daughters are as the polished corners of the Temple your garners are full affording all manner of store your sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in your streets your Oxen are strong to labour there is no breaking in nor going out nor is there any complayning in your streets happy is that people that is in such a case yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord. But now doe but faigne a little to your selves if the Lord had not beenon our side but had delivered us all over to the mercilesse cruelty of the Enemy and suffered us to lye down under the bondage and slavery of Antichrist Then instead of this blessed liberty of the Gospell and of the pure worship of God and of those happy opportunities we now under so godly and Peerlesse a Prince enjoy we might have been plundred in grosse Superstition and Idolatry have been worshippin of Images cringing to Crosses adoring of Crucifixes blattering to a Saint rumbling of our Beads wandring in some Pilgrimage all overrun with the rank weeds of z Col. 2.23 wil-wership angring our God of jealousie and irritating the just wrath of Heaven or else all dragg'd unto racks or stakes or dungeons to fire and faggot or other exquisite tortures the proper badges of that Romish Antichrist that man of sinne whereas that true Religion and Wifedome that is from above is first pure then a Jam. 3.17 Peaceable so farre from bloodines as it is from Popery But thanks be unto the Lord for his b 2 Cor. 9.15 unspeakable Gift He hath rescued us from the c Col. 1.13 power of a more than Aegyptian because a spirituall darknesse yea more than so he hath broken the d Psal 13.7 teeth of that e 2 Thess 2.3 Son of perdition himselfe and f Jud. 6. chayned up his power And as we have found out the beginning of his rise so we hope to see the end of his finall downfall About the year g Juel Apol p. 29 vol. 16. six hundred and thirteen shortly after the death of Saint Gregory the great indeed but humble Bishop who endeavoured to quell the h Vide Bullinger ad Apoc. 9. insolency of John the Prelate of Constantinople for aspiring to the title Of i See Epist of S. Gregory the great to Mauricius the Emperor added to the hist of Trent Concil p. 829 830. universall Bishop and directly styling him The forerunner of Antichrist who should dare to assume it unto himself Yet Boniface the third moved nothing herewith obtained of wicked Phocas who by the murthering of his Lord Mauricius had got into the Empire that the Church of Rome might be called and taken for the chiefe and head of all Churches and himself to be sty led the Universall Bishop of the World And in this thus ambitious Boniface had Antichrist his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the entrance upon his height After that through many cruelties and tyrannies his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perfection was in Gregory the seventh commonly called Hildebrand k By. Downam Diatrib de Antichrist contr Leon. Lessium who first of all the rest about the year 1073. subjected the Diadem to the Miter exalting himselfe above all that is called God 2 Thess 2.4 That is above all Magistrates both supream and subordinate l Otho Frisingensis lib. 9. c. 35. who by reason of the resemblance in Majesty being Gods Vicegerents in authority upon Earth are called m Exod. 22 28. Gods 1 Cor. 88.5 though Essentially they are no Gods And by the devise of the holy n See M. Fuller his Hist of the holy Warre elegantly penn'd Warre at Hierusalem lurching the Patrimony of deluded Princes whom he had perswaded to beare arms in that cause in their absence to Saint Peters chaire he advanced himself at length to so great an height that his head grew giddy and so that o Rev. 9.1 Stellam hanc omnes fere Neoterici interpretantur de Romano Vontisice ut Joachimus Abbas Bulling Gyffard Dent. c. starre fell down from Heaven to the earth And ever since in the later times hath this Antichrist had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remission of his vigour and his declination And now how should every zealous soule who clearly and without dissembling wisheth well to the Peace of this our Zion take up that of Edom in the day of Hierusalem and cry p Psal 137.7 down with him down with him even to the ground Loe this great q Rev. 17.1 whore of Papacy is cast upon her bed of r Psal 41.3 languishing and is sick we hope to death so that she shall never be able more to rise up nor with the Å¿ Revel 17.2 Wine of her spirituall filthy fornications to entoxicate the nations of the earth so long so rufully already made drunken by her yea the Lord Christ shall consume the t 2 Thess 2.3 man of sinn with the spirit of his mouth and destroy with the brightnes of his comming 2 Thess 2.8 yea even so u Revel 22.20 come Lord Jesus come quickly And doe unto him and unto all his complices as unto the Midianites as to * Psal 83.9 10. Sisera as to Jabin at the brook of Kishon which perished at Endor they became as dung for the earth c. Yea let God arise and let his x Psal 68.1 2 c. Enemies be scattered let them also that hate him fly before him as smoake is driven away so drive them away as wax melteth before the fire so let the wicked perish at the presence of God but let the righteous be glad let them rejoyce before God yea let them exceedingly rejoyce let them sing unto God sing praises unto his Name and extoll him that rideth upon the Heavens by his Name J A H and rejoyce before him It is time to end suffer a word of exhortation and I have done I shall begin it in the words of Ezra cap. 9.13 14. Seeing that thou our God hast given us such a deliverance as this as this so eminâ—nt so miraculous so when we were high o destruction and the very mouth of ruine gaped and was open to devoure us should we again break thy Commandements and joyn with the people of these abominations wouldest thou not be angry with us till thou hadst consumed us so that there should be no remnant nor escaping Ah my brethren let us be awakned from our deadly security from our sinfull unthankfulnes favours bestowed raise up an expectation of obedience and of a godly conversation Mic. 6.8 As therefore the Heathens had their three Graces as inseparable sisters he one to give the benefit the other to receive it and the third to return it and they painted them alwaies young to the end a benefit might be ever fresh in their remembrances y Heb. 13.22 so let us never z Psal 137.5 forget this favour of all favours this day bestowed upon this Land and Kingdome Let us give up our selves our soules and bodies all that we are or have as a solemn reall a Rom. 12.1 Sacrifice to the b Psal 18.46 God of our salvation who hath done so c 1 Sam. 12.24 great things for our soules This this alone is the way to continue his mercy and loving kindnes unto us and our d Deut. 4.40 posterity for evermore which God grant for the sake of the Son of his love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all praise and glory world without end Amen FINIS ERRATA Reader faults escaped in the Presse and seemingly perverting the sense are thus to be corrected before thou read Page 1 liâ— 4. for prayer read praise l. 11. ibid. for bosome r. besome p. 5 l. 9. for he r. the p. 7. for neer r. never p. 10. l. 7. for nigher r higher p. 11. l. 26. for God r. Gods p. 17. l. 15. r. El-schaddal and l. 28. ib r. thresh p. 20 l 20. r. Matth. 5.18 p. 24. l. 29. for opposite r. apposite p. 30. l. 16. r. vellet and after He in the same line supply might p. 31. l. 6. r. creezy p. 32. l. 34. 〈◊〉 yet r. yea p. 37. l. 22. for Warwick r. Worcester p. 48. l. 7. for grea r. grate p. 49 l. 12 for never r. neither p 46. l. 7. for eve r. every p. 50. l. 32. for known r. tongue p. 52. l. 27. for their r. thine
so long in comming Why tarry the wheels of his Chariots have they not sped have they not divided the prey to every man a Damosell or two to Sisera a prey of divers colours a prey of divers colours of needle worke of divers colours of needle worke on both sides meete for the neckes of them that take the spoile Alas alas Fond Atheists what Castles of crazy hopes had they now set up in the ayre What silly Nimrods were these to build up Towers of expectation that cannot but being against God prove d Gen. 11.5 9. Babels and their sure confusion besotted Hamans mounting up gibbets no lesse than fifty cubits high to break their e Ester 7.9 10. own necks Behold Sisera that great terror of Israel who brought so many hundred thousands into the field had ere this vain brag of theirs quit his Chariot and betaken him to his heels and those heels posted him to the Tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite and at her feet he bowed he fell he lay down at the feet of a woman a weak instrument he bowed he fell where he bowed there he fell down dead Loe there lay this proud wormes-meat sprawling with his head fastened to the ground as if it had been now listning what was become of the Soule against the hammer of a feeble woman was this guilded pot-sheard of the earth not crackt but broken In short he who was pleased to stile himselfe the mighty f Psal 24.6 God of Jacob that God of Israel who neither g Psal 121.4 slumbered nor slept in the dangers of his chosen h Psal 135.4 treasure this Lord of Hoasts sitting above in Heaven i Psal 2.4 laughed all his enemies to scorn and when their hopes like â—o the sins of the Amorite were ripe and k Gen. 15.16 full the Lord he had them in derision and by the hands of the weaker sex levelled the magnificence of a daring Champion with the dust Then Jael saith the Text Judg 4.21 Hebers wife tooke a nayle of the tent an took an hammer in her hand and went softly unto him and smote the nayle into his temples and fastened it into the ground for he was fast asleep and weary See here no â—ne circumstance about his overthrow is left â—ut So he died And even so saith good Deborah the Prophâ—tesse in my Text So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord but let them that leve him be as the sunne when he goeth forth in his might And thus have yee seen the occasion of these words in which as to my observation they occurre wee have two principall parts commended to our notice The division I. An Imprecation upon Gods Enemies So let all thine enemies perish O Lord. II. An Apprecation or an obtestation of good upon his friends But let them that love him be as the sunne c. In the former we have these particulars 1. The person implyed thus praying against Gods enemies Deborah a Prophetesse verse the first 2. The person unto whom she directs her Prayer The Lord. 3. The forme of her imprecation Let. 4. The title she gives those against whom she prayes God Enemies 5. The universality or extent of her devotion all thine enemies 6. The matter of her Imprecation Let them all perish 7. The manner after which she desires they may all perish So. So let all thine enemies perish O Lord. In the second Generall her Apprecation of good we have I. The Peripâ—rasis of those she prayeth for such as love the Lord. II. The Assimilation or resemblance whereto she suits their happinesse he sunne and to that sunne going forth and going forth in his might These are the parts and heads of my discourse of as many of them in their cue order as the time shall allow and first by way of explication and then of Application by Gods assistance and the wonted favour of your Christian patience THE first particular is the person that here makes this Imprecation upon Gods enemies Part. I. and she is Deborah a Prophetesse and a Mother in Israel Judg. 4.4 and 5.7 A circumstance remarkeable if we meditate the deplored estate of the Church in those times which as we finde by the story were most forlorn and desperate For nothing but Anarchy and Tumult now prevailed And indeed in the whole face of that age nought but botches and blains and ulcers could be discovered which so universally became contagious that all degrees of men were tainted and the issue of them proved so dangerous that from that one people then is made good that Maxime in Policy It s better to live where nothing hen where all things are lawfull for now were those dayes Judg. 21. â— in which there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eye And what was that which was then so right in their own eyes Read but the story you shall dye your cheekes in graine and blush Then it seemed right in the eyes of Micah to make himselfe Gods or puppets of his own and to keep a Levite to adore them within his own private walls Judg. 17. And if this seemed right to Micah why not also unto others ita quot l B. Andrews p. 52. inter opera posthuma concion Lat. in psal 144.10 familiae tot Idolorum portenta nova so that there were not more families then new monsters of Idolatry Then it seemed right in the eyes of the Danites not onely to pilfer from the private closets of Micah but to depopulate and waste whole Cities as they did Laish Judg. 18. Then the shamelesse ravishments of women as of the Levites Concubine seemed right in the eyes of the men of Gibeah Ju. 19. The story abounds with particulars all shewing the state of those dayes to be most loathsome and rufull Lo yet and see even in those loose and forlorne times there was a Deborah found out in Israel a grave and godly matrone fit to make a Prophetesse even Deborah the wife of Lapidoth My note from hence is this Observ That in the barrenest times of the Church the Lord hath ever had some to feare him and to stand up for his Truth And this hath been found true Proofe in the experience of all ages In the old World when a Deluge of iniquity foregoing that of water had overflowen the earth and all flesh had corrupted his way Gen. 6.12 yet even then God saw a righteous Noah before him and that emphatically even in so vile a generation Gen. 7.1 In the very Court of Pharaoh that peerles prodigy of impenitence and obduration there was found a fervant who feared the word of the Lord Exod. 9.20 so likewise even in Nero's houshold there was a Church Phil. 4.22 .. After this when Idolatry had like Naamans Leprosie overspread the whole body of the Church yet even then God had left him seven thousand in Israel whose knees never
bowed to Baal and whose mourn neer kissed him 1 King 19.18 In farther processe of time in the dayes of Herod the King of Judea that leach which sucked the blood of so many tender Innocents there were found Zechary and Eâ—izabeth both righteous before God Luk. 1.6 In short even under the rage of that wilde bore of the forest Antichrist himselfe Recel 11.3 God had as here in this story Deborah and Barack two witnesses to stand up in his cause And in those first times of but blooming Christianity when the Heresie of Arriu in those dayes as that of the accursed Socinians in these now overthrowing blasphemously the divinity of Christ like to that Pestilence in King Davids time spreading from Dan to Beersheba had infected the whole Christian world as S. Hierome acquaints us yet then God raised up the spirit of an undaunted Athanasius whose learned zeale backed by the countenance and favour of the Christian Emperour Constantine as the o 2 King 2.21 salt of Elisha healing the sickly waters about Jericho both affronted and put to silence the abettors of that horrid blasphemy and by his tears as by the bleeding of a chaste vine cured the Leprosie of that tainted age In a word though p Gildas apud Episc Usher p. 68 c. 7. of the Irish Religion Gildas the ancientest and most authentique Historian that we have complained that the number of good men were so exceeding short among the Britons in his time in comparison of the exorbitant sons of Belial who as the Caterpillars sometimes over Aegypt prevailed sofarre upon the Nation that their Mother the Church in a manner did not see them lying in her own lap albeit they were the only true sonnes which she then had yet sonnes she had still some notwithstanding who as some few solid grains of corne were fanned from a world of chaffe and esteemed by the Lord as the costliest r Mal. 3.17 Jewels and treasure of hat age Even as here in the corruptest condition of Israel there was found out a godly Deborah to deliver the Church and to sing praises to the Lord Jehovah Nor need we wonder at the observation Reason considering the infallibility of the truth of that covenant and promise which God hath made with his Church to wit That he would so plant his feare into her heart that she should never utterly and finally depart away from him Jer. 32.40 and that he had so founded her upon a Rocke as the gates of Hell should never be able to prevaile against her Math. 16.18 The phrase of speech is borrowed from the customes of those dayes when the Counsellors of a State or City were wont to treat of the affaires of the Nation in the gates of their Cities as we see Ruth 4.1 and the Periphrasis of such a Counsellor Pro. 31.23 and so of a simple man on the contrary it is said Pro. 24.7 He openeth not his mouth in the gate so that by the gates of Hell are meant the policies and subtill stratagems of Satan though they were such as had been by him and his agents plotted and consulted of in the priviest Counsell-chamber if so I may speak of Hell it selfe yet shall they never be able to prevaile Matth. 7.25 irrecoverably to hurt the Church no more then those billows in the Ocean doe upon the Rocks which return them back in froth without annoyance yea saith that famous Champion of it the great t Athanasius orat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confer Arch B. Vsher c. 6 s 6.7 8 c.p. 147. De success Eccles Christ Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The Church of Christ shall remaine as mount Sion u Psal 1.25.1 immoveable though hell her selfe and all the powers thereof be moved against it Behold as soon shall the smoake be able though it make a deally smother in the chimney-top to blot out the Sunne and to stifle up the ayre for ever as all the violence of Hell universally to extinguish the truth or Church Psalm 89.33 and John 10.29 And this meditation should me thinks Vse as Job saith God doth to the Sea set u Job 38.10 doores and bars to the furious x Luk 6.11 madnes of the Enemies of Gods Church in whose heart it is as Esay saith of Ashur to y Isa 10.7 destroy and to cut off Nations not a few When alas as soon shall the Earth become a Starre and darknesse light as Gods z 2 Tim. 2.19 foundation be overthrown Wee read in the second Psalme that the Heathen made a mighty tumult raged furiously and as that fly in the Fable upon the Axle-tree imagined that they had raised a smothering dust enough to put out the very eyes of Christs Kingdome and as for the bonds of subjection to his Gospell look as Sampson did his a Judg. 16.9 wit hs they will breake them all forsooth in sunder and cast away the cords thereof from them compare also Psalm 83. But what of all this alas saith David all this was but to imagine a b Psal 2.7 vaine thing 't was but as if the c Isa 64.8 Clay had contended with the Potter or a Pigmy strugled with a Crane For behold maugre all opposition yet have I set up Christ my King saith God upon my holy hill of Sion Those Neroes Domitians Diocletians and Maximians the bloody tyrants of the Primitive times can witnesse this who having made ready the d Psal 11.2 arrow upon the string and prepared the e Psal 7.13 instruments of crâ—ell death yea even before-hand sounded the Triumph and engraven the Victory over the very f As of old Psal 83.4 〈◊〉 of Christianity upon pillars of Marble with this inscription Nomine Christianorum deleto qui Rempuhl evertebant but all this bragge of theirs was but as a blaze before their last light went out 〈◊〉 some bulging wall that was swollen immediately before it fell For what was all that innocent blood of Martyrs which they so violently spilt but as g Tertul. in Apo 〈◊〉 banguis est sâ—â—nen Christianoram Tertullian saith the very seed to sow Gods h Psal 80.15 Vinyard the Church withall in which for one true Catholique Saint cut off many hundred sprang up afresh this Palme-tree the more it was pressed the higher it grew that Israel the more oppressed the more they i Exod. 1.12 multiplied and this Arke the more 't was tossed on the billowes the nigher it was advanced up to the k Gen. 8.4 Ararat of Heaven In summe when in the very last age of all Pope l Sleidan Comment lib. 1. Leo that tenth Lyon of Rome roared upon the Church of God and thought by his Anathema's thundred from his simonia call Consistories to have devoured it up as his Prey or else as sometimes those Lyons did upon Daniel to have m Dan. 6.22 fawned by his abused indulgencies upon simple ignorants and so
to have lurched the Patrimony of deluded soules into his own Checquer When now the Church was as the n Can. 6.10 Moone enveloped in a Cloud seemingly invisible being all over-grown by the weeds of superstition yet even then God raised up a Luther a man of an heroike spirit to muzle the jawes of that rampant Antichrist and to rectifie the seduced judgments and consciences of wel-meaning but mis-guided Christians And he so farre prevailed against the errors of the Church of Rome that when nothing else would serve he made a Protestation against them In the year 1529 April the sixteenth as Calvisius sets it down in his Chronicle there was a meeting of the States at Spira when and where a Decree was made by the then Popes Agents that a late Edict at Worms against the Innovators so they stiled Luthers fraternity the effect whereof was that there should be no such Reformation at all made as the Lutherans called for but omnia in integrum restituerentur every thing should stand entire as it did before A decree I say was made that that Edict should be served Contra hoc edictum solennis fuit Protestatio but against this Edict there was a solemn Protestation and from hence it was that wee of the Reformed Churches first took the name of Protestants protesting against those abominable corruptions and superstitions which both in the ancient and pure doctrine of Christ contained in the writings of the Apostles and also in that Discipline which was appointed by the same Apostles and practised in their times and ever after in the universall settled Church of Christ I say Protesting against those damnable corruptions which had overgrown and almost quite poysoned the world and withall against the hinderance of that needfull Reformation intended from hence wee tooke the Originall name of Protestants And hitherto we have seemed at least to own the title now then goe on and o 1 Cor. 16.13 quit your selves like men withstand all the rotten doctrine of Popish Innovators and Teachers that boast much as the p Josh 9.5 Gibeonites sometime did of old shooes and mouldy bread of Antiquity and dare obtrude upon the Consciences of Gods people their own humane Traditions to be entertained as themselves determine in their Trent Conventicle with q Concil-Trident sess 4 p. 8. vol. 8. pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ suscipit veneratur equall Faith and Credit as God own sacred and immediately inspired unerring Scriptures are received yea not onely so but also introduce customes with a direct Non obstante to Christs Gospell For so I finde expressely in the r Concil Constantanno 1612. Basil Councels of Constance and Basil Licet Christus suis Discipulis administraverit sub utraque panis vini specie venerabile hoc Sacramentum tamen hoc non obstante consuetudo communionis sub unâ tantùm specie nunc pro Lege habenda est That is although Christ administred unto his Disciples the Sacrament of his Body and Blood under both kinds of Bread and Wine yet this notwithstanding now the custome of receiving it onely under one kinde is to be had for a Law In opposing them therefore yee oppose errours damnable in their nature and surely damning also in the issue without amendement yea yee protest against the very ſ 1 Tim. 4.1 doctrine of Devils Now then be for t Zeph. 1.5 God or for Baal abhorre a Samaritan mongrell disposition a Laodicean u Rev. 3.16 lukewarmnes this x 1 King 18.21 halting twixt two opinions this swearing by God and by y Zeph. 1.5 Malcham too this z Exod. 12.39 dowbak'd lukewarm temper God threatens to a Rev. 3.16 spue out as loathsome and with nauseation from his presence In short is a man a Minister and is his aime in Preaching onely by a vainglorious ostentation of wit to please b 1 Thess 2.4 man or to tickle the c 1 Tim. 4.3 itch of the wavering times and not without envy without d ◠Thess 2.5 soothing partiality to declare the pure doctrine of Christ Jesus in e 2 Cor. 2.17 syncerity if this alone be his scope let him goe on dissemble and rayle but know the time shall come when upon such hollow empty declamers the Lord from out of Heaven shall powre scorn 2 Tim. 3.9 and make them even as the f 1 Cor. 4.13 filth of the World as the off-scowring of all things such rotten bottoms cannot long hold water Is a man a Magistrate art thou a common Christian deale g Prov. 10.9 uprightly doe not play and dally with thy Conscience in any of thine actions Be the times never so vitious never so various bee not thou like a reede h Matth. 11.7 shaken with the winde be rather like to a Cube firme to that station fixed to thy right refolutions which way soever thou art cast imitating the pious example of Deborah in my text who in the middest of raging anarchy of prevailing enormities remained as a nayle i Ezra 9.8 fastened in a sure place stedfast to the Lord. It is hard I confesse though indeed it be a more noble Act of Christianity to uphold our selves in integrity when the current of the times is against us The Patriarchs themselves were transported by the times in the busines of their Polygamie and Joseph by long conversing in Pharaohs Court had learnt to sweare at length by Pharaohs life Gen. 42.16 And when all Asia and the world shall worship the great goddesse Diana of the Ephesians who but a Paul durst to cry down the Idolatry Act. 19.27 Beloved Christians we now live in the middest of a l Act. 3.40 crooked and perverse generation and may daily discover some of whom wee may say as S. Paul did of Elymas the sorcerer Act. 13.10 they are full of all subtilty and all mischief enemies of all Righteousnes by their wrangling and contentions time-serving disturbance never ceasing to pervert the ancient right and established wayes of the Lord Now therefore under this so great a tryall shew your selves now m Matth. 5.16 shine as Lights furnish your Lamps with oyle and n Matth. 25.7 trimme them up that the light of your lives may so shine in the faces of the world that it may dazle them whom it shall not guide and sith we have a copy so Peerles to write by the very mirror of Christian Princes who in a Letter dated but the 18. day of the last moneth of October 1641. written with his own Hand hath commanded it to be made known that he will live and dye by the grace of God in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as it was established in the raigne of Queen Elizabeth and his pious Father of blessed memory we have his word for it and as David to Mephibosheth I have o 2 Sam. 19.29 said it saith the King it is enough
the very thought of God Psal 10.4 and cannot endure his presence either in the p D. Sel. exposit on Rom. 1.30 p. 159. Heart by his Spirit or in the Congregation by his Word nor in his comming to Judgement nor lastly to the Death any of the friends of God or of such as love him Therefore the adversaries of Gods people are called the haters of God himselfe Psal 81.14 15. Which sense soever you take it in if they be Gods Enemies they shall be all as q Job 21.18 stuble before a r Heb. 12.29 consuming fire and the Lord to ease himselfe of his adversaries whose iniquity he cannot ſ Hab. 1.13 see and like shall set them as a t Lam. 3.12 13. Butt and spend the arrowes of his sore displeasure upon them they shall be sure to perish AND so I passe on unto my fift particular Part. 5 6. which is the matter of Deborabs Imprecation Let thine Enemies perish O Lord To which part I will adde also that other of the Extent of her devotion Let all thine Enemies perish By perishing is not here meant the utter annihilation of their eternall absolute being the very Essence of the Soule carryeth u Matth. 10.28 immortality in it but only of their well-being or rather of their confusion before the present world because it is said of Jabin and Sisera that when they perished at Endor they became as dung for the earth Psal 83.9 So that our note from hence will be this viz. To shew us the affectionate desires of the Saints for the Universall overthrow and extirpation of the wicked enemies of God Obser and of his Church Let them all perish O Lord. As it was sayd of Israel going out of Goshen that they left not somuch as an * Exod. 10.26 hoofe behinde them so is it earnestly wished by the Saints that not so much as one Agag or one x 1 Sam. 15.3 Amalekite might be spared no nor if the Lord were pleased so to dispose it one y Josh 15.63 23.13 Proose Jebusite left as a Relique in Canaan To this purpose he who long experimented the usances of such enemies hath expressed himself Psal 104.35 Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth Consumpti id est simul sumpti and let the wicked be no more and Psal 10.15 Breake thou the arme of the wicked and the evill man seek out his wickednesse till thou finde none Oh that some z Isa 14.23 besome of destruction from the Lord would sweep them cleane off the Land and that all the a Matth. 3.12 Chaffe and b Matth. 13.25 Tares might if possible at once be bound up together in bundles and cast into flames c Luk. 3.17 unquenchable O my God saith the zealous Prophet make them like a d Psal 83.13 wheele strike them with some Vertiginous spirit of giddinesse let them be vexed even as a thing that is raw restlessely unexpressibly never leave rowling and winding of themselves till they have utterly undone themselves and be cloathed with their own f Psal 109.29 confusion as with a mantle c. Nor may we marvaile at this zeale sith whilest these Jebusites doe stay among us Reason they are but as g Josh 23.13 thorns in our eyes yea the onely h Zech. 3.1 Satans which stand at the very right hand of our Joshua's to resist or to disturbe them in their most fervent services and devotions These the onely Achans who i Josh 7.25 trouble our Israel and as Jebu said to Jehoram What k 2 King 9.22 peace can be expected with any assurance in any Nation where the Whoredomes or Witchcrafts whether Temporall or l Rev. 17.5 Spirituall of but one Jezabel are endured It is said here in the close of this Text That the Land had rest forty years but note the occasion and it is very observable Judg. 4.16 All the Hoste of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword and there was not a Man left in relation unto which for the procuring of Peace for after times the good Prophetesse in likelihood here prayed for a totall eradication saying So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord. Your selves with due Cautions Vse may make the application I have spoken unto m 1 Cor. 10.15 wise men who can judge I doubt not what I say AND so I come to the seventh and last particular in the Text which is the manner Part. VII after which she desires that all these Enemies of the Lord may perish Sic pereant so which Monosyllable So I have reserved to handle in the last place because it will best usher in my intended application of the whole and is indeed as that Wine made by Christ at the Marriage feast in Cana of Galilee kept as the n Josh 2.10 best till last So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord. How or which way would she have them perish Perhaps we may resolve this So as o Ribera ad Amos 4.12 Ribera from Saint Hierom doth that so or thus in the Prophet Amos 4.12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel Thus How or in what manner R. Non nominat mala ut omnia timeant Hee names no one particular evill that so they might stand in aw and be afrayd of every evill of punishment p Sueton. lib. 1. sect 65. Suetonius telleth us that it was the very policy of Julius Caesar never to foreacquaint his Souldiers of any set time of removall or onset Scilicet ut paratum intentum momentis omnibus quo velle subito educeret That he ever have him in readinesse for the suddainest march nor was his way of animation and encouragement by extenuating or denying the danger of the Enemy but he deemed it fitter to raise up thoughts of valour by an aggravation of the contrary forces and as the story shews us did not seldome this way Hyperbolically Rhetoricate I know you can apply But whether that be intended in this text I will not peremptorily say But certainly my deare Brethren it s a most usefull meditation and very availeable to prevent obstinate security in dangerous times to consider the variety of Plagues that the Lord hath up in store for the children of disobedience to which end I thinke it is that the Lord is pleased to set before our eyes so large a Catalogue of Curses Deut. 28. Give me leave a little to enlarge upon this subject I shall ground my enlargement on that of the Stoique q Epictetus in enchiridio Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as I interpret it according to diversity of apprehension of good or evill so are mens mindes diversly affected and there are evils grievous to some that seem good to others for example tell a valiant Souldier of Warre approaching you speake to his heart for then he thrives But