The Heart of the King; and the King of the Heart. OR A brief unfolding of that remarkable PROVERB of the Royal PREACHER. PROVERB. 21.1. The King's Heart is in the hand of the LORD. Written in the time of his Majesty's abode at Plymouth, and preferred unto him in his return from thence. ANNO 1625. Together with a short Meditation upon 2. Sam. 24.15. Preached at a Weekly Lecture in Devon: in those fearful times of MORTALITY. By J. P. Master of Arts and Minister of the GOSPEL. LONDON, Printed by William Stansby, 1628. Errata. PAg. 10. line 13. read, their hearts. pag. 12. l. 29. r. King. p. 32. l. 2. r. Wisd. 12. p. 51. l. 2. r. Nadab. p. 55. l. 15. r. deprive. TO THE HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE CHARLES, By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, etc. Most gracious Sovereign, IT might justly be censured as an intolerable rashness in your unworthy Subject, that he being so lately pardoned for his great audaciousness, should yet again presume in the same kind; had he not read charactered in your very countenance, Quanto maior tanto melior, * August. Quanto melior tanto mitior, that your Sonereigne Greatness made way for your bounteous Goodness, and boundless Gentleness; and been confident that it would graciously consider, that albeit it were an unwonted presumption for so mean a Subject to advance in so short a space, to so high a Majesty, two several paper-presents (as unworthy to be read, as every way unready) yet the rare presence of so great an Highness as the eldest eye hath not seen in these parts of your Dominions, (which are not so fare distant from your Royal Mansions, as their people are nearly linked to the service of your Majesty) together with that great and general emulation of your loyal Subjects, striving to do your Majesty some acceptable service in this unusual Progress, might be admitted to mediate unto your Royal favour for a renewing of the former Pardon, and giving acceptance to the same person, who with as much loyal respect as formerly, and with the same prostrate humility devoteth this his second service to your sacred self, in your Princely return from the period of your long progress; humbly desiring the Lord of Hosts to prosper your Majesty's Royal Marriage, Leagues, Navies, Armies and journeys, that they may tend to the Glory of the Almighty, the terror of your Enemies, the assurance of your safety, the succours of your dejected Sister, and the comfort of your devoted Subjects, amongst whom, even in that long Roll extended in the Western Chart, there shall ever be found while life shall remain, Your Majesty's most loyal and obedient Subject, J. P. PROV. 21.1. The King's Heart is in the hand of the LORD. IT is written in the hearts of all men by the hand of the ALMIGHTY, that wheresoever they are He is present with them, and acquainted with all their ways, Psal. 139.3. And yet those Books of Record laid up in the breasts of the Reprobate are so blotted and spotted with sin, that they can hardly read God's presence in them, and much less construe it aright. Therefore he is pleased to manifest himself in the hearts of his Elect, in a fairer Character of a more gracious and propitious presence, and that most specially when they are assembled in his Name, and in his House, He then promising that although they be but two or three, yet he will be nigh them, yea amongst them, and amidst them too, not only in the Body of his Temple, but in the very Temples of their Bodies, in his House, and in their hearts. Prope Deus est, cum ijs est, in ijs. Inter eos & intra eos: With them and within them. But to come nearer. Amongst all the chosen hearts of God's Servants, God reserveth his choicest presence for the hearts of his chosen and anointed Servants; The royal heart is Gods great Chamber of presence. Psal. 82. And amongst all godly Congregations, he is pleased to take up his special standing in the Congregation of Gods, where Kings and Princes meet to do him service, and to call upon his Name, by whose Name they are called. Bethel the King's Chapel is most significantly the House of God, and questionless, God will be most peculiarly present with the King's heart; for behold in this Text he hath given his Word, and his Hand for it, The Heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord. In the hand of the Lord is the heart of every living Creature, it being the principal part of that admired workmanship of his own divine hand; but specially the heart of man the principal Creature, who is the special Masterpiece of his workmanship, as bearing his own Image, and yet more peculiarly the heart of the King the principal man, who is more peculiarly his Image, as being his own Vicegerent. The King's Heart is in the hand of the LORD. If we take the heart at the Lords hand, as he vouchsafeth to take it at ours, viz. for the whole living creature, Behold his hand is over all his works, it filleth all things living with plenteousness, it feedeth and saveth both Man and Beast; In his hands are all the corners of the EARTH, as well as all the corners of the HEART, as the Psalmist teacheth. In his hand, saith job, is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all Mankind. But in this general subordination and subjection what will be the prerogative of man above other Creatures, or of Kings above other men? Certainly much. The inferior creatures are in the hand of God, yet so that he hath also put them into the hands of men, Gen. 1.28. and they have dominion over them; Inferior men are in the hand of God, yet so that he hath also delivered them into the hands of Kings, and they exercise authority upon them. Mat. 20.25: But as for Kings shall I say that they only are absolutely in God's hands; I may say absolutely that they are in God's hands only. God hath put the lives of others into their hands, them he hath reserved for his own. The King's Heart is in the hand of the Lord. This was not only David's case who was a man after Gods own heart, and had so sweet an experimental knowledge of God's gracious tuition: Nor salomon's alone who had so faithful an assurance of God's favourable assistance, grounded on so full a promise, as that God would be his Father, and he should be his Child, and seconded with so fair a pawn as the fullness of wisdom and an understanding heart: This is a case common to Kings, and must be pleaded by a Proverb, The King's Heart is in the hand of the Lord: A Proverb that carrieth with it power and authority, pith and significancy, wherein ye have the hand of the Lord, and the very heart of the King, Manum divinam, Mentem regiam. — Summus utrique Martial. Author adest, haec est Caesaris, illa Dei. The King's Heart is in the hand of the Lord. Esay 14.10. But, what hath God an hand? Is God also become weak as we, is he become like unto us. It is usual with us, as to christian diverse men, so to call different things by one and the same name: Pedem & nostrum dicimus & lecti & veli & carminis, Seneca. saith that sage Heathen: Our weakness is the strongest reason for it that he standeth on, Quia non sufficimus ut singula singulis assignemus. So standeth the case with us men, it is nothing so with God. Hath he a foot? it is to support our infirmities: it is to tread a path for our capacities. Hath he an Hand in my Text? it is to direct our decayed knowledge; it is to lead our blind understandings. If any therefore shall make a question how the hand may be fastened on God, with whom things corporal can hold no proportion, The Figure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must shape him an answer, by which our great God mercifully descending and condescending unto our mean capacities, doth, because we cannot understand him in the language of Canaan, speak unto us in our own Mother-tongue, and because we cannot read the divine Characters of his Essence, and Presence, writeth in our own hand; The King's Heart is in the hand of the Lord. By this hand then God leadeth us to the consideration of that high esteem which he vouchsafeth us, as if it were not enough for us that he had made us like himself, He would, if it were possible, make himself like us. But here (to speak more pertinently) God especially beareth us in hand, Quam habiturus sit circa publicas personas specialem providentiam: Carthus. What an high regard he will have of Royal sublimity. As if it were not enough for Kings that the Host of the Lord were their Guard, the Lord of Hosts will be their Guardian: his hand shall maintain their right and manage their affairs. The King's Heart is in the hand of the Lord. I will not divide or divorce the Lords hand from the King's heart: What God hath coupled I will not put asunder. Let hand and heart go together. In the jointure it shall be sufficient for me to handle. First, God's royal Prerogative over the Heart. Secondly, God's Prerogative over the Heart royal. The first of these will evidence that God carrieth an hand over the hearts of all men in general. The second, that he hath an especial hand over the hearts of Kings. And these are the general observations. God's prerogative over the heart consisteth principally in the disquisition, and in the conversion thereof, in searching and in turning it: the former exercised as well in the Reprobate as the Elect, the other in the Elect only: Both most eminently in Kings and men of the highest rank. That it is God's prerogative to search the heart will soon appear, Psal. 44.21. upon a search of the Scriptures: Shall not God search this out, for he knoweth the secrets of the heart, saith David. The heart is the fountain of life; with God is the fountain of life, to use in this sense the saying of the same Kingly Prophet, Psal. 36.9. This Well is deep and we have nothing wherewith to draw. Our own hearts are deceitful; we can hardly ever find the depth of our own, much less sound the Bottom of another's heart. Yea, but ex abundantia cordis os loquitur, the words which a man letteth fall, By the speech as by the pulse we may guess at the temper of the heart. the thread of his speech like that of Ariadne's Clue, may somewhat direct us in tracing the Maze, and following the turnings and windings of the heart. When I hear a mouth breathing out scurrility and blasphemies, a mouth under whose roof God and good men never come, but they receive a wound; what shall I say, but that it is retainer and reporter to a wicked heart. Thus might we judge of the temper of the heart in general, but must leave the exact search to the hand of the Lord. We may yet be much mistaken and deceived in some external Indices of the heart. Many Hypocrites there are who for fear of censure, or desire of esteem, keep their tongues cleanly, and yet there is many a foul corner in their hearts: like those Citizens who sweep and keep their doors very near for fear of a check from the Magistrate, and yet have many a sluttish corner in their houses. When all is done, The Lord is the true beholder of the heart. Homo cor ex verbis Deus verba ex corde pensat. Greg. Wisd. 1.6. Rom. 1.20. 1. Sam. 16.7. Psal. 139.2. Acts 15.8. Of him it is clearly seen: He seethe not as man seethe; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. He understandeth our thoughts afar off. He seethe in secret, saith our Saviour, Mat. 6. Therefore Peter recordeth in the Acts, that it is God who knoweth the hearts: And God appropriateth that prerogative to himself, I the Lord search the heart. All things, and thoughts are naked and open in his eyes: The Figtree leaves could not keep Adam's nakedness out of his sight. The Figtree could not hide Nathaniel from his privy search. Neither Men nor Angels but by especial revelation from him can have any hand in the search of the heart, 2. Chron. 6.30. for he only knoweth the hearts of the children of men. The Heart is in the hand of the Lord. I turn my speech to the conversion of the heart, which is another prerogative belonging to the Almighty hand. The heart it is, that is Primum vivens, the first part that is vivified and quickened, both in Nature and Grace. As when Subjects are up in Rebellion, the Prince intending to subdue them, seizeth first on their strongest hold: so God in reducing our rebel wills to his obedience, first layeth hold on the heart. Silly man is no otherwise the cause of his own conversion, than Marcus Livius was of the taking of Tarentum; who (as Plutarch relateth) envying Fabius for his recovering and reducing of it to the Roman obedience, Plut. in vita Fab. Maximi. in open Senate said, That it was himself and not Fabius that was the cause of regaining the City: True answered Fabius, For hadst not thou lost it, I had never won it. Non potuisti, o homo, in te, nisi perdere te, saith Augustine; We have gone astray like lost Sheep (saith David) It is the Lord that must seek his Servants. Psal. 119.176. It is our spirit that animates us in nature, but God's Spirit quickeneth us in Grace, and createth a clean heart in us. In Nature, the agility of our hands is to be attributed to our hearts. In Grace, the ability of our hearts to the hand of the Lord: His hand leadeth us to saving health. Our hearts by sin were not only wounded, but altogether dead, stone-dead, lumps of dead flesh: Christ jesus that good Samaritan, came by, and poured in Oil and Wine, the Oil of his mercy, and the red Wine that came from no other Vine, besides his own veins. 'twas only the blood of that Scape-goate who took our nature upon him that could mollify our Adamantine hearts. We did no way prevent his absolute work of conversion by our own wills preparation, or natural inclination. But as Augustine said of the Soul, That it was created together with the infusing of it, and infused into us together with the creating of it: so must we of our will, that God in converting our hearts, maketh them to will their conversion, and in making our hearts to will their conversion, doth convert them. And thus much of the Heart with reference to men in general. Now as all Clay is in the hand of the Potter, and yet he is most careful of that Clay which he reserveth for vessels which shall serve for the best uses, and which he will set at the highest rate: so God fashioneth all hearts alike (as the Psalmist noteth) & yet he is most intentive to the hearts of Kings. And good reason. The spirits & hearts of private men, move their private bodies; The spirits & hearts of Princely and Public persons, move multitudes, even the whole body Politic. Therefore God inspireth the hearts of supreme Governors with heroical gifts, and supereminent graces, filleth them with fortitude and magnanimity; and frameth and fitteth them for the managing of the weightiest affairs. The hearts of private men are in the hands of the Lord, as the Wells of water, their motions are confined within their own compass: The heart of the King like the rivers of water (as ye may see in the words following the Text) from him there is to be derived the whole Weal public: The Spirit of God moveth principally on those waters. As when the River Nilus in his inundation riseth some Cubits higher than his usual limits, it is said to be a certain presage of a future Dearth and Famine in Egypt: so when the King's heart swelleth above the Lord's hand, it will fill heavy on the whole Land. And now from that which hath been taught touching the Lord's hand, both Kings and Subjects may learn to humble themselves under God's mighty hand, and to present them hearts unto him with an Ecce Ancillam, Behold thine Handmaid. Those Kings may take correction at God's hand, who, as though God had no interest in their principal part, pay the use of it to their own pleasures; who live rather like such as think God's heart to be in their hand, than those who consider that theirs is in his; who direct not any Prayers unto him, pray not unto him for any directions, but making Idols of themselves, cry Fiat voluntas nostra, let our wills be done. It is true indeed, that the Privileges of Kings are exceeding great. They are in a great measure like unto God himself. For such majesty he giveth them, that all people, nations, and languages tremble and fear before them; whom they will they slay, & whom they will they keep alive, whom they will they set up, and whom they will they put down, Dan. 5.19. Their hearts are unsearchable, Prou. 25.3. Their power is in some sort like unto his: Prou. 30.31. Against him there is no rising up. And (like him) they are not bound to give men an account of their actions; For as none can stay the Lords hand, and say unto him what dost thou, Dan. 4. So, who shall say to the King what dost thou. Yet for all this, the same mouth that pronounceth them Gods, telleth them that they shall dye like men: They may be as Gods to their subjects, yet must they be subject to God. As his hand hath advanced them, so must they exalt him. This shall they do when Maximus and Optimus go hand in hand, — Virtus & summa potestas Cum cocant— When in their Kingdoms they think of God's Kingdom. Although Caput Imperij seem to be the more glorious Title, yet Membrum Ecclesiae is the more gracious Name. Gratius nomen pietatis quam potestatis, saith Tertullian. Apologet. cap. 34 And to speak truly, Goodness is the only true Greatness: They are great who are great in God's favour. So Moses and joseph were great: Isidores Etymology may serve to this purpose, Reges à rectè agendo, saith he, as if Regere were nought else but rectè agere, with him agreeth Hugo Cardinalis in his Comment, (if we apply those words to Kings in particular, which he useth in the general) Cor Regale est, quod excussit à se iugum seruitutis malae, nec alicui seruit, nisi Deo, cui seruire regnare est. He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, 2. Sam. 23 3. Rex eri● dum benè regis, quod nisi feceris, nomen Regis in te non constabit: so wrote Eleutherius to King Lucius. Again, the Lords hand in this Text may serve to check those Court-palmisters, who think that they have found the line of their preferment in their own hands, saying in their hearts, Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this, Deuteronomy 32.27. By the strength of our hand we have done it, and by our wisdom, for we are prudent, Esay 10.13. O they should think of an higher hand, and consider that as they rule by Kings, so King's reign by God, Prou. 8. Therefore when they are exalted, they should extol God's hand, and lift up their own, only in praise to him: They should remember that promotion cometh unto them at the second hand, For Promotion cometh neither from the East nor from the West, nor from the South; But God is the judge, he putteth down one, and setteth up another, Psal. 75. Therefore that should be their acknowledgement, and resolution, which was Kings David's, 1. Chron. 29.12. Both riches and honour (saith he) come of thee, and thou raignest over all, and in thine hand is power and might, and in thine hand it is to make great, etc. Now therefore our God we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. Lastly, let the same hand serve to beat down those presumptuous miscreants, who durst to lay violent hands on the Lords anointed servants. It is fabled of the Bird Amphibia, that when the King of Fowls demanded tribute of her, she took wing, and betook herself to the Sea, and lived among the fish, etc. Birds of this feather are our English Fugitives, the Pope's Birds, who have forsaken our Land, and betaken themselves to the Sea of Rome, breaking asunder the bonds of their Allegiance and Religion. Their adulterous Mother-Church saith unto them concerning Christ's pretended Vicar, that which Christ's Virgin-Mother said concerning Christ to the servants at the marriage in Cana, Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it: And he being (like the off spring of Herodias) before instructed by the cursed doctrine of that bloody Mother, Mat. 14.8. breatheth out nothing but Murders, biddeth them aim at nothing so much, as at the heads of the Lords Anointed. So was the Assyrian King, Isa. 10.5. And that bloody Scythian of later times. Punientur iudicio Dei. Lactant. Diu. Infi: lib 5. cap. vlt. But we are to learn hence a lesson of Prayer and Supplication for Kings, and those which are in authority; And of Patience and sufferance under the yoke of tyranny: If our Kings tyrannize they are the scourge of God, as was Antiochus. They are in the Lord's hand to punish us, and we must leave and refer their punishment to the same hand: And certainly, his hand shall find out all his enemies, Psal. 21.8. When God openeth his hand, and layeth it graciously on those who are our heads, than he falleth to blessing of us: when he shutteth it, and layeth it grievously about our Heads, than he falleth to buffetting of us. Wherefore be our Kings good? they are the Ministers of God for our good: Be they evil? Indignationis adversus nos divinae quasi ministri sunt, Lactant. diuin. Instit. lib, 5. cap. vlt. saith Lactantius. Good Kings are like fire to comfort and enlighten: Bad Kings are as fire to consume and devour: It is not good meddling with, or laying hands on either. What if Nabuchadnezzars' heart be lifted up, must a sentence of Deprivation be given to despoil him of his throne? Dan. 5.20 21. No, God's hand with the turn of an hand, must turn him a grazing, and make his Heart like the Beasts. Dan. 5.23. Let Belshazzar lift up himself against the Lord of Heaven; must a censure of Excommunication be hung up at his gate? No, the finger of the Lords hand must write against the wall of his Palace, that hand must number his time and finish it, Dan. 5.24. weigh him in the balance and find him wanting, divide his Kingdom and give it to the Medes and Persians. If the foul mouth of Herod breathe out from a corrupt and cruel heart, threatenings against God's Church: must a Chastell therefore strike at his throat, or a Ravilliacke stab at his heart? No, the Lord must lay his hand upon him: his Angels must smite him. * Horat. Regum timendorum in proprios greges, Reges in ipsos imperium est Dei. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the Rivers of water. We must consider that God withholdeth the waters and they dry up, also he sendeth them out and they overturn the Earth, job 12.15. See also, Esa. 8.7. He can cut off the spirit of Princes, Psal. 76.12 He can change the hearts of Kings who are set to do evil: He can exchange Kings whom he hath set as the hearts in the midst of the Bodies politic: He can alter and subvert the estates of Kingdoms though they be set, and as it were settled in the very heart of the Earth, like that of the jews, Ezek. 5.5. He taketh away Kings; He ruleth over the Kingdoms of men, and giveth them to whomsoever he will. Magna Magnus disponit Deus: So that we must leave those things with all our hearts, to the disposal of God's Almighty hand. When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice saith Solomon, Prou. 29.2. When the wicked bear rule, what then, must the people rebel? No (as it there followeth) than the people mourn: They change their note and tune it to lachrymae: Rivers of waters run down their eyes, Psal. 119.136. because of those Princes who keep not Gods Law. Be our Kings then good or evil, God hath set them as the tree of good and evil in the midst of the Garden; It is not for man to touch them lest he die: Nemo potentes aggredi tutus potest. Seneca. English it in the words of holy Scripture, Who can lay hands upon the Lords anointed and be guiltless, 1. Sam. 26. A thought against the sacred head of Sovereignty, is an attempt against thine own: Scelus in autorem redit: like an arrow shot against heaven, it cometh down with a vengeance upon the Shooters own head. It is like that envenomed cup of the Monk of Swinsteed, which (as some writ) destroyed himself together with his Sovereign: Or like that sword wherewith Cassius strooke Caesar, Plut. in vit. julii Caesaris. which (as Plutarch storieth) did afterward slay Cassius himself. See Psal. 37.15. The thoughts and the dreams of some have been treasonable: But who would have thought that their own confession should make them plead guilty? who would have dreamt that their fancy should be punished as a fact? Si nemo fuerit accusator, ipsi narrabunt. The Lord hath bound every heart and hand with such a tye of inviolable obedience to their Kings, that who so provoketh them to Anger, is said to sin against his own soul, Prou. 20.2. The Lord is so tender over them, that he will not have them touched; Touch not mine Anointed, Psal. 105.15. He telleth us, that if the King be cursed in our thought, or in our Bed chamber, a Bird of the Air shall carry the voice, that which hath wings shall tell the matter, Eccles. 10.20. When by Gowries' Plot, our late Lord the King was brought even to the Chambers of death, who would have imagined that the tongue, scarce at liberty, should have discovered that the head was in danger. In the Powder-plot, when all things were carried in secrecy: when those bloodsuckers sealed their cruel resolutions with receipt of the Sacrament, therein mingling blood with their sacrifices; who would have thought that that which had wings should have told the matter; that a Quill, that a Letter, like that Anser Capitolinus, should have bewrayed the capital danger likely to fall upon the whole Land? It was the hand of the Lord, that enlarged the heart of the King, to conceive the intricate meaning of an obscure Riddle. It was his hand that discovered deep things out of darkness, and brought to light the shadow of Death job 12.22. So the Catesbeian Conspiracy was disclosed much like the Catilinarian, of whose discovery Plutarch reporteth thus. Plut. in vit. Ciceronis. At night after supper, and not long before the Massacre should have been committed, Crassus his servant brought him a packet of letters, delivered him by a stranger unknown, was amongst which one having no name subscribed, was directed to Crassus, the effect of which was that there should be a great slaughter committed in Rome by Catiline, and therefore prayed him to forbear the City: Crassus therefore went to Cicero, partly for fear of the danger, and partly to clear himself from the suspicion of any league between him and the Conspirators; Cicero convented the Senate, and caused the said letters to be read publicly and so those letters bewrayed the Conspiracy. Let us now change but a few names with heathenish Rome, and we shall find but small difference in the revealing of these two Romish and hellish Conspiracies: namely, if we put Catesby for Catiline, Monteagle for Crassus, our Cecil for her Cicero, & our late Sovereign for her whole Senat. Thus the Lords mighty hand hath done for us great things, and holy is his name. It hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their own hearts, and helped our Israel in remembrance of his mercy. To contract and conclude all, and therewithal, in a nearer application of this Text, to apply ourselves unto thankes. Deut. 32.3. Let us publish the name and the hand of our Lord: Ascribe ye greatness unto our God: Deut. 32.9. The Lord's portion is his people, and jacobs' offspring the Lot of his Inheritance. As for his People; with his own right hand hath he gotten the victory over the strong holds of their crooked and stubborn hearts. It was his only hand that pierced that film which involueth their hearts, making it to send forth that cordial water of compunction, the shedding whereof mortifieth Nature, and irrigateth the grace of their Conversion. Deut. 32.10.12. And as for jacobs' offspring, the Lords hand brought him back not long since, from a desert Land: He led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. The Lord alone did lead him and there was no strange God with him; (that I may so apply those passages in Moses his Song, Deut. 32.) The Lord's hand fortified his Royal heart against all danger both of soul and body, so that the Idolatrous Nation could neither detain his person, nor obtain their purposes. Their lose Religion did knit him faster to his Lord and Saviour: and their superstitious shows and services did the more confirm his sacred resolution of persisting with sincerity of heart in the Orthodox and Apostolical Faith. Yea, the same hand did in some sort reverse the purposes of our Sovereign himself, to reserve him for the accomplishment of Gods own divine purposes. Cant. 2.1. He who is the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys brought back our Sovereign Rose from that barren soil, in whose Plot he could never have prospered, the ground thereof being so deceitful; And now he hath bedded it with the Royal Lily in his own fruitful Land. O let the Almighty Hand knit up their hearts both together as one Poesy in the bundle of life, making him always a fragrant Rose of a sweet smelling savour before God; And her the turned Lily unto the Lord; bearing up both of them, that they may not dash the foot of their affections against the stone, and stumbling block of Idolatry, but rather, may dash that in pieces against the Rock Christ jesus. In the next place consider we how graciously the Royal Protector of the Sovereign heart, hath inclined the royal heart of our gracious Sovereign, to be the Protector and Avenger of his distressed Sister and Nephews in the Netherlands, whose Land Strangers have devoured, and in whose low estate the heart of Religion hath long lain upon bleeding. Finally, let Levies Tribe gratefully consider, and remember how the Lord enlarged (the other day) the heart of our graciously inclined Sovereign for the enlarging of Levies portion, many of whose Tribe want the corporal bread, while they prepare the spiritual food. As soon as our Lord the King had notice from his loyal Subjects, that there was in many barren places of his Majesty's large Dominions, a Famine by so much greater than that in Samaria, (2. Kings 6.) by how much the Soul is better than the Body. And that in those places, it fared with his people as it did with those Samaritans in the 25. Verse of the forementioned Chapter; Sacrilegious Simonyaks obtruding to them by way of sale, an Ass' head to feed their hunger-starved souls; yea an Head possessed with a dumb spirit, whose jawbone even while it wanteth motion may be said to slay as many Souls, as Samson did Bodies with his jawbone of an Ass, (judges 15.) heaps upon heaps, as it is in the 16. Verse of the Chapter. Having graciously laid to heart that this was the King's Evil, and by him only to be cured under God; and that therefore his Subjects did cry like her in Samaria [2. Kings 6.26.] Help our Lord, O King; He soon returned a more comfortable answer than she received there; namely, that the Parliament assembled at that time should take special care, that for the better propagating of the Gospel in providing able Pastors, provision should be made that aswell the owners of Parsonages Impropriate, as the Inhabitants of Parishes untaught, should allow competent maintenance for sufficient Ministers, in those Churches, whose Cures did nearly concern themselves in particular. Thus the Lord hath highly enriched our Sovereign with the blessings of Solomon, so that he is wise in his youth, and as a Flood filled with understanding: His Name is gone fare, Ecclus 47.14, 16. and for the peace and prosperity which he wisheth unto Zion, he is highly beloved and renowned. And as for the Isles under him, the Lord hath blessed them with the blessings of the Gentiles in the last Chapter of Isaiah; Esay 66. cap. vers. 12.14. He hath extended peace like a River, our hearts rejoice, and our bones flourish like an herb, and the hand of the Lord is known towards us. Now the same Almighty hand of the everliving God who hath placed and planted our Sovereign as the Heart in the body of this Triangled Island, reserve ever to itself only, that little Triangle of his heart, give him an heart to love and dread the Lord, and diligently to live and rule according to his Commandments; that so, when he shall have finished his course, kept the Faith, and given up the Account of his high Stewardship, he may hear that comfortable and heart-reioycing voice pronounced unto him, Math. 25. ●1. Well done thou good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many things: Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. A BRIEF MEDITATION UPON THE FIFTEENTH VERSE OF the twenty fourth Chapter of the second Book of Samuel. Delivered at a weekly Lecture in Devon: Anno 1625. By J. P. THOU SHALT LABOUR FOR PEACE PLENTY LONDON, Printed by William Stansby. 1626. 2. SAM. 24.15. So the Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel from the morning even unto the time appointed, and there died of the people, even from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand men. YE see even at the first sight that this Text affordeth fit matter for the taking up of our Meditations in these times: It maketh report of a great Pestilence spreading itself in Israel in the time, and specially for the sin, of King David. David's heart is lifted up in the number of his people; The Lord lifteth up his hand to cut it off. He pricketh that swelling bladder of vain and carnal confidence, with a sharp and grievous sickness. I note in the Text these several particulars, First, The Author or Inflicter of this mortality; The Lord. Secondly, The Nature of it; It was a Pestilence. Thirdly, The time in which it reigned; From the morning even to the time appointed. Fourthly, The Place to which it was confined; From Dan to Beersheba. Fiftly, The Number of people which it consumed; Seventie thousand men. First, The Author is jehova The Lord, set out by that great Name of his, derived from an Hebrew word signifying Being, to show and make known his independency from any other, he being an eternal Being of himself. I am that I am, Exod. 3.14. and also to manifest that he giveth being to all the creatures; whence some have well observed that the name of jehova the Lord, was not used before the whole work of the Creation was finished, but is first mentioned in the second Chapter and fourth Verse of Genesis. And lastly to give us to understand, that God giveth being and accomplishment to all his promises, he causeth them to be brought to pass, and become (as it were) things in Esse, in Being. Therefore God telleth Moses in the sixth Chapter of Exodus, Verse the third. That he was not known unto Abraham, Isaak and jacob by his name jehovah, because though they believed that he would, yet they lived not to see that he did effectually accomplish that which he had graciously promised, in delivering their seed from the Egyptian servitude, and investing them with the possession of the Land of promise. So then, the Inflicter of this great and terrible Pestilence was jehovah the Lord, a great God and a terrible, as Moses styleth him; that uncaused Being, the cause of all Being, who keepeth his word, and that specially in the execution of his wrath upon sin. Secondly, The Nature of the punishment by him inflicted was pestilential, The Lord sent a Pestilence, etc. The sickness as we call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, viz. a most grievous, deadly, violent and infectious disease, seizing on the spirits, and suddenly sending to the grave: A most uncomfortable sickness, in as much as when God visiteth us with it, all refrain from visiting us. Our Lovers and friends stand aloof from this sore, and our Kinsmen stand afar off, as David saith of himself in another, and more general sense, Psalm 38.11. Thirdly, As for the time in which the Pestilence reigned. Some say it was from morning to midday, some for the whole three days threatened, A third sort for half the space: The Text saith it was even to the time appointed: And if we shall think that the triduall term was abridged upon David's humiliation & repentance; or at least that the Plague ceased before the third day ended; the Lord being said in this Chapter to repent of the evil, forbearing in his anger to punish, and forbidding his Angel to proceed any further, the phrase of Scripture will be our warrant, in which Gods temporal punishments are not ever decreed irrevocably, but determined conditionally, and if men will not repent, he will proceed to accomplishment: yet will it not therefore follow that Gods will dependeth upon man's, for it is known to him from eternity, who they are that shall turn to him by repentance, and he is the orderer of their ways, and the over-ruler of their wills, and their repentance is merely of his grace, and from his gift. Fourthly, The place to which the Pestilence was confined, was from Dan to Beersheba. Dan is here taken locally for a City bounding Israel, as elsewhere personally for a Son borne unto jacob: 'twas the utmost confine of Israel on the North side; as Beersheba a City of judah was on the South, towards the Philistines: So from Dan to Beersheba, is in effect throughout all Israel. 'tTwere the like phrase of speech, if we of these parts should say of some general Plague dispersed in all the Island of Great Britain, that it reigned from the Start-point on our Southern Seas, unto Straithy-head in Scotland, which is the farthest point stretching itself into the North Seas. Fiftly, The number that died were seventy thousand men. A great Catalogue for so small a continuance, or in so small a compass: Insomuch that if the mortality should have held the same course which it began, but a month or two, it is likely (by conferring the number which joab took of the people, with the number which God took away by the Pestilence) that in all Israel there would not have been a man or two left. I grant that it is apparent, that joab brought not an exact number of all the people, but withal I say, it is most probable, that all the people who fell by the Pestilence are not here numbered, but chief (if not only) those whom God subtracted, and took away from the former computation of those men of war in whom David gloried. So the Lord punished David in the thing wherein he offended God. David gloried of the number of his people in his pride, and God diminished them with his Plague. Thus have I overrun the particulars to hasten to my observations. I find many a notable Emphasis in this Text. Death is not so strange, and yet there is notice to be taken of it: but for men to die of so strange a death as of the pestilence, and for so many to dye of the pestilence, and that in so small a compass of time, and within Israel's Confines, this is that which should force us to take a more special notice of the heavy hand of God. The Observation which I first draw out of this Text, is this: Doct. The pestilence is Gods special Rod, whereby he scourgeth the sin, and punisheth the pride of the most potent and populous Nations. God had greatly multiplied his great mercies upon Israel, and in great mercy had greatly multiplied Israel, made it a great and a mighty Nation, of small beginnings; and now for David's sin of numbering, and for the number of their sins, he beginneth greatly to diminish them. The Lord sent a Pestilence. The Pestilence is his great scourge for sin. When you are gathered together in your Cities, I will send a Pestilence among you (saith the Lord) viz. for your breach of my covenant, Leviticus 26.25. Indeed every sickness may be said to be God's scourge, but the Plague, that is specialis plaga, God's special and proper stripe, the signs that it makes are Gods special marks, and therefore the Word of the Lord calleth it the Sword of the Lord, 1. Chron. 21.12. As jehovah the name by which God is here styled is peculiar to him: so the spreading of the pestilence, which he here sendeth is from him alone. We may raise other sicknesses to cast down ourselves by our own surfeits and distempers, this seemeth to be merely of his sending, and he only to have a finger herein. So David acknowledged when he chose to fall into the hands of God, by the falling of his people by a Pestilence, in the Verse before the Text. And now for use to us; Beloved, Israel's calamity in the time of King David, is England's case in the time of King Charles, — Facta est narratio de te, Anglia, mutato nomine, cum numero. In changing the names of the country and circuit, together with the number of hours in which this Plague lasted, and of the people whom it consumed while it continued, here is our case, and we have an English history. If the Pestilence then be God's scourge for sin, let us see what we have to do to appease him. Once we can never go from his punishments, as we have strayed from his Precepts: he can follow us from London to the Mount, and from the Lands end to the midst of the Ocean: Whither can we go from his presence? there is no way for us to fly from him, but by flying unto him, and betaking ourselves from the face of his Majesty, to the footstool of his mercy: To amend our ways, that is the only way for us to appease his wrath, and to end his plagues. For when we are once duly humbled for our sins, God hath attained his end and aim in punishing us, and then he will stay his hand. Whence else doth God complain by Amos, That he sent the Pestilence among the Israelites after the manner of Egypt (as now he hath sent the Pestilence among the English after the manner of Israel) and yet they returned not unto him, Am. 4.10. Wherefore doth he thus testify and contest against them by Haggai, that he smote them and yet they turned not unto him, Hag. 2.17. True is the Son of Syrach his acknowledgement, Thou chastnest and warnest us that leaving our wickedness, we may believe on thee O Lord, Wisd. 1.2. Well speaketh Lactantius therefore to the purpose, Deus morum emendatione placatur, & qui peccare desinit iram Dei mortalem facit: To cease from sin, is to make God's anger cease from us; and to amend our ways is the only way to avoid his plagues. Let us then repent of the evil which we have wrought against God, that he may repent of the evil which he hath brought amongst us. Let us repent, and not proceed in our sins; that he may repent, and not proceed with his plagues: plagues, which though in our own particulars we feel not yet; yet we must needs fear, and should duly compassionate in others. For is the head sick, and do not the inferior members suffer with it; Or, if the head City continue sick, is it like to far well with us? May not we see our own face in that London glass? Certain it is, that our reigning sins have made way for this reigning sickness. Our inward corruptions bear a part in the cause of this contagion. Our sins made a separation between God and us, ere ever he by this sickness hath made us separate one from another. Let us therefore consider, and that with great sorrow and humiliation, the great sins wherewith we have provoked him, equalling I am sure, if not exceeding those of Israel. The chief sins wherewith Israel provoked God, were, 1. Their Intemperancie and Luxury in the abuse of those outward blessings wherewith they abounded. 2. Their Insolency and security by reason of the many victories which they had achieved. 3. Their Ingratitude, not rendering due thanks for the benefits which they had received. These three were the Capital sins of Israel, in which David as Head bore a principal part, and for which he was put to so hard a choice, that he preferred the three days plague as the easiest punishment. God hath no way been wanting to this our Island in Israel's blessings: She hath no way been behind Israel in those sins. He hath blessed our Kingdom above neighbour Nations, with his protection and deliverances, with peace and plenty, with a potent people, and above all, with the powerful preaching of his glorious Gospel. He hath exalted our times above former ages, by giving and preserving unto us Kings and Princes, for piety, wisdom, and moderation, unparalelled in our, or in other humane Chronicles: But how have we failed in blessing him, in magnifying and exalting his name? Let our fullness of bread, and vain pleasing of ourselves in such infinite variety and exquisite delicacy of feeding; our fullness of pride, and vain glorying in the strength of our Land Forces, and in remembrance of our naval victories; Our unthankfulness to God for the free passage of his Gospel, in despite of all plots and projects to the contrary, and for his manifold and memorable deliverances of Prince and People from treacherous invasions and subtle circumuentions at home and abroad, our proneness to departed from the Lord, and to go a whoring after strange Gods, as soon as our most religious Prince, and now gracious Sovereign, was departed out of our Land into a strange Nation; Our returning such cold thankes for his so blessed return into his own inheritance. Our general discontent; our eyeing of Egypt, and wishing this our Israel entrusted with, and enthralled unto a nation in some conceits rich and mighty, but in all respects base and miserable; Let these things, these sins, testify against us, and let this our ingratitude humble and cast us down in a revengeful judging of ourselves, as it hath called and pulled down judgements and vengeance on us. O the ingratitude of a sinful nation! how greatly is it increased? Is it possible that we should not daily consider and celebrate Gods great mercy in hindering the intended Powder-plot, that cruel and confused Parliamentary massacre, in which Babylon's children set on work by Baal's Priests, had built the Tower of Babel again with mortar tempered with the public blood, had not God confounded them in their own language, and discovered them by their own private Letter. And yet woe is us, we suffer this to slip from us. Yea all those dags, daggers, and dangers, those pistols, poynadoes, and poisons, fitted, whetted, and prepared, by Pope, Papists, and the Spanish faction, for the breasts of our Royal and Religious Sovereigns, are now as it were cased, and sheathed, and bound up in utter oblivion and unthankfulness. And is it not just with God to unsheathe his sword, and rescue his blessings from us, and revenge our unthankfulness upon us? I cannot amplify my speech as this land hath multiplied her sin and ingratitude, yet I will desire you to examine yourselves with me a while in some few points, wherein I will instance, and whereon I desire to insist, (as the time shall permit) to the confusion of our own faces, and the clearing of God's proceed with us, and our Land. Have not we every day put off our repentance, and consequently increased our sins; and do we wonder why God day by day cutteth off such rebels, and more and more increaseth and spreadeth abroad the pestilence? Have not we slighted or slandered Gods painful Ministers, who have denounced his judgements against our sins? And what marvel if the plagues which they threatened against us, be now entered amongst us? Are there not amongst us many pestilent scorners of all goodness and religion, who sit even in cathedra pestilentiae, (there the Psalmist placeth them) such as term holiness, without which no man can see God, pestilent perverseness, and peevish preciseness; such as term the Lords holy Ambassadors (as Tertullus did Paul) pestilence itself (so soundeth the Original,) & those Preachers who pester their sweet sins, pestilent fellows, that is a common name with them; They make them the worst of men, and the scum of the Earth: And what marvel if the pestilence the fiercest of all sicknesses, and the scourge of the earth be come among us? Doth not the Extortioner take interest, and the Oppressor use violence? do they not eat like a canker into the estates of the poor, going about and seeking how and whom they may overreach and deceive? And do we wonder why the pestilence breaketh in upon us like a mighty torrent, sweepeth away our people, and taketh away our increase, going about like a roaring Lion seeking whom it may devour? Have not many of us uncharitably and blasphemously wished that the plague of God would light on our Brethren? And now, how justly hath it even overtaken us: So long have oaths, curses and execrations, such as a vengeance take thee, and, a plague on thee, and, God confound thee, come out from us like arrows shot against heaven, till now they are ready to return and fall down with a vengeance on our own heads. We have called for them; and now they are coming. We have tainted the air with them, and now the air is ready to enter and infect us. Have not some of us hearty wished for our brethren's deaths that we might compass our designs, and grow great in the World; And now, how deservedly may their death in these contagious times, be the bane of our whole Family? Is there not the hiding (if not the plotting, as well as the packing up) of Murders among us, (and all perhaps for the pursing of a piece of money) And what marvel if our blood be corrupted, and our Land unpeopled, when that blood is concealed which cryeth for vengeance, and leaveth a Land unpurged. Have not the creatures been perverted by us in the intemperate and lawless use of them: and what marvel if we are now ready to be infected by them, in their lawful and moderate use? Our swelling humour of Pride and Gluttony, in excess of fare and apparel, swilling and swaggering in the most riotous manner, hath made way for the swelling tumour of the pestilence spreading and raging, abroad in our Land. The which should have covered our shame, and have so shamefully discovered our pride; in steed of keeping us well and warm, are now ready to convey contagion into us. We have shut our doors against the poor, the poor hath been separated from his Neighbour, and now we are in danger of having our doors shut up, and ourselves separated one from another. We have infested others with our particular examples of diverse pernicious deeds; And now others are ready to infect us with pestilent diseases. Our humour of corrupting others, hath at length brought the corruption of the humours on ourselves. We have not feared the contagion of Sinners who have been notoriously incorrigible and scandalous; and now we can hardly escape those whom we justly suspect to be infectious. In our private familiarity we have not separated the precious from the vile, we have adventured upon intimate acquaintance with the most pestilent persons, and perversest Sinners: and now those who have the very sore of the pestilence running upon them, are ready to rush in among us. In our private Families we have had medley Liveries, garments of Linsy-wolsie, a mixture of bad servants with some few good ones: Some we have had of both sorts, to bring our dessignes to pass on both sides; corrupt men, that our corrupt ends might be compassed; and religious men, that so they might be coloured or countenanced. Wicked judasses there are among us, who think they may sinne with liberty, and purloin for their commodity, under a confidence that none can espy them, as long as Christ's followers keep their company. And now the sick are mingled with the sound, and the one endangered by the other. Our ears have itched after Novelties and strange opinions, and now behold a new and a strange contagion is come among us. Many of us have affected Sects, Schism, and Separation, and now the sickness hath made a sore rent, and a grievous separation amongst us. It hath been heard among us that children might not be baptised, and admitted into the Church without danger of sin: And now it may be feared that they will not be brought into the Congregation without danger of sickness. Plato's community hath been held by some particular Libertines, and now it may be feared that one common plague is let lose to lay hold generally upon all places. To draw towards a conclusion; So ill have we covenanted with our senses for the Lords service, that now all of them strive to be unprofitable to ourselves, and are forced to acknowledge a grievous subjection to the general contagion that reigneth over the Land. The Smell hath been taken with effeminate, if not Whorish perfumes; The Ear hath been tickled with vain, if not villainous speeches; The Taste hath been overtaken with Luxury; The Touch tainted with Lasciviousness; The Eye hath been rolled with wand'ring Lusts, and altogether set upon lewdness. So slenderly have we guarded these Cinque-ports of our Domestical Senses, that now they are ready to let in, an open enemy, in open air, to overthrew the whole estate of our bodies; as our Cinque-ports on the Sea-coast, if they be not watched, may prove dangerous in-lets, for our foes to enter by, and endanger the body of our State. Thus the Lord is just, but we have done wickedly. Now once more, what is the remedy whereby we may avoid, or induce him to avert his plagues? To keep our Bodies from the pestilential infection of the plague, we observe three special directions. First, To hasten from places infected. Secondly, To remove into a pure air. Thirdly, To have the prescripts of the best Preseruatives and Medicines. We must take a like course for our souls, against that plague of sin; First, Go out from the occasions of sin, as Peter did from the High Priests Hall. Secondly, Go into a pure air; get us a pure heart and a conscience purged, to which we may retire in all danger; a heart and a conscience cleansed by the wind of the Spirit, cooling our concupiscence, and assuaging our boiling corruptions, and inspiring us with good motions. Thirdly, Get us a Peter-teare, a bitter weeping, proceeding from a true faith in Christ, and a due contrition for sin; bewailing our corruptions the causes of these contagions. That, that is the only distilled water, which fortifieth us against all God's plagues. For if his scourge once induce us to penitence, it must (considering our deserving) needs endue us with patience, and then whatsoever befalleth us, It shall go well with us, and happy shall we be. I proceed to that which followeth. The Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel from the morning to the time appointed. From the morning to the time appointed. Hence may we gather, that Doct. The spreading and speeding of pestilent contagions, is both appointed, and limited by God. He sendeth them, and he restraineth them. They shall rage's no longer than the appointed time: they shall rid no more but Gods appointed and set number. Hear the people dye of the plague, and the King escapeth; In the second of Kings the twentieth Chapter, the King is sick of the plague, and the people free: here, though the popular plague were threatened for three days space, yet it ceased before the term was fully expired, and there, though King Hezekiah were told from God that he should die, yet he humbling himself, was raised as it were from his deathbed, recovered from his disease, and the Lord added to his days. We read in Histories of diverse great & general plagues, some reigning over all the Realm of England, as that in the year 1348. under Edward the Third, some raging over all the Roman Empire, as that in the year 252. under Vibius Gallus that pestilent persecutor of the Christian faith. Both which plagues, and specially the latter, in their several times (as Historians relate) creeping throughout all the Regions of the Earth, lasted very long, and wasted many Millions of people: Insomuch that Cyprian taking an occasion by reason of the greater of those two general plagues, to write his Book De Mortalitate, saith, towards the end of that Tract, Corruit iam mundus malorum infestantium turbinibus obsessus, That the World was even wasted and went to wrack with the boisterous storms of maladies and molestations. Now who spreadeth these plagues, who beddeth the earth in this sickness, but he who spreadeth the Heavens as a Curtain? He who withholdeth the waters and they dry up, job. 12.15. and also sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth: He restraineth the pestilence, and the sore drieth up, he sendeth it forth, and it overunneth the Earth; he maketh desolations in the Earth, Psal. 46.8. Again, he maketh the plague, as he doth the plague of war, in the Verse there following, to cease unto the end of the Earth. Many there are, who have stretched their wits to discourse how the Lord should cause the pestilence to spread and disperse itself abroad. divers men refer it to diverse means: some affirming that all those who fall by the pestilence, are felled by the immediate stroke of Gods punishing Angel. Others conceiving, that the evil one, who distilleth into the malicious minds of many who are infectious a desire to infect others, as he doth into the minds of the seduced, a delight to seduce others, that he I say, conveyeth contagious infection from one to another, deriving it from place to place, from person to person, by apparel, air and all those arts which he is permitted to use against a people whom God purposeth to visit. Sure I am, here is the lamentable effect of the pestilence set down in this Chapter, on which the present calamity of our own country maketh so large a Comment: here is laid down the prime Author that layeth it on, the main cause that leads him on, and the means inducing him to leave off. The means of dispersing the pestilence must be left to him also; they are in his hands who can use what means he will to accomplish his just purposes, and to punish a rebellious nation. For use of the point. In that God spreadeth the pestilence, we see how wide they are of the truth, who impute it rather to the fate of destiny, or the influence of malignant stars, or the confluence of much people, or the closeness of place, or the corruption of the air, or the inundation of waters, or the repletion of humours, then to the hand of God, who disposeth of all these at his pleasure. Again we may learn that they do but spread a net for their own feet, who think or seek to fly from the spreading pestilence, without flying unto God. Alas, it is not the avoiding of places infected, nor the correcting of airs corrupted, nor the taking of receipts prescribed, not the putting off of suspected, that can secure thee from God's plagues. The arrow of God's anger can pass swiftly through the Air, and enter secretly into thy bosom, as that arrow did into the King of Israel's body, notwithstanding the change of place or attire. 1. King. 22.30, 34. It is not the change of Air or raiment, but the change of the heart by repentance that can stand thee in stead. Though thou presently shift thyself, shirt and all, yet there is no shifting from God; he will find thee out. Indeed the outward means of preservation are to be sought and used, but not relied on. When Gods arrows fly abroad, we must primarily arm ourselves with prayer and fly unto God, as jehoshaphat did, when his enemies came against him. If evil come upon us (saith he to the Lord) as the sword, pestilence, 2. Chron. 20.9. etc. And we stand in thy presence and cry unto thee, thou wilt hear and help: He knew that his Progenitor and Predecessor Asa had felt the smart of the contrary practice, who did not so much pray unto God, as desire the Physicians to practice with him, 2. Chron. 16.12. and therefore the Lord made their helps unprofitable. In the next place here might be drawn an use of comfort for God's Children, in that the sword is in the hand of their merciful father, who will not ever be angry, but correct them in measure, and compass them with his mercy: But there is another use to be made, and another doctrine likewise to be raised, and therefore I will not insist on it. The last use then, (that we may more nearly apply a point that so nearly concerneth us) serveth for direction unto us all. Doth the Lord spread the pestilence among us, and send it out like a running army, wasting wheresoever it cometh, Psal 91.6. walking in the darkness and wasting at noon day: like a raging and devouring rain, leaving no food: like an universal blast destroying all fruits? Doth he make his dreadful forces post hither and thither, amidst our preparations for war, as he did among David's warlike people? What should we then do but as weaker countries are accustomed, upon the approach of dreadful Armies; submit ourselves, send our Agents, and sue for peace. Consider we, what those of Tyre and Sidon did in the days of Herod, Act. 12. towards the end of that Chapter: When they understood that Herod did bear an hostile mind towards them, they sent their Ambassadors with one accord to desire peace. But as for us, mittamus legatos doloris nostri lachrymas, let us with joint consent send forth plentiful tears, as the only prevalent oratory of a pierced and wounded heart. For as great floods hinder the preparations of Armies: so the tears of humiliation stay Gods punishing hand. With tears let us join prayers, pouring out our souls like water before the Lord. When the Lord bid Hezekiah provide for present death, he prayed and wept sore: hereupon the Lord heareth his prayers, seethe his tears healeth his sore, and lengtheneth his days. And in this Chapter, God having denounced a three days pestilence, doth yet upon David's humble petition, shorten the time, and in the time appointed cease the plague which he threatened: They of Tyre and Sidon made Blastus the King's Chamberlain their friend; but as for us, non Blastum, sed Christum Intercessorem habeamus; Let us not sue or seek to those glorious Servants, and Chamberlains of the Almighty, who stand ever in his presence, not to Seraphins or Cherubins, not to Saints or Angels; But as Themistocles took up the Son of King Admet into his arms, Plut. in vit. Themistoc. that by him he might appease the angry father: so let us take up Christ the Son of God by the hand of faith, and set his merits between us and his father's wrath, that he may dull the point of his punishing sword, in the wounds of his beloved Son. O let us make him our friend, that he may make our peace with God; for otherwise, tears, and prayers, they are all in vain, no better than the howling of dogs or the lowing of Oxen. Let us go out of all confidence in ourselves, in our Worthies, in our Allies, in our Armies, in our Navies; and stripping ourselves naked, cast ourselves overboard into the bottomless Sea of his mercy, as our only safeguard and salvation. Lastly, they of Tyre and Sidon in the height of blasphemous flattery, hearing the Herodian oration, said it was the voice of God and not of Man: But let us in the depth of a contrite penitency, feeling the hand of God, say and acknowledge, that it is the stroke of God and not of man; and that it is in vain to look for any help but from him. una manus nobis vulnus opemque feret. The hand that casts us down, can only raise us up. It is God that dealeth with us of England now, as of old he did with Ephraim, Hos. 5.14. taking away when none can rescue; If we shall cry unto him, how long Lord; It may be answered, (as it followeth in the next verse of the same Chapter) till we acknowledge our offence, and seek his face: O let our hearts answer in the Psalmists Echo, Thy face O Lord will we seek. So it followeth again in the same verse, In their affliction they will seek me early; they are the last words of that Chapter. Then according to that joint-motion for a general humiliation, in the beginning of the sixth and next Chapter; Come let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us, he hath smitten and he will bind us up: This doing, as it there followeth in the next words, After two days he will revive us, in the third day he will raise us up: that is, if we seek him early, he will soon cease his plagues; as he ceased this general pestilence after the term of two days in the time of King David, and as he moderated in like manner the violent rage of the Parisian massacre, in which within three days space there fell ten thousand as it were on our right hands, through the raging cruelty of the Romish Catholics, Psal. 91. 7●. and yet as the Psalmist hath it, it came not nigh us. Let us go onward with the Text. The Lord sent a Pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed, and there died of the People even from Dan to Bersheba seventy thousand men. Doct. Seventie thousand men. Hence I gather that ofttimes the Lord God punisheth sinful man in the same thing, and in some sort after the same kind, in which sinful man provoketh the Lord God. David is a special instance for proof of this point, here and elsewhere: elsewhere he unsheathed the sword against Vriah, & drew the Lord's sword upon his own house. Vriam iniusto sed non inulto cruore respersit: the shedding of Vriahs' blood as 'twas undeserved, so 'twas not unrevenged, but was punished in due time, in its own kind: Here he falleth to numbering of his people, and a number of his people fall by the pestilence: He sendeth about to understand the number of his nation, and to know the end thereof: And God is about to number his people (as he did Belshazzars' Kingdom) and to finish and make an end of it. David reckoneth without the Lord. It is the poor man's guise (saith the Poet) to number his small flock, Pauperis est numerare pecus: I am sure 'twas great weakness in David to number his great forces, as though by their strength, and by his own right hand he had gotten his victories, chased his enemies, and compassed the Crown of Sovereignty. Ye may set David in this act in opposition with Abraham: Abraham having but one Son will entrust him with God, who telleth him, that he will for a reward of his obedience multiply his seed: David having a multitude of people will rely on their strength, and the Lord showeth by this plague that he can reduce them to nothing: he sweepeth away upon a sudden, seventy thousand men. I suppose there are few travellers, who harken after strange news, but have heard of that vulgar report in the Eastern parts, (as fabulous I think as famous) concerning those vast stones scattered within a small compass, in that warlike monument on the Plains, of which they tell you, that after you have once numbered them, if ye number again, ye shall fail of your former reckoning; the Devil it may be increaseth men's superstitious and groundless credulity by deluding the sight, or dazzling the eye: But in this wonderful pestilence, & popular plague, dispersed in that Eastern Israel; if David had gone to take an account of his warriors after the first numbering, he might have found a wonderful abatement, threescore and ten thousand fallen off from the number, and felled by the pestilence within Israel's confines; God punishing his pride in not reposing his alone safety and security under the mere and merciful protection of his mighty hand. Now beloved, not to rest the proof of the doctrine too long upon David; If considering this septinarie Decade of Thousands, destroyed and decayed in David's number, I should affirm that David had specially offended God by his numbering, and that God is set down in the Text, punishing him in a most special number; Those who are so curious in observing numbers, and have such a number of curious observations touching the seventh number, terming it with Ambrose a sacred number, and with Augustin a number mystically portending a kind of perfection, might happily befriend me herein: But Chrysost. would more justly befool me for my labour, who termeth this curiosity a fabling and a device of man's brain. God tieth not himself to numbers, neither should we seek to bring him to it by our abstruse observations, and schoole-quiddities. Ne suitor ultra crepidam, We may not think (if I may so speak) to fit him with the seavens, who filleth heaven and earth, making the one his throne, and the other his footstool. 'twas chief for curiosity of numbering, that so many fell of the pestilence in the Text. Much better had it been for David (and so 'ttwere for us in this case) instead of such a foolish and needless numbering, shortening the days and hastening the deaths of thousands, to have desired (as else where he doth) that God would teach him to number his days; and so to apply himself unto wisdom. All Histories divine and humane, are so full of proofs for the confirming, and illustrating of my doctrine, that me thinks I delight to dwell longer upon it, then ordinarily I use to do upon other Doctrines. How memorably hath God's hand punished notoriously sinful acts in their own kind in all Ages? Do Nabab and Abihu provoke and incense the Lord with strange Incense; God punisheth them with strange fire. Levit. 10 1.2. Are the Israelites not contented with the Lords feeding? Numb. 11. he maketh them leave their carcases where they lusted after flesh. Do the people of jerusalem offer Incense to the Host of Heaven on the tops of their houses? jer. 19.13. The Chaldeans shall come and set fire on that City, and burn it together with those houses, Chap. 22.29. Do the Ammonites sacrifice their children to Molech their Idol? themselves are forced to pass through the Brick-kilne in all their Cities, 2. Samuel 12.31. Doth that cut-finger Adonibezek make himself sport with mangling the hands, and feet of captive Kings? the Lord maketh him, when he is taken captive, to beshrew his fingers for it, by dipping them in the same bloody dish, and serving him with the same, sauce, judges 1. Do the stiffnecked jews crucify Christ at the time of the preparation of their Passeover, It seemed good unto the most just God, that Titus should plant his siege before jerusalem, at the time in which the jews were assembled to celebrate that Feast, in which siege he also crucified diverse thousands of them before the walls of jerusalem, as josephus reporteth. Doth the Whore of Babylon set fire unto Gods faithful witnesses? What saith he, who calleth himself the faithful and true witness, Apoc. 3.14. He acquainteth Saint john that she shall be burnt with fire, Apoc. 18.8. Doth she cast the Saints of God alive into the fire? she herself shall be cast alive into a Lake of fire burning with Brimstone. Apoc. 19.20. Doth Edward the Second, King of England, burn with the unnatural lusts of So doom? God's justice suffereth his unnatural Subjects to deprive him of his Sovereignty, and to force a hot burning Spit thorough his fundament, into his entrailes. Doth Henry the Second, King of France, protest that with his own eyes, he will see a Protestant burnt to ashes? See how in a just Retribution, at a Just or Tourney, the splinter of a Spear passeth through the sight of his Beaver, pierceth thorough his Eye, perisheth his Brain, and procureth his death. Doth Alexander the sixth, Pope of Rome prepare a cup of Poison for his Cardinals, that by destroying their persons he might enjoy what they possessed? himself unawares is made the first taster, and dieth of his own drench. Doth bloody Gardiner Bishop of Winchester, defer his Dinner upon a greedy and bloody desire of hearing certain news from Oxford of some Martyrs Dispatch, wherewithal he might make merry? God deferreth not long the kindling of a fire in his body, through the intolerable heat whereof he dieth miserably, as he lived mercilessely. Two other examples I find in the martyrology of our Church, making mainly for the farther proof (if farther proofs yet need) of my last proposed doctrine. I purpose to mention no more but those. The first is of a certain Smith who had seemed to have been sometimes a zealous professor, but left his Saviour to save his life, and forsook the faith for fear of the fire, giving no other answer to a message brought him from a dying Martyr, by which he was exhorted to constancy, but this, That he could not burn; What became of him? He was afterwards burnt as he went in to save his goods when his house was fired. The other example is of a most unmerciful Churl, who willingly suffered a poor diseased Christian Brother, to lie and dye in a ditch near unto his house, and would by no means suffer him to be sheltered in any of his Barns or Back-houses, Stalls or Sties. Master Fox compareth him to Dives (and well he might) for as Dives loved the Dogs which he kept, more than Lazarus, which lay at his gates; fed them, but cared not though he starved: so this wicked wretch would not afford so much as a Dogge-kennell to that distressed creature: Now mark the miserable end of this Miser, not long after, he was found in a Ditch, not fare from that in which he left his poor Brother, not only dead, but sticking in the stinking puddle of the ditch, GOD punishing him in the same kind, in which he transgressed, and returning his reward upon his own head, as the Prophet Obadiah speaketh. Thus ye have seen the Lord measuring unto men according to their own measure, that he may be memorably known by the judgements which he executeth. Ye have seen him following men close by the heels in their own ways, to show in despite of all cavils, that his ways are equal and his judgements just. Ye have seen the fat Bulls of Bashan, beastly and bloody men, frying in their own torments, like Perillus in his brazen Bull, that they might know their tortures to be (as a Heathen speaketh) Indigna passis Autoribus dignissima, unworthy of the Martyrs who endured them, worthy of the Authors who invented them. It is high time to wind up the thread of my speech in a word of application. Doth the Lord then, usually confound sinful men in their own projects, cast them in their own play, & as it were pay them in their own coin? Beware we then that we willingly sin in no case, sith God can punish us in the same kind. If we have sinned, let us soon judge ourselves, lest he suddenly condemn us. Let us weep for sorrow, and blush for shame, lest he make us bleed to death. O ler us not proceed in sin, lest we give him a pattern by which he may punish us. In the second place, let us consider how we have dealt with God, when we cast with ourselves, and seem to wonder why he should thus and thus deal with us. His judgements are always just, and sometime we may see them manifestly marked out unto us, with the character of 〈◊〉 on. He suffering us to please ourselves 〈◊〉 special sin, till it procureth a special judgement proportionable thereunto: as Anacreon the Poet so long fell to his wine, till at last he was choked with the kernel of a Grape. Let us beloved confer God's works with ours and see how justly he hath proceeded against us in many instances, or may at least, whensoever his abused patience shall disdain any longer to leave our provocations unpunished. If the corrupt Magistrate shall spare to execute God's judgement on notorious offenders, is it not just with God to pour down judgements on his own head? If he deny patronage to the innocent, depriving the Orphan of his due, and put him by his portion, what can he expect but that the Lord should also put him out of his protection? If the sacrilegious person, and simoniacal Patron shall pray upon God, by pilling his Church, shall he not pull down God's plagues upon his own house? If the superstitious person shall add unto God's Word out of man's inventions shall not the Lord add unto him the plagues which are written in his Book? If the Swearer shall as it were tear the Name of God with his teeth; shall not the Lords curse enter into his house, Zach. 5. rend the timber from the stones, and consume both together? If we take away aught by Extortions, and unjust exactions, and will not restore; 〈…〉 in justice deprive us of his blessings, 〈…〉 ●●store them also? If we shut our ears at the cry of the poor; will not God shut his ear at the cry of our prayer? If we seek to Egypt for help, look for shelter from Idolatrous associates; will not the strength of such Pharaohs be our shame, and the trust in such shadows our confusion? Esay 30.3. Let us consider these things beloved; and is it not time to consider them, now the Lord sendeth his messengers abroad to call us to an account. Shall we shut our hearts always against him, even now when he is ready to shut our doors upon us, and seal them up with his plagues, which wax so hot among us of this Country, yea of this County? God forbidden. The Lord give us understanding, and repentant hearts; the Lord turn us unto him, and his favourable countenance towards us: The Lord receive our Prayers, hear our groan, and help our griefs. etc. To the Reader. ANd thus Gentle Reader, I have communicated unto thy view these precedent pape●● which were penned (for the most part) in great want of time, a● thou are already advertised. Yet are they sent abroad, without adding, altering, augmenting or amending of any material passage; that so they may follow their original Copy, which (together with another Tract, not yet published) found acceptance at the hands of our Dread and Dear Sovereign. In respect of whose gracious Aspect, I have the more cause to presume of thy favour, or (if that may not be obtained) the less reason to esteem thy Censure.