The Author We must go to him from whom every good and perfect gift doth proceed to seek faith Here I must admonish you that faith is given without seeking at first for it is a free gift and it is the glory of God I am found of them that sought me not Do not think that the gift of faith is acquired that is freely given but the encrease of our faith is acquired by means I prove it thus The spirit of God is given in the wombe it is given to infants therefore faith is also given for the spirit is never unfruitful and faith is one of the fruits of the spirit And the Apostles said unto the Lord encrease our faith The grace of God which moveth in the generation of them that fear the Lord is the seed of all vertues and first of faith the mother vertue which issueth all the rest that is given early And the gift of faith doth so lie hid in the Elect of God that themselves know not of it till God be pleased not to put his sonne into them but to reveal his Sonne in them This magnifieth the free grace of God and teacheth us to say It is so father because thy good pleasure is such And this excludeth all boasting on our part seeing we have it of meer and free gift And it ascribeth the glory of all to God 2. The means to get faith These as I have said do not lay the foundation of faith in us that is the free gift of God but these means do advance the building they do help to encrease our faith I will referre you to one place to declare to you the acquisition of more faith And a certain woman named Lydia Act. 16.14 a Seller of Purple of the city of Thyatyra which worshipped God heard us whose heart God opened that she attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul And when she was baptized and her houshold she besought us Vers 15. saying if ye have judged me faithful to the Lord c. Observe the whole passage 1. Here was a woman living in an honest and lawful vocation She was a seller of Purple 2. Here were some beginnings of faith in her For she worshipped God 3. The outward means to increase her faith She heard us 4. The inward means The Lord opened her heart after which followeth 1. More attention to Paul 2. Baptism 3. A Desire to be esteemed faithful 4. Hospitality she welcomed her teachers So that for the encreasing of faith she heard the word and the more she believed the more attentively she heard and for confirming of faith she was baptized Faith cometh by hearing for how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard Here let me admonish you 1. But when I say by the word with the Apostle I do understand and would be understood to speak of the Word not as it is the voice of a mortal man nor as it is a dead letter but as the spirit doth speak to us in the Word For this the Apostle biddeth us Be swift to hear it concerns us much but that you may see that faith is not begotten in us by hearing hearing doth us no good without faith and we must have a grain of faith to season our hearing or else our hearing will adde nothing to our faith The word preached did not profit them Hebr. 4.2 not being mixed with faith in them that heard it So do we see some at first poure water into a Pumpe to set it a work that it may yield water plenteously for faith poured into our hearing doth make our hearing bring forth more faith And so in Prayer Fulgentius saith of faith Incipit infundi ut incipiat posci A man cannot have faith without asking neither can he aske it without faith 2. When I name the word for a means to beget an increase of faith I mean the written word to exclude all unwritten traditions and all written legends which the tel-tale Church of Rome hath coyned to gull the swallowing credulity of the misled ignorants that is the books of Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testament of which the Apostle saith They are able to make a man wise to salvation and perfect throughly perfect to every good work 3. When I name the word a means of faith I must mean the Word understood by us for the Eunuch learns nothing of Isaiah the Prophet by reading him without understanding And I wonder that ever the Church of Rome could so befool and infatuate the judgements of men to believe that either hearing a forme of service or praying in a strange tongue could carry any validity in them except they did conceive or do believe that such hearing and praying have power of incantation Therefore there is required A translation of the word into our natural language or some other that we understand if we understand not the original And herein I must stirre you up to a thankful consideration of their profitable labours who have taken pains to translate the Bible to English for the common benefit of you all that you may read the Scriptures and exercise your selves in the study of them and examine the doctrines that you hear by them Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers who put such a thing as this into the heart of our Kings Majesty to set this work afoot and to see it finished Herein also I must commend unto you the easinesse and perspicuity of Scripture for if God had not left the way of salvation open but had shut it up in such clouds of obscurity that we must needs have a guide to light us the way to the lanthorn why would David have called the Word it selfe A Lanthorne to our feet Therefore let no man be discouraged from his own private studying of Scriptures for feare of their hardnesse It is no better then idlenesse and shuffling to say the Scriptures are too deep for me I will not meddle with them Christ commandeth Search the Scriptures is he not Antichrist that saith do not thou shalt not search I say and believe that the Word only read over by us or to us without the help of any Comment or Sermon or Exposition of it is a Lanthorne and giveth light to the simple Much more the Word with good Commentaries and written Expositions Much more the Word preached by learned and judicious Preachers which know how to divide the same aright those be called fellow-labourers with God Angels of God the salt of the earth the light of the world and even Saviours of men and because of their labour in the Word and oversight of the People honour double honour is allowed to them by the Apostle Saint Paul This point is of great use 1. To us that are Ministers of the Word for it layeth a necessity upon us and wo be to us if we preach not the Gospel I am sure the Apostle putteth it home to Timothy I charge thee before
done in former ages page 105 Religion in the Head is speculation in the Heart affection in the Hand action page 169 Rich mens duties to the poor page 161 S. SAlvation is a work of power 210. of glory Ibid. Of mercy page 211 Salvation only of God page 229 Satans Suggestions that God is merciful animates sinners to do evil page 58 Satan is but Gods instrument in afflicting of the Church page 84 Selah what it signifieth page 49 Self conceited men how they ought to be taught page 32 Self-opinion is a kind of spiritual drunkennesse page 32 Set-prayers both lawful and necessary to be used page 6 Senselesse and livelesse creatures are subject to Gods will page 119 133 Sigionoth what it signifieth page 2 Signes of true spiritual joy page 201 203 Six Signes of ensuing judgment page 146 Sin is that which parteth God and us page 146 Sometimes God taketh away from his children their feeling of his love and of the joy of the Holy-Ghost page 56 T. TEmporal things have but a resemblance of good and evil spiritual favours are reall Pag. 202 Thanksgiving ought to be joyned with Prayer Pag. 106 Thanksgiving is a work of Justice which puts us in mind of our unablenesse to requite God and of our unworthinesse Pag. 69 The Contemplation of Gods justice in punishing the sins of his Church of his vengeance in revenging the quarrels of it of his mercy in his mercy in healing the wounds of it give the faithful occasion to resort to God by prayer Pag. 3 The Churches Plea in affliction is for mercy Pag. 45 The Church of God hath a special interest in the power and protection of God Pag. 54 The best forme of thanksgiving is that which maketh particular commemoration of Gods mercies Pag. 68 The sense of Scripture is the soul thereof Pag. 76 The welfare of the Church is the grief and vexation of her enemies Pag. 82 The truth of God is a good ground because the word of God is a sure word Pag. 112 The devil knew where Moses was buried Pag. 137 The effectual fevrent prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much Pag. 139 The poor are under Gods protection and his own flesh Pag. 160 The very Elect are shaken with fear Pag. 177 The law sheweth us how much we are in Gods debt Pag. 178 The same hand that put the children of Israel in possession of the land of Canaan put them out again Pag. 186 The Chaldaeans armies the Troops of God Pag. 186 The Saints of God have their sorrows on earth yet they always rejoyce in the Lord. Pag. 202 The general apprehension of Gods mercy in Christ will not justifie a man in the sight of God Pag. 207 The Lord will loose the bonds of his Church and give her deliverance out of her troubles Pag. 220 They that joy in the Lord rest in the Lord and rejoyce in nothing otherwise then as a means to serve the Lord. 200 and because God is Lord. Pag. 201 Three notes of a lawful promise and oath Pag. 115 VAin repetitions not to be used in Prayer Pag. 33 W WE ought to give the whole glory and praise for all good to God 70. And thanks to creatures as ministers and instruments of God Pag. 71 We must search out and confesse the true cause of all the good that God doth to us Pag. 107 What use may be made of Davids Psalmes in our frequent reading and meditation of them Pag. 19 What is meant by the works of God Pag. 19 What is meant by the midst of years Pag. 21 Whether we ought to swear at all Pag. 114 Whether every oath ought to be kept Pag. 115 Wheresoever there is Election there is Vnction pag. 130 154 Where God loveth a People his favour runneth in a full stream in the channel of his Church Pag. 138 Where there is the true joy of the Holy Ghost no temporal affliction can extinguish or eclipse it Pag. 195 X Xerxes angry with the sea causeth it to be beater with stripes pag. 102 FINIS A Commentarie OR EXPOSITION UPON The Prophecy of HABAKKVK CHAP. I. Verse 1. The Burthen which HABAKKUK the Prophet did see THis first verse tels us what we shall find in the ensuing Prophecy and it openeth to us three things which give light to that which followeth 1. The Minister of God in this Prophecy 1. By his name Habakkuk 2. By his Function the Prophet 2. The manner how he came by it Vision 3. The matter of it the Burthen 1. Of the Minister First of his name The name Habakkuk is rendred by Philo the Jew amplexans embracing so doth Pagnine give it our English a wrastler for they that wrastle do embrace and hold fast one the other a name well expressing the office and employment of this Prophet who wrastled with the sinners of those times and their horrible iniquities to cast them 1. But as God wrastled with Jacob that he might leave behind him a blessing His tribe Dorothaeus saith was Simeon I know not upon what information for the silence of the holy Scripture doth argue it to be conjectural Concerning the time when he prophecied it is not particularly exprest but it appears to be before the deportation into Babylon for the Chaldeans invasion is here threatned and therefore Junius thinks him contemporary with Jeremiah and referreth his Prophecie to the end of Josias his Government Others after the Hebrews referre it is the â—â—me of King Manasseh Master Calvin very truly affirmeth it before the time of Zedekiah Arias Montanus gives a probable conjecture by comparing that which is said 2 Reg. 21.12 Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel behold I am bringing forth an evill upon Jerusalem and Iudah that whosoever heareth of it both his ears shall tingle That in the eleventh verse t is said Because Manasseh King of Judah hath done these abominations and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did which were before him and hath also made Iudah to sinne with his idols And this Commination is almost in the same words in the fifth verse of this chapter Saint Hierome in his Prologue to this Prophet saith that he is called a wrastler quia certamen ingreditur cum deo because he wrastled with God Nullus enim Prophetarum ausus est tam audaci voce Deum ad disceptationem justitiae provocare none durst so boldly provoke God to vindicate his Justice as it appears v. 2. But he doth violate the text of Canonical Scripture and History to verifie that Apocrypha tale of Habakkuks bringing food to Daniel by miracle which destroyeth the truth of the history to make faith of a Legend For either there must be two Habakkuks or this one must live as Arias Montanus doth cast it up three hundred years if he lived to feed Daniel in the Captivity a long time of life then or this must prophecie before he was born Bellarmine hath found out two Daniels one the
Justice or directly unjust in suffering his own servants to be opprest with the injuries of men The Minister must diligently preach the hearer must reverently hear and faithfully believe the truth concerning the Providence of God or else all Religion will sink and want foundation Vers 2. And the Lord answered me and said Write the vision and make it plaine upon Tables that he may run that readeth it 3. For the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry HEre begins the second part of the chapt which contains the Lords answer to the Prophets expostulation Containing 1. A Direction to the Prophet ver 2 3. 2. A Declaration of his holy will in the general administration of Justice 1. Concerning the Direction given to the Prophet And the Lord answered me and said For the manner how God maintained intelligence with his holy Prophets we are not very particularly informed we find inspiration and revelation and ision mentioned he that made the light that is in us and gave us our understanding can best make his ways known to his holy ones and as I do not think that Habakkuks contestation with God was verbal and vocal but rather a wrastling and striving of his spirit and inward man neither do I think this answer of God was audidle presented to the eare but by some secret divine illumination suggested And where he saith The Lord answered and said These phrases do expresse so plain an answer as is made in conference between man and man Write the vision That is set down in writing my answer It is our manner for the better preservation of such things as we would not forget to set them down in writing But because this request of the Prophets doth concerne others that he may inform them God addeth Make it plain upon Tables that he may run that readeth it That is write my answer in a Table in great Characters that though a man be in haste and run by yet he may read as he runneth shewing that he was desirous to satisfie all such as the Prophet spake of before who should argue against him As out manner is to fix publike Proclamations and Edicts on wals or on Posts in ways of common passage that any Passenger may take notice thereof seeing it concerneth every one to that the Lord alludeth in this place giving the Prophet great charge for the declaration of his holy will in this great matter so to expresse it that every one of his People may receive information thereof Vult aperta esse verba apertè scribi saith St. Hierom. For the vision is yet for an appointed time The time is not yet fulfilled for the execution of the Will of God but it is in the holy wisedome and purpose of God determined when it shall be fulfilled At the end it shall speak and not lie That is in the time prefixed by Almighty God it shall take effect and the counsel and decree of God shall be executed For God that hath promised cannot lie The answer of God is full as it after will appear and doth not only clear the Iustice of God in the present cause of the oppressed Iews against the Chaldaeans but it maketh a further and more general overture of Gods decree against all unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse of men so that this Prophecy shall not only comfort that Church and those times but it is directed to the perpetual use of the Church in all the ages thereof He therefore addeth Though it tarry wait for it do not think by any importunity to draw down the judgements of God upon the ungodly or to hasten the deliverance of the Church God doth all things tempore suo in his time and the servants of God must tarry his leasure Because it will surely come it will not tarry He giveth assurance of the complement of his Will in the proper and prestitute season thereof which nothing shall then hinder The parts of this text containing Gods direction given to his holy Prophet are three 1. The care that God takes for the publishing of his Wil to the Church vers 2. 2. The assurance that he gives of the performance thereof in the time by him appointed 3. The patient expectation which he commands for the performance thereof 1. The law that he takes for publishing it The Prophet must not only hear God speak the Seer must not only behold the vision but he must write the same litera scripta manet the written letter abideth I will not stand to search how ancient writing is wherein some have lost time and labour I know that many do make God the first immediate Author of it and do affirm that the first Scripture that ever was was Gods writing of the law in two Tables Exod. 32. But because I find in Exod. 24 that Moses wrote all the word of the Lord Vse 4 and Josephus doth report a tradition of the Hebrews for writing and graving before the flood I hold it probable that both Scripture and Sculpture are as ancient as the old world I will not question Josephus his Record of the two pillars erected before the flood engraven for the use of posterity with some memorable things to continue in succeeding ages whereof one remained in Syria in his own time It is frequent in Scripture to expresse a perpetuity of record by writing In the case of Amalek Write this for a memorial in a book Ex. 17.14 Iob. O that my words were now written that they were printed in a book Job 19 23 Graven with an iron pen Vers 24. in lead and in the ink for ever Isay the Prophet I heard a voice from heaven saying to me write all flesh is grasse Ioh. Audivi vocem dicentem Beati mortui I heard a voice from heaven saying Blessed are the dead Beloved thus have we the light that shineth upon the Church and guideth our feet in the ways of peace by writing for all Scripture is given by inspiration holy men wrote as they were inspired It was given to them by inspiration to know the will of God they impart it to the Church of God by writing and that boundeth and limiteth us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus hath God revealed himself to his Church 1. Cor 4.6 both sufficiently that we need no more knowledge for eternal life then what is contained in Scripture and so clearly that the word giveth understanding to the simple And as this word from the immediate mouth of God doth warrant this particular prophecy so doth the Apostle say of all the body of Canonical Scripture that all Scripture is given by inspiration and Gods care is double 1. That it be written to continue 2. That it be written plain to be read 1. It must be written that it may remain 1. Written For in the old world because of the
Scripture Vse 3 we must learne to carry a reverent opinion of Gods written Word and to esteem it as Gods great love to his Church and as the means ordained by him to bring us all to him Therefore David saith in one Psalme In God will I praise his Word Ps 56.4 vers 10. twice He had reason for it For thy Word hath quickened me This word is now written Ps 119.50 and whatsoever things are written they are written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures Rom. 15.4 might have hope It was Christs shield by which he bore off the firy darts of Satan discharged against him in the wildernesse Scriptum est it is written they that know not the Scriptures know not the Power of God this is a sure word because it is upon record from the Spirit of God the charter of our heavenly inheritance 2. It must be written plain so that not only he that comes of purpose may read it but even he that comes along by it may read it as he goes When we come to examine this writing we shall finde it to contain the summe and abridgment of the whole Bible and all that is written may be referred to it From this no man may be excluded none forbidden to read it it must be set forth to publike view put into the common eye This sheweth us that are the Ministers of the Word what our work is Doct. to write the Word of God in a faire and legible hand in great characters that is to open to the Church of God the whole counsel of God Reas 1 1. Because this is the Lanthorne to mens feet and faith cometh by hearing and understanding this and this is the office of our ministry none can be saved but by our Ministry for this we have the great title of Saviours given us in holy Scripture And seeing the Apostle saith God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of his truth that is saved by coming to that knowledge we must be faithful we must hide none of this light from men Christ gave a full Commission to his Apostles go ye into all the world preach ye to every creature Saint Paul saith woe is me if I preach not 2. Because there is a natural blindnesse in man Reas 2 and the god of this world by outward temptations our-own inward cotruptions do cast so thick a mist of darknesse before our understandings that the natural man doth not well discerne those things which are of God therefore as decaied sight is helped by a faire and great letter so by our easie and familiar handling of the holy Scriptures we must labour to help the weak understandings of the ignorant 3. We must consider the true end why God gave his word Reas 3 both spoken and written in Scriptures The word was given to profit with all for so saith God Is 55.10 as the raine cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither but watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud c. So shall my word be that goeth forth from my mouth Vers 11. it shall not returne unto me void It doth no good on stony ground where it is not received in nor where it is kept off from falling upon any ground It must be our care to see that the seed be good and fit for the ground where it is sown that it may come up again in fruit And because some have weak eyes we must write very plaine characters and because some have runing and gadding wits we must write so as they that run may read This teacheth the minister to have a special regard of his audience that they may profit by his ministry Vse 1 for we are Embassadours from God to man let us deliver our message so as man may know what the good and perfect will of God is Words thus spoken do more good as the Apostle saith in the Church then 100 spoken in strange tongues Saint Bernard saith that it is better apta then alta sapere Christ our Master that set us awork and whose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are told his Disciples Multa habeo vobis dicere Iob. 16.12 sed nunc non potestis portare I have many things to say Ezech. 47 3 4 c. but you cannot bear them now It must be our discretion to let our preachings run like the waters in Ezekiel which were at first going into them up to the ancles then to the knees then they rose up to the loynes then they grew fit only for good swimmers And it must be your discretion that are hearers of our preachings to remember your own measure and Christs rule qui potest capere capiat let no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be over-wise nor exercise himself in things too high for him let not such as be meer waders adventure to swim in deeps but content themselves in those sholes where they may have sure footing till God the giver of wisdome do reveale more to them They preach most profitably to a mixt auditory consisting off several scantings of understanding who serve them all as Josephs brethren were served in Pharaohs house The eldest according to his age Gen. 43.33 and the youngest according to his youth That the weakest understanding may gain some light the weak understanding may gain more light the good understanding may better it self and the best may not think the time lost To make rough things plaine and to write in a full hand and a legible character This is Gods own manner of teaching Isa 48.17 as he saith I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go 1 Cor. 7.53 And Saint Paul saith This I speak unto you for your own profit 2. Vse 2 Seeing God would have his word so fair written that he that runneth might read we are taught the power and efficacie of the word plainly delivered they that run and have something else to do and think on yet cannot escape the power of this word they shall read this writing although it be in transitu in passing by Belshazzar was a runner for being amongst his cups and drinking in the vessels of Gods house amongst his Princes and Concubines and praising his own Idol-gods he saw an hand-writing upon the wall it was so fairly written that he could not but read it and it was so full of terror that though he had all the means to move delight before him Dan. 5.6 yet The Kings countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another The messengers whom the Chief Priests sent to entangle Christ in his words were runners they came with purpose to do Christ wrong but his preaching was like a table so fairly written that they could not but
to be the comforter of his Church to abide with it for ever we have the earnest of this Spirit to bind the bargain of eternal salvation We have the first fruits of this Spirit We have the testimony of this Spirit witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Sons of God and if Sons then Heyrs and Co heyrs with Christ 3. To spend the time of our waiting here for the promise of God we have the holy exercise of Prayer this doth bring us to a familiar conference with God and as in hearing and reading of holy Scripture we say Audiam quid loquatur Deus So in Prayer God saith He shall call upon me and I will heare him I will be with him In Prayer we may challenge God of his promise as the Psalmist Do well O Lord unto thy servant according to thy Word Remember thy Word unto thy servant Ps 119.49 upon which thou hast caused me to hope Faith and feeling are not always joyned together therefore in the want and expectation of Gods promises we pray building upon the Word of God because we know Vers 89. For ever O Lord thy Word is setled in heaven Saint Augustine saith of Prayer it is oranti subsidium and help to him that prayeth deo sacrificium a sacrifice to God daemonibus flagellum a scourge to the devils 1. It helpeth us for it setteth us in the face of God and bringeth us into his conference and the time can never seem long to us that is spent in that company 2. It is a sacrifice to God for it is the performance of a duty by him commanded 3. It is a scourge to the devils and to all his agents for when we pray against the evil our God heareth us and delivereth us from evil Vers 4. Behold his soule which is lifted up is not upright in him But the just shall live by his faith GOd having directed the Prophet concerning the Vision in the two former verses 1. For the Publication and then for the expectation thereof He cometh now to the Vision it selfe which containeth A Declaration of his holy Will in his general Administration of Justice and so doth not only serve those times and persons present but may be extended to all times and persons so long as the world endureth And Gods shewing hereof maketh it a Vision to his Prophet and so to his Church and so it begins at Behold Now the answer of God doth first prevent an objection which might arise out of Gods former words for when he saith of the vision that the time is appointed for it and though it tarry the Church must wait as implying that it might be long before it were fullfilled the Prophet might enquire but what shall the People do in the mean time how shall the afflicted hold out till that time appointed Therefore in the rest of the chapter 1. He cleareth that objection vers 4. 2. He revealeth the Proceedings of his Justice against sundry sins in all the rest of the chapter For the first let us examine the words Behold Here he openeth the eyes and cleareth the sight of the Prophet and of the Church to see the Vision requiring us to take the matter into serious consideration as the Apostle saith Consider what I say Let him that hath ears to heare hear what the Spirit speaketh unto the Churches so is this word often used in Scripture to move attention His soule which is listed up in him is not upright Interpreters do two ways understand these words either thus He that is not upright his soul is lifted up or by Conversion He that is lifted up is not upright This last we follow and this I take to be Gods meaning It is true in the first sense that the ungodly man seeketh trust elsewhere then in God and doth strengthen himselfe in the malice or pride of his heart But God would shew here that whosoever is thus big-swoln in the pride of his heart hath not rectam animam some read quietam or tranquillam animam a right or a quiet soule It agreeth well with the Prophets complaint of the insolenty of the Chaldaeans that they being now lifted up with the glory of their many victories their souls are not upright wherein he declareth them horrible offenders and therefore obnoxious to his high displeasure Mr. Calv. doth understand this place thus that God declareth his just judgment against the Chaldaeans that because they have trusted in themselves they shall have no peace in their souls but some new suspicions shall still arise to disquiet them or new hopes to put them on upon fresh adventures or some new fears to discrefiate them so that they shall never rest in their souls Arias Montanus and Ribera a Jesuit do both follow a corrupt Translation Ecce qui incredulus est non erit recta anima ejus Whereas he speaketh not of unbelief but of pride of heart which yet doth include infidelity because such do translate the trust that they ought to place in God alone unto themselves and their owne means of accomplishing their intendments but our reading doth much better agree with our copy It followeth in the second part of the Antithesis But the just shall live by his faith And here let me first tell you that this sentence is cited in the New Testament often 1. Rom. 2.17 As it is written the just shall live by faith 2. Galat. 3.11 But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith 3. Heb. 10.37 For yet a little while and he yet shall come will come and will not tarry 38. Now the just shall live by faith and if any man shall draw back my soule shall have no pleasure in him In all these foure places the words have one and the same sense The just man that is he who is justified by a saving faith shall be supported by that faith so as whatsoever either outward or inward calamities shall assault him his faith shall carry him through all because putting his trust only in God in the confidence of the Mediation of Jesus Christ he shal have peace of conscience and shall take all that befals him in good part So then 1. By the just we do understand not any legal righteousnesse such as standeth in the performance of obedience to the whole law which no man but Christ God and man could perform but an Evangelical righteousnesse which doth consist in a godly zeal and holy endeavour of obedience to the law according to the measure of that grace which God hath given to men and whereunto is joyned both repentance of all sins and an holy sorrow that we do come so short of that full obedience which in duty we do owe to God And where he saith vivet he shall live he doth mean both a natural a spiritual and an eternal life 1. A natural life for faith doth make that to be
not wrought enough upon the Romanists who are guilty of grosse idolatry so on the other side it hath wrought too much upon some zealous Professors who fearing superstition and idolatry dare scarce shew any external reverence to God himself either when they come into Gods house or when they come to Gods Table Yet the Angel that would not be worshipped said Worship thou God and that is all the Church exacteth not an inward Worship only but an outward also commanded in the second Commandment Vers 20. But the Lord is in his holy Temple let all the earth keep silence before him The Temple of Gods holinesse is understood here as you have heard two ways 1. For the Temple at Jerusalem 2. For heaven In both let all tremble before him This is the second part of the Antithesis True Religion containing two parts 1. Where God is 2. What duty is owing to him 2. He is in his Temple at Jerusalem Vbi est and in all other Temples dedicate to his service For the Temple at Jerusalem he appointed the making of it and chose the man to whose care he committed the trust of the work David might not do it but Solomon was the man When it was finished and Solomon had assembled the People to the consecration of it and prayed there God answered the Prayer of Solomon with a visible expressure of his Presence for a cloud filled the house it was filled with the Glory of God But some of our Sectaries say there is no need of Churches for Gods publick service there is neither precept nor example in Scripture for it but the words of Christ to the woman of Samaria leave it at large The houre cometh and now is John 4.23 when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth Saint Augustine calleth this heresie in the Massilians that they denied the use of Temples because Christ foretold that the use of the Temple at Jerusalem should cease which was a shadow of things to come In the Old Testament beside the Cathedral and Mother-Church the People had their Synagogues for their meetings to Gods service which continued even to and in Christs time Christ himself designed a place for that meeting wherin he celebrated the last Passeover and instituted the Sacrament of his Supper The Disciples had a place of meeting wherein Christ twice found them the first day of the week The persecutions of those times gave no sodain liberty to settle a Church and to erect Temples nor that I can read for the first 200 years after Christ were any Temples built Yet before the persecutions ceased they had erected Oratories for their meeting to Prayer and hearing of the Word for in the tenth Persecution under Dioclesian Euseb 8.2 An. Reg. 19. Mense Martio he made an Edict for the pulling down of the Temples of the Christians But under Constantine when Christian religion had the favour of Authority regal then Concurrebant populi ad populos quasi os ad os Ecclesiae quae antea impiis tyrannorum machinis destructae fuerant redivivae c. Then the People came together Eus 10.2 And ever since the Church hath continued this practise of maintaing Oratories for the meeting of the Congregations for the praise and service of God There is warrant enough from the example of the Church and the Authority thereof to maintain this holy practice Those places be the Temples of Gods holinesse the houses of God separate from all common use to the holy service of God And God who by his Omnipotency filleth all places is in our Churches by a more special presence for if the Glory of God filled the Temple in the time of the Law why may we not believe that in the light of the Gospel he reveileth his Presence more because the place wherein we serve God is Gods house and all Civil and common use of it is resigned to consecrate it to Gods service If God be present where two or three are assembled surely where there is a meeting of a full Congregation he is present with a special presence And therefore it hath ever been esteemed a pious charity in those that have been founders enlargers restorers or adorners of Churches as Saint Origen saith quam gloriosum est si dicatur in Tabernaculo domini Illius fuit hoc aurum hoc argentum In ex 25. Hom. 13. c Rursus quam indecorum ut dominus veniens nihil muneris tui inveniat in eo nihil a te cognoscat oblatum Ego optarem si fieri posset esse aliquid meum in auro quo arca contegitur Nollem esse infoecundus c. These houses of God are the temples of his holinesse where the name of God is declared to the Church wherein God by his Spirit speaketh to the Churches in the outward ministry of the word where the holy ones of God do speak to God by the same Spirit in prayers in hymnes and spiritual songs where the sacrifices of righteousnesse are offered And herein is that gracious Prophecy of Isay fulfilled which our Saviour alleadgeth in the Gospel For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people Observe Isa 56 7. here is not only oratio prayer which is cultus divinus divine worship but here is Domus mea my house a place designed for the worship of God and that for all people This cannot be made good in the temple of Jerusalem nor in any one Church but must determine both the extent and dilatation of Gods worship and the designation of fit houses for the same Another like Prophecy we have before in Isay It shall come to passe in the last dayes that the mountains of the Lords house shall be established in the top of the mountains Isa 2.2 and shall be exalted above the hils and all nations shall flow unto it And many people shall go and say come ye and let us go up to the top of the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Sion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem The common exposition is that after the returne of the people of Israel from the 70 years captivity in Babylon then Religion and Gods Worship shall be setled at Ierusalem But observe how this exposition shriveleth up the promise of grace for this is not all He saith this shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the last time and he addeth that all nations shall flow to it and he saith not that one mountain but The mountains of the Lord shall be established which must needs be understood of the Churches of the Christians to which the faithful should resort For further proof hereof read Micha 4. where you shall find this Prophecy totidem verbis Vers 1.2 in so many words and a commentary upon it Micah 5.
sunder the Nations God is all eye and beholdeth all things all ear and heareth all things all hand and maketh all things and doth whatsoever he wil all foot and standeth in all places he is here said to behold which denoteth his provident care of his work and he is said to drive in sunder the Nations because he ordeined their expulsion and he gave commission for the destruction of them that he might give their land according to his promise to his own people 4 Where he cals the mountains everlasting and the hils perpetuall this is also a figure For these be attributes onely belonging to God to be everlasting and perpetuall and it sheweth the stability and setlednesse thereof 5 There is also another figure in the very name of mountains for we must not literally understand that there was any violence offered to the mountains and hils but thereby the strength and processe and setled estate of those nations that dwelt in the land of Canaan is signified and so the scattering and bowing of these moutains doth expresse the dispersion of those nations or the bringing of them under the yoake of subjection to the people of Israel 6 His wayes are everlasting this is also figurative for by the ways of God are understood here the counsels and decrees of God and his executions of his will which are no sudden operations but proceed from everlasting wisedome And this is the wisedome of the Reader of holy Scripture to observe what is spoken literally and what figuratively else many errours and heresies may arise As even in this attribution of the parts and motions and actions of the body of man to God the Anthropomorphites not understanding the figure did conceive God in body like to man The heresie of transubstantiation grew out of the mistake of those words hoc est corpus meum this is my body wherein the figure not observed the Romanists do believe a reall transmutation of the bread into the body of Christ whereas that is to be understood only by sacramentall representation as as the sacrament of Circumcision is called the covenant of God in the flesh and the water of Baptisme is called the laver of regeneration being the sign and seal thereof You know that when Christ said to his Disciples Beware of the leaven of the Pharises Mat. 16.16 they understood him not to speak figuratively and said It is because we have taken no bread So when he said Destroy this Temple the Jews understood him of the temple at Jerusalem The Scriptures of both Testaments are full of examples of figurative speaking The whole book of the song of Solomon is a continued figure and all the poeticall part of holy Scripture abound therewith The reasons why the wisedome of God hath thus exprest it self are 1 Because herein he would commend to us the use of that excellent science of the Rhetorick which teacheth the use of figures for there is no eloquence or oratory in all the wisedome of the world comparable to the holy elocution of Scripture the majesty whereof is such that it convinceth the judgment of man and maketh it to yield it to the breath of God 2 Because this cripticall manner of speaking doth involve the secrets of Gos wisedome in some obscurity to stirre up and awake our diligence in the search that we may be put to it to study holy Scriptures as Christ saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 search for easie things do soon cloy us and make us idle 3 Because this difficulty doth put us to our prayers to be seech God to open to us the secrets of his wisdome 4 This makes us fear God because the secrets of the Lord are onely revealed to them that fear God 5 This difficulty is so sweetned with the pleasant mixture of art as it hath omne punctum in it for it mingleth utile dulci. 6 It doth teach us to be spirituall for the carnall man cannot perceive the things of God because they are spiritually discerned and the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life this Spirit he hath left to teach his Church and to bring all things to our remembrance 7 This obscurity doth call upon us to set apart some time for the study and search of Scriptures and we cannot employ our spare hours of leasure better then in this search for here are the treasures of wisedome and knowledge and these are able to make the man of God wise to salvation perfect then to throughly perfect to all good works 8 He hath distributed his graces in his Church accordingly and hath ordained some to be teachers of others whose whole time is consecrated to the study of this book of Scripture that they may be able to understand this word aright divide it aright to their hearers Herein you have a great advantage if you consider the goodnesse of God to you for in one hour you reap the harvest of our labours in many hours of our readings of our inventions judgments search These reasons I gather from Clemens Alexandrinus St. Augustine and St. Gregory and some others Vse 1 This teacheth us that the worthie Minister of the Word must be no smatterer in those necessary arts and learning which is helpfull to the study of Divinity for want whereof many bunglers handle the Word of God too homelily and instead of giving a constant light do only make a blaze which yet like one of our night-walking fires devours more admiration that the full Moon that shines all night long Logick and Rhethorick are two such necessary and requisite parts in a Minister as without which neither can the method of Scripture nor the power of the arguments therein used nor the clear interpretation of the words be given Vse 2 This teacheth the hearer and reader of the World to put his strength to it not to parrat the words of Scripture but to study the sense thereof St. Origen saith that as man so the whole Bible doth consist of a body and a soul the body is the better the sense is the soul of Scripture That is the spirituall Manna that giveth strength to the weak that is the true Light that giveth understanding to the simple Vse 3 Let not this discourage any zealous Christian from exercising himself in the reading and study of holy Scripture because we do confesse that the figurative forms used therein do often make the Scripture obscure For we do also affirme that figures do sometimes give light to our apprehension and make the mind of God better known to us as when Christ saith I am the good Shepheard as David said The Lord is my Shepheard this doth make Christ better known to us in his carefull protection of us and his watchfull keeping and his plentifull feeding and safe foulding of us and in such like Now because the Church of Rome hath taken advantage of the obscurity of the Scripture to forbid the translation thereof into the vernacle tongues of nations and to prohibit
lay persons or any other without speciall leave Thus much I dare affirm that holy Scripture are plain and easie in all dogmaticall points all the articles of faith are plainly set forth and the whole doctrine of godly life and the way to salvation is openly declared So far our Church doth avouch yet withall we must consider that there is a double plainnesse of Scripture 1 Rationall and Intellectuall which apprehendeth the true meaning of the words in Grammaticall construction in Logicall composition and in Rhetoricall illustration thus all the dogmaticall part of Divinity is plain to a naturall man that is capable of these helps 2 Spirituall and Metaphysicall which is saving knowledge and is the work of the Holy Ghost in us making us thereby wise to salvation this knowledg is both the daughter and mother of faith for by faith we hear the word else it would not profit us and by hearing commeth faith else it were unfruitfull Therefore I must indite many of the learned of the Church of Rome of slander who have given out in print that we do hold the whole body of Scripture so easie both in the whole and in every part thereof that any unlearned men women may read and understand all as they go and that they need no interpreter This no sober man will affirm but that the difficulty is not such as should deter us from the study thereof rather that it is such as inviteth us thereto that we affirme Vse 4 This serveth us for caution 1 Though the Scripture be full of figures let us not make figures where there are none and strein plain and evident Texts from their genuine and proper sense to forreign and far-fetcht mysteries as the Papist doth often For when Peter saith Ecce hic duo gladii they understand the double power of Peter and so of al Popes as his successours Ecclesiaticall and temporall so on these words He made two great lights the greater to rule the day the less to rule the night that these two lights are the Pope to rule the day that is to say the Church and the Emperour to rule the night that is the lay people Where note that as the Moon borroweth all the light it hath of the Sun So must the Emperour borrow all his glory of the Pope Some of our own brethren have trode awry in this way for an Article of Faith lyes bleeding in the unresolved judgements of many by this fault of making a figure where none is The words of Christ Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell are plain enough For we know that Christ had a soul we know that there is an hell and we hear Christ say that God would not leave it there But Mr. Calvine turns this into a figure and his words be all oracles with some that take their upon trust his figure is that descendit ad inferos diros in anima cruciatus damnati ac perditi hominis pertulet he descended into hell that is he bare in his soul all the torments of the damned Mast Perkins refuseth this as the meaning of the article for he saith all this is conteined in the former he suffered was crucified dead And he findeth another figure in these words by soul he meaneth the body and by hell he meaneth the grave for he thus rendreth it He descended into hell that is he was held captive in the grave and lay in bondage under death for three daies Which need not for the Article that saith he was buried contemneth that for then God did not suffer his holy one to see corruption This turning of Articles of faith into figures doth destroy faith therefore without figure the safest way is to understand the word of the Prophets in their own proper sense natural signification by soul to understand the living soul of Christ which by death was separated for a time from his body By hell to understand the place of the damned in which Christ triumphed victoriously over the Devil and his angels and brought away the keys thereof that he might open it to the reprobate and shut it again the elect to whom the promise is made that The gates of hell shall not prevail against them 2 Let us also take heed that where there is a plain figure we do not understand that literally to corrupt the Text which was the errour of the Disciplies to whom when Christ had spoken of restoring the Kingdom to Israel they understood it literally of the temporall Kingdom of the Jews which was meant of the spirituall Kingdom of Christ So the woman of Samaria thought Christ had spoken of an Elementary water and the Capernaites mistook Christ speaking of the bread of life Therefore let common judgements take good counsel how they expound Scriptures lest they pervert them to their own damnation for as Aug. Hinc natae sunt omnes haereses quia scripturae bonae intelleguntur non bene hence all heresies grow c. Ver. 7. I saw the Tents of Cushan in affliction and the curtains of the Land of Midian did tremble 3 HEre followeth further instance of the Majestie and glory of God and goodness to his Church declared 1 In the power of his fear which was upon the Nations When he brought his Israel to Canaan for that put them into affliction and trembling 2 In the wonders that he shewed in the work I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction Who saw this no the Prophet onely but the Church of God to whom God hath made himself known by this judgement The vision was that God did cast the fear of his people upon the Nations he nameth Cushan or the people of Ethiopia bordering upon Egypt and Midian which took name of Midian the son of Abraham by Keturah Gen. 25.2 The terrour of God fell upon many Nations when God put Israel into the way to the promised Land and long after and these two Nations are hereby a figure Poetically and Rhethorically named for many Nations The reason whereof I conceive to be this Gen. 10.6 Cushan or Ethiopia took name from Cush the eldest son of Cham them youngest son of Noah to shew that though Canaan the son of Cham be onely named in Noahs curse yet the smart thereof should also light upon Cush also and he should taste also of affliction Again herein the extent of this terrour is well expressed that Cushan or Ethiopia should be made to tremble which was remote from Canaan for the whole land of Egypt lay between Midian lay neer to that land so that I understand the Text thus That God cast his fear upon people remote and near hand and shook them with trembling at his mighty power when he brought his Israel into the promised Land and this was so palpable and manifest that the Church of God could not but take notice of it By tents and curtains he expressed this people dismayed not in their Cities and Towns and places of habitation
obedience 63. 77. so are all God's promises to his children page 78 God can make good use of the vices of men and make wicked men serve for instruments of his will page 66 God is author of all actions but not of the evill of them page 73 God fore-knoweth the sins of men page 86 Gods certain knowledge of our evils will bring forth a certain judgment to punish them page 89 Gods love to his Church is eternal as himself is page 95 God is sooner stirred to mercy then provoked to anger page 100 God loves to be sollicited for mercy page 101 God is eternal in himself in his Essence and eternal in Providence in respect of his Creatures page 104 Ged is holy therefore the punishments of his Church are for its correction only page 105 Gods children in afflictions are not discouraged in their faith of Gods mercy page 107 God is author of punishment page 108 Gods eyes are pure page 110 God is a sincere searcher and punisher of sin and his justice and truth cannot fail page 113 God will have his Church taught his ways in all ages thereof page 154 Gods promises run in semine page 154 God signifieth his will in divers ways p. 167. and his will is twofold page 169 God taketh offence at such as are lifted up page 188 God is the author of faith page 208 Gods care and providence stoopeth so low as to the regard of our cattel page 325 God is to be worshipped outwardly as well as inwardly p. 335. 344 God is glorified in the shame of the proud page 280 God bringeth all the labours of the ungodly to losse and vanity yet the ungodly perceive it not page 289 God walketh with the righteous and contrary to the unrighteous page 291 God is glorious and jealous of his glory page 296 Gods creatures and his word are two books wherein his wisdome is set forth to the soul page 301 God punisheth sin by sin page 321 Godlinesse hath the promises of this life and of the life to come page 42 Good covetousnesse 263. Evil covetousnesse is joyned with ambition page 264 Greatnesse and power are fearful to the common man yet he will search into the actions of the highest page 262 Grief mingled with faith is no sin page 49 H. HAbakkuk signifieth an embracer a wrastler 2. The time of his prophecie is not exprest pag. 2. Hatred a cause of contention pag 26 Hearing the word profiteth nought without faith pag 209 Hearing and understanding the word is a means to increase faith pag 209 Hearers ought to pray for their teachers pag 144 Heathens gods not jealous of their glory pag 299 He that willeth the same thing as God willeth and doth the same thing God would have done sinneth unlesse he doth it in the same manner and for the same end which God projecteth pag 76 How far we may complain to God against our brethren pag 15 How God is said to have eyes and other parts of a mans body pag 111 and how he is said to see hear c. pag 73. ch 3 How God is said to repent pag 165 How Gods righteousnesse is revealed in the Gospel pag 237 How drunken folks are said to discover their nakednesse pag 314 How man ought to carry himself in his dominion over beasts I. IDolatry defined and described pag. 328 Idolatry a grievous sin pag 329 Idolatry amongst Christians pag 330 Idolatry in the Church of Rome in worshipping the consecrated Host pag 333 If to omit a duty be a sin the committing of a contrary evil must needs be abominable pag 312 Ill-gotten goods bring such a sin upon a man as cannot be purged but by repentance and restitution pag 293 If we find in our selves an elevation above our pitch it is a certain Symptome of a diseased soul pag 191 Image-worship crept into the Church of Rome by little and little pag 332 Imprecations forbidden pag 17 Infirmities of Gods servants twofold pag. 48 Inordinate zeal what it is pag. 53 Iniquity knoweth no measure pag. 84 In all our considerations of the carriage of things under the Government of Gods Providence howsoever the effects may seem strange to us we must not question either the Wisedom Justice or Goodnesse of God pag. 117 In the Church of God there will always be some will argue against God pag. 147 Inconveniences of Rapine pag. 277 Ingredients of a saving faith by a dissection of the word Fides pag. 187 It was no small part of Christs Passion to be scorned and derided of his enemies pag. 258 It is a singular wisedome to use the fulnesse of prosperity well 83. and a great measure of grace is required thereto pag. 84 Judgment beginneth at the house of God pag. 65. and 179. ch 3 Just man defined pag. 185 Justification by faith only pag. 237 K. KEeping silence a signe of reverence and submission pag. 327 Knowledge of Gods glory an excellent knowledge 300. and the pursuit of this knowledge is a labour which well rewardeth it self pag. 301 M MAlice may be in looking into the vices of brethren though it pretended desire of Reformation pag. 21 Man is mutable God unchangably just pag. 78 Man in mercy cometh neerest Gods image pag. 99 Mans state in his innocency pag. 213 Man is but earth and gold but clay pag. 248 Men and Angels have their Eternity from God pag. 103 Means to get an upright soul pag. 192 Mercy the soul of the world pag. 100 Ministers may in general reprove sin but not particularize any man pag. 54 Ministers ought to be first Seers and then Speakers pag. 139 Ministers must not only watch but also give warning pag. 142 Ministers must maintain Gods cause against all contradictions pag. 143 Ministers ought to open to the Church of God the whole Councell of God pag. 156 Ministers have a necessity laid upon them to preach the word pag. 211 N. NO man simpliciter Atheos but acknowledgeth some divine ruling power pag. 89. and 328 and 80. ch 3 No man would do service where nothing is to be gained by it pag. 329 No inherent holinesse in Churches pag. 339 Not that as we have but what we dispose of maketh us friends in the day of the Lord. Nothing ought to be so dear to us as the glory of God pag. 300 O. OCcasion of offence to be avoided pag. 33 Oracles ceased at Christs coming pag. 175 Original sin what it is pag. 216 Outward things unsanctified to the Owner have no power to establish the heart pag. 84 Out of natural and moral ways of life there is a wisedome of God to be learned pag. 123 Overcharge of the heart with drink is drunkennesse pag. 306 P. PApists idolaters pag. 331 People without a Ruler are unhappy pag. 114 and 124 Prayer ought to be fervent and continual 18. as well in zeal of Gods glory as for our own necessities pag. 19 Prayer what it is pag. 31 Prayer is a help to him that
prayeth a sacrifice to God a scourge to the devil and his agents pag. 183 Prayer the Word and the Sacraments are means to preserve faith pag. 228 Preparation required in those who go to Church pag. 344 Pride a cause of strife pag. 25 Pride consists in three things In thinking too well of our selves contemptibly of others boasting and glorying in vain ostentation pag. 240 Pride is the ground of insatiablenesse pag. 241 Pride the ruine of Charity Justice Temperance and Religion pag. 243 Proofs of a sincere faith pag. 227 Prosperity of this world fils the hearts of men with pride and vain estimation of themselves pag. 131 Proud men resemble death and hell pag. 243 Punishment in its nature is evil yet God may work good out of it pag. 69 Punishment of Idolatry pag. 334 Punishments of Pride 247. Just Reprehension 155. Derision 257 Spoyle and destruction pag. 262 Punishments of Ambition 279. They consult shame to their own house Ibid. Sin against their own souls 283. Labour in vaine and without successe pag. 286 Punishments of drunkennesse 315. Who will punish it God 316 how he will punish it 319. Why he will punish it pag. 324 Q. OVantity of the fault is the measure of the judgment pag. 5 R. REasons why Ambition makes men unhappy Pag. 274 Religion contemned is a signe of a diseased and desperate state 38 Reasons thereof Ibid. Riligion is the knot of true Vnion that knitteth us to God and uniteth us to one another Pag. 78. Religion hath the bowels of compassion and they have no Religion that have no mercy Pag. 99 Religion the best bond of brotherhood Pag. 129 Remedy for mans fall 222. Which is Christ Pag. 223 Remedies against drunkennesse Pag. 308 S. SAthan suggesteth that the way of righteousnesse is painful pag. 287 Sathans chiefest temptation is by blemishing of Gods glory pag. 296 Seekers of strife condemned pag. 25 Service performed to God without zeal is without life pag. 51 Shame rather hardeneth then reformeth a sinner pag. 16 Sincere Faith cannot be lost pag. 228 Sharp and satyricall tartnesse not alwayes unlawfull pag. 259 Sin is a burthen to God 3. To men 4. And awakes Gods vengeance Ibid. Sins seen in others moves man to a loathing of sin and to charity pag. 68 Sin is like Leaven a little sowreth the whole lump pag. 204 283 Sins of Omission 218. Of evil motion 219. Of evil affection and of evil action pag. 220 Sins grow in clusters and one sin begetteth another 265. Examples thereof pag. 266 Sins committed against the Law of God are done against the committers souls pag. 283 Souls in heaven wait upon the performance of Gods Promises pag. 178 Stephens prayer at his death a means of Pauls conversion pag. 102 Suggestions to sin lay their foundation upon some unworthy opinion of God pag. 298 T. TEares of bitternesse are the bloud of the Soul pag. 285 Teaching by familiar resemblances is much used in both Testaments pag. 123 Temples not built in 200 years after Christ pag. 336 Temples and Churches necessary pag. 337 Temporall things can afford no true content pag. 39 There is no peace to a wicked man pag. 6 The sound of Gods Word preached cannot be truly heard by us unlesse he open our hearts pag. â—2 The soul of prayer is the holy zeal of him that prayeth pag. 22 Three speciall benefits of a godly life pag. 40. 41 The Chaldeans raised by God against the Jews pag. 56 They who are sealed with the Spirit of Promise have their infirmities lapses and relapses yet sin not to death pag. 64 They who fulfilling the Will of God which they know not do fulfill their own will which they aime at are not rewarded but rather punished for it pag. 74. 75 The way to avoid contempt is humility pag. 81 There is such a concatenation of duties of Religion and Justice that he that offendeth in one breaketh the chaine pag. 267 The fear of the wicked shall come upon himself pag. 280 The house of the righteous shall stand pag. 281 The Elect sin against their own souls in regard of the fault 283 and also in regard of the punishment pag. 284 The delivery of Gods Church and his vengeance upon her enemies gives honour to the Name of God upon earth pag. 294 The sting of the first sin pag. 297 The knowledge of Gods glory consisteth in the true consideration of his justice and mercy pag. 299 Though the Church of God live under the crosse for a time it shall not be alwayes so pag. 82 Those whom God useth as his rods are limited pag. 83 To know the glory of God here on earth we must observe the course of his judgments pag. 302 To make others drunk is a more grievous sin then drunkennesse pag. 310 U. VAnity of Idolatry pag. 326 Vncharitablenesse corrupteth a Common-wealth and makes all Gods servants complaine pag. 34 Vngodly men outragious when they finde a way open to their violence pag. 125 Vngodly men have no bowels pag. 136 Vnrighteous mens labours described pag. 287 Voluntary and involuntary drunkennesse pag. 318 W. WAnt of zeal a sinne pag. 52 Want of Faith the true cause of Idolatry pag. 90 Way to Hell all down hill yet very uneasie 286. And that is gotten by it is but meere vanity pag. 283 We ought to avoid causes of complaint pag. 34 We ought not to limit God to a set time for our deliverance nor to any set means nor measure of affliction pag. 107 We must not think long to tarry Gods leasure 173. to avoid these two evils Of murmuring against God or seeking unlawfull means to accomplish our desires pag. 178 We ought not be too busie to search into the wayes of God to know things to come pag. 174 We must beleeve Gods Promises whatsoever appearances do put in to perswade us to the contrary pag. 175 Where God is pag. 336 Whatsoever God hath decreed or spoken shall certainly take effect in the appointed time pag. 160 What duty is owing to him pag. 336 Where Religion is despised the courts of Justice must needs be corrupt 28. and power and authority degenerate into tyranny and oppression pag. 29 When God undertaketh a work he accommodateth all fit means though he need none for a full execution pag. 71 When we pray that Gods Will may be done we must also pray that it may be done for the same cause pag. 77 Whensoever God punisheth there is a fault deserving that punishment 253. Objections to the contrarie answered pag. 254 When God putteth his hand to spoyling the oppressor he will spoil him in all that he trusted in pag. 263 Whom God pardoneth Sathan tempteth most pag. 87 Whosoever gives divine Worship to a creature is an Idolater pag. 91 Wicked men have no peace pag. 84 Wicked men rejoyce at the Churches sorrow pag. 128 Woe to the man which gathereth not his own pag. 275 Written Scripture sufficient for salvation pag. 153 Z ZEale
against crying sinnes of the time is discreet and necessary pag. 52 The Contents of the third Chapter A Double plainnesse of Scripture Rationall and Spirituall pag. 77 Afflictions of this life cannot separate the society of the Faithfull pag. 5 Afflictions of the Church are such a deading to it that unlesse it were quickened with souâ—â— beams of grace it would be a burthen to it more then it could beare pag. 41 Affection of love most vehement in a woman pag. 94 All Gods favours to men proceed from his love towards such as are thankfull for them pag. 69 As God brought Israel into the land of Canaan by the sword so by the sword he driveth them out pag. 144 C CAtesbie's speech concerning the Gun-powder treason pag. 89 Christ descended into hell pag. 78 Christ was alwayes before the Gospel and even from the beginning of the world the hope of all the ends of the world pag. 150 Church musick ancient and of holy use pag. 22 Comfort in afflictions groweth out of a right understanding of the Will and purpose of God therein pag. 43 Commination of Gods judgments makes the Church of God to fear pag. 174 Consideration of former mercies strengthens faith in present troubles pag. 50. 68 Cushan is Aethiopia so called from Cush the son of Cham. pag. 80 Cyrus angrie with the River Gyndes pag. 103 D. DAvids Psalmes a common store-house of good learning pag. 195 Description of Repentance pag. 1â—5 Distressing of the poor a greivous and provoking sin pag. 159 E EVery childe of God and member of the Church ought to pray for the whole body of the Church pag. 34 F. FAith in Christ takes away the horrour of the terrour of the Lord pag. 82 Faithfull men who worship God with fear and trembling how they ought to be taught pag. 33 Fear is a proper passion of a true Believer and is inseperably joyned with saving Faith pag. 28 Figurative speeches are in use in Scripture pag. 72 G. GOD is not so glorious in any thing that he hath wrought as in his Church pag. 38 God will not suffer us to be tempted further then he thinks fit pag. 41 God is armed with instruments of vengeance to punish sin pag. 57 God never had mercy enough to swallow or consume either his justice or his truth pag. 60 God is glorious in Heaven and in Earth pag. 61 God never layeth his rod upon those creatures which he hath ordained for the service of man but to punish man 102. For he hath no quarrell to them pag. 103 God must have the glory of his own great works pag. 104 God is without variablenesse or alteration pag. 113 God sometimes declareth his power openly to the comfort of his Church and terrour of its enemies pag. 115 God is above all second causes pag. 133 God hath taken upon himself the care of the preservation of his Church 151. Therefore we need seek no further for it pag. 153 God in his judgment maketh the ungodly rods to punish one another pag. 155 God in Christ is the rest of his Church pag. 158 God never forsaketh us till we forsake him pag. 185 God punisheth one evil nation by another pag. 87 God is the strength of his Church 214. both in that we are and in that we do and in that we suffer pag. 215 God is the restorer of his Church wil renew the face glory of it pag. 222 Gods word must minister matter to our prayers pag. 25 Gods Church is Gods work both in respect of its calling 37. and of his perpetuall presence in it pag. 38 Gods mercie and our obedience are motives of re-establishing his protection upon his Church pag. 55 God's secrets revealed only to them that fear him pag. 75 God's power shewed in the terror of the wicked proves that there is a God pag. 80 God's promises are either for this life or for the life to come pag. 124 God's extraordinary mercies must be often remembred pag. 166 God's mercie in giving must not destroy his justice in punishing of evill doers pag. 186 Good use is to be made of some temptations H. HOrnes in Scripture signifie strength page 49 How God was said to have divided the Land of Canaan amongst the children of Israel page 63 73 How many ways spiritual enemies assault the Church page 205 How many ways men abuse their strength page 216 I. JErusalem and the Temple shall lye desolate untill the second coming of Christ page 68 Jewish Feasts were instituted for remembrances of favours received from God page 166 In the last calling of the Jews their Common-wealth shall be restored page 66 In reading of holy Scripture we ought carefully to observe what is spoken literally and what figuratively 74. and not to make figures where none are 77. Nor understand that literally which is figurative page 79 In all wars God is Lord of Hosts and General of the armies that fight his quarrels 143. and he ordereth all wars page 144 Jotham's Parable page 188 Joy dilateth the heart page 195 Joyes of the ungodly compared to a candle page 205 Israel a type of Gods Church on earth page 99. L. LAnd of Canaan not above 300 miles in length and 100 in bredth 173. The fruitfulnesse of it shewn ibid. Logick and Rethorick requisite and necessary in a Minister page 76 M. MAnna and Water out of the Rock were types of our Lords Supper and the children of Israels passage through the red Sea a type of Baptisme page 168 Matter of thankesgiving is an acknowledgment of all benefits page 68 Mercy is the most glorious attribute that God hath page 46 Miseries of afflicted men make them forget comforts page 44 Monarchie of the Assyrians lasted 1300 yeers page 250 Moses charged by Heathens to be a Magician page 97 105 Motives inducing us to blesse those that persecute us and pray for those that hate us page 70 N. NO lesson so hard for a child of God to take out as to take up Christ's Crosse page 41 No counsel or strength can prevaile against God 65. nor any prescription ibid. No Oratory nor eloquence comparable to the holy elocution of Scripture page 75 O. OBjections against Church musick answered page 13 Obedience to God assures and gains all good things to us page 180 Over-weening of our fellow creatures is and hath been a cause of Idolatry page 134 P. POetry ancient and of use in the Church page 10 Polygamy unlawfull page 108 Prayer a faithful messenger page 43 Prayer hath the same force now as it had in former times page 141 Praysing of God in Hymns and Songs ancient and much used in the Church Prophane mens hearts are hardned with custome of sinning page 31 Prophane and carnal men how they ought to be taught page 30 Prophets Apostles and Ministers of the Word are the fittest Persons to be used for direction of devotion page 7 R. REading of Scripture good to make us understand what the Lord hath
he saith to me he must have the warrant of his own mission from a special illumination of his own understanding or else his Trumpet will never give a certain sound 4. This bindeth the hearer to affection For if the spirit speaketh to the Churches then qui habet aures audiendi audiat he that hath ears let him hear Est Deus in nobis God is in us they do not flatter us as they did Herod and we shall never die of the wormes for receiving that testimony of our Ministry if we deal faithfully that say of our preaching The voice of God and not of man for Saint Paul testifieth of the Thessalonians For this cause also thank we God 1 Thes 2.13 because when ye received the Word of God which yee heard of us yee received it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also on you that believe Beloved it is true that we that are now the witnesses of God have not that open accesse to him that the Prophet had to receive immediate instructions from his own mouth But Christ saith Sicut misit me Pater it a ego mitto vos as the Eather sent me so send I you And he telleth his Father how he hath provided for his Church till his second coming I have given them the word which thou gavest me Iohn 17.8 and they have received them and having so done he said unto them Ite docete Go and teach When thou comest then to Church and hearest Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms which was the Manna wherwith God fed the fathers before the incarnation of Christ when the Veile of the Temple was up remember what Abraham said to the rich man Habent Mosen Prophetas audiant eos They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them that is the way to keep out of hell When thou hearest the voice of the Sonne of God in the Gospel the Veile of the Temple being torn from the top to the bottome Christ now reveiled to thee with open face Take heed thou despise not him that speaketh to thee in the Ministry of a mortal man this is a treasure which is brought unto you in earthen vessels value the vessels at their own worth in themselves but yet regard them above their worth for their use for they bring you the treasures of wisedome and knowledge Enough to make you wise unto salvation sufficient to beget faith in you by which you may overcome the world enough to make you perfect throughly perfect to all good works This is done by our Ministry if you will hear God in us and what would you desire more then to be taught how to become wise and honest for such are not afraid of the Parliament and say with Saint Paul With me it is a very small thing that I should be judged of you 1 Cor. 4.3 or of mans judgement 2. The vigilancy of the Prophet I will stand upon the watch Amongst the great titles of honour and service that are given to the Ministers of the Word in Scripture this is one they are called Watchmen It is Gods word to Ezechiel Ezek 3.17 Sonne of man I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel therefore hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me which is repeated in the same words chapt 33.7 as the Margent of the Kings Bible directeth you This correspondence must be between God and his Minister for if God do make us watchmen over the house of Israel then with Habakkuk we must stand upon the watch Let not us plead the trust of God committed to us except we can plead our faithfulnesse in the discharge of that trust This is indeed an honour done to the Prophets and Ministers of the Church to commit the Church of God to our care but the burthen of this care to keep watch is exceeding great A necessity is laid upon me and wo be to me if I preach not the Gospel Here be two things in this office 1. To watch 2. To give warning 1. Some can watch but they can give no warning Ministers of good and preaching lives but not apt to teach which Saint Paul requires in his Ministers Of whom Saint Hierome saith Innocens sine Sermone Conversatio quantum prodest exemplo tantum nocet silentio 2. Some will sometimes give warning but they cannot always watch Preach learnedly when they preach but they have not learnt out all their lesson of the Apostle Cave tibi doctrina in his Persta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Continue in these things it requires incumbency as the Law calleth it 3. But if we will do our duties we must do both some would fain do both and cannot get a watchmans place there is none void For be the People never so empty yet Ecclesia est plena the Church is full All is not well that way the Church complains and they that have laboured abundantly to enable themselves for this watch are too much searched and examined too narrowly for their gifts Others have a watch but they do not with the Prophet stand upon it either they sit at ease or they sleep it out soundly this Prophet promiseth to stand in readinesse for action and execution of his charge Beloved many will not beleeve it but we feel it if we make conscience of our duties in our calling that our vocation is laborious this watching in all weathers and this robbing of our temples of their timely rest to attend the watch over your souls as those that must give an account to God for our selvs and for you is an honourable burthen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who is sufficient 1. Vigilat hostis The enemy watcheth he compasseth the earth to and again he goeth about like a roaring Lyon he is ever either reaching out an Apple of temptation as to Eve or stretching our an arme of provocation as to the blessed Virgin gladius pertransibit animam tuam We must keep you waking that he bring not upon you the spirit of slumber we must awake you if you sleep in sin that he surpize you not Custos Israelis non dormit the keeper of Israel slumbreth not Alexander lies down to sleep without fear because he leaves Parmenio his faithful counsellor waking David will lay him down in peace and take his rest seeing God doth make him dwell in safety Dominus dat dilectis suis somnum Yet let us observe two things concerning our sleep for the Apostle saith Therefore let us not sleep as do others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Thes 5.6 as unbeleevers Lyranus qui sunt increduli 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are left out of the Church and out of Gods fold to the world let us not sleep so how then 1. Before our sleep let us take Davids example for our Donec until I will not give sleep to mine eyes nor slumber to
long life of the fathers the oracles of God were committed to them without any mention of writing because they were both wise and faithful in the custody and transmission of them For Adam himself living nine hundred and thirty years to teach his children had under his teaching Seth Enosh Kenan Mahalaleel Iarod Henoch Methusalah and Lamech the father of Noah And Noah lived with Abraham 57 years But after the flood when the Church in the posterity of Iacob encreased and no doubt had many corruptions by dwelling in Aegypt then was Moses appointed both to be the deliverer of the People of Israel from Aegypt and to be the Penman of God to write those things which God would have to remain in the Church for all succeeding times and after him successively holy men wrote as they were inspired And a better Argument we cannot give for the danger of unwritten traditions which the Church of Rome doth so much commend even above Scripture then this God saw that men had corrupted their ways and he found the imaginations of mens hearts only evil continually and that the Church was a very few therefore he stirred up Noah to be a Preacher of righteousnesse in whom the light of truth was preserved he destroyed the old sinful world and by Noah and Sem he began a new Church to the restored world Yet after Noahs death the worship of strange gods were brought in so that to heal this grief and to prevent the danger of traditions God caused the Word to be written by holy men for the perpetual use of his Church whose books were faithfully preserved in all ages thereof Then came the Sonne of God and he left his spirit in the Church to lead the Church into all truth by which spirit the New Testament was endited and written So that now all things necessary to salvation are so clearly revealed that traditions of men have no necessary use in the Church in the substance of true Religion for that which is written is sufficient The Church of Rome denieth the sufficiency of Scripture Many of their great learned men write both basely and blasphemously thereof But they are not agreed upon the point for Scotus Gerson Oecam Cameracensis Waldensis Vincentius Lerinensis do all confesse what we teach of the sufficiency of Scripture as the learned Deane of Glocester Dr. Field l. 3. de Eccoles c. 7. hath fairly cited them And Dr. White in his way of the Church addeth Tho. Aquinas Antoninus Arch-bishop of Florence Durandus Alliaco a Cardinal Conradus Clingius Peresius Divinity Reader at Barcilena in Spain and Cardinal Bellarmine Of whom Possevinus writeth that he is one of the two that have won the Garland De verbo Dei l. 1. c. 2. Sacra Scriptura regulae credendi certissima tutissima est Per corporales literas quas cerneremus legeremus erudire not voluit Deus Writing against Swenck field and the Libertines this is a legal witnesse Pro Orthodoxo heretici testimonium valeat I know to whom I speak and therefore I forbear the Polemical bands of arguments to and fro upon this question which in print and in English is so fully and learnedly debated Our lesson is seeing Gods care of his Church for the instruction thereof is here exprest in commanding his revealed will to be written that God would have his Church to be taught his ways in all the ages thereof Doct. 1. Because the ways of God Reas 1 and the saving health of God cannot be parted none can have the saving health of God without the knowledge of his ways no ignorant man can be saved it is said of Christ By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 per scientiam qua scitur Therefore Davids Prayer is That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all nations 2. Because the promise of God doth run in semine Reas 2 in the seed I will be thy God and the God of thy seed Our children are the Lords inheritance his care extendeth so farre That yee may live Deut. 5.33 and that it may be well with you and that you may prolong your days But that is not all That it may be well with them and their children for ever Vers 29. 3. For his own sake Reas 3 that his Wisdome Power and Iustice may be known to men that they may be able to plead the cause of God against such as either ignorantly through unbelief or maliciously and blasphemously shall dispute and argue against God for therefore God doth condescend to this Apology of himself that he may instruct his Church how to plead the cause of his Iustice against all strife of tongues that the name of God be not evil-spoken of To make profit of this point Vse 2 1. Herein let us consider what the Lord hath done for our souls for he hath given us two means to communicate to us his holy will hearing and reading and he hath used to this purpose both the voice and the pen of holy men for he spake by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began and holy men wrote as his spirit directed them Let him that hath ears to heare heare quid Spiritus Ps 34.16 Mat. 24.15 and seek yee out the book of the Lord and read but then adde this caution Who so readeth let him understand It was Philips question sed intelligis quod legis Seeing God hath written to us Vse 2 and the whole body of holy Scripture may well be called Gods Epistle or Letter to his Church let us bestow the reading of Gods letter St. Augnstiue saith Quae de illa Civitate unde peregrinamur venerunt nobis literae ipsae sunt Scripturae It was St. Gregories complaint of Theodorus In Ps 90.2 that he was so over-busied with secular cares Regist 4.84 Et quotidie legere negligit verba redemptoris sui quid est autem Scriptura sacra nisi quaedam epistola Omnipotentis dei ad venturam suam It is a question in our times whether printing hath done more hurt or good for Satan finding this a means to keep things alive in the world hath employed the Presse in all sorts of heresies in all sorts of idle and lascivious false and dicterious slanderous and biasphemous books The remedy is to refrain such readings and as Dr. Reynold tels Hart his adversary that he hath no book allowed him to read but the Bible It is likely then that he is perfect in that book and that Physitians do well when they find their Patient surfeited with too much variety of meat to confine him to some one wholesome dyet So shall we do well to limit our selves to the reading of Gods letter and know his mind for he is wisest and the wisedome that we shall gather from thence is wisedome from above it is able to make us wise unto salvation as the Apostle saith 3. Seeing God teacheth us by
read and they returned saying Never man spake like that man If they that run from the word may be taken thus with a glance upon it you may soone conceive what effect it may work in those that run to it that are swift to hear that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse If they that hear or read the word immediately aliud agentes may perceive the mind of the Lord by the plain opening thereof much more they that come of purpose and run to it that come with appetite and desire after it with delight in it with purpose to profit by it and with due Preparation of the heart by earnest Prayer for the holy blessing of God upon the Ministry and hearing of it therefore quid Scriptum est quomodo legis what is written how readest thou 2. The assurance that he gives of the performance of his purpose in due time The Vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie Next verse It will surely come it will not tarry This is Rhetorically set down For 1. Here is veritas decreti the truth of the decree The Vision is yet for an appointed time 2. Here is veritas verbi the truth of the word it shall speak it shall not lye 3. Here is veritas facti the truth of the deed It will surely come it will not tarry 1. Decretum the Decree The Vision is here put for the thing seen as you have heard and that is the declaration of Gods just judgment in the cause of his Church against the Chaldaeans for he saith the time is appointed meaning in his own holy and fixt decree which is unchangeable 2. Verbum the Word God will speak his minde by this Vision and declare what he intendeth against the Chaldeans and therein he will deal truely and faithfully for he is truth he cannot lye For these be two Premises or Antecedents to one conclusion for we may conclude both wayes 1. The Decree of God is past Ergo veniet non tardabit he shall come he will not tarrie 2. The Word of God is past Ergo. From thence we are taught Doctr. That whatsoever God hath decreed or spoken shall certainly take effect in the appointed time The holy word of Scripture confirmeth this Indeed who should alter Gods decrees for he himself will not I may say truly he cannot change them for the Apostle saith he worketh all things after the councell of his will Eph. 1.11 And the Will of God is himself And he cannot deny him self 2 Tim. 2.13 Neither can he repent as Samuel told Saul The strength of Israel will not lye nor repent 1 Sam. 15.29 for he is not a man that he should repent And if God himself be without variablenesse and shadow of change his Will being established by his counsell and wisdom we may be sure that there is no power beneath him that can swerve him from his own ways for the wiseman saith There is no wisdom nor understanding Pro. 21.30 nor counsell against the LORD One reason may serve of this Doctrine God is equall infinite in his wisdom justice and mercie to conceive him infinite in power to do whatsoever he will and not infinite in wisdom to decree whatsoever he will do were to make him a Tyrant not a King but David saith The Lord is King and we do ascribe it to him Tuum est regnum potentia thine is the Kingdom and power for power without equall proportion of wisdom must needs degenerate into cruelty This wisdom foreseeth all things that shall be this wisdom decreeth all things that he will do which his power after in the times appointed doth performe and bring to act Against this Doctrine is Objected Object 1. Why then do so many texts of Scripture tell us that God repenteth Sometimes he repenteth of the good that he hath done for to make man upon the earth was a good work yet it is said And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth Gen. 6 6. and it greived him at his heart So to make Saul King over Israel was a good work for it was his own choise yet himself saith It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be King 1 Sam. 15.11 Sometime God is said to repent of the evil that he hath done malum poenae the evil of punishment is there to be understood So after the great plague when David had made a fault in numbring the people When the Angel stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it the Lord repented him of the evil 2 Sam. 24.16 and said to the Angel It is enough stay thy hand And concerning his Word we have frequent examples in Scripture of events contrary to the letter of his Word For example His word was to Hezekiah by Isaiah set thy house in order for thou shalt dye non vives Yet Hezekiah did live 15 years after that his word was to Nineveh by Jonah 40 days and Niniveh shall be destroyed yet yet it fel not out so and the story saith God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do to them Joh. 3.10 To all we answer Sol. 1. That the Will of God that is his counsell decreeing what he will do is constantly the same and unchangeable as we have taught 2. Where it is in Scripture charged upon God that he doth repent we say with Chrysost it is verbum parvitati nostrae accommodatum a word accommodated to our weaknesse Hom. 22. in Gen. For we are said to repent when we change our mindes now the God of wisdom and power never changeth his minde but sometimes he doth change his operations there is not mutatio mentis but mutatio dextrae Exclesi as St. Aug. Paenitudo dei est mutandorum immutabilis ratio by which he without changing of his own decree maketh alterations in the disposition of things mutable This for want of understanding in us to comprehend the ways of God is called repentance and greif in God but as Aug. saith Non est perturbatio sed judicium quo irrogatur poena as Saint Paul I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh 3. I approve that received distinction of the Will of God 1. Voluntas signi of the Signe 2. Voluntas beneplaciti of his good Pleasure 1. God doth reveal his ways to the sons of men and sheweth them what he would have them do and openeth to them the knowledge and tendereth to them the use of fit means to performe that which he would have them and so it is said he would have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of his Truth According to this revealed Will of God he doth offer mercy to all and he doth withall threaten judgment to such as forsake their own mercy as Jonah saith And when he seeth cause to call in either his mercy from them
that abuse it or to stop the course of his justice to them whom correction doth amend then we say he repenteth him of that which he hath either promised or threatned for clearing whereof understand That God never changeth in promise or in threatning but only in things concerning this life as in all the examples repeated all those promises and threatnings be used as motives to induce obedience and therefore they are not absolute but conditionall For it is no good argument to perswade a man to be Religions and to fear God abstaining from all the pleasing delights of the world to promise him his hearts desire if he know that that promise doth bind God that whatsoever he do he shall be partaker of the promise And it is no inducement to disswade sin by the commination of judgment if the judgment must of necessity be inflicted Therefore this revealed Will of God is conditionall and hath reference to our obedience and faith and good life and use of the means ordained by God and tendered to us This is the rule of life and by this Will is the Church of God governed for by this he doth reveal himself both in his word and in his permissions and in his operations 1. God signifieth his Will by his Word for that doth declare in precepts prohibitions and examples what God would have to be done what not to be done it revealeth both rewards and punishments and it useth both promises and threatnings 2. God signifieth his Will by permissions because he declareth thereby that what he suffereth to be done that he willeth to be effected 3. By operations for what God doth he doth according to his Will 2. Voluntas beneplaciti is the secret Will of God reserved in himself in wiâ—ch 1. There is consilium the wisdom of God foreseeing what is to be done 2. There is decretum determining it and herein the counsell of God is not the rule of his Will for there is nothing in God above his Will but wiling all things to be thus as he hath decreed he foreseeth in wisdom what he willeth and therefore the rule is not with God This is good therefore I decree it but this I decree therefore it is good Now sometimes there seems to be an opposition between these two Wils of God which is thus reconciled The Will of God is revealed to man 1. Either for necessary and absolute obedience as in the whole morall Law of God 2. For probation and tryall as in the commandment given to Abraham to offer up Isaak wherein God concealed his secret Will which was to preserve Isaak and concealed the purpose of his commandments which was to try the saith of Abraham So on the contrary he sent to Pharaoh commanding him to let Israel go yet it was not his secret will that Israel should go yet but the commandment was given to convince Pharaoh of hardnesle of heart and as in Abraham the commandment did cause him to declare his faith so in Pharaoh did it convince him of rebellion to the Will of God So all our preaching wherein we perswade repentance and promise life eternal it serveth to direct all that look for salvation in the way of life and it serveth to convince the world of unrighteousnesse if they obey not The answer then is that whatsoever God willeth and decreeth voluntate beneplaciti by the will of good pleasure doth take effect What God willeth voluntate signi by the Will signified not always Reply How then shall I know what to do seeing the signifying Will of God is my rule and that seemeth uncertain and not agreeable to the secret Will of Gods good pleasure Sol. Do as Abraham did prepare to offer thy son do as thou art commanded leave the event and the disposition of thy obedience to God who wil further reveale himselfe unto thee Do as Hezechiah did set thine house in order yet use the means by repentance and Prayer to prolong thy life Do as the Ninivites did fast and repent and call upon the name of the Lord and try him as the Prophet saith Whether hâ— will shew thee mercy or not But to bring this home to my text when God pronounceth the Decree of Judgement against the enemies of the Church and promiseâ—h mercy to his Church believe him in both for neither can Gods enemies repent to change the course of his Iustice neither can his Church sinne unto death that he should take his mercy utterly from it So then the Argument holdeth strong God hath said and decreed what he wil do against these Chaldaeans what for his Church therefore it shall come to passe Quest But if this be true Quest what need then is there of Prayer doth it not argue in us a kind of distrust in the favour of God when we do not take his word but are still importunate to sollicite his favour To this our answer is that this cannot discourage Prayer because the decree is past and unchangable this is the proper foundation of Prayer for the Apostle saith And this is the confidence that we have in him 1 John 5.14 that if we ask any thing according to his Will he heareth us So that it is a necessary knowledge before we undertake to pray to know what is that good that acceptable and perfect Will of God For we not only lose our labour but we do also offend God if we ask any thing against or beside his Will therefore that we might not run into the errour of the sons of Zebedee Nescitis quid petatis you know not what you should ask Our Saviour hath set down a forme of Prayer so absolute as that we cannot justifie the asking of any thing according to the Will of God that hath not reference to one of those petitions Reply If then we prevail in our Prayers Object why do we commend Prayer seeing all events do follow Gods will and decree and not our Prayers Our answer is that though the supreme agent in all operations be the Will of God Answ yet the hand of operation in many things is prayer which God hath ordained and commanded as a means to draw forth his Will to execution So God giveth every good gift yet we are without any wrong to God thankful to men by whose means any good cometh to us So that the doctrine doth remain firm Whatsoever God hath promised to his Church or threatned the perverse enemies therof that he will surely perform for the decrees and the word of God are unchangable Quest But when God threatneth me punishment and denounceth judgement against me how shall I know whether it be voluntas signi or bene placiti is there not an hope left me that God may repent him of the evil that he threatned It is a note of the evil conscience to feare where no fear is â—e where there is no cause of fear an elect man fearing judgement threatned which shall not come near him feareth where no cause
have nothing but vanity and lyes to support their staggering and reeling estate of temporal felicity God is not in all their wayes nor the direction of God to manage them and therefore not the protection of God to defend them he leads them into temptation but he doth not deliver them from evill But God is a Rock for foundation and a Castle for defence to all such as put their trust in him 3. The patient expectation which he requireth in the Prophet for the peformance of this promise Though it tarry wait for it We must not not think long to tarry the Lords leasure Doctr. it is the Prophets rule He that beleeveth shall not make haste Isa 28.16 Ps 37.34 and it is Davids precept Wait on the Lord and keep his way And we have Jobs example All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait The promise of the Messiah was made in Paradise The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the Serpent This was the Gospel that God himself preached to the Serpent and all the sacrifices of the old law and all the Prophecies of former ages and all the Types in the Old Testament were Commentaries upon this text the Fathers in all ages of the Church before Christ rested on this the Apostle saith of them These all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them a far off and were perswaded of them Heb. 11.13 and embraced them 1. Because this doth best fit the constant decree of God that we do rest in it Reas 1 for it were in vaine for us to serve a God whom we might not trust and upon whose word we could not build assurance It is the Apostles rest Scio cui credidi I know whom I have beleeved 2. Because this doth best declare our faith Reas 2 for faith being of things not seen in themselves the Apostle saith here we see in a glasse faith is a Christian mans Prospective through which he beholdeth all things far off as if they were near at hand 3. Because this is an exercise of our patience Reas 3 for ye have need of patience Heb. 10.36 that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise For yet a little while Vers 37. and he that shall come will come and will not tarry 4. This also doth exercise our hope Reas 4 for hope is nourished and fed with future objects as sense is with present and hope hath that wise forecast that as soon as the seed is cast into the ground hope is at work to gather in the harvest Rejoyce in hope Saint Bernard doth teach us to make use of this doctrine Vse of awaiting Gods leasure for first he layeth a good foundation Tua considero in quibus tota spes mea consistit 1. Charitatem adoptionis 2. Veritatem promissionis 3. Potestatem redditionis upon this he buildeth Dicit fides parata sunt magna inexcogitabilia bona à Deo fidelibus suis Dicit spes mihi illa servantur Dicit charitas curro ego ad illa We must be very tender how we do invade the royalties of God Christ saith that his Father hath kept the times and seasons in his own power he will have the alone managing of them They that cannot tarry the Lords leasure do commonly fall into one of these two evils 1. Either they murmure impatiently at God and quarrel his delay as Israel did when they came out of Egypt 2. Or else they seek unlawful means to accomplish their desires so the woman of Endor gets customers Against these Jam. 1.4 Let patience have her perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing This work is thus perfected 1. Let us not be too busie to search into the wayes of God to know things to come It pleased God before the coming of Christ in the flesh to reveale much of his purpose concerning the time to come by the ministry of his Prophets and the Devill finding men taken with this desire of the knowledg of future events did erect his oracles whose giddy and dubious predictions did so infatuate the world that few did undertake any matter of moment without consulting the oracle the Devill grew rich by the offerings and presents that were given him for divination when the successe sorted and he lost nothing of reputation or belief when it failed because all his oracles were of ambiguous sense for to carry if need were contrary constructions And it is a thing admirable which the wisdome of observation hath recorded to the honour of Christ that at his coming into the world all oracles grew speechlesse to shew that he that should dissolve the works of the Devill was come The head of this Serpent being now by his coming bruised the way to establish our hearts is to rest in the Lord and not to be too busie with the Key of his Closet and to content our selves with so much knowledge of things to come as either 1. The wisdome of foresight may read in the volume of reasonable discourse 2. Or the faith of Gods holy ones may read in the written word of holy Scripture 3 Or the judgment of those Sholars of nature may finde by searching the great book of the creatures for these open things are for us and here qui potest capere capiat he that can let him receive it It hath been the fault of many that they have so anxiously discrutiated themselves with the solicitous inquisition of the future that they have too much neglected the present and desiring to know what God would do for them hereafter both themselves lose the sense and God the thanks of that good that he was then doing God hath his wayes and his paths where his footsteps are not seen 2. Let us take the word of God for his promise and threatnings whatsoever appearances do put in to counterswade In the case of my text The oppressed Church must tarry they have two promises One of their own deliverance and restauration Another of their enemies confusion and ruine God hath promised both yet against this promise the Church which hears of comfort feels smart and their threatned enemies rejoyce and divide their spoyle the assurance is God cannot lye and repentance is hid from his eyes Why should man desire better assurance then the word of God to fix and establish his heart seeing al things had their being from the word and no man now in being doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God 3. To perfect our patience that we may wait the Lords leisure we must beforehand consider that the Vision may tarry the promises of God which shall be fulfilled in their fulnesse of time may be foretold long before Christ was promised in Paradise some do think the first day of the world to man i. e. in the day of mans creation the eve of the first Sabbath but he was
not borne till almost 4000 yeers after yet the faithful in those times waited for the coming of Christ and tarried with patience till he came 4. God himself waited 120 yeers for the repentance of the old world all the while the Arke was preparing it is the Apostles phrase The long-suffering of God waited If God have the patience to wait on us for our good 1 Pet. 3.20 this may perfect our patience in our waiting on him for our own good Saint Paul calleth this The riches of his goodnesse and forbearance and long-suffering Rom. 2.4 and saith that The goodnesse of God leadeth to repentance If we consider his provocation and how our daily sins tempt him to repent that he either did make us or do any thing for us all which are in his sight and all which his soule abhorreth and if we compare this his patience with our passionate bitternesse upon the least provocation and consider how ready we are to call for fire from heaven to consume them that anger us we shall see that God doth wait for our repentance with much patience and who would not wait upon such a Lord 5. Let us consider how willingly we do attend and observe those that can do us any good how early we rise to be sure to prevent their hours how well our hopes do support us and stay our stomacks though many delays interpose their stop and threaten failing yet the successe of expectation in things temporal depending on men is always uncertaine for there are no bounds that can oblige humane favour not merits not rewards not promises not oaths but the promises of God are Yea and Amen as he saith The vision is yet for an appointed time at the end it shall speak and not lye it wil surely come This assurance that we have from the Word doth make expectation easie it is no pain to tarry for that which shall not faile us Jacob thought the seven years a short time bestowed for Rachel because he loved her though he served and was not his own man till he had fulfilled the time Neither doth that of Solomon discourage our tarrying the Lords leasure because he saith Pro. 13.12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick 1. Because if that hope be of some things temporal depending upon the favour of the times or persons of men there may be a failing therefore delay is a disease in such cases and maketh the heart sick 2. But hope in-the promises of God determined to their certain time cannot be said to be delayed for his hope is in vain who hopeth any thing before the time 3. And again where hope resteth in the Word and Promise of God neither the alterations of persons nor the vicissitude of times not the intercurrence of impediments can any way crosse the purpose disable the means or defeat the end of Gods decree Further if we understand Solomon of hope rightly grounded on the promise and construe the deferring it not to any protraction beyond the time but to the long expectation of it in tempore suo which desire of fruition doth make long that that hope maketh the heart sick we must not understand this sicknesse as a disease of the heart for when the Church saith Stay me with flagons and comfort me with apples for I am sick of love Cant. 2.5 Let no man think that this sicknesse was any disease in the Church we may say of it as our Lord did of Lazarus his sicknesse This siknesse is not to death This is but fervour of the Spirit and earnestnesse of desire as Bern. saith it is taedium quoddam impaetientis desideris he means and holy impatience quo necesse est affici mentem amatoris absente eo quod amat dum totus in expectatione quantamlibet festinationem reputat tarditatem This is an wholesome sicknesse it is the disease of the whole creation and of all the Elect For we know that the whole creation groaneth and traveleth in pain together untill now Rom. 8.22 And not only they Vers 23. but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body This vers 19. is called the earnest expectation of the creature waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God This is not weaknesse of the flesh in the Elect but fervour and strength of the Spirit So David longed as he professeth My soul longeth Ps l 84.2 yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord my heart and my flesh cryeth out for the living God And this desire goeth with us to heaven for even there the souls must wait and they are full of this holy desire which proves that their happinesse is not consummate till the resurrection For the soules under the Altar cry with a loud voice saying How long O Lord holy and true dost thou not judge and averge our bloud on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.10 This desire is Cosâ—orationis the whetstone of prayer for the more our hearts are established in the assurance of the truth of Gods promises the more is the fire of this desire kindled and enflamed in us and then it breaketh forth into prayer and the prayers that are fired at the Altar of zeal asend the next way to the throne of grace Christ himself kindled this heat in us when he taught us to pray to our father fiat voluntas tua thy Will be done for we may tarry the leasure of the fiat in faith and yet desire it with fervency for in nothing do we more declare our concurrence with the will of God then in our earnestnesse in prayer to him to fulfill his Will For Application of this point let us look back to the Vision it is double For God revealeth 1. The purpose of his fierce wrath against the enemies of his Church whom he threatneth to consume 2. His promise of mercy to his Church that he will restore it to the joy of his countenance and give it rest from all her enemies This promise of God holdeth to the worlds end even the whole Vision is for appointed times Therefore the distresses of the Church must ever be comforted with those comforts for these the Apostle doth call The comforts wherewith we are comforted of God All other comforts spend themselves into breath and vanish and leave the heart oppressed as it was the Vision of Gods revealed comfort establisheth the heart for this telleth us where we may have rest for our souls namely in the decree and promise of God And needfull is this comfort now for though our Church by the good favour of God do enjoy the liberty of the Word in peace under the gracious government of our King whom God hath annoynted defender of the Faith The Protestant and reformed Churches in other parts of the world do at this present smart for it long have they lived under
a life which else were a death for the wicked are dead in trespasses and sins so Christ saith let the dead bury their dead and the wanton widdows are said to be dead even whilest they live But by faith our natural life hath life put into it as the Apostle saith And the life which I now live in the flesh Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And surely this comfort must be applied in my text so though not so only to cheer the natural life of the distressed Jews against the many oppressions of the Chaldaeans that their faith in the promise of God must be their life as David saith I had verily fainted but that I believed to see the goodnesse of God in the land of the living There faith preserved the natural life of David 2. This includeth also a spiritual life which is the conjunction of our soule with God by Jesus Christ for what doth quicken us but our faith for by faith Christ dwelleth in us and by faith we are rooted and grounded in him Eph. 3.17 Col. 2 7. 3. This includeth an eternal life for how do we come to be where Christ is but by faith Christ first testifieth of the faith of his Church then he prayeth Father I will that they which thou hast given me may be with me that they may behold the glory that I had with thee c. They that overcome this world do overcome it by faith and such as have this faith do grow boysterous and violent They take the Kingdome of God perforce And this perchance gave occasion to the various lection some reading in the present vivit doth live some in the future vivet shall live some understanding the natural and spiritual only others only the eternal life But I understand the promise extended as the Apostle saith to both for godlinesse hath the promises of this life and that which is to come This sheweth what is meant here by faith not the historical faith by which we understand what the Will of God is Not a temporary faith which trusteth in God for a time and after falleth off from him Not the faith of miracles which even some wicked Persons whom Christ will not know at the day of judgement had Not the faith of hypocrites which seemeth and is not but a justifying and saving faith For we must live by the same faith here by which we must be saved hereafter And this faith is called the ground of things hoped for Cicero defineth the Latine word fides of fiat for it implieth performance Saint Augustine of the word fides saith Duae syllabae sonant Fides prima à facto secunda à dicto which may have a double construction 1. With reference to God for his dictum doth assure factum and that is our fides 2. With reference to us for as Augustine saith fac quod dicis credis do what thou sayst and thou beleevest I will not conceal from you the dissection of this word Fides as a witty Ancient hath anatomized it into five several letters by which he collecteth the ingredients which must meet in a saving faith 1. F implyeth facere to do as the Apostle saith Rom. 2. Not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be justified And Christ saith Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord Mat. 7. shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven but he that doth the Will of my father which it in heaven For a man must not be of the number of them who confesse God with their mouths and deny him in their works 2. I this importeth Integritatem Integrity which doth expresse it selfe in believing all the Articles of Christian faith for that faith which is not entire doth not hold fast and there is no trusting to it 3. D that implyeth Dilectionem love Gal. 5. for our faith must work through love And Saint Bernard saith Mors fidei est separatio charitatis faith without love is dead And again he saith ut vivat fides tua fidem tuam dilectio animet And in the schoole that faith which is not joyned with love is called fides informis an unformed faith It is St. Augustines saying Cum dilectione fides est Christiani sine dilectione fides est daemonis For we find that the devils confest Christ Confitebantur saith Saint Augustine Daemones Christum credendo non diligendo fidem habebant charitatem non habebant 4. E implyeth Expressè expressedly for it is not sufficient to retain faith in the heart but we must also strive to expresse it two wayes 1. In the fruits of faith good life 2. In the outward profession as the Apostle doth joyne them together With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and with the tongue he confesseth to salvation Rom. 10. Against those Nicodemites which come to Christ by night and all those who think it enough to reserve the heart for God though their outward deportment be fashioned to the time and place and persons where when and with whom they do live 5. S. which standeth for Semper alwayes which doth express perseverance for it is no true faith if it do not hold out to the end Let us now put all together a true faith must be entire working alwayes by love so that men may see our good works and glorifie God which is in heaven In a word the faith here mentioned is an holy apprehension and a bold application of the favour of God to his Church in the mediation and merits of Jesus Christ by whom we do beleeve that God is in Christ reconciling us to himself and the just man doth live by this faith De verbis hactenus The words thus cleared we come now to the division of this text It containeth an Antithesis wherein two contraries are set in opposition one against the other 1. The man that is lifted up 2. The just man 1. Of the first he saith non recta est anima ejus his soule is not upright 2. Of the second he saith ex fide vivet he shall live by faith In the first I note two things 1. His notation Elevatus lifted up 2. His censure Non recta est anima his soule is not upright 1. His notation Elevatus This is a thing that God loves not for it it said God resisteth the proud that is the point of doctrine in this place God taketh offence at such as are lifted up Doct. It was the fall of the Angels that kept not their first estate ero similis altissimo It was the fall of man Behold man is become like one of us knowing good and evill Some think this part of the text meant of Nebuchadnezzar the proud King whose heart was so big swolne with his great victories that in the ruffe of self opinion he ascribed all to himself and therefore was turned to graze as in the story of Daniels prophecie
the life present 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come The manner how it worketh this assurance is 1. It assureth us that there is a life eternal for that is an article of Christian Faith the close and sweet conclusion of our Creed 2. It assureth us that we are they who shall by the free gift of God be made heirs of this heavenly Kingdom reposita est mihi corona justitiae 3. It applieth all the promises of God to those several graces in us Thus I mourne therefore I shall be comforted I am pure in heart being washed in the blood of Christ Therefore I shall see God I hunger after righteousnesse ergo satisfied I love God ergo all things work together for my good I beleive ergo I shall be saved 4. It assureth our perseverance to the end in our love and obedience yea Faith assureth our faith to us For beleiving in the Author is beleiving in the finisher of our Faith 5. It stayeth us in expectation of the fruit of our Faith that though the Vision do tarry yet we think it not long to waite for the performance of it Having heard of the excellent use of Faith you cannot but observe the reason why Sathan doth aime all his fiery darts at our Faith because all our obedience and righteousnesse and holinesse is quickened and strengthened by Faith without which it is impossible to please God There is nothing in a Christian man that so much provoketh Sathan against him as his Faith For Faith keepeth us from being devoured of this roaring Lyon Therefore two assault we must provide for 1. Sathans labour to keep us from getting this sheild of Faith 2. His sound care when we have gotten it to rob and spoil us of it 1. Assault Sathan knowing that our Faith makes us too strong for him and quencheth all his fiery darts doth therefore all he can to keep us from the means by which Faith is increased in us That is from hearing the Word and receiving the Sacrament from meditation from prayer and as often as you find your selves tempted to neglect these know it to be Sathans malice against you to keep you from Faith The brest-plate of righteousnesse without a sheild of Faith is not sufficient to keep off the fiery darts of Sathan from wounding us but Faith quencheth them They therefore that live in the love and in the use of those means may comfort themselves that Sathan shall not be able to hinder them from obtaining a comfortable vegetation and growing up in Faith 2. Assault And whereas he laboureth to wrest our Faith from us we shall find that both his cunning and strength will fail him for saving Faith cannot be lost To establish our Faith let us know that imperfect Faith may be a sound and true Faith for we cannot attain to perfection in this life but if we have a good conscience in all things willing to live honestly Heb. 13.18 we may have boldnesse with God For as Christ prayed for Peter that his Faith might not fail so he prayeth for his whole Church even for all that shall beleive in him through his Word Joh 17.26 that the love wherewith the Father hâ—th loved him may be in them and he in them Which love will keep us that we fall not off quite from him We are not denyed the use of riches honours or lawful pleasures these be ornaments and comforts of life but we cannot live by them they perish in the using of them Our obedience and good works are the fruits of Faith we live by Faith Faith lives in obedience for without works Faith is dead Did we but know the unvaluable price of Faith we would seek it more then all other things and like the Merchant in the Parable Mat. 13 44 we would part with all we have to purchase Faith I conclude with St. Bern. Dicamus fidem vitem virtutes palmites Botrum opus devotionem vinum Our vine yarder hath bestowed much digging and planting and composing and fensing upon this Vine let it put forth and let the clusters call it fruitful and let the Vine please both God and men Now that we have searched this gracious mine of comfort and found the rich vein which maketh us able to live both here and hereafter Let me admonish you what is objected against the Doctrine delivered out of this place Ribera a learned Iesuite when he cometh to this Text in his full commentary upon this Prophet saith Incidimus in locum qui est lapis offensionis duabus domibus Israelis hoc est orthodoxis haereticis qui recesserunt à domo David It greives the Church of Rome that we have so clear a Text in th is Prophet and that so much urged in the Epistles of the Apostles for our justification by Faith alone and Ribera is much deceived if he mean us under the tittle of haeretiques for this place is no offence to us It is the most comfortable doctrine that we can embrace nothing doth more set forth the excellency of Faith nothing doth more assure to us our eternal life Fain would Ribera have shifted off the clear evidence of this place with this illusion that the Prophets meaning is this The just man that is the man that desireth to be just shall live the life of grace by the Faith whith he hath in Christ Jesus We understand that a man is justified only by Faith and that without the Law as the Apostle doth also teach And it were a poor comfort to the Church in their distresse to tell them that the just man should live by his Faith except the Lord in that promise did assure them the comforts not only of the naturall but of the spirituall and eternal life Neither would the Apostle urge this Text but with these contents For exexamine the places where these words are urged and it wil appear The Apostle professeth Rom. 1.17 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ c. For therein is the righteousnesse of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written Justus ex fide vivet the just shall live by his faith The Gospel is said to reveal the righteousnesse of God he cannot mean the essential righteousnesse by which God is justice it self in his divine nature but he doth understand that righteousnesse of which the Apostle speaketh who is made unto us wisdom Righteousnesse c. that is Christ our Righteousnesse and this is called the grace of God which bringeth salvation This is revealed now in the cleare light of the Gospel in real performance which was before exhibited in visions and dreams and types and ceremonies whilst the veyle was up It is revealed from faith to faith As Origen and Chrysostome truly enough but not enough fully Ex side veteris testimonii in fidem novi as Ambrose Ex fide Dei promittentis in fidem hominis credentis But most fully Ex fide incipiente in
the Church and the Common-wealth Yet they that are thus overtaken do commonly excuse themselves that they have been amongst their friends but this pot-friendship which hath the power to divide a man from himselfe will scarce prove a glue strong enough to unite and knit him to another The kisses of such friends betray thee and thou maist say rather Thus was I wounded in the house of my friends It was Davids prayer let it be thine Let the righteous smite me for that is a benefit Ps 141.5 and let him reprove me and it shall be a precious oyle that shall not break my head but Incline not mine heart to evill that I should commit wicked works with men that commit iniquity and let me not eate of their delicates nor drink neither It is a good observation of Cardinal Bellarm. here ubique nocet conversatio malorum sed nusquam magis quam in conviviis compotationibus This is no new danger but a disease of former ages infectiously transmitted by imitation to our times and in them grown epidemical Saint Ambrose describeth a surfetting and drunken meale De Helia Jenin 6.13 primo minoribus poculis velut velitari pugnâ praeluditur verum haec non est sobrietatis spes sed bibendi disciplina ubi res calere caeperit poscunt majoribus poculis certant pocula cum ferculis Deinde procedente potulongius contentiones diversae magna certamina quis bibendo praecellat Nota gravis si quis se excuset All you that call God Father and do desire either the honour of his name or the coming of his Kingdom or the fulfilling of his will make conscience of this great sin call it no longer good-fellowship for St. Ambr. saith vocatis ut amicos emittitis inimicos Ibid. c. 14. Vocas ad jucunditatem cogis ad mortem invitas ad prandium efferre vis ad sepulturam vina praetendis venena suffundis Say to him that tempteth thee to drink drunk vade retro me Sathana get thee be hind me Satan the Kingdom of God is not meate nor drink God shall finde thee out thou hast his woe upon thee and thou shalt see anon how he will punish thee 1. Ad quid ut videant nuditatem It is the boast of brave drunkards how long they have sat at it how many pots and pottles they have swallowed how many they have made drunk this is thy nakednesse Litterally drunkennesse doth make men do things uncomly some use this lewd practise to make way for their lust some to take advantages otherwise Modesty cannot utter what unclean provocations do arise from drunkennesse what lewd and unchaste actions are done what profane and filthy words are spoken Noah himself full of wine doth lie uncovered in his tent and sheweth his nakednes St. Ambrose complaineth of women That full of wine did come immodestly into the street singing and dancing Ibid. c. 18. irritantes in se juvenum libidines Coelum impuro contaminatur aspectu terra turpi saltatione polluitur aer obscenis cantibus verberatur O the miserable state of man in whom sin reigneth he is not only tempted to do evil horrible and shameful evil to drink drunk but to be his neighbours devil to draw him into evill by making him drunk and also this propter malum even to discover the nakednesse of his brother Some shew themselves in their pots like lyons furious and quarrelsome others are dull and heavy only serving for whetstones to sharpen the wits of the company others drowsie and sleepy others talkative every man in his humour all in their nakednesse To do evil that good may come of it is an heinous sin for God needs not Satans help But to do evil our selves to draw others into evil for so evil an end this doth make sin out of measure sinful 1. Take nakednesse literally for the discovering of those parts which modesty doth hide out of sight so after the transgression the man and woman saw that they were naked and they were ashamed being but themselves alone in the garden and they sowed fig-leavs together to hide their nakednesse from each others sight so much remained in them that having left primas sapientiae they yet retained secundas modestiae and could not for shame behold each others nakednesse The Apostle saith These members of the body which we think to be lesse honourable 1 Cor. 12.23 upon these we bestow more abundant honour and our uncomely parts have more abundant comelinesse The honour here meant is the decent hiding of their nakednesse and the modest covering of our shame Where the Apostle doth declare the care that is in the natural body the comely parts which need no hiding from sight do cover the uncomely parts from sight Therefore they that uncover nakednesse do shew themselves to be no members of the body so that such drunkards as give strong drink to their neighhour to this end to discover their nakednesse declare themselves to be no parts of the body of the Church Surely much nakednesse is discovered in many drunken meetings and no marvel when men and women having laid aside reason and temperance religion and the fear of God if they then turn beasts and do those things that are uncomely 2. Take this nakednesse in a spiritual sense then St. Ambrose will tell you Lib. de Noe Arca c. 30. Omnis impius quoniam ipsedevius disciplinae est aliorum lapsus pro sui erroris solatio accipit quod consortes invenerit culpae Then is the season for the Cosener to invade the purse of his neighbour for the cunning insidiator to take advantage of words to find out the infirmitits of his brother that he may keep him in aw thereby I cannot dive so deep into this mystery of iniquity as to declare all and again I fear to go farre in it least I might teach the ignorant sinner more cunning then he had before This I dare say that it is not love that maintaineth drunken acquaintance for true love is a coverer of nakednesse if literal you may see it in Sem and Japhet if spiritual you may hear it from the Apostle love covereth a multitude of sins And out of that love David weeps fot them that keep not the law It becomes them best in my text who know not God but were abominable and to every good work rebrobate to make men drunk to make them sport but these things must not be so much as named amongst those that call God our father that come to Church that hear the word that offer themselves to be guests at the Lords boord Bur I remember the wise man saith Rods be for the backs of fools What greater folly then to sell our inheritance in heaven for strong drink a worse bargain then Esaus and an harder penny-worth The rods for this are 2. Poena peccati the punishment of sin 1. Thou art filled with shame for glory 2. It shall be thine own
Church of Rome for it is clear that there was a time wherein there were no images at all known in the Church There were some desirous then to bring them in but the councel of Eliberis decreed that no picture or image should be brought into the Church lest it should be adored And Epiphanius finding an image painted on a cloth Can. 36. hanging in a Church rent it down and said it was against the Authority of Scriptures that any image should be in the Church Saint Origen saith of his time Con. Cels l. 7. nos imagines non adoramus we do not worship images Eight hundred years after Christ the second Nicene Councel set up images but The Councel of Franckford which was a general Councel and where the Popes Legates were present repealed it and affirme The Catholick Church doth affirme that mortal man ought to worship God not by images and Angels but by Christ our Lord. And whatsoever the practice of the Church of Rome now is in the use of them they shall never be able to reconcile the judgments of their best learned concerning them For Some condemn all divine adoration given to them some condemn external bowing before them some confesse that the ancient fathers condemned them some think their use dangerous And they which have gone farthest in defending them have done it by so nice distinctions that the common People cannot understand how to beware of idolatry themselves not understanding themselves therein Even in the administration of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper they are idolaters in worshipping the hoast which I prove from Cardinal Bellarmines own penne De justif lib. 3 cap. 8. Ne que potest certus esse certitudine fidei se percipere verum Sacramentum cum Sacramentum sine intentione ministri non conficiatur intentionem alterius nemo videre potest And thus much Garnet the Provincial did ingenuously confesse upon his private conference with some of our Bishops Wherefore how they can excuse their idolatry in the worship of the elevated hoast I cannot see seeing they worship they know not what Any man may easily conceive that they do carry a corrupt mind that way because in all their Catechismes set forth for the institution of young beginners they do leave out the second Commandment quite and to make up the number they divide the tenth Commandment into two Now having convinced them of idolatry which is the high sin against God and toucheth him in his Majesty and Glory we see how dangerous a thing it is to have conversation with such least we receive of the plagues due to them Though the Church of Pergamus did hold fast the name of Christ and denied not his faith yet had the Lord something against her Rev. 2.14 Because she had there them that held the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication The same quarrel had our Lord to the Church at Thyatira in which though he approved her works and charity and service and faith and patience yet he saith Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Iezebel who calleth her self a Prophetesse Rev. 2.20 to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols We have no law to favour idolatry or idolatrous meetings to masse we have severe laws against them yet it is in sight that Masse is frequented by multitudes of all sorts in the sight of Israel in the sight of the sun whence this boldnesse grows we cannot judge but from â—n negligent execution of our godly and just laws Have we forgotten 88 have we forgotten the fifth of November 1605 do we not believe experience Were not the Canaanites whom Israel suffered to live amongst them against the Commandment of God Jude 2.3 thorns in their sides and pricks in their eyes and were not their gods a snare to Israel Is not Popery a dangerous religion to the Soveraign Authority of the King setting the Pope above him to over-rule him and to deprive him of his Crown if he be not for his turn Is not Popery a profest enemy to the Religion that we professe light and darknesse God and Belial may as soon be reconciled and therefore an enemy to our Clergy who are all armed with the Word of God against it Or is it good and wholesome doctrine which the Anabaptists this last year tendred to the King Prince Nobility Judges and Commons of Parliament that Freedome of Religion is not hurtful to any Common-wealth or that Freedome of Religion depriveth not Kings of any Power given them of God The times are foule God is much dishonoured where the fault is and of whom the Church and Religion hath cause to complain is not so much our duty to enquire as to pray to God to amend all I le tell you where you shall have him 2. The punishment of this sinne is exprest in one word Vae Wo and it containeth the whole Cup of Gods indignation 1. In this life they trust in that which cannot help them 2. They invocate that which cannot hear them They trust in lying vanities and they forsake their own mercy they are taught by teachers of lies and therefore the light that is in them is darknesse Baals servants cried from morning to evening upon Baal their god to hear them and it would not do here is a double woe 1. Losse of labour 2. Want of help In the first they bewray their folly the god of this world hath made fools of them for turning the glory of the invisible God into the images of creatures But it the second they find the misery for we cannot subsist without help and they trust to idols where there is no help But that is not all the woe the Apostle telleth us that no idolaters shall enter into the Kingdome of heaven Gal. 5.20 this is terror domini the terrour of the Lord for how shall they hope to have glory witch God who deny glory to God will God give them glory that seek to take away glory from him or let them into heaven that would thrust him out Observe it in that law concerning graven images God hath more exprest himself then in any of the rest to be a God of vengeance for there is ratio legis God is jealous And there is Comminatio judicis visitabit and it goeth in descent to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him Observe he calleth them such as hate him There is a promise He will shew mercy to thousands of them that love him And I conceive this added to this Commandment rather then any of the rest because Gods Israel did most often offend in this kind by worshipping God in creatures and by performing external adoration to them which is in this law chiefly forbidden The fear of this woe hath
wherein he prophecyeth the birth of Christ in Bethlehem In both these Prophecies we observe that the promise of God hath not only assured the spreading of true Religion but the assemblies of beleivers to certain places for instruction that they may bee taught vias Domini the ways of the Lord. Never was there Religion in the world without some places of publick-Worship for meeting of people together Even in Adams time there was a place where Adam and his children met to offer sacrifice and Cains flying from the presence of the Lord was his wilfull excommunication from that place And in truth they that would have no Churches may aswell cry down Religion and the publique ministry of the Word and pluck down the hedge which God hath planted about his Vine and lay all common Understand us rightly we do not affix holinesse to the place nor think any speciall sanctity inherent in it but seeing God is by a singular right become master of the house that is separate to his use as the Apostle saith judge I pray you is it comely that wee put not difference between Gods House and our owne houses It is observed that Christ when he purged the temple purged only that part of the temple which was set apart to prayer and hearing of the Word because that use of the Church was to continue in the time of the Gospel and after he had cast out the oxen and the doves which were provisions for sacrifice then he citeth that place and reneweth the sanction My house shall be called an house of prayer to all nations which is a sanctification of all Churches to the Worship of God That this was so understood Know that before they had any Churches built for the publick exercise of Religion they had some places of meeting which they called Aedes sacras holy houses of which the Apostle putting difference sayth have ye not houses to eat and drink in Cor 1 1◠22. despise ye the Church of God Here be our own houses for common and natural moral and civil use here is the Church of God the place of assembling of the Congregations to the Worship and service of God No sooner is a place consecrate to this use but it is a Temple of Gods So when Jacob had set up a stone for a pillar Gen. 28.19.22 in the place where he dreamed and had the vision of the ladder he called the name of it Bethel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods house And after At his returne he came to that place and having first put down all the strang gods Gen. 35.7 he built an altar to the Lord and called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good of Gods house It is palestra in which we do meet with God to wrestle with him in our fervent prayers and supplications He by his word wrastleth with us to overcome both our ignorance and impiety And therefore as Jacob Gen. 32.31 so may we call our Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the face of God for there God did look upon him And in the times of the Gospel these houses of prayer have had several tittles Aedes sacrae in respect of their succession to them and Templa in respect of their succession to that at Jerusalem Tectum amplum some derive it and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Propter dedicationem 2. Propter usum 3. Propter jus perpetuum 4. Propter sabbatum For there is Dominica in Dominico thence came the word Kirke Yet in use in Scotland And Ecclesiae in respect of the meetings there When David could not come to the sanctuary of God he worshipped toward it Hear the voyce of my supplications Psal 7. Ps 28.2 Dan. 6.10 when I cry unto thee when I lift up my hands towards thy holy temple Daniel being farre from the temple opened his window toward Jerusalem and prayed three times a day The Temple is a type of Heaven where the Saints of God do meet to praise God which is the worship that is done to God in heaven And I heard a great voyce out of heaven saying Behold the tabernacle of God is with men Rev. 21.3 and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them and be their God This Mr. Brightman understandeth of the Church of the Gentiles where God is seen So doth James Brocard an Italian understand it of the Church delivered from Poperie and Mahometry and all haeresie But Master Bullinger better advised saith that as in the former part of this Revelation hell is described so in this chapter heaven is set forth And that as you see in the similitude of a tabernacle so doth Junius and Napier well interpret this place I conclude then that all the Churches wherein the Christians meet to call upon God are the temples of Gods presence wherein God is invisibly resident both to give his Spirit where he thinketh good and to direct our service of him and to receive our prayers and sacrifices of thanksgiving and to communicate to his servants the ordinances of his grace the means of their salvation 2. As God is in these temples made with hands and declareth his presence in his house in his Word and Sacraments and in the solemne meetings of his children so is he in heaven which is his highest temple whereof these are but types and figures We beleive in him as maker of heaven and we pray to him our father which art in heaven this place he himself calleth his habitation I dwell in the high and holy place 1. In heaven Yet as Solomon saith The heaven of heavens is not able to containe him Isa 57.15 2 Reg. 8.27 So he is there as in the most excellent part of his creation but not comprehended there for there he is most purely worshipped thence cometh our Sicut in Coelo The heathen gods are no where in heaven they are not that is the temple of the true God in earth they are not for they are no gods that have residence in earth and have no power at all in heaven As the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 8.4 We know that an Idol is nothing in the world Here by the name of Idol is not meant the material image representing their god for that is a bodily substance to be seen and felt and it is in the world but he speaketh it de numine the divinity is a non ens For he addeth that there is no God but one and whereas many be called gods in heaven and in earth as there be many gods and many Lords yet he saith there is but one God the rest are nomina not numina For there were that worshipped the Sun the Moon and the starres these as creatures and second causes do us good but they serve our God When our God is in his Temple all those help to make up the quire of them that praise him For the heavens declare the glory of
God and the firmaments and the out goings of the morning praise him Therefore do we lift up our eyes to heaven when we pray we say that every good and perfect gift comes from above from the Father of lights Yet is not God so far off but that as heaven is his throne earth is his foot-stoole The Lord looketh from heaven Psal 33.13 he beholdeth the sonnes of men He is not so far off but if we pray to him Prope est invocantibus ipsum he is neer to them that call upon him And in this respect all the earth is a common oratory so is the sea for our prayers But as the perpetuall duty of a Religious service of God which doth require holinesse and righteousnesse all the days of our lives doth not take away the particular duty of the Sabbath neither doth the great hahitation of God in heaven abate any thing of his special presence both in the temples dedicated to his service and in every particular person which doth belong to the election of grace For so God saith I dwell with him that is humble and contrite in heart and he saith so presently after he had said I will dwell in the high and holy place in so much as St. Augustine upon those words of David exaudivit de templo sancto suo vocem meam saith Exaudivit de cordo meo in quo habitat Dominus vocem meam For know you not that you are the temples of the holy Ghost and that God dwelleth in you c. God is in heaven Per specialem gloriam He is in our Churches per specialem cultum He is in our hearts per specialem indulgentiam He is in his Word per specialem illuminationam In a word wheresoever is cultus dei there is vultus dei The use of this point is taught in the Text it is the second part of my Text. 2. The duty Let all the earth keep silence before him This as you heard is a postulation of reverence he doth not put us to silence that we shall say nothing for he hath commanded us to call upon him and invocation is a note of his children He saith hee shall call upon me and I will hear him The wise man doth help us to expound this Text Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any word before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth Eccles 5. Reg. lib. ver 2. Gen. 5.1 therefore let they words bee few So that temerity and rashnesse is here forbidden and reverence and holinesse required 1. Let us consider God in our Churches the temples of his holinesse there we are taught 1. Take heed that thou have not an unreverent opinion of the house of God St. Paul saith despise ye the Church that is Vse 1 the place set apart for the worship of God and that he meaneth so the place and not the company So Theophil loco ipsi infertis injuriam you do wrong to the place Lyranus est contemptus ecclesiae quae consecrata est divinis usibus the very words of that Text do shew it For our own houses and Gods house our houses for our common meals and Gods house for the Supper of the Lord are compared together 2. There must be in us a love of those houses of God God said of his holy City where his Temple was built here will I dwell Vse 2 for I have a delight therein It is Davids protestation for Ierusalem For the house of Gods sake I will seck to do thee good The heart never more desired the water-brooks then he did to go to the Tabernacle where God was my soul longeth and fainteth for them I was glad when they said to me come we will go up to the house of the Lord. 3. Let us prepare our selves before we come to Gods house for he is present there come not hand over head as thou wouldest go into thine own house consider if thou wert to go before thy Soveraign King how thou wouldest compose thy self that nothing in thy apparel in thy gesture in thy countenance in thy words might give him offence Wilt thou do lesse when thou art to appear before the Lord of Hosts who is the King of glory Micah saith Wherewithal shall I come before the Lord Mich. 6.6 and bow my self before the most high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings The old law was None shall appear before me empty When Iesse heard that David his sonne was sent for to King Saul 1 Sam. 16.20 I-sse took an asse laden with bread and a bottle on wine and a kid and sent them by David to Saul So Jacob sent a present to Pharaoh when his sons went the second time for corne Solomon saith and it is no news in our times A reward in the bosome pacifieth strong wrath we know what cause we have given our God to be angry with us let us think of it when we are to come and stand in his sight at Church Manus in sinu tuo manus in sinu dei He is not ashamed to ask it fili praebe cor 4. Take heed to thy foot when thou entrest into the house of God for the place where thou art entring is holy ground put off thy shooes that is all earthly and carnal affections and say with Iacob Gen. 28. quam terribilis est hiclocus this is no other but the house of God porta coeli 5. When thou art entred into Gods house remember thou art come before the face of God and his holy Angels into the place where God's honour specially dwelleth 1. It is enough thy heart be reverent let thy outward man expresse it also do not think that because the Papists do superstitiously adore the Crucifix and the Altar and idols therein therefore it is superstition to do worship to God every man that comes into anothers house doth in good manners salute the Master of the house where he enters the same may not a visible worship be due to the invisible God! O come let us worship and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker It is a godly custome if done in zeal of Gods glory with devotion and not in a customary formality to sanctifie our entrance into Gods house with Prayers to fall low upon our knees before God to invocate him for his blessing upon our selves upon our Minister upon the whole Congregation 2. Learn of the Apostle let all things be done decently and in good order compose thy outward man to all due reverence and conformity with the holy Congregation and thine inward man to all zealous devotion remember the meetings of the Saints in the primitive times of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not give God thy knee and thy tongue thine eye thine eare and thy hand thy whole outward addresse and keep thy heart from him and let thy thoughts go and wander from the service thou
3 Doct. that set prayers are both lawfull and necessary to be used by the faithfull both in their private and publique meetings And this is proved by these examples in holy Scripture God himselfe prescribed to the Priests a set form of blessing the people which they constantly used for God said to them Thus shall ye blesse the children of Israel numb 6.23 c. and say unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee The Lord make his face shine upon thee and be mercifull unto thee The Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace The 92. Psal is called a Psalm for the Sabbath The 102. Psal is a prayer for the afflicted when he is overwhelmed and poureth out his complaint before the Lord. Hezekiah the King and the Princes commanded the Levites to praise the Lord with the words of David 2 Chron. 29 3â— and of Asaph the Seer which is the 136. Psal This was also used by Jehoshapht 2 Chron. 20.21 And in the Gospel the Disciples came to Christ and told him that John had taught his Disciples to pray and desired him to teach them and he taught them the Lords Prayer which doth imply in the judgment of the best learned that John had taught his Disciples a set form The reasons are first for hlep of the infirmities of such as have good affections in them but cannot so well express them that they may be directed lest they should utter any thing rashly of themselves For thus the spirit helpeth their infirmities by those who can direct them and in themselves using these set formes This much advanceth the service of God when men before hand have their petitions drawn and shall need nothing but zeal and faith in the delivering thereof to God Herein we are like to poore petitioners that come to the King who not trusting themselves with their own suites do get some wiser than themselves to set down their mindes and then they have nothing to do but to importune the Soverreign Majesty of the King to hear them and to grant their requests This serveth for the maintenance of Unanimity the Congregation knowing before they meet what they shall aske at the hands of God it resteth that they bring affections fit to joyn one with another in supplications This maintaineth outward Uniformity when the whole Congregation joyn together in an outward worship and service of God This admonisheth us 1 To take it for a great blessing of God that he hath provided these helps for our weaknesse Vse 2 It sheweth us that God for our good doth so labour to fit us to his service as that he is pleased that one of us be helpfull to another therein 3 It reproveth those who out of a presumption and overweening of the graces of God in themselves do not onely despise those helps themselves but disgrace them in others in which number we may reckon all the depravers of our Church prayers 4 Here the prayer of the Prophet is used This teacheth that the fittest persons to be used for direction of devotion are the Prophets and Apostles 4 Doct. and Ministers of the word The reason is because they are the most fit to speak to God for us and to teach us how to speak to him who are set apart to speak to us for God and to instruct us from him These are the Phisitians of our souls and should best know our diseases and defects and therefore best able to direct us to the remedy for as in the state of bodily health many superficially in-sighted in some empericall Physick do hurt themselves by being their own Physitians So in the state of the spirituall man many do overthrow their spirituall health by presuming to be their own Divines and trusting too much to their own skill Therefore it is wisedome for the flock to be directed Vse especially in the service of God by their Pastours and to hear his voyce let Habbakuk teach Israel how to pray And for us howsoever the spirit of contradiction which likes nothing long have laboured long to disgrace our publique Service yet because many faithfull and godly Pastours of the Church have zealously joyned their united forces of piety and charity to compose this book and the approbation and authority both of Church and Common-wealth hath commanded it to the use of our Congregations and the malignity of all the times since hath not been able to remove it let us embrace it and use it as Gods ordinance sealed with the seal the double seal both of prescription of time and good successe in the use of this Church of England 2 He putteth this prayer into verse and maketh a song of it and fitteth it to be sung by the Church with an instrument of Musick for so the last verse of the Chapter directeth it to the chief Singer on my stringed instruments This manner of praising God is ancient and of much use in the Church Mr. Beza hath taken the paines to collect fourteen songs eleven out of the old Testament and three out of the new which he hath interpreted by way of Paraphrase and hath annexed them to his Paraphrase of the book of Davids Psalmes and they are translated into English I shall not lose my labour nor you your time to shew you where you may finde them Exod. 1.15 The song that Moses taught Israel to sing to the praise of God for their deliverance from Pharoah and his armies which is of such excellency being a type of the deliverance of the Church from the adversary power of the world and the tyranny of the beast that there is mention of it in the Revelation Rev. 15 3. And they sung the song of Moses the servant of God Deut. 2.32 When Moses drew neer his end he maketh a Propheticall song for the use of the people both to commemorate Gods mercies to them to lay open the judgements of God against them to chide their rebellions and to comfort them with types of grace in the revelation of the Messiah And promising them the gift of the spirit of repentance to returne them into the favour of their God 3 The triumphant song of Deborah and Barak Judg. 5. after the victory of Jabin King of the Cananites 4 1 Sam. 2.1 the song of Hannah the Mother of Samuel in thanksgiving for the blessing of her fruitfulnesse conteining in it both thanksgiving doctrine and prophecy 5 2 Sam. 1.19 the elegie of David bewailing the death of Saul and Jonathan 6 2 Sam. 7.18 A song of David in thanksgiving to God after Nathan the Prophet had from God told him that the Messiah should be the Sonne of David 7 Isaiah 5. Conteining the rebuke of the people which is a Satyricall Psalme 8 Isaiah 26.1 the song of the Church conteining consolation and prophecy 9 The song of Hezekiah when God comforted his sickness with promise of recovery Isaiah 38. 10 The song of Jonah in the belly
of the Whale 11 Is this song of Habbakkuk In the New testament we haue three The song of the blessed Virgine Magnificat The song of Zechariah called Benedictus The song of Simeon Nunc dimittis Besides frequent mentions of singing to instruments upon several occasions where the songs themselves are not recorded From whence I gather these two observations 1 That Poetry is ancient and hath been of use in the Church of God and in Gods service and worship for these were the Anthems of the Church in former times 2 That Church-musique hath had the same honour both of reverend antiquity and holy use The first point concerning the ancient laudable and holy use of Meeters which we call Poetry so continued through the whole course of the Bible as you have heard doth shew that God requireth of us in his worship not only plain faithfulnesse soundly and sincerely to expresse our selves in his service but he requireth also that we shew all our learning wit and art in our compositions according to the strict lawes of a Verse those were the Ballads of former times And though vaine obscene wanton lying rithmes now printed do carry the name of Ballads wholly yet holy songs have been so called if you look in your old Church Bibles that were first printed in English you shall finde the Song of Solomon or the Canticles called Solomons Ballad or the Ballad of Ballads The reasons why God desired and delighted in this form of worship 1 Because this gift of holy Poetry is of and from himself he is the Authour of it and the sweet Singer of Israel learned it of him to honour him in Hymnes therefore the Apostle calleth them spirituall songs that is inspired by the Holy Ghost it is just that those spirituall graces which derive their being from him should be consecrated in their use to him And this is cleer that there is no poetry so ancient as the holy Hymns of the Church 2 St Augustine in his preface to the Psalmes saith Spiritus sanctus videns obluctantem ad virtutis viam humani generis animam ad delectationes hujus vitae inclinari delectabilibus modulii Cantilenae vim suae doctrinae permiscuit ut dum svavitate Carmine mulcetur auditus divini sermonis pariter utilitas inseratur He saith he hath observed that both yong children and those of more yeares who have at Church given no heed to the reading of the Prophets and Apostles have been so taken with the delight of the Psalmes that they have learned to sing them at home and upon the way which also brought forth good effects in them by the power of that good Spirit which endited them quia miscuit utile dulci. St Augnstiue resembleth the wisedome of God herein to the art of the Physitian who gives his patient things wholesome but not very tastfull in some sweet sirrups or liquours which may convey it without distast into the body 3 This expressure of the zeal of Gods glory in verse being the labour of the brain the marrow of wit the earnest wrestling of the soul striving to glorifie God as David saith With the best member that we have doth best present the inward man the hid man of the heart as St. Peter calleth it to Almighty God The Apostle biddeth us to affect the best gifts They that do only read a Psalme or a Prayer in a book have done little but they that love the dead letter an enlightened understanding and sanctified affections they pray and praise God They that wisely compose their own meditations and exexpresse their own hearts in their own words holy hearts in holy words do mount a degree higher But they that honour God with art and nature observing the lawes of time number and measure as Bernard saith they have Eruditam mentem a learned mind and they are come ad provectam aetatem to a ripe age Solomon excelled in this kinde whose Nuptiall Hymne is called worthily Canticum Canticorum It is a good observation of St. Bernard that the Proverbs of Solomon which is Disciplina morum the discipline of manners and Ecclesiastes which is Disciplina amorum the discipline of loves the one correcting our vain love of our selves the other of the world must go first and then our understanding and affections will be fitted to make such Verses 4 This kind of honouring God in Ditties and Hymnes doth please God in the Church because even such of the learned Heathen who had no other light but the light of nature have yet in this kind honoured the unknown God Therefore Lactantius writing to the Heathen to bring them to the knowledge of the true God proveth the Divinity by the very testimonies of their Poets who in Poeticall raptures have given testimony to this truth 1 He nameth the most ancient of Poets that we do read amongst the heathen De falsa relig 1.1 Jude 23. Orpheus who lived about the time when Thola judged Israel He did celebrate the honour of one God whom he called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quod ante ipsum nihil sit genitum sed ab ipso sint cuncta generata He spake also of the immortality of the sonnes of this god 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Lactantius saith he could not rest in Jupiter seeing he heard Saturn was his father nor in Saturn who was said to be the sonne of the heaven nor in the heaven which was but a part of the world eguit authore and wanted an authour Haec illum ratio perduxit ad primo genitum illum deum cui assignat tribuit principatum this brought him to the first begotten god to whom he assigned primacy he passeth over Homer and Hesiod as finding nothing in them but Virgil who lived about the time of Christ and excelled in Poeticall invention hath much honoured God in his Verses according to the Light that shined on him I need not follow Lactantius any further having in him overtaken the point which I have delivered that seeing God hath had honour from Poetry amongst the heathen much more in his Church let him be so honoured St. Paul hath transplanted some of those flowers of Poetry 1 Cor. 15.33 which grew in the gardens of the heathen into his own holy Epistles From Menander the poet he took that excellent saying that evill words doe corrupt good manners Acts 17.28 and he took it out of a wanton Comoedy called Thais From Epimenides they took that imputation on them of Candie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now since God had honour from heathen Poets much more is he honoured within the Church by those ravished spirits within a lofty strain sound out his prayses or their own sorrowes and wants 5 This kind of writing as it is most delectable so it is most hard and difficult of all others the strict laws of Verse exacting choice of words to take their places in there measure and the inspired wit affecting such sublimity and
svavity of matter and order as is often involved in tropes and figurative and parabolicall Phrases so that all readers of holy Scripture finde the poeticall parts of the Bible exceeding difficult more then the historicall and morall Now where most cost is bestowed of search to finde out the meaning of the holy ghost and most delight is reaped it being found that doth tarry by us better and we hold it with strongest retention This pleaseth God well that we hide his word in our hearts that we do not runne it out in a leake This doctrine of the holy use of Poetry in the worship and service of God serveth Vse 1 To stir us up to affect the best gifts of all in Gods worship if there be any way more excellent then others to use that in our prayers and thanksgivings and prayses of our God I remember what David said to Araunah the Jebusite when he offered to give him his threshing floore to erect an altar upon it for God I will not offer a burnt Offering to the Lord my God 2 Sam. 24.24 of that which cost me nothing Let it cost us the highest straine of our invention the lowdest extension of the voice the earnestest intention of the heart we have nothing good enough for him all we have is of him let it be all for him and for the advancement of his glory 2 Seeing this kind of exercise of Hymns and Psalmes hath been by Gods holy Servants consecrated to the worship of God let us bestow our wit and inventions that way not in devising Satyres to gird and lash our Brethren not in amorous and wanton evaporations of our lustfull affections not in base flattery of the corrupt times and soothing of ungodly persons not in broaching and venting uselesse fictions the scumme and froth of idle and unsanctified brains but let our wits and pens be exercised in glorifying of our God and our readings rather bestowed in the Psalmes and Hymns of holy Scripture then in the vain and artlesse dull and brainlesse Ballads and Poems which fly abroad amongst us and devoure precious time which should be better spent and transport affections which should bend their strength to Gods service 2 I consider that this song of Habakkuk was directed to the Musician to be fitted to the stringed instruments so to be not onely sung but played in the meetings of the Church from whence I collect That Church-musique hath the honour of antiquity and of holy use also I need not prove this out of the old Testament for the examples grow so thick there that he hath read little in the Old Testament that hath not informed himselfe of the Churches use and practise therein We have Myriams consort Exod. 15.20 There were Timbrels and Dances all the women came out after them We have Jephthaes Daughters consort Judg. 11.34 meeting her victorious Father with Timbrels and Dances We have Davids full example in the Tabernable Solomons constitution for the full Musique of the Temple If any object that these be those old things which are done away but now all things are made new those were but shadows and ceremonies serving onely for those times but now antiquate and abolisht Let me tell them that in the time of the Gospell where the Church hath more cause of joy then ever it had before we can give no cause to abate any thing of Gods worship Who can deny but that the first tydings of the birth of Christ was proclaimed by an Angell and the Proclamation was seconded by a Quire of heavenly Souldiers even a multitude of them the whole consort of heaven praising God The Anthume which they sung is upon record in the living Book of the Gospell Gloria in excelsis Luke 2.14 Ob. But yet the singing and Musick of instruments in the time of the Law were shawdows of things to come at the coming whereof they must cease whereof then were they shadows It is answered of the inward and spirituall joy of the faithfull for the coming of the Messiah Sol. Had not then the faithfull before Christ this inward and spirituall joy and why should we which have it more in the inward man expresse it lesse in the outward worship Ps 48.10 David saith According to thy name so is thy praise to the ends of the earth Christ saith I have manifested thy name to them that thou gavest me doth it not follow well where there is manifestum nomen there should be manifesta laus The Church use to prayse God with instruments of Musick the Church hath more cause to prayse God since the coming of Christ then before why should any thing not repealed and forbidden to be used be neglected to manifest Gods prayse Ob. But all things in the Church must be done to edification Musick doth not edifie Sol. Then was it never of lawfull use in the Church and David and Solomon did ill to bring it into the Tabernacle and the Temple and the Church did as ill to contiune it if it be without edification But if ever it seemed for edification why not now as well as ever it is the same God that is now served whom they worshipped and as Augustine Tempora variata sunt fides vna times vary but faith is one how where and when did Musick loose that honour that use in the Church of God Ob. But it spendeth time which were much better bestowed in hearing the Word of God preached Sol. I answer it was used when much more was to be done in the Church then we have now to do and they thought it not tedious They had many Sacrifices to offer and the time spent in prayer and hearing of the word yet they use it Ob. But popish superstition hath so defiled it that it is not now fit to receive it in our Christian Churches Sol. I finde that our fathers before the coming of Christ were not so squeamish to like their own holy worship the worse because Idolaters did use some of their formes of worship for Nebuchadnezzar made a golden image and that was worshipped with all kinde of stil and loud Musick yet that did not defile the holy worship of the Church It is a dangerous rule of religion to menage it by opposition they are not all opera Diaboli workes of the Devill which the devill doth for you know that he confest Christ which many Scribes and Pharisees did not They that condemne all that popish superstition hath also abused may want a candle to light them to bed I professe sincerly I cannot see but that the same motives that bgan to bring in Musick into the Church may hold it there still for any thing that I can see 1 In respect of God to glorifie him in the best manner that we can by any gifts of art or nature And Musick being one of them we see how much it hath decayed and how much Students in that excellent art have been discouraged from that
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
knovvn he re-inforceth his former petition novv desiring that God vvould reveale his gracious purpose of succouring his Church and triumphing over the enemies thereof In the mean time vvhile thy Church is groaning under the burthen of their exile make thy vvill knovvn to them This favour of God vvil svveeten the adversity of their banishment vuhen they shall knovv the loving purpose of God tovvard them In wrath remember mercy They confesse that they have given God cause of displeasure and have provoked him to vvrath they feel the smart thereof in a strange land and they have no plea but mercy they dare not make so bold vvith him as to entreat him to turn avvay all his vvrath from them because they are so guilty to themselves that they have provoked him and deserved his indignation Onely they desire that in the midst of his vvrath he vvould remember mercy By vvrath in this place is not meant any such affection in God vvhereof his unchangeable and constant nature is not capable for God is semper idem ever the same vvhom hee loveth he loveth vvith an everlasting love and he cannot at any time be angry vvith them But vvhom he loveth upon occasion he rebuketh and chasteneth every son vvhom he receiveth and this love sometimes bringing forth the effects of that vvhich in man is called vvrath vve speak after the manner of men and avouch it of God Thus then the text is literally to be understood O Lord I have heard vvhat thou hast spoken in the defence of thy upright justice I have heard vvhat thou purposest in the punishing and in the avenging of thy Church in the mean time preserve it and make it knovv thy love tovvards it and vvhilst thou art punishing of it remember mercy The parts of this are tvvo 1 The preparation to prayer 2 The prayer it self 1 In the preparation I observe Motum the motive Metum fear 2 In the prayer I observe 1 Subjectum the subject 2 Petitiones the petitions The petitions are three 1 O Lord revive thy Work in the middle of the years 2 O Lord in the middle of the years make knovvn 3 In wrath remember mercy First of the preparation 1 of the Motus O Lord I have heard thy Speech The Word of God is vvell bestovved on them that vvill hear it vvith reverence and receive it vvith humility here vvas a maze the Prophet and the Faithfull of the land had lost themselves they knevv not vvhat to think till they had put the matter to God himself Cap. 1. and God having made a ful ansvver novv the Prophet saith in his ovvn name and in the name for whom he consulted God I have heard thy speech All the Scripture is full of examples of the Children of God hearkening to his word of precepts and admonitions to us to hearken of promises to them that do hearken The reason is because it is a speciall note of Gods children to heare his Word even as our Saviour himself saith He that is of God heareth Gods Word ye therefore hear them not Joh. 8.47 because ye are not of God And now seeing God hath given over speaking by miracles extraordinarily to his Church St. John saith We are of God 1 Joh. 4. he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby we know the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of errour The Spirit of truth is left in the Church by our Saviour and he speaketh in such who by the Ordinance of Christ are the Priests of the new Testament of whom Christ saith Qui vos recipit me recipit qui recipit me recipit eum qui misit me he that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me we must hear him before he hear us for St. Paul telleth us true Rom. 8.26 We know not what we should pray for as we ought The art of prayer is not so quickly learned as some forward proofessours make themselves believe John besides his continuall preaching to his Disciples taught them also to pray And never had any Disciples a better Master then the Disciples of Jesus Christ yet they living in the eare of his Doctrine and in the eye of his holy example were glad to come to him to be taught to pray he taught them the Lords prayer privately which after he taught the whole multitude in a Sermon openly My observation is that his Word must minister matter to our prayers Doct. and all our petitions must be grounded thereupon The reason is because God heareth not sinners John 9.31 and David saith If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not hear me But the prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much Jam. 5.16 if it be fervent Against sin we have no such remedy as the word So David Thy word have I hid in my heart Psal 119.11 that I might not sin against thee Our Lessons from hence are 1 We must take it for a great favour of God to us that he giveth us his word for that is a lanthorne to our feet that is our counsalor as David calleth it This word is given us to profit withall and it is deposited 1 In the Books of the Canonical Scripture which we have not as the Church of Rome shut up in an unknown language but translated faithfully into our own tongue that all of us may be partakers of it 2 As in the time of the law the Priests lips did preserve knowledge and men were to require the law at their lips so in the time of the Gospel St. Paul saith of the Apostles and of all the Ministers that should succeed them in their office in the Church 1 Cor. 5.19 God hath committed to us the word of reconciliation he hath so committed it to his Son first as he gave him power to transmit it in the Priesthood of the New Testament to all ages of the Church till his second coming The spirit which Christ left to comfort and instruct his Church was not given at large to all men but in perticular ordinance to them whom he sent to teach all Nations as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3.6 Our sufficiency is of God who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit for the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life So we are the Ministers of the word that giveth life and there is no life to be had but by our Ministry This gives us interest in your affections in your understandings in your goods in your prayers 2 Now we know where we may hear God we are taught also not to neglect him speaking to us for as the Author to the Hebrews saith Heb. 12.25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth much more shall not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven
And the Ministers of the Gospel do speak even as if Christ himself spake in us 2 Cor. 5.10 we speak in Christs stead But as in the time of the Law God sent his Prophets sometimes to such as would not give them the hearing so doth he now in the time of the Gospel but that must not discourage our Ministry at their peril be it Gods Word will ever be Gods wisdom though the prophane count it foolishness and it will be Gods truth though heresie and schisme pick quarrels Therefore if you would learn to pray and be prepared for that holy worship hear Gods speech first and that will teach you what to ask as you ou ought Hear the word from us as the Thessalonians did 1 Thes 2.13 When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe 2 Here is metus I was afraid the Seventy read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I was in an extasie as St. John saith when he saw the vision of the Son of man Rev. 1.17 I fell at his feet as dead There were two things to strike the Prophet vvith astonishment 1 The Majestie of the Speaker 2 The matter of the speech And both these must both meet in our understandings and in our affections to enlighten and to move them that vve may know what vve have to do and vvith vvhom vvhen vve pray that vve may come before him vvith fear and holy reverence 1 The great glory and Majesty of God to vvhom vve resort in prayer is such as no creature can endure the sight thereof The Angels standing before him Isa 6.2 cover their faces with their wings 2 The matter of his speech conteined in his vvord to the Prophet is the summe of the Bible Justice punishing sin in his Church Vengeance destroying the enemies of his Church and Grace redeeming his Church from the povver of Satan by the glorious Kingdom of Jesus Christ Quae. Why should the Prophet be afraid at this here vvas matter of comfort the heaviness of the night is promised the joy of the morning The Church though it must suffer for a time for sin hath here a promise of tvvo main consolations 1 Their ovvn deliverance from dangers into a restitution of them into Gods favour 2 Their eye shall have their desire also upon their enemies they shall see the vvheel of vvrath go over them and the Lord shall let out of their throats the bloud of his people vvith vvhich they have made themselves drunk all this is matter of joy and vvhat needeth this fear Sol. Who can come without fear before him that can and will do all this for if he be angry yea but a little they are blessed that trust in him fear is a proper passion of a true believer and is inseparably joyned with saving faith For seeing the bond of our union with Christ by faith whereby he dwelleth in us is Partly the hold that he hath of us by his Spirit Partly the hold that we have of him by faith The first is firme Joh. 10.27 There shall not any one pluck them out of my hand he giveth a strong reason for it for my Father who gave them me is greater then all and none is able to take them out of my Fathers hand we are his gifts and his gifts and calling are without repentance But the flesh doth put the Spirit to it so hard some times even in the elect of God that the hold on our part is weak which breedeth fear and that fear makes us hold so much the faster From hence it comes that all the intelligence between God and man doth begin at fear in us This is not the fear of an evill conscience as it was in Adam when he hid himself from God but the fear of reverence of God and the good conscience of our unworthinesse being fallen from our originall righteousnesse The Shepheards that were keeping watch by night because of their flocks were sore afraid when they saw the light shining at that time of night that the Angel began with Nolite timere fear not yet were they in the lawfull businesse of their calling The blessed Virgin no doubt wel and holily employed Zecharie the Priest in the Church about the occasions of his office yet all afraid This is the seasoning and preparing of the heart for God to be cast down before him it is humbling our selves under the mighty hand of God and we cannot pray as we ought without it When the Apostle saith we cannot pray as we ought and that the spirit helpeth our infirmities he sheweth that such as he have infirmities and they feel them when they come to appear before God and where infirmities are there must needs be fear if they that have them be sensible of them Yea I dare say that they that come to prayer without fear come without faith and all their prayers are turned into sin Ob. We read of comming with boldnesse to God Because we have an high Priest which is touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4.15 16. in all points tempted like as wee are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that wee may obtein mercy and finde grace to help in time of need Sol. this is cleered by the same Authour in the same Epistle declaring how many considerations must concurre as ingrediences in this our spirituall boldness 1 Let us draw neer with a true heart Heb. 10.22 2 In full assurance of Faith 3 Having our hearts sprinkled from an evill Consciences 4 Our bodies washed with pure water 5 Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering 6 Let us consider one another to provoke to love and good works 7 Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together c. 8 Exhorting one another Let a man before he pray try his vvayes and examine his soul upon those interrogatories and I dare say the best of us if we sin not also in presumption vvill finde himself short in every one of these perticulars of that perfection that should accomplish boldnesse But having those things in some measure and more in desire and endeavour our boldness must needs be as much shaken with fear as these graces in us are shaken with infirmity And upon this fear our Church teacheth us to pray to God in these words Pour down upon us the abundance of thy mercy forgiving us those things whereof our conscience is afraid 12 Dom. post Trinit and giving unto us that which our prayers dare not presume to ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. And this some of our brethren have quarrelled as a contradiction in our prayers because we say we pray for tha we dare not pray for To whom I answer in these words of my Text O Lord I heard thy voice
not come so neer our truth our truth will confute it and the God of Truth wil not suffer his truth to fail Yet if our unthankfulness to God for his light so long shining in our Church if our evil lives so unanswerable to our outward profession if our contentions so displeasing to the God of peace our want of zeal and devotion in prayer do turn away the face of God from us we may thank our selves and his justice may say Perditio tua ex te Thy destruction is of thy self 2 The Petitions these are three vide p. 29. 1 Revive thy work in the middest of the years that is as we have expounded it literally in the mean time preserve thy Church In which Petition we are taught That the Church of God is the work of God 1 Doct. ye have heard it so acknowledged by God himself Ask me concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands Isa 45.11 command ye me Wherein God confesseth his Church to be his own work and therefore so comprehended in his care that they may challenge his protection Again He calleth his Church thus The Branch of my planting the work of my hands Isa 60.21 that I may be glorified And David upon this prayeth Forsake not the works of thy own hands Psal 138.8 The reasons why the Church is thus called Because the Church is not an Assembly that doth gather themselves together as we say That Birds of a feather do fly together but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is a congregation of such as the free election of grace hath called out of the world by the ministery of the Word of God and the Sacraments The first Church of God in whom God was glorified consisted of Angels intellectuall spirits whereof many kept not their first estate but were excōmunicated never to be redeemed The first Church of God on earth were our first Parents whom God created in his image The Creation miscarried by the fall of our Parents who might have stood if they would The election of grace remained unchangeable and continued a Church in Adam in Abel in Seth which separated from Cain and his issue in Noah and Sem and in Japhet perswaded to the tents of Shem in the calling of the Gentiles so that all that have the election of grace do come to be members of the Church by vertue of an effectuall calling election designeth them vocation declareth them to be the members of the Church and both these are the work of God Will you take it from Gods own mouth who saith Levit. 20.26 Ye shall be holy unto me for I the Lord am holy and have severed you from other people that you should be mine The Church is called the work of God in respect of his perpetuall presence with it and preservation of it both by his own speciall providence which is the priviledge of the Church also by the subordinate ministery of his holy Angels 1 For his own providence he hath declared it in a promise I will not sail thee Josh 1.5 nor forsake thee in which promise what interest the Church hath and every member thereof the Authour to the Hebrews shevveth Let your conversation be without covetousnesse and be content with such things as you have Heb. 13.5 for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee So that we may boldly say The Lord is my helper I will not fear what man shall do unto me For which gratious protection 1 Pet. 4.19 St. Peter willeth us to commit our souls to him in wel-doing as to a faithfull Creatour so called saith Lyranus quia secure conservat gloriose coronat non relinquit opus He not onely buildeth but standeth to reparations 2 For the ministry and subvention of Angels the Psalmist saith Psal 91.11 12. He hath given his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy wayes They shall bear thee up in their hands Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them Heb. 1.14 who shall be heirs of Salvation The Church of God is called the Work of God to honour God for God is not so glorious in any thing that he hath wrought as in his Church for therein mercy and truth met together righteousnesse and peace kissed each other our election adoption is to the praise of the glory of his grace Ephes 1.6 Is 60.21 You heard himself say of his Church The work of my hands that I may be glorified For God is more glorified in those things which he hath wrought by Jesus Christ in our flesh and in those things which he doth for his sake then in all the other works of his hands This will one day appear it is revealed already in part to us for whatsoever God did work sine verbo incarnato without the word incarnate it all shall fail and come to dissolution or to a worse condition that is an eternall being in wo. For example the heavens and the eath shall all perish and new shall be made in their place a nevv heaven and a nevv earth vvherein God vvill plant righteousnesse The Angels that fell and the reprobate shall suffer eternall flames What remains now but Angels and just men the elect Angels and the holy Church of God the one sort elected in Christ established in blisse by Christ the other redeemed by Christ these are reserved to glory the just shall be as the Angels of God in heaven In this Church then God is most glorified The Church is called the Work of God to give honour to it here on earth for God would have the World knovv that he owns his Church and that they are a peculiar people a chosen generation a royall Priesthood that he delighteth in in them And again the faithfull delight in nothing but what he hath vvrought in them and from them So Augustine bringeth in the Church saying Opus tuum in me Domine vide non meum nam meum si videris damnum tuum si videris Coronas Behold thy work in mee c. It is Davids glory I am thine All things else have the same maker that have any being but the Church hath the honour of curious and costly vvork all the rest of the vvorks of God are not vvorth the cost that he bestovved in the vvhite vvashing of this vvork To turn this point into profit 1 Seeing vve are the vvork of God in regard of election of grace of creation and protection this teacheth us to live godlily righteously and soberly in this present vvorld and to keep our selves unspotted of the vvorld 1 For election Ephes 1.4 He hath chosen us that we should be holy and without blame before him in love 2 For creation Ephe. 2.10 We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works that we should walk in them 3 For all his other favours as that we are a royall priesthood
highest step of our exaltation because this repairs in us the image of God which is his holinesse and the true children of God do value this above their eternall life For let us see wherein the weight of the blessing and cursing of sheep and goats doth lye It is not the gift of eternall life that is our happinesse in heauen but as David saith in his favour is life if a damned soul should be admitted to the fruition of all the pleasures of eternall life without the favour of God heaven would be hell to him It is not the dark and horrid house of woe that maketh a soul miserable in hell but Gods displeasure ite maledicti if an elect soul could be cast thither and retein the favour of God hell would be an heaven to him and his joy could not all the Devils of hell take from him his night would be turned into day The Angels sinned in heaven and in the place of joy lost Gods favour The soul of the Son of God was in hell and hell was an heaven to it because God was with him in the valley of the shadow of death and left not his soul in hell he took him from the nethermost hell 3 Doctrine The truth of God is a good ground For faith gathered from Gods oath to the tribes even his word he addeth Selah to shevv that vve may safely rest there The reason is because The Word of God is a sure word and those things wherein men fail are not incident to him 1 Whereas men do promise or swear rashly and without consideration as David did when he swore that he would not leave one of the house of Nahall to make water against a wall God cannot fail that way because he doth all things with stable truth and according to the counsail of his will 2 Men do sometimes vow and swear things utterly unlawfull and most wicked as Herod did to Herodias daughter to give her whatsoever she demanded of him which included the life of John Baptist So there were many that swore they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul our God cannot fail so far he loveth righteousnesse neither shall any evill dwell with him 3 Whereas many promise and swear what they mean not ever to perform as Jacobs Sons in the Covenant that they made of confederacy with Hamor the Son of Shechem the Apostle saith Our God cannot lie 4 Whereas many amongst men do swear and promise that vvhich they are never able to perform therein like the Devil who said to Christ Omnia hac tibi dabo all these will I give thee God herein cannot faile for hee is omnipotent and he doth whatsoever he wil in heaven and earth in abyssis So then if the Word of God be gone out of his mouth we may build faith upon it for heaven and earth may and shall passe away so shal not one jod of the Word of God 5 Times may change with men and he that was rich and able to make good his word may suddenly be poor and break and fail but God is without variablenesse or shadow of alteration all times are in his hand and power This serveth for confirmation of faith Vse 1 for such use the Apostle doth make of it who speaking of the Decree and Oath of God saith That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye Hâ—b 6.18 we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us By this faith the just liveth in Babylon and in the weakness of their temporall estate they have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thus they lay hand upon the hope set before them in the word Jonah saith They that follow lying vanities do forsake their own mercie Vana salus hominis vain is the help of man they that go down to Egypt for help have their woe threatned An horse is but a vain thing to help a man Princes are the sons of men there is no help in them the word of God faileth none At that Word Abraham will leave his own Country and go he cares not he enquires not whether At that Word Abraham will go three days journy to kill Isaac with his own hands and will never dispute how the promise of God shall be performed That in Isaac his seed should be blessed At that Word Peter will let fall his net against all rules of fishing and he will forsake the Ship to come to Christ upon the Sea by the warrant of that Word The promises of God to his Church and his threatnings of sin recorded in the living Book of his word are not antiquate no age shall ever superannate them or put them out of full force and vertue What if good persons and good causes do suffer oppression the Poet is a Divine in that case Non si male noster olim sic erit informes hyenes reducit Jupiter idem summovit after foul weather comes fair though it be ill with us now it will not be always What if enemies of Religion and Moaths of Common-wealths do flourish and prosper and have all things at will let it not trouble David and Job both of them saw as fair a Sun-shine shut up in a dark cloud and a world of foul weather following 2 This tendernesse in God of his word and oath 2 Vse doth serve for example to teach us to make conscience of our promises and oaths and we may urge the Argument as the Apostle doth If God so loved us we ought also to love one another So If God be carefull to keep his promise and oath with us we ought also to do the like with our brethren Here arise two Quaeries 1 Whether it be lawfull to swear at all 2 Whether all oaths must be kept 1 An liciat jurare is it lawfull to swear An oath is a calling of God to witnesse in such things as cannot otherwise be assured and it is of tvvo sorts 1 Assertorie when we do call God to witnesse against our souls if we affirm not the truth in this case the awe of Gods Majestie is thought to be such a rule of the conscience that no man will dare to violate the religion of an oath 2 Promissary When vve do engage the honour of God for the truth of our purpose to performe vvhat vve promise and vve cast our selves upon his just judgement if vve be either deceitful in our promise or unfaithful in our performance This may ansvver the first Quaere for this doth declare that an oath doth serve 1 For the glory of God 2 For the good of our Brethren 1 The glory of God for it shevveth him 1 To be present amongst us and privy to our ways 2 To be a God of Truth 3 To be a God of justice to punish unfaithfulnesse 2 It sheweth that we by sin have lost our credit and therefore God doth engage himself for such as swear aright
2 It serveth for the good of our Brethren Hâ—b 5.19 for it is the end of all strife I wil not enter into the lists with the Anabaptists to confute their weak arguments against the lawfulnesse of an oath you hear it warranted by reason and examples grow thick in the book of God to justifie it 2 Quaere Whether every oath be to be kept To that we answer in a word every lawfull oath is to be kept so is every lawfull promise If a man vow a vow unto the Lord nuâ— 30.3 or swear an Oath to bind his soul with a bond he shall not prophane his word he shall do according to all that proceedeth out of his mouth Every oath and every promise engageth our faith that is our fidelity and so it is a bond upon our souls and though it it be to our hinderance we must not break Remember how the breach of the oath of the Lord made by Joshua and the elders of the people to the Gibeonites smarted in the house of Saul Zedekiah had engaged himself by oath to Nebuchadnezzar an heathen King and brake and rebelled against him indeed it was before the doctrine of Rome was afoot Fides non est servanda cum haereticis no faith to be kept with hereticks But here the Prophet Shall he escape that doth such things Or shall he break the Covenant and be delivered Eze. 17 15 And after saith God As I live surely mine oath that he hath despised Ver. 19. and my Covevenant that he hath broken even it will I recompence upon his own head For he said He despised the Oath by breaking the Covenant when lo Vâ—rse 18. he had given his hand A lawfull promise and oath hath three notes to justifie it Truth Righteousness Judgement Jer. 4.2 1 In truth the heart joyning with the Author 2 In righteousnesse seeking Deo proximo servire serve God and our neighbour 3 In judgement it is deliberation and advice 4 Doctr. God declareth his power sometimes openly to the comfort of his Church and the terrour of the enemies thereof gathered from these words Thy Bow was quite naked for as before there was abscontio roboris the hiding of his strength when God revealed himself to his Church onely upon Mount Sinai so there was now revelatio roboris a revealing of his strength when he had made his Bow quite naked 1 For the setling of his Church in obedience to him Reas 2 so saith the Psalmist after commemoration of the wonder All works of God done for Israel That they might keep his statutes Ps 1â—5 45 and observe his Laws 2 For the glory of his name Reas 2 that he might fill the mouthes of the faithfull with his praise and this effect it wrought with Israel a while for when God had done great things for them Then they sang his praise Ps 106.12 3 For the credit of his Word Reas 3 that they might settle their faith in his promises so it is there said Then they believed his Word 4 To convince the ingratitude of men Reas 4 if they notwithstanding the manifestation of his power to them do start aside and rebell against him so doth the Psalmist taxe them where repeating the manifest and naked bow of God revealed to them it is the burthen of his song Yet they sinned more against God by provoking the most High in the wildernesse he repeateth more of his great works Psa 78 17. and addeth For all this they sinned still and believed not for all his wondrous works he repeateth more and saith Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God and kept not his testimony c. 5 To instruct posterity that should succeed them Reas 5 That the generation to come might know them even the children which should be borne Psa 78 6. who should arise and declare them to their children That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his Commandements This is the way to keep the bow of God still naked that all the ends of the world may see the salvation of our God God layeth his Bow quite naked in the sight of the world that the Egyptians may see that God fighteth for Israel against them and may fly from them that the world may see that all their consultations against the Church shall faile of successe and it will turn to bitternesse in the latter end You may easily discerne how all this is directed to our instruction Vse To awake us to a consideration of the revealed power of God for if God shew it it is that we may see it it was the cause of Israels so many rebellions For whereas God did so great things for them Ps 78.7 That they might not forget his works They forgate his works and his wonders that he hath shewed them and that made them children of disobedience To direct to the right use of this mercy of God which is as you have heard 1 In respect of God to give him due praise that he may have the honour due to his name 2 In respect of our selves to confirme our hope and faith in his word and in the arm of his strength believing that bow and the whole quiver of arrows belonging to it is on our side and we need not fear what man or Devil can do against us 3 In respect of this life that we passe the time of our dwelling here in fear living in the obedience and service of this Almighty Maker and preserver of men by keeping his statutes c. 4 In respect of posterity that we leave them our good example and the light of our knowledge to instruct them in the wonderfull works of God that generation may praise him to generation and declare his power 5 In respect of our enemies that they may see and know whom we have trusted and may know that our help is in the name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth so that we shall not need to fear their bow nor their arrows upon the string ready to goe off against us there is a Bow on our side and an arme to weild it Verse 10. The mountains saw thee and they trembled the overflowing of the water passed by the deep uttered his voice and lift up his hands on high THese words have reference to the former wonders of Gods works in which the Holy Ghost Poetically and Rhethorically doth give life to things in-animate to expresse their yielding and giving vvay to Gods extraordinary operations some understanding that For such impression did the power of God make in the everlasting mountains as he calleth them before ver 6. and in the perpetuall hils that they gave way to his people as if they had seen God himself and that the feare of God had been upon them to make them tremble The like Poeticall streine we have in the Psalmist What ailed ye mountains that ye skipped like
still and the earth that we live upon had moved when this miracle was by the spirit of truth recorded it had been so set down to us as followeth At the light of thine Arrows they went at the shining of thy glittering spear The meaning I conceive to be this that the Sun and Moon did not now keep their ordinary motion appointed in their Creation but by a miraculons dispensation they attended the arrows of God and his spears For God declared himself in this war to be the God of Israel by shining arrows and glittring spears he meaneth not onely the arms of Israel his people but the apparent demonstration of his owne miraculous and extraordinary power declared in this war For you heard in the story that God cast down great stones from Heaven upon them which slew more then Israels sword did These were arrows of God and his spears with which he fought for Israel they are called bright and glistring both 1 Because the Sun-shining upon these great hailstones reflected a dazeling light from them as experience telleth us both in snow ice hailstones and all waterie bodies 2. And because in this judgment there was so manifest appearance of the immediate hand of God in this war Thus Mr. Calvine doth understand these words and saith Sol retentus est ut daret locum sagittis hastae Dei. Onely he seemeth to me somewhat too strict when he saith per sagittas hastam nihil aliud intelligit quam arma populi Dei Yes sure he meaneth his own weapons too with which he fought from heaven and those rather as the more shining and glittering Montauus also upon these words saith Solem Lunam cursus suos ad commoditatem exercitus sacri temperasse Junius also and Beza do conceive that these hailstones fell not without thunder and lightning which are the terrours of heaven and the voice of God it followeth Thou diddest march through the Land in indignation thou diddest thresh the heathen in anger this as I conceive hath reference to the following victories by which all the land of Canaan was subdued to Israel for the Church here confesseth that as God by deed of gift had long before assured this promised land of the heathen to his Israel so he gave them a full possession thereof by marching through the land and by threshing the inhabitants thereof Thus the Church confesseth We have heard with our ears O god our Fathers have told us Psal 44.2 what work thou didst in their days in the time of old How thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand and plantedst them in how thou didst afflict the people and cast them out For they gate not the Land in possession by their own sword neither did their own arme save them but thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance because thou hadst a favour unto them this phrase of marching through the Land doth expresse God in arms for Israel But the other phrase of threshing the heathen doth imply victory and full power over them even to the stripping them out of all Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people even for salvation with thine annointed The cause why God put himself into this quarrel was the preservation of his people where Israel is twice call'd the people of God which must be understood of the adoption of grace for by right of creation all people of the world are Gods people This was Israels glory and it was also their safety that they were Gods people and how they came to be so Moses will tell The Lord did not set his love upon you Deut. 7.7 choose you because ye were more in number then any people for ye were the fewest of all people But because the Lord loved you Ver. 8. and because he would keep the oath that he had sworn unto your Fathers that is He loved you because he loved you But he addeth thou wentest forth with thine annointed Which Mr. Beza doth understand of David and so maketh a long stride from the conquest of Canaan to the reigne of David and from these victories to Davids victories many many years after And Tremelius and Junius do so apply the text Mr. Calvine lead them all into this Exposition Others conceive that the former commemoration is continued and they that are before called Gods people are here called Gods annointed for wheresoever there is election there is unction and we may say of Israel that God annoined them with the oile of gladnesse above all their fellow nations for David saith Non fecit taliter I am sure the Seventy read and understand the text thus for they read that God went forth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latine reading is Cum Christo tuo and the originall Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Messiah which moveth me to refer this to Christ who was the bond of that love which knit God so to Israel for whose sake God was so favourable to Israel Master Calvine doth confesse that this hath reference to Christ and includeth all the favours of God declared to Israel from their coming out of Egypt to the last mercy shewed to them to have come to them non nisi interposito Mediatore not without a Mediatour But he addeth that the promise of Christ did more cleely appear and was more manifestly revealed in the reigne of David then before which might give comfort to the Church in distresse that makes Master Calvine go so low as Davids reigne to apply these words But the next words shew that the former history of the wars of Israel to settle their possession in Canaan and not yet at an end So then I understand that God went forth with his anointed that is with Jesus Christ to save his people and there is the the life bloud of all the comfort in this whole Psalme of the Church and by this faith by faith in this Messiah the just shall live It followeth Thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked By the house of the wicked the land of Canaan is here meant and by the head that God wounded either the wisedome and policy or the sovereignty and power of the Land is meant for none of the Kings of the land could stand before Israel so that the very head of the house was wounded By discovering the foundation to the neck This was the manner of Gods working against the head of the house of the wicked by making the foundation naked that is digging up the very roots thereof by an utter extirpation of the Inhabitants of this land It was Edoms cry against Jerusalem Rase it Rase it the Margent make bare even the foundation thereof Psa 137.7 as before you heard out of Psal 44. Thou hast cast out the Nations and placed them in It followeth Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of the Villages That is thou didst overthrow the Inhabitauts of the land
word is their warrant his truth their assurance When we behold the same power of God in the change of Ministers of his will Vse vve learn to know vvhatsoever alteration the vicissitude of time maketh on earth yet thou Lord art the same and thy years do not fail Therefore as David saith Put not your trust in Princes nor in any son of man for there is no help in them there is help by them but it is not in them our help is in the name of the Lord who hath made heaven and earth 2 This shevveth the perpetual course of Gods favour to his Church the faithfull servant of God Moses dieth but the spirit that God put upon Moses survived him Eliah Elisha Num. 27.18 and rested upon Joshua he was consecrated to that imployment 1 By Gods own election and designation 2 By the imposition of Moses hands and the devolution of some of his honour upon him 3 By Gods own gift of the same spirit that vvas upon Moses Thus vvhere God loveth a poople the favour of God runeth in a full stream in the Chanel of his Church 3 Seeing this constant truth of God in his gratious promises to to his Church hath reference to our obedience this much teach us to obey and serve our God in all things that his sun may shine upon our Tabernacles and that vve may anoint our paths with butter for as David saith No good thing will he with-hold from them that serve the Lord. Dâ—uâ— 28. He hath shevved his people vvhat they shall trust too blessings and cursings life and death 3 Doctrine This also teacheth us as the Apostle doth The effectuall fervent prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much James 5.16 He proveth it by the example of Eliah who though he were a man subject to the like passions as we are he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth in three years and six moneths And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain So this example of Joshua praying is a full example of the effectuall power of prayer these examples as that also of Moses praying upon the Mount when Joshuah fought with Amalek do all seeme to prove the force of prayer Exod 17. And great reason there is that this should be effectuall with God 1 Because there is no service that man can perform to God wherein he doth so much part with himself and even lay himself down in prayer for therein he openeth his heart to God and poureth forth his spirit to him and his faith doth bring God to him face to face When men pray as they ought they know God and themselves they know and confesse him the faithfull Creatour the mercifull redeemer the gracious preserver the bounteous rewarder of men And they know themselves to be but men that is indigent and needy having nothing but what they receive from his hand and of his free gift immerent deserving none not the least of his favours Which two considerations do serve to humble us and to honour him We finde in Scripture watching and fasting often joyned with prayer as outward means to tame and subdue the flesh that it may be the lesser able to resist the power of the spirit for the spirit is willing in the servant of God but the flesh is weak 2 There is no part of Gods worship that hath so many precepts to impose it on us as prayer hath in both the Testaments none that we have so many examples of great successe and prevayling with God none that we have so good means to perform as prayer none that hath so many promises made to it in holy Scripture 1 For precepts 1 Precept so soon as God had established him an house for his publique worship he commanded it to be called an house of prayer to all nations Solomon dedicated that house to God by prayer it is Gods own Word seek ye my face it is the Churches answer Thy face O Lord will I seek And Christ our Saviour often in the gospel the Apostles after him enjoyns it 2 For example we have Abraham 2 Example Isaac and Jacob Moses David Solomon Hezekiah Eliah Manasseh Nehemiah Job Samuel Daniel all the Prophets all the holy men Christ his Apostles all with admirable successe 3 For means 3 Means Christ taught us to pray shewed us the way to the Father in his mediation and by his name And the spirit which Christ left in his Church helpeth our infirmities Christ hath comprehended all in a few words 4 Promise Whatsover you shall ask the Father in my name it shall be given you Ask and receive that your joy may be full petite quaerite pulsate These great examples of successe do all seem to stirre us up Vse to the performance of this part of Gods worship both 1 In obedience to the Commandement of God who hath imposed this duty on us whose Commandements are mighty and ought not to be light layed 2 In an holy ambition of the best graces of God vvhich are this way obteined of him 3 In an humble love to our God to whose presence and conference we come by prayer 4 In an holy imitation of those great examples vvhich are so frequent in Gods faithfull ones in the double Testament of God 5 In a thankfull use of the means by God ordeined to facilitate this service that we receive not the grace of God in vain 6 In a confident faith in Gods gratious and free promises vvhich are yea and Amen 7 In an humble sense and feeling of our ovvn vvants and the necessities of our brethren for so vve do exercise both our piety to God and our charity to our selves and our brethren But this discourageth many Ob. we read of great power of prayer of old as that Moses prayer gave Joshua victory Joshuahs prayer made the Sun stand still Eliah by prayer shut up heaven by prayer he opened it Daniel by prayer shut up the mouths of the lions in their den We see no such effects of prayer now and therefore we think prayer is not of such effect now as heretofore To this our answer is Sol. that great and extraordinary examples of the successe of prayer are but thinly scattered in the Book of God to shew the power of Gods Ordinance Neither may that be a rule to us that prayer is not of force as it hath been because we do not see such great effects thereof as have appeared in former times For in the time of the shadow when Christ was seen in type and under a veil there was need of extraordinary examples to confirm faith but to us that live in the cleer light of the gospel to whom Christ is made manifest to be our intercessor this may seem to strengthen faith If God did hear the prayers of his faithful owns and answered them by miracles they had speciall warrant to demand those things at the hands of
law against her Mother in law and a mans enemies are the men of his own house What shall we do then Therefore Verse 7. I will look upon the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Christ our Saviour doth apply this text to his own comming into the world Mat 10.34 he professeth it that he came not to bring peace into the world but the sword In which words hee rather expresseth the events and effects then the intention and purpose of his comming for where the light of the gospel doth shine Father Mother Brother Sister are but nuda nomina bare names where Christian Religion is not for the true Gospeller will fall out with all and forsake them all for Jesus Christ The rest of the Church is God in Christ let us seek peace with men if it be possible as much as in our power let us have peace with all men but let us trust no humane or temporall supportation Seeing it is here set down as a great judgment of God upon Midian Vse 4 that they were beaten with their own staves and wounded with their own weapons Let us take notice of this judgment and take it for a great signe of Gods indignation against us when we break the bonds of peace and Christian charity byting and beating one another libelling and defaming woorrying one another with suits of molestation schismatically forsaking the fellowship one of another and changing publique Congregations into private Conventicles and forsaking the setled Priesthood of the Church for such as do labour most to break the peace of the Church for what is this but the angel of Satan beating of us with our own staves Doth not this home-contention in our Church open an easie way to the enemie of both to enter in and spoil all And this I have observed that two sides have gained by our Church contentions The Anabaptists have recovered some from us who standing so violently against Popery have questioned all that they received The Papists have recovered many who have gone so far in the defence of the mean that themselves have staggered into the extream God be mercifull to our land and continue the peace of the State even the sweet correspondence of our Sovereign and his subjects and we shall have hope that our arms shall be strengthened against our enemies and our own staves shall do us no hurt 2 Their sin it was a trespasse against the Church of God devouring of the poor and that by open violence comming like a whirlwind in sudden fury against them and by secret practises to hurt and annoy them teaching us that It is a grievous and provoking sin Doct. openly or secretly to distresse the poor There be two words of strong signification here used 1 Scattering which signifieth their expulsion out of their places where they dwelt to go as the Levite did to get them a place where they can finde one which suiteth well with the humour of the covetous rich man who desires to dwell alone upon the earth 2 Devouring which signifieth taking away from them all that they have to put it to their own heap whereby they become vassals to those that strip them This is a grievous sin Reas 1 and well deserves the punishment above mentioned 1 Because God hath declared himself the patron and protector of the poor and therefore the Psalmist saith The poor committeth himself unto him for he is the father of the fatherlesse so that to distresse those is to clip the wings of the hen that gathereth in her chickens it is 2 Because the poor are our own flesh Reas 2 so they are called by the Prophet and it is used as an argument to perswade compassion To deal thy bread to the hungry to bring the poor that are cast out to thy house Isa 58 7. when thou seest the naked to cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thine own flesh The poor and rich both digged out of the same pit both cast in the same mould 3 Because Reas 3 Natura paucis contenta nature is content with a little and we have enough amongst us to minister that For if we have food he meaneth not Manna and Quails but necessary food and raiment he meaneth not costly but necessary raiment we must be therewith content To strip the poor naked to multiply our changes of raiment or to take away a whole garment from them to put one lace more upon ours this is inhumane irreligious To scatter them that we may have elbow-room enough and more then needs for our selves that we may have so much the more to look upon and lie by us this is Midianitish and heathenish Vos autem non sic do not you so Because God hath committed together with riches Reas 4 the care and custody of the poor to the rich and as they hold their wealth not as rightfull owners but as mercifull stewards and dispensers thereof so in the dispensation they are accomptants to God for the overplus and he wil call for the inventory and judg their administration of those things Understand therfore that God doth not at any time relinquish his interest that he hath in the gifts which he bestoweth on men but still he saith The silver is mine Hag. 2.9 and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hoasts When David gave up all the provisions that he had made for the building of Gods temple to Solomon his Son he blessed the Lord and he confest saying O Lord our God 1 Ceron 29 16. all this store that we have prepared to build thee an house for thy holy name commeth of thine hand and is all thine own so before all things come of thee and of thine own hand have we given thee The use then that we must make of this point is Vse 1 For the rich let them know their duty to the poor love is a debt that they owe to them not an arbitrary courtesie they may not 1 Either encroach upon them by robbing or spoiling them of that which they have as here those Midianites did to spoil their corn to take away any thing of theirs 2 Neither may they come upon them as a whirlwind to encompass and gird them in by their devices of power or wit or authority to make prizes of their labours whilst they eat the bread of adversity and drink the waters of Marah 3 Neither may they withhold their hands in their bosomes in their wants but stretch them forth to relieve their necessities The wise son of Jakeh saith Pro. 30.14 There is a generation whose teeth are as swords and there jaw teeth as knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men And Solomon saith The soul of the wicked desireth evill Pro 21.10 his neighbour findeth no favour in his eyes Let them remember that the rich man in the gospel is not charged with any oppression of
my bones are out of joynt Ps 2.14 my heart is like waxe it is melted in the middest of my bowels Thus the perturbations of griefe and fear and the passions of anguish are exprest The quivering of the lips which hindereth speech sheweth a man overcome with anger fear or grief so doth The generall disabling of the body as if the parts thereof the brains and sinews suffered luxation and debilitation And the earth-quake in the whole frame thereof and the distemper of the man within us I trembled in my self that is the inward man the hid man of the heart felt this anguish of grief and fear and all this trepidation and terrour had this good effect following That I might rest in the day of trouble For of sufferance comes ease this fear of the heavy hand of God is but a fit for faith followeth it and consumeth it and setleth the heart in a yielding to the mighty hand of God and that giveth rest in the day of trouble that day is also described When he commeth up unto his people he will invade them with his troops Either when God cometh or when the enemy whom God shall employ in the execution of this judgment cometh he will invade his people that have rebelled against him and are fallen away from him with troops that is hee will come upon them with a full power to make a full conquest of them This day is is further described in the verse following Verse 17. Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines Hâ—b 3.17 the labour of the Olive shall fail and the field shall yield no meat the flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stals IN which words he supposeth the worst that may befall to the land that God should not onely as before carry away or destroy the inhabitants thereof although he should smite the land it self with barrennesse that neither the fig tree nor the vine should relieve them nor the olive nor the fields nor the foulds yet the Church will not despair of the loving kindnesse of the Lord toward them This land so long promised to the seed of Abraham so long expected and at last by them possessed is much praised in Scripture God himself calleth it a good land and a large Exâ—d 3.8 a land flowing with milk and honey And so the spies that were sent to search it brought word num 13.9 and they brought of the fruit and shewed it to the people Again for the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a good land Deut. 8.7 a land of brooks of water of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hils A land of wheat and barley and wines and fig trees and pomegranates a land of oil olive and hony A Land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarcenesse thou shalt not lack any thing in it a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hils thou mayest dig brasse It was one of the miracles of the earth and the full blessing of the Lord was upon it for the land was small both in length and breadth as all the Charts thereof describe it For from Dan to the river of Egypt which is somewhat further then Beersheba it was litle more then three hundred miles which was the length of it and in the broadest place thereof it was not an hundred yea do I put it in this accompt all the land on this side Jordan the portion assigned to Reuben Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh Yet did it contein two great Kingdomes of Judah and Israel and in Davids time there were numbred in it thirteen hundred thousand fighting men 2 Chron. 24. which cannot in probable computation be more then a fourth part of the people seeing aged men women and children and all undertwenty years of age are not reckoned and this land fed them all much is said by heathen writers of the fruitfulnesse of this land and as great a wonder is it of the change thereof now for travailers do report it at this time to be a barren and unfruitfull land it is in the possession of Gods enemies and David saith A fruitfull land maketh he barren for the iniquity of the people that dwelt therein De verbis hactenus of the words hitherto The parts of this Section are two 1 The fear of the Church 2 The misery of the Land In the first I observe also three things 1 The cause of this fear 2 The fear it self 3 The effect hereof In the second the misery of the land It is distrest in the three great commodities of life 1 In the trees yielding fruit 2 In the soil yielding corne 3 In the flocks yielding encrease 1 Of the fear of the Church and therein 1 Of the cause of this fear in these words When I heard The commination of Gods judgments Doct. doth make the Church of God to fear 1 Because this openeth to man his conscience and declareth to him his sin for we know that God is gratious and mercifull and long suffering and hideth his hand in his bosome his mercy doth often pull it out and openeth it and he filleth the hungry with good things his mercy stretcheth it out often to gather together his chosen to defend them from evill to stay and support them If his indignation do pluck it out it is a sign that sin hath provoked him and therefore we read what of old was the practise of the Church If there were any judgment abroad presently they made search for the sin that had provoked God to it for they knew him so just that he will not smite without cause God taught Joshua this when the men of Ai smote the men of Israel and made them to fly before them Joshua went to the Lord to make his moan and God told him Israel hath sinned And so there was a present search made by the commandement of the Lord throughout all Israel to finde out the sinner and Achan was defected In like manner when Saul had made a vow that none of his army should tast any food till night and Jonathan not hearing of the commandement had eaten a little hony upon the end of his rod hee went to advise with God concerning the pursuit of the Philistines by night and God answered him not wherefore Saul said Draw you neer hither all the chief of the people 1 Sam. 14.38 and know and see wherein this sin hath been this day And this is so naturall a quest as that whosoever do acknowledg a divinity cannot but upon the sense of judgment or the fear of it presently conclude God offended with some sins So the Mariners in the great storme in Jonah said every one to his fellow Come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this evill is upon us Jonah 1.7 The confideration of Gods judgments do breed fear in respect of God whose
my salvation 19. The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like Hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon my high places To the chief singer upon my stringed Instruments THis is the last part of this Psalme it endeth in consolation notwithstanding all these afflictions of the Church threatned though they shall fall upon it and it must needs suffer this sharp Visitation Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord. It is the Apostles counsell Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and here the Church doth so the Apostle resumeth it again I say rejoyce and the Church here resumeth it I will joy in the God of my salvation shewing the reason and ground of her joy Psal 13.5 which is Gods salvation My heart shall rejoyce in thy salvation The Lord God is my strength they are the words of David and he is more full and Rhetoricall in the expressure thereof I will love thee Psal 18.1 2. O Lord my strength The Lord is my rock and my fortresse my deliverer my God my strength in whom I will trust my buckler and the horn of my salvation my high tower David speaks like one in love with God for he doth adorn him with confession of praise and his mouth is filled with the praise of the Lord which he expresseth in this exuberancy and redundance of holy Oratory the Church addeth He will make my feet like hinds feet this also is borrowed of David in the same Psalme He maketh my feet like hinds feet and setteth me upon my high places Psal 18.33 that is he doth give swiftnesse and speed to his Church as St. Augustine interpreteth it transcendendo spinosa ambrosa implicamenta hujus saeculi passing lightly through the thornie and shadie incumberances of this world He will make me walk upon my high places David saith he setteth me upon my high places For consider David as he then was when he composed this Psalm it was at the time when God had delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul For then God set his feet on high places setting his Kingdome and establishing him in the place of Saul The Church here hoping to obtein of God the like deliverance by faith apprehendeth the same mercy and favour of God that God will again restore them to their high places and establish them in the same that is in the free and undisturbed possession of their own land and the liberties thereof Isaiah 58.14 Those are called high places Deut. 32.13 because God was exalted in them in the profession of Religion and God exalted them above all other places of the world by his speciall favour as it is said Non fecit taliter St. Augustine goeth higher in the mysticall surveigh of these words and looketh up to the future glory of the Church saying Super Coelestem habitationem figet intentionem meam ut impleat in omnem plenitudinem Dei The last words of the Psalm are a dedication thereof to the use of the Church dedicating it to the chief singer to be fitted to the Church musique that it may be sung in the congregation The words are taken from Davids Psalmes Doct. 1 and applyed to this perticular occasion of the Church From whence we are taught what use we may make of Davids Psalms in our frequent reading and meditation of them Our Church hath divided the Psalms into so many equall portions for our reading that in every thirty days such as can read may read over the whole book of Davids Psalmes and it is no great task for every one of us so to read them over privately in our houses the benefit is great that will redound to them that shall do this for this will our experience finde that St. Augustine long ago hath testified of the book of Psalms that it is Communis quidam bonae doctrinae thesaurus a common store-house of good learning it will instruct the ignorant it will draw on forward those that are incipients it will perfect those that are proficients it will comfort all sorts of afflictions veteribus animarum vulneribus novit mederi recentibus remedium applicare it knows how c. He that would pray to God may make choice here of fit forms dictated by the Spirit of God to petition God upon all occasions whatsoever he would desire of God either to give him or to forgive him He that would make confession of his sins to God is here furnished accommodated with the manner of searching and ripping up of the conscience and laying the hid man of the heart open before God He that would make confession of praise hath his mouth filled with forms of praise to set forth the goodness of God either in perticular to himself or in general to the whole Church He that is merry and rejoyceth in the Lord may finde here the musique of true joy and may from hence gather both matter and manner of Jubilation you see that the Church in my text resorteth to this store house of comfort He that findeth himself dul and heavy in the duties of Gods service may here finde cheerfull strains of musique to quicken his dead affections and to put life into them Many are too well conceited of their own sufficiency for those holy services of God so that in confession of sins in prayer or in praysing God they over-ween their own measure of the spirit of God and are too much wedded to their own forms of addresse to God But let no man despise these helps the best of us all need them the most able amongst us shal abate nothing from his own sufficiency to borrow of them we are sure that the Holy Ghost hath indited them and if a wise judgment do make choice and fit application of them to our severall purposes and occasions we cannot more holily or more effectually expresse our selves then in them the sweet singer of Israel hath furnished us plentifully by them 2 Before I come to handle the text in the parts thereof let me return your thoughts to the former verse where the Church putteth her own case in great affliction supposing the good land flowing with milk and hony touched and accursed for their sakes so that neither their best fruit trees nor their common fields nor their fruits nor their flocks and herds shal yield encrease yet saith she Yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation Teaching us that where there is the true joy of the Holy Ghost no temporall affliction whatsoever Doct. 2 though it extend even to deprivation of the necessaries of life can either extinguish or so much as eclipse that joy but that as a light it will shine in darknesse The Book of God is thick sown with examples and promises with doctrine and use with assertions and experience of this truth and it is so sealed to the perpetuall consolation of the
serveth to reprove the doctrine and faith of the Church of Rome Vse 3 who teach that God hath committed to his Son the dispensation of Justice but to his sons mother the dispensation of mercy which opinion was no sooner afoot but they turned Domine into Domina Lord into Lady and so in the Church of Rome the Virgin Mary hath more Devotoes vowed to her service then Christ hath she hath more temples dedicated to her honour then Christ and far more miracles ascribed to her then to Christ Yea they shame not in print to tell the world that she hath saved some from hell whom her son had condemned thether and she hath released many from hell whom her son had already sent thither I onely alleage against them the plain words of our Saviour Thou hast given him power over all flesh Joh. 17.2 that he should give eternall life to as many as thou hast gived him Therefore beware of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees the poisonous doctrines of the Church of Rome which take salvation out of the hands of God and ascribe the donation thereof to creatures This was wont to be called Idolatry in the sermons and writings of the learned to invocate the Virgin Mary as they do in their Rosaries and Letanies of the holy Virgin Mother of mercy Gate of heaven our salvation she that hath bruised the head of the serpent They make their vulgar Latine Bible say so Ipsa conteret caput tuum There be two Psalters both printed in Paris in French and set forth with the approbation of the Sorbonne one called St. Bonaventures Psalter in which wheresoever God is named for Dominus they have put Domina printed in Anno 1601. The other Psalter is digested into fifteen demands printed the same year with the same approbation wherein the Virgin Mary is called the first cause of our salvation the finder out of grace and putteth her before Christ even in gloria Gloria Virgini Maria Jesu Christo What think you doth that Church wish the salvation of of any man in good earnest that swerveth us from the God of our salvation and directeth us to seek it from a creature Yet this is the religion which is now grown in fashion with many in these doubtfull and giddy times which as it robs God of one of his highest prerogatives and doth divest him of his power of salvation so the professours thereof will finde it a thief in their things temporall for in ordine ad Deum the Church will engrosse all the Apostles of that Church wil not be content till all be laid at their feet Let me commend to you the Kings Majesties confession of his faith published in Latine and in English directed to all Christian Kings in this perticular his words are For the blessed Virgine Mary I yield her that which the Angel Gabriel pronounced of her that she is blessed amongst women and that which she prophecyed of her self in her Canticum that all generations shall call her blessed I remember her as the mother of Christ whom of our Saviour took his flesh and so the mother of God since the divinity and humanity of Christ are inseparable and I freely confesse that she is in glory both above Angels and men her own Son that is both God and man onely excepted But I dare not mock her and blaspheme God calling her not onely Diva but Dea praying her to commend and controul her Son who is her God and her Saviour You see what opinion his Majesty hath of the Doctrine and practise of Rome in this point he doth call it mocking of her and blaspheming of God to ascribe salvation to her or to seek it from her I hope you have lived too long in the light of the Gospel to be taken with any of these baits and to be befooled with any of these inchantments of palpable heresie I hope if an Angel from heaven should come and teach you this doctrine to seek your salvation any where else but from God you would answer him 〈…〉 as Nehemiah did answer Sanballat There is nothing as thou saiest but thou feignest it out of thine own heart Beloved let all that love Jesus Christ and his holy truth joyn as one man against popery and seek to the light of the Word whil'st it shineth upon us that we may not lose the way of salvation which that Word revealeth Popery robbeth the Church of this Word and putteth this candle under a bushell it sendeth us the wrong way for salvation and like the blind Aramites it leadeth them into the midst of Samaria even putteth them into the hands of their enemies God did much for this land when he gave us this light let not our unthankfulnesse to him or our peevish waiwardnesse amongst our selves or our evill and unworthy conversations forfeit this light or remove our candlestick So long as we know where our salvation is setled and who hath it in keeping for us so long as we look that way and direct all our obedience and worship our thanks and prayse that way we are safe for Blessed is the people that be in such a case blessed is the people whose God is the Lord for ipse est qui dat salutem 2 Ground of their hope The Lord is my strength This comfort supporterh in afflictions and this is that which is our ability of which the Apostle saith But God is faithfull 1 Cor. 10.13 who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able for what are we able surely of our selves to nothing that is good for us the name of man ever since the fall of man hath been a name of impotency and weaknesse Cease ye from man Isai 2.22 whose breath is in his nostrils for wherein is he to be accompted of Christ hath told us sine me nihil potestis facere For by strength shall no man prevail 1 Sam. 2.9 Psal 71.10 I will go in the strength of the Lord God and I will maeke mention of thy righteousesse even of thine onely The words of my text are Doctrinall Doct. The Lord is the strength of his Church Consider this which way you will 1 In eo quod sumus in that we are In him we live 2 In eo quod facimus in that we do the good that we do he doth it himself O Lord thou hast wrought all our works in us Isai 26.12 The skill that we have in our severall professions and trades and mysteries it is his spirit that giveth it the strength that we have to labour in our severall callings is his strength and that blessing was included in the curse of man Gen. 3.19 Thou shalt eat thy bread in the sweat of thy face that God would give man strength to earn his bread and his labour should be his physick it should make him breath out evill and noxious vapours in his body which might offend health in sweat And if
we consider with what coarse fare and little rest and mean apparell the labouring man doth passe through great labour we cannot but acknowledge that experience hath sealed this doctrine that God is the strength of man for man layeth on load upon man and they that live at ease feel not the burthens that they do lay upon their brethren God is our strength in eo quod patimur in that we suffer for could we fore-think our selvs able to bear that sorrow and misery which captivity and war doth bring upon us do you not hear some say they cannot eat such and such meat they cannot rise early they cannot brook the air their tender flesh cannot endure any hardnesse Can such endure to spend their whole time in praysing the goodnesse of God toward them for his great mercy that he putteth them not to it to try what they can suffer let them hear the Prophet Jeremie complain The pretious sons of Sion comparable to fine gold Lam. 4.2 how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghils The women fed on their own aborrements and did eat their own unripe fruit children of a span long Lam. 2.20 Such as were so tender that they could scarce endure to touch the ground of the street with the soals of their shoes even to such God sent word that Her own feet should carry her a far off to sojourn When it shall please God to turn the wheel of providence and to set Princes and high persons in the rank of common men in the condition of miserable and distressed men tender hands will learn to labour and God will give strength The ordinary the extraordinary the outward the inward the expected the sodain calamities of life are manifold to bear them all with patience to digest them with cheerfulnesse to turn them into the nourishment of our faith and hope this is the strength of the Lord in us our soul would soon grow weary of them if God did not establish our hearts for the sense of evils incumbent and the fear of evils ingruent would soon distract and distemper us if the strength of the Lord did not sustein us This doctrine which informeth us whence we have our strength Vse directeth us also in the use of it for so God himself hath taught us Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart Deut 6.5 with all thy soul with all thy might We must put our whole strength to his service Luk. 10.27 and to the obedience of his Law All other use of our strength for this life is subordinate to this for they mistake their own creation that think they were made for themselves and employ their wits and time and strength to support to adorn and to make pleasant and easie this temporall life of ours Christ saith that this love of our God must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all our strength Some abuse their strength to oppression and spoil to wrong their brethren so Babylon is called the hammer of the whole earth for God did use these Chaldaeans as the rods of his fury to punish the transgressing nations but there came a time when this hammer was cut asunder and broken How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations Jer. 50.23 I have laid a snare for thee and thou art also taken O Babylon and thou wast not aware thou art found and also taken because thou hast striven against the Lord. Let the oppressours of their brethren consider this the snare of God is full of danger for it hath three dangers in it 1 To catch suddenly thou wast not aware 2 To hold fast thou art taken 3 To destroy for they that are taken in the snare of God are at his mercy in his power Vpon the wicked Psal 11.6 he will rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. Some give their strength to women and by unchast and lewd conversation weaken those bodies and defile the Temples of God where Gods holy spirit should dwell It was the advice which Batsheba the mother of Solomon gave to her beloved Lemuel and she putteth it home in a mothers holy passion What my son and what the son of my womb Prov. 31.2 and what the son of my vows Give not thy strength to women nor thy wayes to that which destroyeth Kings It seemeth that Solomon had taken out his mothers lesson for he giveth all that fear God warning to take heed of the strange woman for he saith She hath cast down many wounded Prov. 7.26 yea many strong men have beea slain by her Her house is the way of hell going down to the chambers of death Some give their strength to drunkennesse they have a woe for their labour Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning Isai 5.11 that they may follow strong drink that continue till night till wine enflame them Some give their strength to covetousnesse some to pride some to their bellies some wast and consume their strength in idlenesse God gave them not their strength to any of these evill ends It is his strength that they abuse and he calleth for all of it in his service Me thinks the Apostle doth plead for God very reasonably and therein he teacheth us to try our selves whether we be innocent or faulty in this As you have yielded your members servants to uncleannesse 〈◊〉 6 1◠and to imquity to iniquity so now yield your members servants to righteousnesse unto holinesse It is unreasonable when God desireth but the same service done to him that made and preserveth us and would save us that we give to Satan who goeth about like a roaring lyon to destroy us and it is a good way between God and conscience to try our hearts whether we have done our God the right that we should do him in our strength for have we had as great delight in the Bible and have we read that with as much diligence as we have read other books of delight and pleasure have we heard the Word with as much attention and profit as we have heard other vain and wanton tales have we bestowed as many private hours in prayer as we have done in game Have we as much delighted in the Lords Supper the souls feast as we have done in the feasts and banquets of the body Nay have we not usurped some of Gods day for our temporall businesse and neglected the Church assembly and the ministery of the word to eat and drink and game and sleep take our ease would we have done so if some comand from some superiour powers had comanded us any speciall service This is the way to try us surely we have not given our whole strength to the Lord if
we have done these things and therefore unlesse we redeem the time and amend our ways our consciences will tell us that his servants we are whom we obey and the servants of sin must look for the wages of sin that is death But let us do no more so seeing the Lord is our strength let our strength be the Lords let it serve him for himself our brethren for his sake Another use of this point I learn from the song of Moses Vse 2 the man of God and of the children of Israel after they came out of the red sea The Lord is my strength and song let him that is our strength Exod. 15 ◠be our song also that is let us praise him with joy and thanksgiving it is the honour that David giveth to the Lord as his strength is always from him so he promiseth My song shall be always of him he desireth that his mouth may be fil'd with his prayse all the day long these be called the calves of the lips of them that confesse his name they are sacrifices of righteousnesse and they please God better then bullocks that have horns and hoofs this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reasonable service It followeth there and it is another use of this point Vse 3 The Lord is my strength I will prepare him an habitation In which words though literally there be a propheticall reference to the Tabernacle of God which God did after appoint to be erected and consecrated to his speciall worship and further yet to the building of the Temple at Jerusalem the joy of all the earth yet in thankfull retribution to God for the strength that we have from him every faithfull soul must within it self erect an habitation for God and his anointed Know you not that your bodies are the temples of the holy ghost doth not Christ dwell in us by faith is not the soul the body of the Church is not the understanding and intellectuall part the holy of holies the chancell of the Church where the glory of God dwelleth and where the memorials of his mercies are kept is not the heart the altar wherupon all our sacrifices of thanksgiving the incense of our praiers are burnt Is not the mouth of them that confesse his name the beautiful porch of this Temple Doth not Christ stand at our doors and knock and desire our entertainment O let us receive him he is our strength there is not a stronger man to come in and bind him and cast him out that day we receive him that day is salvation come home to our house Let him not come in as a guest and sojourner to tarry a night and be gone let him have the rule of the house Christ will then tell us that the Kingdome of God is within us and where he ruleth there is peace which passeth all understanding 3 The next ground of their hope is a strong faith that he will make my feet like hynds feet That is he will give me a swift escape out of all my affliction and I shall come again out of captivity The Lord will loose the bonds of his Church and give her deliverance out of all her troubles Doct. This is a good ground of hope Because it is one of Gods honourable titles to be a deliverer so is he called in this 18 Ps v. 2. Reas 1 From whence these words are taken so Thou art my help and my deliverer Psal 70.5 Thus David honoureth God with that great title for it includeth a confession of prayse both of the power of God able to deliver and of his wisedome and love applying that power to the comfort of his afflicted Church Because it was the office of his anointed the Son in whom he was well pleased Reas 2 to deliver his people from the hands of all their enemies He gave redemption to his people He shall save his people from all their sins he confesseth it his errand hither He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted Isai 6.11 to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Because God knoweth the weaknesse of his Church Reas 3 and though he chasten them with the rods of men yet will he not take his mercy utterly from them Psal 125.3 lest the righteous should put forth their hand unto wickednesse This hath speciall vertue to comfort us both Vse 1 Generally in our whole life and 2 especially in the severall crosses and distresses incident to the body of the Church or any member of the body 3 And individually to each perticular person in their personall vexations and unrest 1 For the generall calamities incident to life Job saith Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live and is full of misery If a man have no time of respiration from sorrow if his body be in sicknesse his mind in grief his estate in poverty his person in prison suppose him as much afflicted as his time and strength can bear yet death determineth all and setteth the oppressed and the prisoner free as Job saith 2 The Church or any part of it be it afflicted and driven into corners persecuted as in the time of the ten bloudy persecutions and as at this day the Protestants are cruelly pursued both in our neighbour France and in the Palatinate and in Bohemia Ministers banished as raisers and strivers of sedition which was laid to the charge of Jesus Christ and after of St. Paul The Lord hath ever heretofore been a deliverer of his Church and his hand is not shortned our hope is that he will also make his Saints hearts glad by a timely deliverance and will give them hinds feet to escape from the arrow that fleeth after them by day and from the dogs that hunt and pursue them with open mouth 3 In the case of personall grievances how can we either in dangers feared or in oppressing griefs and pains receive any peace to our souls but in the faith of deliverance believing that no miseries can so environ us but that there may be found an open way out of them so David saith Many are the troubles of the righteous Dominus ex omnibus liberet This admonisheth the afflicted to Vse 2 call upon God for this deliverance and to seek it no where but in his hand wo be to them that go to Egypt for help it was the undoing of Israel their trust in the broken staffe and reed of Egypt And they that trust to Idolatrous nations to help them in their distresses and wants thrust thorns into their own eyes and goads into their own sides and their trust shall be their ruine Israel did finde it so and smarted sharply for it This also as all other favours of God either possessed or expected doth awake us to a duty of service of our God Vse 3 for we are servi quasi servati and we must serve him that we may be