THE Text is the close of good De­borah and Barak, The occasion of the words. their Epinicion or Triumphall Song; sung by them, in Prayer, unto the Lord, who had, now, victoriously made bare his own arme: in granting, by their (though but impotent) hands, a mighty deliverance, from the po­tent forces of Johin, King of Canaan; in the shame­full discomfiting of Sisera, his chiefe Captaine; and by the watery bosome of the river Kishon, (that an­cient river, the river Kishon) sweeping his numerous Army, as so many grassehoppers, from the Earth: It was I say, the close of their song, upon that occasion; [Page 2]and may now seasonably be resumed into our mouths [...]his day; which (as of old, the daies of Purim, that in the time of Mordecai and Queen Ester were tur­ned unto the Jewes, from sorrow to joy, and from mourning into good daies, Est. 9.22.26.) we justly solemnize and make festivall: For as then to quench the thirst of a cruell ambition, rivers full of blood streaming from the gashed veynes of innumerable In­nocents, were designed to be cut out through the ve­ry flesh and throats of Gods peculiar people: so was there as up n this day, a Tophet ordained and pre­pared for us and for our King, it was (to borrow the expression of the Prophet Is. 30.33.) mad deep and large, the pile thereof was fire and much wood: on­ly, the breath of the Lord (which had tofore blowne upon the cursed project of that Luciferian Haman) would not, as a stream of brimstone enkindle it: so that, that very mischievous devise which they indeed (to speak with thePsal. 21.11. Psalmist) [imagined] and intended against us, but were not able to [perform,] was then returned on their own pates: and, as the story tells us of Mixentius, who was first drown'd himselfe, from that bridge of mouldring, leaking boates, from which he hoped the Christian Emperour Constantine should have miscarried; Loe! in the veryPsal. 9.15, 16. same net, was their own foot taken.

Who doubts, but, as of old, the too-unwary Ben­jimites, looking back behinde them to their Citty Gibeab, Jud. 20.40. those cruell Pioners meant to feed t [...]eir eyes with the joyfull spectacle of those flames, which with a pillar of smoak, ascended up to Heaven, from our great Metropolis yea, to surfet on the good­ly prospect of those mangled carkasses of Heretiques, who, as that Angel of Manoah, Judg. 13.20. in the flame of the altar, were by a cracke of Hellish thunder, mounted up to Heaven afore the Resurrection; and [Page 3]preferred thither, as some new companions to Elias, in a2 King. 2.11. fiery Chariot?

But, as Deborah observed, in an Irony of the impa­tience of the braving mother of Sisera, that looked before the victory, out at a window, to view the pompe of his approach, Judg. 5.28. saying, Why is his Chariot so long in comming? Why tarry the wheels of his Chariots? have they not sped? have they not divided the prey? to every man, a Damosell or two? to Sisera, a prey of divers colours; a prey of divers colours of needle worke, of divers colours of needle worke, on both sides, meete for the neckes of them that take the spoile? Alas, alas! Fond Atheists, what Castles of crazy hopes had they now set up in the ayre? What silly Nimrods were these, to build up Towers of ex­pectation, that cannot but (being against God) proveGen. 11.5 9. Babels and their sure confusion? besotted Hamans, mounting up gibbets no lesse than fifty cubits high, to break theirEster. 7.9, 10. own necks! Behold, Sisera that great terror of Israel, who brought so many hundred thou­sands into the field, had (ere this vain brag of theirs) quit his Chariot, and betaken him to his heels; and those heels posted him to the Tent of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite; and at her feet he bowed, he fell, he lay down; at the feet of a woman, (a weak instru­ment) he bowed, he fell; where he bowed, there he fell down dead: Loe! there lay this proud wormes­meat sprawling with his head fastened to the ground, as if it had been now listning what was become of the Soule: against the hammer of a feeble woman, was this guilded pot-sheard of the earth not crackt, but broken: In short, he who was pleased to stile him­selfe, the mightyPsal. 24.6. God of Jacob, that God of Israel, who neitherPsal 121.4. slumbered nor slept in the dangers of his chosenPsal. 135.4. treasure; this Lord of Hoasts, sitting a­bove in Heaven,Psal. 2.4. laughed all his enemies to scorn; [Page 4]and when their hopes, like [...]o the sins of the Amorite, were ripe andGen. 15.16. full, the Lord, he had them in derision, and by the hands of the weaker sex, levelled the mag­nificence of a daring Champion with the dust: Then Jael (saith the Text, Judg 4.21.) Hebers wife tooke a nayle of the tent, an took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nayle into his temples, and fastened it into the ground; (for he was fast asleep and weary.) See here, no [...]ne circum­stance about his overthrow is left [...]ut, So he died: And even so, saith good Deborah the Proph [...]tesse in my Text, So let all thine Enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that leve him, be as the sunne, when he goeth forth in his might.

And thus have yee seen the occasion of these words, in which (as to my observation they occurre) wee have two principall parts, commended to our notice.The division.

• I. An Imprecation upon Gods Enemies; So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.
• II. An Apprecation, or an obtestation of good, upon his friends; But let them that love him, be as the sunne, &c.

In the former, we have these particulars.

• 1. The person implyed, thus praying against Gods ene­mies, Deborah a Prophetesse, verse the first.
• 2. The person unto whom she directs her Prayer, The Lord.
• 3. The forme of her imprecation, Let.
• 4. The title she gives those, against whom she prayes, God Enemies.
• 5. The universality or extent of her devotion, [all] thine enemies.
• [Page 5]6. The matter of her Imprecation, Let them all (perish.)
• 7. The manner, after which she desires they may all perish, So.

So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.

In the second Generall, her Apprecation of good, we have.

• I. The Perip [...]rasis of those she prayeth for, such as love the Lord.
• II. The Assimilation, or resemblance, whereto she suits their happinesse, he sunne; and to that sunne, going forth and going forth in his might.

These are the parts and heads of my discourse: of as many of them, in their cue order, as the time shall al­low: and first, by way of explication; and then of Application, by Gods assistance, and the wonted fa­vour of your Christian patience.

THE first particular, is the person, that here makes this Imprecation upon Gods enemies;Part. I. and she is Deborah, a Prophetesse and a Mother in Is­rael, Judg. 4.4. and 5.7. A circumstance remarke­able, if we meditate the deplored estate of the Church in those times; which (as we finde by the story) were most forlorn and desperate; For, nothing but Anar­chy and Tumult now prevailed: And indeed in the whole face of that age, nought but botches and blains and ulcers could be discovered; which so universally became contagious, that all degrees of men were tain­ted; and the issue of them proved so dangerous, that from that one people then, is made good that Maxi­me in Policy; Its better to live, where nothing, hen where all things are lawfull: for now were those dayes, Judg. 21. [...]. in which there was no King in Israel, but every man did that, which was [right] in his own eye: And what was that, which was then [Page 6]so [right] in their own eyes? Read but the story, you shall dye your cheekes in graine and blush: Then it seemed right in the eyes of Micah, to make himselfe Gods, or puppets of his own; and to keep a Levite to adore them, within his own private walls, Judg. 17. And if this seemed right to Micah, why not also unto others? ita, quot B. Andrews p. 52. inter opera posthuma; con­cion. Lat. in psal. 144.10. familiae, tot Idolorum portenta nova, so that there were not more families, then new mon­sters of Idolatry: Then it seemed right in the eyes of the Danites, not onely to pilfer from the private clo­sets of Micah; but to depopulate and waste whole Cities, as they did Laish, Judg. 18. Then the shame­lesse ravishments of women as of the Levites Concu­bine, seemed right in the eyes of the men of Gibeah, Ju. 19. The story abounds with particulars: all shew­ing the state of those dayes to be most loathsome and rufull: Lo yet and see, even in those loose and for­lorne times there was a Deborah found out in Israel; a grave and godly matrone, fit to make a Prophetesse, even Deborah the wife of Lapidoth: My note from hence is this;Observ. That in the barrenest times of the Church, the Lord hath ever had some to feare him, and to stand up for his Truth. And this hath been found true,Proofe. in the experience of all ages: In the old World when a Deluge of iniquity, foregoing that of water, had overflowen the earth, and [all] flesh had corrupted his way, Gen. 6.12. yet even then, God saw a righteous Noah before him; and that [empha­tically] even in so vile a generation, Gen. 7.1. In the very Court of Pharaoh (that peerles prodigy of impe­nitence and obduration) there was found a fervant, who feared the word of the Lord, Exod. 9.20. so like­wise, even in Nero's houshold there was a Church, Phil. 4.22.. After this when Idolatry had like Na­amans Leprosie overspread the whole body of the Church; yet even then, God had left him seven [Page 7]thousand in Israel, whose knees never bowed to Baal, and whose mourn neer kissed him 1 King. 19.18. In farther processe of time, in the dayes of Herod the King of Judea (that leach which sucked the blood of so many tender Innocents) there were found Zechary and E [...]izabeth, both righteous before God, Luk. 1.6. In short, even under the rage of that wilde bore of the forest, Antichrist himselfe, Recel. 11.3. God had (as here in this story Deborah and Barack) two witnesses to stand up in his cause: And in those first times of but blooming Christianity, when the Heresie of Arriu, in those dayes, as that of the accursed Socinians in these now, (overthrowing, blasphemously, the divi­nity of Christ) like to that Pestilence in King Da­vids time, spreading from Dan to Beersheba, had in­fected the whole Christian world, as S. Hierome ac­quaints us: yet then, God raised up the spirit of an undaunted Athanasius; whose learned zeale backed by the countenance and favour of the Christian Em­perour Constantine; as the2 King. 2.21. salt of Elisha, healing the sickly waters about Jericho; both affronted and put to silence the abettors of that horrid blasphemy; and by his tears, as by the bleeding of a chaste vine, cured the Leprosie of that tainted age: In a word, thoughGildas, apud Episc. Usher p. 68 c. 7. of the Irish Religion. Gildas (the ancientest and most authentique Historian, that we have) complained that the num­ber of good men were so exceeding short among the Britons in his time, in comparison of the exorbitant sons of Belial, who (as the Caterpillars sometimes o­ver Aegypt) prevailed sofarre upon the Nation, that their Mother the Church, in a manner, did not [see] them, lying in her own lap; albeit they were the only [true] sonnes, which she then had: yet sonnes she had still some, notwithstanding, who, as some few solid grains of corne, were fanned from a world of chaffe, and esteemed by the Lord, as the costliestMal. 3.17. Je­wels [Page 8]and treasure of hat age: Even as here in the corruptest condition of Israel, there was found out a godly Deborah to deliver the Church, and to sing praises to the Lord Jehovah.

Nor need we wonder at the observation:Reason. consi­dering the infallibility of the truth of that covenant and promise, which God hath made with his Church: to wit, That he would so plant his feare into her heart, that she should never utterly and finally de­part away from him, Jer. 32.40. and that, he had so founded her upon a Rocke, as the gates of Hell should never be able to prevaile against her, Math. 16.18. The phrase of speech is borrowed from the customes of those dayes, when the Counsellors of a State or City, were wont to treat of the affaires of the Nati­on in the [gates] of their Cities; as we see, Ruth. 4.1. and the Periphrasis of such a Counsellor, Pro. 31.23. and so of a simple man, on the contrary, it is said, Pro. 24.7. He openeth not his mouth in the [gate]: so that by the gates of Hell, are meant the policies and sub­till stratagems of Satan; though they were such as had been by him and his agents, plotted and consul­ted of in the priviest Counsell-chamber (if so I may speak) of Hell it selfe; yet shall they never be able to prevaile,Matth. 7.25. irrecoverably to hurt the Church; no more then those billows in the Ocean doe upon the Rocks, which return them back in froth without annoyance: yea, saith that famous Champion of it, the greatAthanasius o­rat. [...]: confer. Arch B. Vsher, c. 6, s. 6.7, 8, &c.p. 147. De success. Eccles. Christ. A­thanasius, [...]. &c. The Church of Christ shall remaine, as mount Sion Psal. 1.25.1., immoveable; though hell her selfe and all the powers thereof be moved against it: Behold, as soon shall the smoake be able (though it make a deally smother in the chimney-top) to blot out the Sunne, and to stifle up the ayre, for ever; as all the violence of Hell, universally to extinguish the [Page 9]truth or Church; Psalm. 89.33. and John 10.29.

And this meditation should me thinks,Ʋse. as Job saith God doth to the Sea, setJob. 38.10. doores and bars to the fu­riousLuk 6.11. madnes of the Enemies of Gods Church; in whose heart it is, as Esay saith of Ashur, toIsa 10.7. destroy and to cut off Nations, not a few: When, alas! as soon shall the Earth become a Starre, and darknesse light, as Gods2 Tim. 2.19. foundation be overthrown: Wee read in the second Psalme, that the Heathen made a mighty tumult, raged furiously: and as that fly (in the Fable) upon the Axle-tree imagined, that they had raised a smothering dust, enough to put out the very eyes of Christs Kingdome; and as for the bonds of subjection to his Gospell; look, as Sampson did hisJudg. 16.9. withs, they will breake them all, forsooth, in sunder, and cast away the cords thereof from them: compare also, Psalm. 83. But what of all this? alas! saith Da­vid, all this was but to imagine aPsal 2.7. [vaine] thing; 'twas but as if theIsa. 64.8. Clay had contended with the Pot­ter; or a Pigmy strugled with a Crane: For behold! maugre all opposition, yet have I set up Christ my King, saith God, upon my holy hill of Sion.

Those Neroes, Domitians, Diocletians, and Maximi­ans (the bloody tyrants of the Primitive times) can witnesse this; who having made ready thePsal. 11.2. arrow upon the string and prepared thePsal. 7.13. instruments of cr [...]ell death; yea even before-hand sounded the Triumph and engraven the Victory over the very [As of old Psal. 83.4. [...]] of Christianity, upon pillars of Marble with this in­scription; Nomine Christianorum deleto, qui Rempuhl. evertebant: but all this bragge of theirs was but as a blaze, before their last light went out, [...] some bulging wall, that was swollen immediately before it fell; For, what was all that innocent blood of Mar­tyrs, which they so violently spilt, but asTertul. in Apo [...] banguis est s [...]nen Chri­stianoram Tertullian [Page 10]saith the very seed to sow GodsPsal. 80.15. Vinyard, the Church, withall? in which for one true Catholique Saint cut off, many hundred sprang up afresh: this Palme-tree, the more it was pressed, the higher it grew; that Is­rael, the more oppressed, the more theyExod. 1.12. multiplied; and this Arke, the more 'twas tossed on the billowes, the nigher it was advanced up to theGen. 8.4. Ararat of Hea­ven: In summe, when in the very last age of all, PopeSleidan. Com­ment. lib. 1. Leo, that tenth Lyon of Rome, roared upon the Church of God; and thought by his Anathema's thundred from his simonia call Consistories, to have devoured it up as his Prey: or else as sometimes those Lyons did upon Daniel, to haveDan. 6.22. fawned, by his a­bused indulgencies, upon simple ignorants; and so to have lurched the Patrimony of deluded soules in­to his own Checquer; When now the Church was (as theCan. 6.10. Moone enveloped in a Cloud) seemingly invisible, being all over-grown by the weeds of su­perstition; yet even then, God raised up a Luther, a man of an heroike spirit to muzle the jawes of that rampant Antichrist; and to rectifie the seduced judg­ments and consciences of wel-meaning, but mis-gui­ded Christians: And he so farre prevailed against the errors of the Church of Rome, that (when nothing else would serve) he made a [Protestation] against them.

In the year 1529, April the sixteenth (as Calvisius sets it down in his Chronicle) there was a meeting of the States at Spira; when and where a Decree was made, by the (then) Popes Agents; that a late Edict at Worms against the Innovators, (so they stiled Lu­thers fraternity) the effect whereof was, that there should be no such Reformation at all made, as the Lutherans called for; but omnia in integrum restitueren­tur, every thing should stand entire, as it did before; A decree, I say, was made, that that Edict should be [Page 11]served; Contra hoc edictum solennis fuit Protestatio, but against this Edict, there was a solemn Protestation: and from hence it was, that wee of the Reformed Churches, first took the name of Protestants; prote­sting against those abominable corruptions and su­perstitions; which both in the ancient, and pure [do­ctrine] of Christ, (contained in the writings of the Apostles) and also in that Discipline, which was ap­pointed by the same Apostles, and practised in their times, and ever after, in the universall settled Church of Christ; I say, Protesting against those damnable corruptions which had overgrown, and almost quite poysoned the world, and withall against the hin­derance of that needfull Reformation intended; from hence wee tooke the Originall name of Pro­testants.

And hitherto we have (seemed) at least to own the title: now then goe on and1 Cor. 16.13. quit your selves like men; withstand all the rotten doctrine of Popish Innovators and Teachers, that boast much (as theJosh. 9.5. Gibeonites sometime did of old shooes, and mouldy bread) of Antiquity; and dare obtrude upon the Consciences of Gods people, their own humane Tra­ditions, to be entertained (as themselves determine, in their Trent Conventicle) withConcil-Trident. sess. 4 p. 8. vol. 8. [pari] pietatis affectu ac reve­rentiâ suscipit, & veneratur. equall Faith and Credit, as God own sacred and immediately inspired unerring Scriptures are received; yea, not onely so, but also introduce customes with a direct, Non obstan­te, to Christs Gospell: For so I finde expressely in theConcil. Constant­anno 1612. & Basil. Councels of Constance and Basil; Licet Christus suis Discipulis administraverit sub [utraque] panis, & vini specie, venerabile hoc Sacramentum; tamen [hoc non obstante] consuetudo communionis, sub [unâ] tan­tùm specie, nunc pro Lege habenda est: That is, al­though Christ administred unto his Disciples the Sa­crament of his Body and Blood, under [both] kinds, [Page 12]of Bread and Wine; yet [this notwithstanding,] now the custome of receiving it onely under [one] kinde, is to be had for a Law. In opposing them therefore, yee oppose errours damnable in their na­ture; and surely damning also in the issue, without amendement; yea, yee protest against the very1 Tim. 4.1. do­ctrine of Devils: Now then, be forZeph. 1.5. God, or for Baal; abhorre a Samaritan mongrell disposition; a Lao­dicean Rev. 3.16. lukewarmnes; this1 King. 18.21. halting twixt two o­pinions; this swearing by God, and byZeph. 1.5. Malcham too; thisExod. 12.39. dowbak'd lukewarm temper, God threa­tens toRev. 3.16. spue out as loathsome and with nauseation from his presence: In short, is a man a Minister? and is his aime in Preaching, onely by a vainglorious o­stentation of wit to please1 Thess. 2.4. man; or to tickle the1 Tim. 4.3. itch of the wavering times; and not (without envy, without [...] Thess 2.5. soothing partiality) to declare the pure do­ctrine of Christ Jesus, in2 Cor. 2.17. syncerity; if this alone be his scope, let him goe on, dissemble and rayle; but know the time shall come, when upon such hollow, empty declamers, the Lord from out of Heaven shall powre scorn, 2 Tim. 3.9. and make them, even as the1 Cor. 4.13. filth of the World, as the off-scowring of all things: such rotten bottoms cannot long hold water. Is a man a Magistrate? art thou a common Christian? dealeProv. 10.9. uprightly, doe not play and dally with thy Consci­ence in any of thine actions: Be the times never so vitious, never so various; bee not thou like a reedeMatth. 11.7. shaken with the winde; be rather like to a Cube, firme to that station, fixed to thy right refolutions, which way soever thou art cast; imitating the pi­ous example of Deborah in my text; who in the mid­dest of raging anarchy, of prevailing enormities, re­mained as a nayleEzra. 9.8. fastened in a sure place, stedfast to the Lord.

It is hard I confesse (though indeed it be a more no­ble [Page 13]Act of Christianity) to uphold our selves in in­tegrity, when the current of the times is against us: The Patriarchs themselves were transported by the times in the busines of their Polygamie; and Joseph by long conversing in Pharaohs Court had learnt to sweare at length by Pharaohs life, Gen. 42.16. And when all Asia and the world shall worship the great goddesse Diana of the Ephesians; who but a Paul, durst to cry down the Idolatry? Act. 19.27.

Beloved Christians, we now live in the middest of aAct. 3.40. crooked and perverse generation; and may daily discover some, of whom wee may say, as S. Paul did of Elymas the sorcerer, Act. 13.10. they are full of all subtilty and all mischief, enemies of all Righteousnes, by their wrangling, and contentions, time-serving di­sturbance, never ceasing to pervert the ancient, right, and established wayes of the Lord; Now therefore, under this so great a tryall shew your selves; nowMatth. 5.16. shine as Lights, furnish your Lamps with oyle, andMatth. 25.7. trimme them up, that the light of your lives may so shine in the faces of the world, that it may dazle them whom it shall not guide: and sith we have a copy so Peerles to write by (the very mirror of Christian Princes,) who in a Letter (dated but the 18. day of the last moneth of October, 1641.) written with his own Hand, hath commanded it to be made known; that he will live and dye (by the grace of God) in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England; as it was established in the raigne of Queen Elizabeth, and his pious Father of blessed memory: we have his word for it, and as David to Mephibosheth, I have2 Sam. 19.29. said it, saith the King, it is enough: Blessed Princel whom no Torrent of novelty can carry from the ancient wayes of truth: Let us all, as loyall Subjects, dye our practise into the same colour of Resolution and Sanctity: God shall still raise up friends unto us and [Page 41]prosper us;Act. 2.40. and even in the middest of a crooked and perverse generation, we shall save our selves; like as good Deborah, in the middest of a tumultuous peo­ple, (even when there was [noJudg. 21.25. King] in Israel) was found out, (as some rich Diamond, or as some o­rient Ruby lying amongst a thousand peble stones, a fit Matron to make a worthy Prophetesse in Israel.

And thus farre of the first particular circumstance, in the text; The person implied, that here makes this Prayer against Gods enemies, saying, So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.

THE second particular,Part. II. is the Person unto whom she prayeth, To the Lord Jehovah; and this notes the Character of a gracious disposition,Observ. in the height of the Churches oppession by tyranny, still to look up unto the Lord, for refuge and Protection, see Hos. 5.15.Proofe. Ten thousands of people had set themselves round about King David; Read D. King, pag. 53, 54, 55, &c. Lect. 4. on Jonah. now mark his behaviour; Arise O Lord, saith he, save me O my God; the rea­son is annexed, Salvation belongeth unto the Lord: see Psal. 17.13, 14. So Deut. 32.99. See now, that I, even I am he, and there is no God with me; I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heale, neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand: and Isa. 43.11. I, even I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Saviour: upon which meditation the Psalmist said, that some put their trust in Chariots and some in Horses; but we will put our trust in the Lord, Psal. 20.7. The Horse indeed is aSee Bp. Hall serm-styled the Impresse of God, ser. 1. [...]nitio. warlike creature, full of terrour; so swift in service that the Persians (as Pausanias hath it) dedicated him unto their God, the Sunne, [...], as the swiftest crea­ture, to the swiftestHeliodor. Ae­thiopic. Hist. lib. 10. conser. Selden, de diis Syris, syntag. 2. [...] Scimus solem adoratum fuisse â Persis. Calvin. lib. 1. c. 11. sect. 1. God; out of his nostrils (to use [Page 15] Jobs expression, 41.20.) goeth a smoake, as out of a seething Pot or Cauldron, whose eyes are like the eye lids of the morning, he laugheth at the shaking of a speare, in his neck remaineth strength; he esteem­eth iron as straw, and brasse as rotten wood; But, alas! saith that great warriour of the Lord of Hoasts, Psal. 33.17. an Horse is a [vain] thing for safety, nor shall he deliver any by his great strength; yea God him­selfe saith, that he delighteth not in the strength of an Horse, Psal. 147.10. The Horse indeed may be pre­pared against the day of Battell, but safety is of the Lord alone, Prov. 21.31. O our God, saith distressed Jehoshaphat, we know not what to doe, but our eyes are upon thee, 2 Chron. 20.12. Through God there­fore onely, we shall doe valiantly; for he it is, that shall tread down our Enemies, Psal. 108.13. In short, it is [He] that giveth Salvation unto Kings, Psal. 144.10. The Lord is their strength, and he is the [saving] strength of his anoynted, Psal. 28.8. For, as that great Image in Daniel may teach us, even all Empires themselves stand but upon feet of Clay, and must soon totter, except the Lord support them, Dan. 2.33.

Now the ground, why the hearts of the Righteous trust in the Lord to bee helped, is this meditation; namely, for that he is as a man of War, throughly ac­complished and furnished with all things fit for a Vi­ctor; and one to bee with full assurance relyed on.

There are foure principall things, that are the motives of Confidence in any, whom a discreet man would dare to trust,Foure princi­pall grounds of confidence in God. for the sure performance of any favour.

• 1. Wisdome.
• 2. Power.
• 3. Goodnesse.
• 4. Faithfulnesse.

First, Wisdome to contrive waies and means, how to become a reall Benefactor. Secondly, Power to bee able to performe, what is wisely projected. Thirdly, a propension, and an inclination to make use of both the former, for the advantage of him, that trusts in him. Fourthly, faithfulnesse, so that a man may rest securely for the discharge of all the former, for his benefit. Now all these are eminent in the Lord.

For the first, Wisdome, it is so in him, that all the po­licies in the world are, in comparison, direct foolish­nes and meer vanity, 1 Cor. 3.19, 20. yea, so vain, that he taketh the wise in their own craftinesse, that is, such as are wise either in their own conceits, or else wise, [...], in the esteem of worldly-wise men; alas! saith Job 5.11. The Lord disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot performe their enterprise; and indeed all worldly wisdome is rather craft & guile, or subtilty then true wisdom; and when the Lord shall blow upon it, it is all soone blasted in­to sottishRom. 1.22. infatuation. An example of this we have in Achitopbel; whose Counsell, in his daies was, saith the Scripture, as if a man had enquired at the2 Sam. 16.23. Oracle of God; and yet the Lord defeated the Counsell e­ven of Achitophel himselfe, and turned it into folly, 2 Sam. 17.14. and 15.31. So also was the plot of the Jewes against Saint Paul disappointed, Act. 23.16, 23. For saith Salomon, there is no wisdome, nor under­standing, nor Counsell against the Lord, Prov. 21.30. And who indeed is able, by all his lines and plummers to fathom, or found the bottome of Gods all-discer­ning Ey-sight, both to fore-see the danger of his peo­ple and to prevent it? His wayes of deliverance are manyHaber Domi­nus m [...]lle [...] aries, [...]ns [...]a [...]t as vias yea innumerable; and all of them [...]om. 11.33. past find­ding out; and (till the event declares them) nor to ad suos liberandos, Peter Martyr, Epist. Calvin. pag. 1124. [Page 17]be known by so shallow an apprehension as mans is.

Secondly, For power he is such, as no creature is able toRom. 9.19. resist; therefore saith the Prophet, who is soPsal. 77.13. great a God as our God? even our God, who is mighty inPsal. 24.8. Battell; whose veryPsal. 29.5. voyce, in his thun­dering and lightnings, in storms and Tempests, sha­keth all the Cedars in Lebanon; whose very lookes dry up the depths, and whose indignation maketh the mountains to melt away: In short, he is [able] saith the great Apostle, Ephes. 3.20. to doe abundantly more then we can think; Nor is this power momen­tany or flitting; no, saith the Prophet, Isi. 26.4. In the Lord Jehovah is [everlasting] strength: He is a­lone El-chaddai, the strong and al-sufficient God: Ex­amples are endlesse; see a few; some shewing how the Lord makesIsa. 52.10. bare his own arme, and getteth [Psal. 98.1. himselfe] the victory [himselfe] as if he stood in need of none, no not of the meanest ayd; and there­fore is Christs victory expressed by treading of a wine­presse [alone], Isa. 63.1.6. When there are none to help; when the Church is brought to sorest extre­mities and greatest improbabilities of being saved; yet (saith one) though multitudes meet against her, as many as Grapes in a Vintage, they shall all be, but as so many clusters of Grapes; He shall squeeze out their blood like Wine, and make his Church to thash them. And this he doth sometimes extraor­dinarily, to shew himself the immediate author of the deliverance; as when he discomfited the Hoast of the the Syrians by a noyse of Horses and Chariots of fire, 2 King. 6.17. and 7.6. as there was aEuseb. l. 3. c. 8. voyce heard in the Temple, before the destruction of Hierusalem; not more (in likelihood) to warn the faithful to depart the City, than to terrifie the lewd inhabitants: The story of our own Henry the fifth, against the nume­rous [Page 18]Frenchmen, (who thought to have even crow­ded them to death) is more known than to need re­lation: Under the conduct of Germanus, (here in Britain) who came over from France to subdue the Pelagian heresie, (which then prevailed amongst us) against a mighty army of Saxons and Picts; the Britons prevailed onely by the three times pronouncing the word Hallelujah, which voice ecchoing & redoubling from the Acclamation of his followers among the Mountains, nigh to which the Enemie had encam­ped, frighted them and won the Conquest; upon which it was calledVide Archiepis. Usserium, lib. de Britan. eccles. primordiis p. 332, 333. &c. Victoria Hallelujatica; and the story telleth us, Triumphant Pontifices, bostibus fusis sine fanguine, triumphant victoriâ fide obtentâ, non [viribus;] The joy was in a victory gotten without blood-shed, and that by Faith, not by force. Sometimes againe, the senses of the Enemies are deluded; as the Moa­bites seeing the sunne shining upon the water flowing [happily] upon red earth, had their eyes dazled, and so ranne upon their unthought-off destruction, 2 King. 3.22, 23. And so also he made way to his in­dignation upon Pharaoh and the Aegyptians, by row­ling up the waters into an heap, till they were all run full on, into the very gulfe of destruction, Exod. 14.

Sometimes againe ordinarily; but by [weake] means: Thus Zerah the Ethiopian, with his Hoast of a thousand thousand, was overthrown by a handfull of King Asa; for it is nothing with the Lord, to help whether with many, or with them that have no power 2 Ch. 14.11. And Gideon only with three hundred men, and a with few empty pitchers and blinking Lamps, undid the Midianites; though they lay as Grasse-hop­pers, upon the valley of Morch Judg. 7.7.20. the rea­son is, verse the second; Lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saith the Lord, saying, Mine [own] hand hath saved me: So David (a young stripling) goeth [Page 19]forth against the huge monster Goliah; and with nought but a sling and a smooth stone, smote that dread of Israel, that he felldown like to anPro. 7.22. Oxe fatted for the slaughter, at the feet even of a tender stripling, 1 Sam. 17. So the wals of Jericho were thrown down with the blast of Rams-horns, Josh. 6.20. to see wals that seemed to challenge by their height, an equipage with the Stars of Heaven; a man would imagine, no warlike engine of the most martiall ostentation, e­nough to batter them; but behold! that God may have the glory of so great a downfall, onely a seven daies walk about them, with the sound not of any silver shrill trumpets, but onely of Rams-horns; in­struments base for the matter, and not loud for the sound; this must doe the businesse; for the Lord, when he will compasse an overthrow, makesB [...]. Hall, Con­templat. of the siege of Jericho. weak­nesse no disadvantage; and very mean and homely are those means which God commonly useth in his most glorious works, At other times again, by ordring casualties and particular emergencies, for the deli­verance of his Church; a thing conspicuous in the Histories of Joseph & Eester; in which book of Eester, though the name neither of [God] nor [Lord] be found at all; yet, in no Scripture is there set down more wonderfull, and remarkable passages, and acts of Gods immediate providence for his calamitous people; So that as a man by a Chaine made up of severall links some of Gold, others, of silvers; some of Brasse, Iron, or Tin, may be drawn out of a Pit: so the Lord, (saith anMr. Edward Reynolds, on Ps. 110. ver. 5.6. p. 499. eminent Divine, of this age) by the concurrence of severall subordinate things, which have no manner of dependance, or na­turall coincidency among themselves, hath oftentimes wrought the deliverance of his Church; that it might appeare to be the worke of his own hand. In short, God partly by defeating the devises of the craf­ty; [Page 20]partly by restrayning the power, or over-ruling the malice of the wicked,Jud 6. confer. D. King p. 56. Lect. 4. on Jonah. chayning up even Satan himselfe; by these and a thousand other wayes, the Lord declareth his power, to be more [for] his Church, then all the Enemies thereof can be [against] it: and therefore after Deborahs example here, be­cause of that his [power,] he is chiefly to be sought unto, in the time of danger.

Thirdly, for Gods goodnesse and readinesse to re­lieve the wants of his children; it flowes naturally from the bowels of his innate compassions and most render loving kindenesse; therefore, Luke. 1.78. old Zachary calls them, [...]: thus when his embondaged people groaned under their Aegyptian burthens, the Lord [looked] upon them, and soon eased [them] of their sighings, and [Isa. 1.24. himselfe] of his adversaries; Exod. 2.23, 24, 25. see Psal. 103.8, 9 Mic. 7.19.

Lastly, for fidelity and faithfulnesse; heare Truth it selfe to speak, Matth. 5.48 the whole creation shall as soone faile, as the least iota of Gods word faile of accomplishment: yea, in comparison of God, every even of the truest men is a direct Lyer, Rom. 3.3. For, it is an impossibility, that God should ly, Heb. 6.18. or deny himselfe, being truth it selfe, 2 Tim. 2.13. As for [man] indeed, wherein is he to beIsa. 2.22. accounted of? whose breath is in his Nostrils: whose fidelity and fa­vour, like to the reeds of Aegypt may not faile us on­ly, but run into our hands and hurt us? 2 King. 18.21. see Psal. 12.1. and Prov. 2 [...].19. Confidence in an un­faithfull friend in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and a foot out of joynt: For, as there is no trusting to a broken tooth for feeding, nor to alame leg for speedy journeying, no more firme confidence is there to be placed in a wa [...]ering, yeelding, unfaith­full friendship: Now in God, his fidelity is like him­selfe.Ma [...]. 3.6. Jam. 1.17. [Page 21]unchangeable; therefore, David in the expe­rience of it, calleth him so often, his Rock, his for­tresse, his Tower of defence, &c. conferre Psal. 28.7, 8. and Heb. 10.23. No marvell then is it, that good Deborah in the distresse of the Church, seeks to Jeho­vah, to undoe its Enemies: she might happily, re­member [that] of the Lord to Moses; being now a­bout to deliver by his hands, his Israel from thral­dome, Exod. 6.3. Note the place, I appeared unto A­braham, (saith God) unto Isaac and unto Jacob, by the name of God Al mighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them:Quest. How expound we this Scripture? was not God knowne to the Patriarchs before the daies of Moses, by the name Jehovah? we finde it expressely mentioned, Gen. 157.28. & 13. and 26.25.Answ. For answer, ourLyra & Junius ad Exod. 6 3. & Zanch. de Natu­ra Dei, cap. 13. lib. 1. sect. 34. &c. & Estius, in lib. 1. sent. Dist. 8. sect. 2. Referendum hoc est, non ad signi­ficationem voca­bulorum; sed ad declarationem rerum significa­tarum, &c. id. ibid. modern Divines do joint­ly resolve the meaning, to be understood of the actu­all performance of those promises, by a reall exhibi­tion; which the Patriarchs and faithfull, did rest [before] in expectation of, touching Israels delive­rance from bondage out of Aegypt; their faith and hope being grounded upon his Name, [...], [al­mighty] Gen. 17.1. For both in the Creation of the world, and in the destroying of the same againe by water, and withall by bestowing many Gifts upon them; he had shewed himselfe to be God [all-suffici­ent] to doe, whatsoever he promised; but now hee would manifest himselfe to be [...], Jehovah, in giving a constant [being] unto the [performance] of of his old promise; even as verily as he gave his own eternall, and immutable Essence and Subsistence un­to him else; therefore King David, after an actuall overthrow of Gods Enemies, cryes out, Psal. 68.4. Extoll him that rideth upon the Heavens, by his name [Jah] and rejoyce before him: And the Propheresse in this place, recounting happily, the known acts of [Page 22] Jehovah, in the miraculous overthrow of his Ene­mies; and in the wonderfull rescues of his people, seen (even then) in the ruine of the King of Canaan and of Sisera his chiefe Captaine; she makes her ad­dresse, for the utter Consumption of all the rest of the Lords Enemies, (not as Baals Priests,1 King 18.28. See D. King, p. 73. Lect. 5. on Jonab. cutting themselves with lancers and howling upon false gods, nor as some doltish Romanists, chattering unto some Saint) she flyeth, I say, unto no arme of flesh, or Idol; but only, and in the first place, unto the Lord Jeho­vah; saying, So let all thine Enemies perish [O Lord.] Ʋse.

And what better use can we make of this passage, than to follow her steps herein? for in vaine, shall we imagine withSueton. in Tibe­rio. Tiberius, that Omnia fato, all things are swayed by inevitable fate and destiny; or that Salvation is to be hoped for, fromPsal. 33.16. multitude; or, from theJer. 3.23. Hills, if the Lord be against us: For, though we be as Noe, (that is,Junius ad cap. 3. Nah ver. 8. Alexandria in Aegypt) a [populous] Nation, situate among the rivers, with ramparts and wals from the Sea, asNah. 8.9. Nahum expres­seth it, and were our strength as infinite; yet if God say to us now, as he did unto her then, Nah. 3.5. Be­hold, [I] am against thee, saith the Lord of Hosts; e­ven we, as well as shee, may be carried away, and goe into captivity, ver. 10, If God be [forRead Isa. 41.10.11, 12, &c. Horat.] us, who can be [against] us? Rom 8.31. Fractus licèt illaba­tur orbis, impavidos ferient ruina; Psal. 144.15. Happy are the people, saith the Psalmist, that are in such a case; yea happy is that people whose God is the Lord, Psal. 144.15. in [this] condition, we will not feare whatPsal. 56.11. Man can doe unto us; But if God be [against] us, who can be for us? What power, what strength availe us? I conclude this point therefore, with that expe­rienced Prophet, Psal. 73.28. It is good for us, to draw neer unto God, &c. And thus farre also of the [Page 23]second particular, namely, The Person unto whom she, the Prophetesse Deborah, in the text directeth her Prayer against Gods Enemies, unto the Lord Jehovah; saying, So let all thine Enemies perish [O Lord.]

THE next particular is, the forme of her Impre­cation,Part. III. Let; So [let] all thine Enemies perish O Lord: Where the quere fals in,Quest. Whether it be lawfull to pray against our Enemies, or not; sith our Savi­our seems expressely to enjoyn the contrary, Matth. 5.43, 44. Yee have heard, that it hath been said, saith Christ, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and [hate thine Enemy;] but I say unto you, love your Enemies, blesse them that curse you, doe good to them that hate you; yea pray for them that despightfully use you and persecute you? The resolution hereunto shall be short; Answ. and that which the Schoolemen have herein acutely framed us; First then the words [Thou shalt hate thine Enemy] are no where found in all the whole Law; but were crept into the mouths of the vulgar, from some additionall and false glosse of the Jewes; who because the love of the brother or friend was comman ded, concluded absurdly, therfore that the hatred of the Enemy was not forbidden; But if yee observe it, Christ doth not say, Yee have [known] that it hath been writen but only, Yee have heard, that it hath been said; for 't was a meer Tradition of their cor­rupt Rabbins; no fundamentall or sound warrant of truth at all: And for answer to the question; wee must asDurand. in lib. 3. sent. Dist 30. quest. in fi­ne. H. — & Bo­navent. 3. sent. Dist. 30. & Nicol, de Orbellis in eund. lib. & Thom. 2. a. 2 ae. quest 25. Art. 8. & Raynerius de Pisis, tom. 1. Pantheolog. cap. De Inimicis, p. 1160, 1161. Durandus with the full Chorus of the School­men advise us, distinguish of, and consider an Enemy, two waies, first Formally, secondly Materially. First, for­mally, as an Enemy; Secondly, materially, as a man made after the Image of God: In the first sense, [Page 24]we are not bound to love an Enemy, [as] an Enemy; that is, as one whose Evill of sinne is both odious in it self, and also unto God; and so by consequence should be unto us; for this [vice] of his, which occasions enmity, is contrary unto right and divine Charity: But secondly, as this Enemy hath in him materially a compartnership of the same [nature] of humanity with our selves; so we are bound, First, In Ʋni­versali, in the Generall, to wish him well; Second­ly, Yea in particulari, in speciall also, in case of [...] perfecti [...] [...] Articulo amare Alexander. Pe­santius, comment in Tho. 2 a. 2. c. qu. 25. Art. 8. ne­cessity, in temporall things to doe him good, Rom. 12.20, we may by so doing heape up coals of fire upon his head, that is, as Aquinas interprets it, enkindle some motions, or warmth of charity in him; his wicked­nesse being won to Piety, by the offices of love; Yea more yet, offices of good even inScilicetin prae­parationeantum, Thomas, libi su­pra; in cers. & Pet. La [...]hard. l. 3. dist. 29. G. di­ligamus, inquit, mimices [la­crandus] reg [...]o Dei. Spirituall things may not be denyed; such asMat. 5.44. pro omnibus immi­cis quantum vis perversis oran­dum est, nisi constiterit cos esse in peccato mortali [sinali­ter] Alex. Hales part. 3. quaest. 59 mem. 5. Art. 7. Prayer for his conversi­on, perswsiaons unto use of the means of grace, &c. he having a nature capable, equally with our selves of happinesse: Thus we finde Saint Stephen, the Pro­to-Martyr of the Gospell, praying for his persecutors, Act. 7.60. saying, Lord lay not this sinne to their charge; and by that devotion he obtained, not their pardon only, but felicity; whence was occasioned that known saying of the Father; si Martyr Stepha­nus non sic orâsset, Ecclesia Paulum non habuisset; If the Martyr Saint Stephen had not so prayed, the Church had not had Saint Paul for a Convert.Quest. 2 But the Truth is, the more opposite question that this text occasions, is, touching imprecations upon, or prayers against [Gods] Enemies, not our [own], for so the text, So let all (thine) Enemies perish, O Lord: And the resolution is,Answ. succinctly, this: That for our owne Personall enemies, we must remember the distincti­on of a threefold remission or forgivenesse; 1. The one is called, Remissio judicii; a man may and must [Page 25]sensibly understand, and apprehend an injury; for an injury being an affliction, God will have us take notice of his strokes and heare his rod, who hath ap­pointed it, Mic. 6.9. Jer. 5.3. 2. Remissio satisfacti­onis, when the wrong done us from an Enemy, ex­ceeds the guilt of the injured so farre, that the scan­dall accruing by it, extendeth to a publique notice; and the endangering of our credit, whether for good name, estate, or perhaps, Religion; in this case, the Law is open, the matter may be empleaded, Act. 19.38. 3. Remissio Vindictae, the forgivenes of revenge; and this is absolutely required; [Heb. 10.10. Vengeance] is on­ly Gods alone to repay, and to him we must leave it, Rom. 12.19. and therefore King David (that Map of wrongs) was wont to [pray] for such Enemies, Psal. 35.13. But now, if the Enemies be more than Per­sonall and private, and prove publique, against [God] or else, therefore, [Reflexively] alone personall, that through our sides the wicked might strike at Gods honour; as the Psalmist saith expressely, Psal. 38.20. They are mine adversaries, (see their motive) because I follow the thing that good is: Loe! there is an Antipathy between the two seeds; the just, even be­cause he is just, is therefore as a shepheard was to an Aegyptian, an [Gen. 46.34. abomination] to the wicked: In this case, as they are Gods Enemies, we may safely, with good Deborah here pray, That they may all perish: Hence that of Jehu, the sonne of Hanani the Seer unto Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou love them that hate the Lord? 2 Chron. 19.2. and David often, see Psal. 139.20, 21, 22. Thine Enemies take thy name in vaine; Do not I hate them ô Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? yea I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine Enemies: and Psalme 109. throughout, see what vol­leys of imprecation he spendeth upon Gods Enemies: [Page 26]so we finde, that the Primitive Christians had set pray­ers, against Julian the Apostate; and even hither may not impertinently be applyed that of our Sa­vior, Lu. 14.26. where we are bidden to hate our very Parents for Christ, that is, whatsoever evill is in the nearest or dearest unto us, (it being against God) we must, though cherish the nature, yet abhorre the Vice.

Nor need we wonder at this zeal; Reason. because as when the drosse is purged from the silver, it is more bright: So when the wicked (professedly such) are cut off, the righteous, whose godlinesse was beforeMatth. 13.43. clowded, and who themselves werePsal. 83.3. hidden in some obscurity; they have then an opportunity of appearing; and thatPsal. 112.4. light and gladnesse, which wasPs. 97.11. sowen for the righ­teous, nowPhil. 4.10. springeth forth afresh, and shines with glory, &c.

Wherefore,Ʋse. I conclude the farther amplification upon this point, as David, Psal. 7.9. O let the wicked­nesse of the wicked come to an end, but establish the just: For the righteous God tryeth the hearts and reines.

FOllowes next the title here given to those,Part. IV. shee prayeth against, Thine [Enemies:] Let all thine [Enemies] perish, O Lord.

In another expression, they are called, in both Te­staments, the [haters] of the Lord: So by David, Ps. 68.1. Psal. 81.15. and in the New, by Saint Paul, Rom. 1.30. Haters of God; the greek word, is [...]: Theophylact saith, the phrase hath a double acception, active and passive; it denoting both men hating God, Deiosores; and also men hated by God, Deo odibiles, as Primasius renders it: Thus God is said to hate, or to abhor the covetous, Psal. 10.3. and to have hated Esau, Rom. 9.13. implying the dislike and detestation of the wicked, in respect of their sinnes: But as Oecume­nius, [Page 27]with S.S. Cyprian epist. 68. sect. 10. Cyprian, (who reads it actively, abhor­rentes Deo) and the best Moderns expound the place: the word is taken actively, of such wicked, as doe hate God: because asBeza & Estius ad Rom. 1 30. & Adam Sasbout; It. Cajetan in Paraphrabid. Beza and EsTius give the reason; the purpose of Saint Paul is not to shew Gods af­fection of hatred towards the Gentiles; but the Gentiles foule enormities resident in themselves: therefore Beza criticizing guesseth, it should bee accented probably in the greeke, [...], not [...].

Take we it then actively, it implyeth that hatred, which men carry to the Divine Majesty; where Schoolmen usually question; Whether it be possible for a man to [hate] God,Quere. who is the chiefest good, and who alone hath in him all amiable excellencies? To which their answer is, that God apprehended in his Essence, or immanent actions, or gracious proper­ties, being a father of mercies, and abounding in in­dulgence and pardon; thus he is not hated of any; Answ. But as hee is apprehended under the notion of a Judge, as of a God cloathed with Majesty and full of Power, able to avenge himselfe in wrath, and fury, and indignation upon the children of disobedience; in this consideration, he is hated of ungodly men; So we finde, that the wicked cannot abide the very thought of God, Psal. 10.4. and cannot endure his presence; either in theD. Sel. exposit. on Rom. 1.30 p. 159. Heart by his Spirit, or in the Congregation by his Word; nor in his comming to Judgement, nor lastly, (to the Death) any of the friends of God, or of such as love him; Therefore the adversaries of Gods (people) are called, the haters of [God] himselfe, Psal. 81.14, 15. Which sense soever you take it in; if they be Gods Enemies, they shall be all asJob. 21.18. stuble before aHeb. 12.29. consuming fire; and the Lord to ease himselfe of his adversaries, (whose iniquity he cannotHab. 1.13. see and like) shall set them as aLam. 3.12, 13. Butt, and [Page 28]spend the arrowes of his sore displeasure upon them; they shall be sure to perish.

AND so I passe on unto my fift particular,Part. 5 & 6. which is the matter of Deborabs Imprecation, Let thine Enemies (perish) O Lord: To which part, I will adde also that other, of the Extent of her devotion; Let (all) thine Enemies perish. By [perishing] is not here meant the utter annihilation of their eternall absolute being, the very Essence of the Soule carryethMatth. 10.28. immortality in it: but only of their [well-being] or rather of their confusion, before the present world; because it is said of Jabin and Sisera, that when they perished at Endor, they became as dung for the [earth,] Psal. 83.9. So that our note from hence will be this, viz. To shew us the affectionate desires of the Saints, for the Universall overthrow and extirpation of the wicked enemies of God,Obser. and of his Church: Let them (all) perish, O Lord.

As it was sayd of Israel going out of Goshen, that they left not somuch as anExod. 10.26. hoofe behinde them, so is it earnestly wished by the Saints, that not so much as one Agag, or one1 Sam. 15.3. Amalekite might be spared; no nor (if the Lord were pleased so to dispose it) oneJosh. 15.63. & 23.13. Proose. Jebusite left as a Relique in Canaan; To this pur­pose, he who long experimented the usances of such enemies, hath expressed himself, Psal. 104.35. Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth,Consumpti, id est simul sumpti. and let the wicked be no more, and Psal. 10.15. Breake thou the arme of the wicked and the evill man, seek out his wickednesse, till thou finde none: Oh that someIsa. 14.23. be­some of destruction from the Lord, would sweep them cleane off the Land, and that all theMatth. 3.12. Chaffe andMatth. 13.25. Tares might (if possible) at once, be bound up to­gether in bundles, and cast into flamesLuk. 3.17. unquench­able. O my God, saith the zealous Prophet, make [Page 29]them like aPsal. 83.13. wheele; strike them with some Vertigi­nous spirit of giddinesse; let them be vexed, even as a thing that is raw; restlessely, unexpressibly, ne­ver leave rowling and winding of themselves, till they have utterly undone themselves; and be cloa­thed with their ownPsal. 109.29. confusion, as with a mantle, &c.

Nor may we marvaile at this zeale; sith, whilest these Jebusites doe stay among us,Reason. they are but asJosh. 23.13. thorns in our eyes; yea, the onelyZech. 3.1. Satans, which stand at the very right hand of our Joshua's, to resist or to disturbe them, in their most fervent services and devotions: These the onely Achans, whoJosh. 7.25. trouble our Israel, and as Jebu said to Jehoram, What2 King. 9.22. peace can be expected (with any assurance) in any Nation; where the Whoredomes or Witchcrafts, (whether Temporall orRev. 17.5. Spirituall) of but one Jezabel, are endured?

It is said here, in the close of this Text, That the Land had rest forty years: but note the occasion, (and it is very observable) Judg. 4.16. All the Hoste of Sisera fell upon the edge of the sword, and there was not a Man left: in relation unto which, for the pro­curing of Peace for after times, the good Prophetesse in likelihood, here prayed for a totall eradica­tion; saying, So let all thine Enemies perish O Lord.

Your selves with due Cautions,Ʋse. may make the application: I have spoken unto1 Cor. 10.15. wise men, who can judge, I doubt not, what I say.

AND so I come to the seventh and last particu­lar in the Text, which is the manner,Part. VII. after which she desires, that all these Enemies of the Lord may perish, Sic pereant, so: which Monosyllable (So) I have reserved to handle in the last place; be­cause [Page 30]it will best usher in my intended application of the whole; and is indeed, as that Wine made by Christ at the Marriage feast, in Cana of Galilee, kept as the [Josh. 2.10. best] till last: So, let all thine Enemies perish O Lord. How? or, which way, would she have them perish? Perhaps we may resolve this So, asRibera, ad A­mos 4.12. Ribera from Saint Hierom, doth that [so] or [thus] in the Pro­phet, Amos 4.12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel; Thus? How? or in what manner? R. Non nominat mala, ut omnia timeant; Hee names no one particular evill, that so they might stand in aw, and be afrayd of every evill of punishment:Sueton. lib. 1. sect. 65. Suetonius telleth us, that it was the very policy of Julius Caesar, never to foreacquaint his Souldiers of any set time of removall, or onset; Scilicet, ut paratum, & intentum, momentis omnibus, quo velle., subito educeret; That he ever have him, in readinesse, for the suddainest march: nor was his way of animation and encouragement, by extenuating or denying the danger of the Enemy; but he deemed it fitter to raise up thoughts of valour, by an aggravation of the contrary forces; and (as the story shews us) did not seldome this way Hyperbo­lically Rhetoricate; I know you can apply: But, whether that be intended in this text, I will not per­emptorily say: But certainly, my deare Brethren, its a most usefull meditation, and very availeable to pre­vent obstinate security in dangerous times; to con­sider the variety of Plagues, that the Lord hath up in store for the children of disobedience; to which end, I thinke it is, that the Lord is pleased to set before our eyes so large a Catalogue of Curses, Deut. 28.

Give me leave a little to enlarge upon this subject, I shall ground my enlargement on that of the StoiqueEpictetus in enchiridio. Epictetus, [...], saith he, [...]: that [Page 31]is (as I interpret it) according to diversity of appre­hension of good, or evill, so are mens mindes diversly affected: and there are evils grievous to some, that seem good to others: for example, tell a valiant Souldier of Warre approaching, you speake to his heart, for then he thrives; But tell a crazy Citizen of the fury of War, of the roaring of Cannons, of theNab. 3.2. ratling of Chariots, ofIsa 9 5. garments rowled in blood, and such like hideous disasters of battells; you pierce him at the heart, and give himIsa. 61.3. mourning for the oyle of gladnesse: To speak of famine to a rich Churle, that keepsPro. 11.26. in his Corne, till the people curse him; you cheare his very soule, and his joy is greater than theIsa. 9.3. joy in harvest; but let the poore people feare dearth, or but heare of it, in the causes, their very hearts evenJosh. 7 5. melt within them: Bring an earth­worm tidings of a spirituallAmos 8.11. famine, of hearing the word of God; or of the losse, at the least, hazard of the purity of Religion; loe! such aMatth. 7.6. swine doth but trample upon a pearl, and as Gallio, Act. 18.17. he careth for none of these things; but deale with one, that hath1 Pet. 2.3. tasted how gracious the Lord is in his word; which is theRom. 1.16. power of God unto salvation, to a true believer, who labors to expresse the2 Tim. 3.5. po­wer of godlines in his actions; he is affected as the good wife of Phineas, when the Arke was taken; and cryeth out in the very bitternes of his1 Sam. 4.21. soule, Icha­bod, where is the Glory? when the Ark is taken: surely the glory is departed from any land, when the Gospell, (the Testimony of Gods presence and favour,) is like the EphesianRev. 2.5. Candlesticke, removed thence.

Besides, there are some judgements of God, which naturally are dreadfull, and yet have been executed upon some for ensamples; as, why thinke we not up­on that of Sodome, whenGen. 19. fire and brimestone were [Page 32]yoated down in full showers from Heaven, to con­sume the bestiall inhabitants? Why not likewise, upon that vengeance of God upon Corab, Dathan and Abiram; whom for their ungracious mutiny, and en­vy at the sonnes of Levy, the earth openingNum. 16. swal­lowed up quick, and (as unaccustomed morsells) de­voured alive? Why not of Israel, destroyed ofNum. 21.6. & 1 Cor. 10.9. ser­pents? on Absalom, taken off in the very2 Sam. 18.9. act of his sin, in the heat of treason and Parricide,2 King. 9.36. against a King, and a Father? Why not of Jezabel, that frontlesse bra­zen faced strumpet, whose abused body and mem­bers were entombed in the bowels of Dogs? Why not of Samaria and Hierusalem, where Parents were ur­ged in distresse to2 King. 6.29. boyle andJosephus. feed upon their own issue? Why not of Midianites, whom feare and sud­daine frightfulnes occasioned to makeJud. 7.21. each others bowels the sheaths of their mutuall swords, and as the brood ofSuoque Marte ruunt subiti, per mutua vulnera, fratres. Ovid. Cadmus, to destroy each other? I might be almost infinte, this way: What? saith the zealous Apostle, 1 Cor. 10.22. Doe we provoke the Lord to jelousy? are we stronger then he? Thus let us think that if Famine, or Sword, or Pestilence, or the noy­some Beast, (those foure sore judgements of his, Ezek. 14.21.) have consumed some of us;Job. 4.5. yet is not the storehouse of Gods vengeance exhausted: loe!Job. 10.17. chan­ges and armies of sorrow, as Job cals them; the Lord hath still layd up in his treasury of wrath; and what know we, which may befall us? Moreover, we must take notice, that Gods judgements are not all of one kind:9.35. & Isa. 6.10. & Ro. 4.5. there are invisible Plagues as well as those which light outwardly upon the Body, Goods, or Name; What think you of, hardnes of heart, horror, &1 Tim. 4.2. stupefaction of Conscience, blindnes of minde,Ephes. 4.19. gree­dines in committing sinne, yet stupid stockishnes and remorslesnesse under the guilt of it; aRom 4.28. permission to run on in a course of enormity, to1 Joh. 5.19. lye down in that [Page 33]wicked one, under the very power &2 Tim. 2.26. vassallage of the Devill; and all this without any sense of a God to judge them, of any Conscience to accuse them, of any Hell to engulfe them, or damned Spirits to torment them, to all eternity; when the Lord, as we read, Deut. 29.4. hath not (all this time in this rufull plight) gi­ven them an heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to heare, and hearing to lay to heart the dreadfullRev. 16.1. vi­alls of wrath, and direfull indignation, threatned to be powred out upon such obstinateEphes. 2.2. Children of dis­obedience. And surely of all judgements, these spirituall ones are the heaviest, and most to be trem­bled at; and the persons upon whom we see them ex­ecuted, have (of all others) upon them, the most ex­presse Characters (for the present, & quoad nos) of castawaies, andSoli filii iraei­ram non senti­unt, sed laetan­tur, & exultant in rebus pessi­mis. S. Bern. sonnes of wrath; and methinks the powers of our very Soules cannot but be shaken (as Belshazzars Dan. 5.6. joynts once trembled, and smote to e­ther at the sight of the handwriting upon the wall) at the meditation.

In short, for the wicked, this is that, which the Lord threatens; that which he [Prov. 10.24. feares] shall surely come upon him; yea if there be any evill, that he feareth more than other, that let him expect to selfe upon him; for so God threatens him, Pro. 10.24. And for the rest of us all, we have all cause to feare like judgements for like sinnes, and impenitence. If we be1 Cor. 10.7 &c. Idolaters, Adulterers, Murmurers,2 Tim. 3.2. unthank­full, unholy, disobedient, &c. How can we escape the same wrath with others, living under the domini­on of the same unrighteousness? fith the Lord hath protested, to make them share in like punishments, who resemble in like sinning. Generally, let this be our wisedome, to forecast our possibilities; and to foresee our penalties pregnant in their causes, our sin­full security; and let us all think, if one judgement [Page 34]smite us not, another may; if no paticular, yet all may betide us: for loe! saith God to Israel, [Thus] will I doe unto thee; I name no one particular judge­ment, that thou mayest teare every judgement. And here Deborah in the text, praying for the overthrow of Gods Enemies makes no mention of any particular way to have them perish in; but only saith, at large and in the Generall; Sic pereant, [So] let all thine E­nemies perish, O Lord.

But notwithstanding this usefull meditation; If vet we reserre to this particular story, (as indeed for an apt exposition, we cannot but doe) then the manner o [...] Sisera's overthrow will best interpret De­borah [...] meaning.

1. Then So that is by weak means; For we read, Judg. 4.9. that the honour of Sisera's ruine was not to be cast upon Barak, though happily a valiant man, but the Lord, saith the Text, shall sell Sisera into the hand of a woman; For J [...]el the wife of Heber, by a speciall instinct from God; (much like unto that in­stinct which movedNum. 25.7, 8. Phineas, to destroy Zimri and Cos­bi) she was the instrument of Siseras destruction; so was there a mighty deliverance wrought by Hester, a woman, from Hamans intended cruelty upon the peo­ple of God; and by Judith, from Holofernes: And if I may take liberty to weave a wollen thread or two of secular story, among the white-silk threads of di­vine; I could acquaint you, that in the most famous battels of the world, women have been renowned: in that warre of Xerxes against the Grecians, the Persian Men fled shamefully and were slaine, when as Arte­misia, the Queen, stood it out, with valour; whence was the Proverbe of that time; The men were in that battell women, and the women, men; And did not Zenobia shew by farre more prowesse in defending the Romane Empire, than Galienus? and how many of [Page 35]that sexe, as Blandina and others, proved eximious mar­tyrs in the primitive times? What should IVide Pet. Mar­tyr. epist. ad Eliz. Regin. Angliae, p. 1124. mention our own home-Deborah Q. Elizabeth of famous me­mory? in whom besides her sex, there was nothing woman like, or weake: as if (what Philosophy saith) the soules of these noble Creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies; which consist of a frame ofF. Res. rarer roomes, of a more exact composition, than mans doth; and (if place be any priviledge) we shall finde theirs built in Paradise, when mans was made out of it: But yet the Scripture hath made her, if not inferiour, yet subordinate to man; and styled her, The 1 Pet. 3.7. weaker Vessell; and therefore is the destruction of Sisera by a woman, here noted as an occasion to magnisi Gods greater glory, in the weake means of Sisera's overthrow; sutably unto that of Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 1 27. God hath chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things which are mighty; Note the comparison and admire the deliverance; Si­sera, a dreadfull Warriour; Jael, a feeble woman; Si­sera, with 900. Chariots of yron, Jael, with a nayle onely, and a work mans hammer, Jud. 5.26. Yet at the feet of so impotent a female he bowed, even Sise­ra (that great terrour of Israel) fell, he lay down, at her feet he bowed, he fell, where he bowed, there he fell down dead: OIsa 45.8. drop down righteousnes yee hea­vens, and let the earth be astonished at this! And (O my God) how easily can the Lord Christ. (as Sampson with theJud. 15.16. jaw-bone of an Asse slew heaps upon heaps, even a thousand Philistins at a clap) with the very2 Thess. 2.8. spirit of his mouth, and with the breath of his no­strils (so easily, so with no labour) consume the very man of finne himselfe, and dung his Vineyard with the dead carkasse of that wildePsal. 80.13. Bore of the forest, Antichrist himselfe! God can as easily blast an Oake, as trample a mushrome.

2. So, that is, by flight, Judg. 4.17. most shame­fully and with dishonor; In all Godsn­ Eph. 6.11, &c. armory, there is no armour for the backe; but see here this daring Champion betakes him to his heels and flyes; yea, all his mighty hoste seem to have been called thither, on­ly to be overthrown; for not a stroke was given, that we can discover of his side; Thus therefore for proud Sisera to be cow'd out, and dastardly to turne his back upon the weake army of the Israelites; So, to perish, was to lay hisPsal. 7.5. honour in the dust.

3. So, to wit, by a nayle, and by an ordinary work­mans hammer; Note here the law of Retaliation from the Lord; He who had so much vaunted of his yron Chariots, is now slaine by one mayle of yron; thus, Judg. 1.7. Adonibezek is payd home, as it were, in his own Coyn, and met with in the very same kind, even in his Thumbs and Toes, which were cut off, as he had done before to threescore and ten Kings: which observation forced him, to confesse Gods justice upon him, As I have done, saith be, So God hath requited me: So the Wiseman, Wised. 11.16. Wherewithall a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished: I could cloy you with examples; Appion scoffing at Religi­on, and chiefely at cicumcision, had an Ulcer the same time and place, as Josephus reporteth: the story of Haman trussed up to hisEst. 7.10. own gallows is known: Abimelech, who flew seventy of his Brethren upon a stone, Jud. 9.5. hath his brain-pan broken by the piece of a milstone, ver. 53. Because rebellious Saul [cast away] the word of the Lord, therefore, the Lord [cast him away] from being King, 1 Sam. 15.23. As Agag his sword made women childelesse, so shall his mother be childeles among other Women, 1 Sam. 15.33. Abner having slaine Asaael under the fift rib, 2 Sam. 2.23. was himselfe likewise smitten under the fift rib, by Joab and slaine, 2 Sam. 3.27. The Jewes, who sold [Page 37]Christ Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, (aZech. 11.13. goodly price) had afterwards thirty of their own heads sold for one piece of silver; asJustè postea 30. capita suorum viderunt vendi uno denario ad illudendum. Hegesippus, de excidio Jerusal. p. 680. Hegisippus acquaints us: Et de­lator habet, quod dabat, exilium, saithMartial. l. 1. Ep. 4. Martial; In short, See Psal. [...]4.21, 22, 23. They gather themselves to­gether, saith David, against the soule of the Righte­ous and condemn the Innocent blood, but God, (the rock of our refuge) shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wick­ednesse; yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off; Thus the Jewish Rabbins had a conceit, that there­fore King David, in his old age, failed of1 King. 11. warmth from his own cloaths; because he had formerly cut off the lap of1 Sam. 24.4. Sauls garment, being the Lords Anoin­ted: Thus, as one observes, the Lord Hastings was beheaded at London, that very selfe same day twelve­month, yea, the same houre; and if curiosity may go farther, the same minute, wherein he had conspired the death of the Queens Children at Pomfret Castle: Why waste I breath in this endlesse course of ex­amples? we find, that divers of the greatest account, ofB [...]. Carleton relation of the deliverances of England. this dayes conspiracy in the County of Warwick (whither they fled for shelter) were asFlorus, hist. l. 1. Florus wri­teth of the old Fidenates, cremati [suo] igne, maymed and scorched in their faces, hands, sides, and other parts by Gunpowder; the same instrument of death, that they had prepared for the Head, and for the whole representative Body of this Kingdome: even as Sisera, in this story we now treate of, was met with in a part of that yron, in the strength of which he had so much vaunted himselfe. Neque enim lex justior ulla est, Quam necis artifices arte perire suâ.

Lastly, So; that is, whilest he was fast asleep Ju. 4.21. even in the height of his most reposed rest, and security; for even in the very midst of tumult, & the very jaws of death, this carnall heathen found a time to sleep; [Page 38] Quem Deus perdere vult, stultum facit; whom God intendeth to destroy, he first infatuates; when Sodom was to be destroyed, the men of the City were (some of them) smitten with blindnes; so that they could not foresee their own now most imminent ruine; compare Judg. 18.27. And (not to be tedious) the infernall traytors of this day,Gen. 19.11. as Dr. Carleton relates it, were securely sitting and warming themselves by a fire; (even as wicked Jehoiakim, Jer. 36.22. when the ve­ry threatenings of the Law of God were against him, sate before the fire, without feare) when a sparkle of that same fire flew out, and lighting upon some two pound waight of powder that lay nigh them, misera­bly deformed and spoiled them, neer the place of their surprizall.

And it is a most irrevocable truth, my beloved Christians, that the Lord never suffereth his Ene­mies to goHoe tene, nec crimen quen­quam in pectore gestare, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Lipsius, l. 2. c. 13. deCon­stant. unrevenged one way, or by some means, or other; sometimes he takes them off in the very beginning of their lewd projects, and crusheth the Cockatrice in he Egge; sometimes in the veryIn Scelere sce­leris supplicium est, & [...]aetanea sceleripoena, &c. vid. Duplessis, c. 12. de verit re­lig. Christ. p. 198 &c. vol. 8. act, as Absalom, Belshazzar, Herod; sometimes the punish­ment, as thunder doth lightening, followeth instantly upon the very heels of their sinne; as uponAct. 5.5, 10. Ananta; and Sapphira; and sometimes, not till a long time af­ter; as upon that old Judge, who was with his age, waxen old also in wickednesse; which was at last brought to light, ver. 52. of the History of Susanna; see to the same purpose,Luk. 11.50. Matth. 23.35. [...], saithPlato de repub. Plato; In summe, cannot God blast the corn in the blade, in the harvest, in the Barn, in the very mouthes of the wicked? But if they bee treasonable attempts against the Lords Anoynted; if2 Sam. 18.9. Absolom, 2 Sam. 17 23; Achitophel, (who proved their own ex­ecutioners)2 King. 9.31. Zimri, the2 Chron. 35.25. servants of Ammon, and the rest of the same rabble; if any of these prospered, then [Page 39]may a like Traytor hope for immunity from venge­ance; yea, whatSueton. lib. 1. sect. 89. Saeton reporteth of such as stab'd King Julius Cesar, is generally true of all such; Ne­quisquam [suâ] morte defunctus est, No one of them died a naturall death, or went down to his grave in1 King. 2.6.9. Peace: And the reason, why a [Gen. 4.15. seven-fold] venge­ance was threatned more upon him, that should kill Cain, then was upon Cain himselfe, though a bloody Fratricide; is given by some to be this, viz. because Cain was a Prince, and being eldest Sonne to Adam, was Heire apparent to the Crown of the whol world: Our owne stories and experience may convince us herein, HowPsal. 105.15. tender the Lord is of Royall dignity; how much he thinketh hisZech. 2.8. own Majesty interested, in the injuries attempted, or done to his Vice ge­rents and such as carry semblance of his authority upon earth; the vengeances have been, sundry of them, fearefull even to astonishment; Wherefore, Gods charge is so peremptory, Psal. 105.15. Touch not mine anoynted, that is, Tactu qualitativo, with the least intention of annoyance; and as David said to Abishai, who would have smitten Saul (aHos. 13.11. wicked King) 1 Sam. 26.9. Destroy him not; for, who can stretch forth his hand against the Lords Anoynted, and be guilt lesse? I say, as SaintS. Ambros. de Naboth Jezra­elit. cap. 11. Ambrose, when he closeth the story of Abab and Jezabels fearefull end: Fuge ergò Dives bujusmodi exitum; sed fugies hujusmo­di exitum, si fugeris hujusmodi flagitium; Let all men tremble at the fearefull ends of wicked men, chiefely of traytors, for the brand of the King of Kings is set upon such; but such ends yee shall avoyd, if yee care­fully fly from such like abominations.

Now to summe up the whol of this particular: [So] let all thine Enemies perish, that is, in the height of their vain-glorious ostentation, by [weake] means; [So] that is, in so shamefull a sort, as dastard [flying] be­fore [Page 40]their pursuers: So, in being entrapped in their [own] snares and nets; and lastly, so, in the midd [...]st of their deadly security; when they are as insensible of ruine, as of sinne: Even [so,] saith good Deborah here; So let all thine Enemies perish, O Lord.

And thus have I gone over all the particulars of this my first generall; and with them, I perceive, I have filled up the houre: But because, as St. Austin said of the feast of Pentecost, Gaudet [produci] haec so­lennitas; This solemnity would bee extended, and (as the silkworm stretcheth forth her selfe, before she spins her finest threads) be drawn-out to a length: I could even wish, with Joshua, that the Sunne wouldJosh. 10.12. stand still awhile; that we might the longer rejoyce in this our gladsome festivall; which so much angreth our Romish Proselytes, and maketh them (because we will never have done with this day) toPsal. 112.10. gnash their teeth upon us, with meagre envy: This,Psal. 118.24. This is the day, that the Lord hath made; let us rejoyce and bee glad therein.

And that we may the better doe it; give me now leave, as Elisha sometimes did upon the Shunamites dead sonne, to2 King. 4.34. stretch my Application upon each member of this Text; I may, perhaps, raise up your at­tentions to some new life and vigour; and shew your, that this Scripture is as fit, and consonant to this daies occasion and solemnity; as was to Casars coine theMatth. 22 20. image of Caesar; Whether we consider the Ene­mies from whom; or the manner how, or the author of whom this our great deliverance came.

And, as I remember, Saint Gregory Nanianzen pro­logues his first Steliteutique against Julian the Apo­state; so will I, this my ensuing speech; [...], — [...], &c. Let all the Nations of the earth [Page 41]give eare; let all ages both this present, and that to come, listen, yea remember, if not this speech, yet the hints of a seasonable discourse.

For the first, the quality of our Enemies, the Papists, we cannot better see them, then in the fashions of those Heretiques, the Antitactae of old; who held it Piety, to contradict the Laws of their Maker; and in stead of them, to introduce the sottish fopperies of their own phrenzies: And if you are desirous to see a map of them drawn up ready to your hands; you may see it, in that [Serious disswasive from Popery; and, in the old Religion,] which are extant among the precious Volumes of a glorious Light and Champion of our Church, our Reverend Diocesan;Bp. Hall. (a Prelate of im­mortall memory; whom for his mortall opposition unto all Popish, rotten Doctrines, and Antichristian Superstitions; and for whose peerlesse devotion and sanctity, posterity shall admire with Honour: as now, I know, our neighbour Churches doe, for one of the most accomplished Divines that ever great Bri­taine yeelded.)

But, to shew the quality of the Antichrist, our fa­tall Enemy of Rome, (for he that is not [with] us, is [Matth. 12.30. Non [...], non [...], sed [...]: an opposite to Christ, as if h [...] opposing should be not so much to his nature or person, as to his unction and Function. D. Sel p. 118 on 2 Thess. against] us, saith our Saviour) I will represent the whole before you, under these two Heads.

• I. Doctrine.
• II. Manners.

Upon which two, as the Heavens upon two Poles, all that can be said of that fallen Church doth move; In the unfolding of both which, it may appeare per­chance, what friends this Golden Pulpit (that I may take off the aspersion that is cast upon it, as I have been told of late; as being willing to burn some Incense and sweet odors, after an ill sent) hath afforded unto Popery, unto accursed, most damnable Popery.

For the latter of these, their manners; I cannot [Page 38] [...] [Page 39] [...] [Page 40] [...] [Page 41] [...] [Page 42]better parallel, than with those Blaines and Botches, that, Exod. 9.10. blistered both man and beast in Ae­gypt, in the dayes of Moses; yea, as theIsa. 1.6. Prophet speaks, from the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundnes in it, but wounds and bruises, and putrifying sores: By Stapletons own confession, (the Devill sometimes confesseth Christ, and spea­keth truth) there can scarcelyVix ullum pec­catum, (solâ hae­resi exceptâ) co­gitari potest, quo illa sedes turpi­tèr maculata non fuerit, ma­xime ab anno. 800. &c. Sta pleton. relect. controv 1. q. 5. Art. 3. any sinne be thought upon, (onely Heresie excepted) which that Sea of Rome hath not been spotted with; chiefely, since the yeare, 800. Nor need they, I wis, except Heresie; for Biel and Almaine confesse the Popes to have been foully plunged in it: witnesse those prodigies, whoVid. Platin. in vitis Rom. pont. denyed the immortality of the soule, professed Ne­cromancy, &c. [thirty] errours acknowledged by Onuphrius their own Chronologer; and indeed, saith a ReverendEp. Dave­nant. qu. est. 41. p. 185. Edit. 1634. Cantabr. Ecclesia Romana ex quo semel er­ravit, cogitur ae­ternum in suis eroribus per seve­rare, &c. Bishop of our own Church; Rome hath deservedly rewed this punishment of all her errours; (sith she hath boasted her selfe of an incompossibility of them, to consist with her) that since first she did erre, she is permitted justly to persevere in damnable erours: In summe, If such odious Doctrines (where­of anon) have been delivered by her, when she saith, she cannot erre; Good God! what would she doe, if she could erre. To be short;Sleidan. Com­ment, l. 1. p. 7. Sleidan hath Epito­mized the whole thus; Omnium locorum totius orbis ter­rarum faedissima sentina, & in exhausta quaedam colluvies; It's indeed, the very sink and drain of all impurity; whichSalvian l. 7. de Gubern. Dei. Salvian andNicholas de Clemangis, de corrup to ecclesiae statu. Nicholas de Clemangis have copi­ously exemplified: yea, her own stories, Acts and Mo­numents doe convince her to be aD. Raynolds, p. 608. in Preface to sixe con­clus. against Hart. out of Platin. Onuph. Sabellic. Guicciardin. Thedoric à Niem Abbas Vrsperg. &c. Bapt. Mantuan. eclog. 9.5. Ste a Catalog. of her corruptions, in conclus. s. p. 662, 663. D. Raynold. ibid. nurse of warres, a parent of unfaithfulnes, a spoyler of the brethren, a worshipper of Idols, a seat of covetousnes, a Lady of [Page 43]pride, a cherisher and inflamer of Lusts, of outrages, of abominations, whose old [fame] continueth, but whose [goodnes] is gone; Hence that Distich of the Traveller,

And is it not now meet, think you, that we should be whistled back to the lure of that stews and strumpet? which thus pretendeth to be the Physitian, to cure the Church, when as indeed, she is the very disease of it? yea rather, my deare brethren, Come out from a­mon [...] them, and be yee separate, saith the Lord, 2 Cor. 6.7. believe it, there may be lesse danger in a Pest­house, than in such familiarity: therefore SaintRev. 18.4. Joh. is also importunate from a voyce heard from Heaven; Come out of her my people, that yee be not partaker o [...] Babylons sins, that so ye receive not of her Plagues: We are sure, St. Peter himselfe, (whose infallibility, chiefly seated in the [Chaire] of Pestilence, his pre­tended successour at Rome, doth so much crack of) per­swaded unto another Practise, 1 Pet. 1.15, 16. Be yee [Holy] in all manner of Conversation: The truth is, He resembles Peter in nothing, but in theMatth. 26.70. deny all of his Master; I should cloy you with a larger men­tion of their reaking obscenities.

Come we next to Doctrine; and here I am in so over-grown a garden of weeds; that it is hard to crop almost one flower, which resents not rankly; But, that I may abridge the larger Volumes, under a few heads, I will make the principall of them, (with which they have too-long inferted the Church of God) run, in some sort, parallel; with the c [...]iefe of those passages and judgements, which the Lord, of old, shewed before, and inflicted upon Pharaoh in Ae­gypt; And indeed, I think them herein, better ca­pable of a parallel, then (under savour) some others, [Page 44]happily other waies; namely, with the (though too-much to be lamented) blemishes of our own Church; I professe, I am not of a disposition, delighting to lay open the shame of my deare Parent; because I should then feare theGen. 9.25. Curse of Cham; I know, such im­modest detections are too apt to occasion thePsal. 79.4. derisi­on and the scorn of Enemies: It is too true, (I ac­knowledge, and[Pudet] haec opprobria nobis, & dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli. blush in the relation) among the very sonnes of Eli the Priest, there might perhaps be found some fouly degenerous sons of1 Sam. 2.12. Belial; whose ex­orbitancies, reflexively, occasioned the veryVer. 17. ibid. Sacrifi­ces to be abhorred by the Vulgar; among the Apo­stles themselves, there was a Judas, who was so wick­ed, that our Saviour styles him no other then a De­vill, Jo. 6.70. But there are also (and I hope & doubt not, the greater part) whose drosse is more purged, and whose silver moreProv. 25.4. refined; Glorious Lamps blazing both in Life and Doctrine, to the honour and renown of this famous Church of England: One spark of a Diamond may be worth whole piles of Marble, and the beauty of such eximious Worthies, outvie the duskishnes of a few false lights; however, I should rather choose with that piousTheodoret hist. lib. 1. c. 11. & So­crat. lib. 1. c. 8. & carranza in Concilii Niceni apparatu. Constantine to [seale] up the unhappy distempers of the Church, with a signet of silence, and to imitate the good Samaritan, inLuk. 10.34. binding up the soares of my Mother-Church, then to blazon her sears, (too much, alas! known al­ready, to the bellowing, and unsanctified2 Sam. 16.5. Shimeis of accursed Antichrist) to her shame or obloquie; He I believe, who loves with Shem, toGen. 9.23. cover up the un­comely nakednesse of his (chiefly) spirituall Parent, may not without hopes, expect his heavenly Fathers blessing; Though, on the other side, if there be found out any Achans, who haveJosh. 7.25. troubled our Israel, if they be convinced, let them be brought forth, and let e­very one cast a stone at them; thatPsal. 85.9. glory may still [Page 45]dwell in our Land; But for the Lamps of the Taber­nacle, that burn but [dimly,] the [Snuffers] of a sea­sonable Reformation, instead of [Extinguishers] shall suffice, Exod. 37.23.

But I come to my Parallell; and here not to stand long upon the brick-kilns of Aegypt; to which I might compare the Romishz Purgatory,Concil. Trident. sess. 25. p. 224. vol. 8. & Cate­chism. ad Pa­roch. sub Pio 5. (but that it is but meerly an Ignis fatuus) chiefly theSee B. Morton p. 85, 86. sect. 2, 3. c. 5. Grand. Impost. ex A­grippa. de vanit. scient. Inquisition, (that cruell rack, not more of bodies then of Soules:) The first sign shewen before Pharoah, was the casting of Aarons Rod upon the ground, so that it became a Serpent, Exod. 7.10. What was this Rod a Type of, but of that [true] wood of the Crosse of Christ? asMacarius, Homil 47. p. 523 [...], &c. Confer. Pet. Ga­latin. lib. 6. c. 15. De Arcanis Ca­tholicae verit. [...] Ma­car. Macarius acquaints us; which Crosse of Christ, whilest they teach to be adored and cringed unto, and worshipped, whether in Timber or otherwise, (and delude so many millions of soules with the narration of the saving virtue of the very splinters of it, sent a­broad to their simple and abused Proselytes,) instead of informing them, how the Crosse of Christ should not in shadow, but in Truth, be taken up, by suffe­ring affliction with Christ; What are these but Ido­laters? direct Enemies, even Enemies of the true use of the Crosse of Christ? Phil. 3.18. So as that, which to the poore deluded soules among them, should be as a [staffe] to support them; is like to that of Aaron, turned (by the Magicall inchantments of those Ro­mish, [...]. Antichristian Impostors) into a [Serpent] to sting them even unto death.

Secondly, to the Lice and swarms of Flyes, Exod. 8.1 [...].24. what may better be resembled, then that corrupt Doctrine of1 Tim. 4.2. lyes, which they forge and speak in hypocrisie; bred out of the putride matter of their own ntoxicated heads; putrifying (as theEccles. 10.1. Dead fly doth the boxe of sweet Oyntment) the clear and li­ving Doctrine of Salvation? Thus, by what they [Page 46]teach of natures power to move it selfe, (of it's selfe) to Heaven; what ofConcil. Trid. sess. 6. can. 4, 5, 6. Free-will; of works [...]. sess. 6. c. 16. merito­rious, of workes of Supererogation,Bellar. & Rhe­mist. ad Luc. 10.35. and more than duty; what ofConc. trid. sess. 22. c. 3 & sess. 25. p. 225. Invocation of Saints,Ibid sess. 25. p. 225. prayer for the dead, of finall Apostasie, and the rest of that Do­ctrine of Devils, crammed in together in their Trent Conventicle, and sealed up with an Anathema, in eve-Canon; They [Vermine-like] endeavour most na­stily to pester the truth ofRom. 3.24. & Art. [...]1. of our Church. free Justification by Faith only; of natures [...], Calv. Instit. lib. 2. c. 5. sect 13. in fine Joh. 15.5. & art. 10. of our Church. Nothingnes; ofJer. 32.40. 1 Cor. 1.8. & art. 16. of our Chur. Finall perseve­rance, (the main proppe of a Christian in tempta­tion) and the rest of that1 Tim. 6.3. Tit. 2.7, 8. wholesome Doctrine of life; summed into the Articles of our own Church, (which we have all, or most, [protested] to maintain, lately) but chiefely, contained in theIsa. 12.3. wells themselves of salvation, the Holy Scriptures.

And by the Flyes, I may w [...]ll resemble th [...]se tales, and Legends, and lyes, touching the virtue of Beads, and Medals andConc. trid. sess. 25. p. 225, 226, 227. Reliques, and Roses, and Crossings, and Agnus Dei, and innumerable bawbles of like na­ture; together with other Trumpery and Trash, fitter for Children to sport with, in a winters night, than for me to mention in this grave assembly; What was that other than a base Lye, whichKellison in sur­vey of the new Rel [...]g lib. 1. ca. 1. sect. 18 & l 2. c. 5 sect. 6. ib. Idem ferè, ac si familiaritatem cum Diabolo ipso iniisset, dic t. Serarius Jes. tract. de Lutheri Magistro. Kellison leaves under his scabbed pen, of Luther, (the^k worthy, and stout instrument of the Church her Reformation) that the Devill was an Incubus to his Mother, or: succubus to his Father, and (as Cochlaeus seconds him) d [...]ed^l suddenly a violent and shamefull death? when [...]e saith Costerus the Jesuite, If any Lutheran be saved, Tum veldamner ipse, Then, (see his charity) let me be damned! O. the same bran is that of Calvin, that [Page 47]he dyed, as Antiochus and Herod, (after he had firstBolsecus, in vitâ Calvini. called upon the Devils) being eaten up ofBellarm. lib. 4. de Notis ecclesiae ca. 17. worms: But as all the skill of the Magitians in Aegypt, Exod. 8.18. failed in the [Magorum po­testa [...] defecit in [muscis] S. Au­gust. l. 3. c. 7. de trin. least] wonder, the Flyes; so, in these grosse lyes, our Romanists have been made to yield, even by some of them, who (as Beza and o­thers) have survived to read, and smile at the relati­on of the manner of their own false Deaths.

I hasten; to the destroying of their [first-born,] Exod. 11.5. may be justly resembled their desperate, and disconsolate Doctrine, concerning Infants, dy­ing withoutConc. trid. sess. 7. Can. de Baptis. & Bellarm. lib. de Baptis. &c. Baptisme; the opus operatum, the work done whereof, if they partake not, they injoyn their Clerkes, as Pharaoh did the Midwives of the Hebrew women, toExod. 1.16. destroy and damne them unto Hell; directly against the promise of God, made to the righteous [seed] in the Covenant, Act. 2.39. But, chiefly, the infants ofThe pretended inconven. see in Hist. of trent. Concil. p. 460. Concil. trid. sess. 24. Can. 9. & sess 25. c. 1. à Papa Syricio orimo decretum est hoc votum, & per vim, & tyranni­dem, reclaman­tibus Episc. Ita­liae, German. Gall. ab Hilde­brando insano confirmatum, Baron. an. 1974. sed vide refut. ab ep. Dave­nant. quaest. 42. qua supra p. 197, 198. Married Priests; whom they inforce, beyond their power, against the Laws of God, and nature, toBesides, Nuda carentia non damnat, sed con­temptus. Vow perpetuall Continency and sin­gle life; allowing rather (in some cases) filthy For­nication, then Gods honourable ordinance of holy and^ſ undefiled Matrimony: Yea, if yet I may have leave, to winde up mine instrument a pegge higher; the first-born is, by Prerogative, dignor in populis, the more worthy and eminent above his Brethren; so Lyra expounds that Text, Exod. 4.22. Israel is my sonne, even my First-born; And then we may hereto parallel their doctrine of the supremacy, wherby they make the Scepter to stoupe unto the Miter, and the King to bow unto the Pope; as, sometimes, the sheaves of Josephs brethren bowed to the sheaves of Joseph: Thus Hildebrand made the Diadem of the Em­perour, to^t vaile to his Chrosier; and that of [Page 48] Platina in vitá Alex. 3. p. 206. Frederik Barbarossa abused by that Beast, Alexander the third, is known; when (having first kissed his Toe) being trampled on by that impudent Antichrist, he had the words of the Psalme added; Thus will I tread upon the Basiliske and the Adder, Psal. 91.13. &c. vah Lucifer!

I should great your ears too-much by rehearsing, on this occasion, the arrogantB. Mortongrand Impost. c. 13. sect 5. p. 251, 252. & Arch. usher lib. 9 sect 1, 2. & p. 255, 256 &c. de success. eccles. Christ. & Dr. Raynolds against Hart c 1. divis. 2. p. 17.19. also, Rogers, on Arti­cle 37. of the Chu. of England, p. 211. All taken out out of Ezoni­us, in lib. qui in­seribitur, Ro­manus pontifex. Panormit. de transl. prael. cap. quarte & Stapleton ep. Nuncupat. ad Grego. 13. Ante principal. doctrin. & ex multis aliis, à digniss. Mortono ibid. citatis, it. D. Sclater, on 2 Thess. c 2. v. 4. p. 124. titles, where with this Chough, or Daw of Rome, as with severall feathers, stoln from the Royall dignity of Monarchs, hath plu­med himselfe; yea, in which he hath prided himselfe, even unto Blasphemy; Thus Pope Innocent the eight was styled, by his Parasites, in Royalty and Unction, [Christ] above his fellows; an attribute proper unto Jesus Christ himselfe; Heb. 1.9. And more yet, of the same Beast; He is called One, above all Principalities and powers, and whatsoever is named in this, or in the other world; plainly also proper to Christ, Eph. 1.21. Pope Gregory the thirteenth (stop your ears) called power, might, or majesty of God upon earth; and a­gain, Our Lord^* God the Pope: We pretermit ma­ny the like hideous blasphemies of that triple-crow­ned Lucifer.

To proceed to the judgement of Locusts Exod. 10.12, or, as the Psalmist saith, Psal. 105.34. of Cater­pillars [innumerable,] I may parallel their innume­rable orders of Monkes and Fryars, as Augustans, Dominicans, Franciscans, Capuchins, and of late, their Nullani, and the rest of the like rabble without num­ber and without regard: But the Monster of all Monsters, is the prodigious brood of [Jesuits] a mon­grell Gregation; For as it is noted of the Mule, (that [Page 49]ulcer in nature) that out of the filthy commixture of the stallion, and the shee asse, is generated that mongrell calle [...] the Mule; in like sort, out of the corruption of a Leprous Papist and something worse (if worse may be) is brought forth this unlucky brood of the Jesuits, who after the guize of the Papa­ [...]ns, that put names ( [...] upon their Popes, directly crossing their natures; as if he be a Snowt face, they style him B [...]niface; if a tyrant, Caemens; on the other side, if mecker than ordinary, (which is very rare) they call him Leo, &c. Notori­ous hypocrites, that will never seem as they are, nor be as they seem! So these carry in their names, [ISSUS] a Saviour; but in their H [...]arts, like to theApoc. 9 11. King of the Locusts, (whoseVide Episc. An­drews, p. 53, 54. in concion. latin. in Psal 144.10. inter opera post­huma. resemblance they carry) Abad­din, and Apallyon: Serarius, lib. 1. c 2 qu. 19. in Josh. Serarius vaynly will needs serive the name from the old Testament, Num. 26.24. Jesuits quasi Jashubits; like as Erasmus found Fryars in St. Pauls time, inter falsos fratres, among the false Bre­thren: among much change of houses, they haveSee [...]. Hall in his Q [...]ò vadis? sect 15 & 19, 20, 21, 24. item cundem, decad. 5. epist. 1. & serm. styled Pha­risaisme, & Christianity, versus Finem, & Du Moulin, de fence of King James, c 4. two famous, for the accordance of their Names; one cal­led the Bow, at Nola, the other, the Arrow, (l. Fleshe) in France: though this latter were more worthy of the name of a whole quiver, containing not fewer, then 800. shafts of all sizes: Their Apostate Ferrier playd upon them in this Distich;

Of their [Ephes. 4.14. cunning craftinesse] to deceive by their wicked equivocations, mentall reservations, &c. and their [2 Tim. 3.6. creeping] into the houses and society of sil­ly people, under the pretence of devotions, (as of old, theMatth. 23.14. Pharisees) swallowing up the Patrimonies of deluded weake ones; and because of their cunning, [Page 50]therefore the more [Facilior cauti [...] est, ubi manife­stior formido est. Plus metuendus est, & cavendus inimicus, cum latenter obrepit, cum per pacis imaginem fallens occultis accessi­bus serpit, unde & nomen serpen­tis accepit, &c. S. Cyprian. lib. de Vnitat. eccles. sect. 1.2. dangerous;] What page of the faithfull relatour of their practi [...]es, shews not? They have like those locusts of the bottomles pit, theRev. 9.7, 8. faces of men, and the hair of women, pleasing and alluring; but the very teeth of Lyons, and the stinging tayles of scorpions: If a learned man encounter them, their words are smoother then oyle; and the fair pretence of being soon accorded in matter, if once the Terms of expression might be reconciled: But, if they meet with the feebler sex, or theVide P. Mar­tyr epist. Calvin. p. 1124. qua su­pra. lesse grounded Chri­stian, their words will eate, as doth a2 Tim. 2.17. Canker, or Gangrene,2 Pet. 2.14. beguiling unstable Soules to their utter undoing: like unto King Davids Psal. 144.8. strange Children, their mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falshood: Oh for but one winde, of the God ofExod. 20.5. jealousie, to blow off these crawling Ca­terpillars and Frogs, that have too long kept croaking in the very Chambers of Princes, even into some dead Sea, never to flow more, for their return! A­wake OCant. 4.16. North winde; and come ô South, and blow upon our garden, that the spices of repurged Reli­gion may flow; after these weeds, these limbs of Antichrist be universally eradicated, and pluck'd up by the very Roots. In the mean while, let us take up that of dying Jacob toward his two Sonnes Simeon and Levi, O my soule, comeGen. 49.5, 6, 7. not thou into their secret, unto their assembly mine honour be not thou united.

The next judgement that I shall mention in Aegypt is, their blacke and palpable darknesse, Exod. 10.21. And doth not their Doctrine ofThom. 2a. 2ae. qu. Art. 5, 6, &c. S [...]d nihil aliud est, quam Diabo­lica [...]. Beza, ad 1 Rom. ver. 17. refuted by Arch-Bp. usher, c. 6. sect. 8, 9. p. 150. de successione eccl. & by Bp. Daven. qu. 29 qua supra. & Calv. Inst. l. 3. c. 2. sect. 2, 3. Implicit Faith, of Divine Service, in anConc. Trid. sess. 22. c. 8 & Test. Rhem. Annot. p. 463. & Matth. 21 6. The pretended inconvenience see in hist. of the Trent. Counc. l. 5. p. 460. But contrary to S. Paul. 1 Cor. 14.6.9.14. & Art. 24. of our Church. unknown, known, &c. re­semble [Page 51]this? To which is added, the denying of the use of the holy Scriptures to the Laity; lest pearles (forsooth) should be cast before Swine, and holy things to Dogs: By which practise, they deale like to the Philistins, 1 Sam. 13.19. who put down all smiths in Israel, lest the Hebrews should make themselves swords and speares, or as that Bungler, in Plutarch, who having with his coale scraped out the figure of an Hen, in a most ill-favoured and mishapen sort; was forced to keep one standing by, to drive away all li­ving ones, least they should shame his draught: in like sort, they keep off the Vulgar from the searching of the Scriptures; lest they with the Bereans, sear­chingAct. 17.11. and1 Thess. 5.21. proving their Traditions, and vaine in­ventions, by this touchstone; should not onely have them all deserted with scorn; but themselves, (the im­posers) derided, for their blockish phansies, yea ab­horred, [probably] orMatth. 23.13. shutting of their poore soules up, under such black ignorance; more palpable and more dangerous, than that darknesse of Aegypt, that might beExod. 10.21. felt.

To the judgement of Lightening and Haile, Exod. 9.23, 24. I parallel the innumerable Excommunicati­ons and Anathema's, that from the mountDeut. 11.29. Ebal of their Trent Conventicle, even with Bell, Book and Candle, they send forth flashing in the faces even of Kings and Princes themselves, who may perchance refuse the good Ostlership of his HolinesVid. D. Scl. ad 2 Thess. stirrup: or a busse forsooth, of his greasy Toe. Vah Lucifer!

But lastly, to that ofExod. 7 19. blood andExod. 9.23. Thunder, (for I will now joyn these two together) what is more like, than that accursed doctrine of theirs, teaching theVide Arch-B. Usher exampling this & refuting it zealousty, in serm. upon 1 Cor. 10.17. p. 44, 45, 46, 47, &c. Before the Commons House of Parliament. murthering of Prince and people: nor are their tongues longer then their hands; witnesse the Records of the infinite Golgatho's and Acheldama's, [Page 52]that the Tyranny of that man of sin hath caused in the Christian world; making the chanels of whol streets to run in the color of the red Sea; or as the purple waters ofIsa. 15.9. Dimon, streaming all with blood; Loe, even Kings have been seen to wallow in their gore-blood, shed by their desperate Assafines:See D. Rayn. p. 664. conclus 5. against Hart. Ignat. Loyola Fundat or Jesuit Chemnit. in ex­am. Conc. Trid. initio, de iis item scripsit Maffeius rebellions, seditions and combustions, in all Christian Kingdomes have been raised by the fiery spirits of the disloyall^b Ig­natians.

That cruell Phlebotomy in the massacre of France is not to beNullu [simile,] saevitiae exem­plum in tota Antiquitate re­perire, circiter sexagint a millia hominum circa illud tempus trucidata, &c. Natalis Comes. parallel'd, by any example, in all antiqui­ty of former times; when there were about sixty thousand slaine, and yet that Romish horseleach still cryed out, Give, give, and was not satisfied: And God be pleased to chaine up that wildePsal. 80.13. boare, from ha­ving power to rage in the like nature, (even now) a­mong our distressed brethren in Ireland; where (as we are informed eradications against the State, Laws, King dome, Religion it self, are endeavored, by conspiracies, Rebellions, and all hostile Machinations: May the God even the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fa­ther of2 Cor. 1.3. mercies and the God of all comfort,Job. 5.12. disap­point the devices,Isa 37.27. blast the projects, and nullifie the power of the enemy; or give the oppressedHeb. 10.36. patience, and1 Chron. 28.7. constancy, to beare up under that1 Pet. 4.12. fiery tryall, of which they are in danger; Arise O Lord, make bare their own arme, Isa. 52.10. breake thou the speare, and stop up the way before the cruell, Psal. 46.9. & Psal. 35.3.

To conclude; to the judgement of thunder, I will liken theFlectere sine­queo superos, A­cheronta move­bo, Virgil. Acheronticall Powder-plot, as upon this day; when in thirty six barrels of powder, there was a great brewing of death, tunned up, for the de­struction of the three Estates of this whole Kingdome: an example beyond all examples of ages past; and for the hainousnesse thereof, hardly credible, in the ge­neration [Page 53]to come; For now, by a crack or hellish thunder were King, and Prince, and Peers, and the whole representative Body of the Commons expected (to use the Prophets expression, Isa. 9.18.) to mount up like the lifting up of smoake; in which there could be imagined no mercy; unlesse so totall and so bigge a destruction had in the [suddennes] the reof, found a kinde of mercy.

I read in theFlorus l. 2. c. 6. Romane story of a great massacre of the Romane Nobility at Canna (but an obscure vil­lage of Apulia) to the groaning of the State, for so fatall a losse; but this was in open hostility, young Hannibal no way brooking an opposition: OurVerslegan, c. 5. p. 130. out of William of Malmbsbury. own Chronicles likewise mention an overthrow of three hundred of the British Nobility slain at once upon Salisbury plains, by the treacherous devise of the Saxons, whose King Hengistus comming without thoughts of Peace (though he pretended it) to meet Vortiger, King of the Britains at the same time, and giving them their watchword, which was this, [Nem eowr seaxes] take you Seaxes, (a kinde of croc­ked Knife, from which some think, the Saxons took their name) at the banquet there appointed, slew the Nobility and imprisoned their King; But this was likewise, in the times of Civill discords and intestine Wars.

But for miscreants, in the time of peace, to make themselves ready for warre, and to pile up a whole Kingdome into one corner, as one faggot to be con­sumed in one flame at once! Oh treason unheard of! Oh act imparallel'd; Oh Lucifer out-devil'd! sure­ly, as theFlorus, l. 2. c. 4. Historian saith, of the Gauls of Insubria un­der the Alps; Animi illis [ferarum] erant, theirPsal 5 6. in­ward parts were very violent and fierce, as the wilde beasts of the forest; or asMaginns, Ceo­graph indescrip. Galliae. Maginus, of the Gauis in generall, [Ignea] illis mens; Their mind and heart [Page 54]like to the mountain Aetna, boyled with the [fire] of malice, as if it had feamed out flakes of Hell, ere they came into it: And well may we here resume that, which was said of Simeon and Levi, Gen. 49.5, 6, 7. these Romish Impostors are brethren in iniquity; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations; in their anger they slew a man, cursed be their anger, for it was cruell; Divide them O Lord, divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel; or rather [out] of our Israel; Oh that the Lord would remove, but e­ven this one Plague from us!

And thus have I made an end of my parallel, be­tween the Aegyptian judgements, and the Impostures of Papistry: By all which laid together, we may ca­uly discover, what a [plaguy] Religion that of Po­pery is; or rather indeed, that their faith is nought but faction, nor their Religion but Rebellion, and murthering of Kings, &c. If any man then longs with­in himselfe to get a Souls infection; let him but joyn issue with these doctrines and practises; he shall be sure to be sped; even as surely as those ships, that pretended to saile to Ophir for gold, were split in sunder,1 King 22 48. at Ezion-Geber, and miscarried.

And thus farre of the Enemies, from whose deadly conspiracy we were freed, this day.

The next head of our application, was the manner of our deliverance, How; to which we may joyn the time, When, also it was: And the story or relation thereof sheweth us it to have been in the very height of danger, and by a very weak and improbable means: the danger was, at the very [...], and perfection; so that from a match ready fired, we received a match­lesse deliverance: Cum [duplicantur] lateres, venit Moses, is the Hebrew Proverb, God sent not a de­liverer to Israel in Aegypt, till their bricks were [dou­bled:] mans extremity, is Gods opportunity; when [Page 55]the time of trouble is most [needfull,] then especially, is the Lord a very [Psal. 46.1. present] helpe; even as he was upon this day, when there wanted nothing, but the very act of execution, to our certain ruine; Nor had Gods glory been so much magnified, had not the danger been so farre heightened.

And for the [manner] of it; it was onely by the delivery of aBy. Carleton. Letter, written in a darke expression; and delivered with not over much care or regard, by a Page or Lacquay, crossing the street, to the Lord Monteagle: Which letter being presented to that Prince, who had more than an Eagles perspicacity, (yea, though perched on a mount) to spy out the treason; the Lord (to give that King the honour of so strange a discovery, though he could have done it by other means) now laid it open, by his wise con­jectures; So are the wicked2 Sam. 15.31. & 17.14. & Rom. 1.22. [...]. befooled, often, in the ripenes of their deepest projects; and defeated in the maturity of their proudest and their vastest hopes: For as the Barbarians seing a Viper actually fastened upon Saint Paul's hand, expected each moment, hisAct. 28.6. Ver. 5. falling down dead, even suddenly; yet he only with one shaking of his hand, disappointed their thoughts; even so easily can, yea did that God, (Act. 27.23. whose we are, and whom we serve) blast the hopes of this daies most infernall and diabolicall Treason.

And lastly, for the [author] of the deliverance: we must needs take up that of the Psalmist and say, Psal. 124.1, 2, &c. If it had not been the [Lord] who was on our side, now may Israel, yea England, say; if if it had not been the [Lord] who was on our side, when men rose up against us; Then they had swal­lowed us up quicke, when their wrath was kindled against us; But loe! great deliverance he hath given unto his King, and hath shewen mercy to his Anoyn­ted, unto our David, and unto his seed for evermore, [Page 56] Psal. 18.50. Behold, our soule is escaped as a bird out of aPsal. 124.6, 7. snare of the fowlers, the snare is broken and we are escaped; and blessed be the Lord, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth: O singPsal 47.6, 7. prayses unto our God, sing prayses, sing prayses unto our King, sing prayses: for God is the King of all the Earth, sing yee praises with understanding: See also, Psal. 118.24, 27, 8, 29. Psal. 10 [...].8, 15, 21, 31.

Beloved Christians, leam say to you, on this occa­sion, as Moses sometime unto Israel, Deut. 29.10, 11, &c. Yee sland this day, all of you before the Lord your God, your litle ones, your wives, and whatsoever is nearest or dearest unto you; as yet yourPsal. 144.12, 13, 14, 15. Sons grow up in their youth, and your daughters are as the po­lished corners of the Temple; your garners are full, af­fording all manner of store, your sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in your streets; your Oxen are strong to labour, there is no breaking in, nor going out, nor is there any complayning in your streets: happy is that people, that is in such a case; yea happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

But now, doe but faigne a little to your selves; if the Lord had not beenon our side, but had delivered us all over to the mercilesse cruelty of the Enemy; and suffered us to lye down under the bondage and slave­ry of Antichrist: Then, instead of this blessed liberty of the Gospell, and of the pure worship of God, and of those happy opportunities we now (under so godly and Peerlesse a Prince) enjoy; we might have been plundred in grosse Superstition and Idolatry; have been worshippin, of Images, cringing to Crosses, adoring of Crucifixes, blattering to a Saint, rumbling of our Beads, wandring in some Pilgrimage; all o­verrun with the rank weeds ofCol. 2.23. wil-wership, angring our God of jealousie, and irritating the just wrath of Heaven: or else all dragg'd unto racks, or stakes, or [Page 57]dungeons, to fire, and faggot, or other exquisite tor­tures; the proper badges of that Romish Antichrist, that man of sinne; whereas that true Religion and Wifedome, that is from above, is first pure, then [Jam. 3.17. Peaceable;] so farre from bloodines, as it is from Popery.

But thanks be unto the Lord for his2 Cor. 9.15. unspeakable Gift: He hath rescued us from theCol. 1.13. power of a [more] than Aegyptian (because a spirituall) darknesse: yea more than so, he hath broken thePsal. 13.7. teeth of that2 Thess 2.3. Son of perdition himselfe, andJud. 6. chayned up his power: And as we have found out the beginning of his rise; so we hope to see the end of his finall downfall. A­bout the yearJuel, Apol p. 29 vol. 16. six hundred and thirteen, shortly af­ter the death of Saint Gregory (the great indeed, but humble Bishop) who endeavoured to quell theVide Bullinger. ad Apoc. 9. in­solency of John the Prelate of Constantinople, for a­spiring to the title, Of See Epist. of S. Gregory the great to Mauri­cius the Empe­ror, added to the hist. of Trent. Concil. p. 829, 830. universall Bishop, and directly styling him, The forerunner of Antichrist, who should dare to assume it unto himself: Yet Boniface the third moved nothing herewith, obtained of wicked Pho­cas (who, by the murthering of his Lord Mauricius, had got into the Empire,) that the Church of Rome might be called, and taken for the chiefe and head of all Churches; and himself to be sty led the Universall Bishop of the World: And in this, thus ambitious Boniface, had Antichrist his [...], the entrance upon his height: After that, through many cruelties and tyrannies, his [...], or perfection, was in Gregory the seventh, commonly called Hildebrand, By. Downam, Diatrib. de An­tichrist. contr. Leon. Lessium. who first of all the rest, about the year, 1073. subjected the Diadem to the Miter, exalting himselfe above all that is called God, 2 Thess. 2.4. That is, above all Magi­strates, both supream and subordinate;Otho. Frisingen­sis, lib. 9. c. 35. who by rea­son of the resemblance in Majesty, being Gods Vice­gerents in authority upon Earth, are calledExod. 22, 28. Gods, [Page 58]1 Cor. 88.5. though Essentially they are no Gods: And by the devise of the holySee M. Fuller his Hist. of the holy Warre ele­gantly penn'd. Warre at Hierusalem, lurching the Patrimony of deluded Princes, (whom he had perswaded to beare arms in that cause) in their absence, to Saint Peters chaire; he advanced himself at length to so great an height, that his head grew giddy; and so thatRev. 9.1. Stel­lam hanc omnes fere Neoterici interpretantur de Romano Von­tisice, ut Joachi­mus, Abbas Bul­ling, Gyffard, Dent. &c. starre fell down from Heaven, to the earth; And ever since in the later times, hath this Antichrist had his [...], the remission of his vigour, and his declination: And now how should every zealous soule, who clearly and without dissem­bling, wisheth well to the Peace of this our Zion; take up that of Edom, in the day of Hierusalem, and cryPsal. 137.7. down with him, down with him, even to the ground? Loe this greatRev. 17.1. whore of Papacy is cast upon her bed ofPsal. 41.3. languishing, and is sick, we hope to death; so that she shall never be able more to rise up, nor with theRevel. 17.2. Wine of her spirituall, filthy fornications, to en­toxicate the nations of the earth; so long, so rufully, already, made drunken by her; yea, the Lord Christ shall consume the2 Thess. 2.3. man of sinn, with the spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the brightnes of his com­ming, 2 Thess. 2.8. yea even soRevel. 22.20. come, Lord Jesus, come quickly: And doe unto him, and unto all his complices, as unto the Midianites, as toPsal. 83.9, 10. Sisera, as to Jabin, at the brook of Kishon, which perished at Endor, they became as dung for the earth, &c. Yea, let God arise, and let hisPsal. 68.1, 2, &c. Enemies be scattered, let them also that hate him fly before him, as smoake is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth be­fore the fire, so let the wicked perish, at the presence of God: but let the righteous be glad; let them re­joyce before God, yea, let them exceedingly rejoyce; let them sing unto God, sing praises unto his Name, and extoll him that rideth upon the Heavens, by his Name J A H, and rejoyce before him.

It is time to end: suffer a word of exhortation and I have done; I shall begin it, in the words of Ezra, cap. 9.13, 14. Seeing that thou our God, hast given us such a deliverance as this; as this, so emin [...]nt, so miraculous, so when we were high o destruction, and the very mouth of ruine gaped, and was open to devoure us; should we again break thy Commandements? and joyn with the people of these abominations? wouldest thou not be angry with us, till thou hadst consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor escaping? Ah my brethren, let us be a­wakned from our deadly security, from our sinfull un­thankfulnes; favours bestowed raise up an expecta­tion of obedience, and of a godly conversation, Mic. 6.8. As therefore the Heathens had their three Graces, (as inseparable sisters) he one to give the benefit, the other to receive it, and the third to return it, and they painted them alwaies [young;] to the end, a benefit might be ever [fresh] in their remembrances:Heb. 13.22. so let us neverPsal. 137.5. forget this favour of all favours, this day, be­stowed upon this Land and Kingdome: Let us give up our selves, our soules and bodies, all that we are, or have, as a solemn, reallRom. 12.1. Sacrifice to thePsal. 18.46. God of our salvation, who hath done so1 Sam. 12.24. great things for our soules: This, this alone is the way to continue his mercy and loving kindnes unto us, and ourDeut. 4.40. posterity for evermore; which God grant for the sake of the Son of his love, Jesus Christ the righteous; To whom with the Father, and the holy Spirit be all praise and glory, world without end, Amen.