and all the other endeavours that have been used for our Salvation though Christ by his Spirit by his Word and by his Example has essayed to take away our sins From us and to take them away In us I know not how they are not taken away from Among us Our Sins like Idolatry in Israel like the Groves and High-Places are continually taking away and still found remaining they vary and change according to the several Revolutions and Vicissitudes of our Condition but they are not abolished when Rebellion reigned in the Land Rapine Oppression Bloudshed Sacriledge were its complexion When this Evil by a singular Mercy was remov'd from us the Sins of Peace succeeded Ingratitude for past and Insensibleness of present Benefits Drunkenness Whoredom Irreligion Schism Faction c. So that as the Romans complained of old that after they had subdued the Nations themselves were subdued by their own Vices that these sly and silent Enemies Luxury Covetousness and Ambition revenged and retaliated the conquered World victumque ulciscitur Orbem We may in like manner complain that after the Violences and Outrages of War ceased the soft and soothing Sins of Peace crept in in their place and have tyrannized over us more fatally and destructively And who then can say our Sins are taken away when they are only transformed and have assumed new Shapes and Names when that which was Rebellion in 41. is Dissoluteness or Atheism in the Year 70 But though there be too much reason to bewail this yet I hope with the same Charity that I wish the thing that none that are guilty of the more enormous Sins I have mentioned are present in this Assembly but that it fares with my Complaint as it does with the Exhortations which are made out of the Pulpit to Non-Conformists those to whom the Speech is directed are never there So in my present Complaint of not forsaking our Sins but exchangeing them for others I do but inculcate a Doctrine to the Gracious already and that those that are otherwise are not here But if any chance to be I shall only mind them of those Words they find Psal. 10.17 Take away his ungodliness and thou shalt find none If after God has endeavoured so many ways to take away their ungodliness it shall still remain they are more incorrigible than the worst of men and their obstinacy may well fear not only what the Words in the Psalm sound but what they signifie viz. that God will not only confound their wickedness but themselves also the wicked Doers Christ was manifested in the Flesh to destroy Sin and we ought in compliance with this his gracious Design to put to all our Powers to destroy Sin in our selves that purifying our selves as he is pure we may hereafter be glorious even as he is glorious To the Father Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed all Honour c. The Second Sermon 1 SAM xii 25 But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King THE State and Commonwealth of Israel differed from all other States in the World it was neither Aristocracy nor yet Democracy but if rightly denominated a Theocracy or Divine Monarchy i. e. it was in subjection to no Man or Number of Men but immediately to God himself Ye have said Nay but a King shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your King v. 12. Again C. 10.19 Ye have this day rejected your God who himself saved you out of all your adversities God was the Commander Prince and Monarch of this State in his own Person But being a Spiritual King as well as a Temporal and exercising a Dominion over the Souls as well as Bodies of his Subjects though his Reign were as the Reign of Prosperity it self his Scepter not only a Scepter of righteousness but of felicity Plenty Victory and all other Blessings attending it they were impatient of it as of an intolerable and insupportable Yoke chose rather to be governed as the Nations of the Earth than even as the Angels in Heaven by a mortal than a Celestial King preferred an improsperous Condition together with a greater liberty of sinning before the most prosperous with a strict obligation to righteousness held it I say more eligible even to see their Enemies within their Gates than their God with narrow eyes continually prying into their actions God who saw this perverseness of their hearts in demanding a King punished their folly by complying with it defeated their wickedness by granting their request Ye shall says God for the future be governed as you desire after the manner of the Nations ye shall have a King the Court and the Sanctuary the Palace and the Tabernacle shall be separated my Divine Authority shall no more interpose in your making War or Peace in your marching or encamping in your Civil or Military Affairs all shall be in the power of your King But promise not your selves from hence a greater licence to sin for though I shall withdraw my former manner of Conduct from you I will have as near an inspection into your Actions as I had before and though my miraculous assistances are more rarely shewed I will visit your iniquity with Scourges Your King and new-modell'd State shall be so far from protecting you in your disobedience that they shall render your destruction only more signal and calamitous But if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King In the Days in which God chiefly invited his People to Obedience by the Promises of temporal Blessings and deterred them from Disobedience by the threats of temporal Evils none were greater than those that related to their King As whether he were a Child or of grown Years a base Vpstart or the Son of Nobles one that eat in the morning or at due season for strength or for drunkenness as Solomon speaks Or as the Prophet Isaiah A wise and gracious Prince or a fierce and cruel Lord and a Fool. Again whether the Reign of a wicked King were prolonged or of a righteous cut short whether the Prince were often changed or many set up at the same time as those Words may be interpreted either way For the transgressions of a Land many are the Princes thereof I say no higher Marks of God's favour or disfavour to a People could be shewed than in what related to their King And no wonder For undoubtedly a good King is infinitely above the encrease of the Barn and the Wine-press of the Flocks and the Herds for he is the security of all these and whatever else makes a Kingdom happy and blessed Plenty is not Plenty Possessions are not Possessions Peace is not Peace Religion is not Religion without such a Guardian and Conserver of them Well therefore might God as being the highest of Judgments threaten his rebellious People with the destruction of their King I say his rebellious People for the King is not threatned in my
Agreeable to him for his own sake And this Rule of Love to Men may teach us what Love we ought to pay to God for we ought to wish Well to God and to procure things Good and Agreeable to him And if any ask Wherein we can do this to God I need look no further for an Answer than the second Petition in the Lord's Prayer Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as 't is in Heaven It consists in the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory For all other things besides these are nothing to God as the Psalmist says My goods are nothing unto thee The Riches of this World and the most precious things in its account are contemptible in his Sight but these two which I have named he esteems and in some measure wants and desires possesses not perfectly and absolutely as he would All his Creatures do not acknowledge him honour him worship him delight in his Dominion pay a ready cheerful Obedience to his Commands as the Angels in Heaven do notwithstanding that they are reasonable honourable beneficial have more of Profit than of the Yoke in them But so it is there is another God of this World that blinds most men and leads them away captive with divers Lusts and they chuse rather to be Vassals and Drudges to this Usurper and Tyrant than to be Nobles and Princes even adopted Children to the King of Heaven and Earth And with good reason holy Men in every Age have pray'd for God's Kingdom i. e. the Encrease of Righteousness and of the Number of the Faithful for God is yet in a manner like those Princes which are outed of part of their Dominions and deny'd the Obedience of whole Nations of their People and his Loyal Subjects can no way shew their affection so much to him as by espousing his Interest abetting his Title employing their best Endeavours to reduce the Rebellious to Allegiance by wishing with the Psalmist That Kings and all People young men and maidens old men and children would praise and glorifie his holy Name 'T is the business of Great Ministers of State to understand the Strength and weakness of Foreign Princes the Commodities and Defects of their Countries that they make the most advantageous Alliances for their own Masters and they are held the best Politicians that do this best But if both those of the highest Condition and also of the lowest and meanest even all People would set to their Power to serve the Great Monarch of Heaven and Earth they would find no Policy comparable to this that the promoting of his Designs would be the most certain way of promoting their own whether publick or private they would find that they would thrive like Jacob that all things would prosper under their hands like Joseph that they would return with constant Victory like David and heap up Gold and Silver like Solomon Numa though a Heathen rely'd so confidently on this Policy that when he was told on a time That the Enemy was drawing up against him he answer'd And I am praying against them And when 't was said They were charging he reply'd and he was Sacrificing assuring himself the Gods would not neglect his Safety while he was solicitous for their Worship But you will say Is it needful that we should wish for the Encrease of God's Kingdom does he want the help of his Creatures No. Is he not Omnipotent and can bring to pass whatever seems good to him Yes Who has resisted his Will As the Question is ask'd None and yet it may be as truly said Who is there that has not resisted his Will What was spoken of Israel may be affirmed of all Mankind that they are a rebellious and gain-saying People God 't is true is Omnipotent and his Power never fails he brought the World out of nothing by his Word and by his bare Word can reduce it again to nothing if he had pleas'd he could have created a Generation of Men that should have served him regularly and constantly fatally and necessarily as the Fire burns and the Sun and the Moon move in their Courses But this is not the Service that God wants and which we are to pray for in his behalf 't is the Free and Voluntary not the Constrain'd Service of his Rational Creatures that Men would obey him out of Love and Choice as his Dominion is gracious that they would desire it as it is beneficial and honourable that they would delight in it Compell'd Righteousness is no Righteousness 't is in Obedience as in Charity he that gives grudgingly and of necessity does not give but is tax'd and he that obeys of Compulsion is a Slave and not a Votary 'T is reported of the famous Painter Apelles that when he had finish'd any rare Piece his custom was latere post tabulam to hide himself behind it that he might hear what Passengers said of it and that he car'd for no Approbation but what came in this free way After the like manner God exposes to the View and Consideration of Men his Works of Power and of Wisdom of Mercy and of Goodness and then delights latere post tabulam to conceal himself in his inaccessible Glory and to observe what free and unextorted Returns of Honour and Love they will bring him in all forc'd or feign'd Superstitious and Hypocritical Acknowledgments being odious to him And now after all that has been said in strict speaking God stands no more in need of our Obedience and Worship than he does of our Riches as 't is said Acts 17.24 He dwelleth not in Temples made by hands neither is he worshipp'd by mens hands The meaning of his being outed of part of his Kingdom and denied his full Dominion in truth signifies no more But that he has not yet extended the Salvation of Men to the Bounds his Goodness designed But to proceed We said Love did not only Wish but Procure things good and acceptable to the Person belov'd and we ought not only to wish the Execution of God's Will and the Extension of his Glory but to set-to our hands to Effect what we pray for as it is not sufficient in Point of Charity to give good Words only to the Poor to say Be thou warm be thou fill'd God assist thee and the like when we can supply what they want our selves so 't is not sufficient in our Love to God to say only Thy Kingdom come thy Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven but we must zealously and industriously do his Will and endeavour all we can to promote his Kingdom Says our Lord to S t Peter Simon Peter lovest thou me Lord reply'd he thou knowest that I love thee And yet notwithstanding that he knew the Sincerity of his heart he ask'd him the same Question three times Why to grieve Peter or that he delighted in the repetition of the Profession of his Love No but to excite him to a more
intimated ver 5. The Lord tryeth the Righteous but the Wicked and he that loveth Violence his Soul hateth Stratagem is mentioned ver 3. For lo the Wicked bend their Bow they make ready their Arrow upon the String that they may privily shoot at the Vpright in heart And now before we proceed any further if we shall compare the Machinations of the Enemies of our Israel this Day with those of the Enemies of David if we stretch Plot upon Plot and Conspiracy upon Conspiracy as Elijah stretcht himself upon the dead Child we shall find that not only Limb answers to Limb but that the Malice of our Adversaries exceeded that of David's as much as the Dimensions of a Man exceed those of a Child 1. We say The Design of David's Enemies was to destroy All his Foundations of what Kind soever and the Design of ours was as Universal to destroy our Forts and Castles our Ships and Ammunition our Laws and Policies our Prince and People and though they knew they could not subvert our Invisible Divine Foundation that the Eternal Omnipotent God was not to be subdu'd yet they sought to deprave his Worship and to corrupt his Religion which would have deprived us of him or have alienated him to us It was not for their Interest to set up Baal against Jehovah Dagon against the God of Israel but as it was Jeroboam's interest to set up the Calves and High Places against the Temple and Altar at Jerusalem so it was hugely their Interest to set up their Superstitious and Idolatrous Worship in the place of our pure and Holy so inconsistent with their Anti-Christian Monarchy And though the Enemies of Israel designed after the same manner to destroy all their Foundations and All can be but All yet one All may be greater than another and our All if we may believe Geographers many times exceeds theirs 2. The Design of David's Enemies was Fatal and Final and to extirpate utterly not only I say to make a total Destruction but to destroy Totally And the same was the Design of our Enemies only whereas the Malice of David's Enemies was weak and insignificant they being Aliens and at a Distance rather a Disposition than an Ability to hurt only one of those kinds of Ill will which Aristotle in his Ethicks says Is not furnisht to do much Evil and seldom grows up beyond Petulancy and the Trouble of them that are possess'd with it Our Adversaries were Natives and in the Bowels of us armed with Power as well as Malice and wanted not the Means and Opportunity to effect our Ruine any more than the Will to plot it Can a Nation be born at once says Job No nor one would think be destroyed and brought to Nothing in a Day The Grecians were ten Years in ruining Troy and when our Lord said Destroy this Temple and I will rear it again in three days the Jews supposing he spoke of the Temple of Stone which was forty and six Years a building heard his words as a Prodigy But lo a People that were our Adversaries that could do more And had not our Rock or rather the Rock of our Rock been Invincible they had destroyed us I say not in three days but in three Minutes in a Thought in a Moment Many Alas and of Various Perswasions and Pretences are the Adversaries of our Church but as the Historian says of the Contentions Rome had in her Minority with the Veii and the Gabii and other petty Townships her Neighbours that they were but as the Squabbles of little Children about the Lap of their Mother not like those she had afterwards with Carthage and other potent States which were like the Fatal Dissentions of grown Men which seldom end without the Blood of the one or the other Party So we hop'd it might be said of the Quarrels of our Dissenting Brethren though they troubled us about the Superstructions the Rites of Religion and the like that their Exceptions were but lucta circa matrem as the Brabbles and Wranglings of Children standing about the Lap of their Mother not like the Mortal Enmities of those that plotted against us this day whom nothing could satisfie but the Destruction of our Foundations and that Totally and Finally But late times have given us experience that the Malignity of these is not inferior to the others not less black and bloudy and though they make such Out-cries against Popery pretend to dread and detest nothing like its Return again into the Nation yet they abstain not from its Practices nor abhor to serve themselves with the Wickedest of its Principles So that these two so seeming contrary Parties are not ill resembled to two fierce opposite Streams which when they meet roar and chide but then friendly close and join But while both Papist and Puritan stick at nothing though never so impious to subvert the Foundations of our truly pure and holy Religion they plainly demonstrate they have subverted in their own Hearts the Fundamental Principles of Christianity it self But to proceed I said Thirdly That the Ways which the Enemies of David took to bring about his Destruction were three Parley Violence and Stratagem and our Enemies took the very same Courses to effect ours 1. Parley The Danger of Parley is not easily seen it pretends only to remove Misunderstandings and to compose Differences in an amicable Way and Book-Combats have been ever held consistent with a State of Peace but more Mischief has been done by this Close and Covert than by Open and profess'd Hostilities and those that have defended themselves against Force have been undone by Treaties many Camps and Cities have been lost by permitting a free Parley and Entercourse between the Souldiers that could never have been stormed And while simple and unskilful Israelites among us have play'd with this Danger like Children upon the hole of the Asp they have perisht by it before they have understood that any Evil was near How many were the Attempts of Rome in this kind upon our Glorious Queen Elizabeth at her first coming to the Crown how many flattering Epistles were there sent her from that See how many fatherly Admonitions What tender Care exprest for her Souls good What Sollicitude for her Temporal How were the Treasures i. e. the Cheats of that Church offered to be commanded by her its Usurpt Authority to be put upon the Tenter for her accommodation She might have marry'd Philip King of Spain her Brother if her fancy or interest had lain for it there was nothing so Unlawful but it should have been dispens'd with so Infirm but after the manner of Rome it should have been corroborated Never I may say was the Way to Destruction more strowed with Roses never did the smooth Accents of the Tongue so vie with the soft Ayres of Instrumental and Vocal Musick till the Holy Father saw that his Artifices were seen through and despised And then he betook himself to the second Means that
of Violence But Good God! how great was now the Change all the late harmonious Courtship was turn'd into Harshness and Discord the Blessings into Anathema's or Curses nothing was heard but the Reproaches of Heretick Apostate Accursed Woman nothing but Fulminations Excommunications Interdictions which may be call'd Rome's Spiritual Violence Foreign Princes were stirr'd up against the Queen open Invasions set on foot by Sea and Land secret Conspiracies plotted at home Insurrections Poysonings Assassinations Treasons of all kinds fomented and encouraged which by Divine Providence being also rendred bruta Fulmina idle Thunder that made a Noise and did no further Hurt the Great Enemy of our Church and State and his Complices had recourse In the Third place to Stratagem to carry on their Designs in tenebris with the dark and hellish Contrivance of the Powder-Treason this Day I will not say with the Psalmist They put the Arrow upon the String that they might privily shoot at the Vpright in heart Alas Bows and Arrows are an antiquated and despicable Artillery in these days being so far out-done by the Newer and rarer Invention of Execution and Cruelty Guns that they deserve not to be named for destroying Foundations to be compared with the Still and for a time Silent Battery in the Cave but which when least expected thunders louder than the Heavens and overturns Towns and whole Cities with greater Violence than an Earthquake The Jebusites were but rude and ignorant Engineers in comparison of those who but with a little Change bear their Name the Jesuites these indeed are great Workers in Darkness none ever before them delved so deep to undermine Foundations we may apply to them the words of the Prophet Hosea These Revolters are profound to make Slaughter For the Jesuites did not only Acheronta movere stir Hell to promote their Plot but they dug to Hell to carry it on But their Stratagem I was going to say was blown up but blessed be God I cannot say so but is blown over and many more since to their own great Shame only and Confusion And now if we ask here Why was all this Transport of Rage and Fury against us Why all this restless and unwearied Malice 'T was still for the same Reasons that the Enemies of David were set on fire against him We had dispossest them of their Dominion retrench'd their Power supplanted their Religion derided their Lame and their Blind namely their Images detected their forged Miracles degraded their Mock-Saints their Hypochondriack S t Anthony their Fanatical S t Francis their Bedlam Ignatius their Chimera Giant S t Christopher c. and they could find no peace or rest in their Spirit till they had restored these to their former Credit and Reputation and that by making their Prophaners their Worshippers And by this we may see what would have been our Condition in case our Adversaries could have brought about their Design For as the Jebusites were Idolaters as well as the rest of the Canaanites and the Lame and the Blind with which they braved David and defy'd the Host of Israel were as the most Learned conjecture their Tutelar Gods Telesmatical or Magical Images So our Adversaries however they seek to purge themselves with their Distinctions are gross Idolaters and just such a goodly Change as David should have made if he had left the Eternal God to trust in Stocks and Stones is the Change we should make if our Adversaries could prevail to make us leave our Mountain or Church to fly to theirs of Rome And First In regard that our Mountain is a Clear Mountain enlightned by the bright Beams of the Word of God which darts its Rays into every Corner of it Or stands as I may say like a Mercurius directorius in every Path and points the Right-Way to all that go by bidding them to walk in it But the Mountain of our Adversaries is always wrapt in Fogs and Mists and yet as if it were not Dark enough those that profess to be Guides to it blind the Eyes of all that are to ascend it And as the Guards of Forts and Frontier Castles make those that enter into them first surrender their Weapons so these make their Disciples and Proselytes resign their Reason and lay down their Understanding at the foot of the Mount and go on for ever after in Ignorance and an Implicit Faith And they do wisely in taking this Course for 't is not possible that any with their Reason about them should make any long Progress where they meet so many gross Scandals or Stumbling-Blocks at every step where they see the Scripture not only misinterpreted in some hard places but in the most Easie industriously perverted to Countenance the foulest Errours even Idolatry it self and after they have swallow'd whole so many Contradictions no less to humane Reason than to Divine Writ where they are obliged to believe that the Church which imposes these Monsters cannot Erre nay that God has confirmed them with Miracles shew'd Signs and Wonders more and more glorious to overthrow the Gospel of his Son than he did at first to establish it Signs and Wonders cry'd indeed every Market-Day among them like the Fruits of the Earth i. e. the Relation of them but which were never seen by any Eye For as one well observes Whereas our Lord wrought his Miracles to make Believers the Church of Rome requires that men should be Believers before they see any of her Miracles i. e. should be trained up to swallow Lies and Impostures Secondly As our Mountain is a Lightsome and Clear Mountain so 't is also a Safe whereas that of our Adversaries may be likened to the Hills of Robbers which the Psalmist speaks of where nothing is heard of but Depredations the continual Pillaging and spoiling of Travellers men go up to Rome as to a great Fair where Themselves are bought and sold Confessions Pardons Penances Indulgences Dispensations Pilgrimages c. aiming all at the Purse and not at the Good of the Soul and who shall look no further than our English Chronicle will find that the Vniversal Pastor when he exercised his Usurp'd and Tyrannical Power in this Realm was not content to fleece his Sheep only but tore off the very Flesh from their Bones Thirdly Ours is our own Mountain we are in it but our Adversary's is more than a thousand Miles distant and many other Mountains are to be past over before we can come to it and those that with a tame Simplicity delight to pay Homage to the Usurp'd Majesty of that Mount travel many a dangerous and weary League before they can attain the Abuse they seek And sad was the Condition of this Nation when upon every great Controversie to be judged every great Preferment to be collated every great Sin to be absolved men were transferr'd to the See of Rome corpus cum causa themselves as well as their Cause and where if they sped in their Pretences they often