vvhose hearts do smite them and vvhose consciences do accuse them that though the zeal of Gods house do bring them to Church yet the fear of their unvvorthiness doth make them stand a far off beating their breasts and not daring to lift up their eyes to heaven These had need of comfort we must labour to put metall into such by telling them that he whose face they seek is God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort David is a full example of a distressed man Psal 119.107 fearing and yet praying for he confesseth I am very sore afflicted yet he prayeth God to quicken him he saith My soul is continually in my hand he was even ready to yield it up yet the comfort that he had in God established his heart And herein God is most gratious for when our sins come in our sight and we are horribly afraid of Gods judgments even then God sendeth his Spirit to us not to take away our infirmities quite but to help them not to turne our sorrow into joy but to sanctifie our sorrow and to supply it with sighs and groanes and this addition of fear and grief doth also mend devotion To such we must say that though he to whom we pray be in Heaven yet he is our Father and though great and glorious be his Majesty yet he is the preserver of men David calleth him our Sun and Shield the brightnesse of this Sun may dazle our weak sight but the protection of this shield will save us from danger Be strong then and God shall establish your hearts he shall anoint you with the oile of gladnesse and he shall say to your soul I am thy Salvation 2 Subjectum Vide divis supr Pag. 29. This prayer is for the Church that is for all those that then were the visible society of such as worshiped the onely true God It is the duty of every child of God Doct. and member of the Church to pray to God for the whole body of the Church The Church at this time was within a pale and confined to the house of Abraham not in his whole bloud for Ishmael was excluded in Isaac was the promise not in his whole bloud for Esay was excluded Jacob was Israel and prevailed with God of him came the Fathers and in his seed was the Church continued This Church was now threatned with deportation and sundry great judgments the Prophet teacheth them how to pray one for another To this there are great motives 1 The direction of Christ in the Lords Prayer which calleth God our Father and in the processe of it sheweth that the Church of God is still included Give us forgive us lead us not 2 The content that we give to God in these generall prayers which the Apostle doth well expresse I exhort that first of all prayers c. be made for all men For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour 1 Tim. 2.1 3.4 who will have all men to be saved All are or may be members of the Church of God for ought we know 3 The benefit that we reap hereby is great for thus we come to have our portion in the charitable prayers of others Ambrose Si prote rogas tantum prote solus rogabis Hâ—xam 1. si autem pro omnibus rogas omnes pro te rogabunt 4. It is a true rule that extra Ecclesiam non est salus without the Church there is no salvation Acts 2.47 it is said that God added to the Church daily such as should be saved the reason hereof is because Christ is no where to be found as a Saviour but in his Church and the meanes of salvation Preaching Prayer and Sacraments they are only found in the Church Without are dogs enchanters Revel 22.15 c. Christ is the good Shepheard and he hath his fold all the sheep that are without must be brought to that fold as himself saith alias oves habeo quae non sunt de ovili hoc illas oportet adducere I have other sheep c. they shall hear my voice Joh. 10.16 and there shall be one fold and one Shepheard Therefore there is no safety in singularity they that forsake the Church forsake the fold the unity of spirit not the singularity is the bond of peace We are members one of another the common safety of the body communicateth perticular safety to all the members of the body In the temporall state the peace of perticular persons is included in the peace of the whole kingdome therefore Jeremiah saith to the Church then in deportation Seek the peace of the City Jer. 29.7 whether I have caused you to be carried away captives and pray unto the Lord for it for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace Much more shall we have peace in the peace of the Church seeing Christ bequeathed his legacy of peace not to some parts and members of his Church but to the whole body thereof Joh. 14.27 Pacem meam do vobis I give unto you my peace It must be so understood for as he left his Spirit the Comforter so he left his peace the comfort not to his Disciples onely but to all the Church therefore pray all that it may be well with thee in communi bono in the common good This teacheth us to incorporate our selvs in the communion of Saints per communionem pietatis et charitatis by the communion of piety and charity to be one anothers Orators but especially to study and pray for the peace and welfare of the Church let us consider it is the Spouse of Christ it is a Lilly among thorns it is a flower in the field not only open to all weathers but to the tooth and foot of the beasts of the field Satan going about seeking to devoure it Let our prayers to God resist Satan and fight the Lords battail against him We heare of the troubles of the Church in other countreys we heare of the tyranny of Popery and the oppressions of faithfull professours if we give them no other help yet let our prayers give God no rest till he have mercy on them and give them deliverance This teacheth us to maintain truth and peace amongst our selves let not the wounds and soars of a Church that is heresie and schisme and separation be so much as named amongst us as it becommeth the Saints of God let not the common enemy of our Religion hope to build upon our ruines and to raise up himself by our fall to strengthen his peace by our contentions to be-night our clear and glorious Sun-shine of the Gospel so many happy years crowned with peace and the fruits of peace propagation with his Egyptian and Cymmerian darknesse Let us be of good comfort their darknesse dare not come so near our light for our light will discover it their errour dare
worser then self-opinion we esteem one poor and proud very odious and such are they that ascribe any thing to themselves because we are not able of our selves to think to move to live to subsist without our God 7. There is no vice that pleaseth Satan better then self-confidence for that quitteth Gods part in us and separateth us from God which is all that Satan seeks for then he hath sure possession and all that he holdeth is in peace 8. A proud man that ascribeth all to himself must needs be unthankful I may stirre up all the inconveniences of self-opinion with this for it is an old truth Ingratum sidixeris omnia dixeris Say he is unthankful and you have said all this is a full imputation and Saint Bernard saith Ingratitudo est ventus urens siccans sibirorem misericordiae fluenta gratiae 2. The Remedies These we may reduce to these few 1. A frequent and serious consideration of our selves what we were by Creation what we are by our sal for so we shall find how poor and impotent we are in our selvs how we have no strength to do any thing but we are debters to God for all all that we have is borrowings quid habes o homo quod non accepisti We have lost the freedom of our Will to any thing that is good we do carry about us legem membrorum corpus peccati so that our strength is weaknesse our wisedom is folly our friendship with the world enmity with God 2. The clearest mirrour to behold our selves in is the Holy Word of God which reporteth to us the story of our Creation and of our Fall which openeth and revealeth God to us in his Justice and Holinesse and Wisedome and Power and Mercy 3. Let us set God always before us and the nearer we approach to him the more shall we perceive whereof we are made and we shall then remember that we are but dust We shal perceiv wherfore we are made namely to live in the obedience and service of our Maker to bestow all our time constantly therein even to the end to glorifie God in our bodies and in our souls We shal see how unable we are to perform any part of this duty without God how we stand obnoxious to the curse of the law for either omitting the duties which we should perform or committing any thing against that just law What have we then to be proud of seeing in him and for him and by him are all things 4. Let us often revolve and recount the good favours of God to us and remember all his benefits and consider what he hath done for us and we shall find that there is a full stream of favour coming towards us whether we sleep or awake whether we drink of that brook in the way or not The Apostle joyneth two Precepts together which do sweetly serve to exercise a Godly and Christian life Pray continually in all things give thanks which do shew that all good gifts come from above to us and therefore all our holy duties must direct themselves that way and as our help cometh from those hils so our eyes must be ever to those hils It is not bread that man doth live by but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God it is not the letter of the Word that quickeneth us but the spirit Our whole help is in the name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth Hallowed be that name we are his People and the Sheep of his Pasture Let us go into his gates with Thanksgiving and into his Courts with praise let us be thankful to him and speak good of his name Let us do this faithfully and we shall see it is no thank to our own net or drag that our portion is fat and our meat plenteous For none but he filleth the hungry with good things Peter and his company though they had their nets and fished all night yet they caught nothing when at Christs word they let fall their net and made a great draught they knew whom to thank for it A domino factum est hoc this is the Lords doing Is the voice of the Church therefore non nobis non nobis twice he putteth it from our selves sed nomini tuo da gloriam Not unto us but unto thy name give the glory 5. Grievance Ver. 17. Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the nations He continueth his former figurative manner of speech and presseth his grievance shall those fishing Chaldaeans when they have filled their net with fish empty it and return to another fishing will it hold out that they shall go from nation to nation and make all theirs as they go The grievance is that the Prophet doth not see any end of their cruel perfecutions as yet for the lingring afflictions which gather increase of strength by time do threaten final ruine whereas violent extremities spend themselves into vanity and nothing 2. Things are here feared 1. The hurt that they may do if they may fill and empty and fill again their net as often as they will 2. The pride of heart that they may gather by the vain-glory of their Conquests The point here confiderable is Doct. that The ungodly man hath no bowels Cain must kill Abel his own natural brother and Judas must betray innocent blood They that be once flesh't in the blood of men can make no spare thereof there is oculus in sceptro but not oculus in gladio an eye in the Scepter not in the sword Agags sword made many women childlesse The growing Monarchies ruined all before them as they went and overflowed all as a deluge nations and kingdomes that prevented not sacking and destruction with timely dedition perished before them But it is a signe of an unestablish't state when the foundation thereof is laid in blood and such as must be watered in blood to make them grow shall have an informer against them vox sanguinis fratris tui clamat de terrâ the voice of thy brother cryeth from the earth This makes all that love the gates of Sion and take pleasure in the prosperity of our Ierusalem to give God no rest in their earnest devotions praying him not to deliver our Church into the hands of Papists because it is a bloody Religion such as doth hazard Princes more then common men which doth bear them out in murthers and legitimateth Massacres for the safety and increase of their Church 2. It is wisedome out of the present state of things to forecast what may come hereafter as the Prophet doth the Chaldaeans must come and invade the land they shall fill their net with fish God hath spoken it it is like to be a merry time with them they shall rejoyce and be glad They are like to grow very proud upon it sacrificabunt lagenae suae c. They shall sacrifice to their net But shall this conquest so
the world and loose the soul In the last day an upright soul will be able to stand it out before the judgment seat when they that have kept all things upright but their souls shal see that none but upright souls are happy 2. Let us therefore not stand wishing I would I had such a soul Vse 2 as Balaam I would I might die the death of the righteous but let us study and use the means to get such a soul These are 1. The Word for in that the Spirit speaketh there is a sound of the voyce that commeth to the ear that is not enough there is the Spirit speaking to the soul that 's the Sermon the Spirit of God is the Preacher the souls of men are the audience So the Psalmist I wait for the Lord my soul doth wait and in his Word do I hope 2. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper for that is spirituall meat and drink the Pabulum animae it is both meat and medicine worthily received it is Emanuel God with us I may say to you my brethren as Christ said to the woman of Samaria Joh. 4.10 If you knew the gift of God and understood what grace is offered you in the word and Sacrament and how beneficiall they are how nourishing how cordiall to the inward man you would not come to the Word when your leasure served but you would put by all businesses and make them attend that service you would not receive the Sacrament once a year if so much but your Word would be Desiderio desideravi comedere hoc pascha I only say with Christ If you know these things happy are ye if ye do them 3. Confession to God is another good means keep the soul upright we say even reckonings make long friends There is a threefold Confession 1. Confessio fraudis quid omisi 2. Confessio facti quid feci 3. Confessio laudis quid retribuam Here is work enough to take up the whole life of man and this keeps our accompt with God even 4. I must never leave out prayer that must make one in all the exercises of Christian life pray continually And let our petition be that God would give us wisdom from above to direct us in the ordering of our souls so as we may ever keep them upright for it is not in man to order his ways much lesse to govern his own soul let us therefore pray to him who chalengeth interest in all souls who is called The Father of Spirits and who saith All souls are mine We have a good encouragement from Saint James If any of you want wisdom Jam. 1.5 let him aske of God who giveth to all men liberally And Christ hath promised that whatsoever he shal ask the Father in his Name he wil do it 5. It wil help to keep our souls in integrity to have regard of our conversation of our calling of our recreations of our time of our means 1. That we keep good company which may not corrupt our manners either consilio or exemplo by counsel or example 2. That we live in a lawful calling that we may have the testimony of a good conscience that the means of our maintenance are honest and lawful and that we do not spend the wages of unrighteousnesse that defileth the soul with an indelible pollution all your prayers and almes wil not purge you 3. That your recreations be both lawful and moderate such as may make you more fit for the service of God not such as may make you suspend the time wherein God should be served not such as may provoke you to impatience or to blasphemy and abusing the name of God 4. That your time be spent by weight and measure as those that are to be accomptants to God for it 5. That our means that we enjoy in this life be so gained and managed that they may seem as faculties of well-doing and may by no means stoop the soul to any departure from God for love of them or by abuse of them 3. Let us learn humility Vse 3 decline pride for that doth corrupt the soul to such God giveth grace he that is humillimus should be humillimus But the just shall live by his faith This is the second part of the Antithesis that contains in it the whole sum of the Gospel there be three words in it that carrie the contents thereof 1. Righteousnesse 2. Faith 3. Life Righteousnesse and Faith are the way of life they are two special pieces of that spiritual armour which the Apostle doth advise all the children of God to use against their enemies The breast-plate of Righteousnesse Eph. 6.14 and the Sheild of Faith 1. Of Righteousnesse This is that vertue which denominateth a man just and righteous and it is a vertue which doth give suum cuique to God in the obedience of the first table of the law to man in the obedience of the second table This is given 1. Legally 2. Evangelically For the first which is Legal righteousnesse it is the fulfilling of the whole Law in every part of it by the whole man in body and soul Ecles 7.31 the whole time of his life and Adam who was created in the image of God was cloathed with this righteousnesse as the Apostle saith Eph. 4.24 created in the image of God and in righteousnesse and true holynesse And this righteousnesse was lost by Adams fal and was never found in any man since but in the Man Jesus Christ who is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that just one And of him it is said Act. 22.14 Isa 59.17 that He put on Righteousnesse as a breast-plate And this Righteousnesse the Saints in glory have so the Apostle calleth them The spirits of just men made perfect But on earth Heb. 12 23 Rom. 3.10 There is none righteous no not one The Church of Rome doth directly contradict the Spirit of God speaking in Scripture concerning this righteousnesse Sess 6. Can. 18. For the counsel of Trent hath set it down for a Canon Siquis dixerit dei praecepta homini justificato sub gratia constituto esse ad observandum impossibilia anathema sit Let me then clear the Church tenent concerning this point that Legal Righteousnesse is altogether impossible to man in the present state of desertion from our creation Our Argument is this Whosoever sinneth breaketh the Law of God but every one that liveth sinneth Ergo every one that liveth breaketh the law The first proposition is proved by the definition of sinne given by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Joh. 3.4 But every man that liveth sinneth Saint James will make that good In multis offendimus omnes in many things we offend all The conclusion followeth ergo omnis praevaricatur legem Andradius answereth with a distinction to the minor every man sinneth sins are of two sorts 1. Mortall so every man sinneth not for he that is borne of God sinneth not
kind of study since the Church cast out Musick 2 In respect of Gods service the more pompe and solemnity is used the more glorious is the house of God made and the more differing from our common house of habitation 3 In respect of our selves we have need to have the help of outward things to draw us on with delight to entertain our thoughts with cheerfulnesse to incite and move our affections to quicken our devotion and to blow the fire of our zeal and to relieve our naturall wearinesse in Gods service These reasons brought in the song and instruments into the Church and gloriously was it setled in Solomons time in the temple according as his Father David had left it in the tabernacle where he designed to that service men of cunning 288. 1 Chrom 25.7 Ob. But Christ and his Apostles and the primitive Church had no such musique in Churches Sol. They had no Churches but in their meetings they sung Psalmes so did Christ and his Apostles in the roome where he kept his last Passeover and in the Emperour Trajanes time Mat. 26.30 which was before the death of St. John Pliny writeth to the Emperour of the manner of the Christians this one amongst the rest that They did meet together early in the morning and sung Hymns to their Christ But after Religion had found favour with Princes and began to appear in peace then came in Churches and Church Ornaments then were Liturgies devised and used then were instruments of musique intermixed with the service and God glorified in all St. Aug. Confess 9. Cap. 6. Quantum flevi in Hymnis Canticis svave sonantis Ecclesiae tuae voces illae influebant auribus meis eliquabatur veritas tua in cor meum ex ea aestuebat inde affectus pietatis currebant lachrymae benè mihi erat cum eis In the next Chapter hee tels how the Arrians attempted the taking of Ambrose B. of Millain whom they accused of heresie and Justina the Empresse bearing them out in it they meant him a mischief he went to the chief Church and much people followed him ready to dispatch their holy Bishop St. Augustine and his Mother were amongst them and there Aug. saith Tunc institutum ut Hymni Psalmi canerentur more orientalium Ecclesiarum ne populus moeroris taedio contabesceret quod ad hodiernum diem retentum est c. The Hymns and Psalmes were ordained to be sung c. Ob. It is a means often to carry away our thoughts more with the tune then with the matter St. Augustine maketh it one of his Confessions that he was so transported Sol. And may not the same happen in our singing of Psalms let us not lay our faults to the charge of the Church what good shall we go about but we shall finde Satan busie to divert us from it Obj. It is costly to maintain Musique in our Churches and that mony were better bestowed on the poor and other better uses Sol. What better bestowed on the poor then upon God himself is the cheapest religion the best they had poor in the time of the Law and yet that hindered not the magnificence of the Temple and the Ornaments thereof and the maintainance of Gods worship alit pauperes 288. in Templo ut ante The earth hath not the like glory now to shew as that of Gods House And shal Aaron that vvas but for a time be thus glorious and shall Melchizedeck a Priest for ever vvant honour It is true that it hath been policy in these later times to keep the Church lean and to strip it out of all outward pomp and to transfer Gods inheritance into the hands of strangers But remember the great Commandement Thou must love God above all things and so doing he shall have the best of all that thou art the best of all that thou hast Our prayer is Sicut in coelo as in heaven and Christ promises is to the just that they shal be as the Angels of God in Heaven Reve. 15.3 there they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and David saith Blessed is the people that can rejoyce in thee Psa 89.15 we have more cause to use both voices and instruments in his praise because he hath redeemed us from Satan hath made us all Priests of the high God to offer to him the calves of our lips and with such sacrifices God is well pleased Ver. 2. O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid O Lord revive thy work in the middest of the years make known in wrath remember mercy THis vvhole Psalme as it is in the composition of a mixt kind of verse so in the matter of it mixt for it consisteth 1 Of supplication and petition ver 2. 2 Of celebration of the prayses of God 3 15. 3 Consternation before God ver 16 17. 4 Consolation in God 1 Of the supplication O Lord I have heard thy speech that is all that thou hast said in the former Chapter in defence of thy justice and in propheticall revelation of thy holy will both concerning thy Church how that shall be afflicted and concerning the enemies of thy Church how they shall be punished in the end And I was afraid fear came upon me when I heard thee recompt thy judgements O Lord revive thy work in the middest of the years here be three quaeries 1 What he meaneth by the vvork 2 What by the middest of the years 3 How this work should be revived 1 Thy work Lyranus saith Opus tuum in punitione Chaldaeorum qued fiet virtute tua magis quà m humana 2 Beza by the work of God here understandeth the Church of God the people of Israel So do Tremelius and Junius for they parellel this place vvith those vvords of God in the Prophet Isa Ask me of things to come concerning my sons Isa 45.11 and concerning the work of my hands command ye me Where he calleth his Church opus manum my work Thus doth Master Calvin here understand statum Ecclesiae the state of the Church vvhich is called The vvork of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being the most excellentest part of his work wherein he is most glorified So David prayeth for the Church under that appellation Psa 138.8 Forsake not the works of thine own hands So doth Isaiah name them Thy people also shall be all righteous Isa 60.21 they shall inherit the Land for ever the branch of my planting the work of my hands that I may be glorified Isa 61.3 So in the next Chapter Christ is anointed for the good of his Church Isa 61.3 that they may be called the trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord. 3 Novv there is such a correspondence betvven the head and the body betvveen Christ and his Church that sometimes that vvhich is literally spoken of the Church is mystically applyed to Christ Jeremie expressing the great
serpent for Christ calleth the vvicked genimina viperarum generation of vipers and to such he saith Vos estis ex patre vestro Diabolo you are of your father the Devill John 8.44 For this Rupertus saith that the Bible is called the Book of the battails of the Lord Num. 21.14 because it conteineth the story of the vvars betvveen these tvvo the Church and the vvorld From this enmity vvhich God put betvveen the Church and the vvorld ariseth this hatred and opposition so that the prosperity of the vvicked is Davids grief the miseries of David be the vvorlds joy the joy of the Church is the affliction of the vvorld God left the Devill in his fall and took him not up again thereby forsaking him he put enmity into him and he for the hatred that he beareth to God hath ever since persecuted him in his Church because his malice cannot extend to hurt him And herein he is the more cruel because he knovvs his time is but short Satan is but Gods instrument in the afflicting of the Church so it is said to the Angell of the Church of Smyrna Reas 2 Behold the Devil shall cast some of you into prison Revel 2.10 that ye may be tryed and ye shall have tribulation ten days He goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour If he be kept from devouring he biteth and rendeth and doth vvhat hurt he can for he is a murtherer but if God shevv the light of his countenance to them vvhom he pursueth he is sick of that mercie and so are all the tents of Cushan the vvhole brood of vipers have this venome from the old serpent to be afflicted at the prosperity of the Church For instance I vvill prevent the time David saith one day telleth another and one night certifieth another To morrovvs memoriall teacheth this day this vvas the vigill of that popish holy day vvhich the same Papists here at home and many beyond the seas hoped to have made festivall to all posterity The children of darkness had provided to put out our light to quench the light of our Israel it was an affliction to the Papists to behold religion and peace setled under the government of a learned King who knew what he believed and why and who had discovered himself an enemy to their Antichristian and hereticall synagogue They saw a fair issue ready for timely succession so gratiously seasoned with the salt of heavenly wisedom from the first of their capacity and apprehension that there remained no hope for their politique religion to finde footing in these Churches Their flourishing state of Church and Common-welth was such an affliction to them that some Zealots of their Religion the sons of thunder could no longer contein themselves but their study was how to put their grief upon us and to transfer our joy upon themselves They shewed us the vvay of their rejoycing their mercies vvere cruel nothing could remove their grief at our vvelfare but the destruction of the head and body root and tree and all in a day And they that vvould have destroyed us thought and the Jesuites and Priests of the Roman Faith taught them to believe that they should do God good service We see the mercies of that religion so clearly in this horrible Treason that all that knovv and serve the God of peace have just cause to esteem Papists disloyall subjects secret enemies to the State bloudy persecutors of the Gospell of peace Our stories are full of their malice vvrackings imprisonments starvings burnings hangings and many exquisite torments executed upon innocent and holy Martyrs But vvhen vve remember the Povvder-Treason that calleth all the tormentors of the Church before them mercifull the Devill did never roar so loud before the Buls of Rome never bellovv'd such terrour to the Church as in that damnable and desperate attempt The provocation vvas their affliction at our prosperity and griefe at our vvelfare again this venome of the generation of vipers boiled over and they that bore evill vvill to our Sion sayd one unto another Catosby to his confederates I have bethought me of a way at one instant to deliver us from all our bonds and without any forriegn help to replant the Catholique Religion which is to blow asp the Parliament house with Gunpowder for in that place have they dohe us all the mischief and perchance God hath designed that place for their punishment for this striketh at the root and will breed a confusion fit to beget new alterations What alterations could be here meant but those that Job felt that our Land and Church might complain Thou hast turned my Harp into mourning and my Organs into the voice of them that weep How did they swallow up the joy of this change in hopeful expectation of successe but the children came to the birth and there was no strength to bring forth Their own fear came upon them For it was Catesbyes own Lenvoy to his revealed Treason But saith he If this take not effect as most of this nature miscarry the scandal will be so great to the Catholick Religion as not onely our enemies but our friends will with good reason condemn us Thus did their minds mis-give and abodements of evil did secretly call upon them to fly from the anger to come This diverted them a while from this execution and put them into a new project Thomas Winter was sent as his confession under his own hand reporteth to inform the Constable of Spaine then coming in Ambassy from the King of Spain to our Sovereigne of the state of the Catholicks in England and to entreat his mediation to solicite our King for the revocation of some penall laws and the admittance of the English Catholicks into the ranke of his other Subjects Winter met with him at Bergen neer Dunkirk and by the meanes of Owen an apostate Traitor he had accesse to him mooved him in his suite and had a fair promise from him to do all good offices in that errand But Owen discouraged that hope saying that he believed nothing lesse and that they sought onely their own ends meaning the state of Spaine holding small accompt of Catholiques Owen animated the Treason and promised to send Faux over to help to set it forward From thence Winter went to another of our fugitives Sir William Stanley to Ostend where he asked his opinion whether if the Catholiques of England should do any thing in England to help themselves the Arch-Duke would second them he answered no for all those parts desired peace with England After all these despairs they had no remedy to cure their disease of envy at the gratious peace of this State but their powder-plot in which none but profest Papists within the land had any hand None that we can discover but Priests and Jesuites here or abroad did blow the fire No forreign Prince hath the dishonorable name of privacy with it or abetment of it onely the
prostitute strumpet to the shame of their Religion he that hath begun will also in time make an end and he that beginneth to lose estimation at home will hardly either encrease or maintein it abroad Who are papists or affected popishly amongst us for the most part but such as are ignorant of holy Scriptures or such as corrupt and pervert them for the revelation doth point out Antichrist as the finger of John did Christ with This is he it calleth Rome Babylon and sheweth us the fall thereof and the cheerfull rising of the true Church to light and glory In all those dangers that the Church of God runneth the comfort here expressed in the Lord stays the heart thereof with flagons and comforteth it with apples for his love is a banner to it The parts of this text are three 1 The hope of the afflicted Church 2 The ground of this hope and comfort 3 The dedication of this Psalm 1 The hope of the afflicted Church Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. You know that joy dilateth the heart and giveth it sea-room in the stormy and tempestuous state of trouble joy is a thing that every soul affecteth we desire many days to see good we are apt with Solomon to try our hearts with joy This is welcome to them that live here on earth which is convallis lachrymarum a valley of tears wherein the story of our whole life is written upon a scroul on both sides filled with lamentations mourning and wo and our Saviour saith Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted We have so many causes of mourning that whether we look to our selves the occasions of our own woe or to our sorrows the fruitfull spawn of our breeding sins the naturall and proper effects of our own corruptions we have from both matter of grief and provocation of sorrow 1 Pro nobis for our selves for what we suffer 2 In nobis in our selves for that we do deserve Therefore we must not seek joy in our selves for then we shall weep as Rachel for her children because they are not The joy of the Church is in the Lord. Plerumquè in ipsis piis fletibus gaudii claritas erumpit and then it is when man forsaketh all comforts and findeth that Gregor Bonum est adhaerere Deo semper when a man unmindeth all other comforts This as Augustine saith est gaudium quod non datur impiis sed eis qui te gratis colunt quorum gaudium tu ipse es ipsa est beata vita gaudere de te propter te ipsa est non est alia All you then who have found sorrow and heavinesse by the due consideration of those evils which you have committed and of those holy duties which you have omitted and of those punishments which you have justly suffered come hither and learn how to rejoyce forget that which is behind remember Lots wife look not back to the beguiling delights of the bewitching and flattering world look before you to the Lord for hee is the Authour he is the Mediatour he will be the finisher of your joy gaudium vestrum nemo tollet a vobis and your joy no man shall take from you Joy not in greatnesse and high place or in riches in the fruit of the womb in the extent of your lands in the favours of Princes in the full sea of temporall happinesse they that suffer in all these things do finde joy in the Lord. Reasons why in the Lord. 1 They that joy in the Lord rest in the Lord and cast all their care upon him they pray fiat voluntas tua thy will be done and they are content with it and they are thankfull for it when it is done neither relucting at the doing of it nor repining and finding fault when they see it performed They say with old Eli 1 Sam. 3.18 Isa 39.8 It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good and with Hezechiah good is the Word of the Lord. And therefore the Lord is the same to them whether he be offerens opening his hand and giving or auferens stretching out his hand to strip and divest them of all that he hath as he was to Job 2 They that rejoyce in the Lord rejoyce in nothing otherwise then as a means and faculty to serve the Lord. And so we may rejoyce in honours which do put our good example more in sight that others may behold our good works and glorifie God So we may rejoyce in authority and power over others if we use it to the winning of others to the service of our God to the coertion of evill doers and the reward of the good So may we rejoyce in riches if we use them as means to advance the Law of God and to expresse our charity to the needy All this is joy in the Lord that God trusteth us with the dispensation of these outward things and the applying of them to his service 3 They that rejoyce in the Lord rejoyce because God is Lord so David The Lord is King the earth may be glad of it for Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord. This is the Jubilation of the Church Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us Isa 25.9 this is the Lord we have waited for him we will be glad and rejoyce in his salvation that do thus acknowledge him their Lord and are glad that they live under his government Isai 26.8 The desire of their souls is to his name and to the remembrance of him For when thy judgments are in the world the inhabitants of the earth will learn righteousnesse O Lord our God other lords have ruled us but by thee onely will we make mention of thy Name This was the joy of the Church here professed in the midst of extream sorrows There cannot be a better signe to know this true spirituall joy from all other false seemings and blandations of joy 1 Signe then the lasting thereof for the candle of the wicked shall be put out but God is a Sun and a shield to his Church Joy in all other things is but a sojourner and tarrieth but a small time but when once it fastneth upon God it saith Here will I dwell for ever for I have a delight herein This joy hath none of the fears that other joys have to make us doubt the losing of it it hath none of the impediments to stop the way to it that other joys have It hath none of the sorrows that other joys have to commedle with it It hath none of the miseries that conclude all other joys to determine it Therefore as the Apostle admonisheth Vse rejoyce always in the Lord again I say rejoyce Rejoyce when thou aboundest rejoyce also when thou wantest full and empty when thou givest alms and when thou receivest alms it is a more blessed thing to give it is also a blessed thing to receive in health