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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81239	Deliverance-obstruction: or, The set-backs of reformation. Discovered in a sermon before the Right Honourable the House of Peers, in Parliament now assembled. Upon the monthly fast, March 25. 1646. / By Tho. Case, preacher in Milkstreet London, and one of the Assembly of Divines.	Case, Thomas, 1598-1682.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Lords.	1646 (1646)	Wing C827; Thomason E329_9; ESTC R200694	36,291	48

reduce Israel again into their old Servitude and Bondage And I would He had been the last Pharaoh the Church had been troubled with But no though that Pharaoh was drown'd in the Sea there arise up after him new Pharaoh in every age of the Church that know not the Lord and that will be opposing and fighting against the Deliverance and enlargement of the Church of God though they venture another tumbling cast in the waters for it Whether they be open opposers or secret underminers of the Churches Peace and Reformation Tobijahs and Sanballats Ezra 4.1 2. who under a pretence of building with the Jews do hinder the work Such as since the beginning of this Parliament have been members of either House who did his Majestie better service at Westminster then they could have done at Oxford These by what principles they are led Tyrannie Ambition Pride Covetousnesse Revenge c. some by one and some by others I cannot stand to discover Sure I am they are all acted by that great principle of Enmity spawn'd into them by the old Serpent the Devil whereby they are carried out into desperate hatred and opposition against the Government of Christ Nolumus hunc regnare Luke 19.14 We will not have this man to reign over us there is the first and great Quarral And Secondly against the Peace and Welfare of the Church Come and let us cut them off from being a Nation that the name of Israel be no more in remembrance Psal 83.4 Minu. Foelix like their father the devil that sets them awork ad solamen calamitatis suae non desinunt perditi perdere c. lost themselves they seek to destroy as many as they can Hence it is that the Church is never in travel with a Man-childe some eminent and famous deliverance and Reformation but there is a great red Dragon standing before her Revel 12.4 ready to devour the childe assoon as ever it is born But I must leave these it shall content me but thus to have given you a touch in general of the opposition which the Churches Deliverance meets with from the Enemies And truely well I may for I professe unto you the Enemies Satan and all his Imps do not do the Tenth part of that mischief to the Church in obstructing and retarding her Deliverances as the Church doth her self take it for the mixt multitude of those that make up a visible Church in the profession of the true Religion and Worship of God which brings me to The Second Spring-head of Reasons follow Second sort of Reasons The Delivered taken from The Delivered or Subjects of Deliverance Happie were it for the Church if the oppositions and Set-backs of her Deliverance were managed onely by her Enemies Look upon the instance here before us and you shall finde that God was now as much troubled with Israel if I may so say as before he was with Egypt yea you shall finde that the work stuck not so long on Pharaoh's and the Egyptians hands as it did after upon Israel's First indeed Pharaoh hardned and Pharaoh hardned c. but then you shall finde And Israel hardned and Israel hardned c. not perhaps in the letter but in the reality And God made quick work with Pharaoh that conflict lasted not long probably a matter of Fourty days ended that dispute and controversie about Israels departure but of Israel you hear God say Fourty yeers was I grieved with this generation Psal 95.10 c. That journey unto Canaan which might have been dispatcht in Fourty days they quarrell'd and sinn'd into a Fourty yeers mazing of it in the wildernesse neither are they the last instances of a People that have laid in desperate obstructions and Set-backs in the way of their own Deliverance and Enlargement It was so 2 Chron. 20.33 Hos 13.12 13. But I must not stand upon Instances How the Delivered hinder their own Deliverance The Ways and Mediums how they have done it is the thing which I would as briefly as may be represent unto you In general all sin will do it any sin will do it witnesse what God said once to Israel Isa 59.1 Behold the Lords hand is not shortned that he cannot save neither his ear heavie that he cannot hear 2. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God and your sins have hid his face from you A passage quoted out of the * Num. 11.23 history of the Wildernesse and therefore the more proper But in special These sins 1. By Pride 1. Vnhumblednesse of spirit Pride of heart It was not Pharaoh onely that knew not the Lord surely Israel himself knew not their God what a world of pride and stomackfulnes and selfwih'dnesse and impatience they exprest not in Egypt onely Num. 14.3 but in the wildernesse too Sometime they will make them a Captain to return into Egypt anon they will advance forward Vers 40 41. they will up into the mountain whether God will or no and yet the Text tells us verse 39 The people mourned greatly but alas they were unhumbled in their mournings their hearts were not broken on they will against an expresse Command Go not up for the Lord is not among you Vers 42. Vers 44. But they they presumed to go c. and for this they smarted And so afterward even while they were in the Babylonian Captivity where they kept two solemn Fasts every yeer Zech. 7.5 Sc. in the fifth and seventh moneth Hos 5.5 yet neither their Captivity nor their Fasting humbled their hearts The pride of Israel testifieth to his face And again The pride of Israel testifieth to his face and they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this and for this the yoke of their Captivity was strenthned upon them and their deliverance retarded They shall go with their flocks and with their herds Vers 6. to seek the Lord but they shall not finde him he hath withdrawn himself from them 2. By Vnbelief 2. A second Deliverance-obstructing sin is Vnbelief deeply laid to heart by God Numb 14.11 How long will this people provoke me how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signes which I havo shewed among them To tell you the story of their unbelief were endlesse but this was the sum of it They had not faith enough to carry them from one miracle to another Let God do never so great wonders for them to day in the next strait they were as far to seek as before they could not dispute faith into the conclusion from the strongest premises which Omnipotence it self could make nay they got a wretched art of perverting Gods Logick they dispute Gods arguments backward Psal 78.20 Behold he smote the rock that the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed can he give bread also can he provide flesh also for his people CAN HE nay they

hundred times contented with all their hearts to have exchanged their New liberty for their Old bondage to have sold Canaan for Egypt again and have though they had made a good bargain Yea once more when now at length through innumerable dangers and deaths for Fourty yeers together they had set foot on the Borders of Canaan their terminus ad quem and one would have thought there had been nothing more to have been done but to have taken possession behold they meet with such a fresh unexpected discouragement their valley of Jericho is turned into a valley of Achor their fair fruitful meadows into another wildernesse where they were at such a plunge as not to Israel onely but unto their gallant General Joshua himself seems the losse of their designe Josh 7.5.6 makes him rend his clothes his heart being first rent Vers 7. and wish that they had taken up their Quarters on the other side Jordan It fared not much better with them upon their second Return out of Captivity their return out of Babylon I mean Indeed they met not with altogether so many difficult encounters and desperate obstructions in respect of the terminus a quo their getting loose from Babylon that came off better though it wanted not its discouragements but look upon the terminus ad quem and there you shall finde them oftener at the losse then when they came to take their first possession the Building of the Temple and the setting up of Religion and the Ordinances of God stuck more then thrice so long then their travel in the wildernesse It was about One hundred and eleven yeers after before the b In the 6 yeer of Darius Notho the Temple was finishe which was anno 3531. Temple was built Twenty yeers after that before the c In the 7 yeer of Artaxerxes Mnemon Ezra came from Babylon and set upon the Reformation of Church and State anno 3550. Reformation of their Ecclesiastical and Civil Policie was accomplisht by Ezra and Fourty five yeers after that before the d In the 20 yeer of his reign Nehemiah began to build the wall of Jerusalem which was anno 3564 and perfected them in 12 yeers wall of Jerusalem was perfected by Nehemiah So that from their coming out of Captivity to the completing of the work was not lesse then about One hundred seventy six yeers almost the length of the wildernesse-travel four times told All which time they meet with so many open oppositions and secret treacheries and plots that might well have made it seem a lost Designe no deliverance at all as you may finde in the Stories of Ezra and Nehemiah a They came out of Babylon 1 Cyri which was about the yeer of Creation 3420. While this Captivity was yet threatned the Church was in travel in Hezekiah's time and great hopes there was of a fair and speedie Deliverance Isa 37.3 The children were come to the birth i. e. every thing seemed to concur that might promise a desirable issue and yet you know whose complaint it was There is no strength to bring forth her strength failed Isa 37.3 her pangs left her and Sion was now like a woman laid by of her Midwives for death Hezekiah himself looks upon it as a LOST DESIGNE NO DELIVERANCE at all There is not strength to bring forth You know David long before him had the promise of the Kingdom he was anointed by Samuel at the special designement of GOD and yet how many Faith-shaking discouragements doth he meet withal every step he took he treads upon a thorn oftentimes more like to lose his head then to wear a Crown upon it Everywhere danger and death stares him in the face in the bed in the house in the wildernesse c. insomuch that at length he gives his hopes of a Kingdom and himself too for lost I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul 1 Sam. 27.1 and in his haste in his passion in his extasie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 116.11 as the Septuagint translate it gives the Lye to all the sons of men I said in my haste All men are Lyers even Samuel himself that made me believe I should be KING He did but deceive and flatter me with a prophecie of his own head Alas he despaired of life and what hopes then of a Crown It were easie to multiply instances How oft do you finde the Church giving her self for lost Isa 49.14 Psal 44.9 Jer. 14.19 21 15.18 20.7 8 c. and ready almost to accuse God of Forgetfulnesse and even breach of Covenant Take but one instance more for all The Deliverance of Deliverances the Redemption of the world by Jesus Christ how fiercely and furiously was it encountred by men and devils how long was it adjourn'd after it was in the promise how lowe was it brought after it was set on foot in the fulnesse of time Surely so lowe Luke 24.21 that at length the Disciples themselves give it for lost We trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel we trusted it had been He that implyes now they had given over the Hopes of it and look upon it as a lost designe no Redemption at all And so it fares with Believers in their Spiritual estate their soul condition alas how often even after they have received the promise yea have been sealed up to the day of Redemption are they at a losse before they come to heaven It fares with the Church in both these respects as it doth with travellers who are going toward a City or House peradventure they may have it in their eye Twenty or Thirty miles off yet by reason of Valleys and Woods thorow which they travel lose the sight of it Twenty times before they come at it yea perhaps their way too so that they even despair of coming safe to their journeys end So c. But I must hold you no longer in the Instances lest I fall short of mine own designe I hasten therefore to the Reasons or Grounds Wherein I must now as I said sever these Two branches and follow onely the account of the first viz. What the Reasons may be why a Deliverance of Gods own promising and setting on foot may meet with such desperate set-backs and nonplusses as may seem sometimes to give all for lost And you may please to observe a Fourfold Spring-head out of which several and various accounts do issue viz. 1. The Enemies of Deliverance 2. The Subjects of Deliverance 3. The Instruments of Deliverance 4. The Author of Deliverance GOD HIMSELF I begin with the first Spring head of accounts Sort of Reasons The enemies of the Churches Deliverance The ENEMIES of the Churches Deliverance Here you see was a Pharaoh and all his Malignant Courtiers and Subjects opposing and obstructing Israels deliverance yea when they had got loose arming all the Milicia of Egypt and putting them into Array to

should have said Can he not Here is unbelief with a witnesse from premises of Gods power to conclude weaknesse from a can to reason a cannot And this unwheel'd the chariot of their deliverance as it were that with Pharaoh's it drove heavily The Lord heard this and was wroth Vers 21. so a fire was kindled against Jacob c. Num. 13.32 33. See what contradictions their unbelief speaks The land thorow which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof and all the men that we saw in it are men of great stature and there we saw Giants A strange tale the land eats up the inhabitants and yet they are men of great stature and Giants surely then they were no starvelings shew me not the meat shew me the man if Giants surely they wanted no victuals UNBELIEF unreasons a man Unreasonable men and faithlesse 2 Thess 3.2 so the Apostle joyns them when he prays to be delivered from unreasonable men for all men have not faith No wonder if unbelief be such an obstruction to a peoples deliverance it ungods GOD it UNMANS man He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief Matth. 13.58 Mark 6.5 Matth. 9.29 He DID NOT so Matthew but he COULD NOT so Mark. God is said to can do no more then faith believes he can do UNBELIEF TIES UP THE HANDS OF THE ALMIGHTY According to your faith be it unto you 3. By Murmure Thirdly from hence proceeds another obstructing sin and that is Murmure you may finde it treading upon the heels of their unbelief all the way they murmure against God and murmure against their Leaders Moses and Aaron and this arose from their Jealousie sometime they suspect them of treachery Moses and Aaron certainly had a plot first to betray them to Pharaoh as you saw before and then to destroy them in the wildernesse Wherefore have ye brought us into the wildernesse to kill us Sometime of ambition and affecting superiority and Lordship over their brethren Ye take too much upon you wherefore lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Yea that which would trouble a man most to see the very Princes of the people Num. 16. Vers 2. two hundred and fifty of them are carried away with this foolish groundlesse JEALOUSIE Certainly these men affect arbitrary Government if power and authority be in their hands we shall be in as great subjecton and slavery as we were in Egypt if not greater And this murmuring against them GOD takes as against HIMSELF Chap. 14.22 How long shall I bear with this evil congregration which murmure against me I have heard the murmurings wherewith the children of Israel murmure AGAINST ME and for this God threatens them with their own Jealousies and causlesse misgivings they murmurs themselves to DEATH in the wildernesse and their children into a FORTY YEERS TRAVEL As I live saith the Lord as you have spoken in mine ears so will I do unto you Num. 14 28 29 c. Your carcases shall fall in the wildernesse c. all which have murmured against me And your children shall wander in this wildernesse fourty yeers Vers 33 c. c. A Fourth sin is Adultery Corporal Spiritual 4. By Adultery bodily and spiritual I put them both together because they both go together for the most part the one whereby a people or person take in a false Lover the other whereby they take in a false God or a false Worship of the true God And into both these that witch Balaam bewitcht the people in the wildernesse Numb 25.1 2 3 4 9. to a great not abstruction onely but destruction as you may read in the story And how often afterward these two bastned their Captivity and hindred their enlargement out of it I cannot stand to tell you the whole Prophecle of Hosea inculcates it over and over You know upon what Commandment it is that God calls himself a jealous God namely Second Com. upon that Commendment which forbids Idolatry to shew that much unto us that as a jealous husband cannot endure a wanton look in his wife upon a stranger so God cannot endure a whorish glance in his people towards Idolatry and Superstition Ezek. 20.24 Their eyes went after their fathers Idols it was no more hut an adulterous look and for this when they might have expected a REFORMATION God blasted them with a DEFORMATION Wherefore I gave them Statutes that were not good Vers 25. and Judgements whereby they should not live Idolatry and Superstition and false Worship which before was their sin now became their curse and plagues Idolatry was established by a Law by Jeroboam and Manasseh c. for to the whole story and series of their wicked Kings doth that judgement refer 5. By Divisions Fifthly a Church or People have infinitely troubled and set back their own Deliverance and Reformation by Divisions Divisions are like great Breaches in the banks of the Ocean which let in a Sea of wischief and confusion among a people to hinder their work The Spiritual walls of the Church of Corinth went up as slowly as once the material wall of Jerusalem in Nehemiah's time and all by reason of their divisions I could not speak unto you saith the Apostle as unto spiritual but as unto carnal 1 Cor 3.1 Verse 2. a great obstruction to their Spiritual growth they were not capable of the SPIRITUALITY OF THE GOSPEL Hitherto ye were not able to bear it nor yet are ye able Verse 3. Why There is among you strife and envyings and divisions are ye not carnal The divisions and mutiny of CORAH DATHAN and ABIRAM what a sad obstruction did it cast in the way of this expedition here before us They incense the Princes and the people against Moses and Aaron Num. 16.2 by raising Jealousies and crying up the power and holinesse of the people above their just proportions and what a fire did this kindle in their habitations which had like to have burnt down to the very foundation Ths Troubles of Frankford might come in as a sad witnesse to this truth But not to instance any further in such as have been pretenders onely to godlinesse who have always made a major part by oddes in the Church You may take notice that the very differences and dissentions of them who are godly indeed have been most eminently fatal to Gospel-designes witnesse the differences of LUTHER and CALVIN which were greater obstructions to the propagation of the Reformation in their days then all the opposition and persecution raised by the man of sin and all his Antichristian party in Germany It was the Church of Philadelphia called so for Love and unity between Brethren before whom God promiseth to make her hypocritical enemies to bow and fall Revel 3.7 9. It is Babel men build and not Jerusalem where there is confusion