MAN'S WRATH AND GOD'S PRAISE. OR, A  Sermon, Preached at Taunton, in the County of Somerset, the 11 th'. of May, (a Day to be had in everlasting remembrance) for the gracious deliverance of that poor Town from the straight siege.  
By GEORGE NEWTON, Mr. of Arts, and Minister of the Gospel in that place.  PSAL. 118.24 
This is the day which the Lord hath made; made solemn above other days, by extraordinary mercy: and we will make it solemn above other days, by extraordinary joy: We will rejoice and be glad in it.  
LONDON, Printed by W. WILSON, for Francis Eglesfield at the Marigold in Paul's Churchyard, and are to be sold by George Treagle in TAUNTON, 1646.   

To the Worshipful the Major, the Common Council, and the rest of the Inhabitants of Taunton Magdalen, my duly respected, and dearly affected friends.  
SIRS,  
THey that have been acquainted with my resolutions will admire to see any thing of mine (especially by my consent) made thus public. This Infant as you know was very weak, and there was neither Will nor Strength to bring it forth in this way, but it was forced into the world by strong expulsives. Now it is come abroad my hope is, that either (like Zaccheus) it will be hid among the crowd of taller and more stout conceptions: or if any chance to spy it, he will not be so unworthy to wrong such a poor weak thing as this is. If it may live to be to any of you a remembrancer of the uncomparable mercy of our God, who showed himself upon the Mount, I have the utmost of my aim in this publication.  
We find sometimes in Scripture, that a heap of stones hath served for a memorial, as well as a more curious Pillar. Though this be but a heap of things, not orderly digested in a curious Method, but hastily thrown up together, as the short time for preparation would permit; (this service following close upon the Sabbath day's labour) yet it may serve for a memorial of that sweet and precious mercy, which if it die in your thoughts, I desire to die with it. The Lord set up a lasting monument of this deliverance in our hearts, and write it there with a pen of Iron, and the point of a Diamond in indelible Characters, that no injuries of time may ever blot it out again; and give us yet at length, to render to him according to the benefits he hath done us, lest we provoke him to repent, and do us evil after he hath done us good.  
My heart bleeds when I think what God hath done, what he expects, what we return, and what is likely to become of all in the latter end. I have a horrid apprehension of it, as the Prophet had; if after God hath punished us fare less than our iniquities deserve, and given us such a deliverance as this, we should again break his Commandments. We should again? Why, we do break them since there came deliverance, and that more frequently and boldly than we did before. The Lord break our hearts for it, and help us to make up our breaches and our controversies with him, in, and by him, who as our peace, before our houses (that be left) be all desolate; before it come to, Oh that thou hadst known; before the wrath of God arise against us, and there be no remedy.  
All that I have to add is this desire, that as the Sermon is a monument (such as it is) of God's praise for the deliverance of this happy day: So this Dedication of it, may be a monument of my thankfulness to you, for all the great encouragement, and kindness, and respect, with which you have refreshed his bowels, who is, in the Apostles stile, 2 Cor. 4.5.  
Your Servant for Jesus sake, GEO. NEWTON.   

MAN'S WRATH AND GOD'S PRAISE.  PSAL. 76.10. 
Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.  
WE are assembled in the presence of the Lord this day to make good this text. Not to preach upon it only, nor to hear it, but to act it. To take occasion from the wrath of man to praise the Lord. And certainly if ever any people in the world had cause to say, as the Prophet in my text, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, we the poor people of this place have cause to say it. Surely the wrath of man, which was so largely manifested, and so mightily restrained; shall quicken us and stir us up to celebrate the praises of the God of our salvation.  
This Psalm is Eucharistical, a Psalm of praise, & therefore yields fit matter for a day of praise. Yea for this day of praise as fit (I think) as any in the book of God. For the occasion of it was the same (as most Interpreters resolve) with the occasion of the praises of this solemn day; viz, the raising of the siege which the Assyrian King had laid against Jerusalem.  
His great Commanders were come up against it with a mighty haste, as you may see 2 King. 18.17. & threatened utter ruin and destruction to it: & that in such a height of volence and pride and scorn, as ever any ear heard. So that the hearts of Hezekiah and his people melted in their bosoms: But God comes in and cheereth them with a most sweet and comfortable message by the Prophet, Chap. 19.20. etc. And for the proud Assyrian King, he tells him that his wrath and rage & tumult were come up into his ears. And that how cruel, & how bloody & how barbarous soever his intentons were; he should not bring them into act and execution: For he would put his book into his nostrils, and his bridle in his lips, and turn him back by the way by which he came, ver. 27.28. And he would diligently defend the City and save it for his own sake. vers. 34. And so accordingly the following night he sent an Angel that went out, and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians an hundred four score and sieve thousand men. ver. 35. And the next news you hear, the siege is raised, and the City is delivered.  
With reference to this deliverance, this Psal. of thankfulness was penned. In which the Prophet magnifieth God who broke the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, & battle of the enemy: Who spoiled the stouthearted, & made them sleep their last sleep; for so the Angel came upon them in the night you know, as it is likely when they were asleep, & never suffered them to wake more: Who caused judgement to be heard from heaven, for thence he sent that fatal messenger who made such bloody work among them. And in the end the Psalmist cheers and comforts up himself, and all the people of the Lord, with this assurance, drawn out of experience, and out of that which he had seen the Lord to do against the Proud Assyrian King when he was in the height and huff of all his rage & violence against Jerusalem. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.  
So that the words (you see) contain the Prophet's sweet and comfortable meditation against the wrath and rage of man; which they had lately experience of; in the attempt of the Assyrian host against Jerusalem. And it is here set down in a gradation. First here is wrath. And then here's a remainder & an overplus of wrath. 1 Here is wrath let out to execution, and against that the comfort is that God will turn it to his Praise and advance his glory by it: Surely the wrath of man (so much as thou art pleased to give way unto, to suffer to be wracked and vented on thy people) that shall praise thee. 2 And then here's a remainder & an overplus of wrath (for there is no end in it) and against that the comfort is, that God will limit and restrain it. So much as he foresees will serve to the end and purpose, he restrains.  
The wrath of man is not so full of rage and bitterness, as these words are full of sweetness. And yet (my brethren) they are not so sweet, but they are as certain too, and therefore they are bound with an asseveration here, which takes away all scruple from them. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.  
If I should make the utmost of this golden sentence (every link of which is precious) the observations would be many. But because the time is short, I shall wrap up the sum of all that might be gathered hence in two conclusions; which you shall see to lie before you in the surface and the letter of the Text that the that runs may read them. 1. The wrath and rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord is very great, so great that there is no end of it. When they have proceeded furthest in execution of their malice, there is an overplus and a remainder, there is more behind still. 2. Though it have no limits in it, yet the Lord sets limits to it, and fetches praise and glory to himself from it. I shall pursue them in their order, as the time will suffer, beginning with the first.  
Doct. The wrath and rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord is very great, so great that there is no end of it. When they have proceeded furthest in execution of their malice, there is an overplus and a remainder, there is more behind still.  
There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always in their wrath, the wrath of man shall praise thee, (saith the Psalmist in my Text) and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain. So that let them have executed what they will or what they can, there is a residue of rage and fury in the hearts of wicked men for God to curb; which if it were not mightily restrained by the hand of heaven, would break out even to the utter ruin and destruction of the Church. Their venom is not all spit, their malice is not all spent, there's no Non ultra in their cruelty.  
For further clearing of the truth of this, it is to be considered what the Holy Ghost observes of HEROD: that when he had done many barbarous and bloody acts against the Church, he added yet this above all, that he shut up john in prison, Luk. 3.20. He had done enough before, sufficient, any man would think, to have drawn his rage dry; but this comes after for a vantage, as you see, it is added above all. And there was more behind still, which you may readily observe to be drawn forth on all occasions along the current of his story. Those enemies of whom the Psalmist speaks, Psal. 124.3. if they had been endued with power according to their rage, they would have swallowed up God's people quick, so desperately they were bend against thou. Like ravenous beasts they would not have forborn so long to kill them first, and then to chew them and devour them: no they would greedily and hastily have snapped them up, and swallowed them alive. The cruelty of Edom is remarkable, nothing will satisfy him but the utter desolation of the Lords Jerusalem: Down with it, down with it even to the ground. And Babylon goes further yet, she takes the little ones, and dashes them against the stones. What soldiers heart almost would not relent and melt at this, not only in hot blood, to mow down armed enemies together in the field: but afterwards to come deliberately into a conquered Town, and there to take up little children sprawling by the heels, and to dash out their brains against the walls? Yet thus dealt Babylon with God's people. See how the Saints of God were used by bloody persecutors, and by cruel men, Hebr. 11.36. and the following verses. That place may serve in stead of all, where the Apostle setteth forth at large the matchless cruelties that they endured, and makes a Catalogue of divers exquisite and horrid tortures they suffered, which seemeth to be penned in characters and lines of blood. They had trial of cruel mockings and scourge, yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskinnes and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. And yet the men who were exposed to all this favage cruelty were such, and so unparallelled in holiness, that the world was not worthy of them.  
And if we search the stories of the Church (my brethren) we shall find, that the ages since our Saviour, have equalled, yea exceeded those that went before him, in rage & cruelty against the Lord's people. In the ten persecutions of the Church, and in the Marian days in this Kingdom, the enemies were never at a stand, they never thought they had proceeded far enough, though they were come to extremity of rage against the Saints. No my beloved, they waxed still more mad against them, as the phrase is, Acts 26.11. And as a mad man knows no measure in his fury, so it was with these men. Mad they were, and madder every day they grew; so that they sought out new devised tortures, and he was thought to have deserved well that did evil in the invention. These days of war and desolation have furnished us with the sad examples of the endless fury of ungodly men, so that I need to say no more, we have seen it by experience, that the wrath of wicked men against, etc. Nor need we wonder at it my beloved, for  
1. They are by nature full of all maliciousness, so full that they are like to burst with it. They are of barbarous, & bloody, and inhuman dispositions. Mercy (my brethren) is a fruit of God's spirit, and consequently is indeed in none but God's people, Wicked men have no mercy, and so they show no mercy, as the Apostle james speaks. Or if they have a kind of mercy in them, it is a mercy merciless, (if I may express it so) their mercies, yea their tender mercies are cruel, Prov. 12.10. They are men of stupid spirits, of seared consciences, and hard hearts, they are as the Apostle speaks, Ephes. 4.19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past feeling. Their wickedness, in many of them, hath quite extinguished those slender sparks of ingenuity which the decays of nature left in them, so that for rage and cruelty they are become brute creatures. And hence the Scripture likens them to bears, and bulls, & asps, and tigers, and Leviathans, and other ravenous and fierce creatures. Yea as if they went beyond the cruelest of beasts on dryland, they are compared to Sea monsters. Lam. 4.3.  
2. And as they are by Nature full of rage and malice, so their rage and malice is extremely heightened by the antipathy and enmity they have against the Lord's people: and hence it is, that there is no end in it. For enmity calls out the rage that is within, and makes it swell beyond all measure. Now there is in the hearts of wicked men a bitter enmity against the woman's ford, against the Children of the Church, they hate them with a perfect hatred, and that to the very death; and therefore they will show them no mercy: Some pity they may show perhaps to other men, to men of their own Tribe, to persons that are lewd and wicked and abominable like themselves: but for the Saints they shall not razed a drop of it. How pitiful was Saul to Agag? His tender heart (forsooth) would not permit him to destroy him; but he had no such tender heart to Holy David; if he could once have gotten him into his power, he had surely died for it: And he could kill almost an hundred of the Priests of God in one hour, without remorse or reluctation. So Ahab seems to melt upon Benhadad, an open enemy of God's people, he calla him brother; and he shall know that he will use him like a brother, and that he will not take away his life from him, though God himself had apppointed him to die. And yet he butchers all the Prophets of the Lord that he can get into his hands, without mercy or compassion. This is the manner of ungodly men; Pity they have for vicious and profane persons, but they have none for God's People; no they must taste the utmost of their fury. Their malice and their rage against them is so great, that nothing will appease it but their utter extirpation, nothing but their cutting off, that they may have no more a being, no nor so much as the memorial of a being, that the name of Israel may be no more remembered, Psal. 83.4.  
What was it that boiled up the rage of our malicious enemies so high against us, but because we were (as they accounted us) a strict and a precise Town, though GOD knows we have ever been too large and too lose? Indeed that hatred which arises from Religion is bitterest of any other. The first that ever was, was founded there, and you know how fare it went, it rested not, till it arrived at the shedding of a brother's blood. This brings forth, immortal odium & nunquam sana●●ile bellum. This makes the brother to destroy the brother, the father to deliver up the son to death, as Christ speaks Luke 21.16. It respects not country, friendship, alliance, kindred, any thing, it knows no bounds of moderation. And hence it is (my brethren) that the rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord is such a bottomless and endless rage, because they hate them for holiness and for religions sake.  
Use 1. And is it so (my brethren) that the rage of wicked men, etc. Then in the first place, let it be a Caveat to us, not to trust them, nor to leave any thing (if we can hinder it) to their mercy. It concerns us very deeply to tie them up as short, to keep them in as strait a compass as we can. Their rage and fury if it once get lose, hath no bounds and limits in it; and therefore we must limit it if we be able, we must hamper them, and bind them as a man would do wild Beasts and brute Creatures. The Scripture likens them to such, as we have showed you; by which the Holy Ghost would have us to know; what disposition they are of, and how we are to deal with them.  
And yet mistake me not, I do not say these brutish creatures should be curbed by popular and private hands, in a tumultaary way, (no, this is not the way of God) but by the hands of those who are the Ministers of God for this purpose. And I am very much afraid, that they who have authority and power in this respect committed to them and not so circumspect and cautious as they ought to be. That there is too much liberty already given (I do not say to such as have been moderate and of a milder disposition, but even) to such as have declared themselves to be implacable and desperate enemies of God, and of his people; and that they are let lose too soon. Perhaps they fawn and flatter, and submit, they give fair words and promises and protestations: and who would not do so, if after he have showed himself so fare, and had his hands so deep in so much blood; and as much as in him lies, in the destruction of this glorious kingdom, he may be entertained and received upon equal terms, with those who have been most cordial, and have laid out themselves for God and for his cause; What ever wiser men may think, it's somewhat early, as it seems to me, to trust them, and to commit ourselves to them.  
We might learn a point of prudence and Christian policy in holy David, 1 Sam. 24. ult. There was ameere affinity by reason of his marriage between Saul and him. Saul had acknowledged David's innocence, his kindness, and made him goodly protestations as a man could do. And yet when all was done, the holy Ghost observes; that Saul departed home, and David get him up into the hold. As who should say, he would not trust him, notwithstanding all this. A simple harmless man would have believed Saul, he would have thought that all had been in truth that he had said, and so have put himself into his power. He would have reasoned with himself to this purpose. I see that Saul is altered now, for he acknowledges his errors, (as there he doth in that place) he confesses his offence, he promises as fairly, and it should seem as cordially as a man can do. And shall I not give credit to his vows and protestations? It is impossible now he hath so declared himself so publicly, so earnestly, that he should ever break with me. But David was a little wiser than to commit himself to Saul, he was too old now to be caught with a few fair words from him, in whom he had experience of so much falseness. No no, he will not trust him yet, he will not slight his Garrison, he will not yet deliver up the place of his defence. Saul departed, faith the Text, and David and his men got them up into the hold.  
Use 2. Is it so my brethren, that the rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord, is such a bottomless & endless rage? Then let us earnestly beseech the Lord that we may not be given up into their power what ever judgement come upon us. True it is, we must confess we have deserved heavy judgements, bitter trials, sharp corrections; and if the Lord see fit, we ought with meekness to submit to them, and patiently to bear his indignation because we have sinned against him. But yet let us be earnest with him, that if he be resolved to scourge us, he would be pleased to take the pains to chasten us himself, and not to give us up into the hands of those whose tender mercies are cruel. Oh let us beg as the Prophet David did in such a case, 2 Sam. 24.14. Let us fall now into the hands of God, for his mercies are great, and not into the hands of barbarous and bloody men. And let it be our study and endeavour so to walk, that we do not provoke the Lord to take this sharp and rigid course with us. And to this end we must be careful to avoid those sins which cause the Lord to leave a people or a person in the hands of such wretches. I might be very copious here; but I shall name but two particulars for haste, and so on.  
1. The first that I will mention is, forsaking God, and casting off his service. When men will be no longer subject to the Lord (at least they will not be obedient to him fully, but in some certain things only) than he will make them subject to their cruel enemies. And when they cast away his easy yoke, the Lord will lay a heavier yoke upon them, the yoke of merciless oppression by barbarous and bloody men. This is the sin for which he threatens it to his people, as you may see, Deut. 28.47. Because thou servedst not the Lord in gladness and in joyfulness of heart in the abundance of all things; therefore thou shalt serve thine enemy in hunger and in thirst and nakedness, and in the want of all things, and he shall put a yoke of iron on thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. And this we see accordingly fulfilled on Israel often in the book of judges. As long as they were faithful and obedient, they were free from enemies, they flourished in a prosperous state: but when they once forsook the Lord, and grew weary of his service, their adversaries were the chief, and they that hated them, ruled over them. To this effect, we have a memorable instance, 2 Chro. 12.5. The Princes and the people had sat lose from God, and gone a whoring after other gods: and thereupon the Prophet comes and sounds this terrible alarm in their ears. Thus saith the Lord, ye have forsaken me, and therefore I have also left you in the hands of Shishack. q. d. I see that you are weary of my service, and therefore you shall serve your enemies another while, I have left you in their hands. There let them worry you and spoil you, there let them kill you and destroy you; let them do what they will for me, you are out of my protection, I have left you, I take no further charge nor care of you.  
2. Another thing provoking God to give a person or a people up into the hands of cruel men, is non-proficience by his hand upon them. For when he sees they will not profit by his mild and gentle hand, than he delivers them into the hands of those that will pay them to the purpose. You shall observe that there are some afflictions which are in a peculiar name called the hand of God in Scripture, as the pestilence for instance, for so you find it termed, 2 Sam. 24.14. Let us fall now into the hand of God, saith David there. And that you may not doubt what is intended by the hand of God, it is immediately annexed in the following words: so the Lord sent a pestilence upon the people. Now than this hand of God prevails not, when it is slighted and contemned, and brings forth no amendment in a people, when he perceives that it will never be unless there be some rougher dealing used, he leaves them in the hands of cruel men. The Lord himself hath an exceeding tender heart towards his people, his very bowels yearn upon them when he hears them cry, so that he knows not how to lay so much upon them as their iniquities deserve, nor as is needful for their reformation. And therefore when he means to have them sound scourged indeed, he gives them up unto the power of wicked men, and they he knows will do it throughly. If he chasten them himself, their cries and tears will overcome him, and make his bowels yearn within him, as he speaks: and therefore he withdraws himself, he goes away, and leaves that office to ungodly men, and they will scourge them till they bleed and roar, for they have no compassion in them; there is (as you have heard) no end of their fury.  
And now (my brethren) I beseech you let us look home. The hand of God, I mean the plague of pestilence, hath been on us the people of this place, a first, a second, and a third time, within the compass of a very few years. But what amendment hath there followed? May not the Lord complain of us as once he did of Israel, Amos 4.10. I have sent pestilence among you after the manner of Egypt, and yet you have not returned to me, saith the Lord? I make no question there were some who were so fare affected with this stroke of God, that they returned to him that smote them, and reform many things. But they were but a remnant that returned: they were but as the glean after the Vintage, as the Apostle speaks. Truly (my brethren) I have looked abroad as wide as I am able, to see if any universal Reformation have followed this affliction in this place: and I profess unto you in the presence of the God of Heaven and Earth, that I know not where to find it, nor yet in what particular to say, that we are better than we were before. Sure I am, that swearing, drunkenness, uncleanness, profaning of God's holy day; are not in the abating hand, the face of things among us looks as ill as ever, men seek the things of Christ as little, themselves & their own ends as much as ever. Ah my beloved, if this be all the fruit of the hand of God upon us, the clouds that for so long a time have lowered black upon us, are not so dispelled yet, but that the Lord can raise up other enemies among us, or bringin foreign enemies upon us, that shall make us know the price of slighting and despising his gentle and indulgent dealing with us.  
Use. 3. Is it so my brethren, that the wrath and rage of wicked men against the people of the Lord is such, and so exceeding great, that there is no end of it? Oh than what cause have we, the people of this place to magnify the Lord that hath delivered us from this wrath, and from the rage of these men? Alas how near were we to have it wreaked upon us to the very utmost! If the Lord had not been on our side, now may we truly say, if the Lord had not been on our side when men risen up against us; they had swallowed us up quick, so desperately were they bend against us. We had assuredly been made a prey to the enkindled and envenomed rage of the most bloody, savage, hardened, and remorseless enemies, that ever drew the sword in these wars; whose spite and rancour was raised to the height against us. Ah my beloved think upon it: What might you have expected from those savage creatures that were gathered round about you? Nay, what did you expect, if this poor Town had been taken by assault? Look bacl a little I beseech you, and return upon the thoughts and apprehensions that you had, when men came in with pale, and ghastly countenances, and with trembling hands and tongues, and cried, Alas, alas, the eneomie is, broken in at such a place, he is come within the 〈◊〉; abundance of our men are slain, and the rest have left the works, the Town is lost, there is no remedy. When such sad alarms were, bethink yourselves, what did you look for from the enemy? consult with your own hearts, I make no doubt, the worst that cruelty itself could devise to inflict.  
You may a little guess (my BRETHREN) what they would have done, by that which they have done where they had power. You may read it in the ruins of this place. Shall I say look about the Town of TAUNTON, and tell her Bulwarks and her Towers, & c? No my beloved, look about her and tell her heaps of rubbish, her consumed houses, a multitude of which are raked in their own ashes. Here a poor forsaken Chimney, and there a little fragment of a Wall, that have escaped to tell what barbarous and monstrous wretches there have been here. Cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, and their rage, for it was cruel. But blessed be our GOD for ever, that did not give us over as a prey unto their teeth. Oh blessed be our God for evermore, that kept us from such endless and unsatiable rage as theirs was; Who when we had no help nor hope left, wrought out a great salvation for a poor people. Me thinks I could dwell here, but that the time runs, and there is a second observation, to which I am enforced to hasten.  
Doct. Be the wrath of wicked men as endless and unsatiable as it will; though it have no limits in it, yet the LORD sets limits to it; and fetches praise and glory to himself from it.  
The observation as you see, consists of two parts or two branches. First, God sets limits to the wrath of wicked men. And secondly, he fetches glory from it. I will proceed with them distinctly and in order.  
1. Branch. Sometimes the Lord sets limits to the wrath of wicked men: though he permit a parcel of it to break out, yet the remainder he restrains, as you have it in my Text. Although their rancour have no bounds within, yet GOD sets bounds to the external exercise of it. Let them be as outrageous as they will, and let them bristle while they can; the Lord hath them in a chain, and he will take them short at his pleasure. The Heathen rage, saith holy DAVID, Psalm 2.1. their passions boil within their bosoms, that is, the working of their sensual pride; and then they plot, and they imagine how to vent, and how to wreak this rage of theirs, that is the working of their intellectual part. But do they execute it? No, GOD will not suffer them. Their policy and fury doth melt away, and come to nothing; they imagine a vain thing. The wrath of the ASSYRIAN was exceeding great, so great that GOD himself takes notice of it, 2 KINGS 19.27. I know thy abode, saith he, thy going out, and thy coming in, and thy rage against me; He takes it as against himself, because it was against his People. The enemy was full of rage, and on he would against the City, and meant to do great matters. But mark what follows: I will put my hook into thy nostrils, and my bridle in thy lips, and turn thee bacl by the way by which thou camest. And with respect to this saith the holy Prophet here: Surely the wrath of man shalt praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.  
I shall enlarge myself no further here, but appeal to your experience. This day (my Brethren) was this SCRIPTURE and this point of Doctrine fulfilled in your eyes. How full of rancour those malicious wretches were who came against this poor Town, yourselves who heard their rail and their bitter threaten, who saw and felt their cruel deeds, can tell. They came upon you with an open mouth, and thought to have devoured you suddenly, but GOD would not suffer them. You saw (my brethren) many of you who are here beheld it; they came over your Works, and the Line that you had made, and you could not hinder them. But GOD had made a line within yours, and over that they could not get, beyond that they could not pass. And certainly if ever GOD did bound and limit furious men, if ever he did say unto them as the Psalmist personages him, speaking to the Sea: thus fare you shall come, and no farther; He did it here in this place. You have seen it my beloved, you have found it by experience; and so you have reason now of any people in the WORLD to say, the wrath of Man did GOD restrain. Somewhat indeed he suffered them to vent and to bring to execution, upon our friends, upon our Persons, upon our houses and estates; But the remainder he did restrain.  
Reason. And this he hath done, and will ever do, because he sees his people cannot bear the utmost of the wrath and rage of wicked men. If he should suffer all the weight thereof to lie upon them; either they would reach forth their hands to evil, or else their hearts would faint and sink under it.  
Beloved, God is very tenderly affected to his poor people, (I speak it after the manner of men) and therefore though he suffer them sometimes to have a taste of the rage of wicked men for their correction: yet when they lay it on without measure, he considers with himself, as once he did concerning Ephraim, jeremy 30.20. He is my son, he is my pleasant child still. And therefore when he sees his pleasant child about to faint, and when the enemies are ready to devour his people, than his bowels work within him, and out he cries, hold there, no more, I can suffer it no longer. Sometimes indeed he goes away, and leaves his children in the hands of wicked and ungodly men to scourge them. But when he hears them cry and roar, so that they are about to swoon: then he comes running in and says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, they have received double. You merciless and cruel wretches, you have given my Children double, twice as much as they can bear: and so he falls a kissing them to fetch life in them again.  
And so me thinks I see the Lord come running in among the merciless besiegers of this place, and crying out as Isa. 3.15. What mean ye that ye beat my people in pieces? What do you mean to do to them? What do you purpose to reduce this Town to nothing; to consume it all to ashes? to butcher all my people here, so that I shall not have so much as one left? Is that your resolution and intent indeed? I have permitted you to wreak a great deal of your rage upon the houses and the persons of my poor servants; But what do you intent to burn all, and kill all? So that there shall not be a house standing, nor a SAINT alive here? I cannot bear it: no, the remainder of your rage must I restrain. And thus you see GOD limiteth the wrath of wicked men, which is the former member of the point.  
2 Branch. And as he limits it in part, so that part of it which he doth not limit, he turneth it to his own praise, and fetches glory to himself from it. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, saith the Psalmist here, so much as is permitted unrestrained, shall bring honour to thy Name; and the remainder, etc. Although the wrath of man do not accomplish the righteousness of God, it doth accomplish the glory of God. The Lord (as he designed to do) got honour out of Pharoah's rage, and out of the Assyrians rage, against his people. And I am confident he will have honour out of the wrath and rage of his and our malicious enemies against this place. Thus he hath done heretofore, and will do to the world's end. But you will interpose and ask me now, Which way doth the LORD fetch praise out of the wrath of wicked men against his people? I answer, principally, two ways.  
First, He fetches praise and glory from the rage of wicked men against his people, as it commends the greatness of his own power. For it is a great thing that the LORD should keep his people notwithstanding all their fury. That though there be enough of the Malignant Church to devour the Militant, to eat up GOD'S people as a man would eat bread. And though they be so full of bitterness and wrath against them as it is possible for men to be, GOD should preserve them notwithstanding safe and sound in the midst of these men. That he should keep them (as he doth sometimes) unsinged and untouched in a furnace of wrath, heat hotter than ordinary; This setteth off the glory of his power.  
Secondly, God fetches praise and glory to himself from the rage of wicked men against his people; as it doth accidentally commend the excellency of the graces which he hath bestowed upon them. Is it not very much (my brethren) that the Saints should stand it out, and be upright; notwithstanding all the spite and fury of ungodly men against them? That all their malice, all their rage, and all their threaten, should not cause them to desert or to deny the Cause of God, no nor to droop or faint under it? Have not the spirits of the Saints of God been admirably strengthened and upheld in these latter times of trial, when there were no outward means appearing to the eye of sense or reason, and when there were no hopes left? Is not the grace of God by which they were upheld (than he you) a glorious thing? Hath he not much honour by it? It was an honour to the Lord that job continued constant and patiented, notwithstanding all the malice of Satan and his Instruments, and the worst that they could do. It glorified the grace of God in him. And therefore God me thinks doth vaunt and pride himself in this precious Saint of his, in that speech of his to Satan, job 2.3. Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, and still he holdeth fast his integrity? Though thou hast done thy utmost to him, he hath not done as thou didst wickedly suggest he would, he hath not yet deserted or denied me: No, still he holdeth fast his integrity.  
And so the Lord doth seem to say in these days to the malicious enemies of his people: Look upon those Saints of mine, though you have plundered them, and stripped them, and turned them bare and naked to the mercy of the World, though you have imprisoned them, though you have threatened them with death itself, they never yielded or complied with you, they never took the cursed oath that you endeavoured to impose upon them; they never yet denied me nor my cause; but still they have held fast their integrity, though you have showed the utmost of your rage and spite against them. Were not the rage of wicked men declared against the Saints of God, the glory of his power, and grace, could not be magnified and set off, as now it is. But now the wrath of man doth praise him.  
Use 1. Now to apply it very briefly, Is it so that though the wrath of wicked wretches have no limits in it, yet the Lord sets limits to it? Why then I say as David touching the Philistine, let no man's heart fail him by reason of the rage of these men. Let them fume, and let them storm, and let them swell even till they burst with inward fury; they shall do but what the hand and counsel of God determined before to be done. When they have done what he determines, they shall not move one jot, they shall not stir an inch further. And why then are you so afraid of the oppressor as the Prophet speaks, and forget the Lord your maker, who limiteth and boundeth their fury? Oh you of little faith, wherefore do you doubt?  
Why will you say, though God restrain the wrath and rage of wicked wretches many times, yet at some other times he permits it to break out in a very great measure: and so we have cause to be afraid of it? Yet here is comfort still (my brethren) for that which he permitteth unrestrained, he turneth to his own glory. And shall we not take sweet encouragement in this, that God is glorified, though our selves suffer? Should we not cheerfully endure a little of their rage, so the Lord have honour by it? Should we not prefer his glory fare beyond our own quiet? So that you see we want not something to support us every way, and however matters go. If God restrain the wrath of wicked wretches, we have ease, if he permit it unrestrained: he hath praise. And this is not an empty notion; raised by fancy, but a certain thing, there is no doubt, no question to be made of this; and hence the Holy Ghost hath set a surety on it in my Text; Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.  
Well then, (my brethren) in the second place, since the Lord will have it so, since he hath said it shall be so, let the wrath of man praise him. There hath been much of the envenomed rage of wicked men let out against this poor Town. Oh let us praise the Lord that kept us unconsum'd in the heat of their fury; that when the Town was stormed so desperately (as you know it was) for so many days together, God kept you, who are here before him, in that storm, and did not suffer any of that hail to fall upon you. That when others fell by the Bullet and the Sword, your blood was precious, and your lives were dear to him. Say now as Hezekiah, Isaiah 38.19. O Lord, the living, the living they shall praise thee, as we do this day.  
Nay, that GOD did not keep your bodies only, but your spirits too, that he upheld them with unshaken resolution in the midst of such danger. That he united you so firmly all together, who notwithstanding were not all of one mind, nor one way. That all the violence and rage that was declared against you, was so fare from causing you to desert the Cause of GOD, and to give up the Town into the hands of those that fought against it, as that it made you to renew your resolutions to stick the faster to the Lord, and to his Cause, to fight it out in the midst of fire and blood. Here certainly, the wrath of man doth praise the Lord; the wrath of man sends us occasion to sing the praises of our God forever.  
And if we ought to praise the Lord with reference to that part of the wrath of man which he let out, much more with reference to that which he restrained. Oh here was mercy to be spoken of to all ages, that God sets limits to the rage of these men. That when they set their heart as the heart of GOD himself, he made them know they were but men. That when they said of this poor Town, Fall on, and take it, for there is no relief for it, there is none to deliver it; that when they were about to enter, GOD put his hook into their Nostrils, and his bridle in their Lips, and carried them another way. Brethren, you may reflect upon the time when you stood looking out at the Windows, and crying as the Mother of Sisera, judges 5.28. Why is the Chariot so long a coming? Why do the Wheels of the Chariot linger? Why is Relief so long a coming? Why doth it stay and linger thus? Why doth it meet with such procrastinations and delays? And in the end concluded, that there was no help for you, but you should surely perish by the hands of these men. And when your hearts were gone, and hopes were gone, when you were in the Wilderness, where if you met with any good or any comfort, it must come from Heaven: then GOD came in, and spoke comfortably to you: Oh think upon the time when you gave yourselves for lost, and on a sudden some came running in and told you, Relief is come. Oh was not that a sweet and welcome word, Relief is come? Were you not as Israel was in such a case, like men that dream? Did you not doubt this happy tidings was only fancied and conceited in a Dream, and that there was nothing of truth and reality in it? It was so fare above your hopes, and beyond your expectations. And now, my brethren, I believe your hearts are very much enlarged and ready to break out into the praises of the Lord. Me thinks I hear you put the question to me, what shall we do to make it to appear that we are sensible of this mercy? I give you some directions in a word, and I have done.  
1. I acknowledge the restraint of our malicious enemies to be of GOD. That it was he, and he alone that set limits to their siege. Say not, it was the valour or the skill of the COMMANDERS, it was the courage of the SOLDIERS (though many of them did beyond the race of men, and deserved as high applause and commendation as instruments are capable of) but rather say, their wrath and rage did GOD restrain. And truly GOD was visibly and admirably seen in this business. For when our Line was almost empty of Defendants, and when the bodies of your enemies were not restrained by any thing that you could either do or see, the LORD restrained their spirits, as the PROPHET speaks in the Verse that follows next save one upon my TEXT, so that they had no hearts to come on. And therefore now let all your bones cry out and say, LORD none is like to thee, that we are yet unbroken. Let all your houses say, LORD none is like to thee, that we are standing. Let all your Wives and Children say, LORD none is like to thee, that we are living. They were not Works, they were not Guns and Soldiers that preserved us, and destroyed our enemies, but their wrath did God restrain, and therefore let the Lord and he alone have all the glory.  
2. Endeavour to be large to him in duty who hath been large to you in mercy. There was a time you know when you were shut up by your enemies, who kept you in on every side, when you were held within a very narrow compass. But now the LORD hath set you in a large place. Oh let your hearts I pray you be enlarged to him in praises, and let your hands be enlarged to him in service. Oh do not go, but run the ways of his Commandments, now he hath set you thus at liberty. Do not think it is enough to walk on in an ordinary tract of duty, but strive to do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Christ speaks, some singular, fine, excellent, some extraordinary thing, and to abound in the work of the LORD, who hath laid out the riches of his mercy on you.  
3. Improve and lay out all that you have left for GOD, and bestow it all upon him. Beloved, GOD hath given you your sums, your wives, your children, your estates, your lives. If you have any thing, he gave it you the second time, he renewed your tenure in it this day. If he had but let lose the enemy, and if he had not mightily restrained him, in all appearance you had lost all. You may truly say to GOD as David doth, thou art the God of our life, and therefore now live to him: Thou art the God of our strength, and our we with, and our comfort, and therefore lay out all for him.  
4. Let all those Vows and Covenants which you made to God in days of misery, be remembered and observed in days of mercy. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the remainder of wrath shalt thou nestraine; and then the next words are, Vow unto the Lord and pay it. Brethren I make no question when you looked for nothing else but death and ruin, you engaged yourselves to God by many obligations. Oh how obedient and how holy you would be, if he would but deliver you this once, if he would save you from this death only. You told the Lord a very fury tale. But say my Brethren, have you paid those Vows? have you made good those Obligations? or did you only flatter with him, as we are wont to flatter men to attain our own ends? May that be said of you which David notes of Israel, Psalm 78.36. When he slew them, they sought him, etc. Nevertheless, they did but flatter him, their heart was not right with him, nor were they steadfast in their Covenant? Well, be assured God will not flatter, he will not dally with you when he comes about again. Praise, and Obedience, and Thankfulness was due, before you made these Vows to God; but you have made it doubly due, by laying on yourselves such sacred Bonds as these are. And have you broken these Bonds? I fear when you examine what your ways have been, since you had respite, you will acknowledge you have broken them indeed, and desperately cast away these Cords from you. I will not shake my Lap at you, as Nehemiah sometimes did, nor say as he, Chapter 5. Verse 13. So God shake out every man from his house and from his labour, that hath not kept the promise that he made with God at that time; Even thus let him be shaken out and emptied. No, that be fare from me. But I will rather say as holy Hezekiah in another case, The good Lord pardon every one, that hath not kept his solemn Vows, and remember not his breaches, to avenge the quarrel of his Covenant on him, when the next day of Visitation comes.  
5. Endeavour to perpetuate the memory of this mercy, writ it upon the Lintels of your doors, upon the Palms of your hands, upon the Tables of your hearts, relate the story of it to your Children, that so the Generations that are yet to come, may bless the Lord; that you may keep the Praises of your God alive, even to the world's end. Oh let not such a sweet and precious mercy die with you. Let not that be charged upon you which DAVID chargeth upon Israel, That you forget the works of God, and the wonders that he hath shown you. That you forget the time when the Enemy was entering, and God sent Relief from Heaven, and restrained his fury. Oh let this day be always solemn to you, a day of gladness, and of Feasting, and a good day, to all generations. I say as God unto Ezekiel, Ezek. 24.2. Writ the name of the day, even of this same day, the eleventh of MAY, the Enemy of our Religion, and of our Liberty, and Peace, set himself against TAUNTON this same day. The God of Heaven shown himself for TAUNTON this same day. Hallelujah, Salvation, and Honour, and Glory, and Power, and Might, and Dominion, and Everlasting Praise be unto Him that sits upon the Throne, and to the Lamb in all the Churches of the Saints for ever and ever, AMEN.  
FINIS.