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A67322
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God's revenge against the enemies of the church written by T.W.
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Wall, Thomas.
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1658
(1658)
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Wing W483; ESTC R40679
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15,909
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54
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GOD'S REVENGE AGAINST The Enemies OF THE CHURCH Written by T. W. LONDON Printed in the Year 1658. 1 Sam. 15. 1 2 3. And Samuel said unto Saul The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be King over his people over Israel Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts I remember what Amaleck did to Israel how he laid wait for him in the way when he came out of Aegypt Now go and smite Amaleck and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them not but slay both man and woman Infant and suckling Oxen and Sheep Camels and Asses TIme was when Amaleck would have destroyed Israel Time is now in my Text when Israel shall destroy Amaleck Go and smite Amaleck and all that they have God will revenge the injuries that are done unto his Saints Anger may sleep but it cannot die Though it be four hundred year after God will call the wicked to account Their posterity shall be heirs of their curse as well as of their lands Whom God hath destined to destruction he will raise up Instruments to effect his own Decrees Whom God employs he will enable them to that piece of service about which he sets them When God does for man he expects that man should do for God The power he gives us he intends we should employ in his service If God gives Saul the dignity of a King 't is fit that Saul should yeild him the duty of a servant And Samuel said unto Saul God sent me to anoint thee c. Now therefore hearken thou to the voice c. These words may be generally dichotomized into two parts 1. A commemoration of what God hath done for Saul made him King And Samuel said unto Saul God sent me to anoint thee to be King over his people over Israel 2. A Declaration of what God would have Saul do for him in these words Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice c. In the commemoration we observe two things 1. By whose ministration Saul was made King by Samuel saith the Text And Samuel said unto Saul God sent me Secondly After what manner he was enstated in that office by being Anointed thereunto God sent me to anoint thee to be King c. In the Declaration of what God would have Saul do for him we observe three things 1. The form of the Injunction in these words Now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord. 2. The ground of this Injunction the remembrance of an injury I remember what Amaleck did to Israel when he came up from Aegypt c. 3. The Commission granted in it Go and smite Amaleck c. The handling of the Text will discover the several branches of each particular I begin with the first general a Commemoration of what God had done for Saul made him King and therein by whose ministration he was so made by Samuel's And Samuel said God sent me God sent me It was not so for Saul was sent to Samuel and not Samuel to Saul so we find it 1 Sam. 9. 16. I answer Sending does not always imply a local motion but somtimes a mental direction God's Prophets are no less said to be sent when they directed their Prophesies to a place then when they brought them It is the delivery of their message rather then their personal moving that speaks them sent I am sent to thee with heavie Tydings saith the Prophet Ahijah to the wife of Jeroboam coming to him though the good old man moved neither from his house nor seat so we read 1 Kings 14. 6. So is Samuel here said to be sent to anoint Saul not so much in reference to any external motion as to that prophetique instinct whereby he was commanded to anoint Saul when he came unto him But Saul in coming to Samuel to receive his Royal Unction Expositors upon my Text say was a Type of wicked and ambitious men seeking after the outward honour and dignity of the world From whence noâ—e They that are least worthy of honour are commonly most desirous of it and seek after that honour which the more deserving accepts not of without being sought unto Never had pride so much worth as true worth has humility There is no dignities so high which ambition makes not the mark of its own merit no advancement so mean which humility thinks not to over-ballance its desert Every one thinks himself worthy of that honour whereunto he aspires yea therefore aspires to it because he thinks himself worthy of it Lucifer could not be chief among the Angels but he will also be as high as God himself Ero ut Altissimus I will be like the most High Isa 14. 13. Behold O Lucifer thousands of Angels minister unto him and ten thousand stand before him While all the rest are standing Lucifer must needs be sitting I will sit in the Mount of the Congregation Isa 14 14. O Lucifer If thou hadst any priority of order thou hadst none of Nature if thou hadst higher endowments then thy fellows yet but the same identity of Being If thou werâ— chief in the service of God yet not exempted from it For Are they not all made â—inistring Spirits so saith St Paul Heb. 1. 14. O proud and ambitious spirit Hadst thou rather be without God then under him Hadst thou rather be chief in hell then not as chief in heaven Know then that thou shalt be tumbled into hell Isa 14. 15. And he that would sit in a Throne by himself Judge of his own Angels excellency shall stand before men to be judged for his Divels contumacy so saith St Paul Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels 1 Cor. 6. 3. But let me draw down your thoughts from heaven to earth None of Gideons sons so much affected Soveraigne Power over Israel as Abiâ—â—lech not younger then his brethren so much in years as in worth The name of Judge was enough for his valiant father nothing but the Title of King would suit with his ambition Judg. 9. 2. None before him usurped Soveraign power over Israel none that came after him was less worthy of it He was illegitimate in his birth but execrable in his actions The blood of seventy of his Brethren must seal the Crown faster to his head Absolon too thought he had had as much worth as beauty his Father's crown would better befit his head which yet had more hair then wit There is no wit against the counsel of God who had design'd Israels crown for a wiser head so we read 2 Sam. 7. 13. But what say we next to the Scribes and Pharisees of whom our Saviour says That they love to sit in the chief places in the Synagogues Mat. 23. 6. If their sitting there did become their gravity sure I am their love to fit there did betray their vanity These are those ambitious affections which are figured in Saul in coming though
the divel stirred up the people to force Aaron to make them a golden god While the true God was writing them a Law they made a Law to set up a false God The divel did hope God would hold them unworthy of his holy Law that had not the patience to stay the writing of it Nor seeks he more to deprive us of the helps of piety then to hinder the encrease It is the sad complaint of many a poor soul that they never meet with more occasions to call them aside then on those days which precedent intentions had devoted more solemnly with fasting and prayer to humble their souls before their God Holy purposes if deferred are likely lost But it s a false necessity that crosses that unum necessarium of Mary which is the only true one what ever occasion it is or outward necessity that diverts us from our holy purposes it is but an Amalekite that lies in wait by the way as thou goest from Egypt to thy heavenly Canaan thou must subdue it thou must destroy it in this spiritual warfare as here Saul was in this temporal Go and smite Amaleck and all that they have which is the last thing The Commission granted from the Lord of Hosts Wherein see First the matter of it Destroy Amaleck Secondly The extent of it 1. Generally All that they have 2. Particularly Man and Woman i. e. of all states degrees and conditions Infants and Sucklings Beasts and all The Observation hence is this Divine vengeance knows no difference of persons spares neither the high for their state nor the weaker for their Sex nor the young for their nonage nor the very beasts for their want of reason which makes them in themselves uncapble of finning 1. Not the high for their state No outward dignity can be priviledged from impunity nay the dignity of the person adds to the indignity of the crime and makes him obnoxious to the greater judgement The reason given is Because the sins of the great are exemplary Great men if sinners are like to the divel who with his tail drew down the third part of the stars with him Rev. 12. 4. Who ever knew an holy Court and a wicked Prince Or to speak neerer to our selves who ever knew a vertuous family and a profane master His plenty corrupts him and he the rest They are afraid to appear good if he upon whom they depend hates to be so They think he will hate them too if they be not like unto him A bad example is sooner followed then a good one It is this in Governours whether publique or private that maintains sin in the world which it at once both secures and feeds Men think they may safely do that which they see those practise who ought to punish it It is the just retribution of God that if they who ought do not punish sin should be more severely punished for it they attract the guilt of many by whom many are made guilty All shall suffer for their own sins but he shall suffer as much as many whose example made many sinners How justly did Dives fear the augmentation of his own by his brothers coming into the same torments whose example might bring them to it With what bitterness did he entertain the thoughts of their coming to encrease his flames which he already found so intolerable How much better had it been for him to have begg'd his bread with Lazarus on earth then to beg water of him in hell VVhat a corrasive must it needs be to the penitent soul of David to hear Nathan say Thou hast made the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme O holy David I have heard thee somtimes say Thou wouldst destroy all the wicked of the Land Shall those wicked now learn by thee to be more vile That thou which hast so often sang praises to the name of God shouldest cause others to blaspheme that name For what will they say Is this the servant of the God of Israel Can that Law of God be an holy Law whose chief Professors commit such unholy acts Such needs must be the Law as the lives of them that do embrace it do declare Men sure are such as they are taught to be If their God were holy his people would be holy too he cannot well be good that hath such wicked servants If great men therefore be greater examples of impiety a greater measure of punishment must be their due which divine justice will surely pay Indeed it is no less requisite that the Divine nature should be uucapable of sinning then impossible for it to be subject to it for if it be necessary that sin should be punished it is as necessary that it should be punished by him who cannot sin VVhere there is subjection to a capacity of sinning there can be no certainty of immunity from falling into it where there is no necessity of immunity from it there can be no necessity of punishing it for how shall any especially eternally punish that whereof himself may possibly be guilty if he should be subject to it Hence it is that neither men nor Angels can punish sin a derivative power they have but not a primitive they may have it from God but not from themselves they may be executioners of punishment but not imposers The Elect Angels indeed and beatified Saints cannot sin but they have this happiness by their confirmation in Christ and not by the soundness of their own nature The one have sinned while they were here the other might have done even there To God then only it belongs to punish sin not only as it is committed against him but as it is he that could not possibly have sinned And now to bring it home as he is God and cannot sin and therefore only may so as he is God he cannot but punish sin and therefore will in whomsoever he finds it He spared not the Angels saith S. Jude If sin seizeth upon the nature of Angels the nature of Angels shall be subjected even to actual torments for that sin As it is written Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his Angels And as a worthy light of our Church saith In vain were that light prepared for the Divel if the Divel's nature could not be tormented in it But as for us men God did more to redeem us then he did to make us If then God spared not the Angels which sinned only against their creation how much less will he not spare man that sinneth against so great redemption treading under foot the Son of God as if the blood of the Covenant wherewith we were sanctified were an unholy thing Heb. 10. 29. Again If he spared not the Angels for their heavenly excellency much less will he spare man for his earthly dignity whom their impiety of life doth condemn their eminency of place shall not absolve 'T is the works of men that God accepts and not their persons He that would not accept of a crown for himself will never accept of another for it For Tophet is prepared of old even for the King is it prepared Isa 30. ult And so hateful was Saul's partiality in this respect that for sparing the King of Amaleck he lost the Kingdom of Israel if not of heaven to himself Thus you see first he spares not the high for their state Secondly Not the weaker for their Sex Slay man and woman too Women The original matter of woman whereof she was composed was more pure then that of man yet was the woman first in the transgression and not the man Before their fall she was an help meet for him not subject to him but after her fall lest she should abuse that equality which she had before to the like seducement she must submit to the dominion of her husband Gen. 3. 16. That as in her equality she first induced him to sin whereby he merited eternal death so in her subjection she should be obnoxious to the penalty of his sin even to a temporal death and therefore slay man yea and woman too Thirdly He spares not the young for their nonage Such as are the Parents such usually are the children not that the very sins of the Parents are by nature transfused into the children but do insensibly steal upon them by being daylie inured to them which at length by custome turns to another nature It is therefore just with God to root the whole race of them whom he foresees will be inheritors of their fathers enmity against his Church So Noah about to curse his Son Cham pronounced not the curse in the name of Cham but Canaan his sons son Noah by a prophetique spirit foresaw Canaan would be heir of his Fathers sin and therefore subjected him to his fathers curse Nay righteous Jonathan must be dispossessed for his fathers disobedience God's judgements are always deep and secret but ever just He takes away the righteous young for their greater good he takes away the wicked young for their lesser torment and therefore sâ—ay man woman yea infant and suckling too Oxen and Sheep c. It is the endowment of reason that gives a capacity of sinning The creature is void of reason and therefore free from sin yet must be slain The unreasonable creature though in it self void of sin yet in detestation of the sinner whom it serves is made obnoxious to temporal punishment If the divel in the serpent induce Eve to sin the instrument is cursed in hatred of the sin occasioned by it In the destruction of the old world by the universal deluge why should the beasts creeping things and fowls of the Ayr perish by the waters but because they received their food from that earth wherein man had corrupted their ways Gen. 6. 7. As therefore Beasts in general cannot sin yet subjected to the curse of man's sin so neither in particular had these Amalekitish cattel any hand in the offence done to the Israel yet must be destroyed for their owners sakes who had So severe is God's vengeance against the enemies of his Church even total destruction both of them and theirs In God's due time Amalecks portion shall be theirs Even so O Lord let all thy enemies perish that thy Church may have rest Amen FINIS