GODS WAITING TO BE gracious unto HIS PEOPLE: TOGETHER WITH Englands Encouragements and Cautions to wait on God. Delivered in certain Sermons at Milkstreet in LONDON, by THO. CASE, Minister of Gods Word, and Lecturer there. LONDON, Printed for Thomas Smith, and are to be sold at his shop in Manchester, 1642. TO THE RIGHT worshipful Philip Skippon, sergeant mayor general, of the Militia for the city of London, and to the worshipful Rich. Aldworth Esq; and Merchant of the same city, with the rest of my much valued and dearly beloved friends, the Inhabitants of the Parish of Saint Maudlins Milk-street. HOnoured and worthy friends, these Sermons were yours from the Pulpit, and now they present themselves yours from the press; whither they were importuned by many of yourselves and others, whose interest hath prevailed against mine own inclinations. I presume you will own them now, having first given them room( I hope) in your hearts, you will not refuse them entertainment into your houses. They come out I must confess very late, and the times are somewhat altered since I preached them to you. But the change of the times hath not lessened the encouragement and comfort they hold forth to you, and the rest of the kingdom: our hopes still are infinitely above our fears; because our fears are but from dying men, but our hopes are in and from the living God, who is working out his own glorious Ends by the desperate oppositions and resistances of his implacable Enemies: this calls for duty at our hands; for if God support our hopes against all oppositions, it is our turn to maintain duty against all temptations; these Sermons press this also upon you; by the perusal whereof I desire your memories may be revived, your Affections edged, your hearts engaged, and your hands strengthened to all the duties God and the times call for; you had need to bestir yourselves, the enemies do, and there is a curse issued out from the Angel of the Lord against all those that go not forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty; judge. 5.23. it is not enough not to help the mighty against the Lord; Neuters are enemies in Christs Catalogue; Matth. 12.30. He that is not with me, is against me; and I would not have your Names there for a thousand worlds. Expect not a second service before you do any thing; he that will do nothing now, will do nothing then; or if he would, perhaps God then will have none of his help. The Lord loves a cheerful giver; Speed will double your contributions, and make not the kingdom only, but God your debtor; who would not be ambitious to be first to lay hold on such an advantage? that man consults shane and ruin to himself and family, who having silver, gold, plate, &c. lying by him shall hazard King and kingdom, Religion and laws, and a Parliament that sweats and conflicts for the preservation of all, rather than he will see his cupboard unfurnish't, a bag or two lye empty, or an abatement in his accounts: and if all should miscarry( which God forbid) in the midst of public combustion, there is a Rust that will be Gods witness and Executioner too, when Conscience shall cry, Jam. 5.1.2.3. I have seen a kingdom perish to spare that which given or lent might have saved me and the kingdom: but kept, can serve for no other use new but to burn my flesh as it were fire. But I am persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany Salvation( your own and the kingdoms) though I thus speak. Your enlarged bowels of Compassion towards many of the Servants of Jesus Christ, both Ministers, and others, especially to your poor, naked, hungry brethren in Ireland, expressed in such a liberal contribution to their necessities, is gone forth into many places of the kingdom, and hath provoked others to emulation and hath abounded also by many thanksgivings unto God, 2 Cor. 9.12. and I cannot believe that you whose bowels would not suffer you to see a few of your poor brethren perish for want of succour, can find in your heart to see your Mother the Church and Common-wealth in danger of miscarrying, and not even empty your purses and yourselves for a timely prevention of so unconceivable an evil. I know your hand hath not been out of any design for public good; and it is already I presume engaged in this service( as you are taught of God to do it) but with the Apostles, I beseech you brethren that you abound more and more: If your Peace, Honour, gains were not bound up in this service, 1 Thes. 1.9.10. I would have held my peace, but your love to me, and Entertainment of my ministry commands me to study your advantage, Phil. 4.17. and to desire fruit that may abound to your account: God that hath given many of you Estates, hath not, will not deny you hearts. You are dear unto me, and therefore I desire you may be not only good, but Exemplary in goodness: not only blessed, but a blessing in the midst of the city and kingdom: which that you may be, shall be the enlarged prayer of him that is Yours to love and serve you in all Gospel offices, THO. CASE. To the Reader. Reader, HEre be Comforts and Cautions for thee, the one to keep thee from sinking, the other to keep thee from sleeping; comforts that thou mayest not despair of thine and Englands welfare, Cautions that thou thyself mayest not destroy it; Comforts to keep thee cheerful under dangers, Cautions to keep thee from being wanton under hopes; I would have thee study both, without preferring one before another. If thou wouldst have England saved, help to save it, else thou deceivest thyself and betrayest the kingdom. If Englands fears were greater, Jer. 5.1. thy Reformation may save it; it was once said, Find me a man and I will pardon, if thou mightest be that one or one of that many, what an honour? if our Hopes were greater thy sin and security may undo it; one sinner destroys much good, Eccles. 9.18. if thou shouldst be that one, or one of such a many, what a mischief? That's true hope that runs out into holinesse; that is peace from God. which draws the heart nearer to Revel. 2.14. The Lord fill thee brim full with this hope, with this peace. Our sins are the Enemies strength which girds them to the battle, and therefore when Baalam could not curse, he taught Balack a way to ensnare Israel, Make God their enemy and you will overcome them. Our Hosts are now going forth against our enemies, Deut. 23.9. now keep thee from every wicked thing. The Rebels are our enemies, our sins are Gods enemies; if thou wouldst have God do execution upon thy enemies, do thou execution upon his. Make God on our side, and then thou mayest shake thy head at Rabshekah, Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? Isai. 37.23. &c. I will say but this, It is holinesse onely that is impregnable, invincible. God never destroyed an holy people; Isai. 26.1.2. Study to be holy and thou shalt be happy, and the kingdom in thee, and thou in it. Reader, if thou come hither for curiosity, it is not here; if to jeer( though I am very sensible of my own nothingness) thou shalt do thyself more wrong than me; If thou readest for such ends as I desire to writ,( the kingdoms good, and thy souls good) though thou see my weeknesse, thou art welcome; and the Lord say so too: So prays Thine in any office to serve Christ in thee, THOMAS CASE. It is ordered by the Committee of the House of Commons in Parliament concerning Printing, this 27. day of June, 1642. that this book be printed. John White. READER do thyself and the author that kindness, as with thy Pen( before thou red) to correct in thine own copy amongst many these few gross escapes and mistakes of the press. page. 50. line 23. red, waters shall be sure. p. 66. l. 11. r. under for in the effusion &c. p. 68. l. 1. r. Of joy &c. p. 89. l. 25. blot out And. p. 90. l. 28. r. what for with. p. 109. l. 1. r. in so much that when those &c. p. 110. l. 6. r. that could give such hopes &c. p. 112. l. 1. r. with Hamans &c. l. 2. r. and a better oracle, can there not be then &c. l. 3. r. hath Caused &c. l. 9. at what time. p. 119. last l. save one, r. wrought out of the &c. p. 120. l. 30. add the influence &c. p. 121. l. 28. put I fear. l. 29. a poor. p. 122. l. 10. in Scripture &c. p. 138. l. 24. r. people, and his own seeming. p. 139. l. 22. r. probable for powerful. l. 28. put Charter for Character. p. 159. marg. r. {αβγδ}. &c. With other faults thou shalt find, whether in words, letters or stops, either mend them or bear with them, these are the mistakes that in a sudden survey I have discovered. L.F. GODS WAITING TO BE GRACIOUS UNTO HIS PEOPLE. ISAIAH 30.18. And therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement. Blessed are all they that wait for him. THis illative Particle Therefore must look either backward or forward. If we shall follow it backward, we shall find nothing but sin and wrath: sin, the sum whereof ye have verses 9.10.11. a double sin; they will neither be good themselves, nor suffer others to be good. This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the Law of the Lord. There they refuse and resolve not to be good themselves. ver. 9. They say to the Soers, See not: and to the Prophets, prophesy not unto us right things: speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits. Get ye out of the way: turn aside out of the path: cause the holy One of Israel to cease from before us. And so they do not only refuse to walk in the light, but extinguish it: as they will not be good themselves, so neither will they suffer others to be good: Not only rebelling against the means of Grace, but by all means suppressing them. There you have their Sin. The wrath also threatened lies scattered from the beginning of the Chapter to the very Text, but it is epitomized, ver. 13.14. and the first Character of this wrath is, that it is Irresistible, ver. 13. This iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in an high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant. i. e. one might as well stand before a wall, an high wall, where no breach was suspected, and is even now falling, as be able to stand before this judgement threatened; where all the advantages of making resistance are taken away. And as it is irresistible, so it is irrecoverable, as it could not be prevented, so neither shall it be repaired. For he shall break it as the breaking of the potters vessel, that is broken in pieces, he shall not spare; so that there shall not be found in the bursting of it, a sheared to take fire from the hearth, or to take water withall out of the pit. If a wooden vessel were broken it might be mended again,( though perhaps not to be so serviceable as before;) but an earthen vessel not so easily, although it were broken but into two pieces; how much less if into more? and yet if but into three or four pieces, suppose it could not be made into one entire vessel again, yet some use might be made of the several pieces, either to lethe water withall out of the pit, or to carry a coal or two to make fire with on the hearth; but not so here: This vessel must be broken into such small shivers that there shall not be a piece fit to carry a coal of fire, or a few drops of water: so that it should remain not only irreparable, but altogether unserviceable; such was the wrath threatened against this people. And this sin of the people against God; and this wrath of God against this people is all the bottom we can find whereon to set this Therefore in the Text, if we look backward. Therefore will the Lord wait to be gracious, &c. sin and wrath! a strange Therefore of mercy. If we look forward, we shall find some firmer footing for a Therefore of this nature. Therefore will the Lord wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you. Here is a double Ground or Foundation: The Lord will wait that he may be gracious to you: There's the Ground. And He will be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you; or, He will have mercy upon you, that he may be exalted; there's the End. God will do it, because he will do it: and, God will do it, that he may be exalted: his Will the Ground, and his Glory the End. So that the Doctrine which the dependence or inference of the Text affords from this word Therefore is this: The Therefores of mercy are not in the Creature, but in God himself. Or, Gods will and Gods glory are the proper Therefores or Causes of mercy. That the moving This the final Cause. But this I shall pass over at this time: The thing that I intend to pitch upon lies in the body of the Text: as it holds out a word of Comfort and encouragement to the people of God in sad and troublesone times: For upon this sad prediction of irresistible and irreparable judgement, in the former part of the Chapter, it might be objected( and that even by Gods own people.) Psal. 77.7.8.9. And will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his Promise( his Promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? will he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. For whose succour and satisfaction the Prophet replies( as it were) no; the Lord hath not forgot his Covenant, neither will he cast off his people: but though he hath resolved to chastise them for their great and bitter provocations, yet he knows both how and when to deliver them that are his: and deliver them he will. Only you must give him leave to take his own time; and it shall be the best time. He is a God of judgement. i. e. a just God, and a wise God, and therefore he will do it, when it shall be most seasonable; he will wait the fittest opportunity, and therefore in the interim it will be both your duty and your wisdom to wait his leisure. The Lord will wait that he may be gracious unto you, and he will be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgement. Blessed are all they that wait for him. The words thus opened afford these 4. Observations. 1. God waits to be gracious to his people. 2. God is a God of judgement. 3. That; because God is a God of judgement, Gods people should wait for him. 4. There is nothing lost by waiting on God: Or, To wait on God is a blessed thing. Blessed are all they that wait for him. But because I study brevity, I will single out the scope and drift of the holy Ghost for my main Doctrine, and make all the rest in their several places to serve that. The first therefore of these Observations shall be my main Doctrine, and subject of discourse scil. Doctrine. God waits to be gracious to his people. The second will serve for a Ground or Reason, scil. because Reason. God is a God of judgement, therefore he waits to take the fittest time to be gracious to his people. The third Observation will resolve into the grand use we are to make of this Doctrine, scil. Use. if God wait to be gracious to his people, his people should learn to wait upon him. The fourth and last Observation will contribute its influence by way of Motive. scil. Motive. It is a blessed thing to wait on God. The main Doctrine then is, God waits to be gracious to his people. 1. Doct. the subject of this discourse. For the managing whereof we will propound and satisfy only these two Quaeres. 1. Quaeres 1. 2. In what sense God may be said to wait? 2. In what respect, or on what consideration God doth[ so] wait to be gracious to his people. To the first Quaere briefly: Waiting you must know, is improperly attributed unto God; for simply and in proper sense waiting implies three things. 1. Succession of time. 2. Waiting properly taken implies three things. Present disability for the accomplishment of ones purposes. 3. Expectation of future, and better opportunity, as we see in Esau, The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand, Gen. 27.41. then will I slay my Brother Jacob. Dayes of mourning, there is succession of time; then will I slay my Brother, now I would, but now I cannot, here is present disability: they are at hand, there is an expectation of future opportunity. Now none of these do properly befall God, for 1. Psal. 60.2. and 102.27. Heb. 13.8. In God there is no succession of time; in God there is no yesterday nor to morrow: he being but one point and act of eternity in a most provable and ineffable manner. 2. In God there is no deficiency of power and ability to accomplish his designs more at one time than another; and therefore 3. There can be no need why God should expect a future or better opportunity, to morrow then to day, hereafter then now in regard of himself, for the bringing about of his purposes. It is therefore improperly and in a borrowed sense spoken of, Waiting improperly attributed to God. and attributed to God per {αβγδ}, for 1. God being now speaking to man, he speaks after the manner of men; God doth like himself, but speaks like man, for the infirmity of our flesh. 2. God being to deal with man, he is fain to suite the dispensations of his power and providence according to mans capacity. He truly is always fit and able to show mercy, but his people are not always fit for and capable of mercy. The meaning therefore of the expression is, The meaning of the expression God waits. that God will put forth his power and goodness for the deliverance and enlargement of his people, when in regard of all circumstances it shall be most sweet and seasonable for them; which makes way for the Second Quaere, what those respects and considerations are for which God doth[ thus] wait to be gracious to his people. To which we answer, God doth wait to be gracious to his people in a threefold respect or consideration. viz. in respect of his Enemies. People. Name. First in regard of the enemy. For these kind of mercies here mentioned and promised, The first consideration in respect whereof God waits. The Enemies. are rescues and deliverances from the oppression and tyranny of their potent and cruel enemies, viz. from the Babylonian bondage and slavery, &c. Now even in regard of the Enemies and oppressors of his people, God many times waits, i.e. suspends and adjourns their enlargement and deliverance; and that is, till the enemies have filled up the measure of their iniquity to the full, as we see in the case of the Israelites in Egypt. God had given them the land of the Amorites, by promise 400. yeares before he brought them into possession, what was the reason he waited so long, before he made good the promise he made to Abraham? God resolves Abraham concerning this matter, In the fourth generation they, Gen. 15.16. ( viz. the seed of Abraham) shall come hither again, not before; why? for the sins of the Amorites are not yet full. The Amorites sins were not yet full, and therefore the children of Israel may not yet take possession of their land; God must wait to do it. No, nor( it seems) were the sins of the Egyptians full; for even after the Israelites deliverance was set on foot, and they expected now a speedy and final accomplishment of Gods promise by the hands of Moses and Aaron, the work met with so many and almost desperate set-backs, that they seemed to themselves to be further off from deliverance than ever before, in so much that the people fell foul on Moses and Aaron, Exod. 5.21. The Lord look upon you and judge, because you have made our savour to be abhorred, &c. and after this, ten desperate encounters and oppositions did the work meet with; and why so? why Pharaoh's sins were not full, no more then the Amorites. As yet exaltest thou thyself? Exod. 9.19. Pharaoh's pride and obstinacy and blasphemy must yet rise higher, Yea for this very reason have I raised thee up, verse 16. God will not execute full judgement on a people or person till they have committed full sin, and then he will do it once for all, and do it with a vengeance. James 1.15. Lust when it hath conceived brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. A Metaphor taken from a woman, who after she hath conceived, hath forty weeks to breed, and ripen her conception, and then she falls in travel, and her pains overtake her: So the sinner, &c. And therefore saith our Saviour to the cursed Scribes and Pharisees, Fill ye up the measure of your Fathers, Matth. 23.32. make up the Ephah of your wickedness complete; one would have wondered that Christ did not destroy them presently they were such a generation of Vipers; Lord why dost thou not command fire to come down from heaven and destroy them as Elias did? Luke 9.54. Or Shall we pull them up Lord?( as the servant asked concerning the tares;) no saith Christ, Let them alone, let them grow, Matth. 13.28. till they come to the height, and then they shall be cut down, and cast into the fire: When the Ephah is full, Zech. 5.9.10, 11. then it shrll be taken up and carried away in the wings of the wind. The believing Hebrews had a long time groaned under the yokes of their oppression, their wounds did smart, and they had looked many a long look when God should bow the heavens and come down to their deliverance, and for want thereof they began to call either Gods love to them, Heb. 12.1.2. or rather their love to God into question: When the Apostle bespeaks them thus, verse 4. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, as if he had said, do you begin to faint already; alas the worst is not come, God hath greater trials for you then these; ye have hitherto resisted but unto tears and sighs, I tell you, you must suffer greater matters, you must resist to blood. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood. The Enemies sins are not yet come to the height. It fares with Christians many times as it did with Jeremiah, they are weary of the footmen, Jer. 12.1.5. when Horsemen are yet behind, and they complain in a land of peace, when yet Jordan is to overflow her banks, they think to be delivered from lesser trials, when greater sufferings are behind; the enemy hath not yet filled up his measure. And therfore it is very remarkable that in all Church-Histories you shall find, that Persecution hath always been a fore-runner of Deliverance; as the Israelites enlargement out of the Egyptian slavery began in the doubling of their burdens and bondage, and the nearer the Deliverance the hotter always hath been the fire of Persecution; the Reason whereof I conceive to be, partly because at such times God hath usually stirred up the Spirits of some of his faithful Witnesses to discover and protest against the horrible impleties& villainies of the Tyrants and oppressors of his people; to the end that all that see their approaching destruction may justify God in the execution of his righteous judgements. So God stirred up the Spirit of Luther and others to protest against the pride, lust and oppression of the Pope and papal Hierarchy, whereby the rage and indignation of that Antichristian generation was then( as before and since in divers ages and places of the Christian world) kindled into slames of fiery persecution upon the Saints of God. Partly because, as I said, they must fill up the measure of their iniquities; their pride and covetousness, and lasciviousness, and violence, and cruelty must rise to the height, before God will deliver his people from their tyranny and oppression; and so like their father the devil they rage most when they are nearest to be cast out. Revel. 52.12. And this is the first consideration in respect whereof God waits to be gracious unto his people. Secondly, 2. considerations. His people. God waits in respect of his people: whether by his people we understand the mixed multitude; that fill up the room of a visible Church, or whether we mean some choice separated ones, who are to him as a peculiar treasure: on both these God waits many times in the dispensation of his power and goodness in delivering his people. 1. The mixed multitude, viz. On the mixed multitude, God waits 1. For the Conversion of some; their repentance and Reformation must usher in deliverance and enlargement. I will go, and return to my place, Hos. 5.15. 1. The Conversion of some. till they aclowledge their offences, and seek my face: till they aclowledge their sins, there's their Repentance; and seek my face, there's their Reformation; for both these God would wait; I will return to my place, there he would expect their Conversion; and when they should repent and turn, he would arise and have mercy upon them. Secondly, 2. The punishment of others. in case Gods expectation be disappointed herein, God sometimes doth suspend the deliverance of his people till reparations as it were be made to his abused and despised justice in some set time of judgement, wherein such a people shall bear the punishment of their iniquity, See the threatening, Levit. 26.38.39.41.42. And the Execution of it, Jer. 29.10. Thus saith the Lord, after seventy yeeres be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you. God had warned and God had wooed them to Repentance and Reformation by his Servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them, but all would not do, They mocked the messengers of God, 2 Chron. 36.16. and despised his words, and misused his Prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Then he brought upon them the King of the Chaldeans, &c. and resolved they should do pennance to divine Justice threescore and ten yeeres, under his iron yoke; and till that time were expired though Moses and Samuel stood before him,( scil. as intercessors) his mind could not be toward them, Jer. 15.1. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth. Away with them to the House of Correction, into Captivity they shall, and there they shall be chastised for their rebellion seventy yeers. And till those yeeres were expired not onely Moses and Samuel, but mercy herself( it seems) could not prevail for their return; Mercy must wait to be gracious all that while, and then behold she takes her turn, and sends out her messengers of Peace before her, with the Olive branches of good tidings in their mouths. Isal. 40.1, 2. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished; that her iniquity is pardonned: that she hath received double of the Lords hand for all her sins. As if God had said, my Justice now is pacified towards this people; she hath satisfied herself to the full, yea she hath been too severe, Jerusalem hath received double for all her sins: it is the Language of Gods Compassions rolled together, and kindled into repentings, as if he had given her two blows for one sin, beaten her more then her sins deserved; Jerusalem herself would not say so; no saith she, Our God hath punished us less then our iniquities deserve, Ezra 9.13. Ezra 9.13. Observe by the way contrary expressions in Gods mouth, and Jerusalems, too much saith God, too little saith Jerusalem; and yet how sweetly and beautifully doth this kind of contradiction become both? How well doth it become the humbled broken heart of Jerusalem to confess, Lord thou hast punished less then our iniquities deserve, if our captivity had been sevenscore, yea seven hundred in stead of seventy yeeres it had not been too much? And how well doth it become the gracious tender heart of God( as their Father) to say, Nay but my child I have beaten thee too much? if thy captivity had been but 35. yeeres it had been enough, I have given thee double. Who can refrain weeping to see God and Jerusalem( like the Father and his prodigal) weeping; Luke 15. God weeping on Jerusalems neck tears of Compassion, and Jerusalem weeping at Gods feet tears of Contrition! oh beautiful Contention! Thrice happy wert thou O England if this might be all the controversy between thy God and thee. But( to return,) Now saith mercy my turn is come, and I shall be exalted; and as Justice hath doubled Jerusalems blows and corrections, so I will double and triple her consolations; go ye and do so; Comfort ye, comfort ye, speak comfortably to her, Give her double and triple, and multiplied mercies. This is another branch of this Consideration, why God waits to be gracious. Secondly, 2. God waits on his own peculiar ones. For 1. The fullness of their sorrow. As in regard of the mixed multitude God waits; so also in respect of his own peculiar people: as for a full measure of the enemies sins, so for a full measure of his peoples prayers and tears. God loves to hear their prayers, and see their tears, Oh my Dove! Cant. 2.14. that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, let me hear thy voice, for it is sweet. Lam. 2.18. Let tears run down like a river, day and night: Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, give him no rest. Isai. 62.6.7. God suspends deliverance many times, that he may draw out prayers and tears from his people which are like music in his ears, and pearls in his eyes. And then when it is full tide with Gods peoples sorrows, then it is full time with Gods mercies and compassions. Psal. 102. Thou wilt arise and have mercy upon Sion, for the time to favour her, yea the set time is come. Thou shalt or thou wilt! what is the ground of this confidence? it follows: For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. He knew by the strength of their pains and throws, mercy and deliverance were now come to the very point of birth,& was assured there would be strength to bring forth. Many more particulars might be added to this account; 2. The exercise of their Graces, &c. scil. the blasting of their corruptions, the improvement, exercise and brightening of their graces, the holding them forth to the world, as wicked mens shane, Satans confutation, the world's wonder, Religions justification, Angels delight, and Gods glory. But I cannot dwell upon these things. I must hast to the third consideration. A third consideration why God waits to be gracious is in relation to his own Name; 3. Reason or consideration why God waits The glory of his own Name that he may consult and work for the honour of his Name, and this also is in reference to his people. For truly there is so much Idolatry even in their hearts, that if God deliver by means they are ready to ascribe deliverance to means, In regard whereof God is fain to suspend their rescues and salvations till the tide of second causes run so low, that there is hardly adrop to be seen in the channel that is able to bear up their hopes and expectations, that so there may be nothing to share with God in the glory of their deliverances. Thus he would not fully and finally rescue his Israel from the oppression and opposition of Pharaoh and his Egyptians, till their enclosure between the read Sea before them,& the Armies of the Egyptians like another read Sea behind them, and an unpassable wilderness on either fide, made them to see their deliverance impossible in the view of second causes; while there was no way of escape left open to them, unless they could have gone upward to heaven; and because they could not go up to heaven, heaven came down to them and saved them; and the end why God suspended their deliverance, till they were brought to this desperate straight and exigence, the Prophet Isaiah tells us, Isaiah 63. was that God might make himself an everlasting Name, ver. 12. a glorious Name, ver. 14. And therefore would not God save his people in Babylon from the bloody design of Haman, till the letters were sealed with the Kings seal, the Posts dispatched away with their Commissions into all his kingdoms, and nothing now wanting but the day wherein the cruel Babylonians might make themselves drunk with healths of Hebrew blood; all now at a desperate loss, that so the wisdom, and power, and goodness and faithfulness of God might shine forth most gloriously in that miraculous salvation. When Gideon was to encounter the Midianites, Judges 7.2. God told him, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand. Too many? how so? for alas they were at most but thirty thousand, when the Midianites were as the sand of the fea for multitude, ver. 12. well, twenty thousand are sent home again for milk-sops, ver. 3. and but ten thousand remains, an inconsiderable company compared with the Midianites, and yet too many, vers. 4. well( short work to make) they must be all sent back to three hundred, of whom one might have said, as Andrew of the five loaves and two fishes, What are they among so many? And why must these do the dead? God himself gives Gideon this account of it, vers. 2. Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, and say mine own hand hath saved me. Lest Ifrael vaunt! Oh wonder of pride and Idolatry! what will Israel do so vilely? yes( Brethren) it is not Pharaoh onely that was ignorant of God but Israel too; There was so much pride and ignorance and Idolatry even in Gods own Israel, that if God save them by themselves, they will attribute deliverance to themselves; Mine own hand dath saved me. To inform which ignorance, and to correct which pride, and to prevent which Idolatry in the hearts of his own people God waits till there is not a second cause to be seen to come into their succour, that there being none other to whom it is possble to attribute deliverance, he alone may carry away the repute and glory of it; and so God often gives the account, I will do thus and thus. Exod. 6.7. &c. Deut. 32.36.27.38.39. And you shall know that I am the Lord which bringeth you out of Egypt: not only Pharaoh shall know, but you shall know that I am the Lord. And thus I have dispatched the two Quaeres for the opening of this truth, scil. In what sense God may be said to wait; and secondly, On what considerations or respects God waits to be gracious to his people. I come now to the Grounds, or Reasons of this truth, Grounds. expressed in the Text. For the Lord is a God of judgement, i.e. a Just God. Wise God. First, God is a just God, First, God is a just God. Psal. 9.7.8. and therefore he will wait to deliver his people from their oppressors and Tyrants in the fittest season. He hath prepared his throne for judgement. He doth but wait till the oppressor hath fill dup his measure of iniquity, and then the justice of God will give sentence, and command execution. He will make inquisition for blood, ver. 12. He will draw articles of inquiry as strict and as critical as ever the inquisition of spain or Lambeth, as he did to Cain, Where is thy Brother? Gen. 4.9. The voice of thy Brothers blood crieth to me from the ground. The Hebrew reads it the voice of thy Brothers bloods, every drop of Abels blood had a tongue to cry against Cain. So will God say to the persecutors of the Christians in the Primitive times, Where are the Christians your Brethren? the voice of their bloods crieth in mine ears; So shall it be articled against all Antichristian Tyrants, Bonner and the rest of his bloud-sucking Brethren, Where are your Brethren the Protestants? where Cranmer and Ridley and Latimer, and the rest? the voice of their bloods crieth in mine ears; the voice of their heart blood, and ear blood, and estate blood, the blood of their liberties and ministry, the blood of their families crieth in mine ears; and God will avenge this blood, every drop shall cost the Tyrant dear, Shall not God avenge his own Elect? Luke 18.7. do ye doubt it? I tell you he will avenge them speedily. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts shall perform this, the justice of the Lord of hosts shall perform this. Since it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, 2 Thess. 1.6.7. and to them that are troubled rest, &c. It is a righteous thing with God; Gods righteousness lies at stake, for he hath engaged himself to his people for as much as this comes to, The rod of the wicked shall not rest on the back of the Righteous. Psal. 125.9. Their rod may be on the back of the Righteous, but it shall not rest; God hath said it, and shall not he make it good? A righteous man will be as good as his word, will the righteous God break, think you? Heb. 6.10. no, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, &c. Secondly, 2. God is a wise God. As he is a just God, so he is a wise God, and by virtue of that infinite light which dwelleth in his nature, he knows when mercy will be most seasonable, when deliverance will be deliverance indeed, in all respects deliverance. He is a wise God, and therefore he knows when the enemies sins are full, as the husbandman knows when his corn is fully ripe. One that dwells in the city, or a Scholar in the university perhaps doth not know, they may think it ripe, before it is ripe; but the husbandman knows exactly when it is fit for the sickle, and to this very Metaphor doth God allude: Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe, the press is full, Joel 3.13. the fats overflow, for their wickedness is great. We may think their wickedness ripe many times when tis not God only is wise enough to know that; we may guess, but he only can infallibly determine. He is wise and knows also when his people have smarted enough: as a wise Physician or chirurgeon knows when his Patient hath bled enough, and will not let him loose a drop of good blood, he takes away none but that which is better out then in. He that prescribed a number of stripes to the Judges, Deut. 25.3. will not exceed himself, In measure when it shooteth forth wilt thou debate with it. Isai. 27.8. And so also he is wise, he knows when his people have wept enough, and mourned enough. God hath a bag for wicked mens sins, Job 14.17. Mine iniquity is sealed up in a bag, saith Job, &c. And he hath a bottle for his peoples tears, Thou puttest my tears into thy bottle, Psal. 56.8. saith David; and God hath the bag and the bottle with him in heaven, and knows when they be full. And so( lastly) God is wise, and therefore he knows when the second causes are low enough, when the straits and exigences of his people are desperrte enough to raise a Name and a praise to himself in their deliverance and salvation. One would have thought thirty thousand had been no considerable strength to encounter with an Army of such vastness and multitude as was the host of the Midianites( in the place before quoted) but when twenty thousand were dismissed, who would have thought there had been any room left for Israel to have arrogated any praise or glory to themselves, yet he in whose eyes all things are naked and open, Heb. 4.13. cut up through the back bone, his wisdom saw their pride would have made a calf of their own strength, and have danct before it when they had done, had there been but the least shadow of a victory got by their own sword; and therefore it must be done by three hundred, happily not one for a thousand in the camp of the Midianites. One would have thought God had done enough in the ten plagues of Egypt, to have got himself the praise of Israels coming forth under the conduct of Moses and Aaron; but he was a God of judgement, a wise God, and saw they were not brought low enough yet to exalt him; and therefore choose the read Sea for a bridge, and the wilderness for a passage into Canaan, that he might for ever silence the pride and idolatry of their hearts, and make himself a glorious everlasting Name. Isai. 63.12.14. I have done with the doctrinal part of this Observation, I come now to the use. use. And before we come to the main use the holy Ghost makes of this truth here in the text, this Doctrine of Gods waiting will serve to many gracious purposes. 1. To discover Gods Patience 1. Towards his enemies. To teach us to admire and adore the infinite patience of God even toward the enemies themselves; who, when his justice and fury might have surprised them before they had done half so much mischief or spit half so much venom and malice, and have kicked them into hel for the first box on the care which ever they gave any of his beloved children, doth yet suffer them to go on and take their fill of sin and drink themselves even drunk with the blood of his people! This was that which the Prophet Habakkuk stood and wondered at, O Lord( saith he) thou art of purer eyes then to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: i.e. with approbation: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, Habb. 1.13. and holdest thy tongue, when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then he? how comes it to pass that while the enemies of thy glory, truth and people, beate and wound, and slay thy people before thy face, thou standest still and holdest thy peace, and dost not so much as say, Why do ye so? for though thy people are bad, thine enemies are worse; though thine Israel is not so good as they should be, yet they be better then Babylonians, more righteous then they; Lord I know thou dost not approve and justify their wickedness and cruelty, for thou art of purer eyes, &c. but why Lord dost thou suffer it? what parent on earth could have the patience to see a slave whom he bought with his money smite a tenderly beloved child on the face before his eyes, and not either tear him in pieces, or turn him presently out of doors, with the language and jealousy of Ahasuerus, Esth. 7.8. What will he force the queen before my face? what will he murder my child before my face, Villain thou shalt not stay one hour in my house! This was the Prophets wonder( brethren) and it may be ours: and surely were he not a God in patience as well as a God in power, the enemy should not live to give one of his family a second blow. And secondly as admirable is his patience toward his people, the mixed multitude, 2. Towards his people in general. Acts 13.18. while he waits from time to time, and from year to year for their repentance and reformation, about the time of forty yeares( it is said of the Israelites) {αβγδ} dicitur cum melior pejores fert m●xes, ut bonus maritus cogitur mores uxoris morosae far. art. suffered he their manners in the wilderness, he being good bare with their evil manners which he could not approve;( for so the word signifies.) Alas, all that time( as afterward) what adulteries and idolatries, what murmuring and infidelity, what contradiction and blasphemy did God put up at their hands? the Epitome whereof ye have pathetically expressed by the Prophet Ezek. Chap. 20.13.16.21. They rebelled against me, and would not harken unto me, they did not cast away every one the abomination of his eyes, neither did they forsake the Idols of Egypt, then I said I would poure out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them, &c. but I wrought for my names sake. They rebelled, I lifted up my hand to destroy them, but I wrought for my names sake, and this four times repeated over in this Chapter: yea so often repeated in their practise, till God at length could forbear no longer, 2 Chron. 26.14.15.16. How may we red this Chapter over England for the space of fourscore yeeres and upward, we have rebelled by Idolatry and Adultery, and Sabbath profanation, by pride and fullness of bread, heresy in Doctrine, corruption in Ordinances, superstition in worship, &c. and he hath lifted up his hand to destroy us, threatened to drown us in a read sea of blood in Queen Maries dayes, but he wrought for his names sake; lifted up his hand to destroy us by Water in 88. and by Fire in the gunpowder Treason, but he wrought for his names sake, he hath lifted up his hand of late, and threatened as it were to destroy us by the tyranny of the prelacy, and the frequent treacheries of the popish party, as the Lord liveth there was but a step between us and death; 1 Sam. 20.3. but still he hath wrought for his names sake, so that wee may Christen our deliverances with an Eben-ezer, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. Oh beloved Christians, all these yeares what pride and contempt, what oaths and blasphemy, what temptations and bitter provocations hath God put up at the hand of a sinful and foolish generation? and is not England yet destroyed? is she not consumed with Sodomes fire that hath boiled in Sodomes lust? hath she acted Israels sins, and hath she not yet suffered Israels plagues? Oh wonder of patience! Thirdly, consider it thou also that hearest in particular these words or readest these lines, consider how God hath followed thee from Sabbath to Sabbath, from Sermon to Sermon, from Ordinance to Ordinance; yea, it may be, from Tavern to Tavern, from Alehouse to Alehouse, from one sin to another, and from one place and company of sinning to another; thou hast been drunk it may be more times then thou canst reckon, told more lies then thou canst number, multiplied acts of uncleanness above possibility of account, out-sworn the number of thy hairs, cursed or denied God in thy heart; quenched the Spirit, crucified the Son of God afresh by thy unworthy receiving the Lords Supper, there shed his blood, and then trampled it under thy feet in a vile and wretched conversation; out-sinn'd the number of the stars, the sands of the sea, and art thou yet out of hell? how often hast thou stradled over the mouth of the bottomless pit, and art thou not yet fallen into that boiling Canldron, that fiery flaming unquenchable furnace. Oh stand and wonder at the Patience of God; admire, fear; bow thy head and worship, and say, Who is a God like thee, pardoning sin and passing by iniquities? Consider what Saul said to David, 1 Sam. 24.19. If a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? but God hath found thee, he hath had thee at a thousand advantages, thy feet have been in the stocks, he hath had thee under his knees in such a sickness and such a danger, and hath he not yet bound thee hand and foot and thrown thee into Hell? Job 13.27. Oh mirror of long sufferance and patience! Rom. 2.4. study to know what is means, and follow the ducture of it, or else thou art undone for ever. Well, wonder at it, I say, but that thou mayst not wonder and perish, take heed England, take heed man woman, or who ever thou art, take heed thou do not over burden the patience of God, by new delays of repentance and reformation, for I hear God complaining, Amos 2.3. Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves. Behold! ah, how can we behold it without fear and astonishment? that he who by a word of his mouth bears up Heaven and Earth, should complain of the burden of our sins as unsupportable, pressed as a cart that is full of sheaves, that cracks, and is even ready to burst under its pressure; by reason whereof you may hear him threatening as well as complaining, Isai. 1.24. Ah I will ease me of mine enemies, and be avenged of mine adversaries. Take heed I say what you do, for if the axle-tree of his Patience burst, the burden will fall upon you, an heavy burden: Isai. 30.27. Behold, the Name of the Lord cometh from far, burning with his anger, and the burden thereof is heavy, a burden so heavy that you would be glad to change it for hills and mountaines; for so I hear some crying out, Revel. 6.17. Mountaines, Fall on us, and Rocks cover us, and hid us from the face of him that sits on the throne, &c. at best expect that if ye put God to his How longs, now; God put you to your how longs, hereafter; if ye put God to complain still, How long refuse ye to keep my commandements, Exod. 16.28. and my laws? Numb. 14.11. How long will this people provoke me? How long will it be ere they believe me, for all the signs which I have shewed among them? Vers. 27. How long shall I bear with this evil generation that murmur against me? Psal. 4.2. &c. How long will you turn my glory into shane, how long will ye love vanity? How long ye simplo ones will ye love simplicity? Prov. 1.22. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Jer. 4.14. Jer. 23.14. Jer. 31.22. Hos. 8.5. Matth. 17.17. How long shall this be in the heart of the Prophets that prophesy lies? How long wilt thou go about, O backsliding daughter? How long will it be ere they attain to innocency? How long shall I suffer you? If you still, I say, put God to complain thus, look that God will also one day pay you in your own coin,& put you to your how longs, and then you complain. Psal. 6.3. But thou, O Lord, how long? Psal. 13.1.2. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, for ever? How long wilt thou hid thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Psal. 14.10. O God how long shall the adversary reproach, shall the enemy blaspheme thy Name for ever? Psal. 19.5. How long Lord wilt thou be angry forever, shall thy jealousy burn like fire? Psal. 89.46. How long Lord wilt thou hid thyself for ever, shall thy wrath burn like fire? Psal. 90.13. Return O Lord, how long? Lord how long shall the wicked? how long shall the wicked triumph? how long shall they utter and speak hard things, and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? Expect that God put you to complain with your brethren in Ireland and germany. How long shall I see the standard, Jer. 4.21. and hear the sound of the trumpet? Jer. 12.4. How long shall the land mourn and the herbs of the field whither? How long O Lord of Hosts, Zech. 1.12. wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem and on the Cities of Judah? Revel. 6.10. How long O Lord, Holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Expect it, I say, yea and that in the midst of all these sad complaints that be our condition which the Church bewails: There is no more any Prophet, Psal. 74.9. neither is any left among us that knoweth How long? If you ask how long, there be none to tell you How long; or that which is worst, lest it be such an answer as God makes to the Prophet Isaiah's How long? Isai. 6.11. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed: a sad and fearful commission! Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the land utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the Land. This would be a cutting answer,( worse then silence) take heed this be your answer; The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways: Prov. 14.14. he loves backsliding, and he shall have his belly full of it, he draws back from God, and God will draw back from him; he puts God to his How longs? and God will put him to his how longs? If thus you would not have it befall you, accept the counsel of the Holy Ghost, To day if ye will hear his voice, Heb. 3.7.8. harden not your hearts; If you would not wait long for Gods Salvation, let not God wait long for your Repentance and Reformation; call thou upon thy soul as well as on God, not only Make no long tarrying, O my God, but make no long tarrying O my soul; Remember Salvation hangs not upon a year, but a day, To day if you will hear, &c. and that day is but the {αβγδ}, the Now, the present moment. Now is the accepted time, 2 Cor. 6.2. Now is the day of Salvation. Thirdly, To Gods own people by peculiar Covenant must a word of counsel be directed. To stir God people to godly sorrow. Doth God wait for a fullness of sorrow in you, do you then hasten deliverance by answering Gods expectation, do you labour to draw water and poure it out before the Lord. More mourners, more sorrow, more tears, more soul affliction: for the Lords sake, for the Lands sake: and make hast, make hast. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider ye, Jer. 9.17. and call for the mourning women, that ye may mourn. Consider ye, i.e. gather together all the humbling considerations both of sin& wrath, both national and personal. Call for the mourning women, i.e. use all advantages to work these considerations so impressively upon your hearts, that if it were possible Jeremiahs wish might be fulfilled in you, Your heads might be waters, Vers. 1. and your eyes a fountain of tears, that you might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. There want not incentives to this duty, for first me thinks I hear the Churches in Germany, Bohemia, the Palatinat with our afflicted slaughtered Brethren in Ireland cry out to us, The Churches afflictions. Lam. 1.12. Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by? doth it nothing concern you? Ye that like the Priest and Levite look on my wounds and pass on careless, pittielesse, O behold and see whether there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. pity me oh my friends, pity me oh my friends in England, pity me oh my friends in Scotland, for the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. Secondly, The sins of Gods people have an hand in the Churches trouble. Consider that what evils are upon Sion, you have had an hand in the procuring of them, that fire which you behold devouring kingdoms, and laying wast Cities and families to the very ground, your sins have either been the coals that have helped to kindle it, or the faggots which have added to the flamme. It is not,( believe it) it is not the sins of the profane Idolatrous multitude, Deut. 32.19. that have made this great combustion in christendom, it is the provocation of his sons and daughters that have caused him to hid his face; and therefore let me bespeak you as the Prophet Malachi did the Priests of his time( and I pray God with better success) And now I pray you beseech God, Mal. 1.9. that he will be gracious unto us, this hath been by your means, you have had an hand in this great combustion; As therefore you have brought the fuel of your sins to increase the fire of his wrath, so cast on the waters of true Repentance, lest it break forth and there be none to quench it. Thirdly, Remember that none shall rejoice with Sion but those that mourn with her. None shall rejoice with Sion, but those that mourn for her. Isai. 66.10. rejoice with jerusalem, and be glad with her all ye that love her, and rejoice for joy with her all ye that mourn for her; they and they only shall rejoice in the Churches joy that weep her tears and mourn her sorrows, The Prophet Habakkuk understood this mystery, Hab. 3.16. and therefore he tells us: When I heard( namely, that dreadful captivity by the Babylonians threatened, Chap. 1. from the 6. verse to the 12.) my belly trembled, my lips quivered at the voice, rottenness entred into my bones: A grievous horror it was that did enervate all his sinews, and disjoint all his bones, that one limb could hardly hang by another, and what was the end of all this? it follows, And I trembled in myself that I might rest in the day of trouble. Observe and consider it, none shall rest in the day of trouble, but those that are troubled in the day of rest. Fourthly and lastly, Wicked men make hast to fill up the measure of their sins, therefore &c. Look abroad and you shall find wicked men making hast to fill up the measure of their sins, and therefore do you make hast also to fill up the measure of your sorrow; they fill up the bag apace, they crowd in their sins as fast as they can into the bag, as I shall show you hereafter; Oh do you make hast to fill up the bottle with your tears, if the bag be full and not the bottle, we may thank ourselves& not our enemies, that our deliverance makes no more hast. Oh let not God wait at thy door, it may be thy tears, thy sorrows will do it, oh let not so glorious a deliverance as is already within view, go back and miscarry for want of thy Contributions. I should proceed to make some farther use of this doctrine, the breasts of it are full of consolation, out of which you may such and be satisfied; but because the work is long and my time short, I will therefore hasten to the use which the holy Ghost makes of it, here in the Text, which is to stir up all the people of God, that since God waits to be gracious, &c. They should therefore learn to wait upon God. Blessed are they that wait on him. Wherein there are two things. 1. The duty of the Saints, scil. To wait on God. 2. An Incentive to the duty, viz. blessedness, it is a blessed thing to; or they are an happy people that wait on God. Blessed are all they that wait on him. First, for the duty. It is a duty David commends to all the people of God under the pressures and oppressions of wicked men. Wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. Psal. 37.34. The duty of waiting on God. When man would thrust thee down, and cast thee out of the land, thou hast nothing to do, but to wait on God, and let nothing turn thee out of thy road, God shall exalt thee, and thou shalt inherit the land. And the Prophet prescribes thee no physic but such as he took himself: he gives thee no counsel, but such as he chargeth upon his own soul. Psal. 27.14. Wait on the Lord, he bespeaks himself, as you may see, verse 13. I had fainted, unless I had believed. Well, saith he, do so still oh my soul, wait on the Lord; wait I say on the Lord; do it, see thou do it. I charge thee wait on God, and thou shalt not lose thy labour, He will strengthen thy heart. Yea, it is a duty that God enjoins all his people at all times, Turn thou to thy God, Hos. 12.6. keep mercy and judgement, and wait on thy God continually. What ever the straight or danger may be, they have nothing to do but to repent and reform, and to wait on God. Consists of 3. Ingredients. In the opening and pressing of this duty, I will briefly show you 1. What it is to wait on God. 2. Some directions to get your heart into a waiting frame. 3. Some encouragements or Motives. For the first take notice that there be three especial ingredients go to the making up of this duty, which I will but name, and then press them upon you by way of Exhortation. The first ingredient in waiting on God is, 1. Ingredient, Faith. Heb. 11.1. Faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. That is, Faith gives the soul a substantial, firm and clear bottom to stand upon, while it waits upon God, though the things we wait for do not appear to sense and reason; and therefore saith David in the forequoted place, Psal. 27.13. I had utterly fainted, unless I had believed.[ I had utterly fainted] is not the Text; the Hebrew reads onely, unless I had believed, the other is in the sense. I had fainted, I had sunk over head and ears in fears and despairs, had I not believed. Faith was the bottom of his waiting on God. Aquin. 1. 2. q. 40. Art. 4. desperatio importat quendam recessum à re desideratâ propter impossibilitatem adipiscendi. 2 Kings 6.33. Nullum peccatum donec animus victus impatientia resistendi. tertul. de ira. Omne peccatum est impatientia. Idem. Faith discovered to him on what grounds he might stand; as namely, Gods faithfulness, and All-sufficiency, &c. and therefore he doth still encourage himself to hold on this course, wait on God, wait I say on the Lord. He that believeth not, doth not wait but despair. And therefore the schools define despair to be Quando animus impossibilitate victus, cedit, when a man taken captive with the apprehension of impossibility gives over waiting and working, as he did, This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait on the Lord any longer? As Tertullian observes of sin, that it is the yielding up of the soul when it is impatient of resisting any longer: So may I say of despair, it is the yielding up of the soul when it is impatient of waiting any longer. The second ingredient is Patience; 2. Ingredient, Patience. Waiting implies delay, and delay without patience is insupportable. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Prov. 13.12. Delay is a sore sickness, and patience is the onely cure of it, without which, that sickness will prove death, I had utterly fainted, ut sup. If we hope for that we see not, Rom. 8.25. then do we with patience wait for it. Patience is the very soul and life of waiting, waiting without patience is nothing else but fury and enraged discontent. The third Ingredient is diligence and activity, 3. Ingredient, Diligence. He that waiteth for a mercy, must serve Gods providence in the use of all the means which God hath sanctified for the accomplishment thereof, it is diligence as well as faith and patience that must inherit the promises, We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, Heb. 6.11.12. that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Waiting without diligence is nothing but slothfulness and security. These three prest by way of Exhortation. 1. Wait Beleevingly. Give me leave now to press these three upon you by way of Exhortation. First then, Wait beleevingly, oh thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, whether for the Churches sorrows, or thine own sufferings, He that shall come, Hab. 2.3. will come, and will not tarry. The vision is for an appointed time( saith the Prophet Habakkuk to the Church and people in his dayes) but what shall we do( might they say) in the mean time? why, you must tarry, wait for it. How? it follows in the next verse, The just shall live by saith. He that cannot believe, cannot live; when troubles come, and dangers come, and fears come, his hope will die, his comfort will die, his heart will die, and sink within him like a ston, as Nabals did; get faith, or in a time of trouble you are but dead men. Christians should wait for God, as the husbandman doth for the harvest. Jam. 5.7. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruits of the earth, how doth he wait? as with patience, so with faith. Husbandmen even such as want divine and saving faith, do yet by a natural faith bear up themselves in the expectation of a harvest; a natural faith, I say, arising merely from the observation of the constant course and circled of providence, whereby he sees it comes to pass( according to the Promise and Covenant of God after the deluge) that Seed-time and Harvest, Gen. 8.22. could and heat, summer and winter, &c. do never cease: and therefore herein he doth comfort and support himself over all his cost, and travel of feed-time, his harvest he hopes will make him amends for all. Let Gods people learn of the Husbandman; and from the constant experience and observation of Gods faithfulness, and all-sufficiency in the constant Methods of his providence towards his suffering Church and people, learn to wait on God not with a natural only but a divine faith, and gracious recumbencie of Spirit. Light is sown for the righteous: Psal. 97.11. and joy for the upright in heart. Light is sown, it is seed time now, it will be harvest hereafter, when they that sow in tears, shall reap in joy: when they that carry forth precious seed weeping, shall come again rejoicing, and bring their sheaves with them. Thus doth the Church beleevingly encourage herself, Isai. 25.9. Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him, and he will save us: This is the Lord, we have waited for him, we will be glad, and rejoice in his salvation. See how holily confident she is! it is not peradventure, or it may be, or who knows?( as some where in Scripture) but He will save us, we will, or we shall rejoice and be glad in that Salvation which he will vouchsafe unto us. As a wife whose husband at his departure sets her a day wherein she should expect his return; till the day comes she waits, and supports herself with the approach of the promise of his return: and when the day comes, she waits till dinner time, but he comes not( it may be) till supper, and she cannot see him; it grows late, and her servants desire her to go to bed, for surely say they the Master will not come to night; nay, but she waits still from hour to hour, and resolves to wait till break of day, for saith she, he will come, he promised me he would come, and he never broken promise with me yet; I know he will not fail me now, if he be alive: So saith the believing soul, This is our God, we have waited for him, he will save us, he hath promised to save us, Psal. 9.10.18. if we wait upon him, and he never failed his people yet; and therefore though some unbelieving and distrustful thoughts would tempt it to lye down in despair, yet the soul resolves to wait till the day dawn and the sun of righteousness arise upon it with healing in his wings. He will come, he said he would come; we shall rejoice and be glad in his Salvation. And therefore let all that mourn for Sion, and sigh and weep for her pressures and oppressions red over the Promises wherein God hath engaged himself for the rescue and redemption of his persecuted languishing Church and people; and make Catalogues of all the Monuments and Experiences of Gods faithfulness and All-sufficiency both public and personal in making good his Promises; the Result whereof is as the waters of Noah, Isai. 54.9. or as the Covenant which God made upon the drying up of those waters: scil. that as God swore then that the waters of Noah should no more return to cover the earth, so hath he also sworn that a deluge or inundation of affliction and persecution shall no more cover and drown his waiting Church and people wholly and for ever. The Vision may be for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lye, and therefore though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry; though it may seem to tarry your time, it will not tarry Gods time; wait Beleevingly: it will be your support, Psal. 27.14. and Gods glory, Rom. 4.20. Secondly, wait Patiently, 2. Wait patiently in Opposition 1. To restlessness of mind. and that in a two-fold respect, scil. As Patience is opposed to restlessness. Making hast. First, wait Patiently, as Patience is opposed to restlessness. In all the pressures and oppressions that may or do befall you, whether national, domestic, or personal, take heed of giving way to disquieting and distracting fears and perturbations of mind; take heed of uncomely and unchristian deporture, either of inward impressions, or of outward expressions by word or gesture, such kind of distempers the Prophet David saw reigning in graceless people, and dwelling in Gods own children; himself and other of the Saints were too prove to fall into such unbeseeming fits; and therefore he lays in this Caveat in case of the insultings and prevailings of wicked men; Fret not thyself; Psal. 37.1.7. impatience doth not onely not ease, but extremely aggravate an affliction: it is not as oil, but Salt& vinegar in the wound which causeth it to fret, and scald and burn the more. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him; wait patiently for his Promise, and rest in his work, rest in his will: Labour to quiet and calm all those tempestuous workings and boilings of spirit, with that word wherewith Christ becalmed the raging sea, Peace, be still. So David, Psal. 42.5. Why art thou cast down, Oh my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? hast thou any cause thus tumultuously and tempestuously to rise and rage within me? Is this done like a Son of Abraham? doth this become a David? a believer? a Child of Promise? will this bring honour to God, or ease to thee? The Cup that my Father giveth me, shall I not drink of it? down proud heart, be still oh my impatient unbelieving spirit, not a word more, wilt blubber and sob, and sullen in this unworthy manner? Peace, I charge thee, fetch another sigh if thou darest; Hope thou in God, is he not able, faithful, willing to help and deliver? did he ever fail thee? fie for shane, what a quile is here? thus he questions and chides, and charges his own heart, as the mother the sullen froward child, that is like even to spoil his face, and even to split his heart in a peevish Mood. Psal. 73.22. do thou as David did, expostulate the matter with thine own impatient heart, chide thyself with bitter language, fool, beast, mad man what dost thou? art got no further yet, after so much hearing and praying, and experience? art still to seek as if thou hadst no God, or one, thou darest not trust? Lay charges and commands upon thine own soul, say, Hope in God, I charge thee in the Name of God, be quiet, wait patiently upon him; and if the winds and storms will not obey thee, go, run to Christ, awake him, with the Disciples, Master, carest thou not that I perish? and desire him to speak the word of command once more, Peace, be still; and if he will speak, there shall be a gracious calm, and a sunshine in thy soul; storms and tempests will obey Christ, though they will not obey thee. Remember this, a Christian should give way to no more sadness and dejection of Spirit, then he can give good reason for; Why art thou cast down, &c. again, wait Patiently, 2. In opposition to making hast. Isai. 28.16. as Patience is opposed to Making hast. Indeed he that believeth will not make hast; or at least so far as he believeth: for there is in our natures this great evil, that we are quickly weary of our burdens; and make more hast a great deal to have them removed then our sins, which are the cause of those burdens whether national or personal. God takes notice of it, and discovers it to us, because we will not easily discover it in ourselves. The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, Isai. 51.14. and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail, &c. that is, men surprised and taken captive in any affliction whatsoever( for it is a figurative speech, and under one kind of affliction, all is understood) makes hast to be delivered: thinks every hour a week, and every week a year, and every year seven till he be set free; as a poor wretch taken prisoner in a strange country, reasoneth thus within himself; Well, this bread will not long keep life and soul together, here I shall certainly be starved to death, I shall never be delivered; so, men in their unbelieving impatient hasty fits, when afflictions press hard and lye long upon them, resolve with themselves, well I shall never be delivered, we shall never see good day more; oh what shall become of us, we are undone, we are undone. The Jews in captivity were in such a fit, when they said, Ezek. 37.11. Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts; as if they had said. Do ye tell us of a return from captivity? talk ye of seeing Sion again? a likely matter! dry bones may as soon live again as ever Israel get out of Babylon; no, no, our best dayes are gon; farewell Sion; neither we nor any of ours are likely ever to see thee again; this Babylonian Captivity will eat us and our children quiter out; and there will be an end of us; we are as sure here as a dead man in his grave. And thus because enlargement came not in in their time, they would not believe it should come at all: because they were not delivered presently, they conclude they shall never be delivered. Hab. 1.5. Thus they that would not believe the captivity when threatened in the day of their security, would not now believe their return when promised in the day of their trouble. security always ends in despair. But that by the way. David himself was in such an hasty mood. I said in my hast, I am cut off from before thine eyes. Psal. 31.22. David made such hast to be delivered, that he thought he should never come out of trouble; no, God will stand by and see me murdered before his face by this bloodsucker, Saul; I shall one day perish by the hand of Saul; I am but a dead man; Psal. 116. All men are liars: Samuel himself that told me I should be King: alas, I am cut off in the very sight of God. Thus, I say, men make hast to be delivered; and more hast then good speed many times: for by over-hasting their deliverance they many times se● it back many degrees by which it had gon forward while they take not the right course; what is that 〈◇〉 it follows in the next vers. Isai. 51.15. But I am th● Lord thy God, that divided the sea, whose waves roared the Lord of Hosts is his Name. q. d. Men make hast● out of their afflictions, but they go not the right way to work; they do not look up to me, the mighty God; I that divided the read sea, and then when it was most tempestuous, when the waves thereof roared, and made it a way for my Redeemed to pass over: I could as easily divide the seas of affliction, when most rough, when deep calls to deep by the noise of the waterspouts; and make a safe and a speedy passage through them into a place of rest; I that am the Lord of hosts, and have all the armies of Heaven and earth attending upon my command, I could easily scatter and destroy the Armies of the Rebels; I could and would soon have subdued their enemies, Psal. 81.14. and turned my hand upon their adversaries; with the turning of an hand I would have destroyed them, and delivered my people, if they would have learned to wait upon me, and stay my leisure: but I said, Isai. 30.15. in returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength, and ye would not, there is the mischief; if people may not have deliverance in their own time and their own way, they will have none at all. It was a desperate speech of that wretch( whether the King or his servant, I well know not,) 2 Kings 6.33. This evil is of the Lord, why should I wait upon the Lord any longer? why shouldst thou? nay wretch, why shouldst thou not wait upon the Lord longer? thine own mouth shall convince and condemn thee, for if the evil were from the Lord, none could remove that evil from thee, but he that laid that evil on thee. fools in the impatience of their spirits do sin against God and their own arguments. Saul was in a fit of despair and madness when he forsook God to go to the witch; as if because God would not help him the devil should. It is a dangerous thing to be too quick with God, short-spirited men give away their hopes for nothing, it cost Saul both his kingdom and his soul too. To morrow shalt thou be with me, said the Devil; Happy had Saul been if God had said so, and it may be he might have heard those words from God, if he had used as much pains and patience in seeking God, as he did the devil. David was in a sweet temper in his affliction, which he reports to all the world for their imitation. I waited patiently for the Lord. Psal. 40.1. How long did he wait? himself will resolve you, even till he cried himself weary, his throat dry, and his eyes dim. I am weary of my crying, Psal. 69.3. my throat is dried, mine eyes fail while I wait for my God. Oh invincible patience! unconquerable expectation! though he was weary in waiting, he was not weary of waiting. And truly David lost nothing by it, for so it follows, And he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me also out of an horrible pit, &c. And he hath put a new song within my mouth. Psal. 40.2.3. David praying is at length David speeding. David sinking is now David rising. David walking, David waiting is now David singing, David triumphing. What follows? Many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Oh that you would! oh that you might be some of the many, that from such experiments of your own and others, would learn to see, fear, and patiently wait for, and trust in God. A blessing would tread upon your heels, as on the heels of these words, verse 4 Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud( the enemies of God how great and proud soever) nor such as turn aside to lies. The Apostle calls them to this exercise of patience in their temptations and trials, Let patience have her perfect work. There is a work of patience, James 1.4. and there is a perfect work; to bear a little burden a little while is a work of patience, but to bear the heaviest burden and a long time, this is a perfect work: but how long may some say? the Apostle will answer, Be patient Brethren till the coming of the Lord. James 5.7. Till his coming? when? not in the last judgement,( I conceive that not the meaning in this place) but till his coming in this or that particular deliverance out of any trial or temptation. In brief, as long as the Lord stays, so long to wait, this is to let patience have line and rope, a perfect work: His instance of the husbandman shows this to be the meaning, Behold the Husbandman waits for the precious fruits of the earth, and hath long patience for it: how long? it follows, till he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; i.e. be ye also so patient, patient till ye receive, patient till ye reap, wait, and wait patiently, as patience is opposed to making hast, wait till the coming of the Lord, and be of good cheer, saith he, it draweth nigh. So may I say, it draweth nigh, nigh to thee, believing, patient soul, nigh to England, as I shall show you hereafter. Be ye also patient, stablish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Well, wait patiently, as patience is opposed to restlessness. Making hast. Remember the word of our Saviour( and I have done with this branch) In patience possess ye your souls. Patience is a possession, Luke 21.19. better and richer then all the possessions in the world, for it is the possession of ones soul, without it a man is not owner of his own soul, and what shall a man gain if he get the whole world and loose his own soul. He that hath lost his patience hath lost his soul, he is besides himself, a mad man, furor ira brevis, passion is a little frenzy: recover your patience, and you recover your wits; possess patience, and you possess yourselves, your souls, and with your souls all things else: and therefore in all your troubles wait on God, till he arise to the prey, to the help; Zeph. 3.8. Wait beleevingly, wait patiently. Thirdly, 3. Wait diligently. Wait actively, wait diligently, waiting is no idle posture, or sitting still, no lazy expectation which is the posture of most; so is the report that the walkers who went to and fro through the earth gave in to the angel, Zech. 1.10.11. Behold all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest, truly if it be peace and plenty within mens private walls, if the beams of God shine upon their tabernacle, the public condition of Sion, the sins or sufferings of the Church are little laid to heart with most men, they can easily be persuaded to wait for the taking off of public burdens, especially spiritual, that yoke which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear. They can be content well enough to wait for Reformation, and let it come at leisure, God may come or go, and stay as long as he please, and they will wait his leisure, but it's idly and lazily and securely, they will do nothing toward the mending of the matter. The Apostles complaint may be revived in our later times, Phil. 2.21. All men seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christs. Their own pleasures, their own profits, their own ends, their own advantages: not the things of Jesus Christ, not Christs Truths, not Christs ORdinances, worship, not Christs kingdom, glory, greatness, &c. And there are not a few of this temper, but many; All, all seek their own, all indeed to speak of. Had not the Common wealth been kept in bondage as well as the Church, had not civill freedom been taken captive as well as spiritual, and had not mens particular Interests been bound up in the public concernments, how few would there have been think ye, that would have stepped over their thresholds and embarked themselves, and all their interests in the quarrel and cause of Jesus Christ and his precious gospel? But God hath been pleased in much mercy to begin to awaken the kingdom out of that deep sleep of judge. 18.7. Laish security, which threatened us with a vers. 27.28. Laish destruction( as I shall show you more fully in this ensuing discourse) wherefore let every one awake and rouse up himself to go forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty, and to serve the goodness and providence of our God( which hath prevented us) in a diligent operative active way, according to those faculties and provisions wherewith God hath furnished every one in their rank and station. None so meanly invested, but may do some thing toward Sions enlargement, either by command, authority, learning, riches, counsel, encouragements or prayers. Be doing some thing though it were but to carry a letter for Jesus Christ; if thou hast not gold, silver, precious stones, blew, silk, purple, fine twined linen, &c. thy Badgers skin and Goats hair may contribute something, and be accepted towards the building of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, up and be doing, and the Lord be with thee. Consider God waits to be gracious to his people, he waits for opportunities that he may do his people good in the best season: but he doth not fit still all that while, He hath prepared his throne for judgement, Psal. 9 7. and he hath prepared the instruments of death for the enemy, Psal. 7.13. He is preparing the mercy for his people, and them for the mercy; and when he hath fitted them for mercy, he will show them mercy. God as the Schools speak is summè activus, a pure act, a living God; The Lord Jesus was exceeding active while he was on earth; He went up and down doing good, &c. The devil waits for mens souls, but he doth not sit still all that while, He goeth up and down like a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devour. 1 Pet. 5.8. Our enemies wait to do mischief and to destroy us, but they do not sit still all this while, they are counseling and plotting, laying snares and digging pits, Psal. 64.5.6. preparing the instruments of cruelty and death: They are( we see) skilful and apt to destroy. Is God active to save? was the Lord Christ active to save? the devil and damned men active to destroy? and shall we alone sit still and do nothing for our own safety and enlargement? Oh prepare to meet your God, Amos 4.22. with prayers, tears, reformation, seasonable and proportionable fruit to all his cost and pains bestowed on us. Prepare to meet your enemies with all kind of artillery both of nature and grace, that you may not be afraid to speak with them in the gate; or rather that you may be able to keep them off, that they may never come so near you, they are more easily kept out then cast out. Know ye not that the vows of God are upon you? hath not God brought you into the bond of the Covenant, for the maintaining of the Gospel, his Majesties Person, Honour and posterity, the privileges of Parliament, the Liberties of the Subject, and mutual defence and safety with your lives, power and estates? Now therefore brethren and beloved cloth yourselves with faith, courage and resolution suitable to the great engagements which in the presence of God, men and Angels you have laid upon your own souls, to wait on the Power, wisdom, and goodness of God, which is gon out before you in all just and honourable ways, every one in his place for the making good the oath of God; and the ripening and hastening of our desired enlargement and Salvation; lest otherwise while we sit down in an idle and profane security; the enemies rage our own guilt and perjury, dig our graves for us, and over our tomb be inscribed this Epitaph: Here lies England that dyed to save the charges of defending themselves. Oh England wait thou upon God, but wait not sleepingly but seekingly: especially wait upon him in prayer, in dayes of humiliation, in reforming yourselves and families, in purging your hearts and lives from whatsoever may hinder or retard our desired and expected deliverance: that we might be able to say with the Church, Isai. 26.8. In the way of thy judgements have we waited for thee, O Lord, the desire of our soul is to thy Name, and to the remembrance of thee. Even in this sense also, Blessed is that servant whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. So waiting Beleevingly, Patiently, Actively. More might be added for the qualifying of this duty of waiting on God, but I have far to go, and therefore must hasten to the second thing I undertook, and that is to lay down some Helps or Directions to get our hearts into a waiting frame and disposition. To this end I will briefly propound to you a few Considerations, means or Directions to persuade the heart to wait on God. which I shall desire every one to work upon his heart by deep and serious meditation: for it is heart-work, and therefore must be done by taking much pains with our own hearts and spirits, by meditation and prayer. First therefore consider the emptiness and vanity of all Creature-succours, 1. The insufficiency of second causes. 2 Kings. 19.35. Gods all-sufficiency. and the fullness and all-sufficiency of divine help and protection. Sennacherib brings with him an hundred fourscore and five thousand armed men, and sits down with them before Jerusalem; an army one would have thought able to have conquered a whole world before it; who would not have given Jerusalem for lost? and who would not have said, that had gone out of town and left Jerusalem in such a taking, within a few weekes after, by this time Jerusalem is utterly destroyed? Isai. 17.13. and yet behold before the next morning they are but so many dead corpses. judge. 7. God sends out Gideon with but three hundred poor unarmed men, to encounter a mighty innumerable host of the Midianites, and crownes them with victory and triumph; a thousand such instances might be multiplied. Holy David had this observation in his eye and heart, when he prayed so earnestly, Give us help from trouble, Psal. 6.11.10. for vain is the help of man: in the former verse he asked a question, and answers it himself, Who will bring me into the strong city, who will led me into Edom? can Joab my general, and all mine host do it? or if I should hire thousands of Egyptians, and ten thousands of the Assyrians will they serve the turn? no, the horse and the rider will not, cannot do it, Wilt not thou O God? if thou wilt not, it will never be done while the world stands; while thou hast cast us off, and hast not gone out with armies; we have been beaten, and gone down the wind before the basest and most contemptible of our enemies, whom sometimes we would have laughed to scorn, as poor inconsiderable wretches, but now every one is too hard for us, and can crow over our heads. Now upon this foundation he builds this Petition, O give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man; all the help of man will do us no good if thou help not: and hereupon he doth raise up himself to a sweet and holy dependence upon God; In God we shall do valiantly, q.d. the Creature cannot, God can, God will. I will wait upon him. See how this consideration fetched off the people of Israel from their carnal confidence, Jer. 14.22. Jer. 14.22. Are there any of the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain, i.e. are there any of the idols of the heathen whom they vainly, and foolishly, and falsely call gods, that can cause rain? they had indeed in times of drought sought to these poor dirty vanities for rain, but alas they were notable to create one drop of water. Can the heavens give showers? they had waited on the heavens; they had observed the winds and the clouds, and the signs and tokens of heaven; and when the wind blew South, and the Moon changed; and the skies looked read and louring; Matth. 16.3. and such and such planets met in their Conjunction; and when the clouds gathered together, and the like; then they said Now it will rain, surely before it be long we shall have some showers: thus they studied their almanacs more than their Bibles, looked up to the heavens of God more than to the God of heaven for rain and showers. But when God had confuted all their lying observations, then they could see and confess their idolatrous folly; for so the question implies a strong negation, Is there any of the vanities of the Heathen? Oh there is not, there is not; can the Heavens give showers? oh they cannot, they cannot, the Heavens of God cannot let fall a drop of rain, but by the command of the God of Heaven; no, no, thou art he that must do it, O Lord our God; thou, thou only: and what then? why now see how they raise up their hearts into a sweet humble believing, patient waiting Resolution, Therefore we will wait upon thee: We will wait no more on the Heathen vanities, we will wait no longer on the heavens, but on the God of the Heavens; He that made the Heavens, he onely can command the Heavens; we will wait on thee; For thou hast made all these things. Take along with you a parallel place, Jer. 3.23. Truly in vain is Salvation looked for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountaines, i.e. either from their Idols who were placed and worshipped in the hills and mountaines, or from Princes and Nations who over look their neighbours as much as the hills do the poor low valleys, or the mountaines the little hills; yea though there were multitudes of them, hills upon hills, mountaines upon mountaines, people upon people, armies upon armies, multitudes of nations and people united and combined together with power and policy, in vain is salvation, deliverance and rescue looked for from them all; they had found it by dear-bought experience, and so they confess, ver. 24. for shane hath devoured the labours of our fathers, &c: when the Egyptians were upon them, then they ran to Assyria for help, and when the Assyrians came against them, then they fled to Egypt for succour; Ephraim is a silly dove without heart, they call to Egypt, Hos. 7.11. they go to Assyria. And they wearied themselves in running about for help and deliverance, from one country to another, Jer. 2.36. and from one people to another, but all would not do; all they got for their labour and travel was but shane and sorrow, as it was threatened, They shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. Isai. 20.5.6. And they shall say in that day, Behold, such is our Expectation whither we flee for help; and so they did indeed as here, shane hath devoured our labours, our flocks, and our herds, our sons, and our daughters, we lye down in shane, and our confusion covereth us, &c. Now from this consideration the like inference is implyed here, which they made before in the former place; Therefore we will wait upon thee; and it is expressed in some such language, Hos. 14.3. Ashur shall not save us, we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless find mercy. Brethren, let their folly and our own too teach us wisdom; and from such experiences lets learn to dispute and reason ourselves into a sweet holy waiting frame of heart. Second causes will not do, It is not armies, nor Kings, nor Parliaments that can deliver us; it is not the multitudes nor combinations of creatures that can help us, Therefore we will wait upon God, My soul wait thou only upon God: for my expectation is from him. Psal. 62.5. In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength: Isai. 26.4. or as the Hebrew expresseth it, A rock of Ages: one Age passeth away but the Rock remains; another Age dyes, but the succeeding Age finds the Rock in its place, unmovable; and so from age to age to thousand generations the Rock remains; the Creature is but a Rock of an age, a year, a month, a day, it may be quickly beat down about our ears: Isai. 25.20. away Christian to the Rock, the Rock of Eternity, there hid thee, there wait till the indignation be overpast. The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, Prov. 18.10. Isai. 33.16. or Munition of Rocks, as Isai. 33.16. Rocks within Rocks, Rocks beneath Rocks, Rocks above Rocks; Rocks so deep no Pioner can undermine them, Rocks so thick no cannon can pierce them, Rocks so high no ladder can scale them. Object. I but there he may be starved for want of bread, no: bread shall be given him; bread, and it shall cost him nothing, it shall be given; I but a Rock is a dry place though strong, there he may be chokt for want of water; neither: his waters shall be pure; God is an everlasting fountain as well as an everlasting Rock. He can and will fetch water out of the Rock for his thirsty people that take Sanctuary in him. Oh run hither and be safe; and by this Consideration wind up your hearts with David into a waiting frame, Psal. 50.9. Because of his strength, I will wait upon God, for God is my defence. No strength but in the Lord Jehovah, no defence but in the Rock of Ages; Therefore will I wait on God. Secondly, consider God hath waited a long time for us. 2. God hath waited for us. How long did God wait upon thee before thy Conversion? calling inviting, entreating, beseeching, wooing, promising, swearing unto thee, and thou wouldst not hear? How long hast thou made Christ wait at thy door since thy Conversion? and knock there many times for entrance, Cant. 5.2. till his head hath been wet with the due, and his locks with the drops of the night, i.e. very long, very late. Well, think with thyself if God waited so long for me, it is but an equal and an easy censure, if he make me wait a little while for him. If we should make a King wait at our doors an hour, it were more then if he should make us wait at his gates a week, a month, a year. I will bear, said the Church, the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him. Micah 7.9. We will wait( may we say) the Lords leisure, because we have made him wait upon us a long time, it is the Churches resolution in the same place, vers. 7. she had considered her carriage against God in the former part of the Chapter, and could see nothing but murder and oppression, and covetousness, and treachery, and disloyalty, and disobedience, &c. in the midst of her streets, and therefore concludes, Well, I have made God wait all this while under my sins, therefore I will wait under his punishments, I will look unto the Lord, I will wait for the God of my Salvation, my God will hear me. Gods patience under our sins may well purchase our patience under his afflictions. Thirdly, yea consider, that even now, 3. God doth wait now. it is God that waits, not we. God yet waits for us rather then we wait for God: for some of those purposes which I discovered to you in the opening of the words. He is ready at this instant to give deliverance, but we have not been, neither are to this day fit to receive deliverance, else we had had it before this time. The Patient under his corroding and purging physic, calls for his cordials and restoratives, and complains of his physician, if he delay him, as if he made him stay too long for his cordial draughts: whereas in truth, the physician stays for him, not he for the physician; the cordial is ready in the Physitians closet, were the Patient fit for it: but alas the malignant poisonous humour is not yet purged and eaten out; to give a cordial before that time were to gratify and strengthen the distemper, not the patient. think thus with yourself when national and personal pressures seem to lie too long: Oh if we, or I were fit for delivereance we should have deliverance; God hath no delight to afflict more then need; were our pride and idolatry, and self love, and other malignant distempers purged out, deliverance would come in alone, God waits for me; I will wait for him: The Lord waits that he may be gracious, &c. Fourthly, 4. The blessing doth not consist so much in the removing as in the sanctifying of an affliction. Psal. 94.12. consider that the blessing doth not consist in the removing of an affliction, whether public or private, but in the sanctifying of it. Blessed is the man whom thou correctest and teachest in thy Law. He saith not, Blessed is the man who was in prison, and is enlarged; nor blessed is the man who was sick, and is recovered; nor blessed are the people, who were likely to have been consumed by civill warres, but now a Pacification is made, all warres are hushed and gone, and the like; but blessed is the people or person whom thou correctest and teachest, when teachings go along with corrections there is the blessing; when by affliction God teacheth a people or person, the sinfulness of sin, the blessedness of exact walking, the emptiness of the Creature, and the fullness of Christ, they are blessed indeed. So David acknowledgeth, Psal. 119.71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted: wherein? that I might learn thy statutes. By his afflictions God taught him to walk more exactly, and therein consisted his happiness. It is good for me; Oh I would not have been without this affliction for a world. And therefore if you would not make more hast then good speed out of your afflictions, labour more to get them sanctified then removed; choose rather that the affliction should lye upon the all thy life then be removed before God hath done thy soul good by it: and by this consideration, work thy heart in a waiting frame. Fifthly, learn to prise a waiting frame of heart more than a present deliverance: God may give a deliverance in wrath, but he never gives a waiting frame of heart, but it is in love. Impatience, frowarnesse, and unbelief may wrest a temporary deliverance out of Gods hand, but a woe will tread upon the heels of such a deliverance; such a deliverance makes way for a greater judgement. But a waiting frame of Spirit is a Grace gotten by the exercise of Grace, given in grace and favour, a special fruit of Gods Love, and an infallible forerunner of a gracious enlargement: when God hath brought us to this that we can freely and cheerfully say to God, Thy will be done, God is ready to say so to us, Blessed are they that wait for him. I have done with the Directions how to get your hearts into a waiting frame; but I would not that you should have done with them also: but do with them as you do with oil to a stiff joint, rub and chafe them upon your hearts by deep and frequent meditation and prayer; for remember that a waiting heart is a gift and grace of God, and must be fetched out of the blood of Christ; wrestle with God for it, and never let him go, till he bless you with it. I come now to the Motives and encouragements which lie in the heel of the Text, Blessed are they that wait upon him. It is a blessed thing to wait on God; Motives to wait on God. Or, They be blessed that wait on God. And that in divers respects. First, 1. They shall not be oshamed that wait on God. Isai. 49.23. They that wait on God shall be blessed in the accomplishment of their hopes, in the answer of their expectation. They shall not be ashamed that wait for me. It is a shane to a man when he waits and misseth of his expectation. The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Shebah waited for them, Job 6.19. namely, for the streams of brooks, vers. 15. which they saw when they passed by that way in winter, but now in the heat of summer, when they stood in most need of them, when their tongues were ready to cleave to the roof of their mouths for thirst, they were vanished and consumed out of their places, vers. 17. What then follows? They were confounded because they had hoped, they came thither and were ashamed. Such is the fruit of creature confidence, and waiting on second causes, when God is left out or neglected: Second causes may prove abortive; Parliaments may miscarry; Navies may be broken with furious storms, 1 Kin. 22.48. Armies may be like leaves driven with the wind, Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are( worse) ally. All the Creature is but an Egyptian reed to trust to. Such were Job's brethren and friends to him in his distress, My Brethren have dealt treacherously as a brook, &c. vers. 15. Such were Egypt and Assyria to Israel, Isai. 20.5. They shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Ethiopia their glory: But they shall not be ashamed that wait for God. Old Jacob waited for the salvation of God, Gen. 49.18. and saw it in himself and his children; temporal and eternal. Psal. 116.1.2.3. David waited for God and was delivered out of the mire, where others would have sunk and perished, and was set upon a rock, a throne established surer then a rock on the promise of God, Psal. 89.29. Thy throne will I establish as the dayes of Heaven. Good old Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel, and saw it, Luke 2.25.27. and embraced it in his arms. Oh all you that with Jacob have waited for God's salvation, and with Simeon have waited for the consolation of our English Sion, be of good cheer, you shall not be ashamed of your expectation; wait and wait beleevingly; wait, and wait patiently; wait, and wait actively; Surely the Lord will wait to be gracious to England; surely he will be exalted that he may have mercy upon England. Psal. 9.18. The expectation of his poor waiting servants in England shall not perish for ever; It may be deferred, but it shall not perish. And therefore if God be waiting to be gracious, let us stir up ourselves to wait till he be gracious. And me thinks it should not be long first; that voice seems to sound in mine ears. Thus saith the Lord, Isai. 56.1. keep judgement and do justice for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. The righteous salvation of God toward his poor people in England is coming, and that not far off, It is near to come and ready to be revealed. God certainly my Brethren, intends to do good to England, and( I could believe) it is near, even at the very door, only if our unbelief and impatience do not set back the clock of providence, and turn that journey into the land of promise which might be dispatched, in forty dayes into a forty years pilgrimage, through a wilderness of danger, difficulty and opposition. I say therefore to encourage and bribe all Gods people to a believing, patient, active waiting-for of God, Isai. 62.11. His salvation is near to come, and his righteousness at hand to be revealed. And though I cannot preach this good news to England as the Prophet did to Israel by immediate revelation; yet I speak not without good grounds of warrantable observation: for while I observe whereabout the finger of God is in the dial of Providence, I do humbly conceive I may tell this good news to all that fear God, and wait for him in England, Behold thy salvation cometh, behold his reward is with him and his work before him. That therefore I may not conceal from you the bottom and foundation of my humble confidence, I shall discover to you such Arguments as in my observation of the times I have collected together; which By that time you have thoroughly viewed and seriously observed what proportion they hold with Scripture, Rom. 15.4. that eternal rule of truth, comfort, and hope; and with the methods and dispensations of God toward his Church and people held out therein, I shall leave every spiritual discerning eye to judge what strength they bear, and with what comfort and encouragement they do invite you to wait upon God. There be therefore twelve Argu ments that put me into good hope that God is waiting to do good to England, the most like the teeth of the Spouse compared to a flock of sheep which goeth up from washing, Cant. 6.6. every one bear twins; and if there be any that go single, there be others of so fruitful a womb, that they will make up the number with a liberal overplus. Surely there is none barren among them. Twelve Arguments that God is doing good to England. First Arg. The approach of Babylons downfall conjectured 1. by a prophesy. Dan. 12.11. Twelve Arguments that God is doing good to England. First, Is the near approach of Babylons downfall; of which we have the consent and harmony of a threefold conjecture. The first is hinted to us from the 12. Dan. where we find a prophesy of the final restauration of the Jews, and the 11. vers. expresseth the time, which is 1290. years after the ceasing of the daily sacrifice, and the setting up of the abomination of desolation, which is conceived to be in Julian's time, who did essay to rebuild the Temple of the Jews, which was an abomination to God; who therefore to show his just detestation thereof destroyed it by fire( out of the earth) tearing up the very foundation thereof to the nethermost ston, this was in the year 360. after Christ, to which if you add 1290. years, it will pitch this calculation upon the year 1650. And before this full and final restauration of the Jews( when ever it comes) Babylon must down, Rome must be destroyed, and it is very probable that these may be beginnings of that glorious work, which conjecture is strengthened from a Second conjecture bottomed upon the prophesy of the seven Vials, The second conjecture of the approach of Babylons downfall from the effusion of the 7. Vials. Revel. 16. The effusion whereof is by the best Expositors concluded to be so many degrees of the ruin and destruction of the Beast: For as he arose by several steps and gradations, so he must decrease by proportionable measures and abatements. This all or most agree on, though they differ exceedingly in the several expositions of the Vials themselves, and it were as needless as it is an endless labour to present them all before you. I shall content myself to set in your view a few of those opinions which are most received, by the harmony whereof you may make some guess what probability this conjecture of the approach of Antichrists downfall carrieth with it. The first vial which was powred out upon the earth, vial. 1. Vers. 1.2. vers. 2. seems to expound itself to be a plague powred upon the men that had the mark of the beast, and worshipped his Image, that is to say, upon the ordinary people or the common sort of Papists which( like the earth) are the lowest and basest part in the kingdom of Antichrist, the foot stool upon which he treads. That which some conjecture, that by earth should be meant the common sort of godly Christians plagued and persecuted by Antichrist, bears no probability at all, or the least that may be; for by that interpretation Antichrist himself must be the Angel that pours out this vial, and godly Christians those which receive the mark of the Beast, for upon the effusion of this vial, the plague broken out upon them that had received that mark. The second vial was poured out upon the Sea, vial 2. on the world, and the great ones thereof, say some, but not with much likelihood of truth; for that I conceive to be not only a warrantable but an undeniable rule which some judicious expositors lay down; viz. that the general subject of all the Vials is the Antichristian Church or world, and the particular subject whereupon each several vial is poured out is some part or thing in that Antichristian state. And therefore they speak with much more probability, who by Sea understand the Doctrine, Religion, Worship, and Ordinances of that Antichristian Church, which was gathered together into one body, as it were into one Sea, and combination of waters in the counsel of Trent, and was then separated from the Orthodox Christian Doctrine of the Scripture( as the waters from the dry land in the third dayes creation) and might well be called a Sea, Gen. 1.9.10. the Doctrine of the See of Rome, or the Sea of that roman doctrine. Upon which when Chemnitius and others after him had poured out their Vials, this Sea turned into blood, i.e. it was discovered and convinced to be a bloody Religion, a dead Doctrine, a mere mortuum, a deep Sea of thick, black, stinking blood: it being a doctrine that doth not hold forth the cleansing, quickening, pacifying, purifying blood of the Lord Jesus, as the Sea in Solomons Temple did; but it holds forth the blood of a dead man, a dead Christ, and dead Ordinances, dead to any spiritual life, fitter to pollute then to purge the Conscience; Heb. 9.14. yea a doctrine that teacheth blood, the murdering of Kings, the massacring of the people and members of Jesus Christ. There be that by Sea choose rather to understand whole Nations, People, kingdoms, Provinces, dioceses, as in Luthers time; The Reader may please himself, and if he would have more variety look into those Authors that have written on this subject, and he may have enough; but that is not my work. The third vial( therefore) is poured out on the rivers and fountains of waters, vial. 3. Vers. 4. which are the roman Tyrants and persecutors as some conceive: for they became blood too; bloody Tyrants, bloody persecutors, like their doctrine. And this opinion is not contradicted, but extended in a larger sense by others, to Popish Bishops, Priests jesuits, and all other ecclesiastical persons, Agents and Factors for Antichrist; who, as the Rivers do the Sea, carry forth this bloody Religion and doctrine, and worship through the earth to and fro among the Nations, and then like the Rivers run back again into the Sea from whence they came, and fill it again with the riches and revenues of the Nations, till they have drained the whole world into that immense Ocean. This vial some would have poured out in queen Eliz. reign, when in the year 1581. she by consent of the Parliament made the Statute for the banishing of Priests and jesuits from the kingdom, under pain of high Treason: But whether this exposition will not be too narrow, both in regard of time, place, and plague, I leave to the judgement of the understanding Reader. The fourth vial poured out on the Sun, vial 4. Revel. 16.8. was not as it seems to hurt the Sun, and so the Sun must not be any any part or thing in the Antichristian state, but to arm the Sun( threescore it be) with a scalding scorching influence to wound and burn and torment men withall. Some of those that make the Sun to be some part or thing in the Antichristian world, would have it to be that transcendent light which the Pope assumes to himself( as the Sun is the greatest luminary in the Heavens) whereby he gives authority to Scriptures, to doctrines, to worship, to government, to counsels, &c. And the angel that poured out this vial upon him, the Queen Eliz.( also) and her Parliament( among other States and kingdoms) taking away the Popes Supremacy, making it, and the defence of it high Treason. Some the House of Austria, the chief governor in the Antichristian state of most eminent lustre and brightness; and the angel that poured out this vial of Gods wrath to be the King of Sweden going forth like another angel of God, and slaying many thousands of the Host of that blasphemous Sennacherib. But other that make the Sun to be but the medium or instrument, which the Angel of God useth to make it more vexatious and tormenting to men of the Antichristian state, by the Sun understand Christ himself, but without any shadow of probability, since so some created angel should have used the ministry of Christ in the effusion of this vial; whereas it is most probable, that it is Christ the angel of the Covenant that pours out all the Vials by the ministry of other created Angels, or Creatures whatsoever. Others therfore with much more dexterity by Sun understand the Holy Scriptures( the purest and perfectest body of light and heat under the Heavens) the preaching whereof by a more abundant effusion of the Holy Ghost( in the dayes of the pouring out of this vial) being raised to infinite more purity and power than in those misty cloudy times of blindness and ignorance, wherein Antichrist reigned without control, doth make the Scriptures to be of such a vexing, tormenting influence, as it maketh men( members or friends of Antichrist) that do oppose it, to blaspheme the Name of God. And so the Angel that pours out this vial may be those who( though not by their nature, yet) by their office are Angels, or Messengers, even the faithful Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; And as the Scriptures shall be more and more clearly and powerfully preached, so this vial shall more and more abundantly and tormentingly be poured out, till that time come, when the light of the moon shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun shall be seven-fold as the light of seven dayes, Isai. 30.26. at which time( saith Mr Brightman) this vial shall have its complete and perfect effusion. The fifth vial is poured out upon the seat of the Beast, Fifth vial. Revel. 16.10. by which some of good repute and learning understand the form of the Pope's government, which is monarchical or Sole episcopal authority in ecclesiastical causes; which is another throne distinct from that universal supremacy of the Pope whereby he challengeth transcendent authority over all Kings and Princes,( and whereupon he hath exalted himself above all that is called God, whether Magistrates, or Ministers of the Gospel,) and the Angel that pours out this vial to be such Protestant Writers that do discover the antichristianism of this kind of church government, but especially the Church of Scotland, which hath not only discovered it to be Antichristian, but as Antichristian hath thrust it out by head and shoulders; not in a tumultuous popular way, but with so much wisdom, courage, judgement and piety, as that one may see and say it is not a vial poured out by a weak and an unadvised multitude, but by an Angel of God, by the heavenly Ministers of his wrath. Some by the seat of the Beast understand the whole kingdom of Antichrist; but others( and with more probability) the city of Rome;( not when it was besieged and sacked by Charles the 5th. Anno 1527. as Artopoeus casts it; but) when it shall be totally and finally laid waste; according to the prophesy of the Sybyll, Tota eris in cineres quasi nunquam Roma fuisses. The sixth vial poured out upon Euphrates is literally understood by some; Sixth vial. Revel. 16.12. of a River in Mesopotamia by others, which hinders the passage of those oriental Countries into Judea; the literal drying up whereof as of the read sea and Jordane shall prepare a way for the Jews to return to Jerusalem to entertain the Gospel and kingdom of Jesus Christ; these be the Kings here mentioned in this verse: as all the Redeemed are called, Chap. 1. ver. 6. By others Metaphorically, of the Turks Dominion, and the Angel that pours it out to be the Jews; while others very learned and judicious extend it in a larger analogy to whatsoever it is that hinders the approach of those Kings of the earth, who are to do execution upon Antichrist, as Euphrates did hinder the passage of Cyrus to old Babylon, till by a straragem of his it was dried up by turning the course of the streams to run in other Channels. under the seventh and last vial poured out on the air, Seventh vial. Revel. 16.17. some contend for judgements and plagues to be poured out upon the whole kingdom of Satan, who is called the prince that ruleth in the air; some, as forerunners, others, as Concomitants of the day of judgement; because the voice out of the Temple, from the Throne, cries, It is done, in the same vers. Yet there are who keeping more close in their Exposition of these seven Vials to the state of the Antichristian Church, and so making all the subjects upon which all the Vials are poured out, some part or thing in that state, do understand by air, the air of the Antichristian Church; and conceive it to be( the same with the smoke that arose out of the bottomless pit, Chap. 9.1.2.) namely, nothing else but the darkness of ignorance that fills the kingdom and Region of Antichrist. But I am travelled further then I need, in giving you an account of the several opinions of Interpreters concerning the two last Vials; for most of our judicious Divines conceive this age to be under the effusion of the fourth vial, and then if by the Seat of the beast( upon which the fifth vial is poured out) be meant Rome itself( as it is greatly probable) then surely the ruin and downfall of that beast which sits upon that seat cannot be a calculation of any long expectation. And that is the main result which I desire may be observed, that all this variety of opinions( and much more which might be produced, were it not rather to distracted than to instruct you) concerning the Vials, and the subjects on which they are poured out, is yet picht by their Authors upon such times and periods, that entertain which you please, they will allow you no long time for the expectation of the ruin and downfall of that man of sin. Now if any man shall demand of me, saying, Suppose this approach of Babylons fall which you contend for, yet how doth this lye in such a necessary tendencie to Englands good? for may not Babylon fall, and yet England not stand? I answer, First, that without all controversy the good of all the Protestant Churches in Christendom is deeply concerned in the downfall of Antichrist, else what means that Exultation in heaven mentioned by St John, Revel. 19.1.2. 1. And after these things, Revel. 19.1.2. I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Hallelu-jah: Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God. 2. For true and righteous are his judgements, for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornications, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. &c. Is it not the voice of the Saints and people of God triumphing in the confusion of Antichrist? and in what heaven? not in the heaven of glory, but in the heaven of grace; for as by Earth the general subject of all the Vials, ver. 1. is meant the earthly corrupt state of the Antichristian Church or world, so( in opposition to that) by heaven is meant the pure and heavenly state and Complexion of the Reformed Churches. And if so, England will have as much cause to bear a part in that song as any other Church under heaven; yea she may justly sing the Altus in that Hallelu-jah. But secondly, that Englands good is yet more nearly and particularly concerned in the downfall of Antichrist, I shall only observe from the premised interpretations of the Vials, that as we see many in the natural death die upward and by degrees in their extreme limbs and members before death seize upon the heart, that being primum vivens& ultimum moriens, the first that lives, and the last that dies; so must Antichrist, he must die abroad in germany, in Geneva, in Scotland, in England and in other kingdoms, before he die at Rome in Saint Peters chair; he must die in his catholics, in his Doctrine and Doctors, &c. before he die in his Person, that being also the first that lived, and the last that shall die in the Antichristian state. And therefore if there be found many Symptoms of death upon his limbs in the effusion of divers of the Vials upon his catholics, Doctrine, Doctors, Worship, Ceremonies( and the like) here in England, as it were together( for it is not conceived necessary that the effusion of one vial should be determined, before the other begin;) If the holy Scriptures had never such a scalding influence poured out upon them to torment the men of the Antichristian Church, as in this morning of Englands revivings, Revel. 16.9. making the popish party to bite their tongues for pain, and blaspheme the God of Heaven in stead of repenting of their deeds. If the sole episcopal power of Ordination and Jurisdiction( which if it be not the seat of the Beast, I am sure is one of the stays of that seat) never received such a blow and wound in England as by this Happy Parliament, which like another Angel of God hath poured out this vial or at lest some drops of this vial upon it? If these, I say, and the like Symptoms of death be found upon the limbs of that man of sin, we shall humbly hope that he is no long-lived man amongst us, but that as he hath we hope given up the Ghost in Scotland, and many other Reformed Churches, so also he lies drawing on in England; his pulse beats low, his Countenance is ghastly, a could sweat stands on his members, and all these strivings and strugglings of his friends and family seem to be nothing else but ultimus singultus morientis papatus, the last pangs and prongs of dying popery in England, unless our sins, murmurings and unthankfulness more then all the strong waters and cordials his Physitians can prescribe, revive him again, which God forbid. And if indeed Antichrist be fetching his last breath in England, who doubts not( unless it be such as are content to receive his mark) but Englands recovery and happiness is bound up in it? for did not Englands miseries and plagues come in when Antichrist came in, and grow as Antichrist grew, and revive as Antichrist revived? and shall we not hope that as Antichrist goes out, our plagues and miseries will go out; as he declines, they will decline; as he dies, they will die? As Antichrist came in, so Christ went out, his truths, his worship, his glory, his Government went out; and shall we not hope as Antichrist goes out, so Christ will come in, his truths, his worship, his glory, his Government will come in and be set up in power and beauty among us? Surely so far as Antichrist's dominion hath obscured or hindered the Government of Christ among us, so far shall his destruction and extirpation make way for the lifting up of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus in our borders: and so England shall not need wait for her national Salvation, prayed and hoped for, till the total and final destruction of the man of sin from the face of the earth, while in the Sole Government and kingdom of Jesus Christ is the glory and happiness of a Church and people, and cause enough joy and triumph; for so runs the Command and Promise together, Zech. 9.9. rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just and having Salvation. I have done with this second Conjecture of the approach of Babylons downfall: the third follows. And that is, 3. Conjecture. Revel. 18.4. That God hath begun with such a distinct and audible voice from heaven to Call his people out of Babylon, saying, Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins,( her idolatries, her bowings and cringings, her Altars, Crosses and Crucifixes, her cursed Ceremonies, false worship, false doctrines, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men. Be ye not partakers with her of her sins) lest ye partake with her also in her plagues. This Call God hath made from heaven, not only by the pure and powerful preaching of the Word, which like the Sun hath broken through the cloud of error and ignorance, spread upon the face of the kingdom by the popish Factors and Agents here, and now shines upon us with a clear and enliving influence( blessed be God) I say, not only by this voice hath God called to us, Come out of her, but yet more distinctly and fully by bringing us into the bond of the Covenant, that Solemn Protestation into which both Houses of Parliament, and the greatest part of the kingdom( after them) have religiously and solemnly entred; which hath been to us like the Israelites Circumcision to them at the end of their forty yeeres travel: Josh. 5.9. our Gilgal: The rolling away of our reproach. As it was their reproach among the heathen that they had not been Circumcised from the day they came forth from the land of Egypt, so it was Englands reproach among the Churches( and we have heard of it on both ears) that we were never separated from Rome by solemn Covenant and Protestation as other Reformed Churches in germany, France, Scotland, &c. who were therefore called Protestants, because they did solemnly protest against the Pope, and enter a religious Covenant to separate from all his Antichristian usurpations, while there was nothing, as some could hit us in the teeth, that made us differ from Rome but a bare Proclamation: But brethren, how ever that reproach was as untrue as it was uncharitable( for there was a real separation from the usurpations and doctrine of that man of sin) yet we have infinite cause to bless God for that dayes work in the House of Parl. and may christen it, Gilgal, i.e. Rolling; because then and thereby did the Lord roll away this reproach from England; and if you will observe it you may, hag. 2.19. with the Prophet Haggai, From that very day hath the Lord blessed us: Great things hath God done by and for our Parliament since that day, as hereafter shall appear. Now brethren, when this call was made from heaven in that 18. of the Revelations, see I beseech you what a voice followed in the 2. vers. for though it is expressed before, it must be understood after( for it had been too late to fly out of Babylon, when Babylon was fallen) see I say, and hear what the voice is upon this Separation, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Revel. 18.2. Surely my brethren as the call out of Babylon hath been in other Churches, so it will in this poor oppressed Church of England, be an immediate Forerunner of Babylons down-fall: and if by this as by the two former Evidences it appears that Antichrist is falling, though his fall may cause the Nations to shake, yet the issue and result will be peace and truth and mercy to these three kingdoms. Second Arg. The stay of the flight of Gods people. Psal. 55.6. The second argument of hope, is that God hath stayed the flight of his people, were they not all upon David's wish, Oh that I had wings like a Dove, and as many as could disengage themselves from their entanglements here, were they not even upon the tiptoe, ready to take their flight, where they might happily find an hole where they might hid themselves from the storm and tempest, that was coming upon us, with a dreadful aspect and noise. But God did suddenly and even miraculously stay their flight; I could tell you of a ship fraught with Christians that after they had lancht forth a day or two into the deep, were struck all sick as it were by an immediate hand from heaven, and glad to turn their sails and come back again for cure and recovery. I could tell you of another vessel from the Irish coasts, which the winds had brought within view of the American shore, and were even now hawling to Land, when the great master of the winds in a moment of time commanded them to blow with a contrary blast, and in one continued storm to drive the vessel back again, so that in an incredible short space the passengers found themselves upon the very same coasts from which they first hoist up their sails. Preparations were made by some very considerable Personages for a Western voyage, the vessel provided, and goods ready to be carried aboard, when an unexpected and almost a miraculous providence diverted that design in the very neck of time. I red in the Roman history, when the Roman Army had once turned back before the Sabines their enemy, in the day of battle, and at the prayer of Romulus, Jupiter stayed their flight, who on a sudden returned upon their pursuing enemies, and overcame them; Romulus in way of thankful acknowledgement and remembrance of such a miracle, built a Temple in the place where the flight was stayed, and to Jupiter's names added another title, calling him from thenceforth Jupiter Stator: The immediate hand of divine providence hath made many even miraculous stays of his flying servants for which they have cause in a like manner to erect monuments of thankfulness and may honour God with a new title Jehovah Stator, Jehovah that stayed the flight of his poor persecuted flying people, for surely it speaks in more then ordinary language that God in tends good for his people; for as when God intends to destroy a people or place, he gives his servants some secret warning and bids them fly for their lives, as to Lot when sodom must be burnt with fire and brimstone, Escape for thy life, Gen. 19.17. look not behind thee, escape to the mountain. And the Christians in Jerusalem before it was destroyed, heard a voice by night crying, item ad Pellam, Joseph de bello Jud. item ad Pellam; away to Pella, fly to Pella. So on the other side when God doth in such a wonderful manner stay their flight, yea doth bring them back again by a strong hand out of Captivity, surely the meaning of it is, that word of God to Israel looking which way they might fly from the Egyptian Army, Stand still, Exod. 14.13. and see the salvation of the Lord, or like that word in Isaiah to the Grape-gatherer concerning the cluster that was ready to be destroyed, Isai. 65.8. Destroy it not for there is a blessing in it. Stay, stay, for I have yet a blessing for England. Hath God think you stayed so many of his Worthies, and brought back others, to slay them by the hands of Papists and murderers? I bless God I want faith to believe it. Surely this Stay of thousands and Return of many of the precious sons of Sion, I cannot look upon, but as the first fruits of our Resurrection. A third ground of hope is, 3. Arg. The college of skilful Physicians. That God hath called together a college of skilful Physicians to discover our disease and study our cure. This shows that God is not yet willing that England should die; as when a King commands all his skilful Physicians to go to a sick favourite and lay their heads together to find out the cause and cure of his sickness, it is an argument he is unwilling that favourite should miscarry for want of means of recovery. When Israel was a dying people, the complaint was, Jer. 8.22. Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no Physician there? When God will not have a wound healed, he hides away the balm that should do it, when he intends to deny recovery, ordinarily he denies a Physician; at least he doth not usually create extraordinary means when he intends to deny deliverance and reviving. Other Parliaments have given up the ghost as soon as they have been brought forth into the light The children have come to the birth, and there hath not been strength to bring forth: But if you will remember what an eminent and mighty arm God put forth in calling this Parliament together, and in keeping of them together; how he sent forth his own Spirit, as it were through the kingdom to gather Votes for their election, and since their coming together hath commanded their Votes for the kingdom against a torrent of potent opposition: can ye think God hath done all this to let England perish? Other Parliaments have been Parliaments of dayes, or hours rather; this of months, and is like to be a Parliament of years; no weapon formed against it hath prospered; there have been no enchantments against this Parliament, nor divination against this great counsel of the kingdom. His Majesty hath been pleased to ratify this Parliament with the broad seal of the Medes and Persians, that it cannot be altered; and is all this that England may die under the hands of her Physicians? and give up the ghost in their arms? God forbid we should think such a thought; According to this time it shall be said of this Parliament, What hath God wrought? The Spirit that God hath poured out so abundantly on the kingdom may be a fourth securing pledge that God hath some thoughts to do England good; 4. Aug. The effusion of the Spirit. I am sure it is promised in Joel as an evidence and fore-runner of deliverance and salvation, vers. 28. Joel 2.28. Ezek. 39.29. I will poure out my Spirit upon all flesh, and what then? it follows vers. 32. In mount Sion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance. And this Argument is one of those teeming arguments I told you of, and brings forth more than twins; for as this Spirit of God is one in itself, and yet divers in his gifts and operations, so this encouragement though but one in the head or fountain of it, doth yet divide itself into many channels. For first God hath poured out on his people a spirit of compassion towards the desolations of Sion, 1. A spirit of Compassion. and this was in his eyes( whoever he was whether David or Daniel) that wrote the 102. Psal. such a promising argument, that he dare assure himself and others of a gracious restauration with as much confidence as if he had been in Gods bosom when he spake it; Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Sion; Psal. 102.13. I, might some say, we know that, but when, can ye tell? It may be many years or ages hence, we know God will save his Church, she shall have the better of it in the end; but we may be dead and rotten in our graves before that time, nay saith the Prophet, God will do it and you shall see it with your eyes, The time to favour her, yea the set time is come; but how did the man know that? why Brethren, he seems not now to speak by a Spirit of prophesy, or divine revelation( as at other times) but by way of argumentation, or necessary demonstration; the particle For( which follows) is a word of inference, enforcing the conclusion from rational principles or premises, and the reason which it ushers in this his confidence, is that sweet tender melting frame of spirit, which he did wisely and thankfully observe God had created in the bosoms of his people towards the breaches and desolations of Sion: For thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favour the dust thereof. As if he had said, would you have me give you an account of this my hope and confidence, that God will arise and have mercy upon Sion. Why( saith he) do you not see the servants of God every where troubled for Sion, and bemoaning Sion, and weeping over Sion, crying out over her ruins, oh is this Sion? what the city of our solemnities? what she that was the praise and beauty of the whole earth? ah Lord who can hold his peace at such a sight as this? who can look upon Sion with dry eyes? are these her stones that lie thus scattered in the dust? oh it is a thousand pities to see Sion in such a sad and mournful condition? Oh that our head were waters, and our eyes rivers of tears. Come Sirs, what shall we do for Sion? is there nothing that we may do by our petitions to the King of Babylon, our Counsels, our Contributions, our prayers for the repairing of these breaches, to the restoring of her desolate places to dwell in? Oh it grieves us at the very soul to see Sion lie thus like the barren and desolate wilderness! Brethren have there not been some such workings of Spirit and yearning of bowels, and rollings and meltings of compassions in the heart of Gods people towards our English Sion? there have surely, and in this business we may sing with Deborah. judge. 5.9. My heart is towards the Governours of Israel who willingly offered themselves. bless ye the Lord. Vers. 25. The Princes of Issachar were with Deborah, even with Deborah and Barak. Yea the oppression of the faithful Ministers, the suppression of the precious truths, the violation of the holy Ordinances of the House of God, together with the breaches which have been made upon the walls and very foundations of Civill government, have been a grief of soul and burden of spirit to the servants of God, of all ranks and conditions, and it hath pitied them at the heart to see these stones of beauty and strength, Religion and policy lye in the dust; In which if they have been as sincere, as they have been active, either the man of God is out in his logics, or else none can justly censure me for presumption, if upon the same premises, I take the humble boldness to infer the same conclusion( the name onely changed) Thou shal arise and have mercy upon England, for the time to favour her, yea the set time is come. For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favour the dust thereof. 2. 2. A Spirit of Prayer. A Spirit of Grace and Supplication. It is not a Spirit of Prayerlesse compassion which God hath poured out, but accompanied with strong cries and tears. There is a passage in the 24. psalm, that in my ear seems to speak another kind of language then usually is understood by Interpreters on that place. Psal. 24.6. This is the generation of them that seek him; that seek thy face, O Jacob. It should seem it was a troublesone time with the Church in regard of enemies, and the Psalmist looked abroad, and behold he had spied a considerable number of praying people, that every where did set upon God with Jacob-like importunity, and would not let him go till he blessed them: why saith the Prophet, this is a generation of Wrestlers, these be none other then the Sons and Daughters of Jacob, they be as like him as ever children were like their father, they do patrizare, thus did Jacob when in the midst of his dangers the Angel met him, so did he cry and wrestled, and wrestled and cry, and would not let him go without a blessing, and for his pains, of a Jacob was created Israel, a conqueror, Gen. 32.24 vers. 18. a Prince with God. Well, prayer hath as much power now with God as ever, it was not Jacobs Hands, Hos. 12.4. but Jacobs Prayers and tears that preva Il'd with God; verse 7. and therefore lift up you heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors: Be of good cheer, Oh ye Sons and daughters of Jacob; lift up your heads and hearts in expectation of Victory and Salvation; your Prayers shall not be lost, The King of glory shall come in: and the answer to the question, Who is the King of glory? implies what I said before that the state of the Church at that time was militant, conflicting with many and mighty adversaries in great hazard and danger, and therefore he presents God to them in the most suitable posture and aspect to their condition, verse 8. The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle; the Lord of Hosts, ver. 10. q.d. though you be weak and feeble, yet the Lord is strong and mighty, though you have not equal power to encounter your enemies in battle; yet your God is the Lord of Hosts, and if he do but give the word, he can have Armies enough to attend him to the battle, the Sun, Moon and stars, the winds and Seas, Frogs, Lice, Caterpillars; the Lord cannot want souldiers, if he will but sand out a press, though he need them not, for he alone is able to conquer all his enemies that rise up against him, He is mighty in battle, and therefore be of good cheer, your prayers will do more than your enemies weapons, for prayer will bring God, the Lord of Hosts into the Army, and then woe be to them; the victory is yours: and of this he is so confident that he repeats the encouragement, and the ground of it, vers. 9. and 10. as if nothing could disadvantage them but want of faith and courage in a confident expectation of a blessed return of their prayers. Surely Brethren, when we may see also how God hath knit the hearts of his people in such an holy conspiracy as it were, to besiege heaven with their prayers, all is not to be given for lost; he intends to bring them off with honour from their straits and hazards: for when God hath resolved not to help a people, he hath usually laid a bridle of restraint upon the lips of his praying servants, as he did to Jeremiah, Jer. 14.11. Pray not for this people for their good. So much doth God prise and love the prayers of his Jeremiah's, that when he intends to deny, he will some way or other forbid them to pray; that so much precious breath may not be spent in vain: But( Brethren) God hath taken off this bridle from the lips of his people, and put it into the mouths of the enraged railing Rabshekah's whose rage and tumult is come up into his ears. Isai. 27.39. Blessed be God, they are a little more muzzled, then they have been in former years. Indeed the times were and not long since, when the language of Gods mourning servants one to another, was that, Amos 6.10. Hold thy tongue for we may not make mention of the Name of the Lord. Amos 6.10. Christians could not meet together to call upon the name of their God, though God is their record, it was not against, but for the King, and his children and kingdom) but in fear of the pursuivant, the Inquisition, the prison, almost of their lives. With Daniel they must into the Lions den, even for what they deserved best of Church and State. Oh the affliction and misery, the wormwood and the gull of those times; Lam. 3.19. Let our souls have them continually in remembrance, and be humbled within us. But now blessed be God, those fears and stumbling blocks are removed out of the way, Gods people meet together in public and in private to pray for the King, his Queen, and Children, the Parliament and kingdom; while our enemies look on, and all they can do is to curse and swear, and grin like a dog, and even gnaw their tongues for indignation. As if God had reserved the accomplishment of that promise for our times; Jer. 29.12.13. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me. And surely not without some of that blessed success there promised; I will harken unto you, and ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. I appeal else to the obseration● of those that sit in the watch towers, and wait 〈…〉 of prayer; tell me oh ye praying Christians w●… hath God with-held from us hitherto 〈…〉 have asked at the throne of grace, unless 〈…〉 thing which our souls long for, and for wh 〈…〉 will wait, and pray, and harken what the Lord will say, for he will speak peace to his people, &c. There is a dreadful curse imprecated upon all prayerlesse people, both by David and Jeremiah, Jer. 10.25. Psal. 79.6.7. Poure out thy fury upon the Heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not upon thy name, for they have devoured Jacob, and laid wast his dwelling place: And surely this curse is gone forth, and hath kindled upon the habitations of the mighty enemies of prayer, a fire that will burn down to their very foundations, and none shall quench it, a just and a righteous judgement that prayer should pull them down that would have pulled down prayer; that prayer should curse them that cursed and blasphemed that holy Ordinance, and spirit of prayer. Surely the prayers of Gods people are gone up to heaven in great assemblies, and have surrounded the throne of grace, and laid hold on God himself; God was never so tempted to bow the heavens, and come down to the rescue of his people; of whose further and prevailing success we may be humbly confident with holy David, Lord thou hast heard the desire of the humble, Psal. 10.17. thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine care to hear. To put the heart into a praying frame is the work of Gods mighty arm, which when he hath done, if he should not hear, he should cross his own project, as well as discourage his people, and rather then that, he will cause his ear to hear, that is, if any obstruction should lie between beaven and their prayers, God will bow down his ear to them, if they cannot come up to God, he will cause his ear to come down to them, he will make hard shift as it were to hear, rather than their prayers shall be lost. And therefore David resolves against all the objections that can arise from the unworthiness of himself or his prayers. Psal. 55.16. As for me I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. I will. He shall: and so again in the next verse, Evening and morning and at noon day, will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. Verse 19. And again, God shall hear and afflict them. See double and triple confidence, no may be, no peradventure, he will and he shall. Oh where this holy confidence accompanies prayer, it makes it way through the thickest, darkest clouds of sin and dangers, and pierceth the heavens, and leaves a mighty seal and evidence behind of glorious success: and that is a Third issue or stream of which God hath poured out his spirit, 3. A Spirit of Faith. scil. a spirit of Faith. They be no faint, faithless, hopeless supplications which are gone up to heaven in these later dayes; In former times indeed there hath been the spirit of bondage( as it were) upon the prayers of Gods people; I have heard divers of them complain that they found nothing to hold up their hands, and to keep their hearts close to the duty, but a simplo obedience to the command: but now we may say with the Apostle, Rom. 8.15. They have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again, but they have received the spirit of Adoption whereby they cry Abba Father Great is the boldness and power that Faith is admitted into, in heaven, if that Scripture be not mistaken by many of our best Divines; Thus saith the Lord, the holy one of Israel and his maker, Isai. 45.11. ask of me things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me. ask what you would have me to do for the redemption of my sons and Daughters out of Babylon, and you shall receive; yea command, and it shall be done. I will give men for thee, and people for thy life, Isai. 43.4. It seems Luther understood the latitude of this royal Charter, who praying for the recovery of a godly useful man, amongst other passages, lets fall this transcendent rapture of a daring faith, Fiat mea voluntas, I beseech thee let him recover, My will be done; and then he falls off sweetly, Mea voluntas Domine, quia tua, My will Lord, because thy will for thy glory. Melchior Adamus vitae Germanorum Theologorum. He that writes Luthers life saith thus of him, Vir iste potuit quod volvit, That man could do what he would with God, it was but ask and have. If there be that power in faith, let the enemies of Gods truth and people look to themselves; it were safer standing at the mouth of a Cannon when it is discharged, then before the prayers of Gods people discharged by the hand of faith. Mercy is the Mother, Faith the midwife of deliverances; when Gods people come with boldness to the throne of grace, Heb. 4.16. then there is mercy and grace to help in the time of need. Faith is the pledge and security of eternal salvation, and therefore may well be the pawn and fore runner of temporal Redemption; Mark 9.23. There is nothing too hard for Christ where a people can believe, 4. God hath poured out the spirit of unanimity. 4. A Spirit of Unanimitie. Indeed for the divisions of Reuben there have been great thoughts of heart. The Lord knows we were within these few moneths in a divided shattered posture, and it is infinite mercy the enemy did not fall upon us then, the divided House could not have stood: but God hath begun graciously to solder our divisions with the prayers of his people, and the blood of his son, the blood of reconciliation; England and Scotland, Lords and Commons, city and country, Brethren and Brethren begin graciously to combine for the joint opposing of the common adversary, and the carrying on of the great design of Reformation: while many of those that have laboured to kindle a fire in the kingdom, have by their malignant breath done nothing else but quenched their own coal. Now when the Prophet could sing that song, Psal. 122.3. Jerusalem is as a city that is compact together, then observe how he drives on the triumph, Vers. 4.5. Thither the Tribes go up to give thanks to the Name of the Lord, There are the thrones of judgement, &c. Then the worship of the God in the Temple, and Civill government in the Common wealth then flourished. Ezek. 37.19. So when the sticks of Joseph and Judah were made one in the hand of God, so that they became one Nation in the land, vers. 22. then follows safety, an happy government, peace and security, and a Gad, even a whole troop of mercies on that happy union. The Lord in mercy perfect this encouragement every day more and more. 5. 3. A Spirit of Magnanimity. You may observe a Spirit of magnanimity to be poured out upon our Worthies, Captains, Souldiers and people. It was a sad time in Israel when the Prophet complained, They bend their tongues like their bows for lies, Jer. 9.3. but they are not valiant for the truth: for what follows then? vers. 7. Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts, behold I will melt them and try them. Melting and trying judgements are the fruits of a base timorous cowardliness for the Truth and Cause of God. Indeed England was not long since like Issachar, an ass couching down betwixt two burdens; The one of the Church, the other of the Commonwealth: the spirit, and life and courage of the English Nation was even quiter expired and extinguished; and it was sad and ominous to all that duly considered it. but God who is slow to anger, and rich in mercy, when he might have struck us dead in our sleep or suffered our enemies to have burnt us in our bed, our bed of security; was pleased seasonably and graciously to awaken us of our sleep, and call up the spirit of courage and resolution, whereby some of our Nobles did with Queen Esther[ If I perish, I perish] venture into the royal presence with their petitions, where God commanded the like royal favour and grace for them, as He did for her. Some of our worthies in Parliament threatened by the Sanballads of our times, have answered with stout Noble-hearted Nehemiah( put in fear of his life) Should such a man as I fly. We will keep our places, if they come they shall find us in our places. How hath God heightened their spirits to great encounters and undertakings to the wonder and astonishment of all the beholders. He that was weak among them hath been as David, and he that was as David, Zech. 12.8. like the angel of the Lord. Have not city and country come in with their Petitions in one hand, and their Protestations in the other, and their lives and fortunes in both, and laid them down at the feet of his Majesty and his Parliament, for the defence of Religion, and the kingdom. Yea, what shall I say? Out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings God hath ordained strength that he may still the enemy and the avenger, Psal. 8.2. Hath God thus engaged and heightened the spirit of the land to let us fall before our enemies? do but red over the 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Verses of the 4th. of Nehemiah, and without a paraphrase you may see an emblem of that seasonable courage which God hath poured out upon our Governors and people. Hath God awakened us( think ye) that we might be slain with our eyes open? Tell me now in the close of this fourth Argument, what means this abundant effusion of the Spirit; the Spirit of Compassion, Prayer, Faith, Vnanimity; magnanimity? doth it not speak in Scripture language strong and abundant assurance that God is doing good to England? Let's hear whether the next and fifth Argument will not speak with the same mouth. And that is in the language of our Saviour, 5. Arg. John 4.35. The fields look white to the Harvest. John 4.35. The fields look white to the harvest. Brethren the emergencies of the times hath given me occasion to visit divers places in the kingdom, and this I find, that where ever I come, there is a poor afflicted people that hunger after the word, that are not content onely with spiritual food if a man will give it them, but are so sharp set that they are ready to pull the Ministers of the Gospel out of their clothes for bread to relieve their souls, never did the poor prisoners at Ludgate beg bread more emphatically then these poor souls, it would make your bowels yerne to hear the pitiful complaints of those poor creatures in every place;& no wonder alas poor souls they have been famished and starved to death almost by a generation of false Prophets Idol shepherds, who have stolen away the word of God every one from their neighbours, and instead of bread hath given them stones, stoned them with hard words, loquanter lapides, judas 15 and hard deeds too; in stead of fishes have given them Serpents; Cockatriees for eggs; poisonous doctrines for evangelicall truths; chaff in stead of wheat; the husks of swine in stead of childrens bread; dead Ceremonies for pure and living ordinances. Did I say it is no wonder people cry for bread now? I must recall myself, for truly it is a wonder and a great one( if we duly weigh it) that after so long a forbearance of wholesome food, there should be any taste or hunger or life left; that want of bread hath not caused want of appetite also; a wonder and an argument too that God hath a people in England to be brought in by the ministry of the word, unless that promise be antiquated and out of date. Blessed are they which hunger and thirst, Matth. 5.6. for they shall be filled. Here is the discouragement that we may say with our Saviour, John 6.5. Whence shall we have bread that these may eat? Alas where shall every congregation in England& Wales be furnished with a faithful and able ministry? But brethren he that is able of stones to raise up children to Abraham, is able also to turn stones into bread for these children; He that says give ye them to eat is able so to multiply the Loaves, that there shall be enough and to spare. The main weight of this care must lie upon the great counsel of the Kingdom: in the mean time Christ hath taught every Christian what to do in this case, namely to fall to their prayers: The harvest truly is great, the labourers are few, pray ye therfore the Lord of the harvest to sand forth labourers into the harvest. Oh pray, pray pray, that he that hath created appetites will create bread also, that he that hath reserved himself an harvest in a time of such drought will also furnish himself with labourers for the bringing in of that harvest, that loiterers may be cast out and labourers may be brought into their places. And truly Brethren neither in this respect also hath the Lord left himself nor us, without witness that he intends to do us good, which brings to The sixth argument. 6. Arg. The increase of faithful Ministers. And that is, that the Lord hath reserved to himself many hundred faithful Prophets, while we said with Elijah they are all slain and I onely am left and they seek my life to take it away, or as the Prophet complains concerning his so we concerning our English Jerusalem. Isai. 51.28. There is none to guid her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth, neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that shee hath brought up. But surely Brethren it hath fared with the faithful Ministers of England as with the Hebrew males in Egypt they have multiplied under oppressions; And so still the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of the Gospel. You know the cruel commands and wil●ss of our Egyptian Taskemasters to kill all the male children to suppress and strangle in the very birth all the faithful and godly Preachers in the kingdom: what else have been their Subscriptions, Oaths of canonical obedience, Ceremonies, with their late improvement of Innovations, but so many gins and snares to suspend and strangle the Conscientious Clergy, and when they saw these would not do mischief enough or not fast enough, what was their last Oath, with that bottomless &c. but a drug compounded of purpose to choke or poison all the sincere Ministry within the kingdom? One of their chaplains about the time of the making thereof, comforted another of his ambitious Tribe, whining for want of preferment; Be content man, there will be Livings enough voided within this twelvemonth. And truly it is a wonder and a miracle of providence, that all the Livings in England( and the kingdom itself) are not voided of every faithful godly Minister. But Brethren God hath not only left us a remnant,( preserving them as miraculously as the fire of the Altar was fancied to be preserved under ground all the time of the Babylonian Captivity) but hath also multiplied their number by a numerous increase of young Timothyes, admirably gifted and instructed for the right and skilful dividing of the word of truth, able and ready to do singular service in the Temple, when the Buyers and Sellers are whipped out;( the Lord Jesus make this Parliament his whip for that purpose) and when by a warrantable and comfortable Call, they may be sent forth to this work of the gospel. In respect of which miraculous improvement England may sing with Jerusalem returning out of Captivity, wondering at her increase, Who hath begotten me these, Isai. 49.20.21. seeing I have lost my Children, and am desolate, a Captive, and removing to and fro? Behold I was left alone, these where had they been? Surely I have lost my Children, my sons have been suspended, silenced, deprived, degraded, excommunicated, imprisoned( and some of them have died there) banished, others have been fain to fly into the wilderness from the rage and fury of the read Dragon; I was left alone, a Widow, a Captive, taken captive and spoiled of all my Gospel-ornaments; These where had they been? who hath begotten them? And may we not humbly and thankfully look upon this strange and admirable increase, as a fore runner and a pledge, that Englands Captivity is now expiring. If a King gather Souldiers together, hath he not a battle to fight? If an Husbandman hire Labourers, hath he not seed to sow and corn to reap? If a man call Carpenters together, hath he not a structure to build. 1 Cor. 3.9. We are labourers together with God, Ye are Gods Husbandry, Ye are Gods building. If God had not some great work to do in England, would he think ye make all this great preparation? I know and desire to be sensible of it, God hath taken away many of our famous worthy Divines, both Masters and Scholars in Israel, who would have been of singular use in this great work of building the Temple. Mr brown. Mr Swallow. Mr Rogers. Three Shepherds did God smite almost in one week within this city, which hath been observed to have been very ominous in former times. Methusalem was taken away the year before the flood came, thereby expounding his own name; A messenger of death. ☞ Augustine immediately before the sacking of Hippo. And before the taking of Heidelbergh it was observed God took away the chief of the learned and godly Preachers, as Paraeus and others. Divers like instances might be produced. But Brethren let me entreat you when your leisure will serve you to make a Catalogue, do as the Clerks of London do, when they make their weekly and yearly Bills; Set your christenings right over against your Burials, and then computing the odds, you shall find many more godly Ministers have been christened than butted; Blessed be God( Brethren) our christenings do far exceed our Burials; and that is an argument it is but a correcting, not a destroying plague that is amongst us. Beloved Christians, the sum is this, take your pens and paper compare your accounts with former ages, and you shall not find any age since protestantism first came into England, that can parallel the faithful ministry of England either for number, or that which I would have in the second place taken notice of,( that God may have the glory) for spirituality, inwardnesse, power of conviction, and transcendent skill in discovering to their hearers the need, Ministerial Abilities. worth, use, the beauty and excellencies of Jesus Christ. Surely Christ never road in such triumph in the Ordinance of preaching, as now he doth; Compare the labours of the most eminent Preachers in queen Elizabeths dayes, with the labours of many of our times,(& some even but Babes in comparison of their years) the vision of Christ in these dayes with the vision then, and you would almost all say as the Apostle of the vision under the Law, and compared with the Revelation of Christ in the Gospel; The vail was upon their face. But we all with open face behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. 2 Cor. 14.18. Jer. 30.26. Or that the accomplishment of that promise, Isai. 30.26. was fixed upon our times, wherein the light of the Moon is as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun seven-fold, as the light of seven dayes. As much light and revelation of Christ in one Sermon as in seven of former ages, and in what degree soever that promise which hath so long been in the stalk, doth now begin to shoot forth into the ear, in that degree must this be one of those dayes wherein the Lord will bind up the breaches of his people, and heal the stroke of their wound by the Oracle of the same promise. I am sure when God doth give a people Pastours according to his own heart, Jer. 3.13.1.15. Jer. 3.14. he hath a purpose to bring them to Sion, v. 13. and to multiply and increase them in the Land, ver. 15. This Argument is of so much the more strength, because we may comfortably observe the fruit to have been proportionable to the seed, the success to the cost and pains, which God hath been at in these reviving times; which casts me upon. A seventh Argument of Hope, Arg. 7. The increase of converts. and that is, The plentiful number of Converts. The gospel was never preached with greater and fairer success, since that time( I think) when three thousand souls was converted by one Sermon. Acts 2.41. There is hardly a Sermon preached by any faithful Minister of the Gospel, but they hear of some or other that being pricked in their heart come in with Men and Brethren what shall we do? I bless God I do not speak without book. I do not believe the most peaceable times in the reigns of our former Princes did ever afford a parallel List of Converts of all sorts both of Nobles, Lords and Ladies Gentry, City, country, especially among the Youth, with abundance of young Disciples, there be in every place it rejoiceth my soul to see it. Even our universities, where Religion hath not been of such an Honourable esteem, as we could wish it had been where( perhaps) a praying Scholar, hath been like the Prophet Isaiah, and his Pupils, Isai. 8.18. for signs and wonders in Israel( the more have the masters of those Schools of the Prophets to answer for, that have minded no more the things of Jesus Christ in their government) do now in some colleges and Halls bring forth not onely here, and there one,( like apple in an after gathering) but by clusters and scores of choice and gracious Spirits of sin gular worth and Hopes; and let those Elders ther●… be counted worthy of double honour, who by ruling well do labour to countenance and propagate purity of Religion, and the power of godliness within their walls. This I say is the success of that inward and faithful and powerful Christ-preaching ministry, wherewith God hath blessed and beautified these later times; For I remember what Christ said, John 12.32. And I if I were lifted up mould draw all men unto me, John 12.32. this the holy Ghost tells us, Vers. 13. he spake signifying what death he should die: But there is also as I conceive a veiled sense in the words alluding to the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, which was so lift up that all might see, and they that saw were healed of their stings by the fiery serpents, and lived. Surely if the Lord Jesus were lifted up in the ministry of the Gospel that all might see, the necessity, beauty, excellency, of this Christ, this vision would be a vision of life, like the resurrection of the dead, the beauty of Christ would draw all men after him; oh that all the ministers of the Gospel that desire to be found faithful and fruitful in their places, would take notice of it and remember what Christ said of the spirit which he would sand into the world after his departure. He shall glorify me; for he shall receive of mine, John 16.14. and shall show it unto you. If the holy Ghost the spirit of wisdom and truth could not use any better means to glorify Christ then to take of Christs excellencies and hold them out to the view of the world, what other course should they that be the mouth of the holy Ghost take to make him lovely and desirable in the eyes of their people. This kind of preaching hath been the seed of a mighty gener ation to Jesus Christ. And surely times of conversion are not times of destruction, Hos. 9.13. these are not the children which are brought forth to the murderer. It is the day of Christs power, when in the beauty of holinesse,( the beauty of holy ordinances) Christ birth due( the influence of Christs spirit, and presence in those ordinances) is from the womb of the morning i.e. of that generative& enlivening virtue, that the due of the teeming morning is to the seeds and plants of the earth. Whensoever God makes that prophesy good to his Church your sons and your daughters shall prophesy your old men shall dream dreams, Joel 2.28. & your young men shall see visions. And upon the servants, and upon the hand-maids in those dayes will I poure out my spirit. Vers. 34. Those dayes shall be daies of deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and to the remnant whom the Lord shall call when souls begin to rise from the dead, shall bodies think you fall to the ground? Take into this argument a second branch worthy our thankful observation and that is the power and purity of profession. purity and power of profession. Religion I am persuaded was neverprofessed since the Apostles times, in greater beauty and power then now it is in England. Consult travelers abroad and they will tell you that in other parts of Christendom; as France, Germany, and Holland, &c. family duties are rare things, the entire sanctification of an whole Lords day an unknown piece of preciseness, with divers others lower parts of profession wanting, the neglect whereof we esteem profane, and let no man think we are more precise then needs, for God hath made them smart and bleed for their formality and remissness in religion, the Lord in mercy be reconciled to them in the blood of reconciliation. I know, and desire we might all be humbled to the dust before the Lord in this behalf, that there be fearful miscarryings among professors; much pride and censoreousnesse and divisions and wantonness and worldliness, yea( that which many Heathens would be ashamed of) unconscionable dealings, whereby much offence and scandal doth daily arise, and the good way of God is evil spoken of, and I wish that every one may lay hand on heart& say, nunquidego Domine, My Lord is it I? and what have I done? remembering that dreadful word of our Saviour, Luke 17.1.2. woe unto him by whom offences come better that a millstone were hanged about his neck and hecast( not into the pits) but into the midst of the sea. Oh that repentance and reformations may heal their wounds and the Gospels, woe to them indeed by whom offences come and they do not lay them to heart. But I know withall God hath a people, and they noe contemptible number that walk up with their principles, that wear their garments unspotted,( as far as they durst wherein they live will suffer) they hold fast the word of life and shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom if you come you shall find them as Chrysistome says, walking like Angels rather than men and women, I appeal to all observing understanding christians, whether not onely in respect of other Churches but also in comparison of former times in England, there be not a mighty improvement and even a resurrection of the power of godliness. And surely if God would have spared a sodom for ten, Gen. 19. Jer. 5.1. and jerusalem for one righteous person, he will spare England for many tens and hundreds and thousands, and( I hope in God I may add) millions of such as profess and adorn the Gospel with a shining and glorious conversation. Now if God be saying to England Thy people shall be all righteous, Isai. 60.20.21.22. he will also say the dayes of mourning shall be ended, ver. 20. and they shall also inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. Brethren I am not turned Papist to pled merit, I do onely humbly argue Gods own engagements in the Churches language. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us: Isai. 26.12. how knows she that? For thou hast wrought all our works in us. I come to the eight argument. 8. Arg. Deliverance from Idolatry and Blood hear it and it will speak peace, scil. That God hath so graciously and even miraculously delivered the kingdom from guilt especially from those two Land-destroying Kingdome-desolating sins, Idolatry and blood. I could instance in more but for paslage sake I forbear. Brethren let me tell you this, you that say this Parliament hath done nothing, I tell thee unthankful and blind who ever thou art; if they had done no more but this, namely the keeping out of these foundations-subverting provocations which like the roaring Sea were breaking in upon us in these latter dayes, it would contribute more to the safety and hopes of the kingdom, and call for more acknowledge ments and praises at our hands, then if they had made us the most flourishing common wealth this day under heaven, or have put us into the most warlike posture that ever we were since we were a nation: for if the foundations had been destroyed, Psal. 11.3. what could the righteous do, or what could the righteous have hoped for? There is indeed a world of Idolatry,& there are swarms of Idolaters in the land; Idolatry. yet blessed be God Idolatry cannot be said to be the sin of the land. A sin is then( among divers other ways) properly said to be the sin of a Nation when it is established or at least tolerated by law: by the government of a Nation, not onely some Governours in a Nation. But herein therefore you may with wonder and thankfulness remember with what jealousy and resolution of spirit our Worthies in Parliament did abominate the very mention of a toleration of Popery in Ireland, protesting the they would rather hazard the loss of that, and of this kingdom too; then consent to a toleration of that nature, either there or in any of his Majesties dominions: thus did they with Nehemiah-like zeal and courage resolve while some of those whose pretended authority in and over the Church should have suggested to them a little more care of the affairs of Christs kingdom, were either silent, or in their great devotion to the cause of reformation, pleased to be mediators in that Antichristian motion. Alas Beloved, if the Lords and Commons had not had more Divinity in them than the Bishops, Popery might have been established by a law, men might have gone to mass by act of Parliament, and we might have trussed up our farthels, and have bid farewell England before this time, where ever did Idolatry come into a Nation but desolation and ruin trod upon the heels of it? It is the sin of Gods jealousy and therefore must needs be the sin of Gods unquenchable indignation. And for the other sin of blood how miraculously hath God delivered us from blood guiltiness! how near was this kingdom to have embrued its hands in fraternal blood, the blood of our dear Brethren in Scotland? what preparations what arts and provocations to have engaged the King and kingdom in that fratricidous design; woe unto the contrivers thereof without repentance) for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Baalam, and have or shall perish in the gainsaying of Core. But behold the goodness of God to England, that which formerly had often been our great affliction, was now one of the seasonablest mercies that ever England saw, the dissolution of a Parliament; for surely brethren had the parliament given but sixpence towards the mainetenance of that war, that Bellum Episcopale it might have envolved the kingdom in guilt, brought God as an enemy against us and undone us and our children for ever, our poor Brethren in Ireland have dearly and deeply tasted the bitter and deadly fruit of that unnatural as well as unchristian contribution though we hope it was but extorted from many of them by the power and policy of a wily and cruel oppressor under whose iron yoke they did then groan and languish yet God saw it and was displeased, and behold into what devouring flames hath the fircenesse of his anger broken forth upon them which hath burnt down almost to the very foundation of that kingdom, and they had by this time been made like sodom and Gomorrah, Jer. 1.9.25. had not the Lord of Hosts left them a little remnant, and begun to turn his hand upon the enemy. But see the justice and righteousness of God, who hath kept off that Nation from coming in to their timely rescue and succour, who would suffer themselves for any respects of hopes or fears to be beguiled to a contribution for their spoiling and slaughter. Behold the goodness and severity of God; Ireland did contribute their money toward the ruin of Scotland, and it did them no harm: Scotland would have contributed their lives toward the relief of Ireland, and it could do them no good. The Lord humble the remnant there for this among the rest of their sins, and then heal their wounds, and stinch their blood: the shedding whereof though it have been just with God, it hath notwithstanding been most unjust with men, and God will be revenged for it; for if the blood of one Abel had so many tongues as drops( clamour sanguinum fratris( so the Heb.) the voice of thy Brothers bloods crieth unto me from the ground) how many tongues have the bloods of so many thousands, as have been barbarously and inhumanly butchered in Ireland, to multiply clamours in the ears of God for vengeance? And therefore oh the unspeakable love and goodness of God, in keeping the guilt of that blood also from the land! for oh if the blood in Ireland did lift up its voice against England, we might sit down in the dust, and weep tears, not of water onely, but of blood too, in a sad expectation of a storm of wrath and blood to be rained down upon us from heaven, in Gods avengement of our Brethrens desolation! Indeed there hath not been that speedy dispatch of succours and supplies, as either our Brethren in Ireland, or standards by might have expected from a people so nearly concerned in their peace or war, woe or welfare, as we are; but there have been a generation of men( who they be God knows) of whom both King and his Parliament may say with David, You are too hard for me ye sons of Zerviah, who have by some whily and mysterious artifices retarded the relief and rescue of that poor, bleeding, crying, dying Nation; which may by this means complain with the Church, As for us, our eyes as yet failed us for our vain help, Lam. 4.17. in our watching we have watched for a Nation that could not save us, they have looked on their right hand, and cried, Oh help me England; and on the left hand, and cried, Oh pity me, oh save me Scotland, my soul is weary because of murderers; but behold refuge hath failed, none or few have come into their succour. I know God hath seemed to fight against them many times, when men and munition have been ready, the winds have blown with a cross and angry blast, but surely the hand of Joab( and his Brethren) hath been in it, who may therefore( without deep humiliation) expect to inherit the legacy which Solomon be queathed him and his posterity, 1. Kin. 2.33. The Lord shall return the blood of Ireland upon the head of Joab, and Abner, and Amasa; their blood shall return upon their own head, and upon the head of their seed for ever, but upon the King and Parliament there shall be peace for ever from the Lord. If the blood of the Sichemites shall be avenged sevenfold, then the blood of Ireland shall be avenged seventy times seven-fold. Oh Brethren what an argument of hope is this, that God will show mercy to England, as much as he hath kept us from the crying guilt of blood; the blood of Scotland, and the blood of Ireland; for hath their blood been precious in our eyes, and shall not our blood be precious in Gods eyes? It was a saying of King James, that if God should leave him to kill a man, he would think God did not love him; What an argument of divine displeasure had it been, if God should have left us to have murdered a kingdom, two Kingdoms, either by wilful slaughter, or by willing sufferance? Surely there is not a greater expression of Gods love to a people or person, then when he keeps them from sinning against him,& that in the midst of many and mighty temptations& provocations. There hath been blood shed in England, but blessed be God, it hath not been shed by England, red over that promise, Isai. 61. ver. 8. I the Lord love judgement, I hate robbery for burnt offering, and I will direct their way in truth; and if you think God hath made it good to us, then rejoice in that which follows, I will make an everlasting Covenant with them, and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their off-spring among the people, and all that see them shall aclowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. A ninth ground of Hope that God is waiting to do England good, is, 9. Arg. The clearing of the reputation of his slandered servants. that He hath so graciously vindicated the reputation of his belied slandered people. The earth hath not been able to bear the words of the railing Rabshekahs of our times against the servants and Children of God. Puritans the only schismatics and troublers of the peace of the Church; and Papists the Kings best Subjects; The Scots were proclaimed Rebels in the Pulpit by them that never had a word to speak against the Rebels in Ireland, or for Gods poor afflicted people there; and they that have done the King and kingdom the best service; have been suggested by some the greatest Traytors against King and State: but God( according to the word of promise) hath brought forth their righteousness as the light, Psal. 37.6. and their judgement as the noon day. Religion hath been found to be wounded under the sides of puritanism; his Majesty calls the Scots his good Subjects; the Parliament their Friends their Brethren; Papists do now discover themselves to be the Traytors and Rebels, while those that have been stigmatized with those infamies and scandals, are honoured in the eye of the kingdom for the Patrons of Religion, and Patriots of the country. And you shall find that the time when God takes away the rebuk of his people is a time also of wiping off tears from their eyes. Isai. 25.8. In that day when God will pled the cause of his people, Mica. 7.9.10.11. he will also execute judgement for them. In that day when he brings them forth to the light, he will build their walls, and the decree shall be far removed. The Tenth Argument. A great part of our hopes lieth in our Enemies themselves. 10. Arg. Our Enemies. They that have threatened us the greatest dangers do now promise us the greatest hopes; Howbeit( as God speaks of the Babylonian Tyrant, Isai. 10.7. Isai. 10.7. They mean not so neither do their hearts think so, but it is in their hearts to destroy and to cut off people not a few. And this argument is twisted of a six-fold thread, and surely a twice triple cord is not easily broken. The first is, The fullness of their sins. The fullness of their sin. We have heard of the pride of Moab( said the Church) he is very proud, even of his haughtiness, and his pride, Isai. 16.6. and his wrath. We have heard of the pride of the Enemies,( may England say they are very proud) even of their haughtiness and their pride and their wrath; I, and felt it too: the villainies of their Courts, the vileness of their officers, the viciousness of their families, their own briberies, covetousness, unsatiable ambition, their perjuries, adulteries, drunkenness, profane healths, cursed oaths, oaths fetched I know not how many miles in hell, malice against the power of godliness, blasphemies against the spirit of prayer, suppression of the truth, oppression of the faithful Ministers thereof, discountenancing of religion, encouragement and support of profaneness and superstition; to all which we may justly put an &c. of an endless catalogue of all manner of wickednesses, Jer. 2.34. Also in their skirts is found the blood of the souls of poor innocents: not only the blood of mens liberties, estates, limbs, lively-hoods and lives, but the blood of souls; thousands of souls have been sent to hell either by their corrupt and poisonous drugs, or at lest for want of sound and seasonable food, and all this( as it follows there) hath not been found by secret search but upon all these. Isai. 3.9. The show of their countenance doth witness against them, and they declare their sin as sodom, they hid it not: they went not behind the door to commit their villainies, but in the eye of the kingdom, in the face of the Sun have they discovered their shane, surely they were not altogether so good as the whited sepulchres our Saviour speaks of; nor so much an outside of holinesse unless in some Idolatrous, ridiculous cringings and compliments, inside and outside stinking sepulchres; never a more ulcerous rotten body hath been beholded then that which hath been laid before& anatomised by the grave and learned Counsel and college of Physicians now assembled. Posterity shall hear and blushy and be ashamed and astonished at the report of such unheard of abominations. And If the sins of these Amorites be fall, Gen. 15.16. what remains, but that( in answer to the type shewed to Abraham) they must be destroyed, and Israel( now in the very edge of the wilderness) brought in to their possessions. Tell me else what is there yet remaining that may fill up the measure of their iniquities? It may be some will reply( with the Apostle, Heb. 12.4.) Heb. 12.4. Ye have not yet resisted to blood; they have not yet broken forth into a bloody and fiery persecution. To which I answer, that we have not, it is part of our salvation, not of their moderation; we may thank God not them, that the Cinders of Queen Maryes dayes are not uncovered, and blown up into a fiercer flamme than ever. look into their Ephah, and there you shall find Puniards and Pistols, match and powder, fire and faggot, and all the instruments of a fiery trial and bloody persecution. Brethren what meant the casting of new Cannons, the repairing of old prisons( that were never used since the Lollards dayes,) the preparing of strange Engines of cruelty, and such abundance of arms, that all the wisdom and power of Parliament cannot divest them off to this day? what mean these things I say? When I free Boyes gathering of sticks and other fuel together, do not I know they mean to make a bonfire? Certainly( Brethren) Smithfield had not now to have been fil'd with faggots, and the prisons with professors; Godly Ministers had not now to have been made the ransom of Priests and jesuits; the Parliament had not now been unblown up, nor our Worthies to have been murdered; the streets had not now been to have run down with blood; and the whole kingdom to have been made the seat and stage of the most bloody war and persecution that ever was acted by barbarous hands, had our Antichristian enemies had time and opportunity to have set abroach their Hogs-heads of wrath and revenge which they have been tunning up these many yeares together. witness poor, bleeding, groaning, gasping dying Ireland, was there ever such treacheries and treasons, such massacres and murders, such deflowering of Virgins, such ravishing of women with child, and then ripping them up alive, and tearing out their unborn infants out of their wombs, such tortures and torments invented by the wit and madness and malice ever heard of among Heathen and Barbarians? yea the Heathen shall hear of it and be ashamed; after ages shall red, and their faces shall gather paleness, fear shall take hold on them, as pangs upon a woman in travail, when these tidings shall come to their ears. And were not( I pray you) the same whips prepared for our backs, the same knives for our throats, the same swords, for our bowels, the same halters for our necks, the same fire for our houses, the same tortures and torments for our selves and wives and children and families? was not the same massacre and butchery plotted, contrived, and sealed up by oath and sacrament for all the three kingdoms? and now that all this hath not been acted upon us in the same height of mischief and fury, we are no more beholding to our Babylonian adversaries, then Jacob to his Brother Esau for his life and safety, what time he said within himself, The dayes of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. Gen. 27.41. Then I will, now I would, but now I cannot, his will waited but for a then; there was no want of will but of opportunity onely in Esau, that Jacob was not murdered like Abel; nor in our Isau-like brethren that we are not murdered like our brethren in Ireland; Esau's heart was full of blood, though his hands were not; and so were, and so are our Esaus, very thirsty they are for blood, they began to sip of the cup of Protestant-puritan blood( as they called it,) the blood of their liberties, estates, livelihoods, limbs, and very sweet it was, and much they thirsted after the blood of their lives; if their ear blood was so sweet what would their throat blood, their heart blood be? and well, they hoped long before this to have glutted themselves with deep draughts of English blood, they promised themselves a whole vintage of blood before this, Deut. 33.29. day but blessed be God hitherto they are found liars; they said they would not leave a Puritan in the kingdom, but that was a lie; they said they would make the proudest of them all take their cursed oaths &c. but that was a lie; they said their hand should reach New-England too, but that was a lie; a thousand such lies they have told; though I'll bear them witness they did not intend to lie, certainly they meant as they speak; their hearts were full of blood though their hands were not, and can any one doubt their sins are come to the height; bring me a sin which they have not committed( among them) with an high hand and an out stretched arm, and I shall be almost persuaded that God will spare them: but me thinks I see the two women( in Zachariahs vision) with the wind in their wings coming to take up this Ephah between earth and heaven, and to carry it into the land of Shinar, Zech. 5.9. ( even Babylon, Romish Babylon) from whence it came, that there it may be settled upon her own base. Their Ephah is full of wickedness, 'tis full, 'tis full. Be of good cheer you waiting servants of God, our Enemies wickedness is like to stand us in more stead, than our own prayers: our prayers are imperfect, their sins are perfect; if our prayers cannot pull them down, their wickedness shall, especially if we consider in the second place. Their wicked and desperate Mediums which they use for the effecting of their own designs. 2. Their wicked mediums they use to support themselves. Are they not a generation of men that never had a Vote for Jesus Christ? do they not oppose all Reformation both of Church and Common-wealth, that cannot stand with their own pride and ambition? yea, they would not pass to sacrifice three kingdoms at once to their own pomp and lusts, could they get the knife into their own hand. Tumults and divisions, Treacheries and treasons, massacres and murders are the undersetters of their Babel, and hark the Prophets question, Shall they escape by iniquity? Psal. 56.7. have they no other instruments for their defence but instruments of cruelty? no other policies but the policies of Antichrist? no other mediums but such as they borrow from the Prince and powers of darkness? and Shall they escape by these? no, In thine anger cast down the people O God. It is prophetical as well as optative, not onely in thine anger do thou cast them down, but in thine anger thou wilt cast down this people, O Lord. Had I seen them humbling themselves and walking softly with Ahab, it might have prevailed with God, for a time had they but used their policy( in which they so much trusted) it might have prevailed with men. We are a merciful nation( too merciful God be merciful to us) and might happily have compounded the business betwixt Christ and Antichrist;( according to the desire of the Harlot, neither mine nor thine, 2 Kings 3.26. but let it be divided) and so wrath might have come upon the whole kingdom. And therefore when I see them by a just judgement of God upon them lose their judgements that have first lost their Conscience, and put off the man as well as the Saint; they seem to be of that generation who when their kingdom was full of darkness, Revel. 16.10.11. gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and sores, and repented not of their deeds: and therefore near their ruin and desolation. Who ever hardened himself against God and prospered? Job 9.4. A third branch of this Argument. The discovery of their wickedness and Counsels. Time was when we might not peep nor mutter, Mi'n mutire nefas nec clam nec cum scrobe nusquam? Pers. nor whisper out our just and sad complaint in the modestest language of a trembling lip, but it was censured for schism and faction, sedition and treason, and what not? Isai. 29.21. They made a man an offender for a word. They made him an offender, when neither his actions nor his words did make him so; but blessed be God, the times are turned, and we may lawfully call a Spade a Spade; Popery Superstition and Idolatry; the Pope Antichrist; and a Bishop &c. Their folly is made known to all men; 2 Tim. 3.8.9. Mal. 2.9. God hath discovered their folly, and made them base and contemptible before all the people, according as they have not kept Gods ways, but have been partial in the Law. And what doth the Apostle infer upon the discovery of the false Apostles folly? why, They shall proceed no further. God will stop them in their ways of seduction and persecution; they have done their worst, he is very confident of that, They shall proceed no further; God hath discovered the words and counsels they have had in their very bed chambers, as 2 Kings 6.12. Were there no more but this, it would speak great hopes, but behold A fourth branch or twist to strengthen this Argument, and that is, that God hath not onely discovered their Counsels, but hath also frustrated and blasted their projects. They have covered snares for our feet, but God hath discovered them; they have appointed our destructions, but God hath disappointed their expectations. Plot hath been hatched upon plot, treason upon treason, now upon Scotland, and then upon England, and anon upon Ireland, now in the North, and by and by in the South, sometime upon the city, and then upon the Parliament, the whole House, particular Members, by plague sore clouts, poisons, armed-Cutthroat villains, what not? but blessed be God, they have all been hitherto like the untimely fruit of a woman, that could never see the Sun; what promise God made to Israel, he hath made good to England, no weapon formed against it hath prospered: Isai. 54.17. many weapons have been formed, cruel, deadly, formidable weapons, but none prospered; these later years have been nothing else but a series of treachery and treason against King and State; and though God hath hedged up their way with thorns, yea compassed them about with hewn stones yet have not these desperate Engineers desisted their Treasons, but changed them only( as many men do their sins) out of one Rebellion into another, out of one wicked plot into another cursed conspiracy; and that none of these have prospered, is it not a fruit of the Covenant( in the former place) In righteousness shalt thou be established, Isai. 54.14. thou shalt be far from oppression, and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. It hath come toward us indeed, but not near us; or near us it may be, but not upon us; And an Argument it is, that our Enemies gather themselves together, but not by God, and that they that do gather together against us, shall fall for our sakes. Tell me but one design wherein the Parliament hath miscarried; and but one project wherein the Malignant party have prospered, and I will give you leave to call all these hopes into question. This is much, but this is not all, for not onely this, but Fifthly, Their weapons have been turned upon their own bosom, and their Cannons have broken, and splinterd into their own faces. They have lost ground by advancing, neither hath any thing, or in rational probabilities, could any thing have contributed so powerfully to their own ruin, as that which they have projected for their support and conquest. You may observe it in a constant succession of their plots and Counsels, it hath been the unchangeable project of divine providence to beat them with their own weapons, to turn the mouth of their Cannons upon their own forces, to burn them with the fire they have kindled, and cast them into the pits themselves have digged, and in the things wherein they have dealt proudly, still to be above them. Exod. 18.11. In so much that when those which have been inbarqued in the great design of Reformation, have been nonplussed, and not know what to do next, the Enemies contrivements have digged them an hole to creep out at, where they have found a path of providence chalked out to them, and with liberty and enlargements have gone on and prospered. Surely all Parliament endeavours and unweariable debates have not conduced so much to the ripening of our hopes, as the headlong desperate attempts of the enraged adversaries. Could all the visible Artillery, of the poor derided and despised people of God, have ever given such a wound to the prelacy, as they have received in their own episcopal war with Scotland? or hath any thing so dangerously shaken the foundation of their rotten fabric, as the discharging of their roaring Canons, overladen with an oath of an unreasonable size, and ramd up to the very mouth with a voluminous & c.? And while by their late learned and vigorous protestation, they thought to have been above the Parliament by trampling under their feet the Acts of King and State( because not consecrated forsooth by their episcopal Vote) they did that in an hour, which the Parliament could not do in a year, and( not much unlike the Angels that kept not their first estate) cast themselves down from their hierarchical seat, and lost both Vote and place in that royal Senate. Surely these were their Babels which they built of purpose to be above all inundations, But God came down and confounded their language. What skill and physic could have been so effectually operative for the purging of that representative body of the kingdom from so many corrupt and pestilential humours, which did much endanger the constitution thereof, as their own malignant and desperate activity? or was there any means within the view of rational conjecture, and the list of second causes that could give such hopes or probability that ever popery and Papists should ever be rooted out of his Majesties Dominions, as their own traitorous and Antichristian insurrections and rebellions? But this is the working of him that disappointeth the devices of the crafty, Job 5.12.13. so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. That taketh the wise in their own craft: and carries the counsel of the froward headlong. And when we see heathenish men sink down in their own pit, Psal. 9.15.16. their foot taken in their net which they made: and the wicked snared in the work of their own hands, why should not those that wait upon God sing their Higgaion. vers. 17. Selah. in an holy confidence that God is executing his judgements on the wicked, and that their next turn( without speedy and importunate repentance) shall be into hell, with all the nations that forget God. why may not we upon Davids premises infer Davids conclusion? and when we see our Enemies turned back resolve they shall fall and perish at Gods Presence. Psal. 9.3. When mine enemies are turned back they shall fall and perish at thy presence? oh ye cruel Tyrants, and bloodthirsty persecutors of Christ and his members, do ye begin to turn your backs and betake yourselves to your heels, nay then I know you have not long to live, you are appointed to destruction, you shall fall and perish at the presence of God, verse 6. oh thou enemy destructions are come to a perpetual end; thou shalt destroy no more, you shall excommunicate no more, suspened no more, imprison no more, banish no more, draw blood no more, ravish no more women with child, and then ripp them up alive before their husbands faces; murder no more husbands before the eyes of their tender wives; you shall dash out no more infants brains against the stones deflower no more virgins, torture no more faithful Ministers, burn no more houses, spoil no more towns and Villages, lay desolate no more Countries, &c. thou shalt destroy no more: thou hast made an end of destroying; and now thy turn is come, Woe unto thee that spoilest, and thou wast not spoiled, Isai. 33.1. and dealts treacherously and they dealt not treacherously with thee: when thou shalt cease to spoil thou shalt be spoyled, and when thou makest an end to deal treacherously they shall deal treacherously with thee. How may this encourage us to wait on God, whilst it lays a foundation not onely for prayer, in the next verse, O Lord be gracious unto us, verse 2. we have waited for thee, be thou our arm every morning, and our salvation also in the time of trouble: Vers. 5.6. but a foundation also of faith and confidence, vers. 5.6. The Lord is exalted for he dwelleth on high, he hath filled Sion; he hath filled England( may we say) with judgement and righteousness: There is the foundation; and what is the confidence he builds on it? it follows, wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and strength of salvation. The sixth& last branch which makes up this Argument complete and entire, is, The fear which God hath struck into the hearts of the Enemies. While God hath made some of them Prophets of their own destruction, with Haman's wife and the Midianitish soldier( and a better oracle cannot be than the mouth of an Enemies foretelling his own destruction) and hath caused a trembling, Esther 6.13. judge. 7.13.14. a mighty fear and horror to fall upon others so that the sword of the Lord and of Gideon never stroke more terror and faintness into the hearts of the Midianites than the sword of the Lord and of England, the sword of the Lord and of Scotland doth into the hearts of the Rebels in Ireland; at what time all the host ran and cried and fled hath not God( in his faithfulness and power) made good that promise( almost to the letter) one of you shall chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight, Deut. 32.30. Fear is a certain foreruner of confusion; witness the confession of Rahab to the spies. I know the Lord hath given you the land, Jos. 2.9 and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you; when the Egyptians cry out let us fly let us fly, you may know that God begins to trouble their Host, and take off their wheels, and is about to drown them in the midst of the Sea; the Psalmist gives the reason of it, There were they in great fear, for God is in the Congregation of the Righteous. I could enlarge this consideration, but we have dwelled long enough here, letus remove to another refuge both of beauty and strength. The great things which God hath done already: 11. Arg. Too too great for me to recount in this so narrow a passage of my discourse; neither is it the proper work of this Argument. I shall leave it to those whose leisure and abilities mayinvite them to undertake a work that requires so much skill and industry, for surely by that time God shall have pleased to perfect the thing which he hath begun among us; there was never an history of more wonder and delight delivered over to the ear of posterity: The Lord find and fit some spirits to a work of so much honour to his Name, and advantage to after-generations. Interim, because I would not altogether fail your expectations, give me leave to present to your view some of the most remarkable footsteps wherein divine providence hath gone as visibly before our eyes, as ever the pillar of fire by night, or the pillar of the cloud by day, before Moses and Israel in their forty years travel between Egypt and the Land of promise. I must but make a bare mention of them, that my dispatch may not swell to too great a bulk and burden. The Calling of a Parliament this phoenix Parliament, which like the phoenix indeed did spring out of the ashes of the old ones; we had not had now an indissoluble Parliament, if former Parliaments had not been untimely dissolved; Surely God hath done for this Parliament, in as great wonder and more mercy, what he did for Joshuah, he hath caused the sun to stand still in Gibeon. Josh. 10.13. The light and influence of this Parliament to stand still in England, that the people may avenge themselves upon the enemies of King and kingdom; so that, as of that day it may be said, There was no day like that before it nor after it. I am sure, there hath been no Parliament day like this before it,( what shall be after it, is known onely to the maker of dayes) wherein the Lord harkened to the voice of man, even to the voice of his poor, praying, despised people. Contemplate I beseech you every one of you in his own private thoughts the great things which God hath done by this Parliament. That miraculous pacification of the two kingdoms like the Parliament itself( after many sad and fearful dissolutions) made( we humbly hope) indissoluble to the unspeakable security and joy of both the Nations; and even then when they stood like Joabs and Abners men, ready to have run together, and sheathed their swords in one anothers bowels; was not the signal given, and blood drawn on both sides? Oh the fears and tremblings! the pains and horrors of that day! Surely it is a day much to be observed unto the Lord, &c. You have not forgot I hope that second Eighty eight, not long before the Parliament began; nor the gun-powder treasons since, from the devouring rage and cruelty whereof, the wakeful eye of providence did rescue us, while we slept; and so our deliverances were wrought before our dangers were discovered. look into the Common-wealth, and that you shall find disburdened of the grievous pressures and oppressions of shipmoney, Coat and conduct money, and a beadroll of Monopolies, as long as the Inventory of all your goods and chattels, meat, drink and clothing; this kind of vermin like the frogs of Egypt coming into your houses, Exod. 8.3.4. and bed-chambers, and beds, and ovens, and kneeding troughs, &c. or like the Locusts, which darkened the Land, Chap. 10.15. and did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees, so that there remained no green thing in the Land; all was almost eaten up and destroyed. Look into the Church, and there you shall see that yoke( which in former ages had been made but of wood, but now of iron; that yoke( which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear, happily broken off our necks, those formidable oaths ex officie, and canonical obedience, Subscriptions, Canons, Images, Altars, and Altar-worship, with the whole Romish pack of Idolatrous Ceremonies seasonably suspended and removed, which formerly occasioned the suspension and removing of many godly and learned Ministers, the blood of whose ministry, and of the souls depending upon them, cries in the language of Sion, Jer. 57.35.36. The violence done to me and to my flesh, be upon Babylon, and my blood upon the Inhabitants of Chaldea. Look again into both, and you shall see those two strong and seemingly invincible Forts, from whence the enemy did continually batter down the walls of Church and State. Exod. 1.11. Those two Cities python and Rameses, which the Egyptians built not onely for treasure Cities, but also to keep Israel in perpetual bondage; that Mizpah and Tabor, Hos. 5.1. where the Priests and Judges built towers wherein to lay men in wait for them that came to worship the Lord at Jerusalem; In English, the starchamber, and High-commission Court, thrown down to the ground, not so much left as the very foundations where they might again erect any such like fortifications in after times, to the annoyance of the kingdom. Where are the mighty oppressors that made the kingdom, yea three kingdoms tremble? behold some fled, others fast, and others taken out of the land of the Living. Prov. 11.8. Are not the Righteous delivered and the wicked brought into their places. Remember that great and solemn Protestation till which we were hardly worth our names, Protestants, or onely a Name, and without which we might have lost( who knows how soon?) both our names and truth and kingdom; had not the Lord raised and strengthened our resolutions by this oath of Gad. I called it before Gilgal, because by that the Lord rolled away our reproach; Gen. 30.11. I may now call it Gad, for behold a troope cometh, a troope of mercies followed. Behold from thenceforth banished ones returning, dangerous ones flying, Priests and jesuits banished, faithful silenced Ministers restored, Scandalous Priests discovered, discountenanced, threatened( though because sentence against those evil doers was not speedily executed, Eccles. 8.11. the hearts of those sons of Belial, is wholly set in them to do evil;) the mass going down, Preaching going up, Popery and arminianism hiding the head, sound orthodox Doctrine set at liberty, holy Ordinances coming in, ridiculous ceremonies going out; the day of the Lords Resurrection rising( it self) again from the dead; bad Canons damned, good laws enacted, others revived; evil officers removed out of places of skill and trust, faithful and honourable persons put in their rooms; episcopal pride bowed down, the honour of the true-hearted Nobility raised up; those that never had a Vote for Jesus Christ, voted out of their Votes; Lords and Commons blessedly united; Aspice exinde universas nationes emergentes ad Dominum denm& ad Dominum Christum ejus Tertul. Apol. Jab. 38.2. Disturbers of the public peace; Opposers of Reformation curbed and censured; Cities and Countreys coming in and laying down at the feet of King and Parliament, their lives and estates, for Religion and Reformation. Alas Brethren, I shall eclipse the glory of God and the work which he hath wrought; I do but darken praises. Inopem me copia fecit. I am straitned by fullness, I have so much to do in this work that I can do nothing; pray for a large portion of skill and power on them, whose spirits God either hath or shall stir up to this honourable work, of writing up the righteous acts of the Lord done for poor England in these later dayes. Never was the world blessed with such a vision as this will be, when it shall speak out; wherein Treason and Salvation, Hells mischief and Heavens mercy meet to make an unparallelled monument of wonderand delight. This story shall be the Anagram of all the Acts and Monuments which God hath wrought in and for his Church, since the foundations were laid. That which is my most proper work in this Argument is to demonstrate, that what hath been done in and for England, hath been done by the immediate wisdom and power of God; and but as a pledge that God will perfect the thing which concerns us. Psal. 138.8. For the former, I will give you these two observations very worthy of your best intentions. Two evidences that God hath done all that is done. Zech. 4.6. 1 Evidence. That what hath been done, hath been done upon the spirits of men. Not by might nor power but by my spirit saith the Lord. not by force and arms, not by violence and compulsion but by a secret influence upon mens spirits hath the work been carried on all this while, warming them when deadly could and frozen entouraging them whem despairingly poor and timorous, and heightening them with dangerously low and sinking: have I not seen men like deres to day, and like lions to morrow, like fainting men now, and like the Angel of the Lord anon, clothed with a kind of omnipotence so that no opposition or hazard hath been able to turn them out of their road, or to stand before them, and this in such a secret concurrence and combination of providence, not by communication and discourse, but when men have been separated and at distance, that it seems not less miraculous than that which is reported of the septuagint, who shut up in their several studies, and not suffered to communicate their thoughts and labours one to another, did yet by a secret instinct, meet in such an harmonious translation of the Bible that they differed neither in sense nor words. To see Lords and Commons so strangely raised and changed( as it were) in the frame of their spirits, as if they were not the same men. Parliament and City, the several! Counties even from the remotest parts of the kingdom concentred in the same design and humbly desires of reformation; notwithstanding all art and industry of malignant agents to put all into a combustion. Is not this his work who gathers the waters of the Sea into an heap and makes them run which way he please? yea if you will call to mind the deportment and behaviour of that ragged regiment that should have fought the Bishops battels against Scotland, between whom and the barbarous ignorantmoores, there went( one would think) but a pair of shears, from whom the religious party in their travel might have expected nothing but inhuman violence and spoil( which oh how greatfull a service would it have been to their masters?) I say if you will remember in what an unexpected posture they carried themselves, much more like Bishops then those that set them a work, pulling up of rails which they had erected; calling upon idle ministers to preach, whose silence the Bishops did not onely bear with but approve of; threatening scandalous Priests whom they supported, letting out the stream of that severity they used against Papists onely, and their popish commanders, whom the Bishops spared and favoured,( all the world, but their own Chaplains and favourites will bear me witness I do them no wrong) in a word( for particulars are so many) to see a poor rude untaught company keeping such a visitation in their progress as the Bishops harely ever did since Queen Elizabeths dayes, must not all the beholders confess( unless more blind then the Egyptian sorcerers,) Digitus Dei, the finger yea the hand of God upon their spirits, forcing them like Jordan in a contrary stream to their wonted course; which of the Puritans( as they once used to call them) had catechized this poor ignorant multitude before they went? or which of their Commanders did infuse into them these principles? surely their Masters were men of another Notion. But this was the work of him who created the spirit of man, and hath the residue of spirits in his own hand. The God of spirits onely can work on, and govern, and turn, and change, and mould, and fashion, the spirit of man as he pleaseth. Consider the zeal and courage the wisdom and patience the unweariednesse and undauntedness of those that are embarked in the great affairs of Church and state both at home and abroad, 1 Cor. 14.25. and you must say God is in them of a certain, for surely these are not the spirits they brought from home. Every man may easily enlarge and strengthen this demonstration by his own observation. I will give you the second observation, and that is. That which hath been done hath been wrought of the very Rock of difficulty and opposition. Our mercies and enlargements have not come gliding down the swift and silent stream of union and peace. 2 evidence A great door and effectual was opened unto us, but there were( and are) many Adversaries. 1 Cor. 16.9. All the births of which this Parliament hath been delivered, have been with great throws and sorrows: though( blessed be God) the joy of a masculine issue hath swallowed up( hirherto) the sorrows of an hand travel. In all our mercies we have beholded Abrahams vision, wherein God revealed to him( as in a type) in what a method he must expect the accomplishment of the promise and covenant he then made with him and his seed. The smoking Furnace hath gone, Geu. 19.17. before the burning lamp. Great fears and shakings have ushered in great comforts and jennings when our hopes have been even giving up the Ghost, then have we seen sweet revivings and liftings up in unexpected and glorious ways. Our despairing times have been Gods rescuing and redeeming times, So that as when Lazarus was raised from the dead after he had lain four dayes stinking in the grave, such have the incomes of our deliverances and enlargements been, all the works of him and him onely, who quickeneth the dead, dead men, dead hopes, dead bisnksses, Rom. 4.17. and calleth those things which are not as though they were. Sum up all this, and if you would have the second demonstration, scil. influence and inference of this argument from a warrantable hand, take't from the man after Gods own heart well acquinted with his workings, Psal. 75.1. That thy name is near thy wondrous works declare. q.d. that the wisdom, power, The Inference. faithfulness, mercy, truth and goodness of our God is now contriving and combining to perfect and hasten our deliverance and mercies, the wonderful things which God hath done for us already do sweetly ascertain us: in a word, what God hath done already is an infallible demonstration God will do more: This was good logic in Davids time, and may it not be so in ours? Surely if England do not lay in strange obstructions of unbelief, unthankfullnesse, unfruitfulness, these premises may support our hearts in the expectation and waiting for a comfortable and desired conclusion. Hath God think you removed all these mountaines of difficulties, and laid these more then foundations of mercy and reformation, that he may raise up a throne for our enemies triumph in the eye of the world. Hath God lift us up that he may cast us down? and cast them down that he might lift them up: which way have they obliged God to do them so much honour? I cannot believe it, I cannot believe it? If God had had a mind to destroy us, he wanted not opportunity long ago, when he had locked our feet in the stocks, job 33.11. Psalm. 40.2. and we stuck fast in the mire and day? Blessed be God the work of Reformation is not yet at that loss which some malignant spirits( whom an opinion of too much learning sear hath made mad) would insultingly charge upon poor unlearned, yet not altogether unlettered generation. Although I must confess, if we consider the professed opposition of some, and the bribed mercenary apostasy of others, blazing stars, ignes fatui!) it is a wonder of mercy that voice of rebuk and blasphemy is not heard amongst us. Isa. 37.3. The Children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth. Many beautiful and masculine births have been brought forth already, and I would gladly have all men which fear thankfullnes and joy, hear God himself expostulating the sequel. Isa. 66.9. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be bring forth? Or shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb saith thy God, Psa. 84.1, 2, 3, 4 There be six hastes drawing in the next turn, vers. 4. So 2. Cor. 1.10. God hath and therefore God will, is a strong medium of hope, if not a demonstration of Scripture logics. Surely Gods hand is in doing wonders, and therefore if not for our sakes, yet for his own Names sake, he will not see this work go back and perish, which casts my discourse and your attentions on. The twelfth and last argument of Hope. 12. Arg. Gods name. Gods Name seems to be engaged in this work. First, his Power and wisdom( for we must be constrained for brevity sake to led them by pairs. First his Power and wisdom. ) It was Moses jealousy for God, and the argument wherewith he strengtheners himself to wrestle with him, that Israel might not be slain in the wilderness by the hand of divine justice; Num. 14.15, 16 if thou shall kill all this people as one man, then the Nations which have heard the famed of thee will speak saying. Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he swore unto them, therefore he hath slain them in the wilderness. Moses save that his Act of justice should be scandolized by the enemies abroad as want of strength in the Hebrews God to make good his promise unto his people; and this went to Moses heart; would not( think ye likewise) the atheism and folly that is mens hearts be tempted out to the like blasphemy, if this work thus prosperously began, and gloriously carried on like the sun in the firmament in the eye of all the world should now set in a cloud of blood and final ruin and desolation? It were better the sun should bee covered with sack-cloth, and the stars should be extinguish't into everlasting darkness then that the wisdom and power of God should be obscured with the least shadow of such an imputation. This man began to build, and could not make an end, Luk. 14.30. is the reproach of the foolish man. The infinitely wise God saw what the work would stand him in before ever he laid the first corner ston of it, and therefore need not let the work desist by being run out of purse beyond expectation. But secondly, as his power and wisdom; so also his Loving kindness and tender mercies might fall under the Jealousies and misgivings of unbelieving Spirits in such a case. 2. His loving kindness and tender mercies. Would not such a sad and dismal change and turn of things( should all the hopes and expectations of Gods people perish) bee construed( by the ill-willers to them and the work) as the birth and issue of his dislike and hatred of them and it. It was another breach of Moses his holy jealousy over Gods name. Deut. 9.28. Least the land whence thou broughtest them out say, because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he promised( that before) and because he hated them he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness. You may see how well their God loved them( would the egyptians have said) egypt was too good for them; and now you may see the fruit of their Rebellion against their lawful sovereign and Rulers in egypt; their God hath as a demonstration how little he approved their religion, or defection, overthrown them every mothers child in the wilderness. Alas poor Pharaoh how causelessly didst thou and thy army perish in the waters! Though such an execution of divine justice upon this unbelieving murmuring generation would not have born such a charge as this is, yet Moses saw how the spirit of malignancy in the enemies round about would catch at advantages to rail on the name of God, and slander the footsteps of his Redeemed. Thirdly, 3. His faithfulness and Truth. his faithfulness and his Truth are like to suffer not a little, should this work prove abortive. It might stagger( in double minded-men, people not rooted nor settled in the faith) the credit of that observation which hath got God so much honour and trust in the world. Psalm. 9.10. They that know thy Name will put their trust in thee, for thou never failest them that seek thee. Psalm. 65.2. And oh thou that hearest prayers to thee shall all flesh come when men have found in God an indificency and infalabillity of help; Seekers, they will begin to trust God too; when they observe free access certain audience, unmiscarrying returns in addresments to the throne of grace, they hither to, they pray also but let God deny to answer Saul, he'l to the witch, if God will not, the devil shall: yea failes of return shall be objected against God by unbelieving men, Isa. 58.2. though the fault be in their prayers not in Gods ear. Why have we fasted say they, and thou hearest not, wherefore have we afflicted our souls and thou takest no notice? God tells them in their ears in the next verse the reason of it, and yet though they did offend they were offended; they find fault with God, when God finds fault with their prayers. They fast for strife and debate and to smite with the fists of wickedness. But let God and them debate the matter between themselves; there which occasions a greater scandal is when Gods Elijah, and Jeremiahs, and all Israel, Prophets and people are seeking God in solemn duties fasting and prayer, and that not so much in point of safety as of reformation in their just appeals end complaints to the throne of divine justice; not so much in regard of their sufferings, as of Gods dishonours and provocations; and their Enemies stand by and jeer at them and their prayers, to see what will be come of them, that they may laugh thē and their prayers to scorn, in such a cease as this is, if God should make as if he did not hear, and desert their rescue in the very midst of his seemeing approaches to their succour,( though matters may so stand between God and his people, that he may have just cause to do all this) how gladly would the cursed Enemies of God and his ordinances, and people hug this advantage and blaspheme the God of truth and the truth of God; and thousands of standards by be ready to call in question, either the faithfulness of God, or the infallibility of those truths which Gods people have so many yeares together professed and suffered for, surely much of the credit of those truths for which the Saints have contended into this appostate generation: scil. Election without any consideration of works foreseen or faith foreseen justification by faith, true grace, unchangablenesse of Gods love, &c. pure ordinances, and spiritual dispensations of Gospel-worship and the like; I say much of the credit of these truths and ways, depends upon the success of the battels betwixt Michael& his Angels and the dragon and his: and in such a case as this is, David observes how ready God was to step in to the succour of his people, even in the midst of great conflicts and hazards( as you may see in the beginning of the psalm.) Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed; i.e. Thou hast given thy people occasions of joy and triumph in their victory over their Enemies, why, because of the truth that is not onely because of the truth of Gods promise, but because also of the truth of doctrine and worship: which we preserved among the people of Israel, especially of the Tribe of Juda; which cleaved to David: Moller. in Psal. 60. ( for this psalm is a golden psalm of Davids to teach, that is to teach the rest of the Tribes by the observation of these great victories vouchsafe to David for the truth sake, to submit unto his government, chosen and established by God himself.) David I say, and the house of Juda preserved the truth of doctrine and of worship; and therefore the truth of the promises did preserve them. They fought for the truth, and the truth fought for them, and crwoned them with a multitude of victories, over Aram Naharaim, and Aram Zobah, and the Edomites, as you may see in the title of the psalm, was it ever known that God deserted a people that stood up for truth and reformation? Is it not the truth of God, truth of doctrine, truth of discipline; truth of ordinances, truth of government, that England stands up for this day; if they stand for the truth, it is not for the truth of God and the God of truth( if we may speak with fear and humble confidence) engaged to stand for them? surely God will do much for his truths sake even when a Church or people deserve not very well at his hands; Judah was not much better then Israel in regard of great and fearful sins in their conversations, hardly free from sodomy that peccatum non nominandum, that sin not to be name, Hos. 1.7. yet saith God I will have mercy upon the house of Juda and will save them by the Lord their God, when at the very same time he threatens utterly to destroy Israel, as Vers. 6. what was the reason of it, surely one reason was because Judah had kept to the way of worship, which God himself had prescribed; whiles Israel had made a base and desperate apostasy to Jeroboams calves and idolatrous worship, 1 Kings 12.33. which he had devised of his own heart, Hos. 5.11. which is therefore brought into the account of Israels undoing. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgement, because he willingly walked after the command, scil. of Jeroboam; in the place quoted before) and again Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and Israel with deceit( scil. with lying and deceitful arguments and colours to justify their Idolatrous courses) while to the honour of Judah, it is reportep in the very same verse, and implyed as one reason of their immunity from Israels destruction; But Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the Saints. It must needs be understood in regard of divine ordinances, Truths and worship( for otherwise they were extremely corrupted) in respect whereof faith God, I will save Judah, &c. Fourthly his free-grace of all the rest is highly concerned in it, 4. His freegrace none of all the Names of God having suffered so much by a blasphemous generation of profane ambitious Priests: Free grace hath been spoken against, and preached against, and printed against, though it have been the best friend that ever England had,& is not yet weary of doing England good, which is the highest confutations of the lies and blasphemies of the Adversaries that can be. For surely free-will hath had no share in these blessed revivings of our hopes and comforts: This salvation of God did not find us a praying, reforming people but made us so, it found us with our backs upon God; while he might complain of England as once of Ephraim; For the iniquity of covetousness was I wrath, Isai. 57.17. and smote him: I hide me and was wrath, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. And is not England destroyed for this pride and contumacy? oh no see a wonder of free grace follows. Vers. 18. I have seen his ways and will heal them, his ways, what ways? why, his ways of covetousness and frowardness; these were the onely works and ways God saw, these were all the preparatives for cure and healing which God found; and yet he resolves I will heal him; as if he should have said, well I see these froward children will lay nothing to heart frowns will not humble them, blows will do them no good if I do not save them till they seek me, they will never be saved; if I stay for their returning they must for ever perish; I will heal them; I will restore comfort to them. I will do it because I will do it, as in my text, I will be exalted, that I may have mercy upon them. And truly if the Lord please to carry on the work in ways proportionable to the beginning. Englands deliverance will be the most irrefragable confutation of Popery and Armianisme, and the highest monument of free-grace that ever was set up in the view of the world. And therefore in respect of all these the mourners in Sion and for Sion, may pled and press Joshuahs argument, if this work miscarry; Lord what wilt thou do for thy great name? josh. 7.9. what wilt thou do for thy power and wisdom? thy mercy and love, thy faithfulness and truth? what wilt thou do for thy free grace? wilt thou suffer it again to be trampled under feet by dogs& swine? But you will surely object and say if our hopes should be dashed in pieces, the work go backward; Protestants go down, Papists and profane men get up again, and all return into the former chaos of confusion, and if any should be offended at it; it would be scandalum acceptum non datum: God could no ways be justly charged, the fault would questionless be found in ourselves, and God must be justified in his sayings, and clear in his judgements. I do humbly and cordially subscribe to this acknowledgement, God may destroy England and be never the less powerful and wise, merciful and good, faithful and true, every way a God still, and his freegrace no whit lessened; God may say against England as once against Israel: I will scatter them into corners, Deut. 32.26. I will make the remembrance of them cease from among the children of men. I will destroy England, and shift for my name as well as I can. How ever give me leave to present unto you these four observations, which will much, four observations to strengthen this last argument of Hope 1. Observation both clear and corroborat the evidence of this twelfth and last argument. 1 We find God in all times to have been very jealous of his own name, not onely when this argument hath been wavered before him by his faithful and humble remembrances: as you may see in the former instances of Moses and his successor Joshuah, Isa. 59.16. but when( as it seems) there was no intercessor as he complains. His own righteousness suggested this argument to him and it prevailed even them, when he had said and sworn( as it were) the final rooting out of Israel and their very name: deut. 32.26. see him saying it in the forequoted place, I said I will scatter them into corners, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men: And why did he not? why his Name did interpose; Vers. 27. I feared the wrath of the enemy least their adversaries should behave themselves strangely. Wrath, strange wrath, unheard of cruelty; if I leave my people in their adversaries hands, they will show them no mercy, I will not do it saith God, this shall not be; there he had respect to his mercy: mercy could not behold such strange wrath and cruelty, Amos 7.3.6. and not even weep her self sick as it were. And again Least they should say our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this. Strange pride against God, as well as strange wrath against his people; there he wrought for his power and wisdom, that the enemy should not rob him of his praise and glory; and as you hear God saying, so you may hear him swearing, yea saying and swearing over and over again( or at least reporting what he had said and sworn before) Ezek. 20. I said I will poure out my fury, vers. 8. and I said so again, vers. 13. and a third time, ver. 21. and swearing too( as I say) I lifted up my hand, vers. 15. and I lifted up my hand to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them, vers. 23. there you have the form of an oath, though not the words of an oath, as you may see, Gen. 14.22. I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord, &c. I have lifted up my hand, that I will not take from a thread, &c. that is, I have sworn. But what then hindered the execution of Gods word and oath? It is as often expressed in the same place, I wrought for my Names sake, vers. 8. I wrought for my Names sake, vers. 14. and so a third time, vers. 22. and a fourth time, vers. 44. Surely God hath not ordinarily nor easily denied the solicitations of this argument, even then when his word and oath have seemed to have concluded a peoples destruction. This must be understood with much sobriety and caution, for in these various expressions God doth not change his will, but wills a change; in all these seeming mutations, God discovers his unchangeable and immutable love unto his Name and people. But secondly, observe that this plea hath then especially carried all before it, when Gods Name hath been reproached and blasphemed by the proud enemy. They will say, my hand is high( ut sup.) Isa. 43.8. nay but they shall not, I am the Lord, that is my Name, and my glory will I not give to another. I will spare Israel, rather than their adversaries shall blaspheme my Name in their destruction. Israel had deserved to smart and bleed, but if the Syrians dare once to limit Gods power to the hills only, as if he were not a God as well in the valleys, 1. King. 20.28. God will deliver the Syrians into Israels hands, and pled his own quarrel with his people another time. Nothing will sooner tempt out Gods jealousy and indignation against the enemies of his people( even when Gods people be not so good as they should or might be) then the cursed blasphemies of railing Rabshekahs against his Name. hark how angrily he doth take up that Assyrian blasphemer, 2. King. 19.22. Whom hast thou reproved and blasphemed? &c. Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, I will put my hook into thy nose and my bridle into thy lips, and led thee back by the way thou camest. 2. Sam. 16.9. Alas, Israel at that time had but one, England hath at this day many many thousands of Rabshekahs, dead dogs, that with Shimei, bark( though dead) and blaspheme God and his Truths, and his Ordinances, and worship, and people, and Sabboths; their rage and tumult against God is come up into his ears, Psalm. 58.10. and therefore God shall hook them by the nostrils, and bridle them by their jaws, and the Righteous shall rejoice, when he seeth the vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. Many times Gods people are more beholding to the enemies blasphemies than their own prayers. David observed it, and therefore doth often take the advantage of that argument in one psalm, Psalm. 74.22.10.18.23. Remember how the foolish man reprocaheth thee daily; he pleads with God as Abishai once with David, concerning that railing Shimei, Why should these dead dogs curse my Lord the King? the King of glory? oh! avenge thy great Name of the blasphemies of these wicked men. Thirdly observe, If at any time this Argument could not prevail, it hath been when no means which God hath used with a people could do them good. The Prophet Jeremiah went forth to wrestle with God for his people as at other times, jer. 14.7. and thought to have carried it with this Argument, O Lord though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy Names sake, for our backslidings are many. q.d. Lord it is evident enough we have deserved to be consumed by famine( for that prayer was made in a time of drought) but Lord remember thou hast a Name, and though our name deserve to perish, yet thy Name doth not; for thy Names sake therefore hear and give rain to thine inheritance: No saith God, hold thy peace Jeremiah, that argument will not do it now; why? verse 10. They have loved to wander, they have wandered, and loved to wander, their hearts are set upon their wicked ways, They have not refrained their feet; nothing will make them change their courses, I have used all means, but none will do; I will remember their sin, not my Name now, I will think of that another time; Pray no more for this people: I had as liffe the Babylonians should blaspheme my Name, as this Israel; let me alone, they shall into Captivity, and I will shift for my Name as well as I can. This Argument prevailed till there was no remedy, then away they went, 2. Cron. 36.16. and nothing could stay Gods hand or reverse the decree. If England thou hast dealt thus with God, then woe unto us; who shall pled for us? or what Argument shall prevail, if Gods name cannot? Oh that every one would lay his hand upon his heart, and say What have I done? jer. 8.6. But brethren here is our hope, that God hath in England, a considerable number both of governours and people that tremble at his word, whose souls do thirst and pant after, and stand up for reformation: they do not desire peace more than truth, nor happiness more than holiness, and therefore we have good hopes through grace to receive the fruits of this argument: for so runs the promise. Isa. 66.2. To this man will I look, that is of a poor and contrite heart, and trembles at my words. Fourthly and lastly observe, that God delights many times to raise himself a name and a praise by outbidding the hopes, Isa. 64.3. prayers, and the very faith too of his people: thou didst terrible things we looked not for saith the Church to God; we little thought to have seen such deliverances, and such enlargements as our God hath wrought for us: why did God thus out-bid their expectations? To make thy name known Vers. 2. did they ever think of walking through the read Sea dry-shod, when they saw that before them and the Egyptians behind them, and the woods on either side? did they dream of travailing to their rest, through a barren wilderness, fitter to starve them than to feed them and their flocks? why did God thus outbid not their merits onely but their thoughts and faith? To make himself an everlasting name, Isa. 63.12.14. To make himself a glorious name. I red of an Emperour that delighted in no undertakings, so much as those, which in the esteem of his counsellors and Captaines were deemed impossible; If they said such or such an enterprise would never be accomplished, it was argument enough to him to make the adventure; and he seldom miscarried. Truly( brethren) this may bee much more truly said of our God; Exod. 15.11. it is one of his names, glorious in holinesse, fearful in praises, doing wonders. England may truly say, when thou bowedst the Heavens and came down, thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, God hath done all our impossibles for us; when we have said in our unbelief this or that never could be done; God hath done it for us, we said in our hearts( and mouths two) England and Scotland can never be ceconciled; God hath done it; we heard of a Parliament, but we said it cannot be; we shall never see a Parliament again in England; but God hath done it, we see it and rejoice, and so I might run on in a thousand instances more, Gen. 21.7. who would have said Sarah shall give suck? who would have said England shall have a Parliament? who would have said, you shall live to see the day in England, when there shall not be a monopoly in the Common-weath, a Ceremony in the Church? when there shall not be a Bishop in the House of Lords? when Scandalous Ministers shall be as vile in their names as ever they were vile in their lives; and painful labourers had in honour; when Popery and profaneness shall go down, and purity of Religion, and the power of godliness shall go up; when good men shall be put into great places, and oppressors shall betake themselves to their heels, &c. who would have said it? or if any would have said it, who had faith enough to believe it? But our God hath done it for us; and thereby hath made our denials the seals and Amens of his wonders; and me thinks I hear him speaking from heaven, John 5.20. I will show you greater works than these that you may marvel. You have seen great things already, but you shall see greater things than these that you may marvel. The Bishops are cast out of the house of Lords, and it is a great thing in your eyes( and well it may be so) but if you should live to see never a Bishop in England, this would be a greater work, and you will wonder; I know some would wonder and swear and curse and be ready to burst with indignation; but Gods people would wonder and sing and rejoice and be filled with thankfulness; you see scandalous priests threatened and censured, the faithful preachers set at some liberty( blessed be God,) and it is a grat matter; but when you shall see all the filth carried out of the Temple; and all the ordinances of God spring in the beauty of holiness in their purity and power, this will be a greater work and you will marvel; Isa 66.14. your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb: and the hand of the Lord shall be known toward his servants, and his indignation towards his enemies. Well, what you shall see I cannot certainly divine but this I know, God delights to raise the wonder of men,& angels to the highest pitch, even till there be no more room left for joy& admiration; and when wonder itself falls short of his excellent praises( as certain all the men and Angels can reach to, infinitely doth) even when they stand upon the very tiptoe of admiration, Gen. 1.32. then doth God delight himself in the beholding of his own glorious works, and satisfy himself in the contemplation of his own unconceivable names and excellencies. Therefore will the Lord weight that he may be gracious, therefore will he be exalted that be may have mercy. who knows but this may be one of those times wherein God will work wonders in England and in Ireland, as he hath done in Scotland to make himself a glorious name; to make himself an everlasting name? Micah. 7.12. even because he delighteth in mercy! Thus I have presented unto you the twelve arguments upon which I conceive Englands hope doth stand, I have broken unto you these twelve Loaves of comfort which like those which Christ broke unto the people have multiplied in my hands: if you have found any refreshment and strength by them, gather up I beseech you the broken fragments that nothing may be lost. The main arguments with their appendices have been these: 1. The near approach of Babylons downfall, witness 1. The probability of the drawing near of the calling of the Jews. 2. The could sweat that stands on Antichrists limbs. 3. Gods call of his people out of Babylon. 2. The stay of the flight of his people. 3. The calling together of a college of skilful Physitians. 4. The Effusion of the Spirit, the Spirit of Compassion. Prayer. Faith. Unanimity. Magnanimity. 5. The fields look white to the harvest. 6. The great improvement of godly Ministers, in their Number. Abilities. 7. Their eminent success seen in the Number, Graces, of Converts and Professors. 8. Gods miraculous keeping the Kingdom from guilt, especially of those two land destroying sins, Idolatry. and Blood. 9. The gracious vindicating of the Honour and reputation of his reproached people: 10. The enemies themselves, 1. The fullness of their sins. 2. Their desperate medicines to support themselves. 3. The discovery of their plots. 4. The blasting of their projects. 5. The recoiling of their engines upon there own selves. 6. The spirit of fear and trembling that hath possessed their hearts. 11. The great things God hath done already evidenc't by two demonstrations, 1. That which hath been done is by a secret work of God upon mens spirits. 2. That it hath been hewn out of the very rock of difficulty. 12. Gods own Name which lies at stake, sc. his Power and Wisdom. Love and Mercy. faithfulness and Truth. Free-grace. Strengthened by four observations. 1. That this consideration hath prevailed with God against much unworthiness of his people his own seeing Word. Oath. 2. Especially when it hath been blasphemed by the enemy. 3. It never failed but when no remedy. 4. God delights to make his Name glorious. I have done with the Arguments of Hope and so with the first motive to wait on God, namely, that they that wait on God shall not be ashamed. But now least what I have spoken may be misapplied, and so that which is intended for your good become a snare unto you; before I come to the second motive have patience with me, while for your sakes and safety, I desire to lay into these twelve encouragements but half so many Cautions, and then I shall wind up the rest of the motives in a few words. Six Cautions. FIrst it may be, 1. Caution. some may object when they have viewed these Encouragements, and say they do not see any such infallible assurance in them; they do not lay in any such unquestionable security and evidence that God will do England good, but that for all that hath been spoken, the Clouds may return again after rain, and we may live to see as black and dismal dayes as ever England saw since it was a Nation! And do I deny it? did I undertake such a work as to lay in infallible assurances? unquestionable security? page. 52. remember therefore that as I told you in my addresment to this work, I undertook not to hold forth demonstrations unto you, but Encouragements, I professed not to speak in the language of divine Revelation, but of modest and awful observation; not by spirit of prophesy but of powerful and humble conjecture, while I have desired and endeavoured to compare spiritual things with spiritual; the out-goings of God in those remarkable passages of wonder and compassion in the latter dayes, with the presidents and methods of his providence toward his Church and people in former ages, and the character of the promises on record for that very purpose in holy Scripture! Rom. 15.4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. On which observation while I fix mine eye and consider the sweet and beautiful proportions they hold one to another, me thinks I see as in an optic glass, the Lord in his glorious apparel, traveling towards England in the greatness of his strength mighty to save, Isai. 36.1. making the very earth tremble under him. However the caution is I profess not to make this discovery by the eye of inspiration, but of hopeful observation. The ways of God are in the Clouds, and his paths in the deep waters; who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counselor,& c? As therefore those reverend Divines who did for many yeares together( till of very late dayes) with one lip foretell of an hour of temptation, wrath and fearful desolation hastening upon England, did not do it by virtue of a spirit of prophesy, or immediate revelation,( with Jonas) thereby laying a fatal and peremptory necessity upon their predictions( which had been to great a presumption, and an high breach of divine prerogative) but merely out of a sad and serious observation, of the dangerous and almost desperate height, to which all manner of sin was swelled in the kingdom; and other direful symptoms of divine displeasure upon us, the diversion whereof hitherto is not therefore to be accounted an argument of any spirit of error and precipitancy in them, but merely as a demonstration and monument of Gods free-grace, and prerogative royal, reserving to himself liberty to spare when and whom he pleaseth, though lying under most eminent guilt and danger; So have I presumed to hold out these arguments of reviving hopes and comforts to you and the whole kingdom; not as revelations of unchangeable certainty, but as probable fore-runners of approaching salvation, the dawning of the most glorious and happy times that ever England saw, upon which if God should yet command the black clouds of dismaying fears and dangers to return again, who can doubt that( though these considerations breath warrantable and sweet consolation) yet God should be able to give a justifying account of his dealings to all the world, and England find cause enough to lay her hand to her mouth, to be ashamed and confounded before the Lord. And therefore the second Caution must be to cry a take-heed in every mans ear how they suffer these Encouragements to hearten them in ways of sin and sinful security. 2 Caution. I cast in these grounds of comfort that I might strengthen the hands of your faith not of your lusts, to the end that you might apply yourselves to all the duties which God and the times call for with diligence and chearfullnesse; Heb. 6.11.12. 1 Cor. 7.32.35. It being the great law of all that Christian security which Christ hath purchased for and dispenseth to his people, in any kind or branch thereof, that they may attend upon the Lord without distraction. Surely I have seen men with their hands upon their loins, and fears taking hold upon them as pangs upon a woman in travel; Ezek. 37.11. while they have seemed to cry out as the Jews in captivity, Our bones are dried and our hope is lost, we are cut off for our parts. We have seen our best dayes. &c. Had these fears been onely wakening fears I should have held my peace and rejoiced, but when I observed to be( in too many) weakening distracting fears, I conceived it time with Gods mediums to serve Gods command; To strengthen the weak hands, and to confirm the feeble knees, Isai. 35.3.4.5. by saying to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong fear not, behold your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense he will come and save you. For this you may take as an infallible rule, whatsoever unfits a man for service is a temptation. That fear which unfits for any duty of the general or particular calling, ordinary or extraordinary; for spiritual or natural defence or service is from Satan not from God. And therefore study the law of this blessed hope whereinto we are enlarged by the outstretched arm of our God, that it may not be an occasion unto you to dispirit your hope into wantonness and security. There is a proverb; It is pitty faire weather should do any harm. Oh, it is a thousand pities( my brethrem) that these faire hopes which God hath given us of Gospel-sunshine-times should encourage any one to be less good or active for God than they were in times of fears and dangers;( there is an angry question) God asks. Iorem. 7.9, 10. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery and swear falsely &c. And come and stand in this house which is called by my name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations? e.i. in a word, do you think that I have delivered you from captivity, that you may live as you list? dare you think such a thought much less dare you speak such a word? Oh, take heed of such carnal reasoning with yourselves; we are not so far out of Gods hands and sight but that if God see us making such base conclusions upon those precious premises, he can easily bring us back again into our old bondage and slavery; Levit. 26. yea and plague us yet seven times more for our sins; gracious spirits will blushy at the thoughts of such unworthiness. And after all this is come upon us for our evil deeds, and for our great trespass, Ezra. 9.13, 14. seing our God hath punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and hath given us such deliverance as this: Should we again break thy commandements,& c? There is so much unthankfullnesse and disingenuity in such an entertainment of mercy, that holy Ezra thinks Heaven and Earth would be ashamed of it, should we? were that done like children, like servants, like men, like any thing but unnatural monsters, would not all the world cry shane on us? to render good for evil is divine, to render good for good is human, to render evil for evil is brutish, but to render evil for good that is devilish: Love is a laborious grace, Heb. 6.10. faith is a working grace,& hope is a diligent grace, and therefore we desire that every one of you may show the same diligence, to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Oh if God might see us upon these ground-workes of hope building up resolves for holiness, all our expectations of mercy, running out( as they did in David) into streams of praise and service; We might have our hearts desire and God would delight to see us prosper; observe and remember this, Psalm. 105.45. the end of all the wonders which God wrought for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt was, that they might observe his statutes and keep his laws. The third Caution follows. 3. Caution. Study and improve your encouragements to the uttermost, make as much as you can of them: The arguments of hope which I have presented before you are of three sorts; sc. such as lye in two causes, ourselves, in God. As for the first sort of arguments, namely those which lye in the Creature in outward means and visible advantages; stand not gazing too much upon them, lay not too much weight of confidence upon them, least you be not onely crost but cursed in your expectation; for thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. There is not onely a cross but a Curse attending upon carnal confidence; and the reason is, because so much as a man trusts in the creature, so much he doth distrust God; and so it follows, whose heart departeth from the Lord, look in what degree the heart cleaveth to the second cause, in such a degree the heart departeth from the living God: and God must needs take that in high indignation to see himself thrust down and the creature set up in his place; to see the creature made a God, Three ways of making flesh our arm. and God made but as a creature. And this is done; First, either by sitting down in a faithless and sullen discontent and despair when wee can see no second causes come into our succour in our streights and exigences; or secondly by rising up into a corkie frothy confidence, when we discover( as we think) sufficient forces and strengths of the creature marching towards us. And lastly, when by them our designs are acted and accomplished, we stand gazing upon the beauty, strength and wisdom of the creature, and fall● down in our adoring and admiring thoughts before the creature, and putting the crown of honour and praise upon the head of the creature, pass by God either with a neglective, or with but a superficial observance, as if God came in but collaterally and accidentally into the business, and the creature had the prime and the main and the overpowering stroke in the matter: doth not this making of flesh our arm highly merit, that God should whither that arm( with Jeroboams) and leave us to pine a way in our transgressions and Idolatry? To prevent this Idolatry in the Jews, therefore God by his Prophets did acquaint them always before hand what he meant to do, whether it were in a way of judgement or of mercy. I have from the beginning declared it to thee, Isai. 48.5. before it came to pass, I shewed it thee: least thou shouldst say, mine idol hath done them? &c. And truly so hath the wisdom of God methodized all his works of wonder and love towards England,( as I haue formerly observed) by such an immediate and visible ducture of his own hand; that England also might not say mine idol hath done it; my King or my Parliament, my Armies or my navy hath done it, Yea God hath made us smart for our former Idolatry already: It hath been the miscarrying womb of Englands undertakings these many yeares; I am confident it was our carnal confidence that took off the King of Sweden, and some of our brave Commanders in Ireland( of late) in the midst of triumphant victories. And therefore now after all this if we shall let down our hands when second causes should hid their heads, or lift up our hearts in carnal confidence when we see ourselves competently fenc't and guarded with creature-munition, or sacrifice to our own nets, and burn incense to our draggs when God hath fil'd them with a greater draft of deliverance than formerly, if we shall say Net well held, drag thou wast wisely cast and strongly drawn, this was a brave pull indeed, we shall add impudence and Idolatry to our confidence and pull the curse upon our heads with twisted guilt and indignation. Oh therefore let us now study this seasonable and saving lesson. scil. to use means and trust God, yea God alone, God alone; they trust not God at all that trust not God alone. He that stands with one foot upon a rock and another foot upon a quicksand will sink and perish as certainly as he that stands with both feet on the quicksand, because the weight of his body which he rests on one foot, will draw down the rest of the body after it into the swallowing sands, and therefore happy they that can say of God with David, Psal. 62.2.5.6. he is only my rock and my salvation, He is my defence, wait thou only upon God, my soul, surely such an one shall not greatly be moved, moved he may be by violence of storms, but not removed, moved a little, but not greatly be moved. And surely this is the least return that God expects for all the wonders he hath wrought for us, that all the dear and seasonable experiments of his wisdom power and faithfulness should prevail with us to say, Psal. 130.5.6. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, in his word do I hope; we and our souls; a full and entire rolling ourselves upon God is the least, and yet the best we can render to the Lord for all the sweet experiments of his faithfulness and all-sufficiency. In a word the the sum of this branch of the caution is this, Take heed of laying more upon the back of the creature than it is able to bear; they that believe, because they see, live not by faith but by sense; Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet believe; that have learned to live upon God alone. He dies a thousands deaths whose life and comfort is bound in the dying creature; he lives indeed who lives in him to whom always is essential. Secondly As for those arguments that lye within yourselves labour to strengthen them by adding as the Apstle counsels one grace to another, 2 Pet. 1.5. and one degree of grace to another, to your compassion, prayer, and to prayer faith, and to faith unanimity, and to unanimity magnanimity, and to magnanimity hungering after the means of grace; and to hunger profession, and to profession power, and purity in your conversations. These you know were some of those discoveries which spake sweet hopes and confidence that God will do us good; verse 8.11. and truly I may go on with the Apostle if these things be in you and abound, as they will make you that you shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, so also( hereby) an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, even into this Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which we humbly expect and pray for, for so the glorious pure times of the Gospel are called, Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matth. 3.2. Oh that every one would give all diligence to nourish and strengthen these arguments within you that whereas they do but whisper as yet, they may at length speak loud and visible hopes to all the world that Englands redemption is drawing nigh; I would have every one to bless God for any good news they here from the Parliament, or from Ireland, or from any other place; but( brethren) I would have you study and prise one argument in your own bosoms, more than an hundred from abroad in those reports which we call good news: if these be wanting and neglected within, the best news cannot speak much comfort to us without; They reason sweetly and strongly that can infer the Churches conclusion, Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us from the Churches premises, Isai. 26.12. For thou hast wrought all our works in us; Thou hast wrought in us a spirit of compassion, prayer, faith, unanimity, magnanimity, thou hast given us hearts to prise the means and to improve the means to desire the power as well as the form of godliness &c. and therefore we know Thou wilt ordain peace for us. O study( beloved Christians) to be arguments as well as to have arguments: that as the Apostle speaks in another case you might be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason even of this Hope( that we now speak of from within you) with meekness and fear. Oh, that whosoever sees us might say there bee real and living testimonies that God will do England good: especially take care to strengthen among yourselves one evidence which will be as seasonable and as impregnable as any of the rest, and that is unanimity, that same onenes which God hath begun to power out upon both Houses of Parliament; upon city and Country, and upon Christians between themselves: indeed for the divisions of Reuben there have been great thoughts& searchings of heart; the division of our House began to speak in a dreadful language that we could not stand long; but God hath begun to power out a spirit of healing upon our breaches; and of closure upon our wounds: Oh, grieve not this spirit, make much of it I beseech you as you tender Englands good. So much the rather because it hath been the cursed policy and practise of those who act by that maxim divide& impera, to thrust in Sampsons Foxes among us with firebrands in their tails; and it is the wonder of Gods mercy, and an argument he intends good unto us, that this City as other parts of the kingdom bath not been set on fire by such devilish stratagems long before this time( the Lord humble and forgive the Actors in this endeavoured combustions that knew not what they did.) There is a Spirit of seduction and division gone out into the midst of the land: Oh, England take heed of it, Rom. 16.17. and mark them that cause divisions and offences, and avoid them: factors they be for Rome and hell; Priests and Jesuits cannot do that service for Antichrist which these men do, the Lord rebuk them; and sand out that Spirit of truth and unity, that may teach all the people of the Land from one end thereof to another to think, speak,& do the same things, even the things that make for our safety and Reformation. If we be once divided, we shall not be long unconquered; if they once divide us among ourselves, it will not be long but they will divide us between themselves. If England would study to be a Philadelphia, that Brotherly love might abound among us, Revel. 3.7.8.9. it would be a sweet securing pledge that the door which God hath set open before us, no man( no, not any devil) should shut it, and that God would make our hypocritical lying enemies, that say, they are Christians, and are not, that say, they are Protestants, and are not, but do lie, come and worship before our feet, and to know that he hath loved us. But then( brethren) in the third place for those arguments of Hope which lye in God, sc. in Gods works already done; and Gods Name and Honour, make much of them I beseech you, for in them lies Englands strength. It is true one evidence within us is better than ten without in the second causes; but one Argument in God is worth a thousand in ourselves. Thou hast, and therefore thou wilt, or therefore do Lord, is an argument David and other of Gods Remembrancers make plentiful use of in Scriptures. Psal. 85.1.2.3.4.5. Gods Names and Honour are arguments of that weight that they are able to prise up a Church, State, or cause that were sunk beneath their own foundations: able to bring back life and spirit into kingdoms and men and undertakings, which in the eye of sense and reason had given up the ghost. What wilt thou do for thy great Name? Josh. 7.9. And Lord though our iniquities testify against us, Jer. 14.7. do thou it for thy Names sake. Psal. 79.9. help us O God of our Salvation for the glory of thy Name, and deliver us, and purge away our sins for thy Names sake. These and the like, a thousand whereof I could set before you, are arguments of such authority, that they do as it were bind Gods hands, and command him who is Almighty: They are not onely of an insinuating, but Commanding power, and surely therefore they that could take these arguments, and with them wrestle with God in the behalf of the kingdom, as Jacob did with the angel, might do God and the kingdom Knights service, and instead of a Jacob be Knighted Israel, to whom it was said; Gen. 32. Thy Name shall be no more called Jacob, but Israel, for as a Prince thou hast power with God, and hast prevailed. But if you would do so, be sure( my brethren) that your hearts and spirits be carried out with sincere aims and respects to the glory of the Name of God; see I beseech you, that you pled Joshuahs argument with Joshuahs spirit; Davids motives with Davids mind; remembering what Jacob said to his mother when she taught him how to get the birthright; My Father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, Gen. 27.12. and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing. We may say without all peradventure, our Heavenly Father will feel us; ( for he searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts) and if he find us but complementing with his Majesty when we use these arguments, if he find us pretending his ends, 1 Cor. 28.9. when we intend only our own; pretending his Name and his glory, when we mind onely our own advantages; we shall seem to him as deceivers, and instead of a blessing bring a curse upon ourselves, kingdom and posterity. Whereas if God saw us pleading his Honour and Glory with ingenuous and child-like breathings of spirit; if God saw indeed our eyes and hearts were more fixed upon his glory than our own concernements, he could not choose but take it well at our hands; and work not onely for his own Name but for our comforts, not only above our merit, but beyond our very prayers and expectations. It is the ingenuity of Saints in all their desired and expected mercies to study Gods ends more than their own; choice and excellent spirits are more taken up with thoughts what they shall do for God, than what they shall receive from God, and are more troubled when any thing crosseth God, than when any thing crosseth themselves; and in both drown all self respects in the glory of God. David was a man of such a spirit; in mercies begged, he minds God more than himself; and therefore doth not only eye Gods praises in or with his deliverances: O prepare mercy and truth which may preserve me, so will I sing praise unto thy Name, Psal. 61.7.8. ( and a thousand such like) but overlooking, and as it were, forgetting his own deliverances, solaceth himself in the expectation of an opportunity of praising God. I shall yet praise him, not I shall yet be delivered and so praise him; but I shall praise him, he singled out Gods praises from all his own concernments, and in the midst of evils rejoiceth in the hope of a day of thanksgiving. And so in evils feared, Gods dishonour affects and afflicts him more than his own sufferings. do I not hate them O Lord, Psal. 42.5.11. that hate thee, and am I not grieved with them that rise up against thee? They rose up against David and the Church, as well as against God, yet Gods sufferings stirs up his affection of grief and hatred more than his own, yea, this perfected his holy passion: I hate them with a perfect hatred. True grace raiseth the soul above all self respects, and resteth not till it have wrought itself up to the highest and chiefest end, and surely it loseth nothing by it, for its best being is in God the best of beings, as the spark is best in the fire, and the drop in the Ocean; there they live and are the same with the whole, separated, they die and perish. If wee begin with ourselves, yet let us end in God; if God bee so gracious as to give us leave to respect our own good, let us not be so ungracious as give our hearts leave not to respect his glory: if we cannot make it our only, yet let us our chiefest, our highest, our ultimate aim in all our desirings, that God may be glorified. Surely if God saw us thus indeed studying his share more than our own, wee might have what wee would, and God even think himself beholding to us. But so much for the third Caution, I come now to the fourth. 4 Caution. Let it be every ones wisdom and care to provide for whatsoever God may intend to do with us: and brethren it is no great matter what ever God will do with us so we be provided for it; as no mercy will do us good if we be not provided for it; so no misery can do us harm if we be prepared to meet it: It is unpreparednes only that lays us open to all disadvantages. Wherefore prepare to meet thy God O Sion, Amos 4.12. whether he come in peace or in war, in mercy, or in judgement, prepare to meet him: if you be not prepared for war, you are not prepared for peace, you are not fit for a Reformation unless you are prepared for a desolation; they that are fit for one are fit for both, and they that are not prepared for both are not prepared for either, what God is doing we cannot certainly divine; but certain it is, God is doing no ordinary thing in our daies. If it be a judgement it will be such an one as was threatened against Eli's house, at which both the ear of every one that heareth it shall tingle, 1 Sam. 3.11. and if it be a mercy, a deliverance, it will be such an one as shall( as it were) make all Gods former works of mercy and wonder to be forgotten; such an one as shall shadow and obscure all the former monuments of his power and wisdom, as the sun doth the stars when it ariseth: so that it shall not be said in that day, Jer. 16.14. The Lord liveth which brought up the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, or the Lord liveth which saved England from the Spanish Invasion in 88. when the proud waves threatened to go over our soul, or the Lord liveth which snatched us as a brand out of the midst of the fire, and was seen walking in the midst of the flames, of the hellish powder plot( November the 5th. 1605.) So that not an hair of our head was scorched or our coat singed: but the Lord liveth that did thus and thus for England, a poor perishing helpless hopeless England, when there was but a step between them and destruction: we shall and must want a Title for it, till the Mercy itself make one. And truly it is most likely God is doing both these works of wonder, wherein righteousness and Truth shall meet together, Justice and mercy shall kiss each other, let every one look to which he belongeth; and now bestir themselves to purpose to make peace, to enter into covenant, to clear evidences, to work our salvation with fear and trembling. Blessed are the people that thus labour to prepare themselves to meet with God. Rom. 8.28. Thy safety lies not so much in what God will do with the kingdom, as in being prepared for it what ever it is. All things shall work together for the best to them that love God: Make this out upon warrantable evidence that thou lovest God, and trust God with the rest, what ever he doth shall be in reference to thy best and everlasting advantage. The fifth Caution may be as useful, 5 Caution. and that is Give not your hopes and your cause for lost, though it should seem to loose ground as fast as ever it gained it. There was never any great deliverance set on foot but it met with many and almost desperate setbacks before it was completed, you see the beginning of Israels deliverance out of captivity, was the doubling of their bondage, how did that deliverance hover up and down between hopes and fears good news to day; oh Pharaoh says we shall go; he hath confessed his folly, Moses and Aaron are men of reckoning at court, Pharaoh calls for their prayers sure now we shall be delivered; to morrow as bad news, Pharaoh is of another mind, as far off as ever from Israels departure; he is desperately resolved upon the matter, They shall not go, he says, what ever come on it, but speaks big, Exod. 10.10. curses, threatnes them, it is well if they might remain in Egypt with their lives. Well but he melts again and again, confesseth his sin, vers. 16.17. begs pardon and prayers but this one time; surely now we shall off say the Israelites one to another, &c. but alas this fair weather lasts not long, the clouds return after rain, new storms arise, Pharaoh hardens again, Moses and Aaron are driven out of the Court gates, and must never come thither again upon pain of death; vers. 28. Alas now they seem further off from deliverance than ever, the means of negotiating their enlargement is obstructed; as long as Moses might be admitted into the presence chamber, some hope in the matter, but now banished the Court, Pharaohs ear locked up from him, there is little probability left that ever this work will come to any thing. In a word( brethren) look how nany plagues there were, so many seeming desperate setbacks to the work; and when they thought themselves loose and well onward in their way, then they see the greatest danger following them, and treading even upon their heels; not onely to be brought back again into their former& greater bondage than ever( that would have seemed a mercy in Israels eyes) but even to be cut off and slain every mothers child of them in the wilderness by the sword of Pharaoh and his Egyptians. You may follow this deliverance through it's story and journey of forty years long,& see it traveling up and down backward and forward, sometimes advanced pretty well for many dayes journey together; and then fetching such a compass that they were reduced some steps backwarder, then from whence they formerly set forward. The building of the Temple in Ezras and Nehemiahs time, how was it off and on, begun and stayed. set forward, and then thrown as it were quiter off from the things again. Hos. 1.7. Judah hath a promise of mercy and salvation from God, I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by their Lord their God: And yet before this salvation was accomplished they were brought under grievous oppressions and Captivity. Yea, what shall I say the greatest and most glorious work that ever was, the deliverance and whereupon of the world, though carried on not by man but by the son of God, God and man, was encountered with mighty oppositions,( and one would think) irrecoverable set-backs, in so much as it was brought to this straight and bottom; that the Disciples themselves began to give it for a lost design; Luke 24.21. But we trusted it had been he that should have redeemed Israel, &c. we trusted it had, implying that now they were out of hope. Acts 7. Acts 15.37.38.39. Acts 27. This is not the man, this is not the time; It was so in the planting of the Gospel; The stoning of Steven. The falling out of Paul and Barnabas. The sending of Paul prisoner to Rome; These and the like were in the eye of rational probability, such disadvantages and obstructions to the propagating of the Gospel that one would have thought it could hardly ever have recovered these hindrances. In a word it was never otherwise, it hath been so already with this truly good and honourable work in hand, and we may yet look that it may be reduced to a lower ebb than ever it was yet; wherein we complain with Hez●kiah, the children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth. And yet here is our mistake and( by virtue thereof) our misery, that when such a work as this is on foot, and hath been carried on a while with prosperous gales, we think it must be advanced still with proportionable progresses; it will surely go on alone and meet with no rubs, and therefore when cross winds blow hard, and tempests beat vehemently upon it, which it may be doth not retard the progress only but drives the design backward many leagues and degrees by which it had been formerly advanced; our hearts fail us, fears and jealousies arise and we begin to conclude we are at the furthest; just like Peter though God have caused us to walk on the waters, and carry us over deep and dangerous passages, Seas of trouble and opposition, yet if a wave do arise but a little higher than the rest, we begin to sink and cry out, Master save us, we perish, and well if no worse, perhaps in stead of crying out with Peter to Christ, with the Israelites in the wilderness, we cry out ene to another, murmur against our leaders, charge them with exposing the congregation of the Lord to ruin and slaughter; and wish we had never attempted a departure out of captivity. Oh, God hath heard some such language amongst us, and is angry, 14.11. and me thinks I hear him questioning concerning us in his jealousy. How long will this people provoke me, how long will it be ere they believe me for all the signs which I have shewed them? well, Psal. let us chide ourselves out of our frowardness and unbelief as David did, Zech. Let us provoke ourselves to believe and wait on God till he arise up to the prey, or else( as Joab told David) I profess it will be worse than all the evils that befell us from our youth until now. 2 Sam. 19.7. And therefore for your encouragement observe that this is Gods way and method to carry on the deliverances of his Church and people through mighty oppositions and desperate disadvantages. Yea not onely through them but by them; God makes all these mighty oppositions and cross turnings which seem to be obstructions and set-backs, to be so many advantages and advancements to his designs to bring them forth with more fullness, perfection and glory. Let Saint Paul speak in the behalf of all the rest; hear him reasoning the matter with his Philippians: You think( saith he) that my voyage to Rome and my imprisonment there hath been a prejudice to the cause, and a setback to the preaching and entertainment of the gospel; I tell you( saith he) you are out, you are infinitely mistaken. I would have you understand brethren, Phil. 1.12.13.14. that the things which have happened unto me have fallen out to the furtherance of the gospel: nothing ever fell out more to the advantage of the Gospels plantation, than that journey of mine to Rome, and he tells them in the two next verses wherein; many in Nero's Court and other places in Rome and else where came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ by this means, his sufferings begot some converts at court; the Saints he mentions in Cesars household, Phil. 4.22. and more in the city; Pauls imprisonment was Romes seed time of the gospel: others by Saint Pauls courage and zeal took confidence both to Preach and Suffer for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The enemies of God when they cannot conquer would fain Compound: Pharaoh will let some go not all; Tobias and Sanballat they would build with Nehemiah and Ezra if they could not hinder the work yet the beauty and glory of it. The devil was content that Christ should have been scourged and so let go free; August. &c. Matth. 27.19. for so some Divines think Pilats Wives dream was from the devil, thereby to have hindered the work of Redemption by this composition. But when God hath a work to do, he will not endure any low and unworthy accommodations; to which his people for peace sake are too too ready to subscribe; and therefore God hardens the heart of the enemy to oppose, lets then attempt high and desperate resolutions, thereby to heighten the spirits and steel the courage of his people, that so he may bring them and the work off with full and perfect satisfaction to them, and honour and renown to his own Name. I am almost confident that whensoever God indeed delivers England, wee must be at such a loss as that we shall give all for a lost cause, and then when he seeth our strength is gone, Now will I rise( saith the Lord) now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself. The sixth and last Caution is, 4 Caution. think not the Reformation and mercy we Hope and Pray for, a dear bargain whatsoever it cost; hitherto it hath been the cheapest deliverance that ever people had since the world stood, and it is not too much or too hard for God to carry the rest on upon the same terms; It would bee the wonder of Ages if it should bee so, but if not, do not think, I beseech you, that God deals hardly with us, The Churches in all ages have not onely wept but sweat and fought and bled for their deliverances witness that maxim: The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the gospel. The seed times of the Churches peace and reformation have been wet and dropping, but the Harvests have made amends with glorious Sun-shines; Psal. 126.5.6. They have sown in tears, but they have reaped in joy, yea, they have not sown in tears only but in blood also, but either themselves or their posterity have reaped in the greater joy for it: Joh. 4.37. one generation soweth, and another reapeth. The Martyrs in Queen Maries daies have sown, and we have reaped; they did sow in tears and blood; and we for above these fourscore yeers have reaped in marvelous joy: Oh let us not think much if it come to our turn to sow now in tears and blood; for if either wee or our children may reap the harvest of a powerful gospel, pure Ordinances, Pastors and worship according to Gods own heart, it will bee a glorious recompense of reward: who would think such a recovery too dear of silver, gold, estates, livelihood and lives and all, 1 Pet. 1.18.18. when as the first purchase of them was not with corruptible things, as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot? I tell you the gospel and Gospels privileges for which we contend; the son of God himself in our natures was content not onely to fast and pray for them, but to weep and sweat, and conflict and bleed, and die for them. Ah what is an Ocean of our blood to one drop of his? The best blood that runs in our veins is tainted with bastardy and treason; if we will not lose it for Christ and his gospel, judas 3. {αβγδ} sig To contend in fighting, to conflict one after another. we may lose it, and Christ and his gospel; and that will bee a loss indeed; if wee will not lose it in Love, we may lose it in wrath; if we will not lose it to serve a command, contend for the faith( others have done it before you, contend, or conflict you after them, for so the word imports; and if we will not do it to inherit the promise,[ whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it] we may lose it to suffer a curse and fulfil a threatening, march. 16.25. ( in the same place) whosoever will save his life shall lose it. The book of Martyrs gives us some sad instances of the execution of this threatening in some; who being afraid to burn for Christ at the stake, were in a few daies after burnt in their beds, and others who would not lay down their lives for the gospel, had shortly after their lives taken from them by a hand of divine justice. Our Brethren in Ireland are doleful witnesses, who obeying an unlawful command of contributing to their Brethrens destruction in Scotland, thinking it better to give part of their estates, than have their whole estates confiscate, goods seized upon, Cattle driven away, if they stood out; have by this contribution incurred that loss which they thought hereby to prevent, together with the additions of that misery and desolation, the report whereof shall make the generations that are yet to come, tremble, their faces gather paleness, and their knees smite one against another. If we will save our lives and estates by deserting the cause of Jesus Christ, and those that have engaged themselves in it, we may make up the Catalogue of these woeful examples, and so if we will not bear witness to the truth of Christ in an active way, we may bear witness to this truth of Christ in a passive; and if we will not serve the generations to come, by leaving unto them the presidents of courage and zeal for their imitation, we may serve them whether we will or no, by leaving them in our sin and punishment, the take heeds of foolish wisdom and carnal providence for their admonition. Oh, if we knew the value of the gospel and the worth of such a Reformation as wee pray for and hope for, we would not think it too dear whatsoever it should cost us; and the onely way to get this pearl at a cheap rate, is to bee ready to sell all to buy it. Prov. 23.23. Buy the truth and sell it not, buy it with our estates, buy it with our peace, with our dearest lives and blood, buy it at any rate, but sell it at no rate. think nothing too dear for Reformation, and happy we and our Children after us, if we can get it upon any terms. Let us not value our lives at too high a rate; this is certain we cannot keep them long, nor lay them out upon a better purchase. Oh that there were that mind in us that was in Saint Paul, that we could say and resolve with him, None of these things trouble me, neither count I my life dear, so I may finish my course with joy, Acts 20.24. and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. He is not worthy to live that thinks his life too dear for the Gospel of Christ. This is the sixth. Motives to wait on God. I Have now finished both the Encouragements and Cautions which make up the first invitation or motive to wait on God. If it seem strange to any that I have dwelled so long on one motive let them consider, it was the main design of these sermons to cast in grounds of comfort to fill up the valleys of drooping and despairing spirits, Luke 3.5. that so I might help to prepare the way of the Lord, neither was there any place in this discourse more proper for this business than this, wherein I would fain bribe and tempt christians to wait on God by this argument of Gods own making and using. I said not to the seed of Jacob seek ye me in vain. I the Lord speak righteousness; I mean as I speak. Isai. 45.19. I never intended they should loose their labour. God saith not to his people in England wait on me in vain, for confident I am, if we can manage these Encouragements with these Cautions, and by them engage our hearts to wait on God beleeveingly patiently, actively, we shall not be ashamed of our expectation, we shall see it is not in vain to wait on God; This be sure of, if God bring not down his will to ours, he will bring up our will to his, which will infinitely make us amends for all our patience and expectation. There be two or three motives yet behind the brevity whereof shall recompense the length of this first. Secondly, therefore study beleevingly, patiently, Second Motive to wait on God. actively to wait, for it will bring in abundance of sweet blessed settling peace and tranquillity into your souls. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, Isai. 26.3. whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee: in peace, peace( so the Hebrew reads it) which may be in erpreted a multiplied peace; peace with God, peace with conscience, peace with the creature, Prov. 16.7. even peace with the enemies, when a mans ways please the Lord, he will make even his enemies to be at peace with him. And no ways of man can please the Lord more than when in the midst of their greatest exigences, fears and dangers, they have learned to wait beleevingly, Patiently, and seekingly upon God; we cannot honour God more than to trust in him, submit to him, wait on him? So Abraham gave glory to God by believing, or secondly peace peace, i.e. a renewed continued peace, peace to day, and peace to morrow, and the third day it shall be perfected: and so peace peace, that is, thirdly,( as it is translated) a perfect peace, a pure sheer peace, peace without any mixture of trouble or disquiet. Obj. We see no such Peace here on earth; the best have their vicissitudes of peace and trouble, of peace and perplexity. Answ. It is because they have their vicissitudes of staying on God, and staying on the creature; of trusting in God, and distrusting of God; trusting in God, and trusting in man too; because they wait and wait not. If they have not a multiplied peace, it is, because they have not a multiplied trust, a multiplied stay in God, on God; If they have not a renewed continued peace, it is, because they want a renewed continued stay and trust, a continued waiting on God; If they have not a perfect unmixed peace, it is, because they have an unperfect mixed trust, if their peace be mixed with trouble, it is, because their trust is mixed with diffidence and impatience: This is certain so far as a soul can stay on, and trust in God, so far it enjoys a sweet peace and tranquilitie of spirit; perfect trust is blessed with perfect peace. We have a famous instance of this in our Saviour, Luke 12.27.28. in these words of his, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour, but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy Name. Mark ye, all the while the eye of Christs humanity was fixed upon deliverance from the hour of temptation, so long there was no peace nor rest in his soul, Deliver me from this hour; now is my soul troubled, because there he found not onely uncertainty but impossibility; for this cause I came to this hour; I had not come into the world, but for this very purpose, to suffer death for the sins of the world: but when he could come to this, Father glorify thy Name, that is, when he could wait on, and acquiesce in, and resign to the will of his Father, we never hear of any more objections, nor fears, nor troubles; then his soul found an unchangeable rest and peace, because bottomed on an unchangeable rock, the will and glory of God; and that is the reason of this perfect peace, which they find that stay upon God, in the next vers. Verse 4. In the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength, or as the Heb. reads it, The Lord Jehovah is a rock of ages. Ages pass one after another, but the Rock remains unmovable, unchangeable. And therefore cries David when his heart is overwhelmed with waves and Seas of troubles, led me to the rock that is higher than I; higher than I, and higher than the waves, and that is not all, God must not only led him to the rock, but when he comes there, lift him up, Psal. 27.5. He shall set me upon a rock, there set and placed he enjoys that sweet and blessed tranquillitie, that he can look down upon the waves and sing, The Lord is my rock and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Psal. 27.1. the Lord is the strength of my life of whom shall I be afraid? This is the second branch of their blessedness that wait on God. Thirdly, Third motive Isai. 40.30.31. They shall be blessed in the renewing of their strength, so the Prophet, Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as Eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint. The youths and the young men, who be they? why you know youths and young men are lusty and strong, their veins being full of blood, and their blood of spirits and their bones of marrow, active and vigorous; and for the most part as they are strong, so they trust in their strength, and glory in their own vigour and ability. And so the Youths and young men here, are your brave Gallants and Cavaliers of the world, who abounding in Creature-provisions, whether riches, honours, friends, policy, power, weapons of war, or what ever it is which they call or count their strength and livelihood, begin to stand on tiptoe, look big, speak great things, Speak wickedly concerning oppression, Psal. 73.8.9. they speak loftily, set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth, from one country to another, from one kingdom to another, thinking to beat down all before them, and to share Cities and kingdoms, even the whole earth among themselves; In a word such as in any kind trust and fortify themselves in their Creature munition, even these for all their policy and power, and self-sufficiency shall faint and be weary, spend and tyre and be nonplussed, and be glad to betake themselves to their heels, if they were able to do them any service, but no, they shall neither find hands nor legs, they shall be able when their strength is spent neither to fight nor fly, they shall not onely faint and be weary, but they shall utterly fall; fall and fall utterly, not stumble only, but fall, not fall to recover themselves, but fall and lie by it, fall utterly, never to rise again. The reason is, because having once run themselves out of breath, and spent their stock of Creature-strength, they know not whether to go to renew their stock, to repair their Lamps when they be out, but where they faint, they must fall, and where they fall, they must lye and perish for ever. But now they that wait on God, it is otherwise with them, how poor, and weak, and simplo, and inconsiderable soever they seem to be. Indeed they may be weary, but they shall recover, they may spend their strength, but it shall be renewed, they shall renew their strength; he doth not say their strength shall not wast or ebb, but if it do, it shall be renewed; the reason is, because as the rivers that are fed from the Sea, though they have their ebbs sometimes, yet they have their fillings again from the fullness of the Sea, yea springtides come in and overflows their banks; so the people of God that wait upon him, when their Creature-strength is done, when all is ebbed so low, that the channel is dry, yet there is a river that makes glad the city of God, there is an immense, boundless, bottomless Ocean of wisdom, power, counsel riches, all-sufficiency from whence they are fed and supplied in all their failings and deficiencies. As long as God hath strength he that waits upon him beleevingly, patiently, actively, Verse 28. cannot want. The Everlasting God, the Lord, creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, And he hath not this power and indeficiency for himself alone, but for those that wait on him, for so it follows, He giveth power( not onely he hath, but he giveth power) to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength; by virtue whereof when they that go on foot, upon their own legs, tyre and lie down, and are nonplussed, when they meet with rocks, and rivers and quicksands, and quag-mires, or else venture, and sink and perish; this generation of waiters are carried aloft on Eagles wings, they care no more for hedge and ditch, rocks and rivers and Seas( of difficulties) than the Eagle doth when she is on the wing, whose flight is swifter and higher than all other winged fowle under heaven; that is, they are carried up above the deepest dangers and highest difficulties, above policies, and above all disadvantages what ever, above Hosts of men, and Legions of Devils, above war and above death, by the arm of an Almighty, never failing God, whereby they are caused to ride on the high places of the earth. Isai. 58.14. To run and not to be weary, to walk and not faint, lo this is the blessedness of them that wait on God. Oh England if thou wouldst learn thus to wait on God, what mightest thou not do? nothing should be able to stand before thee. I could easily multiply the discovery of these, as sweet and powerful motives to persuade to wait on God, but I must conclude with this Fourth and last, Fourth and last Motive. and highest and best, and never ending blessedness; They that wait on God shall be blessed with the fruition of God to all eternity: for since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him. So that when you have waited on God, and seen his salvation here, you may go out of the world with good old Jacob, singing and triumphing, I have waited for thy Salvation, O Lord; and enjoy it for ever. do you study this, and I shall humbly desire to pray with the Apostle, 2 Thess. 3.5. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for of Christ. AMEN. FINIS.