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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81239	Deliverance-obstruction: or, The set-backs of reformation. Discovered in a sermon before the Right Honourable the House of Peers, in Parliament now assembled. Upon the monthly fast, March 25. 1646. / By Tho. Case, preacher in Milkstreet London, and one of the Assembly of Divines.	Case, Thomas, 1598-1682.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Lords.	1646 (1646)	Wing C827; Thomason E329_9; ESTC R200694	36,291	48

should have said Can he not Here is unbelief with a witnesse from premises of Gods power to conclude weaknesse from a can to reason a cannot And this unwheel'd the chariot of their deliverance as it were that with Pharaoh's it drove heavily The Lord heard this and was wroth Vers 21. so a fire was kindled against Jacob c. Num. 13.32 33. See what contradictions their unbelief speaks The land thorow which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof and all the men that we saw in it are men of great stature and there we saw Giants A strange tale the land eats up the inhabitants and yet they are men of great stature and Giants surely then they were no starvelings shew me not the meat shew me the man if Giants surely they wanted no victuals UNBELIEF unreasons a man Unreasonable men and faithlesse 2 Thess 3.2 so the Apostle joyns them when he prays to be delivered from unreasonable men for all men have not faith No wonder if unbelief be such an obstruction to a peoples deliverance it ungods GOD it UNMANS man He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief Matth. 13.58 Mark 6.5 Matth. 9.29 He DID NOT so Matthew but he COULD NOT so Mark. God is said to can do no more then faith believes he can do UNBELIEF TIES UP THE HANDS OF THE ALMIGHTY According to your faith be it unto you 3. By Murmure Thirdly from hence proceeds another obstructing sin and that is Murmure you may finde it treading upon the heels of their unbelief all the way they murmure against God and murmure against their Leaders Moses and Aaron and this arose from their Jealousie sometime they suspect them of treachery Moses and Aaron certainly had a plot first to betray them to Pharaoh as you saw before and then to destroy them in the wildernesse Wherefore have ye brought us into the wildernesse to kill us Sometime of ambition and affecting superiority and Lordship over their brethren Ye take too much upon you wherefore lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord Yea that which would trouble a man most to see the very Princes of the people Num. 16. Vers 2. two hundred and fifty of them are carried away with this foolish groundlesse JEALOUSIE Certainly these men affect arbitrary Government if power and authority be in their hands we shall be in as great subjecton and slavery as we were in Egypt if not greater And this murmuring against them GOD takes as against HIMSELF Chap. 14.22 How long shall I bear with this evil congregration which murmure against me I have heard the murmurings wherewith the children of Israel murmure AGAINST ME and for this God threatens them with their own Jealousies and causlesse misgivings they murmurs themselves to DEATH in the wildernesse and their children into a FORTY YEERS TRAVEL As I live saith the Lord as you have spoken in mine ears so will I do unto you Num. 14 28 29 c. Your carcases shall fall in the wildernesse c. all which have murmured against me And your children shall wander in this wildernesse fourty yeers Vers 33 c. c. A Fourth sin is Adultery Corporal Spiritual 4. By Adultery bodily and spiritual I put them both together because they both go together for the most part the one whereby a people or person take in a false Lover the other whereby they take in a false God or a false Worship of the true God And into both these that witch Balaam bewitcht the people in the wildernesse Numb 25.1 2 3 4 9. to a great not abstruction onely but destruction as you may read in the story And how often afterward these two bastned their Captivity and hindred their enlargement out of it I cannot stand to tell you the whole Prophecle of Hosea inculcates it over and over You know upon what Commandment it is that God calls himself a jealous God namely Second Com. upon that Commendment which forbids Idolatry to shew that much unto us that as a jealous husband cannot endure a wanton look in his wife upon a stranger so God cannot endure a whorish glance in his people towards Idolatry and Superstition Ezek. 20.24 Their eyes went after their fathers Idols it was no more hut an adulterous look and for this when they might have expected a REFORMATION God blasted them with a DEFORMATION Wherefore I gave them Statutes that were not good Vers 25. and Judgements whereby they should not live Idolatry and Superstition and false Worship which before was their sin now became their curse and plagues Idolatry was established by a Law by Jeroboam and Manasseh c. for to the whole story and series of their wicked Kings doth that judgement refer 5. By Divisions Fifthly a Church or People have infinitely troubled and set back their own Deliverance and Reformation by Divisions Divisions are like great Breaches in the banks of the Ocean which let in a Sea of wischief and confusion among a people to hinder their work The Spiritual walls of the Church of Corinth went up as slowly as once the material wall of Jerusalem in Nehemiah's time and all by reason of their divisions I could not speak unto you saith the Apostle as unto spiritual but as unto carnal 1 Cor 3.1 Verse 2. a great obstruction to their Spiritual growth they were not capable of the SPIRITUALITY OF THE GOSPEL Hitherto ye were not able to bear it nor yet are ye able Verse 3. Why There is among you strife and envyings and divisions are ye not carnal The divisions and mutiny of CORAH DATHAN and ABIRAM what a sad obstruction did it cast in the way of this expedition here before us They incense the Princes and the people against Moses and Aaron Num. 16.2 by raising Jealousies and crying up the power and holinesse of the people above their just proportions and what a fire did this kindle in their habitations which had like to have burnt down to the very foundation Ths Troubles of Frankford might come in as a sad witnesse to this truth But not to instance any further in such as have been pretenders onely to godlinesse who have always made a major part by oddes in the Church You may take notice that the very differences and dissentions of them who are godly indeed have been most eminently fatal to Gospel-designes witnesse the differences of LUTHER and CALVIN which were greater obstructions to the propagation of the Reformation in their days then all the opposition and persecution raised by the man of sin and all his Antichristian party in Germany It was the Church of Philadelphia called so for Love and unity between Brethren before whom God promiseth to make her hypocritical enemies to bow and fall Revel 3.7 9. It is Babel men build and not Jerusalem where there is confusion

of tongues Mark 3 25. neither can the house divided stand long 6. By Carnal confidence Jer. 17.5 Sixthly as much have they disadvantaged themselves by Carnal confidence a sin not onely cross'd but curs'd Thus saith the Lord Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm Why The reason follows whose heart departeth from the Lord. Look how much men DEIFIE men by so much they UNGOD Jehovah by how much a people IDOLIZE Parliaments or Armies or the best of Creature-helps by so much they withdraw their confidence and dependance from the Rock of Ages and therefore for this doth God oftentimes infatuate Counsels and blast all the beauty and strength of a people wherein ther trusted The wisdom of their wisemen shall perish Isa 29 14. and the understanding of the prudent shall be hid Chap. 20.5 They shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation and of Egypt their glory Alas can a people prosper that have forsaken their strength for weaknesse that have exchanged God for the Creature Can a designe thrive that is under a Curse Therefore cries the Prophet in the ears of all the world Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils Isa 2.22 for wherein is he to be accounted of And therefore on the contrary when Israel after her Captivity is put into a thriving posture she is brought in repenting of and disclaiming all her Creature-confidences with the Spouse in the Canticles coming up from the wildernesse of Captivity LEANING UPON HER BELOVED Ashur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses Hos 14.2.3 neither will we say any more to the work of our hands You are our gods she had said so before but she will say so no more for with thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy We break our stays by leaning too hard upon them Seventhly by undervaluing thoughts of a Deliverance or Reformation An ignorant inadvertency of the worth of such a mercy is very distastful unto God Oh Jerusalem Luke 19.42 hadst thou known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace HADST THOU KNOWN the worth HADST THOU KNOWN the necessity God will have a people know what he doth for them God will have a deliverance valued before he perfect it When Garlick and Onions are as good as milk and honey when trading and lands and riches and honours c. be as good as a Reformation and men can take up with these and let Reformation go its own pace and come at leasure if at all Let them wander saith God in the wildernesse till they know what CANAAN IS WORTH Hos 5. ult I will go and return to my place till they seek my face in their affliction they will seek me early This I suppose is that account given why the Reformation in good Jehoshaphat's time was not a thorow-Reformation Though much was done Chro. 20.33 Howbeit the high places were not taken away for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers I come now to the Third Spring-head of Reasons or Causes arising from The Deliverers obstructions in Deliverers ●art For certainly the work of Deliverance and Reformation may stick long upon the hands of them that are to be the Deliverers and Reformers of a people Yea you may observe it sometimes God hath more trouble to speak after the manner of men to deliver a people from their Deliverers then he hath to deliver them from the enemies of their deliverance yea though the work be intrusted in the hands of a Moses and an Aaron God hath enough to do to keep them from spoiling of it a great part of the Deliverance is to deliver a people from their Deliverers before he deliver them by them So little is God beholding to second Causes You shall see it in the Instances or Causes Take in the first place Luthers account There be three things saith Luther that are the bane of Christian Religion Melch. Ad. in vita Luth. p. 151 〈◊〉 Oblivio bene●●ctorum ab E●●angelio acce●●torum 〈◊〉 Deinde secu●itas quae passim ubique regnat and therefore much more of a REFORMATION First Forgetfulnesse of former mercies Secondly for I will put them together Security They were both the sins of as famous a Reformer as ever the Church of God knew Hezekiah's for which the work of Reformation and the whole Kingdom suffer'd deeply I 'll but read you the Text But Hezekiah RENDRED NOT AGAIN ACCORDING TO THE BENEFIT DONE UNTO HIM Chro. 37.25 for his heart was lifted up therefore THERE WAS WRATH upon him and upon Judah and Jerusalem Unthankfulnesse and Pride had like to have undone all that he had done Oh when Reformers forget old Mercies and old Deliverances and them it may be that God hath used as Instruments of them and new mercies and successes serve but to make them secure and swell them with pride to overlook their Brethren and overvalue themselves to think themselves no longer Stewards but Lords not onely petty kings but little gods to do what they PLEASE in the work and with the people of God this shakes the very foundation of Church and State God is highly displeased You have a sad instance in Vzziah of whom the holy Ghost records 2 Chro. 26.15 16. He was marvellously helped till he was strong But when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction for he transgressed against the Lord his God and went in to the Temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the Altar of Incense Alas how was the man and all the worthy things he had done for Church and State of which you may read from the beginning of the Chapter forward even lost in Pride Vnthankfulnesse and Security Sapientia mundi qua vult omnia redigere in ordinem publicae utilitati impiis consiliis mederi Exod. 32.22 23 24. 1 King 12. from vers 26 to the end of the Chap. Joh. 11.48 Thirdly Carnal policie worldly wisedom which applies fleshly medicines to Spiritual distempers when men will cast the affairs of Christs Kingdom in the moulds and models of humane policie and principles Aaron he will make a GOLDEN CALF to still the people and secure his own life and Jeroboam will make two ordain Offices Feasts Worship which never come into Gods heart to secure the Kingdom to himself though by this very means he lost it The Builders in Christs time would not own Christ for their King and Deliverer for fear of forfeiting their kingdom to the Romanes and thereby ran upon that very mischief they would avoid yea they lost Two Kingdoms while they would secure one So dangerous a thing it is when men will be wiser then God or at least then God would have them HUMANE POLICY before Scripture-precept or Scripture-patern is nothing else but DISLOYALTY it gives God counsel when God looks for obedience Fourth sin Vnprayerfulnes

Isa 63 12. Thus shall be known to be God oppositions lift up God Israel sees the Creature NOTHING God ALL in a deliverance so fetcht out of the fire He led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious Arm dividing the water before them TO MAKE HIMSELF AN EVERLASTING NAME And again At a beast goes down into the valley Verse 14. the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest so didst thou lead thy people TO MAKE THY SELF A GLORIOUS NAME Here is nothing to be seen in such deliverances but God God God will out his people by this means of themselves their own wisedom their own counsels their own strength c. and God will be All in All. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day Isa 2.11 10. By this means God endears deliverance Tenthly and Lastly By this way and these methods God endears Deliverances unto his people If they were easily got they would be light set-by but O how sweet is a land of Rest after fourty yeers travel how sweet Peace after War how beautiful a Creation when it comes out of a Chaos as heaven is worth two heavens to a poor soul that comes out of hell so Deliverance is Deliverance indeed and Reformation is Reformation twice told that is fetcht out of the jaws of Difficulty out of the bowels of devouring apposition it will be meat indeed when it comes out of the eater and sweetnesse indeed when out of strong conflicts and long expectation then may the Church tune her Psalms of Thanksgiving with the sweet singer of Israel Psal 40.1 I waited patiently for the Lord and he enclined unto me and heard my cry and so forward O the depth of the riches both of the wisedom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements Rom. 11.33 and his ways past finding out And thus Right Honourable and Beloved I have dispatcht the Fourfold account of this sad Truth c. That a Deliverance of Gods own promising and setting afoot may meet with such desperate non-plusses and setbacks as may make it seem a lost designe As for the other part of it sc Why the people of God even a Moses himself may so judge of it how it comes to passe that they should so mistake the ways and meanings of God were indeed an account worth the enquiring into were there time and room for such a work which since there is not I must hasten to make some improvement of what hath been already spoken for Vse and Application Wherein notwithstanding it is possible we may meet with some opportunity and occasion to give you some little kint and touch of this also First therefore 1 Use for Caution not to judge of Undertakings by Successe Eccles 2.9 it may serve to Caution us not to measure the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse goodnesse or badnesse of a Cause or Vndertaking by the encouragements or discouragements the present successe or opposition it meets with No man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them Wicked hellish designes may go on smoothly and prosperously hardly meet with a rub in the way as it is said of the wicked themselves There is no bands in their death Psal 73.4 or as the Hebrew signifies no * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knots in their death they live like Lions and Wolves tearing and devouring and yet die many times like Lambs not any knot to untie no doubt of their salvation no trouble of conscience a Lamblike death the great Idol of carnal ignorant people So it is with their designes there is no bands or knots in their designes they meet with no rub in their way they go off as smoothly as heart can wish many times the devil driving them on and God in a secret and a just judgement permitting for the hardning of wicked men to their own destruction Whereas Designes of Gods own forming and animating may you see meet with such dismaying Crossings and Turnbacks that many times might make one think there is no life in the businesse And therefore call not in question the goodnesse and warrantablenesse of the work of Reformation in hand or any other Gospel-designe because of the obstructions and oppositions it hath or may meet with we are very prone to it The Israelites after their first and second discomfiture before their Brethren of Benjamin Judg. 20.23 are at their Shall I go up again to battel against the children of Benjamin my Brother and so again Shall I go up Verse 23. or shall I cease thereby secretly making a doubt of the warrantablenesse of their War although God expresly bid them go And so you may finde the Israelites even Joshua himself Josh 7.7 repenting of their adventure as it were Would to God we had been contented and dwelt on the other side Jordan they distrust their Cause though it had the Imprimatur of heaven upon it a promise of above Four hundred yeers old And have not we done so upon the desperate exigences and straits and non-plusses into which this designe hath been driven up many times Have we not been at our Ifs and our Would-to-Gods c. Remember I beseech you what reasonings and discourses you have had in your own hearts And get a better and a more infallible Rule to judge the goodnesse of Publike or personal designes by not successes or opposition but the Word Psal 73.34 if it be according to that Rule Wait on the Lord and keep his way the issue shall be good whatever the present posture of things be Secondly if so then take heed when you meet with such Turn-agains and non-ultra's in your work take heed I say of charging God foolishly 2. Not to charge God foolishly take heed of entertaining any hard thoughts of God This is our sin and our folly That when any Church-deliverance is on foot we think it must be carried on without any interruption it must be done all at once and so when the work meets with unexpected hardship and contradiction of sinners we are ready to call Providence as well as the Cause into question I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes You know whose complaint it was Psal 31.22 And Sion said The Lord hath forgotten me Isa 49.14 and my Lord hath forgotten me HARD THOUGHTS And so we are ready to think the work is at an end we have seen the best on 't Moses you see is at this passe here I would be loth to do the good man any wrong but methinks he dasheth a little upon God in his complaint though there be a great deal of grace in it too Wherefore hast THOU evil intreated this people Why hast THOU sent me THOU hast not delivered c. Ah good man he think this was hard dealing of God and fears he is at his furthest it will all end in a cloud And the reason of all this is to give you