The wicked mans plot defeated, or, The wicked man laughed out of countenance as it was represented in a sermon preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11, 1656, by Thomas Baker.

The wicked mans plot defeated, or, The wicked man laughed out of countenance as it was represented in a sermon preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11, 1656, by Thomas Baker.

Table of contents

[1]

Title page

The Epistle to the Reader.

[2]

Title page

To the Reader.

[3]

Title page

§

§

§

[Page]

[Page]

THE Wicked Mans Plot DEFEATED:

OR, The Wicked Man, laughed out of Countenance.

As it was Represented in a SERMON, Preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11. 1656.

By THOMAS BAKER▪ Rector of St. Mary the More, in EXON.

Gal 4. 16. Am I therefore become your Enemy, because I tell you the Truth.

Aug. Vis nunquam Tristis esse? Bene vive.

Printed for the Author. 1656.

[Page]

[Page]

The Epistle to the Reader.

COURTEOUS READER,

(FOr, with the present untoward Generation, I have not yet so far forfeited my charity, but that I shall still proclaim thee [...]or such, as far as the infirm legs of these cripled lines shall carry them, until thou shall appear signally to deserve the contrary) we are faln upon an Age (thou canst not but be tenderly sensible) wherein, not onely those Courtly spirits, that are exquisite Gleekers, or Cribbagers; but even every Country Bumkin, that can but play at plain Trump, or Noddy, cannot but clea [...]ly discern the Knave every day to turn; and appear in his [Page] orient colours; yea in value to ou [...]vy, not the King onely, the supreme Magistrate; but all that is called God. And then the less strange may it seem to observe, not onely that all Kingly Authority is laid aside; but that all manner exercise of the Priestly function is suspended, amongst us. So that now, not onely those his immediate Vicegerents a [...]e grown strangers to their Princely thrones; but we his voices, become hoarse, not with clamour so much as silence; yea our Tongues with standing still so long within the stables of our Mouths, no better then resty; yea, as by the hearing of an Hiena's voice, st [...]uck dumb; no marvel if we be driven (I say not with Zachary, in sac [...]ed page so much to call for writing [...]Tables, as) with Io in the Poet, having our Hands and Tongues; at least our Tongues, which should serve us as Hands, for the holding of the Pens of [Page]ready Writers, cut off; and so by consequence our Teeth knocked out, to try the extremest of conclusions of making our Feet our Minds interpreters. And so, as they put us upon the exigence of leading Poetical lives; so enforce they our Lines to tread the measures of Poetick feet. Nay, the more surely to muzzle the mouths of us, that are the Analogical oxen, for the bearing of the Ark, deny us utterly the use of these very feet of ours, wherewith we ought to tread out the spiritual grain of the Word. Nay, now at l [...]st, when, pos [...]ibly, with the improvements of our utmost skil, and industry, we may have arrived to some good measure of perfection in the New, and untroden, Path of Pedography▪ even in these very feet of ours, by the good Angels of our Times (as Iacob by the Angel in his Thigh) are we rendred so lame, that by them we are denied all [Page] manner License of giving out the sad Print of our, though never so pressing necessity. That Liberty, under the notion of Begging Schollers, and other vagrants, is (I know not by what law) interdicted us. However, when for these things sake, our souls at times cannot forbear weeping in secret places, [...]or my particular Relation to thee; since my address speaketh mee so charitable towards thee, thou shalt give me leave to minde thee, that even in civility as well as conscience, thou art bound to do me so much justice, as that what ever it be, that I shall offer thee with the Right Hand, thou be far from receiving, much more rending, with the Le [...]t. Which right shalt thou do me, thou shalt still encourage me to go on to be, what yet no discouragement shall ever take me [...]ff from being

[...].

T. B.

§

[Page]

Psal. 37. 13.‘The Lord shall laugh him to scorn; for he hath seen that▪ his Day is comming.’

AS the whole Psalme may, not amiss, be stiled a Caveat, entred in the behalf of the righteous, and that in the nature of an Apology of Gods providence; which (not unlikely) may be quarrelled, for his prospering of the wicked in their enormous courses; [Page] yea, whose sharp sight, and sense, may possibly affect the hearts of the righteous with such a sting of envy, as so far to startle their confidence in this providence, as to justle them to a foul Apostacy from the Kings Highway of righteousness, they may, more then probably, have proposed unto themselves to measure: So is this verse, now read, with the preceding, nothing else but a Prolepsis or Preoccupation, of an Objection may be framed against the course of this providence of his. The Objection we have in the preceding verse; strange it may not seem that the righteous mans confidence [Page] in this Providence, at times, appear to be shaken; for that the ungodly man ceased not to seek counsel against him; and to gnash upon him with his teeth, as if he had him now already within the reach of his cruel mercy, and were upon the point of tearing him in pieces. The anticipating Decision we have in the words now read; which point out unto us, the Almighties scornful Defeasance of all these his jewelled, but abortive, Projects, and practises. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn, for he hath seen that his day is comming.

The Text then, you cannot [Page] but clearly see, what jus [...] reason I shal have to term the Destruction of a Bibel, or the Defeasance of a Wicked Mans Plot. Yea, whereas in the practice of our Common Law, we, every day hear distinctly of a Judgement, and a Defeasan [...], the one still voiding the other; in this branch of Go [...]s Law, we here meet with a Defeasance, which is not without the At [...]endance of an heavy Judgement.

Wherein (not to perplex your memories with any intricate Divisions) I shall only charge them with the recognition of these two special Observables: [Page]

The
Manner
of thi [...] Defea [...]anc [...].

Cause

The Manner, of all th [...] most scornful and opprobrious; The Lord shall laugh him to scorn.

The Cause two fold;

The
One, Subalternate.

Other, Principal.

The Subalt [...]nate, is the near approach of this day; His Day is comming.

The Principal, Gods foresight of this dayes near approach, He hath seen it.

These the Par [...]s. Of these plainly, o [...]derly, and briefly, as I may. And first are we to begin with the Manner of the Defeasance of this the wicked mans Plot; which, we see here, is of [Page] all the most scornful and opprobrious. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn.

There is a Fable, amongst the Poets, of Iupiter, that, having married Metis, and devouring her, being with childe by him, himself is at last delivered of an armed Pallas out of his head. And such Fables may you observe more then a good many men in the world to frame, & fashion, to themselvs. They will needs dream them into a love like omnipotency, and then must they marry Metis; wed themselves, to a sad, and serious consultation, for the succesful accomplishment of their, what-ever, intended [Page] designs. Which, having greedily devoured, & thorowly digested, their Brains must now be brought a bed of an armed Pallas; of such a well-hatched plot, as can in no wise miscarry. Hezekiah (may Rabsakeh be heard to be his Dictator) shall now say, I have counsel and strength for warre, Esa. 36. 5. And then no marvel, if men now big-swolne with pride, shall, with Edom, in that other Prophet, Obad. 4. Exalt themselves as eagles, and build their nests amongst the starres; and then say in their hearts, as it is in the preceding Verse, who shall bring us down to the ground? And as those in [Page] that other prop [...]et, Amos 9. 10. No evill shall overtake, or prevent us. And this, for that, as those in that other prophet, Esa. 28. 15. We have made a Covenant with death, and with hell are we at an agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come nigh us; for we have made Lyes our refuge, and under [...]alsehood have we hid our selves. And, for the making of all cock sure indeed, resolve for for who-ever they shall finde standing in their way, as those Husbandmen for the Heyr, Luke 20. 14. To kill all, that all their inheritances may bee theirs. Whereas yet all this [Page] their imaginary happines shal, upon the true teste of trial, appear to be no other then a very Fable; not unlike that cloud, Ixion embraced instead of Iuno; yea, Aegri s [...]mnium; no other, then a sick mans Dream: as, when one dream [...]th (as the Prophet wordeth it, Esay 29. 8.) that he drinketh; but, when he awaketh, his soul is thirsty, and faint. And whatever pomp, or greatness, hee may fondly dote on, will in conclusion appear to be no better then that of the Duke of Burgundy's Beggar: for that his shape, which for a time he hath borrowed, when it commeth to be laid aside, no better [Page] a man is he at last, then at [...]irst he was. The All-seeing Spectator, and infallible Judge, of Heaven and Earth, laugheth at these their ridiculous Enterludes, at these their self-gulling Scenes. And, as hee onely is approved, whom God commendeth, 2. Cor. 10. 18. —Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo; however such brainsick Fancies may transport many a weak soul into a Fools paradice; where they may honey themselves, as did our Prophet sometimes in the like case. Psal. 30. 6. I shall never bee cast down. Yea, and there entitle God himself to the fixing of their stations; Thou Lord of [Page]thy goodness, hast made my Hill so strong: Especially, shall but the applause of men of their own cut, and making up, sooth them up in this their fancied settlement; yea be it that but even their posterity (as this same prophet of ours, Psal. 49. 13. hath it) shall praise their saying; a meer scorn yet, at last, shall the best of such appear, when the Lord shal make him no better then his sport, and laughing-stock. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn.

It is a word of the Satyrists;

Nil habet infelix, paupertas durius in se,

Quam quod ridiculos homines facit—

[Page] Much easier might want bee born,

Did it not make a man a scorn.

The prophet Ieremy, speaking of impenitent sinners, saith of them, Surely these are poor, these are foolish. Ier. 5. 4. And such poore fooles, that measure all things by their present fantastick happiness, and groundlesly promise themselves an uninterupted series, and endless succession, therof, shal all such in conclusion appeare, when they shall come to be sensible of the heaviest symptome of poverty upon them, of becomming the sad objects of the Almighties laughter. The Kings of the earth stand up (saith our [Page] Royal prophet, Psal. 2.) i. e. Herod Ascalonita (saith Lyra upon the words) that maketh a bloudy Inquisition after the Saviour of the World, upon his first sal [...]tion thereof, Mat. [...] An [...] Herod Antipas, that [...], by arraying him in a purple Robe, now he is upon the point of giving it his last valediction, Luke 23. And the Rulers, i. e. Pilate, and the chief priests (saith the same Lyra) take counsel together against the Lord, and this his Anointed. He that dwelleth in Heaven (saith the same prophet of ours, in the following verses) shall laugh them to scorn, (as him of the same stampe [Page] here in the Text) the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall hee speake unto them in his wrath, and vexe them in his sore displeasure. Gods laughter at the wicked hath more of an imbittered gall, then a tickling spleen, in it; as relishing more of displeasure hee conceiveth against sinners, then any delight he thereby findeth in himselfe: Nay, it is not onely our prophets word of him in this case; but his own of himself, to those that (for instance) wilfully shut up their eares against his counsel, Prov. 1. I will laugh at your calamity, when your feare cometh as a desolation, and your destruction as a whirle winde. [Page] Nay, in this Scene God shall not be a single Actor; but all the Saints and Angels shall joyn in Consort, to make up a Merry-Angry Chorus with him. And therefore, as the Schoole telleth us, that what ever they discern, is in speculo Trinitatis, in the glasse of the Trinity: the glasse of the Divine Essence, which these Heavenly Spirits are still, with unspeakable joy, contemplating, reflecteth upon them, not so much the species of their own visages, as the cast of his countenance; unto whose resemblance they are still studying, the nearest they may, to compose themselves; mourning, as they see that darkened [Page] with a cloud; & Rejoycing, and Laughing, as they see that fitted though but to a Scornfull, and so Angry, Laughter. So that, as there a multitude of the Heavenly Host with the Shepheards, cha [...]ting out that chearefull D [...]x [...]logy, of [...] be to God on high▪ on earth peace, as soone as one Angel hath acquainted them with the glad [...]idings of our Saviours Birth, Luk. 2. No sooner doth the Almighty put his countenance into a Smiling-Frowning posture, but Regis ad exempl [...] all the Saints, and Angels, [...] on the same semblance of countenance. The righteous (saith our prophet) even those that live still upon [Page] the earth, shall rejoyce to see such vengeance executed upon the ungodly, as that now he shall have the advantage of washing his footsteps in his his bloud (as it is Psal. 58. 9.) as soon as he shall discover the Almighty (as him here in the Text) to make him the subject of his scornful, and so wrathfull, laughter. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn.

Let then the Enemies of Truth, and all Righteousness, hisse, and gnash their teeth, at those that are not of their tune, and temper; let them triumph over them, with a [...] have swallowed them up; this is the day that we looked for; and now[Page]we have seen and known it, as it is Lam. 2. 16. And laugh at them with an Aha, we have devoured them, as it is Psa. 35. 25. VV [...]e unto you that laugh now (you know, is our Saviours ovvn doom) for you shall mourn and weep, Luke 6▪ 25. The son of Sirach, Ecclus. 27, 29. runneth a sad Descant upon this ground; Those that rejoyce at the fall of the Righteous, anguish shall consume them before they di [...]. Nay, those that have afflicted the Righteous man, self-convicted of the guilt of these their barbarous, and savage practices; and knowing that the time is at hand, when they shall see him stand with great [Page] confidence before their faces (as it is, VVisd. 5.) may you heare, in great anguish of spirit, antedating their owne sad Destiny, and wailing out their own dolefull Elegie: This is he whom we had sometimes in derision, and a Proverb of reproach; we fools accounted his Life madness, and his end without Honour; now is he numbred amongst the children of God, and his lot is amongst the Saints; whilest we, in the mean time, have in vain wearied our selves in the wayes of wickedness, and destruction; we have erred from the way of Truth, and the Sun of Righteousness is not Risen upon us. We say, in our ordinary [Page] proverb, that he Laugheth well, that Laugheth at last. Indeed, the success of a wicked Man, whilest hee groweth Elated with his politick, and mischievous, practices upon the Righteous prospered, may afford him such a kinde of Superficiall Merriment, [...]; as may wet the Mouth; but hath little of vertue in it for the warming of the Heart. Yea and minister unto them such matter of Flickering Laughter, as that, like that of the Preachers fool, Eccles. 7. 6. it shall make a crackling Noise, as Thornes under a Pot. But, or ever the Pots of their Hearts be made hot [Page]with th [...]se thornes, Indignation (our Prophet is peremptory, Psal. 58. 8.) shall vexe them, and lye heavy upon them, as a thing that is Raw. Or (as our New Translation readeth it) God shall take them away from this their Ioy, as with a whirlewinde. Their Laughter shall in conclusion appear to be no other then Risus Sardonicus; as the Laughter of those that have eaten of the Herbe Sardoa; whose forced Merriment, though it may outwardly set them a Grinning; yet is inwardly still Griping, and Galling, them. Continua Anxiet as nec mensae tempore cessat; to make the Poet speake the [Page] Language of Canaan. Even in the midst of Laughter their hearts are sorr [...]wful; and the end of such mirth is always heaviness, Prov. 14. 13. So that then just reason may St. Iames seem to have for the Allarming of the Rich Men of his time, those that by unjust practices have heaped them up Riches, Go to now ye Rich men, weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you; you have lived in Pleasure on the Earth; you have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter; you have Condemned, and Killed, the Iust; and none resisted you! Jam. 5. But Mourn you shall, and Weep; your Laughter[Page]shall be turned into mourning; and your Ioy into heavines. Jam. 4. Yea, the Lords own word it is to those that forsake him; forget his Holy Mountain; and prepare a Table for their Troopes. Esa. 65. My Servants shall Rejoyce; but you shall be ashamed; my Servants shall Sing, and Laugh, for joy of Heart; but you shall Howl for vexation of Spirit. And then, as the Preacher, Eccles. 7. 3. Sorrow is better then Laughter: sarre better shall it in conclusion appear for the Righteous to live for a time, in a sad condition under their Enemies persecuting Hands; being fully assured that the time is at Hand [Page] that their Hearts shall so Rejoyce, as that their Joy no Man shall take from them, as our Saviour sometimes to his Discipes in the like case, Joh. 16. 22. Then with their Persecutors that may perhaps for some short space Revel in all manner of jollity, and exercise an uncontrouled Tyranny upon them; when, at last, yea perhaps suddenly, they shall become sensible, that the Lord all this while Laugheth at these their unhallowed practices: clearly discovering his Day of Sadness to be at hand.

Which fitly bringeth us to the view of the sec [...]nd Observable in this Defeat of the [Page] Wicked Mans Plot, the Cause thereof; which we may here see to be two-fold:

The
One Subalternate,

Other Principal.

And first are we to begin with the Subalternate, the near approach of this his Day. His Day is commeng.

In the 19 of St. Luke's Gospel a clear intimation have we, that, what Hierusalem there had, every sinner still hath, a twofold Day; a Day of Merciful visitation, and a Day of Drereful Vengeance. A Day of visitation; O that thou hadst known in this thy Day! A Day, wherein, as God visited Hierusalem, for three continued [Page] years, by the preaching of his Sonne: so doth he sinners still by the voice of his Successors; his lawfully ordained Messengers, and Ministers. And a Day of vengeance; Behold the Day of the Lord God of Hosts, the Day of vengeance, commeth, wherein he will Avenge him of his Enemies. Jer. 46. 10. Even of those, that (as we may, not amiss, Gloss this of the Prophet by that of the above-praised Evangelist, in the 44 of the above. praised Chapter) that shall appear such Enemies, not to him onely, but themselves, as to have neglected the Day of their visitation. The first of these is the Day, wherein [Page] God vouchsafed us a fair opportunity of walking; even of walking in Newness of Life. Are there not twelve houres in the day? (saith our Saviour, Joh. 11. 9.) if any Man walk in the Day, he stumbleth not; because he seeth the Light of the world. And yet who seeth no [...], how far even the best of us are from being such good Husbands of this Day, as (according to that our Prophets Euloge of Man, Psal. 104. 23.) to go forth to our work, and Labour; even this our work, and Labour, of Newness of Life, untill the Evening: and therefore to say to our Couches of Idlenes, as the Angel sometimes [Page] to Iaob, Gen. 32. 26. Let me go; for the Day breaketh: that we are rather so farre prone to turn the Day into Night, as to trifle away every hour of this Day in stretching us upon our Ivory Beds; in Dreaming them out in secure slumbers; in drawing down Deep Carouses; in wantonning in Lustful Embraces; in studying of politick Contrivances, how we m [...]y rea [...]iest swallow up the Estates; and so suck the Bloud of our innocent Neighbour? And yet the Light of this Day (like those Northern people, that have the Equinoctial for their Horizon) we will needs have (as have they in their proper [Page] seasons) still Lasting. And, as those that labour of a Vertigo, conceive all things to Run Round, by reason of the Dizziness, that is in their Brain: for that we are Idly disposed, we will needes have the Time of this Day so far from passing, that we will neede [...] perswade our selves, that we have a like command upon it, as had Ioshuah sometimes upon the Sun and Moon, Josh. 10▪ 12. Stand thou Sun in Gibeon, and thou Moon in the Valley of Ajjalon: so that, at our words it shall stand at a stay, to keep us company in th [...]s our Idleness. And, for any other Day, we put it far away from us (as it is Amos [Page] 6. 13.) and cause the seat of violence to draw near; and (as it is in the verse immediately following the Text) We draw out our Swords, and bend our Bows, to slay such as are of an upright Cōversa [...]ion. Yea we scoff at the tidings of any other days approach, as those in the Apostle, 2 Pe [...]. 3, 4. at the News of the comming of the Day of Judgment; where is the Promise; or rather Menace, of its coming? Or if, much ado, we will be drawn to heare of any such thing, we yet say, as those in the Prophet, Esay 56. 12. To morrow shall be as this Day, and much more abundant.—Cras, Cras, procrastinat—And [Page] still every Day, that shineth out upon us, shall, in our presumptions, still be sped of a New, and Fresh, Morrow, to attend it. The Spirit of God, in the mean time, whose peculiar office it is to bring all things to the Remembrahce of these, he inspireth, Joh. 14. 26. becommeth every where, throughout the Sacred Volu [...]es, an uncessant [...] of another Day, the wicked Man is to expect. Those, that come after him (saith Holy Iob of him) shall be astonished at the comming of his Day; as they, that went before him, were affrighted, Job 18. 20. Remember the children of Edom, O[Page]Lord in the Day of Hierusalem (you know is our Prophets Address unto him in her behalf, Psal. 137. 7.) how they cried Down with it, Down with it, even to the Ground. I saw (is the Lords own word, wherin he, no less justly then sharply, taxeth his people of Israel) that in the Day, wherein strangers carried away the Forces of your Brother Jacob, and Forreigners entred into the Gates, and cast Lots upon Hierusalem; that you Rejoyced [...]ver the childred of Judah, in the Day of their Destruction, and spake proudly in the Day of their Distress. Obad. 11. 12. And it is that other Prophets just Exe [...]cration [Page] upon the Wicked, after that hee hath capitulated with the Almighty about their prosperity; Prepare them, O Lord, for their Day; even the Day of slaughter. Jer. 12. 3. Yea this Day of the wickeds prosperity it pleaseth the same Lord oftentimes to contract; and so to speed their Day, or rather Nights, of Vengeance, that their Sun goeth down at Noon, and the Earth is Darkened with them in the clear Day, as it is Amos 8. 9▪ Yea, when God distributeth sorrowes unto them in his Anger, and the Night of their Destruction commeth upon them, their Candle, that they might now at [Page] last hope should afford them some poore, weake, Light of Comfort, is, not seldome, put out, as it is Iob 21. 17. And so, as it is, 5. 14. of the same Book, they meete with Darknesse in the Day-time. And then strange may it not seeme to hear, that the Knees of this Profligate wretch (as Baltasars) shall appeare to tremble, when he shall now finde this Day, or rather this Day made Night (as it is Amos 5. 8.) unawares to overtake him, which he had put farre away from him? Especially when hee shall heare the Almighty vying an high Roare of Laughter with his loud-yelling Accent of Anguish [Page] of Spirit, upon his clear Fore-sight of this Days neare Approach.

Which is the more Principal cause of the Defeasance of th [...] the wicked Mans Plot; and in the next Place calleth for your consideration. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn; for he hath seene that his Day is comming.

The word [Is comming] you see, is of an Indefinite Expression; and so far from pointing out the present Minute of this Days Appearance. At which, whilest debauched Miscreants, and to every good worke Reprobate, will (not unlikely) be ready to catch Advantage; and [Page] shall therefore, with the five Foolish Virgins, Mat. 25. betake them to slumbrings, and sleepings; and, with that Evil servant, in the 24 of the same Gospel, to Eating, and Drinking, and smiting his Fellow servants; whom therefore his Master, comming in a Day, that he looketh not for him; and in an Houre, that hee is not aware of, shall cut in sunder, and appoint him his Portion with Hypocrites: He, that shall but duely poize things in the Ballance of the Sanctuary, [...]n the Scales of a Religious consideration; whose Feare is as his Faith, the Evidence of things not seen, will look upon this Day, [Page] of whose Indefinite, and Indeterminate Advent hee is here thus cautioned, as if he saw, and felt it already come. At least, as Damocles did upon the Pendant Sword, which may every Minute drop downe about his Eares, and make an immediate Dispatch of him. And therefore it is well worthy our best observation, that, when the Prophet Ezekiel, 7th. of his Prophesie, giveth the Inhabitants of Hierusalem a shrill Allarum of their inevitable Destruction at Hand, the Future, and Present, Tenses he so intortleth, and interweaveth, as that he seemeth to make both of equal certainty. I will shortly pour out my [Page]Fury, and accomplish mine Anger upon thee. vers. 8. That, you see, for the Future. And yet, vers. 6. we hear of nothing else but the found of Present Destruction: An End is come; the End is come; it watcheth for thee: Beho [...]a! it is come. Nay, the Final Desolation of this very Hierusalem though it be not Actually Accomplished until Two [...] Forty years after our Saviours [...]: Yet are the People of that Present Generation Forewarned thereof by him, as if it were already put in Execution: Behold! your Howse is left unto you dese [...]le. Mat. 23. 38. So that then, see I Uncleanness, Excess, Sacriledge, [Page] Barbarisme, Cruelty, Blasphemy, Hypocrisie, all manner of Iniquity, to abound in an Age? and yet, not to scape with Impunity onely; but to be sped of all manner of successfull Prosperity? shall I now conclude, that they shall finally escape for this their wickedness? as it is Psal. 56. 7. No; I look upon their Destruction as undoubtedly to come upon them, as if I saw it Actually overtaking them. Nay, Ye say, It will be Fowle weather to Day, (you know, is our Saviours words to the Pharisees) for the Skie is Red, and Lowring. Mat. 17. 3. See I Men to look with Red, and Lowring, Countenances, [Page] portending nothing but Bloudy, and Destructive, Practices? I justly conclude, that there is a present Storme of Fowle weather, that boadeth, not others onely from them, but even themselves. Nay, as the Floud commeth upon the old world, and sweepeth them all away, whilest they are Ea [...] ing and Drinking, Building and Planting, Marrying, and giving in Marriage. Matth. 24. 38. See 1 Men securely promising themselves an happy continuance, and prosperous successe, in their never-so Irregular, Courses? upon this Security of theirs I look, as upon an undoubted Harbinger of the [Page] Day of their Destruction hard at the Doores. But, be it, that it shall please the Lord for a time to suspend the Execution of his Vengeance upon these High-grain'd, and Deep dy'd Sinners: So that the Day thereof, he yet seeth every Day nearer Aproaching, may for some short space be forborne; the Observation may in no wise escape us, that the Hebrew word [...] Hhavar, signifieth as well to be Angry as to Forbear. When the Lord heard this, he was wroth, saith our prophet, Psal. 78. 22. Vatablus readeth, Audivit Dominus, & Distulit: The Lord heard, and forbore, Thou hast Abhorred, and [Page]Forsaken thine Anointed, saith the same prophet, Psal. 89. 37. St. Hierome readeth, [...]; Thou hast Forborn him. Gods Forbearance of a Sinner in his wicked wayes for a time, is so far from being a Testimony of his Favour, that it is rather an irr [...]fragable Argument of his highly incensed Displeasure. What, if God, willing to show his wrath (saith the Apostle) and to make his Power known, endured with much Long-sufferance the vessels of wrath, fitted to Destruction? Rom. 9. 22. So that then, see I Men to despise the Riches of Gods Goodnesse, and Long-sufferance, which should lead them to Repentance; whilest [Page] hee is Patiently Bearing with them in their Horrid, and Execrable, Impieties? I now assure my selfe that God intends to shew his Wra [...]h, and to make his Power eminently knowne, — [...]—as upon vessels of wrath, that all this while have beene fitting themselves to Destruction. If a Man will not turn (saith our prophet) then will he Bend his Bow, and make ready his Arrows against the Persecutours, Psal. 7. For though a Sinner do Evil an hundred times, and his Days be prolonged; yet at last (the Preacher is peremptory) it shall not go well with him, Eccles. 8. And therefore, however [Page] you may observe the Almighty to dance Attendance upon wicked Miscreants a long time, in a continued expectance of their Conversion; and, no lesse Passionately then Compassionately, to debate the reason of their Remissnesse in Turning unto him; Turne yee, turne yee from your evil ways; for why will you Die, O yee House of Israel? Ezek. 33. 11. Thou gavest them place of Repentance (saith the Wiseman of the People) not being ignorant that they were a Naughty Generation, that their Malice was bred in them; and that their Cogitation would never bee changed. Wisd. 12. 10. Yet, if now at [Page] last, after his long exercised, and so abused, patience, he can discover no semblance of turning, then doth he no longer forbear to let flye the Arrows of his vengeance. For whose drawing up to the head though hee may take some time (as St. Hierome) to give them fair warning that they stand within the reach of his Arm: yet, when he letteth loose from the string, he striketh home indeed, and pierceth to the very heart. Sera tamen tacitis Poena venit pedibus; God, when he cometh with Leaden Heels to strike, striketh yet with Iron Hands, when he commeth. The further back a Blow is [Page] fetched, the Deeper it woundeth. And, when Gods judgements are furthest adjourned, for point of Execution, they still leave, when they come to be executed, the most deadly Scar behind them. He, that is of Purer eys then to behold Iniquity, will not suffer such Iniquity for ever to escape, as not undiscovered, so neither unpunished. But, as we say of a skilful Fencer, that his Hand and Eye still go together; upon the sight of the ungodlies courses, contumatiously continued, he taketh the matter into his own Hands, as it is v. 16. of this Psalm. And then woundeth to the purpose the Hairy Scalp of such an one, [Page]as goeth on still in his wickedness, as it is Psal. 68. 21. And that Dreadful Day of vengeance the Hand of his Justice will at last be sure to bring on, which the Eye of his omniscience hath foreseen, and that perhaps for some long time, a comming. The Lord shall laugh him to scorn; for he hath seen that his Day his comming.

Indeed, as we say of the Papists, that in the Sacrament, he is, every Day, Making his Maker: we, in semblance, will needes be making, us a God of such a composition, both for Hands, Face, and Eyes, as best pleaseth us; all of Sweetness, and Grace; but [Page] of Justice, and Rigour, nothing. Nothing of him will sink with us, but that his Mercy is great, and that he will be pacified for the multitude of his sins, as it is Ecclus. [...]. 6. That vision in the mean time, that Ezekiel in the first of his Prophesie, seeth, of four several creatures appearing, each having four several Faces, is well worth our best Heeding; whereof the first is of a Man; the second of an Eagle; the third of an Oxe; and the fourth of a Lion. And to every of these Faces hath the great God of Heaven and Earth eyes sutable. He hath the eyes of a Man, the eyes of his Providence; He [...]uleth[Page]all things with his Power for ever (saith our Prophet) his Eyes behold the people. Ps. 66. 6. He hath the eyes of an Eagle, his eyes of simple Intelligence (as the School speaketh) wherewith he beholdeth all things; To his Eys are all things Naked, & open, saith the Apostle. Heb. 4. 11. He hath his Ox Eys; Eys, not of compassion onely; I have seen (is his own word) the Affliction of my People, that is in Egypt, Exod. 3. 7. But of Approbation to; The Eyes of the Lord are over the Righteous, saith our Prophet, Psal. 34. 14. And he hath his Eyes of a Lion likewise, his Eyes of Indignation. And for the sharp [Page] edge of these to be darted out upon the Proud, the picture of Patience cannot forbear to be instant. Job 40. 12. Look upon every one that is Proud, (saith he) and bring him L [...]w. And with these, by our Prophets verd [...]ct (answering that Holy Mans Desire) as he beholdeth the Proud a far off, Psal. 138. 6. so doth he see the comming of the Wicked Mans Day. The Lord shall Laugh him to scorn; for he hath seen that his Day is comming.

It is the saying of the Lord to Samuel now, by a Commission from [...] being to annoint one of Iesse's sons for King over his People, he is now fixing [Page] his Eyes, and upon the point of laying his Hands, upon Eliab, The Lord seeth not as man seeth, 1 Sam, 16. 7. The Apostle, 1 Cor. 13. 12. giveth us as clear a Representation, as may be, of the different Edge of either of their Eye sights; [...]; we see (sa [...]th he) as in a Glass, Darkly. A Glass; Qualia sunt Perspicilla sinum, seu Speculum oculere, saith a learned Interpreter upon the words; such as are old Mens Spectacles; or Prospective Glasses to Old, or Young. [...], as it followeth; in a Dark, Mysterious, and Ridling, Representation. Yea, and not onely so; but, for [Page] the General, we look upon any evil to come, as at the wrong end of a Prospective; and so (as those in the Prophet above praised) put it far away from us. Nay, finde we not what ever Evil to make winged speed after us? Wee finally put off all thoughts thereof, as those in that other Prophet above praised; Is not the Lord amongst us? None Evil can happen unto us. Yea, whilest, through our weak Perspicils, wherewith we look upon the Aspects and Influences of the Heavens, wee will needs bee taking upon us a faculty of Divining of things to come; and hereupon cheer, and courage, [Page] up our selves in the most Mischievous practices; as did Zedekiah, Ahab, 1 King. 22. 12. Go on, and prosper; who seeth not what just reason the whole world shall have to cry out of us, as those in that other Prophet, Zach. 10. 2. The Diviners amongst us have seen a [...]ye? and told false Dreames? It is otherwise with this All-seeing God. In the Infallible Glass of himself he contemplateth all things, whether Past, or Future, or Present. Yea, and when he pleaseth, seeth not onely, but calleth for t [...]ings that are not, as if they were. Rom. 14. 17. And therefore pregnant is that the [Page] Prophets words of him, Esay 7. 18. Hee shall hiss for the Flye, that is in the uttermost parts of Egypt; and the Bee in the Land of Assyria; and they shall come and rest in the Desolate Valleys. The very Poet can say, [...]; God hath an Eye armed with Revenge. Yea, Oculos Emissities, saith the Comick; Eyes, that dart out Dead-doing Rayes. Nay Eyes as Thunderbolts, and those Right-aiming (saith the Wiseman) which discharged from the Clouds, as from a well-drawn Bow, readily flye to the Mark. Wisd. 5. 21. Nay, as his Hand draweth up these Thunderbolts of his judgments [Page] to the H [...]ad, and dischargeth th [...]m upon the wicked: so do [...]h his Eye, looking as at the Right End of a Prospective, draw them near home, and so speedeth the Executi [...] of them. I will ba [...]en my word (is his own word) to p [...]rform it. Jer. 1. 12. And this time, of his Acceleration of vengeance upon a [...]e [...] ple, far is hee from being so reserved, but that still hee preacquainteth his Prophets therewith. Shall I hide from Abraham (is the same Lords solemn debate with himself about the destruction of Sodom) that thing▪ which I intend to do? Gen. 18. 17. No! the Prophet maketh a present and positive [Page] Answer to this the Lords Quere, Amos 3. 7. Surely the Lord will do nothing, but that he Revealeth his Secret to his Servants, the Prophets. And this you may see to be the Ground of our Saviours own Addresse to his Father, after that he hath denounced Vengeance against Bethsaid [...], Chorazin, and Capernaum; I thank thee Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, that thou hast Hid these things from the Wise, and Prudent; and hast Revealed them unto B [...]bes, M [...]t. 11. 25. O! the marc [...]lesse Priviledge of a right Prophet of the Lord! yea, but of a Child of God! of a very Babe in Grace! That, when Franticke [Page]Enthusiasts shall vainly, and groundlesly, boaste them of their Brain-sicke Revelations; and Worldly Wise-men of their full Magazines of Understanding, and Knowledge; shall onely indeed have the Honour vouchsafed them, of being Privy Counsellours to the great King of Heaven! It is one special Article of Precedence, I finde given to the Study of History, in General, beyonde all other Studies; Lectores suos vates reddit; That it rendereth its Reader [...] Prophets. The observation of the successe, Designes have b [...]en sped of in Times past, may well enable the observers to Presage [Page] how the like shall succeed for the Time to come. But then, the Reading of Holy Histories, of Divine Records, must needes much more be of signal vertue to inspire the Reader [...] with a Prophetique Spirit. And then just reason may St. Paul seeme to have for the magnifying of his Timothy, that, from a childe he [...] hath studied the Holy Sciptures, which are able to make him wise unto Salvation. 1 Tim. 3. 15. So that then, if the Jews, by the Fig trees putting forth her Leaves, could Divine of the Summers neare Approach, Matth. 24. 32. perhaps, out of these sacred Records, some Prognosticks, not improbable, may [Page] bee collected of the neare approach of a Wicked Mans Day. And upon these our parts it shall be to looke, as upon Red Crosses, set on the Doors of Infected Houses; seasonable Items that wee come not near. And as upon Boighs cast out neare the Anchors of Ships, fair Monitours that wee dash not upon them. Of many, (being loath too far to exercise your Patience) I shall onely name a few. The first (as already you have had an intimation) Security. You hear in the Gospel, how suddenly the Rich Co [...]morants pleasing Lullaby, hee singeth to his Soul; Soul, th [...]n hast much Goods laid up for[Page]many years, is, by the Almighty himselfe, intterrupted with a Dolefull Dirge; Thou Fool, this Night shall thy Soule be required of thee, Luke 12. 20. And the Apostle taketh it for an irrefragable conclusion, that, when Men cry Peace, and Safety, then sudden Destruction commeth upon them, like as Travel upon a woman with child; and they shall not escap [...]. 1 Thes. 5. 3 And if, when God calleth to VVeeping and Mourning, to Baldnesse and Sack [...]loth, there shall bee flaying of Oxen, and killing of Sheep, eating Flesh, and drinking Wine, this Iniquity (is the Lords owne expresse word to his people) shall not be purged, [Page]until yee Die, and Perish. Isa. 22. 14. A Mans secure enjoyment of himself, especially in wanton, and Lawless, Practises, is as certaine, and immediate, a Fore [...]unner of D [...]struction, as is the Day [...] of the Suns Appearance. The second, Pride. An Haughty Spirit goeth before a Fall, is a Maxime, the Wise man taketh fo [...] indisputable: Prov. 16. 18. So that then, wher Pride shall o [...]ce be seene, as a Captaine, to March in the Van, little question is there to be made, but that Destruction, as the Lievtenant, will still be sure to Bring up the Rear. And then, if Men shall once begin to say to themselves, as Babylon, [Page] Isa. 14. 13. I will ascend up above the Heighth of the Cloudes; and will be like the Most High; and so shall arrogate unto themselves a Power of being Lords Paramounts of the whole World; and give it Lawes (though as those of D [...]aco) written in Bloud; and shall therefore make no Bones of provoking their most Potent Neighbours to take up Armes for their Defence; the next Newes to be expected is a like Fatall Doom upon the [...] with that upon Babylon; Thou shalt be brought down to Hell, and to the sides of the pit. The third Hardness of Heart. When neither Mercies, nor Judgements, [Page] can reclaim Men from their Enormous courses; but that they shall still resolve to go on, as if they would dare the Almighty to execute ve [...]eance upon them; it is too app [...]rent a symbole that they are given up to a Reprobate sense; and are all this while treasuring up themselues wrath, against the Day of wrath, and the Revelation of Gods Righteous judgements, Rom. 2. 5. If all the plagues wherwith God visiteth Pharaoh; and all the Qualifications of Long-sufferance, hee sweetly tempereth with them, can at last make no impression upon him, then justly doth t [...]e same Lord take up a Resolution, [Page] that in his Destruction he will get him Honour. Exod. 14, The [...]ourth, Fain [...]ness of Spirit; which hath commonly Destitution of Counsel for its inseparable Companion. It is one special Presage of Aegypts Destruction at hand, that her Spirit shall faile in the middest of her, and that her Counsel shall be destroyed. Isa. 19. 3. When Men shall bee surprized with such a Panick Terrour; or rather so pursued with Guilt of Conscience, that (what Zebul sometimes to Gaal [...]. 9. 36. Thou seest the sh [...]es of the Mountains as if they were Men) they shall bee so affrighted with Shadowes, as if they saw an [Page] Army of Resolved Men marching in Battel-array against them; and shall so, by way of a strange kinde of Antiperistasis, encourage the spoyled to come against the Fortresse, as it is Amos 5. 9. but finde none the least Cordial of Counsel in the mean time, for the chearing up their Drooping spirits in the Depth of their Distresse; it cannot now appear a matter of great difficulty, without any great help of Art, to Divine, that the Ruine of such is closely treading upon their Heels. If an Hideons Noise of Trembling come once to be heard in the Campe of the Philistines, they presently melte away, [Page] beating one another. 1 Sam. 14, 15. 16. The fifth, Hy [...] pocrisie. Ye Hypocrites (saith our Saviour to the Pharisees, boasting of their Religious Corban Mat 15. 7.) When the the Word of God must give place (I say not to Mens received Traditions so much as) to their, not to be paralel [...]'d, Self [...] ends; nay, when it shall bee made a stalking-Horse for the compassing of these Self-ends of theirs: such Clay (yea, perhaps I may, not amisse, [...] say Claw) Feet cannot long keep the Head (though it may appeare all of pure Gold) long upon the Shoulders. Every Mans work shall bee made manifest (saith [Page] the Apostle) for there will be a Day, that shall declare it. 1 Cor. 3. 13. The sixth, Oppression▪ When Men shal be practi [...]-sing to appeare such Mighty Nimrods, as to Hunt every man his brother with a Net, then is the Day of their Visitation, and Perplexity at Hand. Mic. 7. Yea, in the same Net, which they have privily [...]aid for others, not seldome, is their own Foot ta [...] ken. Psa. 9. And then, as St. Gregory, Cum sentio poenum, recogito Culpam; When the sense of Punishent may possibly have produced, what the guilt of Fault hath hitherto beene farre from being able to effect, a startling you out of your secure [Page] slumbers, the Confession of, what perhaps by deare-bought Experience you shall then be instructed in; and though, not unlikely,—' [...]; not without some kinde of Reluctance, extorted from you, as from Adonibezek sometime: Jud. 1. 7. as I have done to others, so hath God requited mee: you shall finde to tend no less to the comfort of your owne soules then God [...] Glory. When I heard these things (saith the Prophet) my Belly trembled, my Lips quivered, yea Rottenness entred into my very Bones, that I might find rest in the day of Trouble. Hab. 3. 16. O well is us, and happy [Page] shall we be, if our continual expectance of this Dayes Advent shall affect our soules with a careful Anxiety; that thereby, as the Windes violence by a fair tuft of Trees before an House, the Fury of its Breach being broken, before it break in upon us, at this Days appearance, we may finde Rest in our souls. The seventh (not to trouble you with an Enumeration of further Particulars) the Contempt of Gods faithful Messengers, and Ministers. When Men will be above Ordinances; and, by a Spirit (neither I, nor they, know what) shall assume unto themselves a Gift of Prophesying, before [Page] they are sent; and therefore, for the bringing the Priests Function into contempt, whose Lips ought so to preserve Knowledge, as that the People are (as at an Oracle) to seek the Law at his Mouth onely, for that he is the only true Messenger of the Lord of Hosts, as it is Mal. 2. 7. shall practise the exposing them to the Beggerly Rudiments or Elements (as the Apostle in another case, Gal. 4. 9.) of a Necessitous, and calamitous, condition; that thereby they may be enforced, either to Prophesie Deceits; or be tamely content to have their Tongues finally shut up in silence; this Iniquity shall be unto them as [Page] a Breach, ready to fall, whose Breaking commeth suddenly in an instant. Esa. 30. 13. And therefore the Authour of the Bookes of Sacred Chronicles telleth us of the People, that they Mocked the Messengers of God, and mis-used his Prophets, until the wrath of the Lord arose, and there was no Remedy. 2 Chron. 36. 16. And if Hierusalem shall but so stone the Prophets, as I say not to make Bread of stones for them (a conclusion yet the Devil would sometimes fain have perswaded our Saviour, in his extremity of Hunger, to have tried, Math. the 4. and the 3.) but (like unnatural Parents rather, [Page] Matth. 7. 9.) shall give them stones for Bread; yea, lest even of these, they may chance to make an hard shift to make work for their Teeth, shall finally shut up their Mouths; such Barbarous cruelty is immediately followed with a sentence of Remediless Desolation; Behold! your House is left unto you Desolate, Luk. 13. 34. So that then, see I Men, with Ionah to sleep securely in their Rebellious courses? when they have too just reason to fear, that the Tempest of Gods too justly incensed Displeasure may speedily swallow them up? See I them to stretch their Plumes beyond the compass [Page] of their Nests? and, forgetting the Rock, from whence they are Hewen; and the Pit, out of which they are Digged; to insult over those, God hath placed in an Eminent Sphear above them? See I them turning the Grace of God into wantonness? and to look upon his judgements as no other then Scar-crowes? Bug-bears, meerly made up for the affrighting of children? See I them Machinating to make Machiavel speak the Language of Canaan? Yea to make that Heavenly Language a Gentleman-usher to lead in the most Hellish practises? Nay all Religion, upon the Result, to be concluded to [Page] be nothing but the Spawn of a Poetick Brain? purposely excog [...]tated to keep Men in awe? and to Broke for Politick ends? See I them eating up the people of God daily, as if they would eat Bread? whilest they scarce leave them crums of Bread to eat? but give them up, most mercilesly, to depend upon their Prayers for Daily Bread? To say no more, see I Men practising to leave the Israel of God without a Right-Teaching Prophet? or at best, to propose them to themselves for Trumpets of their own Designes? or else these Trumpets must give, I say not as the Apostle, an uncertain, but no [Page]sound at all? So that the People shall be rather in an imminent [...]eril of a Famine of the Word, then the Accomplishment of their whatever self-ends be crossed, or obstructed? Here (as it is 2 Chron. 15. 7.) no longer may a People look for continuance of Peace; but for all manner of vexations round about them. Except you see Signes (you know, is out Saviours word to the Nobleman of Capernaum) you will not Beleeve. Joh. 4. 48. But then if Men will not Beleeve Signes, what can they be concluded for other then meer Infidels? And with these Signes having laboured, as your Remembrancer, [Page] to Awake you; & as (as St. Iude in the 17. of his Epistle) to save you with Fear; and, to pluck you out of the Fire, before the Flames of Gods Anger grow so intense, that there be none to quench them; however some amongst you may look with a Prejudicate Eye upon, and turn the Deaf Ear unto, such Plain dealing Tell-Troths; Ora, Dei jussu, non unqu [...]m credita; and so, by Gods just judgement, shall have your Eares heavy, and your Eye; [...]hut up; lest seeing with your Eyes, and Hearing with your Eares, you should bee converted and H [...]aled, as it is, Esa. 6. 10. just reason, in [...]he [Page] mean time, I take up a confidence, that (what St. Paul some [...]times to his Ephefian Elders, Acts 20.) I am Pure from the Bloud of all Men; for that I have not s [...]unned to declare unto you the whole counself of God. And then (as our Prophet Ps. 55) O! that I have wings like a D [...]ve! for then would I make haste to escape, because of the stormy Winde, and Tempests! What great reason that our soules look out for Doves wings? Radit iter liquidum; wherewith we be farre from Hovering over out old sensual lusts? but flying away with all possible speed? that (as the Apostle, 1 Thes. 5. 4.) that Dreadfull[Page]Day overtake us not as a Thie [...]? Certainly, high time can we not but conclude it for us to run (as the same Apostle adviseth Heb. 12. 1.) with Patience, and yet with cheerfulnes too, the Race that is set before us. At least (as is the word of him, that is the Light of the world, Joh. 12. 35.) to walke, while we have Light, lest darkness come upon us; for that it is but a very little while, that wee are to expect this Light with us. Yea for that (as it is Jer. 6. 4.) wee cannot but clearly discover, how far the Day, even the Day of Grace, is spent; and how the shadows of the Evening, of the Evening [Page] of Ignorance, yea and Vengeance too, are still every Minute, stretching them out more signally over us. And indeed, there are but two Dayes (as already you have had intimated) or rather a Day and a Night, that dichotomize the whole life of Man; the Day of Grace; and the Day, or rather Night, of Vengeance. And now, shall wee so farre turne Gods Grace into wantonnes, as to spend the Day assigned unto this Grace, in worldly Lusts, in sensual Pleasures, in the Pressures of our poor Brethren; whose cries, though they cannot open our Eares, yet will they be sure, sooner or later, [Page] to enter into the Eares of the Lord of Sabbath; great reason, that, in Anguish of Spirit, we still conceive, we hear a voice speaking unto us, not unlike that in the Prophet, Ezech. 7. The morning is come upon thee, the Day of trouble is near; at least as that, in that other Prophet, Esay 21. The Morning commeth, and also the Night. Let it then be our care to walk in a true, sincere, and unfeigned Reformation of Life, whilst the Light of this Day of Grace lasteth; whilest the Sunne of Righteousness therein, with the Gladsome, though but now Gl [...]mering▪ Beames of his countenance, shineth out upon [Page] us. And, then whilest Darkness, overshadowing the Drowsie, and secure; [...], as Diogines sometime to his Physitian, upon his Death-bed; when, after a short sleep, hee demanded of him how he did; one sleep, and so Darkness, shall prove unto them nothing else but the Fore [...]runner of another; a Spiritual of an Eternal sleep, and Darkness; the Day of Grace, shall we circumspectly walke in the Light thereof, we shall finde to be but the Prologue of another unto us; and that more Bright, and Lightsome, Day, even the Day of Glory; a Day, which shall need [Page] neither Sunne, nor Moon, for the Enlightning it; but the Glory of God, and the Lamb, shal [...] be its Light; to the happy contemplation, and Fruition, whereof, in thy good time, O LORD, bring every one of us; and to this purpose grant, that the words, which we have this day heard with our outward Eares, &c.

FINIS.

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GODS PROVIDENCE As [...]erted:

In another SERMON; Preached at St. Butt [...]lphs Aldersgate London, near about the same time, as the former, and by the same Authour.

1 PET. 5. 7. Cast all your Care upon him; for he careth for you.

AUG. Qui curam tui habuit, antequam esses, quomodo curam tui non habebit, cum sis quod voluit ut esse [...]?

Printed for the Author. 1656.

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To the Reader.

READER,

SHall I finde thee, this in captious Age, but un-biassed, or unprejudicate, I shall look upon thee as upon some Rare Philippian, in the midst of a crooked, and Perverse Generation. If Capricious, and Censorious, I meet with no worse Measure then I look for, in these Dayes, wherein Ignorance, and, its inseparable companion, Impu [...]dence, are every Day Riding in their Triumphant Chariots of Countenance, and Encouragement; [Page] whilest Pure, Orthodoxe, Knowledge is still Quarelled, and Censured; and therefore is fain, as a poor Pedee, to stand upon its weak Guard of Vindication. And this is the sole Ground of the Publication of these Ensuing Treati [...]es; for that some Black Mouths, which have none, the l [...]ast, appearance of Ca [...]dour in them, have, Eo Nomine, Traduced them; for that they have too closely Troden upon the Heels of Truth. However, the observance of the wind of any Mans Breath, though never so strong, and Poisonous, shall in no wise discourage me from sowing me Righteousness; however an Harvest of Mercy, [Page]yea but of Justice, may not yet perhaps bee expected by mee. Mean while, as I know, that the Sermons, Preached, sufficiently justifie God the Father, in his Providence; and God the Sonne in his Just Proceedings: So am I confident, that Printed, they will vindicate, the Author, in the Eyes of all Sober-Minded Men, against all calumnious Aspersions. So that, he, that by the Malevolo's of the Time, whilest he is overshadowed with the Dark cloud of their Black Censure, may appear a Monstrous Bug bear, shall (not unlikely yet) in these poore Peices, when they shall come to be exposed to the Light of Publike [Page] View, not be conceived to be of so Dread [...]ul a shape. Who, what ever he may appear, is far from professing himself

Thine, longer then thou art Truths; T. B.

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Psal. 147. 9. The latter part of the Verse.‘Aud feedeth the young Ravens; that call upon him.’

THis Psalm, by the consent of all Interpreters, is concluded to have [...] Hallelujah for its Title. And (will wee hear Apollinarius?) [...] ▪ jointly, and entirely, chanted out by the Prophets Zachary, and [Page] Haggee, at the Re-edification of the City, and Instauration of the Temple; at least at their clear prevision, and prediction, of this so Glorious a work, as either. Each Verse is as a fresh Incentive to the iteration of this Hallelujah; and so to the perpetuation of the work of Gods praise; every one containing in it a new Arg [...]ment, for this Duties enforcement. Whereof this pregnant instance of his careful Providence, for those of the Meanest, and least of Dignity in his Family (which just reason we entertain for a strong pledge of the care, he will still be sure to take, for the preservation [Page] of his Church, and chosen; yea their reparation out of their Ruines, yea Dust, they may possibly be brought unto) we have here in the Text, is not the least. And feedeth the young Ravens, that call upon him.

The Text then you cannot but see what a soveraign Cordial it hath in it, for the comforting, and supporting, the hearts of Gods People, in any, the greatest, extremity; as having in it a strong Argument, enforcing his Political, from the consideration of his Oec [...] nomical, Care; not unlike that, our Saviour, using this very instance of the Text, a Minori[Page]ad Majus, presseth upon his Disciples, Math. 6. 26. If God so feed the Fowles of the Ayr, are not you much better then these? Wherein, I shall onely commend unto your Observations these two Generals;

The
Master, and his Care.

Family, and their Duty.

The Master we have here pointed out unto us in the Conjunction [And] where the Pronoun [He] is to bee resumed. And He.

His Care, in the word Feeding; And he Feedeth.

The Family, whereof those of the lowest Degree onely, we here meet with specified, [Page] are the young Ravens.

And the Duty of these Servants, is to Call upon this their Master. A [...]d Feedeth the young Ravens, that Call upon him.

To begin at the Right end, with the Master of the Family, [...], you know, is St. Iames his word; Every Good, and Perfect, Gift is from Above, comming down from the Father of Lights. Jam. 1. 17. Quod dat Esse, dat conservare, is the Old Rule. The same Cause, that gave us Being, before we were, provideth likewise for the Maintainance of our Being, now we Are. Philosophy may suggest unto us, that it is the exquisite Temper [Page] of the Elements in our Bodies, that prolongeth our Dayes. Astrology may teach us, that they are the happy Positions, and Aspects, of the Stars, that make us Fortunate in our Designes. But Divinity in the mean time, upon which all other Arts, and Sciences (as the Virgins upon the Kings Daughter, Psal. 45. 15.) are, as Handmaids to attend; informeth us, of a [...]; a God, that guideth, and governeth, all these second Causes; and (with Pharaoh's Magicians, Exod. 8. 19.) putteth us in Minde of Digitus Dei; the Finger of this Great God, that pointeth out unto [Page] us his powerful Presence, and Presidence, in the midst of all Events. I form the Light, and create Darknsfs, is his owne word, Esa. 45. 7.) As there is no Evil of punishment (for it is that Evil onely, which, without Blaspheming his Honour, [...]ee can father upon him) so much less any Good of recompence, or reward, that I may so speak (yea so, after his own Example, speak I may; Feare not Abraham, saith himself, for I am thine exceeding great reward. Gen. 15. 1.) as no Misery, so much less Mercy; but hath its original Being from his Hand. If Iob, in the Chaldees theft; [Page] if David, in Shemei's scurrilous language; could looke higher; the one then the plundering Fingers of the one; the other, then the others Foul unhallowed Mouth; nay, if all the Saints of God, not in the Blessings onely, whereof they are daily sensible; but in all their Crosses and Calamities, wherewith at times they are Afflicted; not regarding so much subordinat Instruments, have still, principally at least, had recourse unto this Hand; how well shall it become us, nay how necessary shall it appear for us, in the Blessings, and Benefits, that are every Morning, renewed upon us, whether [Page] it be in the Clouds dropping Fat [...] e [...]s; in the Earths bringing forth her Encrease; in the raising u [...] up Friends for the sustaining us with daily bread; to look up unto the Hils from whence commeth our Help? And, for wh [...]ever Benefits, or Blessings, we may stand in need, or be [...], of, to send up, both our Prayers, and praises, unto him, from whom they orig [...]nally descend; as doth our Prophet here: He Feedeth the young Ravens.

—Labor improbus omnia vincit; that nothing is too hard for hard Labour to master, as it was the position of an Heathen, so was it a meer Heathen [Page] position. Much more of Divine Truth is there in that of that other Poet, ‘Heu nihil invitis, fas quenquam fidere Divis;’ without a Fiat from Heaven, no hope is there of the happy Accomplishment of any Designe upon Earth. And to this true pricked Note, strange may it not seem to hear our sweet-singer tuning his Melodious voice in Consort, Psal. 127▪ 1. Except the Lord build the House, it is but lost labour of them, that build it. It is not thy rising early that can make thee Rich; not the barring of thy Gates, that can make thee safe: not a League with all the Elements [Page] in the world, with the Stones of the street, with the Beasts of the Field, yea with Death, and Hell it self, that can secure thee; unless it shall please the Lord to take thee into his Protection; and to safe-guard thee under the shadow of his Wings. So that then, beest thou Poor, let thine eyes prevent the Morning-watch; let all things be hushed up in the deep silence of the Night, before thou betakest thee to repose: and let the Labour of thine Hands, during all this time, be altogether restless, for the sustenence of thee, and thy Family: yet shall it not please the Lord to prosper [Page] thine endeavours with a Blessing, Wages maist thou earn; but put them in a broken Bag, as it is, Hag. 1. 6. yea, thou shalt be followed with a curse worse then that of thy first Father, Adam. Gen. 3. 19. So that [...]n the ex [...]reamest sweat of thy Brow, thou shalt not be able to eat thy Bread. If thou beest Rich, manage thine Esta [...]e to the best advantage; use all meanes possible for the [...]nhaun [...]ing of thy Fort [...]nes; though [...]y even raking Hell for projects, and plots, to this purpo [...]e; and then this no marva [...]l if it shall bee oftent [...]mes with the B [...]ne o [...] thy Brother; the spoil of the Church, thy [Page] Spiritual; and the Ruines of thy Natural; Mother, thy Country: and now Fee all the Oracles of the Law, for the fast Rivering, and Setling of whatever, by Hook, or Crook, thou hast gotten together, yea, [...]ake Physick, when thou art sick, cloaths, when thou art cold; Bread, when thou art Hungry: ye [...] shall all thy counsel, like that of Achitophel, 2 Sa. 15. 31. be [...]urned into Foolishness; thy Ph [...]s [...]ck prove li [...]e that of As [...]hs, 2. Chron. 16. 12. not able to preserve thee from a lingring Death: thy clothes like Davids in his old age, 1 King. 1. 1. not able to keep thee warm: thy Bread like that Bread of [Page] Deceit, in the Wise man. Pro. 20. 17. which shall fill thy mouth with nothing but Gravel; unless it shall please the Lord to quicken these, otherwise dead, Meanes with a vertuous efficacy. Yea, he that is Agens Liberrimum, of all Agents the Freest, and so may indulge, or deny, Life, when▪ and where he pleaseth, unto Means: no reason that wee distrust, but that without meanes, above meanes, against means, he is able to provide for us. without means, He giveth light the three first Dayes, without the Sun, Gen. 1. 2. And causeth Herbs, and Plants, to Grow, without Rain, Gen. 2. 16. notwithstanding [Page] that either of these are the ordinary means of eithers production. Above meanes; Hee maketh a little Meal, and Oyl, to sustain the Widow and the Prophet, for a long time, 1 King. 17. And the Brighthess of his Fathers Glory Feedeth no less then Five thousand Persons, with no more then five Loaves, and two Fishes, Matt [...]. 14. Against meanes; The Israelites, when they are stung with Fiery Serpents (notwithstanding that the sight of Brass is naturally present death unto such, as some of the learned Rabbius have observed) are yet healed by the bare sight of the Brazen Serpents, Num. 21. [Page] And Spittle, and Clay, things, in themselves likely to put out the Eyes of him that seeth, are yet by our Saviour, used, as a meanes, for the Cure of the Man▪ that is born blinde, Ioh. 9. So that then, just reason may this same Saviour of ours seem to have for [...]is Answer to the Devil, when, [...] the satisfaction of his Hu [...]er, in his extreme necessi [...]y, he would have perswade [...] him to make Bread of stones, Mat [...]h 4. Man liveth not by Bread onely, but by every Word, that proc [...]eth out of the mouth of God. Yea, and no less our Prophet here, for the entituling of the Lord to the preservation of the young Ravens, [Page] when their Parents, which should, by the Law of Nature, afford them sustenance, desert them. And Feedeth the young Ravens.

In the mean time, as the Philosopher, by his immoderate disswasion of the fear of death, occasioned some preposterou [...]ly, and prematurely, to cast away their lives: and, as some unskilful Physitians, whilst they labor to comfort the stomack, not seldome enflame the Liver: I would not willingly have any so farre misconstrue me, as to conceive that, whilst I minde you of a necessity of Gods Blessing upon your endeavours, I would work in you [Page] a careles neglect of the means; as if his providence were a sufficient warrant to make you improvident: or his working in your Actions a protection for your Oscitancy, and Idlenes. What Metellus sometimes spake of his many False Gods, of our onely True God is most sure, and certain: I isdem Deos Propitios esse aequum est, qui fibi non snnt Inimici: He will be a Friend to those onely, that are not Enemies to themselves. That general resolution of the Spartans therefore just reason that every one of us, in our several Stations, take up; Admotam manu Fortunam invocare: first to pray to God for a Blessing [Page] upon our Designes, and then to use the Meanes, which God hath appointed to that purpose. And as the Israelites, do the Work with one Hand, and hold the Sword with the other, whilest they are Repairing the Temple, Neh. 4. 18. with one of our Hands still are we to be conversant about the workes of our Calling; whilest with the other, we are lifting up the Sword of Prayer, for a Blessing upon these workes of ours. Naaman is assured, by the Prophet, that he shall be cured of his Leprosie; yet must he go, and wash in Jordan seven times 2. Kin. 5. Hez [...]kiah that hee shall recover of his sickness; [Page] yet must hee apply a Bunch of Figs to his s [...]re, [...]a. 38. Paul, that hee shall come [...] to Rome; but then may not any one of them, that are embarqued, in a fancied hope of safety, forsake the Ship, Act. 27. The summe is, as we are not to lye sullen in a Ditch, looking to be drawn out by others: not so carelesly, and retchlesly, to cast our Care upon God, as to neglect the Meanes, which hee hath appointed: so are we neither to be such Idolaters of second-Causes, as to kiss our owne Hands; to sacrifice to our own Nets; no [...] to make our own Counsels, or Endeavours, [Page] the sole Ground of our Confidence; which, without a Blessing from the Highest, cannot in the least measure avail us. But, as they say o [...] Quail [...], that, whilest one of their Wings may perhaps be a little drenched in the Sea, the other still beareth up towards Heaven: whilest one of our Hands is solici [...]ously intent upon the workes of our Vocation, still is the other to be l [...]ted up to Heaven for a Benediction; that we have such respect unto second Causes, that st [...]ll we remember, that the due ordering, and disposing, them commeth from the First, that is here emidently said to Feed the [Page]young Ravens, that call upon him.

To seal up this point in a word, look how some exquisite picture of a Dear Friend, which he hath left with us, still, upon sight thereof, reneweth in us the Memory of him that left it: in like manner ought every Blessing, wee expect, or enjoy (Iupiter est quodcunque vides—as in every of these clearly may wee discerne the Lineaments of such a picture) still minde us (as the Romish Church pretendeth to use her pictures) of praising that God, and praying unto him, whose pictures they are. 'Ex [...]; let God still have the [Page] first place in our Thoughts; yea, let him still, by us, be acknowledged, what he proclaimeth himself to be, Apoc. 1. 8. A and [...] the Sea, from which the Source of all Blessings is originally derived upon us; and unto whom therefore the Rivolets of our praise are Finally to return.

Laboret Superbus, saith M. Aurelius, in an Epistle of his to the King of Sicily; Let the Proud, and Envious, travail as much as they will; and the Ambitious sore as high as he can; yet of little avail will all Humane Diligence at last appear, without Divine Assistance. So that then, finde wee [Page] our Garners stored with plenty? Our Bags stuffed with Coin? Our Tables served with all manner of varieties? And all things succeeding according to our h [...]arts desires? Shall we now say as N [...]buchadnezzar, Dan. 4. 30. Are not these the great Babels, which I have built with the strength of mine own Arm? No, rather as good old Iacob, Gen. 32. 10. (a consideration the new upstarts of our times you may observe studiously to banish their Memories) in Humility of Spirit, acknowledge wee, I am not worthy the least of thy Mercies; with my st [...]ffe, the staffe of a Despicable Fortune, came [Page] I over this Jordan; from this or that mean Beginning; and now I am become two Bands; I am arrived to this higth of condition. Disclaim we whatever Power, or Efficacy, Flesh and Bloud may assume to it self; and ascribe we unto God the Glory of what ever Blessings we enjoy; Non nobis, Domine, non nobis; Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name, give the Praise. The same (He) is the God, from whom commeth salvation, Psal. 68. 20. The same (He) that buildeth his stories in the Heavens; that hath founded his Troops in the Earth, and calleth for the waters of the [Page] Sea, and powreth them out upon the Face of the Earth, Amos 9. 6. that here Feedeth the young Ravens, that call upon him

Which fi [...]ly bringeth mee from the contemplation of the Person of the great Master (He) unto the Care of his Family; which wee have in the word Feeding. He feedeth.

That, which Philosophy determineth to be the Place of Vertue, that Divinity would would have to be the Center forou [...] Desires to rest in; the Middle, and Mean betwixt two Extremes. Tutius v [...]ves— is the Lyriques sage Note, and Caution, to his Licinius: [Page]

Best live we, when we launch not into th' Deep;

Nor to the Shore too closely d [...] we keep.

Ne (que) Nimis, ne (que) nihil; He, that is, neither lift up with Abundance, nor pressed down with Want, without all question, liveth in the best Estate. Abundance is the Mother of Presumption; Want of Despair. Abundance of Envy, want of Contempt. Abundance of prodigal Licentiousness, want of excessive Carfulness. Abundance of Apostacy from God, want of taking Gods Name in vain; as the Prophet Agur elegantly, Prov. 30. 9. Looke wee but into the exteriour [Page] Cloister of Nature, for Natural subsistences; and there shal we finde Plants, if too Little, or too Much, watered, to Die; if Indifferently, to Thrive, and Pr [...]sper. Listen wee to the great Ethique Master for Morals, and hee will tell us: [...]; that Excess is incident to Transgression; Defect to Prevarication; Medioc [...]ity the onely Conduit-pipe of true Comfort and Contentation. To silence many things, to this purpose, might be heaped up, send we but our Eys, and Ears, to the Experience, whether of our selves, or others; and how [Page] true shall we prove of all, for the general, what Germanicus, in Tacitus, sometimes spake of the Chatti: Pavidi adversis, inter secundas, non Divini, n [...]n Humani, juris Memores? That in Adversity they are Fearful; in Prosperity unmindeful of the Laws, both of God, and Man? Nay, let me but appeal to the consciences of you, that have too Little (as you are too prone uncessantly to cōplain) whether the immoderate Care of compassing of the things of this Life, drive you not sometimes to take, at least to think of, sinister, and indirect projects, and practices: of you, that have more then enough [Page] your selves (a proportion yet, few will be drawn to acknowledge; scarce one of a thousand can speak this language of Canaan) whether the care of Disposing of what you have gotten, Distract you not as much as the other care of Getting; whether an Extremity, of either side, withdraw you not equally from the ser [...] vice of God. And yet, how true appeareth it of more then a good many of us, that which the Satyrist sometimes spake of the Romans: Prima fere vota—

The Prayers, that, most frequently resound

Within our Temples, are that [Page] wealth abound?

We enlarge our Desires, like Hell; like the Grave, we are never satisfied: nothing within the Orbicular compass of the World, can fill up the Dimensions of our Triangular hearts. Some are covetous Spend-thrifts; some are covetous Hold fasts. Some desire Abundance of this Worlds Goods, meerly to Hoord it up; dealing with their Mammon, as the two Giants sometime with Mars; first, they lock it fast, and then they worship it. Others hearts earn after, Superfluity, either to Riot it in Excess, and Surquedry; to Rusfle it in Bravery; to Lavish [Page] it out profusely upon their Minions, and Servants; the most Politique, for the purchase of what ever Accursed things. And so as David used Murther for a Pander to his Adultery: these make their Covetise a Broker for their Prodigality, yea all manner of Villany.

—O Prodiga rer um

Luxuries, nunquam Parvo contenta—

O that of our Dayes Prodigal Luxury!

Which Natures Little cannot satisfie!

Quomodo concedet, quae Rogas, quae, si habeas, jubet ut contemnas? is a seasonable Contemplation [Page] of St. Chrysostome, by the way: How thinkest tho [...] (saith he) that God shall hear thee, when thou prayest for Superfluity, which, when thou shalt have it in thy possession, hee wisheth thee to contemn? How shall it stand with his Honour to gratifie thee with those things, in the use whereof he knoweth that thou wilt Dishonour him? The Egyptians, that, like Tongue-less men (the sad Fate of many a true Israelite, yea voice of the Lord, in these Dayes of ours) delivered all by signes, whi [...]h they termed Hieroglyphiques, were wont to clap a Bushel upon the head of the Sunne, to intimate the [Page] measure, that even in the best things is to be observed. Our Saviour, in that his Absolute Form of Prayer, dictated to his Disciples, prescribeth the utmost Bounds, our Desires are in no wise to exceed; Give us this Day our daily bread, Luk. 11. 3. Certainly, that of the Apostle, 1 Tim. 6. 8. just reason we entertain for a Liberal gloss upon that our Saviours Text; Having Food, and Raiment, let us therewith bee content. Certainly, a soul seasoned with the least moderation, cannot but highly approve of that Dimensum, cut out by the Poet, as a very fair one: [Page]

Si Ventri bene, si Latere, Pedibus que tuis, nil

Divitiae poterunt Regales addere majus:

If Belly, Sides, and Feet, be well at [...]ase,

A Princes Treasure cannot better please.

Apuleius his advise, to this purpose, is no less Elegant, then Apposite; Fortunam velut Tunicam proba▪ magis Concinnam, quam Longam; Conceive of thy Fortune as of thy Coat; which is then best made up, when it is rather Decent, for the fitting of thy Body, then over-long, for the fettering of thine Heels. And that weltempered Affection of that [Page] other Heathen, in this case, may well serve to prescribe to the best Christians imitation; [...].

Enamour'd I am not of spacious Fie [...]ds,

Nothing too much to me much comfort yeilds.

The whole scope of that our Saviours Parable of the Rich Cormorant in the Gospel, whose preproperous jewelling of the Fruits of his field, and so reckoning without his Host, as wee say, is met with by a sharp counterblast from the Almighty, is but Emblematically to demonstrate (as you may see) that Mans Lise [Page] consisteth not in the Abundance of those things, he possesseth, Luke 12. 15. Alas, my Beloved! shall wee measure our Happiness meerly by those things, that are before us, how much wiser shall we approve our selvs then country people, at a Puppet-play; which stand gazing, with Admiration, upon the strange Motion of the Puppets; but never think of the man, that moveth them from within the Engine? And so (as our Prophet of the Proud, Psal▪ 10. 4.) God, upon the Result, is not, all this while, in our Thoughts? who yet onely is that Spirit, that giveth Energy, and Efficacy, unto [Page] whatever Blessings we enjoy? That word of the Philosopher, in this sence, therefore may justly challenge our best Attention, and consideration; Ingredimini; sunt hic quoque Dii; in every of the Blessings, we are daily sensible of, our parts it shall be still to contemplate his Power, and Goodness; for that in every of these it is easie to discern the God. head. Christ, by the Apostle, is termed the Fulness of him that filleth All in All, Ephes. 1. 23. So that then he that filleth All in All▪ and of whose Fulness Christ himself receiveth, is onely God. He it is, that can, as make Daniel look [Page] Fuller, and Fairer, with Pulse, and Water, then all the Children, that eate of the Kings Meat, and Drink of his Wine, Dan. 1. 15. so send an Atrophy with the choisest Viands: as he sometimes dealt with the Israelites, Psal. 106. 15. He gave them their Desires (saith our Prophet) but sent leanness withall into their soules. For mine own part (as I have just reason) I shal for ever publish, and proclaim, unto the world, that I never saw Gods Providence so cleerly, as since the time I have seen least of my visible, & Legal, Means. At least, that he h [...]th raised me up such Meanes, as I had never the [Page] least reason to hope for. Yea, since my Afflictions hath wrought in me some weak Desires (let me be interpreted, as God knoweth, I speak, without ostentation) to please him, I have found some, that formerly have been mine enraged Enemies, not to bee at Peace onely with mee; but to have abounded in pregnant symboles of fast Friendship towards me. And then, as we finde the case to stand with Ioseph; the bright Appearance of Gods Providence in his Eye so darkeneth the sight of his Brethrens Malitious practises, as doth the Sun that of the Lesser Stars, that now, in conclusion, he [Page] telleth them; It is not you, that sent me hither, but God, Gen. 45. 8. Gods Hand, in the working of second Causes (as Ezechiels Hand from under the wings of the Cherubims, Ezech. 1. 8.) ought still so conspicuously, upon all Emergencies, to appear unto us, as that they then still appear least in sight. So that then, as Samuel, having received a Commission from the Lord, for the Anointing one of Iesse's [...]ons King over his People, and, for a time, not a little, perplexed about the choise of the Person, hath David at last pointed out unto him, 1 Sam. 16. 12. in the perusal of the Range, and Series, [Page] of all second Causes, our parts it shall bee still signally to print, and pitch, upon this [He] as the Great, wheel that setteth those Lesser a work; and here, by way of Eminence, is said to Feed the young Ravens.

Which fitly bringeth mee from the Contemplation of the Person of the Master, and his Care; unto that of those of the Meanest quality in the Family, the young Ravens. And [...]eedeth the yo [...]ng Ravens.

It is our Prophets word of the Great Master of this his Numerous Family of the world. Psal. 104. 28. He openeth his hand, and filleth all[Page]things living with plenteousness. So Hospital, and Magnificent, is he, that he shutteth not up his Gates against Rich, or Poor; but keepeth open House to all commers. And this if he appear careful, that the very Dogs bee not bar'd their crumbs, as the Canaanitish woman sometimes, in that her Pathetical Debate with our Saviour, Matth. 15. 27. will hee not much more (thinke wee) carefully provide, that the children be accommodated with the portions of Olive branches? And, (as this Master himself to his Disciples, instancing in these very Ravens, in the Text here [Page] specified, Luk. 12. 24.) if he Feed them, what just reason wee account our selves of an higher Estimate with him then they? St. Chrysost [...]m hath observed of the Raven, that, of all Creatures, she is Notoriously [...]; void of Natural Affection; as leaving her young ones, as soon as they are Hatched; neglecting in the least measure to provide for their sustenance. And then, well might the same Father magnifie Gods Mercy, and Loving kindeness, towards Elijah, as Miraculous, 1 King. 17. 6. that he should Feed him by Ravens; Creatures, Naturally so unnatural, that they neglect [Page] to Feed their own young. And that therefore this Great Master, for the supply of their negligence of Parental Care, Feedeth them; either with certain little Flies, as the abovepraised Chrysostome, or as Cassiodore, with the Dew of Heaven. St. Gregory layeth down the time, and withall giveth the Reason, of this the Ravens unnatural Deportment towards their young: for that (saith he) as long as they are but covered with their skin, or but spoon feathered, they are yet of a diverse colour from themselves; and so, having hitherto no Appearance but of a Bastard Brood, hee would have [Page] them to be the less Faulty, shal they all this while prove Remiss in providing for them. And this is that, which hee would have, not obscurely, intimated by the picture of Patience, 38. of his Booke 41. Who provideth for the Raven his Food, when their young ones cry unto God? they wander, for lack of Meat. A lively Emblem of the Black Prince of Darkness, and his Proselytes, that will not countenance, or encourage, any, as long as they have about them the white of Innocence; untill they see upon them a Deep Tincture of their own Native Blackness. Nay, shall any appear but of [Page] grisled Hew, but Neutrally affected towards the Gude Cause; and come not out to help the Lord against the Mighty; as, for a long time they have had; so have they still, a Curse ye Me [...]oz in store, to be Thundered out against them. If the Daughter shall not appear, in every Lineament to resemble the Mother, as it is Ezek. 16. 44. shee shall utterly be disclaimed by her for her Daughter. But, when there shall be like People, like Priest, as it is Hos. 4. 9. when both shall consort in a cursed Harmony to bring in Anarchy, and Confusion, into a Church, and State; this Damnable Sympathy shal [Page] so unite their Hearts, that the Lame shall so far Direct the Blinde, and the Blinde support the Lame, till at last it may be Feared, or Hoped for rather, that both may fall into the Pit of Destruction. Nor may it escape us without special observation, that they are young onely, and not the old over-grown, Ravens, that God is here said thus Emphatically to Feed. Those old Birds of Rapine, that are perfect in the Trade of Preying for themselves; that make no Distinction of the Flesh of Men, of Wormes, of Flyes, of Fruits, of Seeds (as the Naturallists observe of these Birds) but [Page] pel-mell flye at all, whatever Goods, or Possessions, though even of the Church, the Poor, yea their own Nearest Relations; to Gorge, and Glut, their Insatiate appetite withall; they are not of this Masters Feeding; as being no part of his Family. But when my Father, and Mother, Forsake mee (saith our Prophet) the Lord Taketh me up, Psal. 27. 10. Those, that are left Destitute of all Humane Support; and that even by those, that, by all obligations, both of God, and Nature, are to afford them their best Helping-hands; especially, shall they, in this their sad condition, still appear with [Page] their white Livery of Inno [...]cence about them; those onel [...] owneth he for his Care, an [...] Charge. Nor is it otherwis [...] with this Great Master, for hi [...] Occononomy, and Dispensati [...] on, for Spirituals, then Tem [...]porals. Those, that will be s [...] far their own Carvers, as t [...] Heap up unto themselves Tea [...]chers, as it is 2 Tim. 4. 3. they are as little of this Great Masters Teaching, as are the othe [...] of his Feeding. But Receive [...] with Meekness (saith St. Iames the engra [...]ted Word, which is a [...]ble to save your Souls, Jam. 1. 2 [...] It is the word, not that grow [...]eth up of the wilde stock o [...] an Irregular, B [...]ain-sick, uncommissioned, [Page] Fancy; but what is Graffed by the true, and skilful, Husbandman, lawfully called by the Master into the Orchard of his Church; whereby this Great Master cherisheth, and nurseth up, a soul unto salvation. I lift not [...]ere to fly out into Tropologi [...]al Excursions; as that Christ should be this Raven; not onely for that hee is Black; and this, not in regard onely of the similitude of his sinful flesh; but of the Rage of Persecution, which, for the whole time of his mortal pilgrimage here upon Earth, might justly seem to Dis-colour him (for which cause his Spouse, the Church, [Page] is said to be Black too, Cant. [...] 5.) but for that his voice [...] that of the Raven likewise [...] Cras, To-morrow; for th [...] hereafter his servants are t [...] expect their Reward. You sha [...] be comforted; you shall ob [...]tain mercy; you shall be cal [...]led the children of God; is h [...] Promise to his Disciples, hi [...] Sermon upon the Mount throughout. And therefor [...] that word of his Father Iaco [...] to Laban, Gen. 30. 33. ma [...] well seem to become him, tha [...] is Born of his Seed; My righ [...]teousness shall answer for me [...]time to come: or (as it is in th [...] Margent) to-Morrow. But forbear further to enquire in [...] [Page] [...]o this the Masters care, in this way of his Provision for this part of his Family. That they [...]ee in some good measure Taught, as well as Fed, I shall onely, in one word, leave them a short Lesson of their Duty towards this Master of theirs, which is their Calling upon him, and so take leave, both of them, and you. And Feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him.

They are gracious Articles of a Covenant, that the Lord is pleased to enter with his People. Psal. 81. 11. Open thy Mouth wide, and I shall fill it. We justly account it an easie way of compassing a Blessing, [Page] when we may have it for Ask [...]ing. Our way of being spe [...] of any Favour at the Almigh [...]ties hands is no more Difficult. It is bu [...] Ask, and Have; but opening our Mouth, and we shall be sure to have it filled▪ If the Widow had not wanted Vessels, whose mouthes shee might have opened, and so filled, she had never wanted Oyl, 2 King. 4. 7. If Ioash, with his Arrows, had smitten upon the ground six, or seven, times, whereas he smote but thrice, he had smitten Syria until hee had utterly consumed it, 2 Kin. 13. 19. If we finde our selves, at any time, destitute of any Blessing, we would fain bee [Page] provided of, none shall wee have reason to blame but our selves, that are remiss in the Duty of opening our Mouths in Prayer. No reason that we charge the Almighty, that is still ready to do exceeding abundantly above all, that we can Ask, or Think, Ephes. 3. 20. And yet would I not willingly be so far mis-interpreted, as that heereby you should bee induced to conceive, that I intend so far to elevate Prayer beyond the proper Sphere of its Activity, as to conclude that [...]here is no Mercy to be had at Gods hands without its previous Mediation. And it shall come to pass (is his own word [Page] to his People) that before they call, I will answer; and, whil'st they are yet speaking, I will hear, Isa. 65. 24. And our Saviours wo [...]d of his Father is, that he knoweth what things, we have need of, before wee Ask, Matth. 6. 8. Onely, as a great Prince will not abate of the least punctilio of Homage from the meanest of his Subjects: Beneficium propter Officium; this Great King of Heaven ordinarily granteth not any Boon to any of his Subjects, unless he hath first the Homage of Prayer duly paid him. We see here the condition, is expected the young Ravens should perform; and that [Page] is calling upon him; or else, in their greatest Extremity, they may miss of their feeding by him. And Feedeth the young Rivens, that call upon him.

Now God is called upon, not in the Litteral accent of Prayer onely; but in a Metaphorical likewise; and that both of Tears, and Distress. Of Tears first. Interdum Lachrymae pondera vocis habent: Tears are not alwayes Mutes, with the Almighty; but Vowels rather stil, as wel as Liquids. For this cause the Mourning Prophet calleth our unto the people; Ne taceat pupilla oculitui: Let not the apple of thine Eye cease, Lam. 2. 18. Upon [Page] which words Bellarmine (more temperate in his Contemplations then Controversies) Clames assidue ad Deum; non Lingua, sed Oculis; non Verbis, sed Lachrymis; ista enim est oratio, quae Deum placare solet: Cry aloud (saith he) not with thy Tongue, but with thine Eyes; not with thy words, but with thy tears; for that is the prayer, that maketh the most forcible entry into the Ears of the Great God of Heaven. Certainly, as Olympias sometimes of Antipater, when hee had written her a long Letter, fraught with most unjust Aspersions upon her son, Alexander; Ignorare videtur Antipater,[Page]quod una Matris L [...] chrymula centum delebit Epistolas: Antipater (saith she) seemeth to be ignorant, that the least tear of a Mother is able wash out the stains of the foulest calumnies against a Son: let the Devil, in the most malitious manner, present our Heavenly Father with the most Black, and Liberal, Catalogue of our sins; one Tear yet of a truly penitent Soul shall be of vertue to Bl [...]t out all, when the times of Refreshing shall come from his gracious presence.

Nor yet is God less effectually called upon in the Metaphorical accent of Distress then [Page] of Tears. Out of the Deeps have I called unto thee O Lord, saith our Prophet, Psal. 130. 1. Nay, One Deep calleth upon another, because of the Noise of the Water pipes; all thy waves, and stormes, are gone over me, Psal. 42. 9. That portion then, that Achsah, Calebs Daughter, desireth of her Father, Vpper, and Nether Springs, Jo [...]. 15. 19. may well seem to be the portion, that every childe of God, whilest he liveth here upon earth, is to expect from his Heavenly Father. This appeareth signally to be our Prophets portion here. And therefore justly fihde we him complaining of the water pipes, issuing out of [Page] the upper-springs of Affliction, as Rain from the Clouds, powred down, in full Cataracts, upon him; and waves, and storms, as upon a Ship at Sea, from Below beating upon him, and threatning his immediate swallowing up. And then no marvel, if such a confused Noise as this, from Deeps, both Above, and Below, call up another Deep, even the Deep of Gods Mercy (as the Disciples sometimes their Master, in the Tempest, Matth. 8.) for the quieting, and becalming, of all these, whatever, Boisterous stormes of Tribulation, and Persecution Be ye Followers of God, as Dear children, [Page] you know, is the Apostles precept. Eph. 5. 1. If the waters of Distressed Suppliants tears, wherewith you may every where see their Furrowed cheeks, upon the tender sense of this their Distress, Blubbered, shall no more soften your Hearts, then the Mountains of Gilboa, 2 Sam. 1. 21. leaving them, as they found them Dry, and Barren; so that the sight of their calamitous condition shall not, in some measure, stir up in you tender Bowels of compassion; how dwelleth the love of God, nay, what the least Resemblance of him appeareth there yet in you? But let the cries of [Page] tears, wrung from them by their Distresse, enter into your ears; and enlarge your hearts, and hands, in a Magnificent Distribution to their Necessities. And then, when the great Judge of Heaven, and Earth, you shall, at the last Day, hear, publikely acknowledging himself for your Almes-man; in as much you have done any Act of Mercy unto the least of these my Breth [...]en, you have done it unto mee: you shall hear him withall joyfully welcomming you to the Fruition of his heavenly Kingdom; Come ye Blessed Children of my Father; receive the Kingdome, prepared for you from the beginning[Page]of the world. Grant this, we beseech thee, O Merciful, Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediatour and Redeemer; to whom, with thee, O Father, and the Blessed Spirit, be all Honour, Glory, Praise, Power, Might, Majesty, and Dominion; now, and for evermore. Amen.

FINIS.

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CHRISTS Comming to JUDGEMENT Deciphered.

In a Third SERMON; Preached at Lincolnes-Inn, by the same Authour.

1 IHES 4. 17. Then we, which are Alive, shall be caught up together in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the Ayr; and so shall we ever bee with the Lord.

AMBROS. Nonne tibi videntur Aquilae circa Corpus, quardo veniet in illa Die, cum Intelligibilibus Nu bibus Filius Hominis?

Prin [...]ed for the Author. 1656.

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Matth. 24. 28.‘Wheresoever the Carkas is, there will the Eagles bee gathered together.’

THat, in the Latter Dayes (whereof I shall not need to minde you, Deterior Posterior; that the latter the worse still) false Prophets shall Arise, that in their Desert, and Chamber, Conventicles, shall be Actours of such Mountebank Miracles, as thereby, if it were possible, to deceive the very Elect, as [Page] we have our Saviour himself expresly averring, V. 24. of this Chap. So have we him withal Verse 26. sagely cautioning, not to give over hasty credit unto them. If they shall say unto you (saith he) He is in the Desert, go not forth; if in the Chambers, beleeve them not. Simon Magus (it seemeth) was the Captain General of this Accursed Militia; the Ringleader of this Ranting Crew. Who making himself some Great one, as it is, Act. 8. 9. even so Great, that (will we hear St. Augustine) hee gave out, that it was he, that, in the Person of the Father, gave the Law to the Israelites, upon [Page] Mount Sinai; he, that, in the Reign of Tib [...]rius Caesar, suffered, in the Person of the Son; he, that, at the Feast of Pentecost, in the person of the Holy Ghost, descended upon the Apostles in the shape of Fiery cloven Tongues. Whereby he had so bewitched Nero himself, & the people of Rome, that they erected a Statue in H [...] nour of him. Who yet at last, by a Fal, whilst he attempteth a flight, hath his Credit, with his Leg, cracked. And so as (Maximus) Qui Pennas Assumpsit, Plantus Amittit; whilest hee will needs be taking unto him the advantage of Artificial Wings, hee loseth the use of [Page] his Natural Feet. Our Saviour, for the invalidating of the Authority, and Energy, any such Impostours may have upon the Faith of any of his, which may otherwise expect the solemnity of Signes to usher in his comming to judgment, telleth them, as in the verse before the Text, that his comming shall be as Lightning; Sicut Fulgur, non eget Praecone, aut Nuntio; sed statim omnibus apparet, saith St. Chrysostome; for that, as Lightning needeth no Harbinger, or Messenger, but breaketh out in no less glorious, then sudden, Appearance, unto every Eye: so shall he, at his comming, [Page] irradiate every Eye with the Sudden, and Glorious, Appearance of his Divine, yea and Humane, Presence, too: so in, the words now read, that it shall appear most eminently conspicuous, by the thronged confluence of all the Saints unto him, as of Eagles to a Carkas. For, wheresoever the carkas is, there will the Eagles bee gathered together.

The Text then you cannot but see what just reason I might have to say that it is a Summary Description of the Magnetical Vertue, shall appear in our Saviours Person, at his comming to judgement; wherein I might commend unto [Page] your considerations these two Principal observables;

The
Efficacy of the Loadstone.

Compliancy of the Iron.

But, for that (as the Preacher, Eccles. 10. 19. a Feast is made for Laughter) and that, in the Day of Christs comming to judgement, Gods servants, as on a Feast-day, shall laugh for joy of Heart, as it is Isa. 65. 14. We shall not do amiss to take a distinct view of—

The
Table

Guests.

The Table furnished with nothing, but a Carkas.

The Guests Eagles: which we shall do well to contemplate First in their general Notion of Eagles.

[Page] Secondly, in a more special consideration of their sweet inclination to Agreement; They are gathered together.

These the Parts; of these plainly, briefly, and orderly. And of the Substratum, the Table, first are we to take a view; which, we see yet, is set out with nothing but a Carkas, Where the Carkas is.

We usually proportion the Entertainment of our Tables to the Quality of the Guests, we are to entertain. And then can it not but seem extremel [...] incongruous to entertain the palates of Nobles, yea Princes (whereof these Eagles here, as hereafter will more at large [Page] appear, may well bee looked upon as proper Emblems) with no better Fare then a Carkas. Some Interpreters I meet with, that, for the Declination of this seeming Gross Soloecism, rea [...]e [...], Body. Where the Body is, there will the Eagles bee gathered together. But, be it read [...], as here, a Dissolution; of the Primitive [...]; which the Latins render Ca [...]aver; and our Translation a Carkas; of Cado, to Fall: yet, as I have often seen excellent Venison cased up in cours Paste; saepe sub sordido Pallio; and a great D [...]pth of Wisdom under a Russet Cloak: this Carkas yet affordeth such [Page] chois [...] Viands, as the choisest palates shall have no reason to disdain; as having no worse food in it then Christ himself; whose Flesh is Meat indeed, and his Bloud Drink indeed, Joh. 6. 55. And then far juster reason shall I have to say of this Carkas, then Sampson sometimes of the Carkas of his Lion, Iudg. 14. 8. that it hath Hony in it; yea that which is sweeter then Hony; or the Honicomb. And indeed, either of these Readings, of Body, or Carkas, will suit wel enough with the Drift of the Holy Ghost in the Text; for that by the word (Carkas) may justly seem to be pointed out [Page] unto us our Saviours Passion; wherein his Body was reduced to a Carkas, for our Transgressions: and by the word (Body) his Resurrection; by the which hee consummated our Redemption. Who was Delivered for our Offences (saith the Apostle) and Raised again for our Justification. Rom. 4. 25. And in the selfsame Place (saith St. Hilary) where this Body was offered up in Sacrifice, and so became a Carkas; shal the same Carkas become a Glorified Body; wherein hee shall appear to judge both Quick, and Dead; even in the Valley of Ichoshaphat near Hierusalem: [Page] as out of Ioel 3. 2. is clearly to be collected. And the pregnant reason hereof wee shall not need to go farre to seeke. Congruum esi (saith that Father) ut Christ us ibi juste judicet omnes, ubi pro omnibus ipse injuste judicatus est; ibique conspiciatur ejus Majestas, ubi antea visa est ejus Abj [...]stio, & Humilitas. It cannot but seem to suit with the Rules of all Reason, and Justice, that Christ in that place should judge the World in Righteousness, where himself heretofore was unrighteously condemned; and that there his Majesty be eminently conspicuous, where his usage had [Page] been so Reproachful, and Opprobrious. Aristotle l. 9. de Historia Animalium, amongst divers other sorts, reckoneth up, [...], seu [...]; the under, or Vul [...]ur, Eagle; and of this sort of Eagle, as Vlisses Aldrovandus interpreteth that of Iob, in the 39. of his Book: She seeketh the Prey; and, her Eyes behold afar off; her young ones suck up Bloud; and where the slain are, there is she: so of this specially, more then probable is it that, our Saviour intendeth this Aphorism in the Text.

And then, taking for granted (what hereafter shall more clearly appear) that by this [Page] sort of Eagles the Saints are intended, how farre shall the greatest part of us appear from being Saints (a Title yet, wee are all more prone, as is most evident, to arrogate to our selves, then to give it to the best in Heaven) when, though wee have more then enough in us of the more Generous Eagles, whose Guise is (saith the same Naturallist) not to bee pleased with any other Prey, but such as themselves have Taken Alive, and Killed; but of these under, or vultur, that content them with a slaughtered Carkas, nothing? The living Dogge of a New Flourishing, Conventicle, or [Page] Commonwealth, wee like much better then the Dead Lion of a Decayed Church, or what ever Decried Government. We account it far beneath us to stoop to a slaughtered carkass; but like well, as Eagles, to mount up with wings, as the Prophet hath it, Isa. 40. 31. there to make some Glorious Body our purchase. Oderunt Pan [...]os tuos Iesu, saith St. Bernard: Christs Robes of Majesty, wherein (as upon Mount Tabor) hee may appea [...], wee are well pleased with; but can in no wise away with his Ragges of Poverty, wherein (as upon Mount Calvary) hee may discover himself [Page] unto us. Every step of a Christians progress to Glory may you, as in a Map, see Graphically delineated before you, Psal. 110. whose Rise however it be all of a Triumphant strain; The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my Right hand, untill I make thine Enemies thy Footstool: yet is its close te [...]pered with an intimation of a Task of Militancy to precede; He shall drink of the Brook in the way; therefore shall hee lift up his Head. Before we may hope to have ou [...] heads lifted up, for their Glorious investiture with a Crown of Immortality, in the Life to come, with those men that bowed [Page] down their Heads to drink water, Iudg. 7. 6. wee must resolve to bow down, for the taking of a Deepe, and Bitter, Draught of the Brook of Mortification, and Tribulation, and Persecution, whilest wee are here in the way of this Life: sit down in Bochim▪ before we can come to Beracah; sow in Tears, before wee can reape in Ioy; and (as St. Peter hath it 1 Epist. cap. 4. v. 19.) suffer pa [...]iently, according to Gods will, committing our souls to him, in well doing, as unto a Faithful Creatour. So that then, whilest those that will here prematurely appear to be of the temper of the more Generous [Page] Eagles; and so to prey on Bodies, before they become Dead carkasses; and so as Canibals, will be feeding on the living; sucking out the Hearts-bloud of Widows, of Orphans; of the Church, their Spiritual; and their Natural Mother, the Country; at least, ‘Corpora corporibus jung [...]bat Mortua Vivis;’ Shall, after the example of Mezentius, make no difference between the Living, and the Dead; but take all for Fish, that commeth to the Net; and swallow all for lawful purchase, with their Leviathan Jawes, they can seize upon; whilest, thus Eagle-like (what [Page] is Iacobs word of Benjamin, Gen. 49. 27.) in the Morning they are Devouring the Prey; in the Evening of their Death, nay on the next morrow of their Resurrection, they shall have no spoil to divide. It is an heavie Doom, such preproperous Eagles (as these Hypocrites in the Gospel, Mat. 6. 2) are to expect at the Last Day; you have had your reward▪ Delicatus est nemis, qui & hic vult Gaudere cum saeculo, & postea Regnare cum Christo, saith St. Augustine. It sav [...]ureth of the Horse-leaches appetite, to affect a Frolicking here in this Life with the world, and hereafter to reign with Christ in [Page] the Life to come. But be yee Patient, stablish your hearts, saith St. Iames, Jam. 5. 8. Take we up here contentedly with whatever poor, and lean, Portion of the things of this Life, our Heavenly Father shal be pleased here to cut out for us; yea approve we our selves patient, shall he please to lay upon our Necks the heavy yoke of all manner of Tribulation, and Persecution; yea confine us to the Austere Diet of Contrition, and Mortification; and let this Vultur, this Raven. Eagles Dialect be so signally ours, that (as it is Zeph. 3. 3.) wee contentedly forbear the Gnawing of the Bones till the [Page] morrow; on the morrow, in the morning of our Resurrection, rayes of unspeakable comfort shall wee finde darting out upon our souls; for that then we shall be sensible, that (as it is 2 Cor. 4. 17.) the light Afflictions of this Life, that are but for a Moment, have all this while bin working for us a far most Excellent, and Eternal, weight of Glory.

And thus far shall it serve to have surveyed the Table; which you have seen to be farre from being sumptuous, or luxuriant; as beeing furnished with nothing but a Carkass. Come we now to take a view of the Gu [...]sts; whom yet wee may [Page] discern to bee very Noble, as being no worse then Princes; of which Eagles, in their General Notion of Eagles, just reason wee look upon as proper Emblems. Which is the first Notion, wherein we are to contemplate these Guests the Notion of Eagles. Wheresoever the Cark [...]ss is, there the Eagls will be gathered together.

You have already had an intimation, that by the Eagles the Saints are hee [...]e intended. Now, fo [...] the Proof of this supposition, what Lineaments of Resemblance between the one, and the others countenances are to be discovered, will not bee unworthy the Expence [Page] of some of our Time, and Paines, for a Summary Enquiry.

First then Eagles (we know) are the Kings of Birds. You have seene (is the Lords own word to his People) how I bare you on Eagls Wings, Exod. 19. 4. The Pitch, the Eagle flyeth at, favoureth of a well-feathered Plume; It is Potent, Princely, Royal. For which cause I finde, that the Romans, the greatest Potentates, the Suns Eye ever beheld, stil bore the Eagle in their Standard. And such Eagls are the Saints. The Prince of the Kings of the Earth (saith St. Iohn) hath made us Kings, Apoc. 1. 6. And [Page] therefore that Gloss of Saint Greg. upon those words of Iob, 36. of his Book 7. Hee withdraweth not his Eyes from the Righteous; but with Kings are they on the Throne; is well worthy our best Observation: Reges sunt, quia Tentationum suarum Motibus, non consentiendo succumbere, sed Regendo Praeesse noverant: They are Kings (saith he) for that they tamely lye not down, by con [...] senting unto temptations; but know the way how to master, and subdue them; Brideling the Intemperance of their Appetites; Cooling the Heat of their Lusts; Beating down the Height of their Pride; Curing [Page] the Itch of their Cove [...]i [...]e; Startling them from the Lees of their Surquedry; and plucking off the Disguise of their Hypocrisie: and so, in him that hath made them such being (as the Apostle, Rom. 8. 37.) in all these more then Conquerours.

Secondly, the Eagles have a property of Renewing themselves, and Restoring their youth. Making thee young, and lusty, as an Eagle, saith the Kingly Prophet, Psal. 103. 5. Now, the way of this the Eagles Renovation, is, by Interpreters, variously related. St. Augustine would have this to be the manner: that when, by reason of their Age, the upper [Page] part of their Beaks so far outgrow the Nether, that they are now no longer able to open their Mouths; and so, for want of Food, begin to langu [...]sh; they get them to a craggy Rock; against which striking off the excresc [...]cy of the upper part of their Beaks, which hindred their Feeding, they hereby enable themselves to Feed afresh; and so recover their Youth, and strength. Athanasius giveth us an Account, as of another Malady, they labour of; so of another Remedy, they use for their recovery. Caligantibus occulis; when their Eyes grow Dim (saith hee) they drench themselves in a [Page] cold Fountain; then expose themselves to the heat of the Sun beames; whereby the Scales falling from their Eyes, they recover their sight, and youth. Both these wayes of Renovation we shall do well to to take together, and to apply to the Saints of God. When the Excrescency of our worldly Desires, and Carnal Lusts, shall so entirely have deaded our spiritual Appetites (that as David in another case, Psal. 102. 4.) we forget to eat our Bread; when the Eyes of our understanding wee may finde too sensibly growne so Dim, that we, neither can, nor will, any longer, discern those things [Page] that belong to our peace; lest, seeing with our Eyes, and hearing with our Ears; we should be converted, and Healed, as it is Isa. 6. 10. our parts it shall be to betake us unto the Rock, Christ (for so 1 Cor. 10. 4. I finde him expresly stiled) to put off all manner Dulness, and Deadness, of the Old Man, which is corrupt according to the Deceitful Lusts: as it is Ephes. 4. 22. to bathe our selves thorowly in the Laver of unfeigned Repentance; and then fixe the Eys of them steadily upon the Sun of Righteousness, that Ariseth with Healing in his Wings, as it is Mal. 4. 2. Looking unto Jesus [Page] (saith the above praised Apostle) the Author, and Finisher, [...]f our Faith, Heb. 12. 2. and so become Renewed in the Spirit of our Minds, Ephes. 4. 23.

Lastly (not to stretch the strings of the Analogy so far, as to endanger the cracking them) Eagles (as in part you have already had intimated) Flye a great heighth from the earth; a pitch above all other Birds. Yea, as Araun [...]h is said to give as a King unto the King, 2. Sam. 24. 23. these Kings of Birds get them up near unto the King of Starres, the Sunne; by the undaunted, and unmoved, contemplation of whose Rayes they try the [Page] Legitimation of their young. And this is that, which Interpreters would have intended by that of Iob 39. of his Book above praised; The Eagle Mounteth up, and maketh he [...] Nest on high; and her Eyes beh [...]ld a farre off. The Sonnes of God, are still in like manner, yea in a far Higher, manner Affected. They contemplate not onely Christ the Sun of Righteousness; but (with the woman, Apoc. 12. 1.) they are clothed with him; trampling the Moone in the meane time, all earthly things, as the Moon inconstant, under their Feet. And by this Test shall we do well to try our selves, [Page] whether wee bee the Genuine Sons of God, or no. So that then, if our Affections shall appear wholly, yea but principally, set upon earthly things; if the Dunghils of this world shall appear to be the Darlings of our souls; nay, if, when the scorching beames of Persecution shall bee darting out from the Body of this Sun of Righteousness, and so submit us to all manner sufferings for his sake; like the children of Ephraim, Psal. 78. 10. though Harnessed, and carying Bowes, we shall yet turn our Backs in in the Day of Battel; chusing rather to become Proteusses of all shapes; Came [...]ions of all [Page] colours; yea, like so many R [...]lypusses, resolve still to be of the complexion of the Present Times; rather then expose our Persons, or Estates, in the least measure, to any Peril, or Hazard: we are (as the Apostle, Heb. 12. 8. in Down-right termes, censured us) Bastards, and no Sons. But, what the Poet sometimes of Fame, ‘Ingrediturque solo, caput inter Nubila condens:’ If, whilest, as Pilgrims▪ we are walking; or rather, as Prsmires, crawling, up and downe the Ant-heapes of this world; our Conversation, our Burgeship, the strength of our Affection, shall appear to bee in [Page] Heaven; at least, as a Line drawn through a Circle, toucheth the Center but once, but the Circumference twice; if our hearts shall appear twice as much intent upon Heavenly, as Earthly things; nay, if, as Houses, built upon Rockes, wee shall cheerfully weather the most violent Gusts of all manner of Tribulation, and Persecution; if neither the enchanting sounds of whatever Musical instruments, nor the Dreadful Apprehension of the Torments of the Ho [...]est [...]iery Furnace, shall bee able so farre to work upon us, as to make us to fall down before any Golden Image, any [Page] Tyrannicall Nebuchadnezzar shall set up; if nothing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God, that is in Christ Jesus; whether it be the heigth of hoped for Preferment, or the depth of Dreaded Distress, as it is Rom. 8. 39. but that wee steadily resolve to continue Faithful unto Death; then may wee undoubtedly assure our selves that we are our Heavenly Fathers Legitimate Sonnes, and so Heyres, yea Co heyres, with our Elder Brother Christ, of the Crown of Glory.

And so, having done with the General Notion of these Guests, as Eagles; we are now to take a short Glimpse of them, in [Page] the more special consideration of their sweet inclination to Accord, and Agreement, at this their Table. They keep not a Centaures Feast; washing the Tables, and Cates, and Cups, before them, in bloud; but celebrate rather a Love, at least, a Peace, Feast; Agreeing, without any the least jar, or discord, during the whole time of their sitting. They are gathered together. Wheresoever the Carkass is, there the Eagles will be gathered together.

We all know the old word, Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis: Bears, though of most savage Natures, can quietly Accord, and Agree. Yea, no less then [Page] seven Devils can Peaceably cohabite in one Mary Magdalen, Luk. 8. 2. Yea, the Evangelical Prophets Prediction of the time of Christs comming, Isa. 11. 6. you may see to bee, that the Wolf, shall Dwell with the Lamb; the Leopard, with the Kid; the Lion, and the Calf; shall lie down together. And then strange may it not seem to hear, that the little Flock of Christs Lambs, the small Multitude of Beleevers, in the Apostles Divine Actuary, Act. 4. 32. should be of one Heart, and one Minde. Wee, in this Frantick Age of ours, delivered every day of such Monsters, as Africa never bred; as [Page] if that curse from the God of Iacob were signally faln upon us, that fell from Iacob sometimes upon his two bloudy Sons, Gen. 49. 7. I will Divide them in Iacob, and Scatter them in Israel; and, as if we saw that staffe of the Bonds of Brotherhood between Iudah, and Israel, Zach. 11. 7. by God, for our sins, too justly, and conspicuously, Broken; nay, as if that cursed Harvest of the Cadmus Teeth, so long since [...]own, were now, in a lothsome Plenty, come up amongst us, —Domus catulos non alit uno du [...]s; like Dogs, we snap, and sna [...]l, one at another; striving which shall first seize upon the [Page] Bones of our Brothers Estate; nay, as the Spaniard [...] on the Indians, we try co [...]ions which of us shall leave an impression of the Deepest scarre upon those poor Innocents, we have enslaved. Nay, we whet our Tongues, our Pens, our Swords, with as sharp an edg, as Malice can set upon them, one against another; being, not onely so far divided in opinion for point of Government, that one crieth up Monarchy, another Aristocracy, a third Democracy; but for Religion too; a Religando, saith the the Etymologist; which should tye us; not all jointly to God onely; but every one severally [Page] to another: and so binde up all our Spoiles universally in the Bundle of Life; as the Corinthians of old professed of themselves, that they were one of Paul, another of Cephus; every one of us, like the sticks of a broken Fagot, seemeth singula [...]ly, and pertinaciously, to stand up in the Defence of his own Fancied Religion; one a Socinian, another an Anabaprist, another an Antinomian, another an Arrian; one a Separatist, another an Anti-Scripturist; one a Ranter, another a Quaker, another a Seeker: yea indeed all, upon the matter, to seek for such a pure Religion; as hath in it any the least [Page] power of Godliness. Nay, as the Antique French; or rather as our selves, their Apes; so prone are wee, every day, to change the Habit of our whatever pretended Religion, as that every Day we appear in a New Mode, and Fashion. And so, what Tacitus sometimes of the Romans; ubi Solitudinem faciunt, Pacem appellant; whil'st wee seem to interpret a mere Desolation, and Annihilation, of Religion for a Peaceable, and Pure, Settlement, and Reformation, thereof: whilest thus, I say, wee assume unto our selves an un-commissioned and unbounded, Liberty, Nunc Leo, nunc Vulpes;—of appearing, [Page] every Day, in a New Trim, and Dress, of Religion; Nusquam qui ubique; we have scarce any thing indeed of true Religion left amongst us. Nay, unto that sharpness of contention (as Paul, and Barnabas, Act. 15. 39.) are we grown in these cases, that (what Tacitus sometimes of Segestes, and Ariminius, the one the Father, the other the Son, in Law) Quae apud concordos vincula charit [...]tis, Incitamenta Irarum apud infensos sunt; those Bonds of Christian Affinity, which, whilest wee accorded, were a sweet meanes to tye us close together, now wee Ravel, and Flitter, thus, we finde to bee [Page] sad incentives and provocations, to keep us at the greater Distance, and Variance. I would gladly season, perhaps some of you that are here Present, with better Principles, then hitherto, possibly, may have been distilled into you. You know the Rise of that old word; Divide, & Impera; Divide Affections once, and you shall suddenly come to divide the spoil. And therfore wo [...]ld I have you to follow Love, and Peace, with all Men, that call upon the Name of the Lord, 2 Tim. 2. 22. but so as to follow this Love and Peace, in Truth, Ephes. 4. 15. lest otherwise, like that House in [Page] the Gospel, founded upon the sand, what ever superstruction you may Rear thereon, come speedily to Ruine, and Confusion. Singularity, and Humour, and Turbulency of spirit, whether in Opinion, or Affection, where-ever they are, are far from being symboles of a Christian Temper. Nay, as they say of Bees, that, whensoever there ariseth stir, and strife, amongst them, it is an infallible signe that their King is about to remove, and to leave his H [...]ve: however our Spiritual Can [...]ers may vant themselves as they please, as they if had engrossed the great God of heaven for their own [Page] peculiar; and (as is that just Sarcasme upon the Fathers of the Trent Councel, that they had the Holy Ghost every week sent them in a Cloak-bag) had conjured, and circumscribed, him within the circle of their owne Tribe; as long as by Schism, by Faction, by Division, they break the Unity of the Spirit, which should tye all [...]he Members of Christs Body together in the Bond of Peace, it is not onely a clear presage that the King of Heaven is upon the point of Leaving; but too pregnant an evidence that hee hath actually left, such unquiet, and turbulent, Conclaues, and Conventicles. [Page] The first visible shape, that the Holy Ghost ever descended in, was the shape of a Dove. And hee, that came in a Dove, wil not come but upon a Dove. Not such, as, through a singulat conceit of their Simulata sanctitas; double-refined H [...]liness, separate themselves from their despised brethren; nor such as make a great stir, and Noise, in the world with the Lightning of Pride; the Thunder of Blasphemy; the Windes of Malediction, and Depravation; the Storms of Oppression; and Sword of Persecution: but such as are like himself, D [...]ves, Men of a Milde, a Meek, and Peaceable, [Page] Temper, and Disposition. Nay Elect (saith St. Peter to his scattered strangers) according to the Fore knowledg of the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit, and the sprinkling of the Bloud of Christ, [...] Pet. 2. 2. Where there is no appearance of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon a Man, though not in the visible shape of a Dove, yet as upon a Dove, a Creature Gentle, and Peaceable, little Ground of Assurance shall any such have reason to take up, that [...] is predestinated. Abraham, in tha [...] his sacrifice to the Lo [...], Gen. 15. divideth the Heifer, the Shee-Goat, and [Page] the Ram; but the Turtle Dove, and the Pigeon, hee divideth not. Carnal Men (how spiritual soever our Novel selfe-justiciaries, or rather New-modelled Pharisees, may cry themselvs up for) as are prone to be divided by Discords, and Separations, and Dissentions, and so have no semblance of the Holy Ghost upon them, have no Interest, as not in the Predestination of the Father; so neither in the Sons Redemption. But the Birds, the Pigeon, and the Turtle Dove, Creatures, that have no Gall in them, Spiritual Men, such as are proper Rec [...]pracles of the Grace of the Holy Ghost, of [Page] the Fathers Love in Electing, and the Sonnes Wisdome in Redeeming, them, have no shadow, or semblance, of the least Inclination to Division in them. The Kingdome of Heaven, whereby, in the stile of Scripture, the Holy Ghost is intended, and wherein that ever-blessed [...] ▪ but an uni-Triumvirate, an undivided Trinity in an unity of Divine Essence, as a Glorious Monarch, Reigneth, the Apostle fitly mindeth us, that it is first Righteousness, and then Peace. Rom. 14. 17. And then just reason may the same Apostle seem to have, for the apposing of his Corinthians [Page] with this Poinant quaere; As long as there are st [...]ifes, and Divisions, amongst you, are you not Carnal? 1 Cor. 3. 4. As long as we practice nothing but the Defrauding, the Depraving, the Spoiling, the Murthering, one another, can wee ever hope to finde in our selves any pledg [...] [...], of the Holy Ghosts descent upon us? Or of the Fathers Predestination, or the Sons Redemption, of us? I shall take leave of you, with the same leave, that the same Apostle taketh of the same Corinthians of his. 2 Cor. 13. 11. My Brethren bee of one Minde, live in Peace, and the God of Love, and Peace shall bee [Page]with you. Approve we our selvs, [...]n the presence of God, and Man, to bee peaceable spirits; and then shall we sensibly find, that those three, that bear record in Heaven, 1 Ioh. 5. 7. and sweetly accord in an unity of of Divine Essence, shall jointly seal up unto us an Assurance of an Inheritance of [...] in Light; that after the Earthly houses of our Tabernacle's dissolved, wee shall have a Building of God, an House, not made with hands, Eternal in the Heavens: Which, O Lord, we beseech thee, in thy good time, grant every one of us; and, to this purpurpose, [Page] grant, that [...] word, which this Day we [...] have heard with our outward Eares, may, &c.

FINIS.

[Page]

Information about this book

Title statement

The wicked mans plot defeated, or, The wicked man laughed out of countenance as it was represented in a sermon preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11, 1656, by Thomas Baker.

Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More.

Edition statement

1656

Publication

Publisher

Text Creation Partnership,

Place of publication

Ann Arbor, MI ; Oxford (UK) :

Date

2005-10 (EEBO-TCP Phase 1).

ID [DLPS]

A29931

ID [STC]

Wing B524

ID [STC]

ESTC R28339

ID [EEBO-CITATION]

10543262

ID [OCLC]

ocm 10543262

ID [VID]

45217

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This keyboarded and encoded edition of the work described above is co-owned by the institutions providing financial support to the Early English Books Online Text Creation Partnership. This Phase I text is available for reuse, according to the terms of Creative Commons 0 1.0 Universal. The text can be copied, modified, distributed and performed, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

Series

Early English books online.

Notes

(EEBO-TCP ; phase 1, no. A29931)

Transcribed from: (Early English Books Online ; image set 45217)

Images scanned from microfilm: (Early English books, 1641-1700 ; 1395:3)

Source

— The wicked mans plot defeated, or, The wicked man laughed out of countenance as it was represented in a sermon preached in St. Mary Wool-Church, London, May 11, 1656, by Thomas Baker., Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More., Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More. Gods provenance asserted in another sermon preached at St. Buttolphs, Aldergate, London., Baker, Thomas, Rector of St. Mary the More. Christs comming to judgement deciphered in a third sermon..

Extent

[4], 204 p.

Printed for the author,. [London] :: 1656.. (With: Gods provenance asserted in another sermon preached at St. Buttolphs, Aldersgate, London : near about the same time as the former / and by the same authour. Christs coming to judgement deciphered in a third sermon preached at Lincolnes-Inn / by the same author.) (Reproduction of original in the British Library.)

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