mercies of a God The Holy One of Israel See 5. Observ Such is the love God bears to his Church and people That he doth not onely put his Name upon his people but takes his peoples name upon himself It is much that Israel should be called The Israel of God but that God should be called The God of Israel The Holy One of Israel This is above all admiration Yet further I have sent to Babylon sc by the Ministery of Cyrus to deliver Israel out of prison The Babylonians thought Israel as sure from starting as ever Herod thought Peter Acts 12.6 at what time He committed him to four quaternions of souldiers and bound him with two chains between two souldiers intending to have brought him forth the next day to be tryed for his life And poor Israel gave themselves for lost too they thought it was as possible for a dead man to break out of his grave as for them to get out of captivity the more was their unbelief and God took it very unkindly having made them such gracious promises of deliverance Ezek. 37.11 Behold they say said God to his Prophet our bones are dried and our hope is lost we are cut off for our parts And yet notwithstanding you see God had a way and a means beyond all expectation for their enlargement He had an Army ready for this service that neither the Babylonians nor Israel little dreamt of It is an observation of it self 6. Observ When no way of deliverance appears to humane reason God hath wayes in store by him for the Redemption of his Church and people out of those evills which seem to threaten inevitable ruine and destruction Again I have sent Cyrus went and yet God sent He went voluntarily carried on by his own lusts His pride his covetousnesse and unsatisfiable ambition Hab. 2.5,6 and yet God sends him upon a design which he little thought of To let his Israel out of prison From whence 7. Observ Gods holy ends and mans sinfull ends may sweetly concur in the same action And it may teach us this point of prudence Wisely to distinguish between what is Gods and what is mans in the same action Man doth foolishly many times God doth wisely man weakly God powerfully man trecherously God faithfully man sinfully God most righteously This will keep us from justifying the miscarriages of men and yet from murmuring against the wise and righteous dispensations of God I have brought down their Barres i.e. as you have seen all the power and strength of Babylon 8. Observ From thence you may take an eighth Observation viz. The strongest and scuningly most inconquerable impediments and obstructions that stand in the way of the Churches deliverance shall he all broken in peices and become as dirt when Gods time of deliverance is come Take the word as it is translated Their Nobles that is The King and Princes of Babylon So translated from their Office and that will make a ninth Observation sc 9. Kings and Princes and the Nobles of a Land they ought to be as Towers and Barres strength and safety to a Kingdom and Nation The more sad and deplorable is the condition of that people whose Governours are such as are described Isai 1.23 Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of theeves c. Zeph. 3.3 Zeph. 3.3 And Her Princes within her are roaring Lions and her Judges are Evening Wolves c. The Lord have mercy on such a people But from the whole take this 10 and last Observation In the mighty concussions and subversions of the Empires and Monarchies of the World God carries on the designes of his Churches deliverance and enlargement Or thus God for his Church and peoples sake will not spare to dash Nations and Kingdoms all to peices in the day of his power and jealousie For your sake have I sent to Babylon and brought down c. I shall not be able in such straits of time to travell through the Historicall part of this Doctrine and to shew you by an induction of particulars how in the breaking and destruction of Kingdoms and Nations God hath carried on the designe of his Churches enlargement Who raised up the righteous man from the East called him to his foot gave the Nations before him and made him rule over Kings he gave them as dust to his Sword and as driven stubble to his Bow So is it said of Abraham and the story you have Gen. 14. where you shall finde five Kings with their Armies and spoil given as dust to Abrahams sword for Abrahams sake and the rescue of Lot his Brothers son who was then carried captive by the numerous and potent enemy From that time forward travell through the Scripture and you shall finde the ruines of Egypt Bashan the Amorites and all the Kingdoms of Canaan Palestina Syria and Assyria Babylon both Old and New Babylon Ethnick and Babylon Antichristian with other Monarchies and Empires of the World standing as so many Monuments and Witnesses of this truth All that I intend in the Doctrinall part of this discourse is to open unto you the meaning of this expression For your sakes And I will be the shorter in it that I may have the more time to bestow in the Use Excludit his verbis omnem popult dignitatem ne quid suo merito se adeptum fuisse glorietur Calv. For your sakes I have sent c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Propter vos for you or for your sake We must be sure to exclude all thought of merit in this and the like expressions As when God promised Abraham to spare Sodom for fifty sake and for fourty sake Gen. 18.26,29 And to defend Jerusalem for his own sake and his servant Davids sake 2 King 20.6 The worth and merit of the creature must be laid in the dust But for you or for your sake in this place may mean three things For your sake a threefold sence 1. First For your sake i.e. In propitiationem vestram In your stead or for your propitiation and attonement as it were Pro hostia vel victima piaculari So you have it more cleerly in the third Verse of this 43 of Isaiah I gave Egypt for thy ransome Ethiopia and Seba for thee i. e. For a propitiatory Sacrifice as it were to appease my wrath towards thee which the Antients were wont to call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 homines facinorosi pro Patriae lustratione morti devoti qui diris execrationibus obruti magno cum totius populi tripudio interficiebantur Steph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacri Homines Budaeus such men who in the time of publike and common plagues were either devoted to death by the people or did willingly devote themselves to appease as they imagined the anger of their gods who were called Sacri homines or devota capita among the Latines men cursed and devoted to death to be
A SERMON PREACHED Before the Honourable House OF COMMONS At WESTMINSTER August 22. 1645. Being the day appointed for their Solemn Thanksgiving unto God for his several Mercies to the Forces of the Parliament in divers parts of the Kingdome In the Gaining of the Towns of Bath and Bridgewater and of Scarborough-Castle and Sherborn-Castle and for the dispersing of the Clubmen and the good Successe in Pembroke-shire By Thomas Case Preacher at Milkstreet and one of the Assembly of Divines LONDON Printed by Ruth Raworth for Luke Fawne at the signe of the Parrot in Pauls Church-yard 1645. To the Honourable the House of Commons assembled in Parliament IT was Asa's sin and it stands as a blot upon him to this day that he imprisoned the Seer for dealing faithfully with him in a message from the Lord 2 Chro. 16.7,8,9,10 It hath been your exceeding honor worthy Patriots and there be monuments enough of it published in Print to all the World that you have not onely pardoned but encouraged those Hanani's which God hath sent and you invited to this Service to deliver unto you the whole Counsel of God It was never heard yet and I am consident it never shall that any man hath become your enemy or you his for telling you the truth And therefore let me tell you one truth more It is as great a sin to imprison the Truth as to imprison the Prophets that deliver it Gal. 4.16 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vsurpatur de iis qui in carcere custodia detinenur as Gen. 39.20 As it hath been your honour before men that you have not imprisoned the Prophets let it be your honour before God that you do not imprison the Truth 2 Thes 2.10,11,12 O receive the Truth in the love of it and it shall preserve you from believing lies You have by you a Treasury or Library of Parliament Sermons in which you have many choice directions and encouragements in the Service to which God and the Kingdom have called you As you have heard them hearken to them as you have Printed them so consult with them I presume you Printed them for that end If you do indeed obey the voice of God in them they will witnesse for you if when you have heard Gods will you will do your own you have set up so many monuments like Joshua's stone Josh 24.26,27 to witnesse against you in the day of your accompt As for these poor hudled Labours they are prest to serve you though not with so much skill as others yet with as much sincerity as any as the Author himself who whatever he is is Your Honours both in Life and Death THOMAS CASE A Sermon of Thanksgiving for the taking of Bridgewater and Sherborn Castle in the West ISAI 43.14 Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer the holy One of Israel For your sakes have I sent to Babylon and have brought down all their Nobles and the Caldeans whose cry is in the ships IT is the glory of God Hab. 3.2 That in the midst of Judgement he remembreth Mercy This glory of God beams it self forth most beautifully in the later part of this Evangelical Prophecie from the 40 Chap. to the end This people of Israel were as yet hardly in Captivity nay the Prophets of God were but foretelling of it in their Sermons to the people when God sends this Gospel-Prophet Isaiah with an Olive-branch of good tydings in his mouth promises of redemption and deliverance out of Captivity as so many Cordials and Preservatives to prevent desponding and despairing thoughts as if God meant utterly to cast off his people and to leave them to miscarry and perish in Babylon My Text is one of those promises wherein though the Captivity as I say were not yet begun God speaks of it as if it were already expired and Israel already rescued and redeemed out of it Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer the holy One of Israel For your sakes I have sent to Babylon c. The opening of the Text. I will briefly open the words to you and then drive up such Observations as they will naturally afford some on whereof I will single out for the Subject of my present Discourse Thus saith the Lord Jehovah he that hath power enough to make good his promises for he is Jehovah The Fountain of Beings his own and every things else that hath a being and therefore is able to give a being to his promises Your Redeemer The God and Creator of all things and of all men but Your Redeemer that redeems you from Hell and Wrath to come That redeemed you from Egypt and from all the Nations whither you have been carried away captive and will redeem you from Babylon also He is willing as well as able for he is your Redeemer The holy One of Israel Holy in himself essentially holy Holy in his Covenant and Promises Therefore called The holy One of Israel i. e. faithfull in Covenant made with Abraham Isaac and Israel There is his sidelity For your sakes I shall open to you the meaning of that expression anon more seasonably and fully then I can do here I have sent to Babylon c. By the hand of Cyrus King of the Medes and Persians A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descendit diciturde inferiore conditione servi ture subjectione And have brought down i.e. by Cyrus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descendere feci I have caused to come down or I have brought into subjection c. All their Nobles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I finde diversly translated as indeed the word is capable of various significations Ar. Montanus Calo c. Some translate it Fugitivos descendere feci fugitivos universos ipsos I have brought down or caused to come down all their fugitives because the Hebrew root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies fugere to flie In Conjugatione Kal. Others translate it vectes Bars metaphorically because a bar doth as it were flee from one side of the gate or door to another Thus God promises Cyrus Isai 45.2 I will break in pieces the gates of Brasse and cut in sunder the Bars of Iron 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat vectis quia transcurrit quase fugit ab uno extremo ad aliud Thereupon I conceive it is that * Sanches some do render it impedimenta remoras c. all those impediments and obstructions which as so many bars or bolts did hinder so long the Expedition of Cyrus into Babylon One whereof was the River Euphrates which impediment or bar was removed or taken away by diverting of that River into divers other Chanels made and prepared on purpose beforehand by the Army of Cyrus that very night in which the Babylonians were carowsing and drinking themselves drunk in their security whereby the Medes and Persians came in upon them and slew them while they little dream'd of any possibility of the enemies accesse that way into
devoured Amos 7.4 the great deep and eaten up a part Ireland almost consumed and a great part of England and Scotland laid waste I say God hath so broken and brought them down that we may in a great part translate the words in my Text as some do Calvin and others Omnes illi fugitivi They are all fugitives Flie bâ—yond Sea God hath made many of them flie and others of them fall before you and your Armies so that that Prophesie seems to reckon upon our times Isaiah 5.9 In mine ears saith the Lord of Hosts of a truth many Houses shall be desolate even great and fair without Inhabitant Or if we take Bariach for Muri Turres porta omniaque munimenta Hath not God brought them down and laid them low as flat as ever the Walls of Jericho before your Armies I want time and memory to list and file up the names of those strong Holds and seemingly impregnable Fortifications which God hath brought down even of late and delivered up into the hands of your Armies to passe by in silence these great things done formerly since the beginning of these Civill Wars Shrewsbury Leicester Scarborough Pomtefract Stoakeley-Castle in Shropshire Cannon Froom taken by our Brethren of Scotland The Garrison at Highworth Church in Wiltshire Bridgewater Bathe and Sherborn-Castle some of the mercies which we this day celebrate And thus God hath brought down their Bars in every sense There is another word in the Text that we must take in and that is The Chaldeans i. e. All the Military strength and forces of Babylon the Armies that the King of Babylon had raised in all his Empire to make resistance against the Medes and Persians ut supra And hath not God brought down these also before your Victorious Forces Not to mention Edgehill Newbury York c. Surely the marchings of your new Model under that renowned Generall Sir Thomas Fairfax that despised and despaired Army despised of enemies and despaired of by friends have been like the marchings of Joshua and the Army of Israel under his conduct of whom it is said when once Achan the Troubler of Israel was discovered and removed in the tenth of Joshua He went and took it and smote it he went and took it and smote c. Seven or eight times over And may we not reckon up seven or eight as glorious marches and successes within seven or eight weeks He went to Naseby-field and took and smote and from Naseby-field to Leicester and took it and smote it and from thence our Joshua passed to the siege of Taunton and took and delivered it from being smitten and from thence to the enemy in the field of Langport and took them and smote them and from thence to Bridgewater and took it and smote and from thence to Bathe and took it and smote it and from thence to Sherborn-Castle and took it and smote it save onely that did not lie so expressely in the Commission of this Joshua to smite as it was in the Commission of that Joshua which you may read Deut. 7.2 And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them thou shalt make no Covenant with them nor shew mercy unto them The sword of our Joshua hath shewn more mercy And I wish it may so convince and gain the poor deceived people in the West and other places that they will not stand out to their own destruction Never History since Joshua's dayes can file up so many glorious Victories upon such long and tedious marches accomplished by one Army in so short a time The fruits whereof are 1. The breaking in pieces the strongest Armies that the King had in this Kingdom which scorned and cursed your new Model as much as ever the great Philistine did little David but God made it a formidable instrument in his hand such a one one would think that very instrument prophesied of by the Prophet Isaiah Isa 41.15 Behold saith God I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth thou shalt thresh the mountain and beat them small and shalt make the hills as chaff A new instrument indeed this was after your old was broken and it had teeth The proud enemy thought it was a toothlesse instrument that could not bitte but they have felt to their cost that it hath teeth sharp teeth Surely these teeth have torn their flesh and broke their bones in peices and it hath thresht the mountains I think those mountains and hills those proud presumptuous and blasphemous Armies have been pretty well thresht by this New instrument in the hand of our Redeemer it hath beaten them even to dust and chaff in the high places of the field Is there any of them here that jeered and scorned that New Instrument that have despised that New Model as if it consisted of a company of feeble unskilfull boys rather then men of War Sir go home and learn to confesse The Lord of Hosts can make better Souldiers in a few days then the Prince of Orange can do in many yeers 2. A second fruit is the relieving of our distressed friends in divers parts of the Kingdom who cried unto our Generall as sometime the Gibconites did unto Joshua Come down quickly and save us for all the Kings of the Amorites are upon us And truely it may be said of our worthy Generall as then of Joshua Josh 10.9 He came up suddenly and went up from Gilgal all night Yea many days and nights did our Armies and their worthy Commanders march to the relief of their Brethren whose destruction else would have filled the Land with the saddest lamentations that ever have been heard in England since the beginning of this unnaturall War 3. The dispersing of the Club-men a Plot of as dangerous and desperate an aspect as any since these Troubles began and that the Contrivers of it whoever they were knew well enough and had providence cast that successe upon the enemie which he hath mercifully and miraculously blest and honoured your Armies withall we had known to our sorrow before this time 4. The great and gracious hopes of a full and speedy regaining of the West the poor almost-desolate West which was as a garden of Eden before the enemy but behinde him a desolate Wildernesse My Brethren behold a wonder our Sun contrary to the course of Nature is risen in the West where we were afraid it was going if not gone down But God hath wrought in as much wonder and more mercy for us as once for Joshua He hath commanded the Sun stand still in the West yea as once for Hezekiah he hath brought it back by many degrees which it was gone down in the Western Horizon 5. A fifth fruit is The opening of the passages of Trade and Traffick which a long time have been obstructed to the great impoveaishing of this City and divers other Cities and Towns in the Kingdom
therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do and utter evill O draw out your sword to execute judgement against such enemies of Jesus Christ That others may hear and fear and do no more so wickedly Fifthly For the Lords sake Look to his poor Members that suffer O hear the complaints of your poor Brethren that are opprest by inferiour Committees in any part of the Kingdom that none that sit under your shadow may have just cause to say You have pull'd down one Star-Chamber and set up hundreds Look to your wounded Souldiers to the poor women that have been made widows and children that have been made fatherlesse in the Parliaments Service Their cry is gone up to Heaven O let their cry enter into your ears Look to these Families many whereof have been of good estates that by this unnaturall War and for owning you and your work have been driven from their habitations destitute and naked and have fled to this City of Refuge so God hath made London to seek for shelter and relief Or O that you would give us leave to look to them and provide for them by making some other provisions for your wounded Souldiers that the Collections in the City might be imployed for the relief of such as are ready to give up the ghost at our doors or lie languishing at home chusing rather almost to die then to discover their wants and necessities Know ye not that thousands are ready to perish for want of bread among us and we have not wherewith to relieve their souls This is a work that much concerns Jesus Christ for he hath said it Matth. 25.45 In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these ye have done it unto me Sixthly For the Lords sake Stand by your friends and the friends of Christ and his Cause Herein you stand by Jesus Christ himself The enemy have gained much but the God would not suffer them to keep it by their fidelity or policy rather to their friends O come not short of them in point of fidelity nor let the children of this world be alwayes wiser in their generations then the children of light Let none have just cause to say We suffer for our good will to the Parliament if you can help it You have the better Cause stand by it and it will stand by you I come now to speak a word in the last place to all that stand before God this day and the whole people of this Kingdom God hath done great things for your sakes also as you have heard And now what will you do for the Lords sake There be but two or three things that in this strait of time I shall commend to you as proper returns for these great deliverances and victories First Since God hath brought down your enemies abroad do you labour to bring down his enemies at home God hath avenged you in the blood of base and wicked men do you avenge God in the blood of your base and sinfull lusts God hath pulled down the strong holds of your enemies and made them fall before you do you down with these strong holds within every one of you 2 Cor. 10.5,6 whereby Jesus Christ hath been kept out of your hearts Brethren better it is to perish by the lusts of our enemies then by our own lusts and better the enemy had prevailed and blasphemed God with their tongues then we delivered to reproach and blaspheme God by our lives Hear what an angry question God asks Jer. 7.9,10 Will ye steal murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and burn Incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom we know not and come and stand before me in this house which called by my Name and say We are delivered to do all these abominations O let us not be the reproach of victories let us not sin against much lesse sin upon sin because of our deliverances It is pity fair weather should do any harm Deut. 32.6 Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unwise O let us put these lusts to flight to death whose cry hath been in Gods ears calling for vengeance so long on us and on the Nation God hath given us the heads of our enemies let us give God the heads of our corruptions Secondly God hath made our enemies a Sacrifice for us and we are as the Scape-Goat as Isaac Rom. 12.1 I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God wichh is your reasonable service This is indeed a reasonable service that he that hath redemeed us should have us 1 Cor. 6.20 Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and souls which are Gods Thirdly Let us still own the Cause which we see God still owns and serve it with our Estates our Counsells our Prayers our persons and if need be our lives and blood Christ hath not deserted us let not us desert Christ And to this purpose Let us all both Parliament and people Remember our Covenant Let us often read over our Covenant and live up with our Covenant and act up with our Covenant and reform up with our Covenant It is a fearfull thing to let a Covenant lie by the walls as worm-eaten Paper it is a fearfull thing to take a Covenant as it were for no other end then to aggravate our sins that as the Light turns sin into rebellion so the Covenant might aggravate rebellion into perjury How may we expect for this That God should strengthen the hand and sharpen the sword of the enemy which for a while he hath in mercy weakned and blunted and let it in upon us with Commission Levit. 26.25 To avenge the quarrell of the Covenant O let us be wise to Salvation and say with David Psal 116.12,14 What shall I render to the Lord for all his mercies I will pay my vows unto the Lord And again Psal 56.12 Thy vows are upon me O God I will render praise unto thee Now therefore holy Bretheren Partakers of the Heavenly Calling let us every one in our stations and callings stir up our selves to be active for God who hath been mighty for us And for your encouragement take this precious and I hope prevailing motive it is the hint and evidence I promised you even now and with which I will conclude Hereby we shall know that we are of the number of those for whose sake God hath done these great things and will do yet greater when we finde our hearts raised and enlarged to do great things for him By this we may know God doth all for us when we do all for him He hears us when we have an heart to hear him If we finde such a frame of heart here is comfort indeed Deliverances and deliverances for our sake Victories and victories not onely by divine leave but with divine love love to our persons and love to our prayers c. These be deliverances indeed Victories worth the having victories of Gods Israel Gen. 32.28 such as of Jacobs wrestlers have become Israels Princes to prevail with God and men O let us study this It is the spirituall and the best part of our mercies a divine impression and argument of the love of God upon our spirits Surely There is not a more glorious sight on this side Heaven then to see a God doing great things for a people and a people doing great things for their God The Lord be such a God to us and make us such a people to him and we are happy for ever Amen FINIS