not wrought enough upon the Romanists who are guilty of grosse idolatry so on the other side it hath wrought too much upon some zealous Professors who fearing superstition and idolatry dare scarce shew any external reverence to God himself either when they come into Gods house or when they come to Gods Table Yet the Angel that would not be worshipped said Worship thou God and that is all the Church exacteth not an inward Worship only but an outward also commanded in the second Commandment Vers 20. But the Lord is in his holy Temple let all the earth keep silence before him The Temple of Gods holinesse is understood here as you have heard two ways 1. For the Temple at Jerusalem 2. For heaven In both let all tremble before him This is the second part of the Antithesis True Religion containing two parts 1. Where God is 2. What duty is owing to him 2. He is in his Temple at Jerusalem Vbi est and in all other Temples dedicate to his service For the Temple at Jerusalem he appointed the making of it and chose the man to whose care he committed the trust of the work David might not do it but Solomon was the man When it was finished and Solomon had assembled the People to the consecration of it and prayed there God answered the Prayer of Solomon with a visible expressure of his Presence for a cloud filled the house it was filled with the Glory of God But some of our Sectaries say there is no need of Churches for Gods publick service there is neither precept nor example in Scripture for it but the words of Christ to the woman of Samaria leave it at large The houre cometh and now is John 4.23 when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Saint Augustine calleth this heresie in the Massilians that they denied the use of Temples because Christ foretold that the use of the Temple at Jerusalem should cease which was a shadow of things to come In the Old Testament beside the Cathedral and Mother-Church the People had their Synagogues for their meetings to Gods service which continued even to and in Christs time Christ himself designed a place for that meeting wherin he celebrated the last Passeover and instituted the Sacrament of his Supper The Disciples had a place of meeting wherein Christ twice found them the first day of the week The persecutions of those times gave no sodain liberty to settle a Church and to erect Temples nor that I can read for the first 200 years after Christ were any Temples built Yet before the persecutions ceased they had erected Oratories for their meeting to Prayer and hearing of the Word for in the tenth Persecution under Dioclesian Euseb 8.2 An. Reg. 19. Mense Martio he made an Edict for the pulling down of the Temples of the Christians But under Constantine when Christian religion had the favour of Authority regal then Concurrebant populi ad populos quasi os ad os Ecclesiae quae antea impiis tyrannorum machinis destructae fuerant redivivae c. Then the People came together Eus 10.2 And ever since the Church hath continued this practise of maintaing Oratories for the meeting of the Congregations for the praise and service of God There is warrant enough from the example of the Church and the Authority thereof to maintain this holy practice Those places be the Temples of Gods holinesse the houses of God separate from all common use to the holy service of God And God who by his Omnipotency filleth all places is in our Churches by a more special presence for if the Glory of God filled the Temple in the time of the Law why may we not believe that in the light of the Gospel he reveileth his Presence more because the place wherein we serve God is Gods house and all Civil and common use of it is resigned to consecrate it to Gods service If God be present where two or three are assembled surely where there is a meeting of a full Congregation he is present with a special presence And therefore it hath ever been esteemed a pious charity in those that have been founders enlargers restorers or adorners of Churches as Saint Origen saith quam gloriosum est si dicatur in Tabernaculo domini Illius fuit hoc aurum hoc argentum In ex 25. Hom. 13. c Rursus quam indecorum ut dominus veniens nihil muneris tui inveniat in eo nihil a te cognoscat oblatum Ego optarem si fieri posset esse aliquid meum in auro quo arca contegitur Nollem esse infoecundus c. These houses of God are the temples of his holinesse where the name of God is declared to the Church wherein God by his Spirit speaketh to the Churches in the outward ministry of the word where the holy ones of God do speak to God by the same Spirit in prayers in hymnes and spiritual songs where the sacrifices of righteousnesse are offered And herein is that gracious Prophecy of Isay fulfilled which our Saviour alleadgeth in the Gospel For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people Observe Isa 56 7. here is not only oratio prayer which is cultus divinus divine worship but here is Domus mea my house a place designed for the worship of God and that for all people This cannot be made good in the temple of Jerusalem nor in any one Church but must determine both the extent and dilatation of Gods worship and the designation of fit houses for the same Another like Prophecy we have before in Isay It shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountains of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 and shall be exalted above the hils and all nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say come ye and let us go up to the top of the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Sion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem The common exposition is that after the returne of the people of Israel from the 70 years captivity in Babylon then Religion and Gods Worship shall be setled at Ierusalem But observe how this exposition shriveleth up the promise of grace for this is not all He saith this shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last time and he addeth that all nations shall flow to it and he saith not that one mountain but The mountains of the Lord shall be established which must needs be understood of the Churches of the Christians to which the faithful should resort For further proof hereof read Micha 4. where you shall find this Prophecy totidem verbis Vers 1.2 in so many words and a commentary upon it Micah 5.
stormy winde and the tempest as David saith the flood of many waters shall not come neare them This faith he builds upon a good foundation For 1. From the eternity of God he may conclude that the love wherewith he loveth his Church is an eternal love and therfore not to be subject to the power of time 2. From the holinesse of God he may conclude that all the faithful Jews being an holy seed shall have his favour Against this it may be objected that God hath revealed himself to the contrary for he hath before threatned to raise up the Chaldaeans a fierce and terrible nation that shall go through the bredth of the land and shall run like an Eagle and an evening wolfe only for prey What hope then can there be against these The Prophet answereth that objection Thou hast ordained them for judgement and mighty God thou hast established them for correction That is God by his might hath armed them against the Jews to execute his judgement on them and for castigation and correction of them Vers 13. not for eradication He proceedeth then to expostulate and dispute with God concerning this judgement to be executed upon the Jews by the Chaldaeans Thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity This is a further Confession of the holinesse of God to whom he attributeth pure eyes such as cannot behold evil and look upon iniquity because that holinesse cannot approve ill and that justice cannot wink at it and leave it unpunished Otherwise videre malum non est malum to see evil is not evil Gods general view of all things doth set his eye upon the good and evil So the Sun shineth upon the just and the unjust but God is a God that loveth not iniquity neither shall evil dwel with him he abhorreth all them that work wickednesse David saith His soule abhorreth them So that the Prophet here acquitteth God from any hand in the evil of these Chaldaeans although he stirreth them up against the Jews he is wise to use them as instruments of correction but he is too pure and holy to be Partaker in their sins From hence groweth the Expostulation following Seeing thou art so pure and holy that thou abhorrest evil and hatest all the workers of iniquity Why dost thou look upon them that deale treacherously Why dost thou O holy and just God look on whilst the Chadaean betrayeth thy People Mr. Calvin reads Transgressores Montanus Praevaricatores Jun. Perfidos whom the Kings Bible followeth This the Prophet Isaiah calleth a grievous vision The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously Isa 21.2 and the spoiler spoileth For the Chaldaean did invade the Jew both cunningly by treason and violently by force He urgeth God further Why holdest thou thy tongue when the wicked man that is the Chaldaean an idolater and a bloody man devoureth the man that is more righteous then he that is devoureth the Jew who as bad as he is is a better man and more righteous then the Chaldaean He wondreth at the softnesse and forbearance of God that can see and be silent to behold so much iniquity He proceedeth in his complaint Vers 14. Thou makest man as the fishes in the sea where the great ones do prey upon the small ones and as the creeping things that have no ruler over them and therefore feed upon one another who have no law to awe them but quo quis est valentior eo violentior so the Jews are to the Chaldaeans a prey But the words following do shew another thing intended not a reference of these creatures one to another but all of them to the fisherman so the sense is thou seemest to esteem the Jew no more then thou dost the fishes on the sea or the creeping things on the earth For it followeth They take up all of them with the angle Vers 15. they catch them in their net and gather them in their dragge The Chaldaeans are the Fishermen the Jews the fishes and for these they have 1 The Angle whereby is meant their fishing for a single Person 2. Their net let fall to catch more 3. Their dragge for whole sholes of fish so that here is no evasion he that escapeth the angle shall fall into the net or if he escape the net the drag shall sweep him away and bring him to the shore So that he reby all way of evasion seemeth stopped against the Jew he is put into the hand and power of the Chaldaean as a draught of fish into the hand of the Fisherman And all this while the Fisherman thinketh he doth no man wrong as the Poet saith Nec patitur Tyrrhenum crescere piscem For the fish of the sea is esteemed his that can catch him so shall the Chaldaean fish Judâ—a as if the Jews were fishes not men and as if there were no Providence to take care of them no owner to call them his Therefore they rejoyce and are glad There is no compassion in them of chaldaea toward the Jew but as the Fisherman rejoyceth in his draught of fishes and never looketh upon them with any pity of their lives but is glad that he hath gotten them So shall the Chaldaean be glad when the Jews are in his net that he may carry them into captivity This victory doth not only make the Chaldaean glad but he is proud too and boasteth in his own strength and attributeth his prevailings to his own power as it followeth Therefore they sacrifice unto their net Vers 16. and burn incense unto their dragge that is they do thank their own arme and armies for their victories and as Iob saith They kisse their own hands because thereby they come to have a fat portion and plenty of meat so that they give no glory to God yea before the Prophet saith from the mouth of God that they would ascribe the prosperity of their warres to their god i.e. to their idol now they will grow so proud that they will thank their own wit and power for all The Prophet concludeth with a passionate expostulation Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the Nations Vers 17. Seeing they are a People so lawlesse so mercilesse so proud O Lord wilt thou give way to them still and shall they possesse all that they catch which he calleth emptying of their net and shall they not spare continually to slay the nations Shall they passe thus from nation to nation and shall they still conquer is all fish that comes into their net De verborum interpretatione bactenus In the further handling of this section I observe as in the former two things 1. The summe and contents of the whole section 2. The parts thereof 1. The summe hereof is this whereas the Prophet at first beholding the sins of the Jews was moved with an holy indignation against them and with zeal of Gods glory which turned him into a chiding
into the red sea The most that we read of Moses concerning any art in naturall Philosophy is that Moses was brought up in all the wisedome of the Aegyptians and no man thinketh that he got all their wisedome from them how then did not the wisedome of the Aegyptians at time serve the Aegyptians themselves when this was done 6 Another memorable miracle of this passage was that before all Israel had recovered the further shore the same passage was safe to Israel and pernitious and fatall to the Aegyptians which appeared 1 Because God did not let the waters come together to hinder the Aegyptians pursuit but kept them divided till they vvere all within the verge of the sea for this God could have done as it after follovveth 2 That to hinder their journey of pursuit God turned the pillar of Cloud behind Israel between them and the Aegyptians so that Israel led the vvay by a clear light the Aegyptians follovved them in the dark 3 That their chariot vvheels vvere smitten off in the night so that they drove uneasily 4 That the vvaters came together upon their consultation to return and drovvned them all before all the children of Israel had recovered the further shore 7 The last memorable wonder was the casting up of the bodies of the Egyptians upon the further shore which Israel had recovered and whereon they pitched to make good the word of Moses you shall see them no more that is living to terrifie you thus Israel saw what God had done for them and their eyes had it desire against their enemies All these be things worth remembring 3 He addeth another wonderful mercy in cleaving the earth with rivers which hath reference as you have heard to Numb 20.11 In which 1 It is wonderfull that God hearing the murmur of his people for want of water had not punished their sin with present death but did choose rather to give them their hearts desire and to satisfie them with water 2 That he made the rock to yield them water which did not naturally but by vertue of his word 3 That it should have been done so easily as by a word of Moses that it was done so easily as by twice smiting 4 That those waters did follow the hoast to relieve it all the way of their journey till they had other supply as also the Manna did till they came to come in Canaan so these waters ran into no sea 5 That these rivers dryed up after Israel and no shew of any river ever since vvhere these vvaters ran in dry places to shevv vvho ordained that stream and for whom Though God hath had his praise for all the things before yet they desire Canticum novum a new song Here and here it is work for the rector Chori 2 The motive that induced God to do all this for his people 1 Affirm exprest in two things internus motor 1 His desire of the preservation of his Israel For he did ride upon his Horses and Chariots of salvation Pharaoh followed Israel into the red Sea on horses and in chariots these were the horses and chariots of destruction God took off their wheels and they failed in their speed But God went forth with salvation Israel could not but see in all these wonderfull works of God that God was for them 1 In their setting forth to bring them out of the house of bondage even through the sea 2 In the way of their journey to quench their thirst in the dry and unwatered wilderness 3 At their journeys end to open them a passage into the promised land through Jordan Israel is a type of the Catholique Church of God on earth and their passage from Egypt to Canaan is a type of our passage from the wombe to heaven and God is the same his Church is as dear to him as ever it was and he hath taken upon him the care of it He is called by Job The preserver of men especially of his elect Here are onely mentioned three of the most eminent wonders of God there were many more which David repeated Psal 105 106. All these were the effects of the free favour of God to his people Ps 106.21 whereby he got the name of a Saviour And thâ— Psalmist prayeth Remember me Ps 106.4 O Lord with the favour that thou bearest to thy people O visit me with thy saluation This was a singular favour for he saith also Non fecit taliter he did not so to any Nation That I may see the good of thy chosen Verse 5. that I may rejoyce in the gladness of thy Nation that I may glory with thine inheritance For this favour of God to his Church is a speciall grace above his universall protection This it is that the Spouse of Christ doth pray for Set me as a seal on thy heart Cant. 8.6 and as a Signet upon thine arm That wish of the Church then was thus and is now an Article of Faith that prayer was then and now is our Creed But much more evidently hath this eternall love of God to his Church in Christ Jesus shewed it self since Christ our Saviour was made manifest in the flesh and much more hath it extended and dilated it self since he was believed on of the Gentiles and preached to the world For when God once had fitted him with a body and therewith had given him a heart like ours and such an arm as we have and such hands it hath been more discerned how we were set as a seal upon that heart how we are worne upon that arm how we are ingraven in the Palms of those hands For that heart was pierced with a spear those hands were nailed to the Crosse and these be the stamps and Characters of his love to us And as the affection of love is noted to be most vehement in a woman as David doth imply when he bewailed Jonathans death Thy love to me was wonderfull passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 so our Saviour to take upon him this affection in the dearest tenderness and most intense measure and degree is said to be made of a woman and she a Virgin And that sin might not corrupt this affection Ga. 4.4 or harden the heart He was conceive by the Holy Ghost The Church doth well to remember this interest that God gave them in this land for there out suck they no small advantage This calls God the God of Israel and it cals Israel Gods peculiar people this doth spread the wings of this Hen over all her Chickens and gathereth them together under the same it makes them roome in the bosome of God 2 Another motive vvas the oaths of the tribes even Gods Word that is the covenant of God made vvith Abraham and his seed for so the Psalmist doth expresse it He hath remembred his Covenant for ever Ps 105.8 the word that he commanded to a thousand generations Which Covenant he made with
The rule therfore is that he that willeth the same thing which God willeth doth the same thing which God would have done sinneth except he willeth and doth the same thing in the same matter and for the same end which God projecteth Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus arme your selves with the same mind That mind is an armour against the wrath of God 1. Pet. 4.1 we know we cannot displease him so long as there is an harmonie of our mind with his that mind is an armour against the revenge of men for if we be abundant always in the work of the Lord we know that our labour is not Eph. 4.23 cannot be in vaine in the Lord for we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind we must not be like the axe and hammer in the hand of the artificer which knoweth not who useth it nor what he doth nor why we are living instruments and our minds must set our hands awork we must know what we do for whom and why or else our work is against our selves We do nothing but as God doth guide the hand so he frameth the heart and affections to it if he do not also enlighten our understandings and apply our minds to it we are carried as bruit beasts we are not led as men So then I leave those Chaldaeans though the armies of God at this time and doing the will of God ignorantly yet for the corruption of their intention culpable and in as ill case as they whom they persecute and overcome All the injuries that we do by word or deed to our brethren they are done with Gods privity Vse he knoweth thereof he disposeth them to their punishment who suffer by us or for the exercise of their patience or the tryal of their charity to them that hurt them or their constancie in obedience to him Let us not so much consider what good God doth work out of us to them as what evil breedeth in our heart and so no thank to Iosephs brethren that he is the second man in Aegypt All the fat of the land of Goshen and the sweet exchang of their pinching famine for a swelling plenty will not still the clamorous accusing voice of their guilty conscience for the sinne of their evil intention against their brother for as soon as their father died their fear revived they doubted that Joseph would revenge that fault The old word was animus cujusque is est quisque every mans mind is himself and so when David saith of the just man the floods of many waters shall not come near him it is expounded it shall not come so high as his mind to the disquieting thereof it shall not come so high as his faith to the weakning thereof Remember this when you pray fiat voluntas tua thy will be done that you desire of God not only a correspondence with his hand that you may do that which he would have done but correspondence of Will that you may do it for the same cause 2. How far the punishment shall extend 1. To a full Conquest 2. To a proud triumph Divis p. 78 The full Conquest is set forth vers 6. They shall march through the bredth of your land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs v 9. They shall come all for violence and shall gather together the captivity as the sand Wherin is described a full possession of the land of the Jews and a deportation of the people a losse even of the birth-right and the blessing The land of Canaan is called the land of promise for God promised it to Abraham and swore to him that his seed should inherit it but by way of Covenant which had reference to their obedience of the law of God for so Moses forewarned them If thou forget the Lord thy God c. I testifie unto you this day yee shall surely perish Deut. 8.19 as the nations which the Lord destroyeth before you so yee shall perish because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God And Moses saith unto them Behold I set before you this day Deut. 11.26 a blessing and a curse Blessing if you obey the Commandments of the Lord c. And the curse if you will not obey Now God is free of his promise and oath that he made to them for they have disobeyed him they have corrupted their ways they have contemned and slacked the Law of God therefore they have forfeited their estate in that good land and their persons stand obliged to the punishment of their disobedience The lesson is Doct. that all the promises of Gods favour to men are not absolute but conditional and are referred to the obedience or disobedience of men For man is mutable Reason God is unchangeably just he must not he cannot favour disobedience his love goes not in the blood but in the faith of Abraham Israel the posterity of Abraham is no more to him then the posterity of Canaan who had his fathers curse except that Israel do serve him better then they do He hath told them so by Moses for seeing there was no merit in them to deserve his love at first and no means for them to continue his love but their obedience that failing they are to him as heathens Christ teacheth us that if any be wilful and will not obey the Church he must be to us as an Heathen and a Publicane we can never excommunicate such ex communione charitatis out of the communion of charity for as much as in us lieth we must have peace with all men and we must never hide our selves from our own flesh and we must do good unto all men but we may we must exclude them ex Communione Ecclesia from the Communion of the Church we must not admit them to our Congregations nor esteem them members of the Church till they be reconciled Religion is the knot of true union that knitteth us to God that uniteth us to one another that once dissolved farewel fair weather we must turn all into chiding and reproof and as the Apostle saith come to them with the rod. We must complain of them to God and awake his Justice upon them So that if we would keep our land from invasion and depopulation our persons from captivity and deportation our goods from direption and deprecation let us serve the Lord in feare and obedience in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the days of our lives 2. The punishment shall extend to a proud triumph which is exprest v. 10. They shall scoffe at the Kings and the Princes shall be a scorne to them and they shall deride every strong hold This is another of Gods rods Doct. he punisheth the despisers with scorne and contempt as you heard out of Obadiah Behold I have made thee small Vers 2. thou art greatly despised Therefore Saint Paul repeating this prophecie doth by way of
no divided hearts 3. Thou mistakest the cause of thy disease and thy Physitian for thou thinkest it to be some propension in thee to sin which needeth some preventing physick wheras it is a coroding plaister to eat out dead flesh yet flesh and blood hath many inventions we use to shoot another arrow after the first and like Balak try in anoth place and see if it will prosper there Vers 14. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 3. The effect Vide sura pag. IT is plaine that Gods remissenesse in the execution of his just judgments upon the proud and cruel Babylonians and the miserable face of the Church disfigured with tears her voyce hoarse with roaring for help her throat dry her heart aking and no relief appearing all this had not only made the ungodly and profane confident that there was no such thing as Providence but it appeareth by this Prophet that the faith of Gods children was staggered hereby But when God shall declare his justice against these his enemies then he shall recover his glory then shall they both know that Christ is the Lord both the oppressour shall know it and the delivered shall know it and they that are no parties to the cause of any side shall all understand The words of God in this text are full of marrow and fatness for God is rich in mercy aper it manum implet so he dilateth his favours 1. In the latitude all the earth over 2. In the plenitude the earth shall be filled 3. In the magnitude the knowledge of Gods glory 4. In the profundity as the waters cover the sea We are taught from hence Doctr. 1 that the delivery of Gods Church from the power of the enemies and his vengeance upon them doth give honour to the name of God upon earth so David we are in great misery Help us O God of our salvation Bs 79 9 for the glory of thy name and deliver us 1. Because if the wicked overcome the Church Reas 1 they will triumph against God So Moses Wherefore shall the Egyptians speak and say Ex. 32.12 he hath brought them out maliciously to slay them Rabshakeh the General of Senacheribs forces proudly insulteth Who is he among all the gods of these lands Is 36 20. that hath delivered their Country out of my hands But God delivering his Church and punishing the enemies thereof is magnified thereby Isa 37.20 as Ezechias did pray Now therefore O Lord our God save thou us out of his hand that all the Kingdomes of the earth may know that thou only art the Lord. 2. Because as the Schoole saith Reas 2 gloria est clara notitia cum laude and what doth more make the name of God known with praise then his present help to his Church his quick vengeance upon the enemies thereof The Heathen shall say the Lord hath done for them great things 3. Because this declareth the justice of God Reas 3 for First He is just and faithful in performing the gracious promises that he hath made to his Church Secondly He is just in the punishment of oppression and iniquity which his soul abhorreth Vse The use of the point is to teach us that whensoever we see the Church or any part thereof delivered from the hands of their enemies and so the righteous God taking vengeance upon them that we ascribe glory to God for the same Moses song is a good example of this duty for when the Egytians that pursued Israel into the red sea were covered and destroyed by the returne of the waters of the sea upon them Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord Exod. 15.1 for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider hath he throwne into the Sea This deliverance was a type of the final deliverance of the Church from all her enemies and therefore in Johns Vision it is said They sang the song of Moses the servant of God Rev. 15.3 and the song of the Lamb saying great and marvailous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints Who shall not fear thee O Lord and glorifie thy name for thou only art holy for all Nations shall come and worship before thee Verse 4. for thy judgments are made manifest We have great and gracious examples at home of this our blessed Queen of happy memory Queen Elizabeth Anno 1588 after defeat of the Spanish Armado came in person to the chief Church in her Kingdom where having upon her knees devoutly given the glory of that deliverance to God she heard the Sermon at Pauls crosse and taught her people by her godly example to know the glory of God for in those dayes Spaniards loved us not and we thought it a great favour of God to be delivered from them The like publike declaration did our Soveraign that now is make of the glory of God for the deliverance of his royal person Crown and posterity the Religion and peace of the Kingdom in the last session of that first Parliament delivered by the hand of God from the bloody designe of the Papists whose Religion was also in those times thought dangerous to this Common-wealth his speech and recognition of the protection of God is extant in print And as States and great Common-wealths have their dangers and deliverances wherein as every one that is a member thereof hath their share of benefit so from every one is growing a debt of duty Isa 38.19 to acknowledge the same so that as Ezechiah faith The father to the children shall make known the truth of God So in our particular estates we have many tastes of the sweetnesse of God in our deliverances from dangers at sea on shoare from sicknesse imprisonment infamy and many other evils which annoy our life in all which God revealeth to us the knowledge of his glory and we shall do him but right to give him as David faith the glory due to his name and to invite our brethren as David did I will tell you quid Deus fecil animae meae what God hath done to my soul Seeing God promiseth to fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of God Doctr 2 we are taught that God is glorious and so we ought to conceive of him our Saviour hath taught us so to acknowledge in the close of the Lords Prayer Tua est gloria thine is the glory St. Stephen saith The God of glory appeared to our fathers Act. 7.2 And of this God is so jealous that he saith My glory will I not give it another Hold this fast the Devill when he tempteth us to sin Isa 42 8. Reas 1. doth not finde an easier way to fetch us about then to blemish the glory of God and to dim that to our sights and
of the Jews shall be resetled there before the end of the world as it was after the return from the captivity of Babylon so that though there have been interruption of possession for so many years there shall be no impeachment of title but their right doth run on till the time appointed for the restoring of them Concerning the calling of the Jews and the restoring of them to the Church St. Paul hath prophecyed so plainly Rom. 11. as there can be no doubt thereof But for the restoring of them to the land of promise we have no good ground in holy Scripture 1 Because they have forfeited their estate therein which they held with condition of obedience When thou shalt beget children Deut 4.25 and childrens children in the land and shalt have remained long in the land and shall corrupt your selves and make a graven image or the likenes of any thing and shall do evill in the sight of the Lord thy God to provoke him to anger I call Heaven and Earth to witnesse against you this day that ye shall soon utterly perish from of the Land whereunto you goe over Jordan to possesse it ye shall not prolong your dayes upon it but shall utterly be destroyed And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations This is not without hope for as by sin they lost their inheritance there so by repentance it was recoverable When thou art in tribulation Verse 3. and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and be obedient to his voyce He will not forsake thee nor destroy thee nor forget the Covenant with thy Fathers This proves their tenure conditional and their restitution to this land after their return froÌ„ captivity was also upon the same condition of obedience as appeareth in the words of Christ How often would I have gathered thy children together Moâ—h 23.37 38 39. even as an hen gathereth her chickens under her wings and ye would not Behold the house is left unto you desolate For I say unto you you shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. That place is plain that the habitation of Jerusalem that is Domus vestra and the temple of which our God said Domus mea now become by abuse Domus vestra shall be desolate till the second comming of Christ 2 The Prophesies do speak plain Thus saith the Lord of hoasts Jer. 19.11 even so will I break this people and this city as one breaketh a potters vessell that cannot be made whole again My conclusion therefore is that Though the argument drawn from the free gift of that land to the people measuring out the same to the tribes do serve to comfort their captivity in Babylon with hope of restitution yet now in these times and ever since the dispersion of the Jews for the cause of Christ this can minister no comfort at all to that nation to promise them their land again I come to matter of instruction 1 These words aime not at the generall scope of this Section in which is declared that The remembrance of Gods former mercies is a sweet consolation of present afflictions 2 Because he nameth the measuring out of the land of Canaan to the tribes the driving in sunder the nations the scattering of the mountains the bowing of the hils 1 Docemur We are taught The best form of thanksgiving is that which maketh perticular commemoration of the mercies of God to his Church or to any member of it 2 That the matter of thanksgiving is an acknowledgment of all benefits as received from the hand and free gift of God 3 From the phrase and manner of speech here used we are taught that figurative forms of speech are in use in holy Scripture In thanksgiving 1 Doct. let us be perticular in our commemoration we have Davids example for it Prayse the Lord Psal 103.2 O my soul and forget not all his benefits so he stirreth up himself to remember them to remember them all The two Psalmes 105.106 are full examples of this perticular thankfulnesse and they are good guides to such as would learn it This is necessary Reas 1 1 Because the more perticularly we recompt the favours of God to us the more we discerne Gods love to us as in the example of this people Deut. 4. Moses saith That God had done much for this people never so much for any read from Verse 32. ad finem 38. And all those favours grew out of one root Because he loved thy Fathers It is the Apostles note Ecce quantam charitatem behold how great love Sic Deus dilexit mundum God so loved the world 2 Seeing Gods temporall favours are not always bestowed in love but are made rods to whip the ungodly Reas 2 this is a certain rule that these favours of God are evermore tokens of his love to such as are thankfull for them and to none else 3 They that keep an inventorie of their receipts Reas 3 and are always reckoning and reporting the bounty of God to them shall finde that their receipts of favours have been more and greater then their issues of prayers For how many great blessings have we from God that we never prayed for so that God giveth us much more cause of thanksgiving and prayse of his name then of prayer and supplication 4 Thanksgiving is a work of justice as David Reas 4 it well becommeth the just to be thankfull and again give to the Lord the glory due to his name that is for every perticular benefit perticular prayse and thanks Thanksgiving doth put us in mind of our unablenesse to requite God Reas 5 we cannot make him amends for his favours done to us we shall finde that our wel-doing extendeth not to him we must therefore do good to all propter Dominum for the Lord. 6 Thanksgiving doth put us in mind of our unworthinesse Reas 6 as Mephibosheth to David What is thy servant that thou shouldst look upon such a de ad dog as I am Jacob Non sum dignus I am not worthy David himself What is man 2 Sam. 9.8 that thou art so mindfull of him 7 If we will forget God will remember us as to David Reas 7 I anointed thee King over Israel I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul I gave thee thy Masters house and thy Masters wives into his bosome Domus Israel Domus Judae Surely Vse we have not well taken out the lesson of thanksgiving to God for to shuffle it up with generall God be thanked for all comes if but coldly and is a poor rependam for all the benefits bestowed upon us St. Augustine upon those words of David And forget not all his benefits saith pro quibus bonis primo quia es cum non esses sedest lapis deinde quia vivis sed vivit pecus
sed fecit te ad similitudiuem suam suum exigit retribue ei similitudinem suam in te Look to the common blessings of the God in generall upon the Church in which thou livest pay God his debt for the good he hath done before thou finde fault with the defect in it recompt what he hath done for the Common-wealth in which thou livest Looke home to thine own family to thine own person recompt thy spirituall graces thy temporall blessings consider what God hath given thee what he hath forgiven thee the preventions the subventions of his love what spirituall what temporall evils thou hast either not felt by his keeping of thee or escaped by his delivering of thee and to all and to each of these say The Lord be thanked It is a small duty that is required of us to repeat what God hath done for us 2 Doct. Hee stood and measured the Earth he drove asunder the Nations hee scattered the everlasting mountains Here wee are taught to give the whole glory and prayse of all good to God We know that Joshua brought this people into the promised land that he caused the land to be measured that he led them against the Inhabitants of God and that the people of God did valiantly yet Not unto us not unto us but to thy name give the praise We need no other reason for this Doctrine then that of St. James Reason For every good and perfect gift cometh from him Thanks are given to creatures as the ministers and instruments of God by whom he worketh the good pleasure of his will but none hath a proper right to them but God onely The Lord giveth the Lord forgiveth in both he useth the ministeriall means for both he must be thanked 1 This serveth to inform our understanding in the truth of this Doctrine Vse 1 because the ignorance hereof is the mother of unthankfulness It is Gods complaint The Oxe hath known his own the Asse his masters Crib but my people do not know Isa 1.3 c. It was charged on them in Hosea She did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oile Hos 2.8 and multiplyed her silver and gold 2 This serveth to reprove all those that ascribe the benefits which they receive to themselves Jer. 2.8 like them in the first Chapter of this Prophecy that did sacrifice to their net Hab. 1.16 and burn incense to their dragge because by them their portion is fat and their meat plenteous 3 This reproveth them that murmur for seeing God is the Author and giver of all good we must seek all from him but we must not be our own carvers we must learn to abound if the Lord giveth and to want if the Lord taketh away 4 This chideth those that repine at common blessings when they do abate any thing of their own perticuler profits Of this God hath given us a fearfull example for the last year our portion was fat and our bread plenteous great was the unthankfulness of many to God for it Then the Landlord complained he could not have his rent the Tenant that he could not pay it plenty had undone him Such is the unconscionable rack of rents generally through the Common-wealth that plenty is a punishment to many even a sharpe and smarting rod. And doth not God begin to visit our land with sudden dearth how much of the hope of the earth doth now lye in steep in the drowned earth never likely to pay the seed that the earth borrowed It is time for the Lord to pull thy hand out of thy bosome and to whet thy sword when thy mercies become burthens to the sons of men 5 This reproveth all those that study men and tender all their addresses to them seeing their advancement and establishment here on earth by the purchased love and favour of men they seek not the Lord. Did ever age sow precedents so thick for posterity of drooping declining and falling greatness Truly God is the Lord and his name onely is excellent If God must have the glory all that is done for us whatsoever is done for us must be done by him else it must needs miscarry 6 This serves to establish the hearts of those who have obteined any competency for the support of this life with contentment for if God be the giver of my daily bread and if his hand do minister to my necessities he knows best what state of life is fittest for me I will not aspire higher he knows how much will serve me I will not covet more this resolution wil give thee much peace For it casteth all thy care upon God who will never leave thee nor forsake thee 7 This also stirreth us up to walk in the obedience of the Laws of God for if we consent and obey we shall eat the good things of the land let us seek the face of God and depend upon his providence for all things let us consider the fowls of the air and the lillies of the field and wherein we are better then they even in our reasonable service of God conclude that God will not let them want any thing that lead a godly life so will he furnish us with matter of praise that we may ever be telling of his goodness from day to day Unlawful and indirect means of bettring our estates by corrupting of our consciences do break our bags and spring leaks in our Ships that we and our good perish but the fear of the Lord maketh us rich and what wanteth in the peace of the world is supplied in the peace of a good conscience 3. Doct. Figurative speeches are in use in holy Scripture this Text is full of them so is this whole Psalm I will onely note these figures which in this verse do offer themselves to us for a tast 1 It is here said that God stood This is spoken after the maner of men for when hearing and seeing and smelling and touching and tasting which are our senses are attributed to God when our parts of body our eyes ears mouth hands feet armes are given to him our motions as setting standing rising going striking and such like are spoken of God know that these be figurative forms of speech wherein the holy Ghost doth retein our weak capacities and under those forms of words doth present to our understandings the unconceiveable operations of the most high God And let us take heed that we do not conceive God in our thoughts like to man in the structure and composition of the body as the Anthropomorphites did For it is here understood by the standing of God that when he brought the people to the promised land there the progresse ended he stood there where he brought them to rest 2 It is here said that he measured the earth that is also a figurative manner of speaking wherein that is charged upon him which was done by his direction and warrant 3 He beheld and drove in
with their own staves As the Poet saith Suis ipsa Roma viribus ruit He declareth here the extent of the victory not onely to their walled Towns and defenced Cities but even to the Villages and Hamlets of the Land so that no part or corner of the Land escaped the hand of God or the possession of Israel but God who promised them that land gave it them and gave it all into their hands This as it hath a general extent to the whole story of Israels conquests so it may have a more perticular reference to the story of that war made in the behalf of the Gibeonites where the five Kings that made war against Gibeon hid themselves for safety in a cave at Makkedah and that cave chosen for safety proved a prison for their forth-coming and Joshua sent men to roule great stones to stop the mouth of the cave till he had finished the war Josh 10.16 and then he brought them forth and slew them and buried them in that cave Thus the head of the Villages were beaten with their owne staves and that cave which the Kings chose for their safety was first made the trap to catch them then the prison to hold them fast and at last the sepulcher to bury them Yet more perticular reference may it have to the conquest of the Midianites Judg. 7. for in that battail the Lord declared his strength for Israel mervellously for he said to Gideon their Captain The people that are with thee Ver. 2. are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands lest Israel vaunt themselves and say mine own hand hath saved me In conclusion God would have no more to go up against Midian but three hundred men Now the Army of the Midianites was great as appeareth in the former Chapter ver 33. Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the East together Yet God would have no more to go against Midian but three hundred men against this great Army of whom he saith before that they came as Grashoppers for multitude Judg. 6.5 for both they and their Camels were without number And they had much vexed and impoverished Israel as the story saith But Israel had the victory by those three hundred men who being divided into three Companies in the beginning of the middle watch of the night when the signe was given by Gideon every man brake a pitcher of earth that was in his hand and held their lamps in their left hands and their trumpets in their right hands to sound withall and cryed The sword of the Lord and of Gideon and they stood every man in his place And the Lord set every mans sword against his fellow throughout all the hoast Judg. 7.22 Here it is plain how God beat them with their own staves and slew them with their own swords And of them we may well understand that which followeth They that came out as a whirl-wind to scatter me their rejoycing was to devour the poor secretly for the Midianites by many direptions had made them poor and by spoiling the increase of the earth almost starved them and now they came as a whirl-wind in an army to destroy them Their secret comming to devoure the poor it is well exprest in the story And so it was when Israel had sowen Judg. 6 3. that the Midianites came up and the Amalakites and the children of the East even they came up against them And they encamped against them Verse 4. and destroyed the encrease of the Earth till thou come to Gaza and left no sustenance neither Sheep nor Oxe nor Asse Here they assaulted them secretly by sudden incursions upon them and they came out as a whirl-wind by sudden violence and they made them poor The words thus expounded we may in this part of the section consider 1 The miracle of the station of the Sun and Moon 2 The victory that followed 3 The conquest of Midian 1 Of the miracle of the station of the Sun and Moon This example of the station of the Sun and Moon Doct. 1 as attending upon the wars of the Lord doth further confirme the former Doctrine delivered out of the Verse going before that the in-animate creatures do serve the Lord and the will of God is their onely nature whether he guide them by his ordinary providence or by his speciall dispensation of extraordinary power It teacheth that God is above all second causes so that his reveale determination of means for his operations do not bind him but his Non obstante often inter-curreth by vertue of his prerogative To expresse him absolute Lord of all Reas 1 ruling all things by the word of his power that he may be both trusted and feared above all To divert us from the over-weening of our fellow creatures for many Nations having observed the good that the Sun doth on earth have worshipped the Sun and some Lunatiques have as wisely worshipped the Moon others have adored some speciall Stars as the ascendents in their nativities The Aegyptians in respect as is thought of the great profit that came of kine did worship a living bullock or calfe and of them the Israelites learned that Idolatry Herodotus tels how Cambyses comming with his conquering forces into Aegypt Thal. 76. saw the Aegyptians worshipping their calf he drew his sword and cut him on the thigh that he bled exceedingly and shortly after died Cambyses seeing this cried out in scorne of the Aegyptians O Capita nequam hujusmodi Dii existunt carne sanguine praediti ferrum sentienter dignus nimirum Aegyptiis hic Deus Thus came into the Church the worship of Angels and the Mother of our Lord and Saints and it s because they were Benefactors to the Church And after for their sakes their images were worshipped as at this day in the Church of Rome To divert us from this superstition and idolatry and to teach us to know our fellow creatures God doth alter sometimes the established order of his government and saith as Christ to his Disciples Are these the things you look upon Surely the Sun of all things is that God hath made for the use and service of God as the most glorious the most comfortable in respect of light which it giveth us from its own body and which it bendeth to the Moon and Stars and in respect of its influence so that as Ambrose calleth it Ornamentum Coeli the ornament of Heaven and Oculum mundi the eye of the world others have called it animam mundi the soul of the world as the quickner of all living things Three most memorable evidences of Gods power in the Sun are past this of the standing of it for the space of a whole day The going back of the shadow upon the dyall of Ahaz in the days of Hezechiah 2 Reg. 20.11 10 degrees And the miraculous Eclipse at the death of Christ And Christ foretelling
fear of them upon them all This is a great advantage in all wars to have God on their sides for as David saith If the Lord had not been on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us up c. Then is God a speciall protectour when he directeth his war to the good of them whom he protecteth and marcheth in fury against their enemies And thus it was with Israel when they took possession of Canaan as you have heard For they gate not the Land in possession by their own arm neither did their own arm save them Psal 44. but thy right hand and thine arme c. The distressed have a speciall warrant to call upon God and it was the voice of the Church when the Arke removed to say Exurgat Deus dissipentur inimici ejus let God arise and let his enemies be scattered God is mercifull to our land and Church that we yet live in peace it is full of comfort when God marcheth before his Church in their wars but it is much more happinesse when he biddeth us go to our chambers and shut the door after us and tarry a while till the storm of troubles over-blow But then it is most joyous hen he giveth peace within our walls and plenty within our palaces Thus have we lived hitherto by the favour of the God of peace and it shal do well that we do lay this example to heart For the same God that marched before Israel to plant them in doth now march before the Chaldâ—ans to cast them out he that fought for them to give them their land now fighteth against them to carry them captives out of the Land It is the indigâ—ation of God that maketh this change and it is their sin that thus provoketh him Yet they look back in their captivity and comfort themselves with the remembrance of Gods former protection Sin hath made this change are we more in the favour of God then Israel was or have we sinned lesse then they did that their evils should not come on us Surely the sins of our land are both many and hainous the double edge of the word which is drawn and used against them doth not draw bloud Nullus sequitur de vulnere sanguis The course that is taken for reformation is preposterous for men look without themselves and complaine of the faults of others and would faine amend their brethren but the right way is Let every one strive and labouâ— to amend one And all that say Let not this evill come upon us not the sword not the pestilence not famine let them be tender that no evill come out of them for our sins are they which part God and us which maketh him that set us up cast us down 2 His conquest This is exprest in divers phrases to declare it fierce and violent 1 Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger 2 Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked 3 Discovering the foundation to the neck All look one way to describe God in his indignation how he layes about him and they teach us that It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God for he is known by executing judgement and the heathen are punished in his sight True that he is patient and long-suffering even toward the heathen that know not God long did the cursed seed of Cham possest the land of Canaan and God deferred their punishment to the fourth generation himself giveth the reason of it For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full There be six signs of ensuing judgment Gâ— 15.16 and where they are found what remaineth but a fearfull expectation of the fierce wrath of God 1 The qualitie of the sins committed if they be of those crying sinnes which do immediately impeach the glorious Majesty of God such as are superstition and Idolatry which do give the glory of God to creatures Blasphemy breach of Gods Sabbath Or such as violate humane society sins against nature as in the Sodomites sins of bloud as in the old world sins of oppression bribery extortion corruption of justice and such like These things do put Almighty God so to it that he saith How shal I pardon thee for these things Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord Jer. 5.7 Ver. 9. shall not my soul be avenged on such a Nation as this The fields look yellow as Christ saith for the harvest and call for the sickle of Gods vengeance to cut them down 2 The spreading and extent of sins when it hath corrupted the most as in the old world God said to Noah Thee onely have I found righteous before me in this age And in Sodome not ten righteous to be found and in Jerusalem God said Run too and fro through the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places thereof if ye can find a man if there be any that executeth judgement that seeketh truth and I will pardon it The Prophet did go the circuit He searched amongst mean men and he found them foolish and ignorant he gate him amongst the great ones and he found them such as had broken the yoak When sin once covereth the face of the earth and is grown like a generall pestilence infecting the greatest part Moses Job Samuel and Daniel may pray and have no audience 3 The impudencie and boldnesse of sin when men are not ashamed of their evils that they commit to cover and conceal them to do them in the dark but brave the Sun with them as Absolon defiled the Concubines of David in the sight of the Sun and before all Israel It is Gods complaint of his people The shew of of their countenance doth witnesse against them Jer. 3 9. and they declare their sin as Sodome and they hide it not And again Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination nay Jer. 6.15 they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush Thou hast an Harlots forehead thou refusest to be ashamed 4 Ostentation of sin â—er 3.3 when men do make their boast thereof Why boastest thou thy self in mischief Upon which words Saint Augustine saith Gloria malignitatis gloria est malorum He saith it is a foolish boast to glory in evill for evill is easily done He gives many instances the care of preparing the seed and of the ground the sowing the weeding the attending how many hands it asketh and Absolon can set it all on fire in a moment So Samsons Foxes did the fields of the Philistines The Wiseman setteth it down as a fault Most men will proclaim every man his own goodnesse Prov. 20.6 how much more to boast of evil As wantons boast how many they have defiled and drunkards how many they have out-drunk 5 Making a mock at sin so the Wiseman saith there be that tosse fire-brands and say Am not I in sport All our sins are fire-brands we