l Bacons Advancement of Learning 2. B. p. 303. quart though the logical part of some mens mindes be very good yet the mathematical part is very erroneous they judge well of consequences but not of proportion and comparison preferring things of shew and sense before things of substance and effect But notwithstanding this which were there no more is enough to enforce the Argument and withdraw Confidence from man upon the account of his wisdom let it be supposed that a man or company of men is as wise as he or they pretend to or which is much more are judged by others to be Suppose him to have as clear a light and as sharp an eye as a son of Adam is capable of his lusts subdued so far that all his conclusions do follow the dictates of his Reason without turning aside to his lusts in any of them yet is not such wisdom in man to be leaned upon First because he hath not a spring of wisdom in himself but it is conveyed to him by a secret Conduit-pipe from God The man upon whose Counsel I can confidently build ought to have a spring of wisdom in himself lest though his counsel be as the Oracle of God to day I consulting with him in my streights to morrow finde him dry not able to give a right answer because the Pipe is cut off It is with man in all his sufficiency as with Bezaliel and Aholiab whose wisdom and understanding by which they wrought for the service of the Sanctuary was put into their hearts by the Lord Exod. 36.1 Since then the Spring of mans wisdom is in Heaven and it is in the hand of the Lord to cause the streams to flow or binde them up at his pleasure or to turn it into folly as in Ahitophel or to mix a perverse spirit with it as in Pharaoh's Counsellors Isaiah 19.13 14. The Princes of Zoan are become fools the Princes of Noph are deceived they have also seduced Egypt even they that are the stay of the Tribes thereof The Lord hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof Surely man is not to be confided in or the lips of any of the sons of men to be cleaved to in respect of his wisdom Again secondly The wisdom of man is no ground of Confidence suppose him as richly furnished as he is capable because God is wiser then he though a man be wise to lay his Design in the womb of darkness wise to project the critical minute of bringing it forth yet is he not to be confided in because God is wiser to frustrate his Design to make it as the untimely fruit of a woman When the Kings of the earth set themselves and the Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed then he that sits in the Heavens laughs the Lord hath them in derision Psal 2.2 4. Thus the wisdom of man appears a sandy foundation of Confidence Secondly The strength of man is no more a rock then his wisdom was The natural property of man is weakness strength is but accidental to him thus Sampson tells Delilah enquiring wherein his great strength lay Judges 16.7 if they binde me with seven green wit hs that were never dried then shall I be weak and be as another man A man is naturally for strength not as a Lion or Horse but as a worm Job 25.6 How much less man that is a worm and the son of man who is a worm It were singular vanity to account a worm as a pillar of Marble no less folly to look upon the strength of man as a brazen wall But let us give man strength let his neck be clothed with thunder let his strength be the strength of stones his bones as brass and his sinews iron Let his Confederates be many and potent the Troops of his valiant ones exceeding numerous his Reserves as great mountains at the heels of one another let the Towers of his defenced Cities reach unto Heaven yet is he not a foundation of Confidence in respect of his strength First because his strength is but permissive dependent Man is not strong according to the pleasure of his own will but after the good will and pleasure of God So that when man saith I will pursue I will overtake I will divide the spoil My lust shall be satisfied upon them I will draw my sword my hand shall destroy them it many times comes to pass that in the greatnes of his excellency the Lord overthrows them The Sea covers them they sink as lead in the mighty waters Exod. 15.9 10. The strength of man may be as Jeroboams arm withered when he stretcheth it out furthest Therefore his strength is no ground of Confidence Again because his strength is limited God hath set bounds to it and those bounds are unknown to us therefore we are not to confide in the strength of man A man in his strength may swell as a mighty stream he may rage and roar like the Sea but as to it so to his strength God hath set bounds and said Hitherto shalt thou go and no further If the Lord lift up a standard against any man though he come rolling in as an overflowing flood he shall become weak as water Now we being ignorant of the bounds that God hath set to the strength of any are not therefore to confide in any strength of man The Lord may have appointed a m Hic murus alieneus esto Hor. Epist l. 1. Ep. 1. brazen wall to their strength a pillar beyond which they cannot pass in that occasion or at that time in which we expect their arm to be stretched out as of old Thirdly We are not to hang upon the arm of man because the strength of God is infinitely greater then mans strength If I speak of strength lo he is strong Job 9.19 We treading in the steps of this expression when we would extol a man in the perfections of any quality use to speak at the same rate What do ye speak of knowledge Caryl in loc why there 's a learned man What do ye talk of riches why there 's a rich man indeed So emphatical is the Expression here If I speak of strength lo he is strong Infinitely strong above the line beyond the proportion of all others God is so strong that though Babylon should mount up to Heaven and though she should fortifie the height of her strength yet from me shall spoilers come unto her saith the Lord Jer. 51.53 The Lord is so strong that he can weaken the strength of any He poureth contempt upon Princes and weakneth the strength of the mighty Job 12.21 Or secondly cause weak instruments to tread down strength O my soul they are the words of Deborah Judges 5.21 thou hast troden down strength Or lastly turn their Canon upon themselves cause them to fall upon their own sword destroy them by their own strength I will overthrow the Throne of Kingdoms
and I will destroy the strength of the Kingdoms of the Heathen and I will overthrow their chariots and those that ride in them and the Horses and their Riders shall come down every one by the sword of his brother Hag. 2.22 Thus you have a second Account upon which it appears to be the Churches Duty to cease from man Man is not to be confided in Reason 3. because his breath is in his nostrils They that by Man in the Text understand the Man Christ must by the breath in his nostrils understand also something to render him not despicable but terrible n Magnanima ira indignatio vindicta quam in suos hostes Christus exercet Menochius in loc So Origen Hieronym Alvarez and most of the Popish Writers By the breath in his nostrils is meant saith one the magnanimous anger the fierce indignation of Christ with which he shall blow upon his Enemies in the day of vengance but as we do not entertain their sense of man so we shut the door against such an interpretation of the breath of his nostrils and following our late learned Divines who render it Whose life is so frail that if his nostrils be but stopt that he cannot breath freely he dyes whose life as a puff of winde passing through his nostrils may be very soon and suddenly gone So also the learned Grotius whose o Cujus spiritus c Vita ejus ab aere pendet quo intercluso peribâ—t Grot. in loc Sec Job 27.3 life depends of air which failing he returns to his dust We use it as an Argument to dehort from Confidence in Man whose breath is in his nostrils Were the wisdom or strength of man in themselves a foundation of Confidence which yet they have appeared not to be this were enough to destroy that foundation His breath is in his nostrils he is subject to diseases and infirmities When you expect the man to go forth with your Forces a fit of the Gout or Stone hath rendred him unserviceable There are a thousand Infirmities incident to mans body Physitians reckon two hundred diseases belonging to the eye his best state is not a state of certainty but of danger p Ipsam quoque 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 periculo vacare medici negant Grot Epist 81. B. Maurerio Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 Yet take him with all his infirmities could he live ever there were some ground upon which the foot of a mans Confidence might stand but his breath is in his nostrils and thus he stands in slippery places that confides in an hourlydying creature Tumor momento enascens momento evanescens we laugh at the folly of our little ones when we see them rejoyce in or grieve for signs they set their hearts upon them the bubbles that are born and die in a moment The Spirit of God is very copious in describing the brevity of mans life Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling Job 7.1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble 14.1 Man dieth and wasteth away yea man gives up the ghost and where is he 10. As for man his days are as grass Ps 103.15 He is called Corruptible man Rom. 1.23 And as his breath is in his nostrils so there are many ways of stopping it various means of depriving him of it heat cold drought moisture a prick of a pin a stone of a grape an hair any thing nothing Some have died sneezing yawning weeping laughing q Mille viae lethi Strad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cur Steruuentessalut Unus introitus innumeri exitus Zeuxes died laughing at the picture of an old woman which he drew with his own hand Sophocles was choked with the stone in a grape Diodorus the Logician died for shame that he could not answer a joculary question propounded at the Table by Stilpo Joannes Mathesius preaching upon the raising of the woman of Naim's son from the dead within three hours after died himself 'T is folly then to put our confidence in him of whom if he be but a days journey from us we cannot be confident that he is alive Thus you have the first Branch of the Doctrine made good It is the Churches duty And it will be the wisdom of the Churches Enemies to cease from man The Spirit of God tells you there is no king saved by the multitude of an host A mighty man is not delivered by much strength an Horse is a vain thing for safety neither shall he deliver any by his great strength Psal 33.16 17. and the same Spirit dehorts you from confiding in the sons of the Mighty Put not your trust in Princes nor in the son of man in whom there is no help Psal 146.3 You have doted upon the name of a King you have idolized Kings The Book of Sports you have prefer'd them to God himself when God hath commanded one thing and your King another r Si aliud Deus aliud Imperator ju beat contempto hoc obtemperandum est Dâ—â— August contemning the Commandment of God you have yielded obedience to man and therefore the Lord hath poured contempt upon them brought them down from the Throne into the dust The name of King is swallowed up in victory by the Parliament of this Commonwealth It is become a name that will devour the man and his fathers house that openly makes mention of it in this Land Cease therefore from man Had the Churches Enemies a Spring of Wisdom in themselves or were they wiser then God then you might rationally say a Confederacy to them that say a Confederacy had the Enemy an Independent unlimited infinite strength were his arm stronger then the Arm of the Lord then you might securely cleave to him own him confide in him but since their Counsels have been infatuated their Power is limited and the Lord hath them as he hath the Devil in a Chain Cease from man Depart I pray you from the Tents of these wicked men and touch nothing of theirs least ye be consumed in all their sins Numb 16.26 The Lord hath begun to break the arm of their Power The Earl of Derby routed and he hath set it upon the hearts of his People to believe that he is at hand to accomplish his work in righteousness Having thus endeavored to make good the Doctrine the Improvement of it will be directed to the Church in a double Exhortation First to the practice of the Duty to Cease indeed from Man Truly the Lord is worthy to be wonderful in our eyes in two things restraining the growing Power of the Enemy and causing the Horn of his Servants to flourish For the first the Enemy did and might very rationally expect that if he could set the sole of his foot his wearied foot upon English ground his strength would take root downward
out of the especial respect he had to his People created him and raised him up for us and we remember the time too furnished him with such rare Endowments for that high Employment that he who would take a compleat General must limb after his Copy We can say That the Horse and his Rider have been broken by him the Captains and Rulers broken in pieces We can say that the * Sola Ducis fama interdum Bella profligavit Str Bel. Belg. Name of Cromwel hath been a terror to the Enemy but this onely as he hath been a Battel-ax and weapons of War in the hand of the Lord for the Exaltation of the Name of the Lord not that we should exalt him above the Line of an Instrument in the Lords hand Did we not make our boast of God in our Army we should sin Did we not acknowledge that he hath taught their hands to War and their fingers to fight Did we not bless the Lord for them that offered themselves so willingly to the help of the Lord against the mighty that in the absence of dear relations continued so chearfully in the midst of so many difficulties It would be an evil in us not to boast in God of their unparallel'd Valor matchless Unanimity and unwearied Labors yea as Strada of the Prince of Orange and Duke of Alba y Orangius palam oderat Ducem Albanum clam admirabatur Strad Bel Belg the hearts of their Enemies admired them in secret for these things though openly their mouths overflow'd with their reproaches yet the Lord hath done all this that himself alone might be exalted The Enemy is not so z Nihil tam firmum cui non sit periculum ab invalido Idem inconsiderable Consider 2. as to be despised upon any carnal ground whatsoever It is true upon a spiritual Accompt The Virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised them and laughed them to scorn the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at them 2 Kings 19.21 in the strength of the Lord as they are his Enemies because he that sits in heaven laughs but they are not to be despised upon a carnal Accompt for First less Armies with less Advantages have done a far greater work The late King of Sweden cross'd the Baltick Sea with not above Eighth thousand men and harrased almost all Germany spoiled their Cities laid their Towns waste and sowed their Field with desolation Again greater Armies then ours have miscarried upon the contempt of weaker Enemies When the French under the the Duke of Alenson had entred Antwerp and possessed themselves of the gates thereof they contemning the weak remaining part of the Enemy fell to plundering the City but they purchased the experience at a dear rate for they were most of them slain the rest shamefully beaten out of the City again by a few that remained unconquered at their entrance a Iste contemptus hostium Gallos perdidit Strad Bel Belg. That a weak Enemy is not to be contemned the Spirit of God and the Experience of all Ages assert this Though you had smitten the whole Army of the Chaldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise up every man in his tent and burn this City with fire Jerem. 37.10 Nihil in hostibus vel semivictis tuto despicitur and the Commanders of Armies have in all Ages found a certain truth in that military Maxim b Majorem experti hostem qui contempserint ut minorem Strada Bel Belgic He findes his Enemy strong at a dear rate who contemns him as weak Thirdly The desperate condition of the Enemy may render him not despicable c Gravissimi funt morsus irritatae necessitatis Mont. Necessity hath sharp teeth The Commander in chief of the Enemies Army is credibly reported to have brought in a Crown and Coffin with him A Crown is a fair prize a man will put out the utmost of his strength to attain it the shinings of it take a carnal eye so far A morte propiqua vim capiunt Strad prolus. Statii Stylo that he will wade to the chin in blood rather then set down any where short of it and he that must die will sell his life at as dear a rate as he can d Morientium morsus animantium laetales sunt Idem Bel Belg. Dying creatures bite deadly so that if the Lord come not upon their spirits in his terror the Victory is like to cost us dear What the effect of trusting in man Consider 3. in your own strength will be Because thou didst trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people and all thy Fortresses shall be spoiled as Shalmon spoiled Betharbel in the day of battel the Mother was dashed in pieces upon her children Hos 10.13 14. God may say if you lean upon the arm of flesh They hoped in their Parliament let it save them They trusted in their Army let them deliver them There is a Curse denounced against it and it will cleave to the man that leaneth upon flesh Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm and whose heart departeth from the Lord Jerem. 17 5. If you consider these things aright you will say with David Psalm 44.6 I will not trust in my bowe neither shall my sword save me The Apostle saith 2 Cor. 12.10 When I am weak then am I strong 'T is a Paradox to carnal Reason but to a sanctified understanding a fair Truth built upon a solid rock We need not fear our weakness at any time but we may well be afraid of our strength we are never stronger then when we are weak in our own eyes never weaker then when we esteem our selves strong in ourselves Cease therefore from man and be intreated once more not to give occasion to have it spoken of our Army what was said of Caesar c Sane Julium Caesarem non Pompeiani sed amici peremerunt Sen de Ira l. 3. c. 20. That he received not his wounds from the swords of Enemies but from the hands of friends If they shall return wounded from the hattel let them not have ground to say because of your Confidence in them These are the wounds with which we were wounded in the house of our friends Zech. 13.6 To conclude That we may indeed cease from man and cast our selves and the concernments of our wholly upon God Isaiah 2.5 be exhorted secondly to walk in the light of the Lord in the light of his Providence eye God in the way that he led us hitherro Remember Newbery and Marston Naseby remember Dunbar and Fife Videnti Deum omnis creatum est augustâ— and Sterling Nothing takes a mans heart off from the creature so much as eying God doth He that walks in the light of Gods providence findes his heart lifted up to God the hands of his Confidence strengthned in God The Lord hath delivered me out of the paw of the Lion and out of the paw of the Bear he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistim 1 Sam. 17.37 The Lord hath vouchsafed us a precious first-fruit of his Love and Power The Earl of Derby defeated in Lancashire he hath given us one token more that he hath not withdrawn himself from us an earnest of his presence in the Defeat given to a part of that Army and since the Lord hath evidenced his presence with us we may much better say of it then Augustus could of Tiberius f Nihil se non sperare Tiberio comite nihil non timere illo deficiente Suet in vita Tiber. That he expected success in every undertaking that Tiberius was engaged in and feared the miscarriage of every Design in which Tiberius had not an hand The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our Refuge Remember through what streights he hath brought us and be confident in the light of his Providence We may say of many acts of Providence as he upon the extraction of Moses out of the Waters g Quis vel animum desponderet in ultimo rerum discrimme cum talia tam mirifice effecta esse perspexerit Prid ad extractionem Mosis Who that hath seen God leading his people in such a path opening such or such a door to them levelling such Mountains before them and making their way plain would ever suffer his Soul to be cast down or his Spirit disquieted in him Psal 34. ult None of them that trust in the Lord shall be desolate Be not afraid of the Enemies power all the strength that is not of God shall be destroyed Take away her Battlements for they are not the Lords Jerem. 5.10 Know the power of the Lord If he look upon the earth it trembles if he touch the mountains they smoke by the blast of God his Enemies perish by the breath of his nostrils they are consumed The Lord cannot want help to perform his Councel to accomplish his Design since the Chariots of God are Twenty thousand even Thousands of Angels Psal 68.17 Study then the name of God and you will effectually cease from Man They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee Psalm 9.10 The End