one act nor of Dauids seeking the wrong is thus late auenged vpon Saul Adriel Merab Michol the children It is a dangerous matter to offer iniury to any of Gods faithfull ones If their meeknesse haue easily remitted it their God will not passe it ouer without a seuere retribution These fiue together with two sonnes of Rizpah Sauls Concubine are hanged vp at once before the Lord yea and before the eyes of the World No place but an Hill wil serue for this execution The acts of iustice as they are intended for example so they should be done in that eminent fashion that may make them both most instructiue and most terrifying Vnwarrantable courses of priuate reuenge seeke to hide their heads in secresie The beautifull face of iustice both affects the light and becomes it It was the generall charge of Gods Law that no corps should remaine all night vpon the gibbet The Almighty hath power to dispense with his owne command so doubtlesse he did in this extraordinary case these carkasses did not defile but expiate Sorrowfull Rizpah spreads her a Tent of Sackcloth vpon the Rocke for a sad attendance vpon those sonnes of her wombe Death might bereaue her of them not them of her loue This spectacle was not more grieuous to her then pleasing to God and happy to Israel Now the clouds drop â—â—messe and the earth runs forth into plenty The Gibeonites are satisfied God reconciled Israel relieued How blessed a thing it is for any Nation that iustice is vnpartially executed euen vpon the mighty A few drops of blood haue procured large showres from Heauen A few carkasses are a rich compost to the earth The drought and dearth remoue away with the breath of those pledges of the offender Iudgements cannot tyrannize where iustice raignes as contrarily there can be no peace where blood cryes vnheard vnregarded The numbring of the people ISrael was growne wanton and mutinous God puls them downe first by the sword then by famine now by pestilence Oh the wondrous yet iust wayes of the Almightie Because Israel hath sinned therefore Dauid shall sinne that Israel may be punished Because God is angry with Israel therefore Dauid shall anger him more and strike himselfe in Israel and Israel through himselfe The spirit of God elsewhere ascribes this motion to Satan which here it attributes to God Both had their hand in the worke God by permission Satan by suggestion God as a Iudge Satan as an enemy God as in a iust punishment for sinne Satan as in an act of sinne God in a wise ordination of it to good Satan in a malicious intent of confusion Thus at once
our pride and false confidence in earthly things then with a fleshly criâ—â— though hainously seconded It was an hard and wofull choise of three yeares famine added to three fore-past or of three moneths flight from the sword of an enemie or three dayes pestilence The Almighty that had fore-determined his iudgement referres it to Dauids will as fully as if it were vtterly vndetermined God hath resolued yet Dauid may choose That infinite wisdome hath foreseene the very will of his creature which whiles it freely inclines it selfe to what it had rather vnwittingly wils that which was fore appointed in heauen We doe well beleeue thee O Dauid that thou wert in a wonderfull strait this very liberty is no other then fetters Thou needst not haue famine thou needst not haue the sword thou needst not haue pestilence one of them thou must haue There is misery in all there is misery in any thou and thy people can die but once and once they must dye either by famine warre or pestilence Oh God how vainely doe we hope to passe ouer our sinnes with impunitie when all the fauour that Dauid and Israel can receiue is to choose their bane Yet behold neither sinnes nor threats nor feares can bereaue a true penitent of his faith Let vs fall now into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great There can bee no euill of punishment wherein God haue not an hand there could be no famine no sword without him but some euils are more immediate from a diuine stroke such was that plague into which Dauid is vnwillingly willing to fall He had his choyce of dayes moneths yeares in the same number and though the shortnesse of time prefixed to the threatned pestilence might seeme to offer some aduantage for the leading of his election yet God meant and Dauid knew it herein to proportion the difference of time to the violence of the plague neither should any fewer perish by so few dayes pestilence then by so many yeares famine The wealthiest might auoid the dearth the swiftest might runne away from the sword no man could promise himselfe safety from that pestilence In likelihood Gods Angell would rather strike the most guilty Howeuer therefore Dauid might well looke to be inwrapped in the common destruction yet he rather chooseth to fall into that mercy which hee had abused and to suffer from that iustice which he had prouoked Let vs now fall into the hands of the Lord. Humble confessions and deuout penance cannot alwayes auert temporall iudgements Gods Angell is abroad and within that short compasse of time sweepes away seuenty thousand Israelites Dauid was proud of the number of his subiects now they are abated that he may see cause of humiliation in the matter of his glory In what we haue offended we commonly smart These thousands of Israel were not so innocent that they should onely perish for Dauids sinne Their sinnes were the motiues both of this sinne and punishment besides the respect of Dauids offence they die for themselues It was no ordinarie pestilence that was thus suddenly and vniuersally mortall Common eyes saw the botch and the markes saw not the Angell Dauids clearer sight hath espyed him after that killing peragration through the Tribes of Israel shaking his sword ouer Ierusalem and houering ouer Mount Sion and now hee who doubtlesse had spent those three dismall dayes in the saddest contrition humbly casts himselfe downe at the feet of the auenger and layes himselfe ready for the fatall stroke of iustice It was more terrour that God intended in the visible shape of his Angell and deepeâ— humiliation and what he meant he wrought Neuer soule could be more deiected more anguished with the sense of a iudgement in the bitternesse whereof hee cryes out Behold I haue sinned yea I haue done wickedly But these Sheepe what haue they done Let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house The better any man is the more sensible he is of his owne wretchednesse Many of those Sheepe were Wolues to Dauid What had they done They had done that which was the occasion of Dauids sinne and the cause of their owne punishment But that gracious penitent knew his owne sinne he knew not theirs and therefore can say I haue sinned What haue they done It is safe accusing where wee may be boldest and are best acquainted our selues Oh the admirable charitie of Dauid that would haue ingrossed the plague to himselfe and his house from the rest of Israel and sues to interpose himselfe betwixt his people and the vengeance He that had put himselfe vpon the pawes of the Beare and Lyon for the rescue of his Sheepe will now cast himselfe vpon the sword of the Angell for the preseruation of Israel There was hope in those conflicts in this yeeldance there could be nothing but death Thus didst thou O sonne of Dauid the true and great Shepheard of thy Church offer thy selfe to death for them who had their hands in thy blood who both procured thy death and deserued their owne Here he offered himselfe that had sinned for those whom he professed to haue not done euill thou that didst no sinne vouchsauest to offer thy selfe for vs that were all sinne Hee offered and escaped thou offeredst and diedst and by thy death we liue and are freed from euerlasting destruction But O Father of all mercies how little pleasure doest thou take in the blood of sinners it was thine owne pitie that inhibited the Destroyer Ere Dauid could see the Angell thou hadst restrained him It is sufficient hold now thy hand If thy compassion did not both with-hold and abridge thy iudgements what place were there for vs out of hell How easie and iust had it beene for God to haue made the shutting vp of that third euening red with blood his goodnes repents of the slaughter and cals for that Sacrifice wherewith he will be appeased An Altar must be built in the threshing floore of Araunah the Iebusite Lo in that very Hill where the Angell held the sword of Abraham from killing his Sonne doth God now hold the Sword of the Angel from killing his people Vpon this very ground shall the Temple after stand heere shall be the holy Altar which shall send vp the acceptable oblations of Gods people in succeeding generations O God what was the threshing-floore of a Iebusite to thee aboue all other soyles What vertue what merit was in this earth As in places so in persons it is not to bee heeded what they are but what thou wilt That is worthiest which thou pleasest to accept Rich and bountifull Araunah is ready to meet Dauid in so holy a motion and munificently offers his Sion for the place his Oxen for the Sacrifice his Carts Ploughs and other Vtensils of his Husbandry for the wood Two franke hearts are well met Dauid would buy Araunah would giue The Iebusite would not sell Dauid will not take Since it was for
a basket and goe a masked pilgrimage to Shiloh Oh the fondnes of vaine men that thinke to iuggle with the Almighty to hide their counsels from that all-seeing eye If this change of habit were necessary at Bethel yet what needs it at Shiloh though shee would hide her face from her subiects yet why should she not pull off her muffler and shew her selfe to the Prophet Certainly what policy began guiltinesse must continue Well might she thinke there can bee no good answer expected of the wife of Ieroboam my presence will doe no lesse then sollicit a reproofe No prophet can speake well to the consort of a founder of Idolatry I may perhaps heare good as another though as my selfe I can looke for nothing but tidings of euill Wicked hearts know they deserue ill at Gods hands and therefore they doe all they can to auoid the eyes of his displeased iustice and if they cannot doe it by colours of dissimulation they will doe it by imploration of shelter they shall say to the Rocks Fall on vs and couer vs. But oh the grosse folly mixt with the craft of wickednesse could Ieroboam think that the Prophet could know the euent of his sons disease did he think that he could not know the disguise of his Wife the one was present the other future this was but wrapt in a clout that euent was wrapt vp in the counsell of God Yet this politike head presumes that the greater shall be reuealed where the lesser shall be hid There was neuer wicked man that was not infatuate and in nothing more then in those things wherein he hoped most to transcend the reach of others Ahijah shunning the iniquity of the times was retired to a solitarie corner of Shiloh no place could be too priuate for an honest Prophet in so extreme deprauednesse Yet euen there doth the King of Israel take notice of his reclusion sends his wife to that poore cell laden with presents presents that dissembled their bearer had she offered iewels or gold her greatnesse had bin suspected now she brings loaues and cracknels and honey her hand answers her backe She giues as she seemes not as she is Something she must giue euen when she acts the poorest client The Prophets of God were not wont to haue empty visitations they who hated bribes yet refused not tokens of gratitude Yea the God of heauen who neither needs our goods nor is capable of our gratifications yet would haue no man to come to him gift-lesse Woe to those sacrilegious hands that in stead of bringing to the Prophets carie from them Ieroboam was a bad man yet as he had a towardly son so he had an obedient wife else she had not wanted excuses to turne off both the iourney and the disguise against the disguise she had pleaded the vnbeseemingnesse for her person and state against the iourney the perils of so long and solitarie a walk perhaps a Lion might be in the way the Lion that tore the Prophet in pieces perhaps robbers or if not they perhaps her chastity might be in danger an vnguarded solitarinesse in the weaker fexe might bee a prouocation to some forced vncleannesse she casts off all these shifting proiections of feare according to the will of her husband she changes her raiment she sets vpon the iourney and ouercomes it What needed this disguise to an old Prophet whose dim eyes were set with age All cloathes all faces were alike to a blind Seer The visions of Ahijah were inward neither was his bodily sight more dusky then the eyes of his minde were cleare piercing It was not the common light of men whereby he saw but diuine illumination things absent things future were no lesse obuious to those spirituall beames then present things are to vs Ere the quick eyes of that great Lady can discerne him he hath espied her and so soone as hee heares the sound of her feet shee heares from him the sound of her name Come in thou Wife of Ieroboam How God laughes in heauen at the friuolous fetches of crafty politicians and when they thinke themselues most sure shames them with a detection with a defeat What an idlenesse it is for foolish Hypocrites to hope they can dance in a net vnseene of heauen Neuer before was this Queene troubled to heare of her selfe now shee is her very name strucke her with astonishment and prepares her for the assured horrour of following iudgements I am sent to thee with heauy tidings Goe tell Ieroboam Thus saith the Lord God of Israel Could this Lady lesse wonder at the mercy of this stile of God then tremble at the sequel of his iustice Lo Israel had forsaken God yet God stil ownes Israel Israel had gone a whoring yet God hath not diuorced her Oh the infinit goodnes of our long-suffering God whom our foulest sins cannot rob of his compassions By how much dearer Israel was to God so much more odious is Ieroboam that hath marred Israel Terrible is that vengeance which God thunders against him by his Prophet whose passionate message vpbraids him with his promotions chargeth him with his sinnes and lastly denounceth his iudgements No mouth was fitter to cast this royalty in the teeth of Ieroboam then that by which it was first foretold fore-promised Euery circumstance of the aduancement aggrauates the sin I exalted thee Thou couldest not rise to honour alone I exalted thee from among the people not from the Peeres thy ranke was but common before this rise I exalted thee from among the people to be a Prince subordinate height was not enough for thee no seat would serue thee but a throne Yea to be a Prince of my people Israel No Nation was for thee but my chosen one none but my royall inheritance Neither did I raise thee into a vacant throne a forlorne and forsaken Principality might be thanklesse but I rent the Kingdome away from another for thy sake yea from what other but the grand child of Dauid out of his hands did I wrest the Scepter to giue it into thine Oh what high fauours doth God sometimes cast away vpon vnworthy subiects How doe his abused bounties double both their sinne and iudgement The sinne of this Prince were no lesse eminent then his obligations therefore his iudgements shall bee no lesse eminent then his sinnes How bitterly doth God expresse that which shall be more bitter in the execution Behold I will bring euill vpon the house of Ieroboam and will cut off from Ieroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut vp and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Ieroboam as a man taketh away dung till it be all gone Him that dieth of Ieroboam in the Citie shall the dogs eate and him that dieth in the field shall the fowles of the aire eat Oh heauy load that this disguised Princesse must carie to her Husband but because these euils
to a liking to a forbearance of his misdeuotion Yea so much the more doth the heart of Asa rise against these puppets for that they were the sinne the shame of his father Did there want thinke we some Courtier of his Fathers retinue to say Sir fauour the memorie of him that begot you you cannot demolish these statues without the dishonour of their Erector Hide your dislike at the least It will bee your glory to lay your finger vpon this blot of your fathers reputation If you list not to allow his act yet winke at it The godly zeale of Asa turnes the deafe eare to these monitors and lets them see that hee doth not more honor a father then hate an Idol No dearenesse of person should take off the edge of our detestation of the sinne Nature is worthy of forgetfulnesse and contempt in opposition to the God of Nature Vpon the same ground as hee remoued the Idols of his father Abijam so for Idols he remoued his Grand-mother Maachah shee would not be remoued from her obscene Idols shee is therefore remoued from the station of her honor That Princesse had aged both in her regency and superstition Vnder her rod was Asa bruought vp and schooled in the rudiments of her Idolatry whom she could not infect she hoped to ouer-awe so as if Asa will not follow her gods yet she presumes that shee may retaine her owne Doubtlesse no meanes were neglected for her reclamation none would preuaile Religious Asa gathers vp himselfe and begins to remember that he is a King though a sonne that she though a mother yet is a subiect that her eminence could not but countenance Idolatry that her greatnesse suppressed religion which hee should in vaine hope to reforme whiles her superstition swayed forgetting therefore the challenges of nature the awe of infancy the custome of reuerence hee strips her of that command which hee saw preiudiciall to his Maker All respects of flesh and blood must be trampled on for God Could that long-setled Idolatry want abettors Questionlesse some or other would say This was the religion of your father Abijam this of your Grand-father Rehoboam this of the latter daies of your wise and great Grand-father Salomon this of your Grand-mother Maachah this of your great Grand-mother Naamah why should it not be yours Why should you suspect either the wisdome or piety or saluation of so many Predecessors Good Asa had learned to contemne prescription against a direct law He had the grace to know it was no measuring truth by so modeme antiquity his eyes scorning to looke so low raise vp themselues to the vncorrupt times of Salomon to Dauid to Samuel to the Iudges to Ioshua to Moses to the Patriarks to Noah to the religious founders of the first world to the first father of mankinde to Paradise to heauen In comparison of these Maachahs God cannot ouerlooke yesterday the ancientest error is but a nouice to Truth And if neuer any example could be pleaded for puritie of religion it is enough that the precept is expresse He knew what God said in Sinai and wrote in the Tables Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any grauen image nor any similitude Thou shalt not bow downe to them nor worship them If all the world had beene an Idolater euer since that word was giuen hee knew how little that precedent could auaile for disobedience Practice must bee corrected by law and not the law yeeld to practice Maachah therefoe goes downe from her seat her Idols from their groue shee to retirednesse they to the fire and from thence to the water Wofull deities that could both burne and drowne Neither did the zeale of Asa more magnifie it selfe in these priuatiue acts of weeding out the corruptions of Religion then in the positiue acts of an holy plantation In the falling of those Idolatrous shrines the Temple of God flourishes That doth he furnish with those sacred treasures which were dedicated by himselfe by the Progenitors Like the true sonne of Dauid hee would not serue God cost-free Rehoboam turned Salomons gold into brasse Asa turnes Rehoboams brasse into gold Some of these vessels it seemes Abijam Asaes father had dedicated to God but after his vow inquired yea with held them Asa like a good sonne payes his fathers debts and his owne It is a good signe of a well-meant deuotion when wee can abide it chargeable as contrarily in the affaires of God a niggardly hand argues a cold and hollow heart All these were noble and excellent acts the extirpation of Sodomie the demolition of Idols the remouall of Maachah the bountious contribution to the Temple but that which giues true life vnto all these is a sound root Asaes heart was perfect with the Lord all his dayes No lesse laudable workes then these haue proceeded from Hypocrisie which whiles they haue caried away applause from men haue lost their thankes with God All Asaes gold was but drosse to his pure intentions But oh what great and many infirmities may consist with vprightnesse What allayes of imperfection will there be found in the most refined soule Foure no small faults are found in true-hearted Asa First the high-places stood still vnremoued What high places There were some dedicated to the worship of false gods these Asa tooke away There were some misdeuoted to the worship of the true God these hee lets stand There was grosse Idolatry in the former there was a weake will-worship in the latter whiles hee opposes impietie hee winkes at mistakings yet euen the varietie of altars was forbidden by an expresse charge from God who had confined his seruice to the Temple With one breath doth God report both these The high-places were not remoued yet neuerthelesse Asaes heart was perfit God will not see weakenesses where he sees truth How pleasing a thing is sinceritie that in fauour thereof the mercy of our iust God digests many an errour Oh God let our hearts goe vpright though our feet slide the fall cannot through thy grace be deadly howeuer it may shame or paine vs. Besides to confront his riuall of Israel Baasha this religious King of Iudah fetches in Benhadad the King of Syria into Gods inheritance vpon too deare a rate the breach of his league the expilation of the Temple All the wealth wherewith Asa had endowed the House of the Lord was little enough to 〈◊〉 an Edomite to betray his fidelitie and to inuade Israel Leagues may bee made with Infidels not at such a price vpon such tearmes There can bee no warrant for a wilfull subornation of perfidiousnesse In these cases of outward things the mercy of God dispenceth with our true necessities not with the affected O Asa where was thy piety whiles thou robbest God to corrupt an Infidell for the daughter of Israelites O Princes where is your pietie whiles yee hire Turkes to the slaughter of Christians to the spoile of Gods Church Yet which was worse Asa doth not onely imploy the
still and command amongst his cups To defile their fingers with the blood of so few seemed no mastery that act would bee inglorious on the part of the Victors More easily might they bring in three heads of dead enemies then one aliue Imperiously enough therefore doth this boaster out of his chaire of state and ease command Whether they be come out for peace take them aliue or whether they be come out for warre take them aliue There needs no more but Take them this field is won with a word Oh the vaine and ignorant presumptions of wretched men that will be reckoning without against their Maker Euery Israelite kils his man the Syrians flee and cannot runne away from death Benhadad and his Kings are more beholden to their horses then to their gods or themselues for life and safety else they had been either taken or slaine by those whom they commanded to be taken How easie is it for him that made the heart to fill it with terror and consternation euen where no feare is Those whom God hath destin'd to slaughter he will smite neither needs he any other enemy or executioner then what he findes in their owne bosome We are not the masters of our owne courage or feares both are put into vs by that ouer-ruling power that created vs Stay now O stay thou great King of Syria and take with thee those forgotten handfuls of the dust of Israel Thy gods will doe so to thee and more also if thy followers returne without their vowed burden Learne now of the despised King of Israel from henceforth not to sound the triumph before the battell not to boast thy selfe in the girding on of thine harnesse as in the putting off I heare not of either the publike thanksgiuing or amendment of Ahab Neither danger nor victory can change him from himselfe Benhadad and he though enemies agree in vnrepentance the one is no more moued with mercy then the other with iudgement Neither is God any changeling in his proceedings towards both his iudgement shall still follow the Syrian his mercy Israel Mercy both in fore-warning and redeliuering Ahab Iudgement in ouerthrowing Benhadad The Prophet of God comes againe and both foretels the intended re-encounter of the Syrian and aduises the care and preparation of Israel Goe strengthen thy selfe and marke and see what thou doest for at the returne of the yeare the King of Syria will come vp against thee God purposeth the deliuerance of Israel yet may not they neglect their fortifications The mercifull intentions of God towards them may not make them carelesse The industry and courage of the Israelites fall within the decree of their victory Security is the bane of good successe It is no contemning of a foyled enemie the shame of a former disgrace and miscariage whets his valor and sharpens it to reuenge No power is so dreadfull as that which is recollected from an ouerthrow The hostility against the Israel of God may sleepe but will hardly die If the Aramites sit still it is but till they be fully ready for an assault Time will shew that their cessation was onely for their aduantage neither is it otherwise with our spirituall aduersaries sometimes their onsets are intermitted they tempt not alwaies they alwaies hate vs their forbearance is not out of fauour but attendance of opportunitie happy are wee if out of a suspicion of their silence we can as busily prepare for their resistance as they doe for our impugnation As it is a shame to bee beaten so yet the shame is lesse by how much the victor is greater to mitigate the griefe and indignation of Benhadads foile his parasites ascribe it to gods not to men an humane power could no more haue vanquish't him then a diuine power could by him be resisted Their gods are gods of the hils Ignorant Syrians that name gods and confine them varying their deities according to situations They saw that Samaria whence they were repelled stood vpon the hill of Shemer They saw the Temple of Ierusalem stood vpon mount Sion they knew it vsuall with the Israelites to sacrifice in their high places and perhaps they had heard of Elijahs altar vpon mount Carmel and now they sottishly measure the effects of the power by the place of the worship as if he that was omnipotent on the hill were impotent in the Valley What doltish conceits doth blinde Paganisme frame to it selfe of a God-head As they haue many gods so finite euery region euery hill euery dale euery streame hath their seuerall gods and each so knowes his owne bounds that he dares not offer to incroach vpon the other or if he doe abuyes it with losse Who would thinke that so grosse blockishnesse should finde harbour in a reasonable soule A man doth not alter with his station He that wrestled strongly vpon the hill loseth not his force in the plaine all places finde him alike actiue alike valorous yet these barbarous Aramites shame not to imagine that of God which they would blush to affirme of their owne champions Superstition infatuates the heart out of measure neither is there any fancy so absurd or monstrous which credulous infidelity is not ready to entertaine with applause In how high scorne doth God take it to bee thus basely vnder-valued by rude heathen This very mis-opinion concerning the God of Israel shall cost the Syrians a shamefull and perfect destruction They may call a Counsell of War and lay their heads together and change their Kings into Captaines and their hills into valleyes but they shall finde more graues in the plaines then in the mountaines This very mes-prison of God shall make Ahab though he were more lewd victorious An hundred thousand Syrians shall fall in one day by those few hands of Israel And a dead wall in Aphek to whose shelter they fled shall reuenge God vpon the rest that remained The stones in the wall shall rather turne executioners then a blasphemous Aramite shall escape vnreuenged So much doth the iealous God hate to be robd of his glory euen by ignorant Pagans whose tongue might seeme no slander That proud head of Benhadad that spoke such big words of the dust of Israel and swore by his gods that hee would kill and conquer is now glad to hide it selfe in a blinde hole of Aphek and now in stead of questioning the power of the God of Israel is glad to heare of the mercy of the Kings of Israel Behold now wee haue heard that the Kings of the house of Israel are mercifull Kings Let vs I pray thee put sack-cloth on our loines and ropes on our heads and goe out to the King of Israel peraduenture he will saue thy life There can bee no more powerfull attractiue of humble submission then the intimation and conceit of mercy Wee doe at once feare and hate the inexorable This is it O Lord that allures vs to thy throne of grace the knowledge of the grace of that throne
Christian how shamefully is this latter vice especially growne vpon vs with time we knew it once in our ordinarie speech appropriated to beggers now gallants fight for it This beastlinesse had wont be bashful now it is impudent once children were wont to shout at a drunkard as some foule wonder now not to be drunke is quarrell enough among men among friends Those knees that we were wont to bow to the God of Heauen are now bent to Bacchus in a paganish bestiall diuellish deuotion To leaue the title of Christians for shame let vs be either men or beasts My speech hastens to their holy and wise strictnesse of cariage wherein I can neuer complaine enough of our inequality They hated the presence the fire the fashion the bookes of a Gentile of a Samaritane neither was there any hatred lost on the Samaritans part In aquam se cum vestibus immergunt vbi contigerent aliquem ex alia gente 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Epiph. for if he had but toucht a Iew he would haue throwne himselfe into the water clothes and all both of them equally sicke of a Noli me tangere Touch me not for I am holier Esay 65. Our Romish Samaritanes haunt our tables our closets our eares we frowne not we dislike not We match conuerse conferre consult with them carelesly as if it were come to the old stay of that indifferent Apelles in Eusebius Sat est credere in crucifixum but that which I most lament and yee Fathers and Brethren if my voyce may reach to any whom it concerneth in the bowels of Christ let me boldly tho most vnworthy moue your wisdomes your care to redresse it Our young students the hope of posterity newly crept out of the shell of Philosophy spend their first houres in the great Doctors of popish controuersies Bellarmine is next to Aristotle yea our very vngrounded Artizans young Gentlemen fraile Women buy read trauerse promiscuously the dangerous Writings of our subtilest Iesuites What is the issue Many of them haue taken poison ere they know what milke is and when they haue once tasted this bane they must drinke die Oh what pitty what vexation is it to a true heart to see vs thus rob'd of our hopes them of their soules I haue heard yea I haue seene and enuied the cautelous seuerity of our Aduersaries which vpon the deepest paines forbid the sale yea the sight of those Authors which they terme infectious where was euer Caluin publikely bought in one of their Church-yards where euer read without licence without security I censure not this as the peculiar fault of this place would God this open remissenesse were not a common euill and had not spred it selfe wide thorow all those Churches that are gone out of Babylon Barthol Brixensis Let no man tell mee of the distinction of that old Canonist Some things saith he we reade lest they should bee neglected as the Bible some lest they should be vnknowne as Arts and Philosophie some that they may bee reiected as Hereticall bookes True But let them read that can reiect that can confute we distrust not our cause but their weake iudgements A good Apothecarie can make a good medicine of a strong poison must children therefore be allowed that box I know how vnworthy I am to aduise onely I throw downe my selfe at your feet and beseech you that our losses and their examples may make vs no lesse wise in our generation Matth. 23.13 I follow the comparison They paid tithes of all they had not a pot-hearbe but they tithed it Heare this ye sacrilegious Patrons the merchants of soules the Pirats of the Church the enemies of religion they tithed al you nothing they paid to their Leuites your Leuites must pay to you Your cures must bee purchased your tithes abated or compounded for O the shame of Religion How too iustly may I vsurpe of you that of Seneca Petie sacrileges are punished while great ones ride in triumph Neuer excuse it with pretence of Ceremonie Moses neuer gaue so strict a charge for this as Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communicate all thy goods with thy Teacher Gal. 6.6 All with an emphasis Welfare yet the honest Pharises whose rule was Decima vt diues fias Tithe and be rich If euer thou be the fatter for this grauell or the richer with that thou stealest from God let me come to beg at thy doore Woe to you spirituall robbers Our blinde fore-fathers clothed the Church you despoile it their ignorant deuotion shall rise in iudgement against your rauening couetousnesse If robbery simonie periurie will not carry you to hell hope still that you may bee saued They gaue plentifull almes to the poore we in stead of filling their bellies grinde their faces What excellent Lawes had we lately enacted that there should be no begger in Israel Let our streets wayes hedges witnesse the execution Thy liberality relieues some poore It is well But hath not thy oppression made more Thy vsury extorting racking inclosing hath wounded whole Villages and now thou befriendest two or three with the plaisters of thy bounty The mercies of the wicked are cruell They were precise in their Sabbath we so loose in our as if God had no day See whether our Tauerns streets hie-wayes descry any great difference These things I vowed in my selfe to reproue if too bitterly as you thinke pardon I beseech you this holy impatience and blame the foulenes of these vices not my iust vehemency And you Christian hearers than which no name can be dearer be perswaded to ransacke your secure hearts and if there be any of you whose awaked conscience strikes him for these sinnes and places him below these Iewes in this vnrighteousnesse if you wish or care to be saued thinke it high time as you would euer hope for entrance into Gods kingdom to strike your selues on the thigh and with amazement and indignation to say What haue I done to abandon your wicked courses to resolue to vow to striue vnto a Christian and conscionable reformation Paul a Pharise Phil. 6.3 was according to the righteousnes of the Law vnreproueable yet if Paul had not gone from Gamaliels feet to CHRISTS he had neuer beene saued Vnreproueable and yet reiected Alas my brethren what shal become of our gluttony drunkennesse pride oppression bribing cousenages adulteries blasphemies and our selues for them God and men reproue vs for these what shall become of vs If the ciuilly righteous shall not be saued where shall the notorious sinner appeare A Christian below a Iew For shame where are we where is our emulation Heauen is our goale we all runne loe the Scribes and Pharises are before thee what safety can it be to come short of those that come short of heauen Except your righteousnesse c. You haue seene these Scribes and Pharises their righteousnesse and our vnrighteousnesse See now with like patience their vnrighteousnesse that was and
it is euen too little for God what doe we thinke of taking an Inmate into this cottage It is a fauour and happinesse that the God of glorie will vouchsafe to dwell in it alone Euen so O God take thou vp these roomes for thy selfe and inlarge them for the entertainment of thy Spirit Haue thou vs wholly and let vs haue thee Let the world serue it selfe O let vs serue thee with all our hearts God hath set the heart on worke to feare the hands on worke to serue him now that nothing may bee wanting he sets the head on worke to consider and that not so much the iudgements of God yet those are of singular vse and may not be forgotten as his mercies What great things hee hath done for you not against you Hee that looked vpon his owne works and saw they were good and delighted in them delights that we should looke vpon them too and applaud his wisdome power and mercie that shines in them Euen the least of Gods works are worthie of the obseruation of the greatest Angell in heauen but the magnalia Dei the great things he hath done are more worthie of our wonder of our astonishment Great things indeed that hee did for Israel he meant to make that Nation a precedent of mercie that all the world might see what he could doe for a people Heauen and earth conspired to blesse them What should I speake of the wonders of Aegypt Surely I know not whether their preseruation in it or deliuerance out of it were more miraculous Did they want a guide Himselfe goes before them in fire Did they want a shelter His cloud is spred ouer them for a couering Did they want way The sea it selfe shall make it and bee at once a street and a wall to them Did they want bread Heauen it selfe shall powre downe food of Angels Did they want meat to their bread The wind shall bring them whole drifts of Quailes into their Tents Doe they want drinke to both The verie Rocke shall yeeld it them Doe they want suits of apparell Their verie clothes shall not wax old on their backs Doe they want aduice God himselfe shall giue his vocall Oracle betweene the Cherubins Doe they want a Law God shall come downe vpon Sinai and deliuer it in fire thundring smoke earth-quakes and write it with his owne finger in tables of stone Doe they want habitations God shall prouide them a land that flowes with milke and honie Are they persecuted God stands in fire betweene them and their harmes Are they stung to death The brazen Serpent shall cure them Are they resisted The walls of Iericho shall fall downe alone hailestones braine their enemies The Sunne shall stand still in heauen to see Ioshuahs reuenge and victorie Oh great and mightie things that God did for Israel And if any Nation vnder heauen could either parallel or second Israel in the fauours of God this poore little ILAND of ours is it The cloud of his protection hath couered vs. The bloud-red sea of persecution hath giuen way to vs and we are passed it dry-shod The true Manna from heauen is rained downe abundantly about our tents The water of life gusheth forth plenteously to vs The better law of the Gospell is giuen vs from heauen by the hands of his Sonne the walls of the spirituall Iericho are fallen downe before vs at the blast of the trumpets of God and cursed be he that goes about to build them vp againe Now therefore that we may come more close to the taske of this day Let me say to you as SAMVEL to his Israelites Consider with mee what great things the Lord hath done for vs and as one wisht that the enuious had eyes in euerie place so could I seriously wish that all which haue ill will at our Sion had their eares with me but one houre that if they belong not to God they might burst with Iudas which repine with Iudas at this seasonable cost of the precious oyntment of our praises If I should looke backe to the ancient mercies of God and shew you that this Kingdome though diuided from the world was one of the first that receiued the Gospell That it yeelded the first Christian Emperor that gaue peace and honour to the Church The first and greatest lights that shone forth in the darkest of Poperie to all the world and that it was the first kingdome that shooke Antichrist fully out of the saddle I might finde iust matter of praise and exultation but I will turne ouer no other Chronicles but your memorie This day alone hath matter enough of an eternall gratulation For this is the communis terminus wherein Gods fauours meet vpon our heads which therefore represents to vs both what we had and what we haue The one to our sense the other to our remembrance This day was both Queene ELIzABETHS Initium gloriae and King IAMES his Initium regni To her Natalitium salutis as the passion-dayes of the Martyrs were called of old and Natalis Imperij to him These two names shew vs happinesse enough to take vp our hearts for euer And first why should it not bee our perpetuall glorie and reioycing that wee were her subiects Oh blessed Queene the mother of this Nation the nurse of this Church the glorie of womanhood the enuie and example of forraine Nations the wonder of times how sweet and sacred shall thy memorie bee to all posterities How is thy name not Parables of the dust Iob 13.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Iewes speake not written in the earth as Ieremie speaks but in the liuing earth of all loyall hearts neuer to bee razed And though the foule mouthes of our Aduersaries sticke not to call her miseram foeminam as Pope Clement did nor to say of her as Euagrius sayes vncharitably of Iustinian the great Law-giuer ad supplicia iusto Dei iudicio apud inferos luenda profecta est Euagr. l. 5. c. 1. and those that durst bring her on the stage liuing bring her now dead as I haue heard by those that haue seene it into their processions like a tormented ghost attended with fiends and firebrands to the terrour of their ignorant beholders Yet as wee saw shee neuer prospered so well as when shee was most cursed by their Pius 5 so now wee hope she is rather so much more glorious in heauen by how much they are more malicious on earth These arrogant wretches that can at their pleasure fetch Salomon from heauen to hell and Traian and Falconella from hell to heauen Campian and Garnet from earth to heauen Queene Elizabeth from earth to hell shall finde one day that they haue mistaken the keyes and shall know what it is to iudge by being iudged In the meane time in spight of the gates of Rome Memoria iustae in benedictionibus To omit those vertues which were proper to her sex by which she deserued to bee the Queene of women
lies not in the place yet choyce must be made of those places which may be most helpe to our deuotion Perhaps that he might be in the eye of Israel The presence and sight of the Leader giues heart to the people neither doth any thing more moue the multitude then example A publike person cannot hide himselfe in the Valley but yet it becomes him best to shew himselfe vpon the Hill The hand of Moses must be raised but not emptie neither is it his owne Rod that he holds but Gods In the first meeting of God with Moses the Rod was Moseses it is like for the vse of his trade now the proprietie is altered God hath so wrought by it that now he challenges it and Moses dare not call it his owne Those things which it pleases God to vse for his owne seruice are now changed in their condition The bread of the Sacrament was once the Bakers now it is Gods the water was once euery mans now it is the Lauer of Regeneration It is both vniust and vnsafe to hold those things common wherein God hath a peculiaritie At other times vpon occasion of the plagues and of the Quailes and of the Rocke he was commanded to take the Rod in his hand now he doth it vnbidden He doth it not now for miraculous operation but for incouragement For when the Israelites should cast vp their eyes to the Hill and see Moses and his Rod the man and the meanes that had wrought so powerfully for them they could not but take heart to themselues and thinke There is the man that deliuered vs from the Aegyptian Why not now from the Amalekite There is the Rod which turned waters to blood and brought varieties of plagues on Aegypt Why not now on Amalek Nothing can more hearten our faith then the view of the monuments of Gods fauour if euer we haue found any word or act of God cordiall to vs it is good to fetch it forth oft to the eye The renewing of our sense and remembrance makes euery gift of God perpetually beneficiall If Moses had receiued a command that Rod which fetcht water from the Rocke could as well haue fetcht the blood of the Amalekites out of their bodies God will not worke miracles alwayes neither must we expect them vnbidden Not as a Standard-bearer so much as a suppliant doth Moses lift vp his hand The gesture of the body should both expresse and further the piety of the soule This flesh of ours is not a good seruant vnlesse it helpe vs in the best offices The God of Spirits doth most respect the soule of our deuotion yet it is both vnmannerly and irreligious to be misgestured in our Prayers The carelesse and vncomely cariage of the body helpes both to signifie and make a prophane soule The hand and the Rod of Moses neuer moued in vaine Though the Rod did not strike Amalek as it had done the Rocke yet it smote Heauen and fetcht downe victorie And that the Israelites might see the hand of Moses had a greater stroke in the fight then all theirs The successe must rise and fall with it Amalek rose and Israel fell with his hand falling Amalek fell and Israel rises with his hand raised Oh the wondrous power of the prayers of faith All heauenly fauours are deriued to vs from this channell of grace To these are wee beholden for our peace preseruations and all the rich mercies of God which we enioy We could not want if we could aske Euery mans hand would not haue done this but the hand of a Moses A faithlesse man may as well hold his hand and tongue still hee may babble but prayes not hee prayes ineffectually and receiues not Onely the prayer of the Righteous auayleth much and onely the beleeuer is Righteous There can be no merit no recompence answerable to a good mans prayer for Heauen and the eare of God is open to him but the formall deuotions of an ignorant and faithlesse man are not worth that crust of bread which hee askes Yea it is presumption in himselfe how should it be beneficiall to others it prophanes the name of God in stead of adoring it But how iustly is the feruencie of the prayer added to the righteousnesse of the person When Moses hand slackned Amalek preuailed No Moses can haue his hand euer vp It is a title proper to God that his hands are stretched out still whether to mercy or vengeance Our infirmitie will not suffer any long intention either of bodie or minde Long prayers can hardly maintaine their vigour as in tall bodies the spirits are diffused The strongest hand will languish with long entending And when our deuotion tyres it is seene in the successe then straight our Amalek preuailes Spirituall wickednesses are mastered by vehement prayer and by heartlesnesse in prayer ouercome vs. Moses had two helpes A stone to sit on and an hand to raise his And his sitting and holpen hand is no whit lesse effectuall Euen in our prayers will God allow vs to respect our owne infirmities In cases of our necessity hee regards not the posture of body but the affections of the soule Doubtlesse Aaron and Hur did not onely raise their hands but their minds with his The more cords the easier draught Aaron was brother to Moses There cannot be a more brotherly office then to helpe one another in our prayers and to excite our mutuall deuotions No Christian may thinke it enough to pray alone Hee is no true Israelite that will not be ready to lift vp the weary hands of Gods Saints All Israel saw this or if they were so intent vpon the slaughter and spoyle that they obserued it not they might heare it after from Aaron and Hur yet this contents not God It must be written Many other miracles had God done before not one directly commanded to bee recorded The other were onely for the wonder this for the imitation of Gods people In things that must liue by report euerie tongue addes or detracts something The word once written is both inalterable and permanent As God is carefull to maintaine the glory of his miraculous victory so is Moses desirous to second him God by a booke and Moses by an Altar and a name God commands to enroule it in parchment Moses registers it in the stones of his Altar which he raises not onely for future memory but for present vse That hand which was weary of lifting vp straight offers a sacrifice of praise to God How well it becomes the iust to be thankfull Euen very nature teacheth vs men to abhorre ingratitude in small fauors How much lesse can that Fountaine of goodnesse abide to be laded at with vnthankfull hands O God we cannot but confesse our deliuerances where are our Altars where are our Sacrifices where is our Iehouanissi I doe not more wonder at thy power in preseruing vs then at thy mercy which is not weary of casting away fauours vpon the ingratefull
be brought to nothing and Atomes and dust is neerest to nothing that in stead of going before Israel it might passe thorow them so as the next day they might finde their god in their excrements To the iust shame of Israel when they should see their new god cannot defend himselfe from being either nothing or worse Who can but wonder to see a multitude of so many hundred thousands when Moses came running downe the Hill to turne their eyes from their god to him And on a sudden in stead of worshipping their Idoll to batter it in pieces in the very height of the noueltie In stead of building Altars and kindling fires to it to kindle an hotter fire then that wherewith it was melted to consume it In stead of dancing before it to abhorre and deface it in stead of singing to weepe before it There was neuer a more stiffe-necked people Yet I doe not heare any one man of them say He is but one man We are many how easily may we destroy him rather then hee our god If his brother durst not resist our motion in making it Why will we suffer him to dare resist the keeping of it It is our act and wee will maintaine it Here was none of this but an humble obeysance to the basest and bloodiest reuenge that Moses shall impose God hath set such an impression of Maiestie in the face of lawfull authoritie that wickednesse is confounded in it selfe to behold it If from hence visible powers were not more feared then the inuisible God the world would be ouer-runne with out-rage Sinne hath a guiltinesse in it selfe that when it is seasonably checked it puls in his head and seekes rather an hiding place then a fort The Idoll is not capable of a further reuenge It is not enough vnlesse the Idolaters smart The gold was good if the Israelites had not beene euill So great a sinne cannot be expiated without blood Behold that meeke spirit which in his plea with God would rather perish himselfe then Israel should perish armes the Leuites against their brethren and reioyces to see thousands of the Israelites bleed and blesses their executioners It was the mercy of Moses that made him cruell He had been cruell to all if some had not found him cruell They are mercilesse hands which are not sometimes imbrued in blood There is no lesse charitie then iustice in punishing sinners with death God delights no lesse in a killing mercy then in a pitifull iustice Some tender hearts would be ready to censure the rigour of Moses Might not Israel haue repented and liued Or if they must dye must their brethrens hand be vpon them Or if their throats must be cut by their brethren shall it be done in the very heat of their sinne But they must learne a difference betwixt pity and fondnesse mercy and vniustice Moses had an heart as soft as theirs but more hot as pitifull but wiser He was a good Physician and saw that Israel could not liue vnlesse he bled hee therefore le ts out this corrupt blood to saue the whole body There cannot bee a better sacrifice to God then the blood of Malefactors and this first sacrifice so pleased God in the hands of the Leuites that he would haue none but them sacrifice to him for euer The blood of the Idolatrous Israelites cleared that Tribe from the blood of the innocent Sichemites Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE The Vayle of Moses Nadab and Abihu Aaron and Miriam The Searchers of Canaan Corah's Conspiracie BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deaue of WORCESTER TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THOMAS LORD VISCOVNT FENTON CAPTAINE OF THE ROYALL GVARD ONE OF HIS MAIESTIES MOST HONOVRABLE PRIVY COVNSELLORS ONE OF THE HAPPY RESCVERS OF THE DEARE LIFE OF OVR GRACIOVS SOVERAIGNE LORD A WORTHY PATTERNE OF ALL TRVE HONOR I. H. DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS AND WISHETH ALL INCREASE OF GRACE AND HAPPINESSE Contemplations THE SIXTH BOOKE Of the Vaile of MOSES IT is a wonder that neither Moses nor any Israelite gathered vp the shiuers of the former Tables Euery sheard of that stone and euery letter of that writing had beene a Relike worth laying vp but he well saw how headlong the people were to Superstition and how vnsafe it were to feed that disposition in them The same zeale that burnt the Calfe to ashes concealed the ruines of this Monument Holy things besides their vse challenge no further respect The breaking of the Tables did as good as blot out all the Writings defaced left no vertue in the stone no reuerence to it If God had not beene friends with Israel he had not renewed his Law As the Israelites were wilfully blind if they did not see Gods anger in the Tables broken so could they not but hold it a good signe of grace that God gaue them his Testimonies There was nothing wherein Israel out-stripped all the rest of the world more then in this priuiledge the pledge of his Couenant the Law written with Gods owne hand Oh what a fauour then is it where God bestowes his Gospell vpon any Nation That was but a killing letter this is the power of God to saluation Neuer is God throughly displeased with any people where that continues For like as those which purposed loue when they fall off call for their tokens back againe So when God begins once perfectly to mislike the first thing he with-drawes is his Gospell Israel recouers this fauour but with an abatement Hew thee two Tables God made the first Tables The matter the forme was his now Moses must hew the next As God created the first man after his owne Image but that once defaced Adam begat Cain after his owne Or as the first Temple razed a second was built yet so far short that the Israelites wept at the sight of it The first workes of God are still the purest those that he secondarily works by vs decline in their perfection It was reason that though God had forgotten Israel they should still find they had sinned They might see the footsteps of displeasure in the differences of the Agent When God had told Moses before I will not goe before Israel but my Angell shall lead them Moses so noted the difference that he rested not till God himselfe vndertooke their conduct So might the Israelites haue noted some remainders of offence whiles in stead of that which his owne hand did formerly make hee saith now Heâ— thee And yet these second Tables are kept reuerently in the Arke when the other lay mouldred in shiuers vpon Sinai like as the repaired repaired Image of God in our Regeneration is preserued perfited and layd vp at last safe in Heauen whereas the first Image of our created innocence is quite defaced so the second Temple had the glory of Christs exhibition though meaner in frame The mercifull respects of God are not tyed to glorious out-sides or the inward worthinesse of things or persons He hath chosen the weake
courses are quite contrary to the Commandements of God Vpon the act done God passed the sentence of restraining Moses with the rest from the promised Land Now he performes it Since that time Moses had many fauors from God All which could not reuerse this decreed castigation That euerlasting rule is grounded vpon the very essence of God I am Iehouah I change not Our purposes are as our selues fickle and incertaine His are certaine and immutable some things which he reueales he alters nothing that he hath decreed Besides the soule of Moses to the glory whereof God principally intended this change I finde him carefull of two things His Successor and his Body Moses moues for the one the other God doth vnasked He that was so tender ouer the welfare of Israel in his life would not staken his care in death He takes no thought for himselfe for hee knew how gainfull an exchange he must make All his care is for his charge Some enuious natures desire to be missed when they must goe and wish that the weakenesse or want of a successor may be the foyle of their memory and honour Moses is in a contrary disposition It sufficeth him not to find contentment in his owne happinesse vnlesse hee may haue an assurance that Israel shall prosper after him Carnall minds are all for themselues and make vse of gouernment onely for their owne aduantages But good hearts looke euer to the future good of the Church aboue their owne against their owne Moses did well to shew his good affection to his people but in his silence God would haue prouided for his owne He that called him from the sheepe of Iethro will not want a gouernour for his chosen to succeed him God hath fitted him whom he will choose Who can be more meet then he whose name whose experience whose graces might supply yea reuiue Moses to the people He that searched the Land before was fittest to guide Israel into it Hee that was indued with the Spirit of God was the fittest deputy for God He that abode still in the Tabernacle of Ohel-moed as Gods attendant was fittest to bee sent forth from him as his Lieutenant But oh the vnsearchable counsell of the Almighty Aged Caleb and all the Princes of Israel are past ouer and Ioshua the seruant of Moses is chosen to succeed his master The eye of God is not blinded either with gifts or with blood or with beauty or with strength but as in his eternall elections so in his temporary hee will haue mercy on whom he will And well doth Ioshua succeed Moses The very acts of God of old were allegories where the Law ends there the Sauiour begins we may see the Land of Promise in the Law Onely Iesus the Mediator of the New Testament can bring vs into it So was he a seruant of the Law that hee supplies all the defects of the Law to vs Hee hath taken possession of the promised Land for vs he shall cary vs from this Wildernesse to our rest It is no small happinesse to any state when their gouernours are chosen by worthinesse and such elections are euer from God whereas the intrusions of bribery and iniust fauour or violence as they make the Common-wealth miserable so they come from him which is the author of confusion Woe be to that state that suffers it woe be to that person that workes it for both of them haue sold themselues the one to seruitude the other to sinne I doe not heare Moses repine at Gods choyce and grudge that this Scepter of his is not hereditarie but he willingly layes hands vpon his seruant to consecrate him for his successor Ioshua was a good man yet he had some sparkes of Enuy for when Eldad and Medad prophesied he stomakt it My Lord Moses forbid them Hee that would not abide two of the Elders of Israel to prophecie how would hee haue allowed his seruant to sit in his throne What an example of meekenesse besides all the rest doth he here see in this last act of his master who without all murmuring resignes his chaire of State to his Page It is all one to a gracious heart whom God will please to aduance Emulation and discontentment are the affections of carnall mindes Humility goes euer with regeneration which teaches a man to thinke what euer honor be put vpon others I haue more then I am worthy of The same God that by the hands of his Angels caried vp the soule of Moses to his glory doth also by the hand of his Angels cary his body down into the velley of Moab to his sepulture Those hands which had taken the Law from him those eyes that had seene his presence those lips that had conferred so oft with him that face that did so shine with the beames of his glory may not be neglected when the soule is gone He that tooke charge of his birth and preseruation in the Reedes takes charge of his cariage out of the world The care of God ceaseth not ouer his owne either in death or after it How iustly do we take care of the comely burials of our friends when God himselfe giues vs this example If the ministery of man had beene vsed in this graue of Moses the place might haue been knowne to the Israelites but God purposely conceales this treasure both from Men and Deuils that so he might both crosse their curiosity and preuent their superstition If God had loued the adoration of his seruant relikes he could neuer haue had a fitter opportunity for this deuotion then in the body of Moses It is folly to place Religion in those things which God hides on purpose from vs It is not the property of the Almighty to restraine vs from good Yet that diuine hand which lockt vp this treasure and kept the key of it brought it forth afterwards glorious In the transfiguration this body which was hid in the valley of Moab appeared in the hill of Tabor that wee may know these bodies of ours are not lost but layd vp and shall as sure bee raised in glory as they are layd downe in corruption We know that when he shall appeare wee shall also appeare with him in Glory Contemplations THE EIGHTH BOOKE Rahab Jordan diuided The siege of Jericho Achan The Gibeonites BY IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO THE TRVLY NOBLE AND WORTHILY HONOVRED GENTLEMAN MASTER ROBERT HAY ONE OF THE ATTENDANTS OF HIS MAIESTIES BED-CHAMBER A SINCERE FRIEND OF VERTVE AND LOVER OF LEARNING J. H. WITH APPRECATION OF ALL HAPPINESSE DEDICATES THIS PART OF HIS MEDITATIONS Contemplations THE EIGHTH BOOKE Of RAHAB IOshua was one of those twelue searchers which were sent to view the Land of Canaan yet now he addresses two Spyes for a more particular Suruey Those twelue were onely to enquire of the generall condition of the people and Land these two finde out the best entrance into the next part of the Countrey and into their
that led them about in forty yeares iourney thorow the Wildernesse yet now leades them the neerest cut to Iericho He will not so much as seeke for a Foord for their passage but diuides the waters What a sight was this to their heathen aduersaries to see the waters make both a lane and a wall for Israel Their hearts could not choose but be broken to see the streames broken off for a way to their enemies I doe not see Ioshua hasting thorow this channell as if hee feared lest the Tide of Iordan should returne but as knowing that watery wall stronger then the wals of Iericho he paces slowly And lest this miracle should passe away with themselues he commands twelue stones to be taken out of the channell of Iordan by twelue selected men from euery Tribe which shall be pitched in Gilgal and twelue other stones to be set in the midst of Iordan where the feet of the Priests had stood with the Arke That so both land and water might testifie the miraculous way of Israel whiles it should bee said of the one These stones were fetcht out of the pauement of Iordan of the other There did the Arke rest whiles we walked dry-shod thorow the deepes of Iordan Of the one Iordan was once as dry as this Gilgal Of the other Those waues which drowne these stones had so drowned vs if the power of the Almighty had not restrained them Many a great worke had God done for Israel which was now forgotten Ioshua therefore wil haue monuments of Gods mercy that future Ages might be both witnesses and applauders of the great workes of their God Of the Siege of Jericho IOshua begins his warres vvith the Circumcision and Passeouer Hee knew that the way to keepe the blood of his people from shedding was to let out that Paganish blood of their vncircumcision The person must be in fauour ere the worke can hope to prosper His predecessor Moses had like to haue beene slaine for neglect of this Sacrament when hee went to call the people out of Egypt he iustly feares his owne safety if now he omit it vvhen they are brought into Canaan vve haue no right of inheritance in the spirituall Canaan the Church of God till vvee haue receiued the Sacrament of our matriculation So soone as our couenants are renued with our Creator wee may well looke for the vision of God for the assurance of victory What sure worke did the King of Iericho thinke he had made hee blocked vp the passages barred vp the gates defended the wals and did enough to keepe out a common enemy If we could doe but this to our spirituall aduersaries it were as impossible for vs to be surprised as for Iericho to be safe Me thinkes I see how they called their councell of warre debated of all meanes of defence gathered their forces trained their souldiours set strong guards to the gates and wals and now would perswade one another that vnlesse Israel could fly into their City the siege was vaine Vaine worldlings thinke their Rampiers and Barricadoes can keepe out the vengeance of God their blindnesse suffers them to looke no further then the means The Supreme hand of the Almighty comes not within the compasse of their feares Euery carnall heart is a Iericho shut vp God sets downe before it and displayes mercy and iudgement in sight of the wals thereof It hardens it selfe in a wilfull securitie and faith Tush I shall neuer be moued Yet their courage and feare fight together within their wals within their bosomes Their courage tels them of their owne strength their feare suggests the miraculous successe of this as they could not but thinke inchanted generation and now whiles they haue shut out their enemy they haue shut in their owne terror The most secure heart in the world hath some flashes of feare for it cannot but sometimes looke out of it selfe and see what it would not Rahab had notified that their hearts fainted and yet now their faces bewray nothing but resolution I know not whether the heart or the face of an hypocrite be more false and as each of them seekes to beguile the other so both of them agree to deceiue the beholders In the midst of laughter their heart is heauy who would not thinke him merry that laughs Yet their reioycing is but in the face who would not think a blasphemer or prophane man resolutely carelesse If thou hadst a window into his heart thou shouldest see him tormented vvith horrors of conscience Now the Israelites see those walled cities and towers whose height was reported to reach to heauen the fame whereof had so affrighted them ere they saw them and were ready doubtlesse to say in their distrust Which way shall wee scale these inuincible fortifications what ladders what engines shall we vse to so great worke God preuents their infidelity Behold I haue giuen Iericho into thine hand If their wals had their foundations laid in the center of the earth If the battlements had been so high built that an Eagle could not soare ouer them this is enough I haue giuen it thee For on whose earth haue they raised these castles Out of whose treasure did they digge those piles of stone Whence had they their strength and time to build Cannot he that gaue recall his owne O ye fooles of Iericho what if your wals be strong your men valiant your leaders skilfull your King wise when God hath said I haue giuen thee the Citie What can swords or speares doe against the Lord of Hosts Without him meanes can doe nothing how much lesse against him How vaine and idle is that reckoning wherein God is left out Had the Captaine of the Lords host drawne his sword for Iericho the gates might haue been opened Israel could no more haue entred then they can now be kept from entring when the wals were falne What courses soeuer we take for our safety it is good making God of our side Neither men nor deuils can hurt vs against him neither men nor Angels can secure vs from him There was neuer so strange a siege as this of Iericho Here was no mount raised no sword drawne no engine planted no Pioners vndermining Heere vvere trumpets sounded but no enemy seen Here were armed men but no stroke giuen They must vvalke and not fight seuen seueral dayes must they pace about the wals which they may not once look ouer to see what was within Doubtlesse the inhabitants of Iericho made themselues merry with this sight When they had stood six daies vpon their wals beheld none but a walking enemy What say they could Israel finde no walke to breathe them vvith but about our wals Haue they not trauelled enough in their forty yeares Pilgrimage but they must stretch their limmes in this circle Surely if their eyes were engines our wals could not stand wee see they are good footmen but when shall vve try their hands What doe these vaine men thinke
honor cannot be innocent Well might Ioshua haue proceeded to the execution of him whom God and his owne mouth accused but as one that thought no euidence could be too strong in a case that was capitall he sends to see whether there was as much truth in the confession as there was falshood in the stealth Magistrates and Iudges must pace slowly and sure in the punishment of offenders Presumptions are not ground enough for the sentence of death no not in some cases the confessions of the guilty It is no warrant for the Law to wrong a man that he hath before wronged himselfe There is lesse ill in sparing an offender then in punishing the innocent Who would not haue expected since the confession of Achan was ingenuous and his pillage still found entire that his life should haue beene pardoned But here was Confesse and die he had beene too long sicke of this disease to be recouered Had his confession beene speedy and free it had saued him How dangerous it is to suffer sin to lye fretting into the soule which if it were washt off betimes with our repentance could not kill vs. In mortall offences the course of humane iustice is not stayd by our penitence It is well for our soules that we haue repented but the lawes of men take not notice of our sorrow I know not whether the death or the teares of a malefactor be a better sight The censures of the Church are wip't off with weeping not the penalties of lawes Neither is Achan alone called forth to death but all his family all his substance The actor alone doth not smart with sacriledge all that concernes him is enwrapped in the iudgement Those that defile their hands with holy goods are enemies to their owne flesh and blood Gods first reuenges are so much the more fearefull because they must be exemplary Of the Gibeonites THe newes of Israels victory had flowne ouer all the Mountaines Valleys of Canaan and yet those Heathenish Kings and people are mustered together against them They might haue seene themselues in Iericho and Ai and haue well perceiued it was not an arme of flesh that they must resist yet they gather their forces and say Tush we shall speed better It is madnesse in a man not to be warned but to run vpon the point of those iudgments wherewith he sees others miscary and not to beleeue till he cannot recouer Our assent is purchased too late when we haue ouerstayed preuention and trust to that experience which wee cannot liue to redeeme Onely the Hiuites are wiser then their fellowes and will rather yeeld liue Their intelligence was not diuerse from the rest all had equally heard of the miraculous conduct and successe of Israel but their resolution was diuerse As Rahab saued her Family in the midst of Iericho so these foure cities preserued themselues in the midst of Canaan and both of them by beleeuing what God would doe The efficacy of Gods maruellous workes is not in the acts themselues but in our apprehension some are ouer come with those motiues which others haue contemned for weake Had these Gibeonites ioyned with the forces of all their neighbours they had perished in their common slaughter If they had not gone away by themselues death had met them It may haue more pleasure it cannot haue so much safety to follow the multitude If examples may lead vs the greatest part shuts out God vpon earth and is excluded from God else where Some few poore â—iuites yeeld to the Church of God and escape the condemnation of the world It is very like their neighbors flouted at this base submission of the Gibeonites and out of their termes of honour scorned to beg life of an enemy whiles they were out of the compasse of mercy but when the bodies of these proud Iebusites and Perizzites lay strewed vpon the earth and the Gibeonites suruiued whether was more worthy of scorne and insultation If the Gibeonites had stayed till Israel had besieged their Cities their yeeldance had been fruitlesse now they make an early peace and are preserued There is no wisdome in staying till a iudgement come home to vs the only way to auoid it is to meet it halfe way There is the same remedy of warre and of danger To prouoke an enemy in his owne borders is the best stay of inuasion and to sollicit God betimes in a manifest danger is the best antidote for death I commend their wisdome in seeking peace I doe not commend their falshood in the manner of seeking it who can looke for any better of Pagans But as the faith of Rahab is so rewarded that her lye is not punished so the fraud of these Gibeonites is not an equal match of their beliefe since the name of the Lord God of Israel brought them to this suit of peace Nothing is found fitter to deceiue Gods people then a counterfeit copy of age Here are old sacks old bottles old shooes old garments old bread The Israelites that had worne one suit forty yeares seemed new clad in comparison of them It is no new policie that Satan would beguile vs with a vaine colour of antiquity clothing falshood in rags Errors are neuer the elder for their patching Corruption can doe the same that time would doe we may make age as well as suffer it These Gibeonites did teare their bottles and shooes and clothes and made them naught that they might seeme old so doe the false patrons of new errors If we be caught with this Gibeonitish stratagem it is a signe we haue not consulted with God The sentence of death was gone out against all the inhabitants of Canaan These Hiuites acknowledge the truth and iudgements of God and yet seeke to escape by a league with Israel The generall denunciations of the vengeance of God enwrap all sinners Yet may we not despaire of mercy If the secret counsell of the Almightie had not designed these men to life Ioshua could not haue beene deceiued with their league In the generality there is no hope Let vs come in old rags of our vilenesse to the true Ioshua and make our truce with him we may liue yea we shall liue Some of the Israelites suspect the fraud and notwithstanding all their old garments and prouisions can say It may be thou dwellest amongst vs. If Ioshua had continued this doubt the Gibeonites had torne their bottles in vaine In cases and persons vnknowne it is safe not to be too credulous Charity it selfe will allow suspition where wee haue seene no cause to trust If these Hiuites had not put on new faces with their old clothes they had surely changed countenance when they heard this argument of the Israelites It may bee thou dwellest amongst vs how then can I make a league with thee They had perhaps hoped their submission would not haue been refused wheresoeuer they had dwelt but lest their neighbourhood might be a preiudice they come disguised
my fortitude consume Midian Gideon did not so much doubt before as now hee feared Wee that shall once liue with and be like the Angels in the estate of our impotency thinke we cannot see an Angell and liue Gideon was acknowledged for mighty in valour yet he trembles at the sight of an Angell Peter that durst draw his sword vpon Malchus and all the traine of Iudas yet feares when he thought he had seen a spirit Our naturall courage cannot beare vs out against spirituall obiects This Angell was homely and familiar taking vpon him for a time a resemblance of that flesh whereof he would afterwards take the substance yet euen the valiant Gideon quakes to haue seene him How awefull and glorious is the God of Angels when he will be seene in the state of heauen The Angell that departed for the wonder yet returnes for the comfort of Gideon It is not the wont of God to leaue his children in a maze but he brings them out in the same mercy which led them in and will magnifie his grace in the one no lesse then his power in the other Now Gideon growes acquainted with God and enterchanges pledges of familiaritie He builds an Altar to God and God conferres with him and as he vses where he loues imploys him His first taske must be to destroy the god of the Midianites then the Idolaters themselues Whiles Baals Altar and Groue stood in the hill of Ophrah Israel should in vaine hope to preuaile It is most iust with God that iudgement should continue with the sinne and no lesse mercy if it may remoue after it Wouldst thou faine be rid of any iudgement Inquire what false Altars and groues thou hast in thy heart downe with them first First must Baals Altar bee ruined ere Gods be built both may not stand together The true God will haue no society with Idols neither will allow it vs. I doe not heare him say That Altar and groue which were abused to Baal consecrate now to me but as one whose holy ielousie will abide no worship till there be no idolatry he first commands downe the monuments of superstition and then inioynes his owne seruice yet the wood of Baals groue must be vsed to burne a sacrifice vnto God When it was once cut downe Gods detestation and their danger ceased The good creatures of God that haue been profaned to Idolatry may in a change of their vse be imployed to the holy seruice of their Maker Though some Israelites were penitent vnder this humiliation yet still many of them persisted in their wonted Idolatry The very houshold of Gideons father were still Baalites and his neighbours of Ophrah were in the same sinne yea if his father had been free what did he with Baals groue and Altar He dares not therefore take his fathers seruants though hee tooke his bullocks but commands his owne The Master is best seen in the seruants Gideons seruants amongst the idolatrous retinue of Ioash are religious like their Master yet the misdeuotion of Ioash and the Ophrathites was not obstinate Ioash is easily perswaded by his sonne and easily perswades his neighbours how vnreasonable it is to plead for such a god as cannot speake for himselfe to reuenge his cause that could not defend himselfe Let Baal plead for himselfe One example of a resolute on set in a noted person may doe more good then a thousand seconds in the proceeding of an action Soone are all the Midianites in an vprore to lose their god They need not now bee biâ—den to muster themselues for reuenge He hath no Religion that can suffer an indignity offered to his God GIDEONS Preparation and victory OF all the instruments that God vsed in so great a worke I finde none so weake as Gideon who yet of all others was stiled valiant naturall valour may well stand with spirituall cowardise Before he knew that he spake with a God he might haue iust colours for his distrust but after God had approued his presence and almighty power by fetching fire out of the stone then to call for a watery signe of his promised deliuerance was no other then to powre water vpon the fire of the Spirit The former tryal God gaue vnwished this vpon Gideons choice and intreaty The former miracle was strong enough to carry Gideon thorow his first exploit of ruinating the idolatrous groue and Alter but now when he saw the swarme of the Midianites and Amalekites about his ears he calls for new ayde and not trusting to his Abiezrites and his other thousand of Israel hee runnes to God for a further assurance of victory The refuge was good but the manner of seeking it sauours of distrust There is nothing more easie then to be valiant when no perill appeareth but when euils assaile vs vpon vnequall tearmes it is hard and commendable Not to be dismayed If God had made that proclamation now which afterwards was commanded to be made by Gideon Let the timerous depart I doubt whether Israel had not wanted a Guide yet how willing is the Almighty to satisfie our weake desires What taskes is He content to be set by our infirmity The fleece must be wet and the ground dry the ground must be wet and the fleece dry Both are done that now Gideon may see whether he would make himselfe hard earth or yeelding wooll God could at pleasure distinguish betwixt him and the Midianites and powre downe either mercies or iudgement where he lists and that he was set on worke by that God which can command all the Elements and they obey him Fire Water Earth serue both him and when he will his And now when Gideon had this reciprocall proofe of his insuing successe he goes on as he well may harnessed with resolution and is seen in the head of his troupes and in the face of the Midianites If we cannot make vp the match with God when we haue our owne asking we are worthy to sit out Gideon had but thirty thousand souldiers at his heeles the Midianites couered all the valley like Grashoppers and now whiles the Israelites thinke We are too few God sayes The people are too many If the Israelites must haue looked for victory from their fingers they might well haue said The Midianites are too many for vs but that God whose thoughts and words are vnlike to mens sayes They are too many for me to giue the Midianites into their hands If humane strength were to be opposed there should haue needed an equality but now God meant to giue the victory his care is not how to get it but how to lose or blemish the glory of it gotten How iealous God is of his honour Hee is willing to giue deliuerance to Israel but the praise of the deliuerance he will keepe to himselfe and will shorten the meanes that he may haue the full measure of the glory And if he will not allow lawfull meanes to stand in the light of his honour how will
he indure it to be crossed so much as indirectly It is lesse danger to steale any thing from God then his glory As a Prince which if we steale or clip his coyne may pardon it but if we goe about to rob him of his Crowne will not be appeased There is nothing that we can giue to God of whom wee receiue all things that which he is content to part with he giues vs but he will not abide we should take ought from him which he would reserue for himselfe It is all one with him to saue with many as with few but he rather chooses to saue by few that all the victory may redound to himself O God what art thou the better for our praises to whom because thou art infinite nothing can be added It is for our good that thou wouldst be magnified of vs Oh teach vs to receiue the beâ—â—fâ—t of they mercifull fauours and to returne thee the thanks Gideons Army must be lessened Who are so fit to be cashiered as the fearâ—◠〈◊〉 bids him therefore proclaime licence for all faint hearts to leaue the field An ill instrument may shame a good worke God will not glorifie himselfe by cowards As the timerous shall be without the gates of heauen so shall they be without the lists of Gods field Although it was not their courage that should saue Israel yet without their courage God would not serue himselfe of them Christianity requires men for if our spirituall difficulties meet not with high spirits in stead of whetting our fortitude 〈◊〉 quaile it Dauids royall Band of Worthies was the type of the forces of the Church all valiant men and able to incounter with thousands Neither must wee be strong onely but acquainted with our owne resolutions not out of any carnal presumption but out of a faithful reliance vpon the strength of God in whom when wee are weake then wee are strong Oh thou white liuer doth but a foule word or a frowne scarre thee from Christ Doth the losse of a little land oâ—â—â—uer disquiet thee Doth but the sight of the Midianites in the valley strike thee Home then home to the world thou art not then for the conquering Band of Christ If thou canst not resolue to follow him through infamy prisons racks iybbers flames depart to thine house and saue thy life to thy losse Me thinks now Israel should haue complained of indignity and haue said Why shouldst thou thinke O Gideon that there can be a cowardly Israelite And if the experience of the power and mercy of God be not enough to make vs fearelesse yet the sense of seruitude must needs haue made vs resolute for who had not rather to be buried dead then quicke Are we not fain to hide our heads in the caues of the earth and to make our graues our houses Not so much as the very light that we can freely inioy the tyrannie of death is but short and easie to this of Midian and yet what danger can there be of that sith thou hast so certainly assured vs of Gods promise of victory and his miraculous confirmation No Gideon those hearts that haue brought vs hither after thy colours can as well keepe vs from retiring But now who can but blesse himselfe to finde of two and thirty thousand Israelites two and twenty thousand cowards Yet al these in Gideons march made as faire affourish of courage as the boldest Who can trust the faces of men that sees in the Army of Israel aboue two for one timerous How many make a glorious shew in the warfaring Church which then they shall see danger of persecution shall shrinke from the Standard of God Hope of satifie examples of neighbours desire of praise feare of censures coaction of lawes fellowship of friends draw many into the field which so soone as euer they see the Aduersary repent of their conditions if they may cleanly escape wil be gone early from Mount Gilead Can any man be offended at the number of these shrinkers when he sees but ten thousand Israelites left of two and twenty thousand in one morning These men that would haue been ashamed to goe away by day now drop away by night And if Gideon should haue called any one of them backe and said Wilt thou flee would haue made an excuse The darknesse is a fit vaile for their palenesse or blushing fearefulnesse cannot abide the light None of these thousands of Israel but would haue been loth Gideon should haue seene his face whiles he said I am fearfull Very shame holds some in their station whose hearts are already fled And if we cannot endure that men should be witnesses of that feare which we might liue to correct how shall wee abide once to shew our fearefull heads before that terrible Iudge when he cals vs forth to the punishment of our feare Oh the vanity of foolish hypocrites that run vpon the terrors of God whiles they would auoid the shame of men How doe wee thinke the small remainder of Israel looked when in the next morning-muster they found themselues but ten thousand left How did they accuse their timerous Countreymen that had left but this handfull to encounter the millions of Midian and yet still God complaines of too many and vpon his triall dismisses nine thousand seuen hundred more His first triall was of the valour of their mindes his next is of the ability of their bodies Those which besides boldnesse are not strong patient of labour and thirst willing to stoope content with a little such were those that tooke vp water with their hand are not for the select band of God The Lord of Hosts wil serue himself of none but able Champions If he haue therfore singled vs into his combat this very choyce argues that he finds that strength in vs which we cannot confesse in our selues How can it but coÌ„fort vs in our great trials y if the Searcher of hearts did not finde vs fit he would neuer honour vs with so hard an imployment Now when there is not scarce left one Israelite to euery thousand of the Midianites it is seasonable with God to ioyne battell When God hath stripped vs of all our earthly confidence then doth he finde time to giue vs victory and not till then lest he should be a loser in our gaine like as at last he vnclothes vs for our body that he may cloath vs vpon with glory If Gideon feared when he had two and thirthy thousand Israelites at his heels is it any wonder if he feared when all these were shrunke into three hundred Though his confirmation were more yet his meanes were abated Why was not Gideon rather the Leader of those two and twenty thousand run-awayes then of these three hundred souldiers Oh infinite mercy and forbearance of God that takes not vantage of so strong an infirmity but in stead of casting encourages him That wise prouidence hath prepared a dreame in the head of one Midianite an
thankfulnesse vpon his returne There is no mention of their lamenting after the Lord while he was gone but when he was returned and setled in Kiriath-iearim The mercies of God draw more teares from his children then his iudgements doe from his enemies There is no better signe of good nature or grace then to be wonne to repentance with kindnesse Not to thinke of God except we be beaten vnto it is seruile Because God was come againe to Israel therefore Israel is returned to God If God had not come first they had neuer come If hee that came to them had not made them come to him they had beene euer parted They were cloyed with God while he was perpetually resident with them now that his absence had made him dainty they cleaue to him feruently and penitently in his returne This was it that God meant in his departure a better welcome at his comming backe I heard no newes of Samuel all this while the Arke was gone Now when the Arke is returned and placed in Kiriath-iearim I heare him treat with the people It is not like he was silent in this sad desertion of God but now he takes full aduantage of the professed contrition of Israel to deale with them effectually for their perfect conuersion vnto God It is great wisedome in spirituall matters to take occasion by the fore-locke and to strike while the iron is hot We may beat long enough at the doore but till God haue opened it is no going in and when he hath opened it is no delaying to enter The triall of sincerity is the abandoning of our wonted sinnes This Samuel vrgeth If ye be come againe vnto the Lord with all your heart put away the strange gods from among you and Ashtaroth In vaine had it beene to professe repentance whilst they continued in idolatry God will neuer acknowledge any conuert that stayes in a knowne sinne Graces and Vertues are so linckt together that hee which hath one hath all The partiall conuersion of men vnto God is but hatefull hypocrisie How happily effectuall is a word spoken in season Samuels exhortation wrought vpon the hearts of Israel and fetcht water out of their eyes suits and confessions and vowes out of their lips and their false gods out of their hands yet it was not meerly remorse but feare also that moued Israel to this humble submission The Philistims stood ouer them still and threatned them with new assaults the memory of their late slaughter and spoile was yet fresh in their minds sorrow for the euils past and feare of the future fetcht them downe vpon their knees It is not more necessary for men to be cheared with hopes then to bee awed with dangers where God intends the humiliation of his seruants there shal not want meanes of their deiection It was happy for Israel that they had an enemy Is it possible that the Philistims after those deadly plagues which they sustained from the God of Israel should think of inuading Israel those that were so mated with the presence of the Arke that they neuer thought themselues safe till it was out of fight doe they now dare to thrust themselues vpon the new reuenge of the Arke It slue them whiles they thought to honor it and doe they thinke to escape whilst they resist it It slue them in their owne Coasts and do they come to it to seeke death yet behold no sooner do the Philistims heare that the Israelites are gathered to Mizpeh but the Princes of the Philistims gather themselues against them No warnings will serue obdurate hearts wicked men are euen ambitious of destruction Iudgements need not to goe finde them out they runne to meet their bane The Philistims come vp and the Israelites feare they that had not the wit to feare whilst they were not friends with God haue not now the grace of fearlessenesse when they were reconciled to God Boldnesse and Feare are commonly misplaced in the best hearts when we should tremble we are confident and when wee should be assured we tremble Why should Israel haue feared since they had made their peace with the God of Hosts Nothing should affright those which are vpright with God The peace which Israel had made with God was true but tender They durst not trust their owne innocency so much as the prayers of Samuel Cease not to cry to the Lord our God for vs. In temporall things nothing hinders but we may fare better for other mens faith then for our owne It is no small happinesse to be interessed in them which are Fauourites in the Court of Heauen one faithfull man in these occasions is more worth then millions of the wauering and vncertaine A good heart is easily wonne to deuotion Samuel cries and sacrificeth to God he had done so though they had intreated his silence yea his forbearance Whiles he is offering the Philistims fight with Israel and God fights with the Philistims The Lord thundred with a great thunder that day vpon the Philistims and scattered them Samuel fought more vpon his knees then all Israel besides The voyce of God answered the voyce of Samuel and speakes confusion and death to the Philistims How were the proud Philistims dead with feare ere they dyed to heare the fearfull thunder claps of an angry God against them to see that Heauen it selfe fought against them He that slue them secretly in the reuenges of his Arke now kils them with open horror in the fields If presumption did not make wicked men mad they would neuer lift their hand against the Almightie what are they in his hands when he is disposed to vengeance The meeting of SAVL and SAMVEL SAMVEL began his acquaintance with God early and continued it long He began it in his long Coats and continued to his gray hayres He iudged Israel all the dayes of his life God doth not vse to put off his old Seruants their age indeareth them to him the more If wee be not vnfaithfull to him hee cannot be vnconstant to vs. At last his decayed age met with ill partners his Sonnes for Deputies and Saul for a King The wickednesse of his Sonnes gaue the occasion of a change Perhaps Israel had neuer thought of a King if Samuels Sonnes had not beene vnlike their Father Who can promise himselfe holy children when the loynes of a Samuel and the education in the Temple yeelded monsters It is not likely that good Samuel was faulty in that indulgence for which his owne mouth had denounced Gods iudgement against Hely yet this holy man succeds Hely in his crosse as well as his place though not in his sinne and is afflicted with a wicked succession God will let vs find that Grace is by gift not by inheritance I feare Samuel was too partiall to nature in the surrogation of his Sonnes I doe not heare of Gods allowance to this act If this had beene Gods choice as well as his it had beene like to haue receiued more
posteritie Happy is that childe whose progenitors are in heauen hee is left an inheritor of blessing together with estate whereas wicked ancestors lose the thanke of a rich patrimonie by the curse that attends it He that thinkes because punishment is deferd that God hath forgiuen or forgot his offence is vnacquainted with iustice and knowes not that time makes no difference in eternity The Amalekites were wicked Idolaters and therefore could not want many present sinnes which deserued their extirpation That God which had taken notice of all their offences picks out this one noted sinne of their forefathers for reuenge Amongst all their indignities this shall beare the name of their iudgement As in legall proceedings with malefactors one inditement found giues the stile of their condemnation In the liues of those which are notoriously wicked God cannot looke besides a sinne yet when he drawes to an execution he fastens his sentence vpon one euill as principall others as accessaries so as at the last one sinne which perhaps wee make no account of shall pay for all The paganish Idolatries of the Amalekites could not but bee greater sinnes to God then their hard measure to Israel yet God sets this vpon the file whiles the rest are not recorded Their superstitions might bee of ignorance this sinne was of malice Malicious wickednesses of all other as they are in greatest opposition to the goodnesse and mercy of God shall be sure of the paiment of greatest vengeance The detestation of God may be measured by his reuenge slay both man and woman both infant and suckling both Oxe and Sheepe Camell and Asse not themselues onely but euery thing that drew life either from them or for their vse must dye When the God of mercy speakes such bloody words the prouocation must needs be vehement sinnes of infirmitie doe but mutter spightfull sinnes cry loud for iudgement in the cares of God Prepensed malice in courts of humane iustice aggrauates the murther and sharpens the sentence of death What then was this sinne of Amalek that is called vnto this late reckoning What but their enuious and vnprouoked onsets vpon the backe of Israel this was it that God tooke so to heart as that hee not onely remembers it now by Samuel but hee bids Israel euer to remember it by Moses Remember how Amalek met thee by the way and smote the hindmost of you all that were feeble behinde thee when thou wast faint and weary Besides this did Amalek meet Israel in a pitcht battell openly in Rephidim for that God payed them in the present The hand of Moses lifted vp on the Hill slew them in the Valley He therefore repeats not that quarrell but the cowardly and cruell attempts vpon an impotent enemy sticke still in the stomacke of the Almighty Oppression and wrong vpon euen termes are not so hainous vnto God as those that are vpon manifest disaduantage In the one there is an hazard of returne In the other there is euer a tyrannous insultation God takes still the weaker part and will be sure therefore to plague them which seeke to put iniuries on the vnable to resist This sinne of Amalek slept all the time of the Iudges those gouernors were onely for rescue and defence now so soone as Israel hath a King and that King is setled in peace God giues charge to call them to account It was that which God had both threatned and sworne and now he chooses out a fit season for the execution As wee vse to say of winter the iudgements of God doe neuer rot in the skie but shall fall if late yet surely yet seasonably There is small comfort in the delay of vengeance whiles we are sure it shall lose nothing in the way by length of protraction The Kenites were the off-springs of Hobad or Iethro father in law to Moses the affinitie of him to whom Israel owed their deliuerance and being was worthy of respect but it was the mercy of that good and wise Midianite shewed vnto Israel in the wildernesse by his graue aduice cheerefull gratulation and aide which wonne this gratefull forbearance of his posterity He that is not lesse in mercy then in iustice as hee challenged Amaleks sinne of their succeeding generations so he deriues the recompence of Iethro's kindnesse vnto his far descended issue Those that were vnborne many ages after Iethro's death receiue life from his dust and fauour from his hospitalitie The name of their dead grandfather saues them from the common destruction of their neighbours The seruices of our loue to Gods children are neuer thanklesse when we are dead and rotten they shall liue and procure blessings to those which neuer knew perhaps not heard of their progenitors If we sow good workes succession shall reape them and we shall be happy in making them so The Kenites dwelt in the borders of Amalek but in tents as did their issue the Rechabites so as they might remoue with ease They are warned to shift their habitations lest they should perish with ill neighbours It is the manner of God first to separate before he iudge as a good husband weeds his come ere it bee ripe for the sickle and goes to the fanne ere he goe to the fire When the Kenites packe vp their fardels it is time to expect iudgement Why should not wee imitate God and separate our selues that we may not be iudged separate not one Kenite from another but euery Kenite from among the Amalekites else if we will needs liue with Amalek we cannot thinke much to dye with him The Kenites are no sooner remoued then Saul fals vpon the Amalekites Hee destroyes all the people but spares their King The charge of God was vniuersall for man and beast In the corruption of partialitie lightly the greatest escape Couetousnesse or mis-affection are commonly guiltie of the impunitie of those which are at once most eminent in dignitie and in offence It is a shamefull hypocrisie to make our commoditie the measure and rule of our execution of Gods command and vnder pretence of godlinesse to pretend gaine The vnprofitable vulgar must die Agag may yeelda rich ransome The leane and feeble cattle that would but spend stouer and die alone shall perish by the sword of Israel the best may stocke the grounds and furnish the markets O hypocrites did God send you for gaine or for reuenge Went you to be purueyors or executioners If you plead that all those wealthy herds had been but lost in a speedy death thinke yee that hee knew not this which commanded it Can that be lost which is deuoted to the will of the owner and Creator Or can ye thinke to gaine any thing by disobedience That man can neuer either do well or farewell which thinkes there can be more profit in any thing then in his obedience to his Maker Because Saul spared the best of the men the people spared the best of the cattle each is willing to fauour other in the
Samuel himselfe whiles hee was aliue could not haue spoken more grauely more seuerely more diuinely than this euill ghost For the Lord will rent thy Kingdome out of thy hand and giue it to thy neighbour Dauid because thou obeyedst not the voyce of the Lord not executedst his fierce wrath vpon the Amalekites therefore hath the Lord done this vnto thee this day When the Deuill himselfe puts on grauity and religion who can maruell at the hypocrisie of men Well may lewd men bee good Preachers when Satan himselfe can play the Prophet Where are those Ignorants that thinke charitably of charmes and spells because they finde nothing in them but good words What Prophet could speake better words than this Deuill in Samuels Mantle Neither is there at any time so much danger of that euill spirit as when hee speakes best I could wonder to heare Satan preach thus prophetically if I did not know that as hee was once a good Angell so hee can still act what hee was Whiles Saul was in consultation of sparing Agag wee shall neuer finde that Satan would lay any blocke in his way Yea then hee was a prompt Orator to induce him into that sinne now that it is past and gone hee can lade Saul with fearefull denunciations of iudgement Till wee haue sinned Satan is a parasite when wee haue sinned hee is a Tyrant What cares hee to flatter any more when hee hath what hee would Now his onely worke is to terrifie and confound that hee may enioy what he hath wonne How much better is it seruing that Master who when wee are most deiected with the conscience of euill heartens vs with inward comfort and speakes peace to the soule in the midst of tumult Ziklag spoyled and reuenged HAd not the King of the Philistims sent Dauid away early his Wiues and his people and substance which hee left at Ziklag had beene vtterly lost Now Achish did not more pleasure Dauid in his entertainment than in his dismission Saul was not Dauids enemy more in the persecution of his person than in the forbearance of Gods enemies Behold thus late doth Dauid feele the smart of Sauls sinne in sparing the Amalekites who if Gods sentence had beene duly executed had not now suruiued to annoy this parcell of Israel As in spirituall respects our sinnes are alwayes hurtfull to our selues so in temporall oft-times preiudiciall to posteritie A wicked man deserues ill of those hee neuer liued to see I cannot maruell at the Amalekites assault made vpon the Israelites of Ziklag I cannot but maruell at their clemencie how iust it was that while Dauid would giue aid to the enemies of the Church against Israel the enemies of the Church should rise against Dauid in his peculiar charge of Israel But whilst Dauid rouing against the Amalekites not many dayes before left neither man nor woman aliue how strange is it that the Amalekites inuading and surprizing Ziklag in reuenge kill neither man nor woman Shall wee say that mercy is fled from the brests of Israelites and rests in Heathens Or shall wee rather ascribe this to the gracious restraint of God who hauing designed Amalek to the slaughter of Israel and not Israel to the slaughter of Amalek moued the hand of Israel and held the hands of Amalek This was that alone that made the Heathens take vp with an vn-bloudy reuenge burning only the wâ—â—es and leading away the persons Israel crossed the reuealed will of God insparing Amalek Amalek fulfils the secret will of God in sparing Israel It was still the lot of Amalek to take Israel at all aduantages vpon their first comming out of Egypt when they were weary weake and vnarmed then did Amalek assault them And now when one part of Israel was in the field against the Philistians another was gone with the Philistims against Israel the Amalekites set vpon the Coasts of both and goes away laded with the spoile No other is to bee exspected of our spirituall Aduersaries who are euer readiest to assayle when wee are the vnreadiest to defend It was a wofull spectacle for Dauid and his Souldiers vpon their returne to find mines and ashes in stood of houses and in steed of their Families solitude Their Citie was vanished into smoke their housholds into captiuitie neither could they know whom to accuse or where to enquire for redresse whiles they made account that their home should recompence their tedious iourney with comfort the miserable desolation of their home doubles the discomfort of their iourney what remained there but teares and lamentations They lifted vp their voyces and wept till they could weepe no more Heere was plentie of nothing but misery and sorrow The heart of euery Israelite was brim full of griefe Dauids ranne ouer for besides that his crosse was the same with theirs all theirs was his alone each man looke on his fellow as a partner of affliction but euery one lookt vpon Dauid as the cause of all their affliction and as common displeasure is neuer but fruitfull of reuenge they all agree to stone him as the Author of their vndoing whom they followed all this while as the hopefull meanes of their aduacements Now Dauids losse is his least griefe neither as if euery thing had conspired to torment him can hee looke besides the aggrauation of his sorrow and danger Saul and his Souldiers had hunted him out of Israel the Philistim Courtiers had hunted him from the fauour of Achish the Amalekites spoyled him in Ziklag yet all these are easie aduersaries in comparison of his owne his owne followers are so far from pittying his participation of the losse that they are ready to kill him because they are miserable with him Oh the many and grieuous perplexities of the man after Gods owne heart If all his traine had ioyned their best helpes for the mitigation of his griefe their Cordials had beene too weake but now the vexation that arises from their fury and malice drowneth the sence of their losse and were enough to distract the most resolute heart why should it bee strange to vs that wee meete with hard tryalls when wee see the deare Annoynted of God thus plunged into euils What should the distressed sonne of Ishai now doe Whither should hee thinke to turne him to goe backe to Israel hee durst not to goe to Achish hee might not to abide amonst those waste heapes hee could not or if there might haue beene harbor in those burnt wals yet there could bee no safety to remayne with those mutinous spirits But Dauid comforted himselfe in the Lord his God oh happie and sure refuge of a faithfull soule The earth yeelded him nothing but matter of disconsolation and heauinesse hee lifts his eyes aboue the hils whence commeth his saluation It is no maruell that God remembreth Dauid in all his troubles since Dauid in all his troubles did thus remember his God hee knew that though no mortall eye of reason or sence could discerne any euasion
abasement Heroicall and that the onely way to true glory is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation vnto God Well might he promise himselfe honour from those whose contempt she had threatned The hearts of men are not their owne he that made them ouer-rules them and inclines them to an honourable conceit of those that honour their Maker So as holy men haue oft times inward reuerence euen where they haue outward indignities Dauid came to blesse his house Mical brings a curse vpon her selfe Her scornes shall make her childlesse to the day of her death Barrennesse was held in those times none of the least iudgements God doth so reuenge Dauids quarrell vpon Mical that her sudden disgrace shall be recompenced with perpetuall She shall not be held worthy to beare a sonne to him whom she vniustly contemned How iust is it with God to prouide whips for the backe of scorners It is no maruell if those that mocke at goodnesse be plagued with continuall fruitlesnesse MEPHIBOSHETH and ZIBA SO soone as euer Dauid can but breathe himselfe from the publike cares hee casts backe his thoughts to the deare remembrance of his Ionathan Sauls seruant is likely to giue him the best intelligence of Sauls sonnes The question is therefore moued to Ziba Remaineth there yet none of the house of Saul and lest suspition might conceale the remainders of an emulous liue in feare of reuenge intended he addes On whom I may shew the mercy of God for Ionathans sake O friendship worthy of the Monuments of Eternity fit only to requite him whose loue was more than the loue of women Hee doth not say Is there any of the house of Ionathan but of Saul that for his friends sake hee may shew fauour to the Posterity of his Persecutor Ionathans loue could not bee greater than Sauls malice which also suruiued long in his issue from whom Dauid found a busie and stubborne riualitie for the Crowne of Israel yet as one that gladly buried all the hostilitie of Sauls house in Ionathans graue hee askes Is there any man left of Sauls house that I may shew him mercie for Ionathans sake It is true loue that ouerliuing the person of a friend will bee inherited of his seed but to loue the posteritie of an enemie in a friend it is the miracle of friendship The formall amitie of the World is confined to a face or to the possibility of recompence languishing in the disabilitie and dying in the decease of the party affected That loue was euer false that is not euer constant and then most operatiue when it cannot be either knowne or requited To cut off all vnquiet competition for the Kingdome of Israel the prouidence of God had so ordered that there is none left of the house of Saul besides the sonnes of his Concubines saue only young and lame Mephihosheth so young that hee was but fiue yeeres of age when Dauid entred vpon the Gouernment of Israel so lame that if his age had fitted his impotence had made him vnfit for the Throne Mephibosheth was not borne a Cripple it was an heedlesse Nurse that made him so She hearing of the death of Saul and Ionathan made such haste to flee that her young Master was lamed with the fall Yw is there needed no such speed to runne away from Dauid whose loue pursues the hidden sonne of his brother Ionathan How often doth our ignorant mistaking cause vs to runne from our bestfriends and to catch knockes and maimes of them that professe our protection MEPHIBOSHETH could not come otherwise than fearefully into the presence of Dauid whom hee knew so long so spitefully opposed by the house of Saul hee could not bee ignorant that the fashion of the World is to build their owne security vpon the bloud of the opposite faction neither to thinke themselues safe whiles any branch remaines springing out of that root of their emulation Seasonably doth Dauid therefore first expell all those vniust doubts ere hee administer his further cordials Feare not for I will surely shew thee kindnesse for Ionathan thy fathers sake and will restore thee all the fields of Saul thy father and thou shalt eate bread at my table continually Dauid can see neither Sauls bloud nor lame legs in Mephibosheth whiles he sees in him the features of his friend Ionathan how much lesse shall the God of mercies regard our infirmities or the corrupt bloud of our sinfull Progenitors whiles he beholds vs in the face of his Sonne in whom he is well pleased Fauours are wont so much more to affect vs as they are lesse expected by vs Mephibosheth as ouer-ioyed with so comfortable a word and confounded in himselfe at the remembrance of the contrary-deseruings of his Family bowes himselfe to the earth and sayes What is thy seruant that thou shouldst looke vpon such a dead Dog as I am I find no defect of wit though of limmes in Mepihbesheth hee knew himselfe the Grand-childe of the King of Israel the sonne of Ionathan the lawfull heire of both yet in regard of his owne impotencie and the trespasse and reiection of his house hee thus abaseth himselfe vnto Dauid Humiliation is a right vse of Gods affliction What if hee were borne great If the sinne of his Grandfather hath lost his estate and the hand of his Nurse hath deformed and disabled his person hee now forgets what hee was and cals himselfe worse than hee is A Dogge Yet a liuing Dogge is better than a dead Lion there is dignity and comfort in life Mephibosheth is therefore a dead Dogge vnto Dauid It is not for vs to nourish the same spirits in our aduerse estate that wee found in our highest prosperitie What vse haue wee made of Gods hand if wee bee not the lower with ourfall God intends wee should carry our crosse not make a fire of it to warme vs It is no bearing vp our sayles in a tempest Good Dauid cannot dis-esteeme Mephibosheth euer the more for disparaging himselfe hee loues and honours this humilitie in the Sonne of Ionathan There is no more certaine way to glory and aduancement than a lowly deiection of our selues Hee that made himselfe a Dogge and therefore fit onely to lye vnder the table yea a dead Dogge and therefore fit onely for the ditch is raised vp to the table of a King his seat shall bee honourable yea royall his fare delicious his attendance noble How much more will our gracious God lift vp our heads vnto true honour before men and Angels if wee can bee sincerely humbled in his sight If wee miscall our selues in the meanenesse of our conceits to him hee giues vs a new name and sets vs at the Table of his glorie It is contrary with GOD and men if they reckon of vs as wee set our selues hee values vs according to our abasements Like a Prince truely munificent and faithfull Dauid promises and performes at once Ziba Sauls seruant hath the charge giuen him of
reiected as ill onely Hushaies was allowed for better he can liue no longer now that he is beaten at his owne weapon this alone is cause enough to saddle his Asse and to goe home and put the halter about his owne necke Pride causes men both to misinterpret disgraces and to ouer-rate them Now is Dauids prayer heard Achitophels counsell is turned into foolishnesse Desperate Achitophel what if thou be not the wisest man of all Israel Euen those that haue not attained to the hiest pitch of wisedome haue found contentment in a mediocrity what if thy counsell were despised A wise man knowes to liue happily in spight of an vniust contempt what madnesse is this to reuenge another mans reputation vpon thy selfe And whiles thou striuest for the highest roome of wisedome to runne into the grossest extremitie of folly Worldly wisedome is no protection from shame and ruine How easily may a man though naturally wise be made weary of life A little paine a little shame a little losse a small affront can soone rob a man of all comfort and cause his owne hands to rob him of himselfe If there were not higher respects then the world can yeeld to maintaine vs in being it should be a miracle if indignation did not kill more then disease now that God by whose appointment we liue here for his most wise and holy purposes hath found meanes to make life sweet and death terrible What a mixture doe we find here of wisedome and madnesse Achitophel will needs hang himselfe there is madnesse He will yet set his house in order there is an act of wisedome And could it be possible that hee who was so wise as to set his house in order should be so mad as to hang himselfe That he should bee carefull to order his house who regarded not to order his impotent passions That hee should care for his house who cared not for either body or soule How vaine it is for a man to be wise if he be not wise in God How preposterous are the cares of idle worldlings that preferre all other things to themselues and whiles they looke at what they haue in their cofers forget what they haue in their breasts The Death of ABSALOM THE same God that raised enmity to Dauid from his owne loynes procured him fauour from forainers Strangers shall releiue him whom his owne sonne persecutes Here is not a losse but an exchange of loue Had Absalom beene a sonne of Ammon and Shobi a sonne of Dauid Dauid had found no cause of complaint If God take with one hand he giues with another whiles that diuine bounty serues vs in good meat though not in our owne dishes we haue good reason to be thankfull No sooner is Dauid come to Mahanaim then Barzillai Machir and Shobi refresh him with prouisions Who euer saw any child of God left vtterly destitute Whosoeuer be the messenger of our aide we know whence he comes Heauen shall want power and earth meanes before any of the houshold of faith shall want maintenance He that formerly was forced to imploy his armes for his defence against a tyrannous father in law must now buckle them on against an vnnaturall sonne Now therefore he musters his men and ordaines his Commanders and marshalls his troupes and since their loyall importunity will not allow the hazard of his person he at once incourages them by his eye and restraines them with his tongue Deale gently with the yong man Absalom for my sake How vnreasonably fauourable are the warres of a father O holy Dauid what meanes this ill placed loue this vniust mercy Deale gently with a Traitor but of all traitors with a Sonne of all sonnes with an Absalom the gracelesse dareling of so good a father and all this for thy sake whose Crowne whose blood he hunts after For whose sake should Absalom be pursued if he must be forborne for thine He was still courteous to thy followers affable to sutors plausible to all Israel onely to thee he is cruell Wherefore are those armes if the cause of the quarrell must be a motiue of mercy Yet thou saist Deale gently with the yong man Absalom for my sake Euen in the holiest Parents nature may bee guilty of an iniurious tendernesse of a bloody indulgence Or whether shall we not rather thinke this was done in type of that vnmeasurable mercy of the true King and redeemer of Israel who prayed for his persecutors for his murderers and euen whiles they were at once scorning and killing him could say Father forgiue them for they know not what they doe If wee bee sonnes we are vngracious wee are rebellious yet still is our heauenly Father thus compassionately regardfull of vs Dauid was not sure of the successe there was great inequality in the number Absaloms forces were more then double to his It might haue come to the contrary issue that Dauid should haue beene forced to say Deale gently with the Father of Absalom but in a supposition of that victory which only the goodnesse of his cause bade him hope for hee saith Deale gently with the yong man Absalom As for vs we are neuer but vnder mercy our God needes no aduantages to sweepes vs from the earth any moment yet hee continues that life and those powers to vs whereby wee prouoke him and bids his Angels deale kindly with vs and beare vs in their armes whiles wee lift vp our hands and bend our tongues against heauen O mercie past the comprehension of all finite spirits and onely to be conceiued by him whose it is Neuer more resembled by any earthly affection then by this of his Deputy and Type Deale gently with the young man Absalom for my sake The battell is ioyned Dauids followers are but an handfull to Absaloms How easily may the fickle multitude bee transported to the wrong side What they wanted in abettors is supplied in the cause Vnnaturall ambition drawes the sword of Absalom Dauids a necessary and iust defence They that in simplicity of heart followed Absalom cannot in malice of heart persecute the father of Absalom with what courage could any Israelite draw his sword against a Dauid or on the other side who can want courage to fight for a righteous Soueraigne and father against the conspiracie of a wicked son The God of Hosts with whom it is all one to saue with many or with few takes part with iustice and lets Israel feele what it is to beare armes for a traiterous vsurper The sword deuours twenty thousand of them and the wood deuoures more then the sword It must needs be a very vniuersall rebellion wherein so many perished What vertue or merits can assure the hearts of the vulgar when so gracious a Prince finds so many reuolters Let no man looke to prosper by rebellion the very thickets and stakes and pits and wild beasts of the wood shall conspire to the punishment of traitors Amongst the rest see how a fatall Oke hath singled
the rest had ingaged it selfe in Shebaes sedition yet how â—ealously doth Ioab remoue from himselfe the suspition of an intended vastation How fearfull shall their answer be who vpon the quarrell of their owne ambition haue not spared to waste whole Tribes of the Israel of God It was not the fashion of Dauids Captaines to assault any City ere they summond it here they did There bee some things that in the very â—act carie their owne conuiction So did Abel in the entertaining and abetting a knowne conspirator Ioab challenges them for the offence and requires no other satisfaction then the head of Sheba This Matron had not deserued the name of Wise and faithfull in Israel if she had not both apprehended the iustice of the condition and commended it to her Citizens whom she hath easily perswaded to spare their owne heads in not sparing a Traitors It had been pitie those wals should haue stood if they had beene to hye to throw a Traitors head ouer Spiritually the case is ours Euery mans brest is as a City inclosed Euery sinne is a Traitor that lurkes within those wals God cals to vs for Shebaes head neither hath he any quarrell to our person but for our sinne If wee loue the head of our Traitor aboue the life of our soule wee shall iustly perish in the vengeance we cannot be more willing to part with our sinne then our mercifull God is to withdraw his iudgements Now is Ioab returned with successe and hopes by Shebaes head to pay the price of Amasaes blood Dauid hates the murder entertaines the man defers the reuenge Ioab had made himselfe so great so necessary that Dauid may neither misse nor punish him Policy led the King to conniue at that which his heart abhorred I dare not commend that wisedome which holds the hands of Princes from doing iustice Great men haue euer held it a point of worldly state not alwayes to pay vvhere they haue been conscious to a debt of either fauour or punishment but to make Time their seruant for both Salomon shall once defray the arerages of his father In the meane time Ioab commands and prospers and Dauid is faine to smile on that face whereon he hath in his secret destination written the characters of Death The Gibeonites reuenged THE raigne of Dauid was most troublesome towards the shutting vp wherein both warre and famine conspire to afflict him Almost forty yeares had he sate in the throne of Israel with competency if not abundance of all things now at last are his people visited with a long death we are not at first sensible of common euils Three yeares drought and scarcitie are gone ouer ere Dauid consults with God concerning the occasion of the iudgement now he found it high time to seeke the face of the Lord The continuance of an affliction sends vs to God and cals vpon vs to aske for a reckoning Whereas like men strucken in their sleepe a sudden blow cannot make vs to finde our selues but rather astonisheth then teacheth vs. Dauid was himselfe a Prophet of God yet had not the Lord all this while acquainted him with the grounds of his proceedings against Israel this secret was hid from him till hee consulted with the Vrim Ordinarie meanes shall reueale that to him which no vision had descryed And if God will haue Prophets to haue recourse vnto the Priests for the notice of his will how much more must the people Euen those that are the inwardest with God must haue vse of the Ephod Iustly is it presupposed by Dauid that there was neuer iudgement from God where hath not been a prouocation from men therefore when he sees the plague he inquires for the sinne Neuer man smarted causelessely from the hand of diuine iustice Oh that when we suffer we could aske what wee haue done and could guide our repentance to the root of our euils That God whose counsels are secret euen where his actions are open will not bee close to his Prophet to his Priest without inquirie we shall know nothing vpon inquirie nothing shall be concealed from vs that is fit for vs to know Who can choose but wonder at once both at Dauids slacknesse in consulting with God and Gods speed in answering so slow a demand He that so well knew the way to Gods Oracle suffers Israel to be three yeares pinched with famine ere hee askes why they suffer Euen the best hearts may be ouertaken with dulnesse in holy dâ—ties But oh the maruellous mercy of God that takes not the aduantage of our weaknesses Dauids question is not more slow then his answer is speedy It is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites Israel was full of sinnes besides those of Sauls house Sauls house was full of sinnes besides those of blood Much blood was shed by them besides that of the Gibeonites yet the iustice of God singles out this one sinne of violence offered to the Gibeonites contrary to the league made by Ioshua some foure hundred yeares before for the occasion of this late vengeance Where the causes of offence are infinite it is iust with God to pitch vpon some it is mercifull not to punish for all Welneer forty yeares are past betwixt the commission of the sinne and the reckoning for it It is a vaine hope that is raised from the delay of iudgement No time can be any preiudice to the ancient of dayes When wee haue forgotten our sins when the world hath forgotten vs he sues vs afresh for our arerages The slaughter of the Gibeonites was the sinne not of the present but rather the former generation and now posteritie payes for their forefathers Euen we men hold it not vniust to sue the heires and executors of our debters Eternall paiments God vses onely to require of the person temporarie oft-times of succession As Saul was higher by the head and shoulders then the rest of Israel both in stature and dignitie so were his sinnes more conspicuous then those of the vulgar The eminence of the person makes the offence more remarkable to the eyes both of God and men Neither Saul nor Israel were faultlesse in other kinds yet God fixes the eye of his reuenge vpon the massacre of the Gibeonites Euery sinne hath a tongue but that of blood ouer-cryes and drownes the rest Hee who is mercy it selfe abhorres crueltie in his creature aboue all other inordinatenesse That holy soule which was heauy pressed with the weight of an hainous adulterie yet cryes out Deliuer me from blood O God the God of my saluation and my tongue shall sing ioyfully of thy righteousnesse If God would take account of blood hee might haue entred the action vpon the blood of Vriah spilt by Dauid or if hee would rather insist in Sauls house vpon the blood of Abimelech the Priest and fourescore and fiue persons that did weare a linnen Ephod but it pleased the wisdome and iustice of the Almighty rather to
halfe was not told me Her eyes were more sure informers then her eares Shee did not so much heare as see Salomons wisedome in these reall effects His answers did not so much demonstrate it as his prudent gouernment There are some whose speeches are witty whiles their cariage is weake whose deeds are incongruities whiles their words are Apothegmes It is not worth the name of wisedome that may bee heard onely and not seene Good discourse is but the froth of wisedome the pure and solid substance of it is in well-framed actions if we know these things happy are we if we doe them And if this great person admired the wisedome the buildings the domesticke order of Salomon and chiefly his stately ascent into the House of the Lord how should our soules be taken vp with wonder at thee O thou true son of Dauid and Prince of euerlasting peace who receiuedst the spirit not by measure who hast built this glorious house not made with hands euen the heauen of heauens whose infinite prouidence hath sweetly disposed of all the family of thy creatures both in heauen and earth and who lastly didst ascend vp on high and ledst captiuitie captiue and gauest gifts to men So well had this studious Ladie profited by the Lectures of that exquisite Master that now she enuies shee magnifies none but them who may liue within the aire of Salomons wisedome Happy are thy men and happy are thy seruants which stand continually before thee and that beare thy wisedome As if she could haue beene content to haue changed her Throne for the footstoole of Salomon It is not easie to conceiue how great a blessing it is to liue vnder those lips which doe both preserue knowledge and vtter it If we were not glutted with good counsell we should finde no rellish in any worldly contentment in comparison hereof But he that is full despiseth an hony-combe She whom her owne experience had taught how happy a thing it is to haue a skilfull Pilote sitting at the sterne of the State blesseth Israel for Salomon blesseth God for Israel blesseth Salomon and Israel mutually in each other Blessed bee the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on the Throne of Israel Because the Lord loued Israel for euer therefore made he the King to doe iudgement and iustice It was not more Salomons aduancement to be King of Israel then it was the aduancement of Israel to be gouerned by a Salomon There is no earthly proofe of Gods loue to any Nation comparable to the substitution of a wise and pious gouernour to him wee owe our peace our life and which is deseruedly dearer the life of our soules the Gospell But oh God how much hast thou loued thine Israel for euer in that thou hast set ouer it that righteous Branch of Iesse whose name is Wonderfull Counsellor the mighty God the euerlasting Father the Prince of peace in whose dayes Iudah shall be saued and Israel shall dwell safely Sing O heauen and reioyce O earth and breake forth into singing O mountaines for God hath comforted his people and will haue euerlasting mercy vpon his afflicted The Queene of Sheba did not bring her gold and precious stones to looke on or to re-carie but to giue to a wealthier then her selfe She giues therefore to Salomon an hundred and twenty talents of gold besides costly stones and odours He that made siluer in Hierusalem as stones is yet richly presented on all hands The riuers still runne into the Sea To him that hath shall be giuen How should wee bring vnto thee O thou King of Heauen the purest gold of thine owne graces the sweetest odours of our obediences Was not this withall a type of that homage which should be done vnto thee O Sauiour by the heads of the Nations The Kings of Tarshish and the Iles bring presents the Kings of Sheba and Saba bring gifts yea all Kings shall worship thee all Nations shall serue thee They cannot enrich themselues but by giuing vnto thee It could not stand with Salomons magnificence to receiue rich courtesies without a returne The greater the person was the greater was the obligation of requitall The gifts of meane persons are taken but as tributes of duty it is dishonourable to take from equals and not to retribute there was not therefore more freedome in her gift then in her receit Her own will was the measure of both She gaue what she would she receiued whatsoeuer shee would aske And shee had little profited by Salomons schoole if she had not learned to aske the best She returnes therefore more richly laden then she came she gaue to Salomon as a thankfull Client of wisedome Salomon returnes to her as a munificent Patrone according to the liberalitie of a King We shall be sure to be gainers by whatsoeuer we giue vnto thee O thou God of wisedome and peace Oh that we could come from the remote regions of our infidelitie and worldlinesse to learne wisdome of thee who both teachest and giuest it abundantly without vpbraiding without grudging could bring with vs the poore presents of our faithfull desires and sincere seruices how wouldest thou receiue vs with a gracious acceptation and send vs away laden with present comfort with eternall glory SALOMONS defection SInce the first man Adam the world hath not yeelded either so great an example of wisedome or so fearfull an example of apostasie as Salomon What humane knowledge Adam had in the perfection of nature by creation Salomon had by infusion both fully both from one fountaine If Adam called all creatures by their names Salomon spake from the Cedars of Lebanon to the mosse that springs out of the wall and besides these vegetables there was no Beast nor Fowle nor Fish nor creeping thing that escaped his discourse Both fell both fell by one meanes as Adam so might Salomon haue said The woman deceiued me It is true indeed that Adam fell as all Salomon as one yet so as that this one is the patterne of the frailty of all If knowledge could haue giuen an immunity from sinne both had stood Affections are those feet of the soule on which it either stands or fals Salomon loued many out-landish women I wonder not if the wise King mis-caried Euery word hath bane enough for a man Women many women outlandish idolatrous and those not onely had but doted on Sexe multitude nation condition all conspired to the ruine of a Salomon If one woman vndid all mankinde what maruell is it if many women vndid one yet had those many beene the daughters of Israel they had tempted him onely to lust not to mis-deuotion now they were of those Nations whereof the Lord had said to the children of Israel Goe not ye in to them nor let them come in to you for surely they will turne your hearts after their gods to them did Salomon ioyne in loue who can maruell if they disioyned his heart from God Satan hath found
from him nor suffer my faithfulnesse to faile My Couenant will I not breake nor alter the thing that is gone out of my mouth Behold the fauour of God doth not depend vpon Salomons obedience If Salomon shall suffer his faithfulnesse to faile towards his God God will not requite him with the failing of his faithfulnesse to Salomon If Salomon breake his Couenant with God God will not breake his Couenant with the father of Salomon with the sonne of Dauid He shall smart hee shall not perish Oh gracious word of the God of all mercies able to giue strength to the languishing comfort to the despairing to the dying life Whatsoeuer wee are thou wilt be still thy selfe O holy One of Israel true to thy Couenant constant to thy Decree The sinnes of thy chosen can neither frustrate thy counsell nor out-strip thy mercies Now I see Salomon of a wanton louer a graue Preacher of mortification I see him quenching those inordinate flames with the teares of his repentance Me thinks I heare him sighing deepely betwixt euery word of that his solemne penance which he would need enioyne himselfe before all the world I haue applyed my heart to know the wickednesse of folly euen the foolishnesse of madnesse and I finde more bitter then death the woman whose heart is as nets and snares and her hands as bands Who so pleaseth God shall be deliuered from her but the sinner shall be taken by her Salomon was taken as a sinner deliuered as a penitent His soule escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers the snare was broken and he deliuered It is good for vs that he was both taken and deliuered Taken that wee might not presume and that we might not despaire deliuered He sinned that we might not sinne hee recouered that we may not sinke vnder our sinne But oh the iustice of God inseparable from his mercy Salomons sinne shall not escape the rod of men Rather then so wise an offender shall want enemies God shall raise vp three aduersaries vnto Salomon Hadad the Edomite Rezon the King of Aram Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat whereof two were foraine one domesticall Nothing but loue and peace sounded in the name of Salomon nothing else was found in his raigne whiles he held in good termes with his God But when once hee fell foule with his Maker all things began to be troubled There are whips laid vp against the time of Salomons fore-seene offence which are now brought forth for his correction On purpose was Hadad the sonne of the King of Edom hid in a corner of Egypt from the sword of Dauid and Ioab that he might be reserued for a scourge to the exorbitant sonne of Dauid God would haue vs make account that our peace ends with our innocence The same sinne that sets debate betwixt God and vs armes the creatures against vs It were pitie wee should be at any quiet whiles wee are falne out with the God of peace Contemplations VPON THE PRINCIPALL HISTORIES OF THE NEVV TESTAMENT THE THIRD BOOKE Containing The Widowes sonne raised The Rulers sonne healed The dumbe Deuill eiected MATTHEW called Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gaderene Herd By IOS HALL D. of Diuinitie and Deane of WORCESTER TO MY RIGHT VVORTHY AND WORSHIPFVLL FRIEND MASTER IOHN GIFFORD of Lancrasse in Deuon Esquire All Grace and Peace SIR J hold it as I ought one of the rich mercies of GOD that he hath giuen me fauour in some eies which haue not seene me but none that J know hath so much demerited me vnknowne as your worthy Familie Ere therefore you see my face see my hand willingly professing my thankefull Obligations Wherewith may it please you to accept of this parcell of thoughts not vnlike those fellowes of theirs whom you haue entertained aboue their desert These shall present vnto you our bountifull SAVIOVR magnifying his mercies to men in a sweet varietie healing the diseased raising the dead casting out the Deuill calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodnesse Euery helpe to our deuotion deserues to bee precious So much more as the decrepit age of the World declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of Pietie That GOD to whose honour these poore labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his protection J heartily commend you and the right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy wife with all the pledges of your happy affection as whom you haue deserued to be Your truly thankfull and officious friend IOS HALL The Widowes Sonne raised THE fauours of our beneficent Sauiour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurions seruant from his bed then he raises the Widowes Sea from his Beere The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sunne were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospell whose errand is vniuersall This immortall seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood vnder the hill of Hermon neere vnto Tabor but now it is watered with better dewes from aboue the doctrine miracles of a Sauiour Not for state but for the more euidence of the worke is our Sauior attended with a large traine so entring into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their faith by his power and to take it His prouidence hath so contriued his iourney that he meets with the sad pompe of a funerall A wofull widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely sonne to the graue There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A yong man in the flowre in the strength of his age swallowed vp by death Our decrepit age both expects death and sollicites it but vigorous youth lookes strangely vpon that grim sergeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather vp with contentment wee chide to haue the vnripe vnseasonably beaten downe with cudgells But more a yong man the onely sonne the onely childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grieuous for a well natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of losse Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still wee hope the suruiuing may supply the comforts of the dead but when all our hopes and ioyes must either liue or die in one the losse of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable hee can but say Oh daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thy selfe in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely sonne Such was the losse such was the sorrow of this disconsolate
them by a direct restraint such prohibition would both endanger their vtter distaste and whet their desire to more eagernesse I may change Religion I may not inhibit it so the people haue a God it sufficeth them they shall haue so much formalitie as may content them their zeale is not so sharpe but they can be well pleased with ease I will proffer them both a more compendious and more plausibie worship Ierusalem shall be supplied within mine owne borders naturally men loue to see the obiects of their deuotion I will therefore feed their eyes with two golden representations of their God nearer home and what can be more proper then those which Aaron deuised of old to humour Israel Vpon this pestilent ground Ieroboam sets vp two calues in Dan and Bethel and perswades the people It is too much for you to goe vp to Ierusalem behold thy Gods O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Oh the mischiefe that comes of wicked infidelitie It was Gods Prophet that had rent Ieroboams garment into twelue pieces and had giuen ten of them to him in token of his sharing the ten Tribes who with the same breath also told him that the cause of this distraction was their Idolatry Yet now will he institute an Idolatrous seruice for the holding together of them whom their Idolatry had rent from their true Soueraigne to him Hee sayes not God hath promised me this Kingdome God hath conferd it God shall finde meanes to maintaine his owne act I will obey him let him dispose of me The God of Israel is wise and powerfull enough to fetch about his own designes but as if the deuices of men were stronger then Gods prouidence and ordination he will be working out his own ends by prophane policies Ieroboam being borne an Israelite and bred in the Court of a Salomon could not but know the expresse charge of God against the making of Images against the erecting of any riuall altars to that of Ierusalem yet now that he sees both these may auaile much to the aduancing of his ambitious proiect hee sets vp those Images those Altars Wicked men care not to make bold with God in cases of their owne commodity If the lawes of their Maker lye in the way of their profit or promotion they either spurne them out or tread vpon them at pleasure Aspiring minds will know no God but honour Israeâ— soiourned in Egypt and brought home a golden calfe Ieroboam soiournes there and brought home two It is hard to dwell in Egypt vntainted not to sauour of the sinnes of the place we liue in is no lesse strange then for wholesome liquor tund vp in a musty vessell not to smell of the cask The best body may be infected in a contageous aire Let him beware of Egypt that would be free from Idolatry No sooner are Ieroboams calues vp then Israel is downe on their knees their worship followes immediately vpon the erection How easily is the vnstable vulgar caried into whatsoeuer religion of authoritie The weather-cocke will looke which way soeuer the winde blowes It is no maruell if his subiects bee brutish who hath made a calfe his god Euery accessary to sinne is filthy but the first authors of sinne are abominable How is Ieroboam branded in euery of these sacred leaues How doe all ages ring of his fact with the accent of dishonour and indignation Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat that made Israel to sinne It was a shame for Israel that it could bee made to sinne by a Ieroboam but O cursed name of Ieroboam that would draw Israel to sinne The followers and abettors of euill are worthy of torment but no hell is too deepe for the leaders of publique wickednesse Religion is cloathed with many requisite circumstances As a new King would haue a new god so that new God must haue new Temples Altars Seruices Priests Solemnities All these hath Ieroboam instituted all these hath he cast in the same mold with his golden calues False deuotion doth not more crosse then imitate the true Satan is no lesse a counterfet then an enemy of God He knowes it more easie to adulterate religion then to abolish it That which God ordained for the auoidance of Idolatry is made the occasion of it a limitation of his holy seruices to Ierusalem How mischieuously doe wicked men peruert the wholesome institutions of God to their sinne to their bane Ieroboam could not be ignorant how fearfully this very act was reuenged vpon Israel in the Wildernesse yet he dares renew it in Dan and Bethel No example of iudgement can affright wilfull offenders It is not the metall that makes their gods but the worship the sacrifices What sacrifices could there be without Priests No religion could euer want sacred masters of Diuine ceremonies Gods Clergy was select and honourable branches of the holy stemme of Aaron Ieroboam rakes vp his Priests out of the channell of the multitude all Tribes all persons were good enough for his spurious deuotion Leaden Priests are well fitted to golden Deities Religion receiues either much honour or blemish by the qualitie of those that serue at her Altars Wee are not worthy to professe our selues seruants of the True God if we doe not hold his seruice worthy of the best Ieroboams Calues must haue sacrifices must haue solemne festiuities though in a day and moneth of his owne deuising In vaine shall we pretend to worship a god if we grudge him the iust dayes and rites of his worship It is strange that hee who thought the dregs of the vulgar good enough for that Priesthood would grace those gods by acting their Priest himselfe and yet behold where the new King of Israel stands before his new Altar with a Scepter in one hand and a Censer in the other ready to sacrifice to his new gods when the man of God comes from Iuda with a message of iudgement Oh desperate condition of Israel that was so farre gone with impiety that it yeelded not one faithfull monitor to Ieroboam The time was that the erecting of but a new altar for memory for monument on the other side of Iordan bred a challenge to the Tribes of Reuben Gad and Manasses and had cost much Israelitish blood if the quarrelled Tribes had not giuen a seasonable and pious satisfaction and now lo how the stronger stomach of degenerated Israel can digest new Altars new Temples new Gods What a difference there is betwixt a Church and Kingdome newly breathing from affliction and setled vpon the lees of a mis-vsed peace But oh the patience and mercy of our long-suffering God that will not strike a very Ieroboam vnwarned Iudgement houers ouer the heads of sinners ere it light If Israel afford not a bold reprouer of Ieroboam Iuda shall When the King of Israel is in all the height both of his State and superstition honouring his solemne day with his richest deuotion steps forth a Prophet of
with thee is mercy and plentious redemption thine hand is open before our mouthes before our hearts If we did not see thee smile vpon suiters we durst not presse to thy footstoole Behold now we know that the King of heauen the God of Israel is a mercifull God Let vs put sackcloth vpon our loynes and strew ashes vpon our heads and goe meet the Lord God of Israel that he may saue our soules How well doth this habit become insolent and blasphemous Benhadad and his followers a rope and sackcloth A rope for a Crowne sackcloth for a robe Neither is there lesse change in the tongue Thy seruant Benhadad saith I pray thee let me liue Euen now the King of Israel said to Benhadad My Lord O King I am thine Tell my Lord the King all that thou didst send for to thy seruant I will doe Now Benhadad sends to the King of Israel Thy seruant Benhadad saith I pray thee let me liue Hee that was erewhile a Lord and King is now a seruant and he that was a seruant to the king of Syria is now his Lord he that would blow away all Israel in dust is now glad to beg for his own life at the doore of a despised enemy no courage is so haughty which the God of hosts cannot easily bring vnder what are mē or deuils in those almighty hāds The greater the deiection was the stronger was the motiue of commiseration That haltar pleaded for life and that plea for but a life stirred the bowels for fauour How readily did Ahab see in Benhadads sudden misery the image of the instability of all humane things and relents at the view of so deepe and passionate a submission Had not Benhadad said Thy seruant Ahab had neuer said My brother seldome euer was there losse in humility How much lesse can we feare disparagement in the annihilating of our selues before that infinite Maiestie The drowning man snatches at euery twig It is no maruell if the messengers of Benhadad catch hastilie at that last of grace and hold it fast Thy brother Benhadad Fauours are wont to draw on each other Kindnesses breed on themselues neither need wee any other perswasion to beneficence then from our owne acts Ahab cals for the King of Syria sets him in his owne Charet treats with him of an easie yet firme league giues him both his life and his Kingdome Neither is the Crowne of Syria sooner lost then recouered Onely hee that came a free Prince returnes tributarie Onely his traine is clipt too short for his wings an hundred twentie seuen thousand Syrians are abated of his Guard homeward Blasphemy hath escaped too well Ahab hath at once peace with Benhadad warre with God God proclaimes it by his Herald one of the sonnes of the Prophets not yet in his owne forme but disguised both in fashion and complaint It was a strange suit of a Prophet Smite me I pray thee Many a Prophet was smitten and would not neuer any but this wished to bee smitten The rest of his fellowes were glad to say Saue mee this onely sayes Smite me His honest neighbour out of loue and reuerence forbeares to strike There are too many thinkes hee that smite the Prophets though I refraine What wrong hast thou done that I should repay with blowes Hadst thou sued for a fauour I could not haue denyed thee now thou suest for thine hurt the deniall is a fauour Thus he thought but Charitie cannot excuse disobedience Had the man of God called for blowes vpon his owne head the refusall had beene iust and thanke-worthy but now that he sayes In the Word of the Lord Smite me this kindnesse is deadly Because thou hast not obeyed the voyce of the Lord behold assoone as thou art departed from me a Lyon shall slay thee It is not for vs to examine the charges of the Almighty Be they neuer so harsh or improbable if they bee once knowne for his there is no way but obedience or death Not to smite a Prophet when God commands is no lesse sinne then to smite a Prophet when God forbids It is the diuine precept or prohibition that either makes or aggrauates an euill And if the Israelite bee thus reuenged that smote not a Prophet what shall become of Ahab that smote not Benhadad Euery man is not thus indulgent an easie request will gaine blowes to a Prophet from the next hand yea and a wound in smiting I know not whether it were an harder taske for the Prophet to require a wound then for a well-meaning Israelite to giue it Both must bee done The Prophet hath what hee would what hee must will a sight of his owne blood and now disguised herewith and with ashes vpon his face hee way-layes the King of Israel and sadly complaines of himselfe in a reall parable for dismissing a Syrian prisoner deliuered to his hands vpon no lesse charge then his life and soone receiues sentence of death from his owne mouth Well was that wound bestowed that strucke Ahabs soule through the flesh of the Prophet The disguise is remoued The King sees not a souldier but a Seer and now finds that he hath vnawares passed sentence vpon himselfe There needs no other doome then from the lips of the offender Thus saith the Lord Because thou hast let goe out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to vtter destruction therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people Had not Ahab knowne the will of God concerning Benhadad that had beene mercy to an enemy which was now cruelty to himselfe to Israel His eares had heard of the blasphemies of that wicked tongue His eyes had seene God goe before him in the example of that reuenge No Prince can strike so deepe into his state as in not striking In priuate fauour there may bee publike vnmercifulnesse AHAB and NABOTH NAboth had a faire Vineyard It had beene better for him to haue had none His vineyard yeelded him the bitter Grapes of death Many a one hath beene sold to death by his lands and goods wealth hath beene a snare as to the soule so to the life Why doe wee call those goods which are many times the bane of the owner Naboths vineyard lay neere to the Court of Iezebel It had beene better for him it had beene planted in the wildernesse Doubtlesse this vicinity made it more commodious to the possessor but more enuious and vnsafe It was now the perpetuall obiect of an euill eye and stirred those desires which could neither be well denyed nor satisfied Eminency is still ioyned with perill obscuritie with peace There can bee no worse annoyance to an inheritance then the greatnesse of an euill neighbourhood Naboths vines stood too neere the smoake of Iezebels chimneys too much within the prospect of Ahabs window Now lately had the King of Israel beene twice victorious ouer the Syrians no sooner is he returned home then hee is ouercome with euill desires The foyle
Ahab shall both bleed Naboth by the stones of the Iezreelites Ahab by the shafts of the Aramites The dogs shall taste of the blood of both What Ahab hath done in crueltie he shall suffer in iustice The cause and the end make the difference happy on Naboths side on Ahabs wofull Naboth bleeds as a Martyr Ahab as a murtherer What euer is Ahabs condition Naboth changes a vineyard on earth for a Kingdome in heauen Neuer any wicked man gained by the persecution of an innocent Neuer any innocent man was a loser by suffering from the wicked Neither was this iudgement personall but hereditarie I will take away thy posterity and will make thine house like the house of Ieroboam Him that dieth of Ahab in the City the Dogs shall eat and him that dieth in the field shall the Fowles of the aire eat Ahab shall not need to take thought for the traducing of this ill gotten inheritance God hath taken order for his heires whom his sin hath made no lesse the heires of his curse then of his body Their fathers cruelty to Naboth hath made them together with their mother Iezebel dogs-meat The reuenge of God doth at last make amends for the delay Whether now is Naboths vineyard paid for The man that had sold himselfe to worke wickednesse yet rues the bargaine I doe not heare Ahab as bad as hee was reuile or threaten the Prophet but hee rends his clothes and wears and lies in sack-cloth and fasts and walks softly Who that had seen Ahab would not haue deemed him a true penitent All this was the visor of sorrow not the face or if the face not the heart or if the sorrow of the heart yet not the repentance A sorrow for the iudgment not a repentance for the sinne The very deuils howle to be tormented Griefe is not euer a signe of grace Ahab rends his clothes he did not rend his heart he puts on sack-cloth not amendment he lies in sack-cloth but he lies in his Idolatry he walks softly he walkes not sincerely worldly sorrow causeth death Happy is that griefe for which the soule is the holier Yet what is this I see This very shadow of penitence caries away mercy It is no small mercy to defer an euill Euen Ahabs humiliation shall prorogue the iudgement such as the penitence was such shall be the reward a temporary reward of a temporary penitence As Ahab might be thus sorrowfull and neuer the better so he may be thus fauoured and neuer the happier Oh God how graciously art thou ready to reward a sound and holy repentance who art thus indulgent to a carnall and seruile deiection AHAB and MICAIAH OR The Death of AHAB WHo would haue look't to haue hard any more of the wars of the Syrians with Israel after so great a slaughter after so firme a league a league not of peace onely but of Brotherhood The haltars the sack-cloth of Benhadads followers were worn out as of vse so of memory and now they are changed for Iron and steele It is but three yeares that this peace lasts and now that warre begins which shall make an end of Ahab The King of Israel rues his vniust mercie according to the word of the Prophet that gift of a life was but an exchange Because Ahab gaue Benhadad his life Benhadad shall take Ahabs He must forfeit in himselfe what he hath giuen to another There can bee no better fruit of too much kindnesse to Infidels It was one Article of the league betwixt Ahab and his brother Benhadad that there should bee a speedy restitution of all the Israelitish Cities The rest are yeelded onely Ramoth Gilead is held backe vnthankfully iniuriously He that beg'd but his life receiues his Kingdome and now rests not content with his owne bounds Iustly doth Ahab challenge his owne iustly doth he moue a war to recouer his owne from a perfidious tributary the lawfulnesse of actions may not bee iudged by the euents but by the grounds the wise and holy arbiter of the world knowes why many times the better cause hath the worse successe Many a iust businesse is crossed for a punishment to the agent Yet Israel and Iuda were now peeced in friendship Iehosaphat the good King of Iuda had made affinity with Ahab the Idolatrous King of Israel and besides a personall visitation ioynes his forces with his new Kinsman against an old confederate Iuda had called in Syria against Israel and now Israel cals in Iuda against Syria Thus rather should it be It is fit that the more pure Church should ioyne with the more corrupt against a common Paganish enemy Iehosaphat hath match't with Ahab not with a diuorce of his deuotion Hee will fight not without God Inquire I pray thee at the Word of the Lord to day Had hee done thus sooner I feare Athaliah had neuer call'd him father This motion was newes in Israel It was vvont to be said Inquire of Baal The good King of Iudah will bring Religion into fashion in the Court of Israel Ahab had inquired of his counsellor What needed he be so deuout as to inquire of his Prophets Onely Iehosaphats presence made him thus godly It is an happy thing to conuerse with the vertuous their counsell and example cannot but leaue some tincture behind them of a good profession if not of piety Those that are truly religious dare not but take God with them in all their affaires with him they can be as valiant as timorous without him Ahab had Clergy enough such as it was Foure hundred Prophets of the groues were reserued from appearing to Elijahs challenge these are now consulted by Ahab they liue to betray the life of him who saued theirs These care not so much to inquire what God would say as what Ahab would haue them say they saw vvhich way the Kings heart was bent that way they bent their tongues Goe vp for the Lord shall deliuer it into the hands of the King False Prophets care onely to please a plausible falshood passes with them aboue an harsh truth Had they seene Ahab fearfull they had said Peace Peace now they see him resolute war and victory It is a fearfull presage of ruine when the Prophets conspire in assentation Their number consent confidence hath easily won credit with Ahab Wee doe all vvillingly beleeue what we wish Iehosaphat is not so soone satisfied These Prophets were it is like obtruded to him a stranger for the true Prophets of the true God The iudicious King sees cause to suspect them and now perceiuing at what altars they serued hates to rest in their testimony Is there not here a Prophet of the Lord besides that we might inquire of him One single Prophet speaking from the Oracles of God is more worth then foure hundred Baalites Truth may not euer be measured by the poll It is not number but weight that must cary it in a Councell of Prophets A solid Verity in one mouth is worthy to
by a deuill Surely Iehoshaphat cannot but wonder at so vnequall a contention to see one silly Prophet affronting foure hundred with whom lest confidence should carie it behold Zedekiah more bold more zealous If Michaiah haue giuen him with his fellowes the lie he giues Michaiah the fist Before these two great Guardians of peace and iustice swaggering Zedekiah smites Michaiah on the face and with the blow expostulates Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from mee to speake vnto thee For a Prophet to smite a Prophet in the face of two Kings vvas intollerably insolent the act was much vnbeseeming the person more the presence Prophets may reproue they may not strike It was enough for Ahab to punish with the hand no weapon was for Zedekiah but his tongue neither could this rude presumption haue beene well taken if malice had not made magistracie insensible of this vsurpation Ahab was well content to see that hated mouth beaten by any hand It is no new condition of Gods faithfull messengers to smart for saying true Falshood doth not more bewray it selfe in any thing then in blowes Truth suffers whiles errour persecutes None are more ready to boast of the Spirit of God then those that haue the least As in vessels the full are silent Innocent Michaiah neither defends nor complaines It would haue well beseemed the religious King of Iudah to haue spoken in the cause of the dumbe to haue checked insolent Zedekiah Hee is content to giue way to this tide of peremptorie and generall opposition The helplesse Prophet stands alone yet layes about him with his tongue Behold thou shalt see in that day when thou shalt goe into an inner chamber to hide thy selfe Now the proud Baalite shewed himselfe too much ere long he shall bee glad to lurke vnseene his hornes of iron cannot beare off this danger The sonne of Ahab cannot chuse but in the zeale of reuenging his fathers deadly seducement call for that false head of Zedekiah In vaine shall that Impostor seeke to hide himselfe from iustice But in the meane while hee goes away with honour Michaiah with censure Take Michaiah and carie him backe to Amon the Gouernour of the Citie and to Ioash the Kings sonne and say Thus saith the King Put this fellow in prison and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction vntill I come in peace An hard doome of Truth The Iayle for his lodging coorse bread and water for his food shall but reserue Michaiah for a further reuenge The returne of Ahab shall be the bane of the Prophet Was not this hee that aduised Benhadad not to boast in putting on his Armour as in the vngirding it and doth hee now promise himselfe peace and victory before hee buckle it on No warning will disswade the wilfull So assured doth Ahab make himselfe of successe that hee threats ere he goe what hee will doe when hee returnes in peace How iustly doth God deride the misreckonings of proud and foolish men If Ahab had had no other sinnes his very confidence shall defeat him yet the Prophet cannot be ouercome in his resolution he knowes his grounds cannot deceiue him and dare therefore cast the credit of his function vpon this issue If thou returne at all in peace the Lord hath not spoken by mee And hee said Hearken O people euery one of you Let him neuer be called a Prophet that dare not trust his God This was no aduenture therefore of reputation or life since hee knew whom hee beleeued the euent was no lesse sure then if it had beene past Hee is no God that is not constant to himselfe Hath hee spoken and shall hee not performe What hold haue wee for our soules but his eternall Word The being of God is not more sure then his promises then his sentences of iudgement Well may wee appeale the testimony of the world in both If there bee not plagues for the wicked if there be not rewards for the righteous God hath not spoken by vs. Not Ahab onely but good Iehoshaphat is caried with the multitude Their forces are ioyned against Ramoth The King of Israel doth not so trust his Prophets that hee dares trust himselfe in his owne cloathes Thus shall hee elude Michaiahs threat Iwis the iudgement of God the Syrian shafts cannot finde him out in this vnsuspected disguise How fondly doe vaine men imagine to shift off the iust reuenges of the Almighty The King of Syria giues charge to his Captaines to fight against none but the King of Israel Thus doth the vnthankfull Infidell repay the mercy of his late victor Ill was the Snake saued that requites the fauour of his life with a sting Thus still the greatest are the fairest marke to enuious eyes By how much more eminent any man is in the Israel of God so many more and more dangerous enemies must hee expect Both earth and hell conspire in their opposition to the worthiest Those who are aduanced aboue others haue so much more need of the guard both of their owne vigilancy and others prayers Iehoshaphat had like to haue paid deare for his loue Hee is pursued for him in whose amitie hee offended His cryes deliuer him his cryes not to his pursuers but to his God whose mercy takes not aduantage of our infirmitie but rescues vs from those euils which wee wilfully prouoke It is Ahab against whom not the Syrians onely but God himselfe intends this quarrell The enemy is taken off from Iehoshaphat Oh the iust and mighty hand of that diuine prouidence which directeth all our actions to his owne ends which takes order where euery shaft shall light and guides the arrow of the strong Archer into the ioynts of Ahabs harnesse It was shot at a venture fals by a destiny and there fals where it may carie death to an hidden debtor In all actions both voluntarie and casuall thy will O God shall bee done by vs with what euer intentions Little did the Syrian know whom hee had striken no more then the arrow wherewith he stroke An inuisible hand disposed of both to the punishment of Ahab to the vindication of Michaiah How worthily O God art thou to bee adored in thy iustice and wisedome to bee feared in thy iudgements Too late doth Ahab now thinke of the faire warnings of Michaiah which hee vnwisely contemned of the painfull flatteries of Zedekiah which hee stubbornly beleeued That guilty blood of his runs downe out of his wound into the midst of his charet and paies Naboth his arerages O Ahab what art thou the better for thine Iuory house whiles thou hast a blacke soule What comfort hast thou now in those flattering Prophets which tickled thine cares and secured thee of victories What ioy is it to thee now that thou wast great Who had not rather be a Michaiah in the Iayle then Ahab in the Charet Wicked men haue the aduantage of the way godly men of the end The Charet is washed
Prophets yeeldance as for his owne life This was the way to offer violence to the Prophet of God to the God of that Prophet euen humble supplications Wee must deprecate that euill which wee would auoid if we would force blessings we must intreat them There is nothing to be gotten from God by strong hand any thing by suit The life of the Captaine is preserued Elijah is by the Angell commanded to goe downe with him speedily fearelesly The Prophet casts not with himselfe What safety can there be in this iourney I shall put my selfe into the hands of rude Souldiers and by them into the hands of an inraged King if he did not eagerly thirst after my blood hee had neuer sought it with so much losse But so soone as hee had a charge from the Angell hee walkes downe resolutely and as it were dares the dangers of so great an hostilitie Hee knew that the same God who had fought for him vpon the hill would not leaue him in the Valley hee knew that the Angell which bade him goe was guard enough against a world of enemies Faith knowes not how to feare and can as easily contemne the suggestion of perils as infidelitie can raise them The Prophet lookes boldly vpon the Court which doubtlesse was not a little disaffected to him and comes confidently into the bed-chamber of Ahaziah and sticks not to speake ouer the same words to his head which hee had sent him not long since by his first messengers Not one syllable will the Prophet abate of his errand It is not for an Herald of Heauen to be out of countenance or to mince ought of the most killing messages of his God Whether the inexpected confidence both of the man and of the speech amazed the sicke King of Israel or whether the feare of some present iudgement wherewith hee might suspect Elijah to come armed vpon any act of violence that should bee offered ouer-awed him or whether now at the last vpon the sight and hearing of this man of God the Kings heart began to relent and checke it selfe for that sinne for which hee was iustly reproued I know not but sure I am the Prophet goes away vntouched neither the furious purposes of Ahaziah nor the exasperations of a Iezebel can hurt that Prophet whom God hath intended to a fiery Chariot The hearts of Kings are not their owne Subiects are not so much in their hands as they are in their Makers How easily can God tame the fiercenesse of any creature and in the midst of their most heady careere stop them on the sudden and fetcht them vpon the knees of their humble submission It is good trusting God with the euents of his owne commands who can at pleasure either auert euils or improue them to good According to the word of the Prophet Ahaziah dies not two whole yeares doth hee sit in the Throne of Israel which hee now must yeeld in the want of children to his brother Wickednesse shortens his reigne he had too much of Ahab and Iezebel to expect the blessing either of length or prosperitie of gouernment As alwaies in the other so oft-times in this world doth God testifie his anger to wicked men Some liue long that they may aggrauate their iudgement others die soon that they may hasten it The Rapture of ELIJAH LOng and happily hath Elijah fought the wars of his God and now after his noble and glorious victories God will send him a Chariot of Triumph Not suddenly would God snatch away his Prophet without warning without expectation but acquaints him before-hand with the determination of his glory How full of heauenly ioy was the soule of Elijah whiles he foreknew and lookt for this instant happinesse With what contempt did he cast his eyes vpon that earth which he was now presently to leaue with what rauishment of an inward pleasure did hee looke vpon that heauen which he was to enioy For a meet fare-well to the earth Elijah will goe visit the schooles of the Prophets before his departure These were in his way Of any part of the earth they were nearest vnto Heauen In an holy progresse therefore hee walkes his last round from Gilgal neere Iordan to Bethel from Bethel to Iericho from Iericho to Iordan againe In all these sacred Colledges of Diuines he meant to leaue the legacie of his loue counsell confirmation blessing How happy a thing it is whiles we are vpon earth to improue our time gifts to the best behoofe of Gods Church And after the assurance of our owne blessednesse to helpe others to the same heauen But O God who can but wonder at the course of thy wise and powerfull administrations Euen in the midst of the degeneration and Idolatries of Israel hast thou reserued to thy selfe whole societies of holy Prophets and out of those sinfull and reuolted Tribes hast raised the two great miracles of Prophets Elijah and Elisha in an immediate succession Iudah it selfe vnder a religious Iehoshaphat yeelded not so eminent and cleerely illuminated spirits The mercy of our prouident God will neither be confined nor excluded neither confined to the places of publike profession nor excluded from the depraued Congregations of his owne people where hee hath loued he cannot easily be estranged Rather where sinne abounds his grace aboundeth much more and raiseth so much stronger helps as he sees the dangers greater Happy was Elisha in the attendance of so gracious a Master and the more happy that he knows it Faine would Elijah shake him off at Gilgal if not there at Bethel if not yet there at Iericho A priuate message on which Elijah must goe alone is pretended from the Lord Whether shall we say the Prophet did this for the tryall of the constant affection of his carefull and diligent seruant or that it was concealed from Elijah that his departure was reuealed to Elisha Perhaps hee that knew of his owne reception into heauen did not know what witnesses would bee allowed to that miraculous act and now his humble modesty affected a silent and vn-noted passage Euen Elisha knew something that was hid from his Master now vpon the threshold of heauen No meere creature was euer made of the whole counsell of the Highest Some things haue been disclosed to babes and nouices that haue been closed vp to the most wise and iudicious In naturall speculations the greater wit and deeper iudgement stil caries it but in the reuelations of God the fauour of his choice swayes all not the power of our apprehension The master may both command and intreat his seruants stay in vaine Elisha must bee pardoned this holy and zealous disobedience As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee His master may be withdrawne from him he will not be withdrawne from his Master He knew that the blessing was at the parting and if he had diligently attended all his life and now slacked in the last act he had lost the reward
not distracted with an accident so sudden so sorrowfull she layes her dead childe vpon the Prophets bed shee lockes the doore shee hides her griefe lest that consternation might hinder her designe she hastens to her husband and as not daring to bee other then officious in so distresse-full an occasion acquaints him with her iourney though not with the cause requires of him both attendance and conueyance shee posts to mount Carmel shee cannot so soone finde out the man of God as hee hath found her He sees her afarre off and like a thankfull guest sends his seruant hastily to meet her to inquire of the health of her selfe her husband her childe Her errand was not to Gehezi it was to Elisha no messenger shall interrupt her no eare shall receiue her complaint but the Prophets Downe shee fals passionately at his feet and forgetting the fashion of her bashfull strangenesse layes hold of them whether in an humble veneration of his person or in a feruent desire of satisfaction Gehezi who well knew how vncouth how vnfit this gesture of salutation was for his master offers to remoue her and admonisheth her of her distance The mercifull Prophet easily apprehends that no ordinary occasion could so transport a graue and well-gouerned matrone as therefore pittying her vnknowne passion hee bids Let her alone for her soule is vexed within her and the Lord hath hid it from mee and hath not told mee If extremitie of griefe haue made her vnmannerly wise and holy Elisha knowes how to pardon it Hee dares not adde sorrow to the afflicted hee can better beare an vnseemelinesse in her greeting then cruelty in her molestation Great was the familiaritie that the Prophet had with his God and as friends are wont mutually to impart their counsels to each other so had the Lord done to him Elisha was not idle on mount Carmel What was it that he saw not from thence Not heauen onely but the world was before him yet the Shunamites losse is concealed from him neither doth he shame to confesse it Oft-times those that know greater matters may yet bee ignorant of the lesse It is no disparagement to any finite creature not to know something By her mouth will God tell the Prophet what by vision hee had not Then she said Did I desire a sonne of my Lord Did I not say doe not deceiue me Deepe sorrow is sparing of words The expostulation could not be more short more quicke more pithy Had I begged a son perhaps my importunity might haue been yeelded to in anger Too much desire is iustly punished with losse It is no maruell if what we wring from God prosper not This fauour to mee was of thine owne motion Thy suit O Elisha made me a mother Couldst thou intend to torment me with a blessing How much more easie had the want of a sonne been then the mis-cariage Barrennesse then orbation Was there no other end of my hauing a son then that I might lose him O man of God let mee not complaine of a cruel kindnesse thy prayers gaue me a son let thy prayers restore him let not my dutifull respects to thee bee repaid with an aggrauation of misery giue not thine hand-maid cause to wish that I were but so vnhapy as thou foundest me Oh wofull fruitfulnesse if I must now say that I had a sonne I know not whether the mother or the Prophet were more afflicted the Prophet for the mothers sake or the mother for her owne Not a word of reply doe wee heare from the mouth of Elisha his breath is onely spent in the remedy Hee sends his seruant with all speed to lay his staffe vpon the face of the childe charging him to auoyd all the delayes of the way Had not the Prophet supposed that staffe of his able to beat away death why did hee send it and if vpon that supposition hee sent it how was it that it failed of effect was this act done out of humane conceit not out of instinct from God Or did the want of the mothers faith hinder the successe of that cure She not regarding the staffe or the man holds fast to Elisha No hopes of his message can loose her fingers As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee She imagined that the seruant the staffe might bee seuered from Elisha she knew that where euer the Prophet was there was power It is good relying vpon those helpes that cannot faile vs. Merit and importunity haue drawne Elisha from Carmel to Shunem Hee findes his lodging taken vp by that pale carkeise hee shuts his doore and fals to his prayers this staffe of his what euer became of the other was long enough hee knew to reach vp to Heauen to knocke at those gates yea to wrench them open Hee applies his body to those cold and senselesse limbs By the feruour of his soule hee reduces that soule by the heat of his body he educeth warmth out of that corps The childe neeseth seuen times as if his spirit had beene but hid for the time not departed it fals to worke a fresh the eyes looke vp the lippes and hands moue The mother is called in to receiue a new life in her twice-giuen sonne she comes in full of ioy full of wonder and bowes her selfe to the ground and fals downe before those feet which shee had so boldly layd hold of in Carmel Oh strong faith of the Shunamite that could not be discouraged with the seizure and continuance of death raising vp her heart still to an expectation of that life which to the eyes of nature had beene impossible irreuocable Oh infinite goodnesse of the Almightie that would not suffer such faith to be frustrate that would rather reuerse the lawes of nature in returning a guest from heauen and raising a corps from death then the confidence of a beleeuing heart should be disappointed How true an heire is Elisha of his master not in his graces onely but in his actions Both of them diuided the waters of Iordan the one as his last act the other as his first Elijahs curse was the death of the Captaines and their troupes Elishaes curse was the death of the children Elijah rebuked Ahab to his face Elisha Iehoram Elijah supplied the drought of Israel by raine from heauen Elisha supplied the drought of the three Kings by waters gushing out of the earth Elijah increased the oyle of the Sareptan Elisha increased the oyle of the Prophets widow Elijah raised from death the Sareptans son Elisha the Shunamites Both of them had one mantle one spirit both of them climbed vp one Carmel one heauen ELISHA with NAAMAN OF the full showers of grace which fell vpon Israel and Iudah yet some drops did light vpon their neighbours If Israel bee the worse for her neerenesse to Syria Syria is the better for the vicinity of Israel Amongst the worst of Gods enemies some are singled out for mercy Naaman was a great
themselues straitned they did not presume to carue for themselues but they craued the leaue the counsell of Elisha Let vs goe we pray thee vnto Iordan and take thence euery man a beame and let vs make vs a place where wee may dwell And he said Goe ye It well becomes the sonnes of the Prophets to enterprise nothing without the allowance of their Superiours Here was a building towards none of the curiousest I doe not see them making meanes for the procurement of some cunning artificers nor for the conquisition of some costly marbles and Cedars but euery man shall hew and square and frame his owne beame No nice termes were stood vpon by these sonnes of the Prophets Their thoughts were fixed vpon the perfection of a spirituall building As an homely roofe may serue them so their owne hands shall raise it The fingers of these contemplatiue men did not scorne the Axe and Mallet and Chesell It was better being there then in Obadiahs Caue and they that dwell now contentedly vnder rude sticks will not refuse the squared stones and polished contignations of better times They shall be ill teachers of others that haue not learned both to want and to abound The master of this sacred Society Elisha is not stately not austere he giues not onely passage to this motion of his Collegiates but assistance It was fit the sonnes of the Prophets should haue conuenience of dwelling though not pompe not costlinesse They fall to their worke No man goes slackly about the building of his owne house One of them more regarding the tree then the toole le ts fall the head of his axe into the riuer Poore men are sensible of small losses He makes his mone to Elisha Alas Master for it was borrowed Had the axe been his owne the trouble had been the lesse to forgoe it therefore doth the miscariage afflict him because it was of a borrowed axe Honest minds are more carefull of what they haue by loane then by proprietie In lending there is a trust which a good heart cannot disappoint without vexation Alas poore nouices of the Prophet they would be building and were not worth their axes if they would giue their labour they must borrow their instruments Their wealth was spirituall Outward pouertie may well stand with inward riches He is rich not that hath the world but that can contemne it Elisha loues and cherishes this iust simplicitie rather will hee worke a miracle then a borrowed axe shall not bee restored It might easily bee imagined hee that could raise vp the iron out of the bottome of the water could tell where it fell in yet euen that powerfull hand cals for direction In this one point the sonne of the Prophet knowes more then Elisha The notice of particularities is neither fit for a creature nor communicable a meane man may best know his owne case this Nouice better knowes where his axe fell then his Master his Master knowes better how to get it out then he There is no reason to bee giuen of supernaturall actions The Prophet borrowes an axe to cut an helue for the lost axe Why did hee not make vse of that handle which had cast the head Did hee hold it vnworthy of respect for that it had abandoned the metall wherewith it was trusted Or did hee make choice of a new sticke that the miracle might bee the more cleare and vnquestionable Diuine power goes a contrary way to Art Wee first would haue procured the head of the axe and then would haue fitted it with an helue Elisha fits the head to the helue and causes the wood which was light and knew not how to sinke to fetch vp the Iron which was heauy and naturally vncapable of supernatation Whether the metall were stripped of the naturall weight by the same power which gaue it being or whether retaining the wonted poise it was raised vp by some spirituall operation I inquire not Onely I see it swimme like Corke vpon the streame of Iordan and moue towards the hand that lost it What creature is not willing to put off the properties of nature at the command of the God of Nature Oh God how easie is it for thee when this hard and heauy heart of mine is sunke downe into the mud of the world to fetch it vp againe by thy mighty Word and cause it to float vpon the streames of life and to see the face of heauen againe Yet still doe the sides of Israel complaine of the thornes of Aram The children of Ahab rue their fathers vniust mercy From an enemy it is no making question whether of strength or wyle The King of Syria consults with his seruants where to encampe for his greatest aduantage their opinion is not more required then their secresie Elisha is a thousand Scouts hee sends word to the King of Israel of the proiects of the remoues of his enemie More then once hath Iehoram saued both his life and his hoast by these close admonitions It is well that in something yet a Prophet may bee obeyed What strange State-seruice was this which Elisha did besides the spirituall The King the people of Israel owe themselues and their safety to a despised Prophet The man of God knew and felt them Idolaters yet how carefull and vigilant is he for their rescue If they were bad yet they were his own If they were bad yet not all God had his number amongst their worst If they were bad yet the Syrians were worse The Israelites mis-worshipped the True God The Syrians worshipped a false That if it were possible he might win them he will preserue them and if they will needs be wanting to God yet Elisha will not be wanting to them their impiety shall not make him vndutifull There cannot bee a iuster cause of displeasure then the disclosing of those secret counsels which are laid vp in our eare in our brest The King of Syria not without reason stomacks this supposed treacherie What Prince can beare that an aduerse power should haue a party a Pensionarie in his owne Court How famous was Elisha euen in foraine Regions Besides Naaman others of the Syrian Nobilitie take notice of the miraculous faculties of this Prophet of Israel He is accused for this secret intelligence No words can escape him though spoken in the bed-chamber O Syrian whosoeuer thou wert thou saidst not enough If thy master doe but whisper in thine eare if he smother his words within his owne lips if he doe but speake within his owne bosome Elisha knowes it from an infallible information What counsell is it O God that can be hid from thee What counsell is it that thou wilt hide from thy Seer Euen this very word that accuseth the Prophet is knowne to the accused He heares this tale whiles it is in telling hee heares the plot for his apprehension How ill doe the proiects of wicked men hang together They that confesse Elisha knowes their secretest words doe yet conferre
to take him There are Spies vpon him whose espials haue moued their anger and admiration Hee is descried to be in Dothan a small towne of Manasses A whole Armie is sent thither to surprise him The opportunitie of the night is chosen for the exploit There shall bee no want either in the number or valour or secrecie of these conspired troupes and now when they haue fully girt in the village with a strong and exquisite siege they make themselues sure of Elisha and please themselues to thinke how they haue incaged the miserable Prophet how they should take him at vnawares in his bed in the midst of a secure dreame how they should carie him fettered to their King what thankes they should haue for so welcome a prisoner The successor of Gehezi riseth early in the morning and sees all the Citie encompassed with a fearfull host of foot horse charets His eye could meet with nothing but woods of pikes and wals of harnesse and lustre of metals and now hee runnes in affrighted to his Master Alas my Master what shall wee doe Hee had day enough to see they were enemies that inuironed them to see himselfe helplesse and desperate and hath onely so much life left in him as to lament himselfe to the partner of his miserie He cannot flee from his new master if he would he runnes to him with a wofull clamour Alas my Master what shall we do Oh the vndanted courage of faith Elisha sees all this and sits in his chamber so secure as if these had onely beene the guard of Israel for his safe protection It is an hard precept that hee giues his seruant Feare not As well might hee haue bid him not to see when he saw as not to feare when he saw so dreadfull a spectacle The operations of the senses are not lesse certaine then those of the affections where the obiects are no lesse proper But the taske is easie if the next word may find beleefe For there are moe with vs then with them Multitude and other outward probabilities do both lead the confidence of naturall hearts and fix it It is for none but a Dauid to say I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people that haue set themselues against me round about Flesh and blood riseth and falleth according to the proportion of the strength or weaknesse of apparent meanes Elishaes man lookt about him yet his Master prayes Lord open his eyes that they may see Naturally we see not whiles we doe see Euery thing is so seene as it is Bodily eyes discerne bodily obiects onely spirituall can see the things of God Some men want both eyes and light Elishaes seruant had eyes wanted illumination No sooner were his eyes open then he saw the mountaine full of horses and charets of fire round about Elisha They were there before neither doth Elisha pray that those troups may be gathered but that they may be seene not till now were they descried Inuisible armies guard the seruants of God whiles they seeme most forsaken of earthly ayd most exposed to certaine dangers If the eyes of our faith be as open as those of our sense to see Angels as well as Syrians we cannot be appalled with the most vnequall termes of hostilitie Those blessed Spirits are ready either to rescue our bodies or to carie vp our soules to blessednesse whether euer shall bee enioyned of their Maker there is iust comfort in both in either Both those Charets that came to fetch Elijah and those that came to defend Elisha were fiery God is not lesse louely to his owne in the midst of his iudgements then hee is terrible to his enemies in the demonstrations of his mercies Thus guarded it is no maruell if Elisha dare walke forth into the midst of the Syrians Not one of those heauenly Presidiaries strucke a stroke for the Prophet neither doth hee require their blowes onely hee turnes his prayer to his God and sayes Smite this people I pray thee with blindnesse With no other then deadly intentions did these Aramites come downe to Elisha yet doth not he say Smite them with the Sword but Smite them with blindnesse All the euill he wishes to them is their repentance There was no way to see their errour but by blindnesse He that prayed for the opening of his seruants eyes to see his safe-gard prayes for the blinding of the eyes of his enemies that they might not see to doe hurt As the eyes of Elishaes seruant were so shut that they saw not the Angels when they saw the Syrians so the eyes of the Syrians shall bee likewise shut that when they see the man they shall not see the Prophet To all other obiects their eyes are cleare onely to Elisha they shall bee blind blind not through darknesse but through misknowledge they shall see and mistake both the person and the place Hee that made the senses can either hold or delude them at pleasure how easily can hee offer to the sight other representations then those which arise from the visible matter and make the heart to beleeue them Iustly now might Elisha say This is not the way neither is this the Citie wherein Elisha shall bee descried He was in Dothan but not as Elisha hee shall not be found but in Samaria neither can they haue any guide to him but himselfe No sooner are they come into the streets of Samaria then their eyes haue leaue to know both the place and the Prophet The first sight they haue of themselues is in the trap of Israel in the iawes of death those stately Palaces which they now wonder at vnwillingly carie no resemblance to them but of their graues Euery Israelite seemes an executioner euery house a Iayle euery beame a Gibbet and now they looke vpon Elisha transformed from their guide to their common murderer with horror and palenesse It is most iust with God to intangle the plotters of wickednesse in their owne snare How glad is a mortall enemy to snatch at all aduantages of reuenge Neuer did the King of Israel see a more pleasing sight then so many Syrian throats at his mercy and as loth to lose so faire a day as if his fingers itched to bee dip't in blood hee saies My father shall I smite shall I smite them The repetition argued desire the compellation reuerence Not without allowance of a Prophet would the King of Israel lay his hand vpon an enemy so miraculously trained home His heart was still foule with idolatry yet would he not taint his hand with forbidden blood Hypocrisie will bee still scrupulous in fomething and in some awfull restraints is a perfect counterfeit of conscience The charitable Prophet soone giues an angry prohibition of slaughter Thou shalt not smite them Wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captiue with thy sword and with thy bow As if he said These are Gods captiues not thine and if they were thine owne their blood could not bee shed
without cruelty though in the hot chases of warre executions may be iustifiable yet in the coolenesse of deliberation it can bee no other then inhumane to take those liues which haue beene yeelded to mercy But here thy bow and thy sword are guiltlesse of the successe onely a strange prouidence of the Almighty hath cast them into thine hands whom neither thy force nor thy fraud could haue compassed If it bee victory thou aimest at ouercome them with kindnesse Set bread and water before them that they may eate and drinke Oh noble reuenge of Elisha to feast his persecutors To prouide a Table for those who had prouided a graue for him These Syrians came to Dothan full of bloody purposes to Elisha he sends them from Samaria full of good cheare and iollity Thus thus should a Prophet punish his pursuers No vengeance but this is heroicall and fit for Christian imitation If thine enemy hunger giue him bread to eate if hee thirst giue him water to drinke For thou shalt heape coales of fire vpon his head and the Lord shall reward thee Be not ouercome with euill but ouercome euill with good The King of Israel hath done that by his feast which hee could not haue done by his sword The bands of Syria will no more come by way of ambush or incursion into the bounds of Israel Neuer did a charitable act goe away without the retribution of a blessing In doing some good to our enemies wee doe most good to our selues God cannot but loue in vs this imitation of his mercy who bids his Sunne shine and his raine fall where he is most prouoked and that loue is neuer fruitlesse The Famine of Samaria releeued NOt many good turnes are written in Marble soone haue these Syrians forgotten the mercifull beneficence of Israel After the forbearance of some hostile inroade all the forces of Syria are mustered against Iehoram That very Samaria which had releeued the distressed Aramites is by the Aramites besieged and is affamished by those whom it had fed The famine within the walles was more terrible then the sword without Their worst enemy was shut within and could not be dislodged of their owne bowels Whither hath the Idolatry of Israel brought them Before they had beene scourged with warre with drought with dearth as with single cords they remaine incorrigible and now God twists two of these bloody lashes together and galls them euen to death there needs no other executioners then their owne mawes Those things which in their nature were not edible at least to an Israelite were now both deare and dainty The Asse was besides the vntoothsomnesse an impure creature that which the law of Ceremonies had made vncleane the law of necessitie had made delicate and precious the bones of so carrion an head could not bee picked for lesse then foure hundred pieces of siluer neither was this scarcitie of victuals only but of all other necessaries for humane vse that the belly might not complaine alone the whole man was equally pinched The King of Israel is neither exempted from the iudgement nor yet yeelds vnder it He walkes vpon the walls of his Samaria to ouersee the Watches set the Engines ready the Guards changed together with the posture of the enemy when a woman cries to him out of the Citie Help my Lord O King Next to God what refuge haue we in all our necessities but his Anointed Earthly Soueraigntie can aide vs in the case of the iniustice of men but what can it doe against the iudgements of God If the Lord doe not helpe thee whence shall I helpe thee out of the barne floore or out of the wine-presse Euen the greatest powers must stoope to afflictions in themselues how should they be able to preuent them in others To sue for aide where is an vtter impotence of redresse is but to vpbraid the weaknesse and aggrauate the misery of those whom we implore Iehoram mistakes the suit The suppliant cals to him for a wofull peece of Iustice Two mothers haue agreed to eate their sonnes The one hath yeelded hers to be boiled and eaten the other after shee hath taken her part of so prodigious a banquet withdrawes her child and hides him from the knife Hunger and enuy make the Plaintiffe importunate and now shee craues the benefit of royall iustice Shee that made the first motion with-holds her part of the bargain and flyes from that promise whose trust had made this mother childlesse Oh the direfull effects of famine that turnes off all respects of nature and giues no place to horror causing the tender mother to lay her hands yea her teeth vpon the fruit of her owne body and to receiue that into her stomacke which shee hath brought forth of her wombe What should Iehoram doe The match was monstrous The challenge was iust yet vnnaturall This complainant had purchased one halfe of the liuing child by the one halfe of hers dead The mother of the suruiuing Infant is pressed by couenant by hunger restrained by nature To force a mother to deliuer vp her child to voluntarie slaughter had been cruell To force a Debtor to pay a confessed arerage seemed but equall If the remaining child be not dressed for food this mother of the deuoured child is both robbed and affamished If he be innocent blood is shed by authoritie It is no maruell if the questiō astonished the Iudge not so much for the difficulty of the demand as the horror of the occasion to what lamentable distresse did Iehoram find his people driuen Not without cause did the King of Israel rend his garments and shew his sackcloth wel might he see his people branded with that ancient curse which God had denounced against the rebellious The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee of a fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old nor shew fauour to the yong And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine owne body the flesh of thy sonnes and of thy daughters The tender and delicate woman her eyes shall bee euill towards her yong one that commeth out from betweene her feet and toward◠the children which shee shall beare for she shall eate them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitnesse He mournes for the plague he mournes not for the cause of this plague his sinne and theirs I finde his sorrow I find not his repentance The worst man may grieue for his smart onely the good heart grieues for his offence In stead of being penitent Iehoram is furious and turnes his rage from his sinnes against the Prophet God doe so to me and more also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day Alas what hath the righteous done Perhaps Elisha that wee may imagine some colours of this displeasure fore-threatned this iudgement but they deserued it perhaps hee might haue auerted it by his prayers their
vnrepentance disabled him Perhaps he perswaded Iehoram to hold out the siege though through much hardnesse he foresaw the deliuerance In all this how hath Elisha forfeited his head All Israel did not afford an head so guiltlesse as this that was destined to slaughter This is the fashion of the world the lewd blames the innocent and will reuenge their owne sins vpon others vprightnesse In the midst of all this sad estate of Samaria and these stormes of Iehoram the Prophet sits quietly in his owne house amongst his holy Consorts bewailing no doubt both the sinnes and misery of their people and prophetically conferring of the issue when suddenly God reueales to him the bloody intent and message of Iehoram and he at once reueales it to his fellowes See yee how this sonne of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head Oh the vnimitable libertie of a Prophet The same God that shewed him his danger suggested his words He may be bold where wee must be awfull Stil is Naboths blood laid in Iehorams dish The foule fact of Ahab blemisheth his posterity and now when the sonne threats violence to the innocent murder is obiected to him as hereditary He that foresaw his owne perill prouides for his safety Shut the doore and hold him fast at the doore No man is bound to tender his throat to an vniust stroke This bloodie commission was preuented by a propheticall fore-sight The same eye that saw the executioner comming to smite him saw also the King hasting after him to stay the blow The Prophet had beene no other then guilty of his owne blood if hee had not reserued himselfe a while for the rescue of authority Oh the inconstancy of carnall hearts It was not long since Iehoram could say to Elisha My father shall I smite them now he is ready to smite him as an enemy whom he honoured as a father Yet againe his lippes had no sooner giuen sentence of death against the Prophet then his feet stirre to recall it It should seeme that Elisha vpon the challenges expostulations of Iehorams messenger had sent a perswasiue message to the King of Israel yet a while to wait patiently vpon God for his deliuerance The discontented Prince flies off in an impotent anger Behold this euill is of the Lord what should I wait for the Lord any longer Oh the desperate resolutions of impatient mindes They haue stinted God both for his time and his measure if hee exceed either they either turne their backs vpon him or fly in his face The position was true the inference deadly All that euill was of the Lord they deserued it hee sent it What then It should haue been therefore argued Hee that sent it can remoue it I will wait vpon his mercy vnder whose iustice I suffer Impatience and distrust shall but aggrauate my iudgment It is the Lord let him doe what hee will But now to despaire because God is iust to defie mercy because it lingers to reiect God for correction it is a presumptuous madnesse an impious pettishnesse Yet in spight of all these prouocations both of King and people Elisha hath good newes for Iehoram Thus saith the Lord To morrow about this time shall a measure of fine flowre be sold for a Shekel and two measures of Barly for a Shekell in the gate of Samaria Miserable Israel now sees an end of this hard triall One daies patience shall free them both of siege and famine Gods deliuerances may ouer-stay our expectation not the due period of his owne counsels Oh infinite mercy when man sayes No longer God sayes To morrow As if he would condescend where he might iudge and would please them who deserued nothing but punishment The word seemed not more comfortable then incredible A Lord on whose hand the King leaned answered the man of God and said Behold if the Lord would make windowes in heauen might this thing be Prophesies before they be fulfilled are riddles no spirit can areed them but that by which they are deliuered It is a foolish and iniurious infidelity to question a possibility where wee know the message is Gods How easie is it for that omnipotent hand to effect those things which surpasse all the reach of humane conceit Had God intended a miraculous multiplication was it not as easie for him to increase the corne or meale of Samaria as the widowes oyle was it not as easie for him to giue plenty of victuals without opening the windowes of heauen as to giue plenty of water without wind or raine The Almighty hates to be distrusted This Peere of Israel shall rue his vnbeleefe Behold thou shalt see it with thine eyes but shalt not eate thereof The sight shall be yeelded for conuiction the fruition shall bee denied for punishment Well is that man worthy to want the benefit which hee would not beleeue Who can pity to see Infidelity excluded from the blessings of earth from the glory of heauen How strange a choice doth God make of the Intelligencers of so happy a change Foure Lepers sit at the entring of the Gate they see nothing but death before them famine within the wals the enemy without The election is wofull at last they resolue vpon the lesser euill Famine is worse then the Syrian In the famine there is certaintie of perishing amongst the Syrians hazzard Perhaps the enemy may haue some pity hunger hath none and were the death equally certaine it were more easie to die by the sword then by famine vpon this deliberation they come downe into the Syrian campe to finde either speed of mercy or dispatch Their hunger would not giue them respite till morning By twi-light are they falne vpon the vttermost tents Behold there was no man They maruell at the silence and solitude they looke and listen the noise of their owne feet affrighted them their guilty hearts supplied the Syrians and expected fearfully those which were as fearefully fled How easily can the Almighty confound the power of the strong the policie of the wise God puts a Pannick terror into the hearts of the proud Syrians hee makes them heare a noise of charets and a noise of horses euen the noise of a great hoast They say one to another Loe the King of Israel hath hired against vs the Kings of the Hittites and the Kings of the Egyptians to come vpon vs they arise therefore in a confused rout and leauing all their substance behinde them flee for their liues Not long before Elishaes seruant saw charets and horses but heard none Now these Syrians heare charets and horses but see none That sight comforted his heart this sound dismaied theirs The Israelites heard no noise within the walls the Lepers heard no noise without the gates Only the Syrians heard this noise in their campe What a scorne doth God put vpon these presumptuous Aramites He will not vouchsafe to vse any substantiall stratagem against them nothing but an empty sound shall scatter them
the whole life is exercised 25 To liue in God is the way not to liue a wearisome life 65 Of Gods being called The Liuing God with a sweet vse of it 705 Our course of life musâ— either allow or condemne vs 1327 Light It was created before the Sunne was 810 A sweet Contemplation of the light ibid. Little Of guiding a little well p. 46 Lot Of him and Sodom 835 Loue T is but base loue to loue for a benefit p. 9 A true note of selfe-loue ibid. It is both a misery and shame to bee a bankerout in loue 31 Three things that a man may loue without exception 51 Loue to God and men 219 Loues strength after reconcilement 856 857 Open defiance is better then false loue 1001 Loue procures truer seruitude then necessitie 1016 Loue cannot bee separated from a desire of fruition 1024 Loue must suffer both fire and Anvill ibid. T is a vaine ambition to seeke to be loued of all 1058 Ionathans loue 1086 A good note of true and false loue 1131 Lust It coÌ„monly ends in loathing 848 Lusts madnesse 854 Lust is quicke-sighted 1138 Lyar His fashion manifestation and punishment 217 Whether we may lie for the promotion of a good cause 946 Lyars behold their pedigree 1198 Lyon His rage against Sampson in that encounter prettily described 999 Where our strength lyes against that Lyon the Deuill 1000 A lesson of thankfulnesse learned from the Lyons carkasse ibid. M MAdnesse he is a rare man that hath not some kind of madnesse in him 143 Magicke It is through the permissioÌ„ of God powerfull 931 Magistrate The Character of a good Magistrate 179 What is required in a Magistrate 231 An excellent patterne for a Magistrate in a troublesome gouernment 919 A speciall note of a good Magistrate 920 A Magistrate his pace in punishment of offenders must be slow and sure 957 Maiestie An impression of Maiestie in lawfull authoritie 904 Malice vid. Enuy of smiling Malice 849 God will euer raise vp secret fauourers to his own among those that are most malicious 853 Malice witty 854 No sinne whose harbour is so vnsafe as that of malice 864 There is no looking for fauour at the hand of malice 893 Malice regards not the truth but the spight of an accusation 921 Malice cares not so much for safety as for conquest 931 Malice in a wicked heart is the King of passions 965 Their malice hastens their destruction ibid. Malicious wickednesse of all others shall neuer goe without paiment 1073 Truth and Iustice hath no protection against malice 1087 The malicious like him that hath the Iaundis 1089 Malice hid doth but lurke for opportunitie 1147 Malice will euer say the worst 1288 Man The contemplation of his Creation 813 The description of him ad partes ibid. By his internall parts ib. c. Manhood Of sinfull manhood 338 339 Marina Of it and Quailes 886 Marinaâ— how many wayes a Miracle 889 The difference betweene the true and typicall Manna ibid. Manoâ—h Many things of him 996 997. c. Marahâ— waters 883 Mariage An apologeticall discourse of the mariage of Ecclesiast call persons 297 A question of separation of a maried couple with ioynt-consent whether lawfull 377 Whether the Church of England maketh mariage a Sacrament 587 Of Ministers mariage whether lawfull 721 Those that are vnequally yoaked may not looke euer to draw one way 869 They seldome prosper 914 Sampsons mariage 998 Not without the consent of his Parents ibid. His Parents expostulation of his motion of mariage with a Philistim ibid. Of an euen cariage in the case of mariage both of the Parents and Children 999 another expostulation about the lawfulnesse of Sampsons mariage ibid. His woe that is maried to a Philistim or vnequally yoaked 1001 Slight occasions may not breake off the knot of mariage-loue 1002 Not by imaginations but by proofes ibid. Of disparietie of Religion in mariage 1021 God owes shame to such as will be making matches betwixt himselfe and Belial 1044 Mariage made a plot for mischiefe 1088 The bonds of mariage how strong they should be 1090 A picture of those mariages that are made for money not for the Man 1102 Those mariages were well made wherein vertues are matched and happinesse is mutuall 1106 The mariage in Cana. 1202. The happinesse of that wedding which Christ is at ibid. The mariage that wee are all inuited vnto 1203 Martyrs their vndauntednesse 436 Mary vid. Virgin 436 Masse concerning it 658 Masters what they must be 243 Matthew He is called 1290 Described 1291 Meanes It without God cannot helpe but God without it can p. 12 That a mans mind should be to his meanes expressed by sweet similies 59 Small and vnlikely meanes shall preuaile where God hath appointed an effect 847 The meanes must bee vsed with faith 889 To seeke the second meanes without the first is a token of a false faith 891 Prayer without meanes is but a mockery of God 894 Wee must not looke for immediate redresse from God but rather by meanes 901 Meanes can doe nothing without God 951 In humane things but not in diuine is good to looke to the meanes 972 Small meanes shal set forward that which God hath decreed 1080 The meanes nothing without Gods blessing 1194 Meat of milke and strong meat 145 146 Meditation It must bee continued p. 1 The benefit and vses of meditation 105 Its descriptions and kinds ibid. Of extemporall meditations 106 Cautions in them ibid. Of deliberate meditation 107 The hill of meditation may not be climbed with a prophane foot ibid. His qualities therefore are prescribed 108 109 Of other circumstances of meditation as the place and time 110 Gesture of the bodie and the subiect 111 Of its order entrance and proceeding 112 113 The Scale of meditation 114 with many excellent things a pag. 114 ad 125 A meditation of death 126 Or the heart inured to meditation 141 Three things wherein Gods mercie abundantly appeared to vs. ibid. c. Mediocritie That is safest and firmest 1107 Mephibosheth Of him Ziba 1131 His humilitie 1132 A pretty pitying of Mephibosheth ibid. Mercy vid. Compassion the infinite sweetnesse of Gods mercy shadowed 8 Mercy what it doth 220 Who offends against it ibid. Gods mercies to Israel and England exactly numbred and sweetly parallel'd 478 479 We can looke no way but that we shall meet with and behold and embrace mercie 706 Gods Maiestie seene of his sonnes in his mercy 871 Gods great mercy to murmurers set forth 887 The vse that Gods seruants should make of his mercies towards their his enemies the wicked 887 Mercie must not hearten vs to sinning 900 An excellent example of mercy that may keepe any from despaire 946 It is a curse mercy that opposeth Gods mercy 953 A true property of mercy to bee most fauourable to the weakest 1029 Mercy drawes more teares from Gods friends then iudgements doe from his enemies 1051 It is good to take all occasion of
renuing the remembrance of Gods mercies 1093 Merit Concerning it 647 Method A false method the bane of many hopefull endeuours 279 Micha His idolatry 1009 Michaiah The Prophet commended 1362 c. His sentence by Ahab 1363 Michal her wyle 1088 Her scorne and end 1130 Mildnesse This and fortitude must lodge together as in Moses 915 Minde Of tranquilitie of minde p. 32 Of doing good with an ill minde 63 64 Minister A pretty description of a bold minister without abilities p. 5 Of much ostentation with little learning in a minister p. 5 An apologie for the mariage of Ministers 297 c. Of the ministers great charge 344 c. Whether a minister vpon conceit of insufficiency may forsake his calling 379 A ministers wisdome in taking his time to speake 474 The truth and warrant of the ministery of the Church of England 575 Certaine arguments against it ibid. The censure of such as think that they can goe to heauen without the ministery of the Word 694 Of the Church of England approuing an vnlearned minister 590 Whether ministers should endure themselues silenced 597 Of ministers mariage whether lawfull 717 c. A meanes to make the ministerie effectuall 870 A pretty picture of the ministers portion among a discontented people 875 A note for ministers in reprouing 915 An excellent example for a minister among a troublesome people 919 Flatterie in a minister what 920 The ministerie will not grace the Man but the Man must grace the ministery 922 The regard that should bee vnto the ministerie 925 1017 Ministers must not stand on their owne perils in the coÌ„mon causes of the Church 926 The lawfulnesse of a ministers calling a thing very materiall 927 The approbation of our calling is by the fruit ibid. The worlds little care of the ministers blessings 932 The honour that Heathen gaue to the Prophets vvill iudge or shame our times towards their ministers 935 A note for ministers not to goe beyond their warrant 940 Another note for to enduce ministers to mildnesse in their admonitions 956 A good ministers losse is better seene in his losse then presence 970 Holy ministers a signe of happy reconciliation with God 973 It is no putting of trust in those men that neglect Gods ministers 974 Of not caring for a ministers doctrine that is of an euil life 1000 The ministers pouerty is religions decay 1010 A pretty censure of the good cheape minister 1011 The withdrawing the ministers meanes is the way to the vtter desolation of the Church 1012 Minister Mercy how well fitting a minister 1016 Where no respect is giuen to the minister there is no religion 1017 If ministers be prophane who shall be religious 1028 The ministerie not free of vncleannesse 1033 No ministers vnholinesse should bring the seruice of God in dislike ibid. The sinnes of Teachers are the teachers of sinne 1061 He is no true Israelite that is not distressed in the want of a minister of a Samuel 1062 1063 For ministers to heare religion scorned and be silent is not patience but want of zeale 1130 An excellent note for ministers ibid. A note for yong ministers 1187 Ministers called Fishers 1201 Of niggardlinesse to our ministers 1271 Of all others the sinne of a minâ—ster shall not goe vnreuenged 1321 There is nothing wherein the Lord is more tender then in the approuing of the truth of his ministers 1335 The ministers message is now counted euill it vnpleasant 1361 The departure of a faithfull minister worthy our lamentation 1371 1372 Miracles concerning the miracles of our time 284 285 The desiring a miracle without a cause is a tempting of God 967 Miracles are not purposed to silence and obscurity 1369 Miriam Of Aaron and Miriam 913 Mischiefe they that seeke it for others fall into it themselues 1099 Mockers their sinne iudgement and end seene in Michol 1130 A caueat for mockers 1374 Modestie with that which is contrary to it 224 What Christian modesty teacheth 910 Those that passe its bounds grow shamelesse in their sinnes 938 Monument What is a mans best monument 12 Those monuments would God haue remaine in his Church which cary in them the most manifest euidences of that which they import 928 Motions good motions make but a thorow-fare in wicked mens hearts 874 875 Labouring minds are the best receptacles for good motions 1017 The foulest heart oft-times entertaines good motions 1089 The wicked are the worse for good motions 1091 Good motioÌ„s in wicked mens hearts what like 1106 Mourning of immoderate mourning for the dead 307 A pretty item in mourning for the dead 913 Moses Or his birth and breeding 866 His mothers affection sweetly described ibid. The Contemplations of his killing the Hebrew 867 His calling 869 The hand of Moses lifted vp 893 Of his Vaile 907 Of his modesty 910 Mildnesse fortitude how they meet together in him 914 Two patternes of his meeknesse 916 An admirable pithy speech of his to Israel at their desire of going backe to Egypt 918 Moses death 939 What an example of meekenesse hee was in his death 941 Multitude the successe of dealing with an obstinate multitude 919 A multitude is a beast of many heads 1303 Murmurers Gods mercy to them 887 Musicke what good it doth to Saul in his deiection 1079 N NAaman Of him and Elisha 1383 Nabal and Abagail 1102 His churlish answer to Dauids seruants 1105 Naboth Of him and Ahab 1356 His deniall of Ahabs request censured 1317 Name A mans good name once tainted what compared to 16 A good name worth the striuing for 60 Obseruations of a good name 135 Of significant names 1031 Naomi and Ruth 1022 Nathan Of him and Dauid 1141 Nature Naturall more difference betwixt a naturall man and a Christian a then betweene a man and a beast 27 How ready nature is to ouerturne all good purposes 143 Nature and grace described in Cain and Abel 817 Nature not content except it might be its own caruer 929 Necessitie It will make vs to seeke for that which our wantonnesse hath despised 921 922 None to bee contemned for their necessitie 1103 Neere When we come too neere to God 870 Neutralitie Wherein odious wherein commendable 139 Hatefull to God in matters of Religion 1337 New God makes new 466 Wee must bee made so too ibid. A reproofe of our new things ibid. Oâ— our New-yeares gifts to God ibid. Newes Ill newes doth either runne or fly 1036 Noble The character of one truely noble 178 Nourishment The power of it is not in the creature but in the Maker 996 Number Of Dauids numbring the people 1246 His sinne therein ibid. O OAth Of the oath of allegeance and iust suffering of those that haue refused it 342 Of the oath Ex officio 988 How sacred and vnuiolable an oath should be 947 Oaths for conditions of Peace whether bound to be kept if they be fraudulent 959 The sequel of a breaking an oath ibid. Euen a iust oath may be rashly
salute those Cherubims to welcome that God whose absence had beene their death But as it is hard not to ouer-ioy in a sudden prosperity and to vse happinesse is no lesse difficult then to forbeare it These glad Israelites cannot see but they must gaze they cannot gaze on the glorious out-side but they must be whether out of rude iollity or curiositie or suspition of the purloining some of those sacred implements prying into the secrets of Gods Arke Nature is too subiect to extremities and is euer either too dull in want or wanton in fruition It is no easie matter to keepe a meane whether in good or euill Bethshemesh was a City of Priests they should haue knowne better how to demeane themselues towards the Arke this priuiledge doubled their offence There was no malice in this curious inquisition the same eyes that lookt into the Arke lookt also vp to heauen in their Offerings and the same hands that touched it offered sacrifice to the God that brought it Who could expect any thing now but acceptation who would suspect any danger It is not a following act of deuotion that can make amends for a former sinne There was a death owing them immediately vpon their offence God will take his owne time for the execution In the meane while they may sacrifice but they cannot satisfie they cannot escape The Kine are sacrificed the Cart burnes them that drew it Here was an offering of prayse when they had more need of a trespasse-offering many an heart is lifted vp in a conceit of ioy when it hath iust cause of humiliation God lets them alone with their Sacrifice but when that is done he comes ouer them with a backe reckoning for their sinne Fifty thousand and seuenty Israelites are strucke dead for this vnreuerence to the Arke A wofull welcome for the Arke of God into the borders of Israel It killed them for looking into it who thought it their life to see it It dealt blowes and death on both hands to Philistims to Israelites to both of them for prophaning it The one with their Idoll the other with their eyes It is a fearfull thing to vse the holy Ordinances of God with an vnreuerent boldnesse Feare and trembling becomes vs in our accesse to the Maiesty of the Almighty Neither was there more state then secresie in Gods Arke some things the wisedome of God desires to conceale The vnreuerence of the Israelites was no more faulty then their curiosity secret things to God things reuealed to vs and to our children The remoue of the Arke I Heare of the Bethshemites lamentation I heare not of their repentance they complaine of their smart they complaine not of their sinne and for ought I can perceiue speake as if God were curious rather then they faulty Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall he goe from vs As if none could please that God which misliked them It is the fashion of naturall men to iustifie themselues in their owne courses if they cannot charge any earthly thing with the blame of their suffering they will cast it vpon Heauen That a man pleads himselfe guiltie of his owne wrong is no common worke of Gods Spirit Bethshemesh bordered too neere vpon the Philistims If these men thought the very presence of the Arke hurtfull why do they send to their neighbours of Kiriath-iearim that they might make themselues miserable Where there is a misconceit of God it is no maruell if there be a defect of Charity How cunningly doe they send their message to their neighbours They doe not say the Arke of God is come to vs of it owne accord lest the men of Kiriath-iearim should reply It is come to you let it stay with you They say onely the Philistims haue brought it they tell of the presence of the Arke they doe not tell of the successe lest the example of their iudgement should haue discouraged the forwardnesse of their reliefe And after all the offer was plausible Come ye downe and take it vp to you as if the honour had been too great for themselues as if their modestie had beene such that they would not forestall and engrosse happinesse from the rest of Israel It is no boot to teach Nature how to tell her owne tale smart and danger will make a man wittie He is rarely constant that will not dissemble for ease It is good to be suspitious of the euasions of those which would put off miserie Those of Bethshemesh were not more craftie then these of Kiriath-iearim which was the ground of their boldnesse faithfull So many thousand Bethshemites could not be dead and no part of the rumour flie to them They heard how thicke not onely the Philistims but the bordering Israelites fell downe dead before the Arke yet they durst aduenture to come and fetch it euen from amongst the carcasses of their brethren They had beene formerly acquainted with the Arke they knew it was holy it could not be changeable and therefore they well conceiued this slaughter to arise from the vnholinesse of men not from the rigour of God and thereupon can seeke comfort in that which others found deadly Gods children cannot by any meanes bee discouraged from their honour and loue to his Ordinances If they see thousands strucke downe to Hell by the Scepter of Gods Kingdome yet they will kisse it vpon their knees and if their Sauiour be a rocke of offence and the occasion of the fall of millions in Israel they can feed temperately of that whereof others haue surfeted to death c. Bethshemesh was a Citie of Priests and Leuits Kiriath-iearim a Citie of Iuda where wee heare but of one Leuit Abinabab yet this Citie was more zealous for God more reuerent and conscionable in the entertainment of the Arke then the other Wee heard of the taking downe of the Arke by the Bethshemites when it came miraculously to them we doe not heare of any man sanctified for the attendance of it as was done in this second lodging of the Arke Grace is not tied either to number or meanes It is in spirituall matters as in the estate Small helpes with good thrift enrich vs when great patrimonies lose themselues in the neglect Shiloh was wont to be the place which was honoured with the presence of the Arke Euer since the wickednesse of Elies Sonnes that was forlorne and desolate and now Kiriath-iearim succeeds into this priuiledge It did not stand with the royall liberty of God no not vnder the Law to tie himselfe vnto places and persons Vnworthinesse was euer a sufficient cause of exchange It was not yet his time to stirre from the Iewes yet he remoued from one Prouince to another Lesse reason haue we to thinke that so God will reside amongst vs that none of our prouocations can driue him from vs c. Israel which had found the misery of Gods absence is now resolued into teares of contrition and