Fifty sermons preached at the parish-church of St. Mary Magdalene Milk-street, London, and elsewhere whereof twenty on the Lords Prayer / by ... Anthony Farindon ... ; the third and last volume, not till now printed ; to which is adjoyned two sermons preached by a friend of the authors, upon his being silenced.

The Fourteenth SERMON. (Book 14)

Psalm. LXVIII. 1, 2.

Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him, flee before him:

As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melteth be∣fore the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.

I Will not stand to reconcile opinions which may arise concerning the title and occasion of this Psalm; whither it be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, A Psalm of Davids composing; or, A Psalm made for him, and delivered per manum David, by the hand of David, to him that excelleth, or the Master of Musick. Whosoever composed it, at the first hearing of the words you cannot but apply it to our present occasion. For enemies God hath who are ga∣ther'd together, and our prayer is they may be scattered; enemies shall hate him, and defie him to his face; and these who should be glad to see to fly from his face. Our hope is they are but smoke, and may be driven away; but wax, in appearance a hard and solid body, strongly united and compact together by the devils art, but yet as wax will melt before the fire of his wrath, and when it shall please God to arise, shall perish at the presence of God. You may, if you please, take the words either as a Prayer or as a Prophesy; as a Prayer, that they may; or as a Prophesy, that they shall be scatter'd. Or you may read it, SURGENTE DOMINO, As soon as the Lord shall arise, his enemies shall be scatter'd, and so make it a Theological axiome: and so it is a proposition aeternae veritatis, everlastingly true, true in the first age of the world, and true in the last age of the world, and will be true to the worlds end. We may make it our prayer, that they may be destroyed; and we may prophesy that they shall be destroyed. Summa votorum est, non ex incerto poscentis, sed ex cognitione, scientiâque sperantis, saith Hilary; It is a prayer, not proceeding from a doubting and wavering heart, as if God did at sometimes deliver his Church, and at others fail and leave her to the will of her enemies; but grounded upon certain knowledge and infallible assurance that he will arise, and not keep silence, and avenge himself of his enemy. For there is a kind of presage and prophesy in Prayer: If we pray as we should, he hath promised to grant our request: Which is a fairer assurance than any Prophet can give us. Let God arise, and God will arise, is but the difference of a Tense, and the Hebrews commonly use the one for the other.

Whoever compiled this Psalm, most plain it is that he borrowed it from Moses, who when the Ark set forward used this very form, Rise up, O Lord,

and let thine enemies be scatter'd; and let them that hate thee fly before thee; and, when it rested, Return, O Lord, to the many Thousands of Israel. Now * 1.1 the occasion of this Psalm is diversly given. The Jews refer it to the overthrow of the army of Senacherib, when the Angel of the Lord smote in one night a hundred fourscore and five thousand of the Assyrians. O∣thers to Davids victories over his neighbouring enemies, the Ammonites, Moabites, Syrians, and Idumaeans. Others to the pomp and triumph in * 1.2 which the Ark was removed by David from Kiniathaarim to the house of Obed-Edom; and from thence to Sion its resting-place: The Fathers most of them, apply it unto Christ, who most gloriously triumphed over the Devil and the powers of this world, and shewed them openly, who led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, as S. Paul himself borroweth the words out of this Psalm. Take the Cliff how you please, the Notes will follow, and we * 1.3 may take them up. No Assyrian so cruel, no Rabshakeh so loud, no Am∣monite, no Moabite, no Philistine so bloudy as a Jesuite, or a Jesuited Pa∣pist. Take in the Devil himself, and then you have a parallel, the wicked one indeed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as Basil terms him, the wonderfull mis∣chief, who like the Tyrant in the Story, if all men in the world had but one neck, would strike it off at a blow; as his instruments at this day would ruine three Kingdoms by shaking of one. Or, if you please, suppose now you saw the children of Israel moving their tents, and the Ark, which was the pledge and testimony of Gods presence, on the Levites shoulders; and the same thought almost will apply it to the Church, where we may be sure God is as present as he was in the Ark. Indeed wicked persons, as wicked as the Amalekites, have a long time endeavoured, and do now strive, to throw it down from the shoulders of those that bear it, and cannot endure to hear that God should be worshipped in spirit and truth. But no Ama∣lekite, no Ammonite, no Jebusite, no Philistine did overthrow the one; no Jesuite, no Devil shall prevail against the other; but the Ark shall be brought to its resting-place, and the Church, which is the pillar of truth, shall be upheld by the Truth, and after many removals, after many persecutions, after many oppositions, though the Devil rage, and wicked men take coun∣sel together, shall be brought in triumph to its resting place, and appear before God in Sion. God will never fail his Church, Though his enemies gather themselves together, they shall be scatter'd; though they fight against him with hatred and malice; they shall fly before him; They are but smoke and they shall vanish, they are but wax, and they shall melt away. Upon an Exsurgit follows a dissipabuntur. If God arise, all the plots and machinations of his enemies shall be but as smoke. You may pray for it; you may conclude upon it. Let God arise, and let his enemies be scatter'd; or, God will arise, and his enemies shall be scatter'd; they also that hate him shall fly before him, &c.

In which Prayer, or Prophesy, or Conclusion, you may as in a glass, be∣hold the providence of God over his people, and the destiny and fatal de∣struction of wicked men. Or you may conceive God sitting in heaven, and looking down upon the children of men, and laughing to scorn all the de∣signs of his enemies, his Exsurgat, his Rising, as a tempest to scatter them, and as a fire to melt them. And these two, Exsurgat, and Dissipabuntur, the Rising of God, and the Destruction of his enemies, divide the Text, and present before our eyes two parties, or sides as it were, in main opposition. Now though the Exsurgat be before the Dissipabuntur, God's Rising before the Scattering, yet there must be some persons to rowse God up and awake him before he will rise to destroy. We will therefore, as the very order of nature requir'd, consider first the persons which are noted out unto us by three several appellations, as by so many marks and brands in their fore∣head; They are 1. enemies, 2. haters of God, 3. wicked men. But God Ri∣sing

in this manner is more especially against the Fact than the Person, and against the Person but for the Fact: We must therefore search and enquire after that; and we find it wrapt up and secretly lurking in the Dissipabun∣tur, in their punishment. For Scattering supposeth a gathering together, as Corruption doth Generation. That then which moved God to rise was this; His enemies, they that hated him, the wicked, were gathered together, and consulted against God and his Church. As we see it this day; and seeing it, are here meet together to fall down before God in all humility, that he may arise and scatter them. This is Nunc opportunitatis, the very time, and appointed time, for God to arise. In which Phrase is implyed a kind of pause and deliberation, as if God were not alwayes up, and ready to exe∣cute judgement. And hereby he manifesteth 1. his Patience to the wicked; He is not alwayes up, as it were, to destroy his enemies: 2. his Justice, which cometh at length, though it come not so soon as men in misery ex∣pect: 3. his Mercy to his children; Though for a while he seem to sleep, and not to hearken to the voice of their complaints, yet at last he rises up and helps them. Lastly, we shall take notice of the Effect or End of this Ri∣sing; and that is the Destruction of his enemies, here drawn out to our view in four several expressions, as in so many colours. 1. DISSIPABUNTUR, they shall be scatter'd; 2. FUGIENT, they shall fly; 3. DEFICIENT, they shall vanish like smoke; 4. LIQUEFIENT, they shall be melted as wax: Which all meet and are concentred in PERIBUNT, they shall perish at the presence of God. And of these in their order.

We are to find out first the Parties here to be scatter'd; and they are termed the enemies of God. And we may conceive it a very hard matter to find out any at jar and opposition with God, whose very Essence is Good∣ness; whose Power is irresistible, whose Justice is impartial, whose eye is ten thousand times brighter then the Sun, whose Word runneth very swiftly, and whose Word did make, and whose Word can dissolve the world. I know, saith Job, That thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be * 1.4 with-holden from thee. And from this knowledge of his he draws, this con∣clusion and resolution, to abhor himself, and repent in dust and ashes. Behold * 1.5 the Angels, they are ravisht with his infinite beauty, and fall down at his feet; the Creature keeps it self in a natural and constant league and friend∣ship with him. He commands the Sea and it obeys; the Moon knoweth her seasons, and the Sun his going down. All the Creatures observe that course which he hath establisht, not guilty of sacriledge, as Tertullian calls it, or rebellion against the Lord their Maker, which is their concord and sympathie, with his eternal Goodness. Look on the whole Universe, and you find no enemies to God but the Devil and those quos perditus cupit per∣dere, whom, being destroyed himself, he desires to bring into the same de∣struction. Here then we may find God's enemies, even amongst those whom he created after his own image, whom he made capable of eternal happiness, whom he was willing to call his friends. The Oxe knoweth his owner, and the Ass his master's crib. Every creature is at his beck, and bows down in an hum∣ble submission unto his will: Onely Man doth not consider the wonderfull beauty and love and goodness of his Maker; but embraceth Vanity, and makes leagues with Death it self, and for the love of every trifle that flatters his phansie is presently at odds and opposition with his Creator.

Amongst Men then are Gods enemies, nay 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as St. Paul calls them, and as they are here termed in the Text, Haters of God; not onely odio ini∣micitiae, by being at odds and variance with him, and by the neglect of his commands, but odio abominationis & fugae, by running back from him in all their wayes, being angry with his Providence, ready to teach his Wisdom, controlling his Precepts, loathing his Ordinances, which is in effect to wish

there were no God at all. Consider God in himself, as he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Philosophers call him, the perfection of Goodness; as he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, that infinit and exemplary Beauty; as he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the Lover of mankind (for so he delights to be called) and in this perfection and beauty and love we cannot more hate him than we can be ignorant of him who filleth all things. But then consider and behold him in those beams & radiations which flow from him, in the effects of his providence and justice, which though they alwayes fall even in a right line where they should, yet many times they thwart and fall cross to our inordinate wills and affections; and so the world is full of enemies and haters of God; men who are angry with the commands of Goodness, because they will be evil, men who repine at his instructions, because they will not obey; men who murmure at his threat∣nings, because they deserve his judgments; men who would, if it were in their power, pull him out of Heaven, because he sitteth there to fling them down to Hell. We have a common saying, but it is not so true as common, That all men are naturally enemies to God. This cannot hold of that nature in which we were created. For no man doth or can hate God till he have first given God a just occasion to hate him; no man can be his enemy till he offend him. For to keep God's commandments is to love him. But then when Lust hath conceived, and hath brought forth Sin, as St. James speaks, and when Sin is finished, and hath brought forth Death; then when men fear the heat of God's displeasure, and look upon his hailstones and coals of fire now ready to fall upon them, there ariseth that dissonancie and disaf∣fection which is the cause of Hatred between God and Man. Odium timor spirat, saith Tertullian, Hatred is a kind of exhalation, and breatheth from Fear. And as it is amongst Men, so is it here; Proprium est humanae infirmitatis odisse quem laeseris, It is proper and peculiar unto us to hate those whom we have wrong'd. So here, when we have drawn God's Sword against us, and tremble at the blow which is ready to be given, then we turn countenance against God, and are not onely inimici, enemies, but osores, Haters of God: then the very common notions with which we were born begin to be slurr'd and blemisht in us; our Envy drops on them, our Malice discolors them, and our Lust polluteth and defaceth them. As for God, the thought of him is not in all our ways. And now when God saith, Thou shalt not commit adultery, no bed is pleasant, but that of the Harlot; and when he says, Thou shalt not steal, no bread is sweet but the stollen; and though he say, Thou shalt not lye, yet we make lying as common as our Language; and we break the two tables of the Law, not in zeal, with Moses, but in opposition, with a heart full of rancor and malice against God himself. And this is it, I con∣ceive, which Aquinas meaneth when he tells us, Prius est odium proximi quàm Dei, We first wrong our neighbour, and then God. First we oppose those decrees which God hath past to bound and limit us in our conversation, and so by consequence bid defiance to the eternal Law-giver. For he that slanders his neighbour, will be as ready to blaspheme God; nay, in slan∣dring his brother he doth blaspheme his Father which is in Heaven. He that taketh his brother by the throat rather then his humour should be crossed, if God were within reach, would pluck him out of heaven. And thus we grind him in our Oppression, we rob him by our Sacriledge, we wound him by our Cruelty, we pollute him with our Lust. If he make Laws, we make it our strength to break them. If he raise one to the pin∣nacle of state, and leave us in the dust, we quarrel at his Justice. If he esta∣blish Government, we desire change. And though he build his Church and found it upon himself, yet we are ready with axes and hammers, and all the power we have to demolish it. When he hath a controversy with us, we hold a controversy with him, and nothing pleaseth us but the work of our

own hands. Men never fight against God till the thunderbolt is in his hand, ready to fall on them.

And now we may descry those peculiar Enemies and Haters of God whom the Prophet here prays against, even those who are enemies to the Truth and the peace of the Church. I told you that this prayer was uttered by Moses at the removing of the Ark. When the Ark was lifted up on the Le∣vites shoulders, the voice and acclamamation was, EXSURGAT DOMI∣NUS, Let the Lord arise. And therefore we may observe, that Moses * 1.6 and David did call the very Ark it self God; not that they were so idola∣trous as to make a wooden God, but that they knew the Ark to be the surest testimony of Gods presence here on earth. So that God's enemies are those who are enemies to the Ark, to the Church of God, and to the peace of the Church. And let men flatter themselves as they please with this or that fair pretence they shall, certainly learn this lesson in the end, That they may as well fight against God himself as against the Church, That neither they nor the gates of Hell can prevail against it. To draw this yet closer to our purpose; the Ark was a type of the Church; nay, by the Apostles quotation of this Psalm, the words, though they are verified in both, yet are more applyable to the Church then the Ark. And though we do not call the Church God, yet we shall find that God is married unto her; that he is ready to hide her under his wing; that he is jealous of the least touch, the least breath that comes toward her to hurt her; that he that toucheth her toucheth the apple of his eye. When the Church complains to God of her enemies, God also complains as if he himself suffered persecution. When Saul breathed forth threatnings and slaughters against the Disciples of the Lord, he presently hears a voice, Saul Saul, why persecutest thou me? And that voice was the voice of God, which struck him to the ground. When * 1.7 St. Stephen tells the stiff-necked Jews, that they alwayes resisted the Holy Ghost; he presently in the next verse gives the reason, Which of the Pro∣phets have not your fathers persecuted? So that to persecute the Prophets, that blessed Protomartyr may make the Commentary, is to resist, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to fall cross with, the Holy Ghost, with God himself. Touch not mine anointed, * 1.8 saith God, and do my Prophets no harm. Touch them not, for they are mine: And whatsoever you do unto one of them is done unto me, is true in the bad sense as well as in the good. For certainly God cannot be toucht any other way. Our Blasphemys, our Uncleanness, or Rebellions, though they fight against him, yet touch him not: but when wicked men conspire against the Truth and the professors of it; when their Swords are drawn not onely to touch, but to strike them through; then up God riseth, and bestirs himself, as if he were in danger to be toucht and hurt. We know all that the Devil work∣eth against mankind is done out of malice to God himself. Prius votum Daemonis fuit Deum esse; alterum, nè Deus esset: His first attempt was to be God; his second, that there should be no God at all, to destroy that Ma∣jesty which he could not atchieve. Which since it is impossible for him to compass, all his devises and machinations are, nullum sinere ex portione Dei esse, as the Father speaks, to rob God of his inheritance; to strike at his heart whose knee bows unto him, to persecute them that sin∣cerely worship him, and to make all men like unto himself, enemies to God. To this end he sets upon the Ark, he levels his forces against the Church of Christ, he sends forth his emissaries, his instruments, his Apostles, as Syne∣sius calls them, to undermine it without, and raises mutinies within. Not a heresie, but he hammers it; not a schisme, but he raiseth it; not a sword, but he draws it; not a rebellion, but he beats up the drum. INIMICI EJUS, Gods enemies, are the Devil and his complices, who say of Jerusalem, the place of his rest and delight, down with it, down with it, even to the very * 1.9 ground.

We know now where to rank his disciples, our enemies this day, who have already shaken the pillars of one Kingdom, and if God, rise not up, will ruine all: Whose religion is rebellion, and whose faith is faction: whom nothing can quiet, but a Desunt vires, a want of strength. Poor souls! they are willing to suffer for the holy cause; they are obedient to Govern∣ment, loyal to their Prince, true to their Country; that is, They are very willing to suffer any thing when they can do nothing. They will not strike a stroke, not they; not indeed when Authority is too strong for them, and hath bound them hand and foot: But if some wished opportunity un∣shackle them, if these cords fall from them, and they are once loose, then these dead men arise, and stand up upon their feet, and make up an exceeding great army. They were before as Ezekiels dry Bones, very dry; but when some * 1.10 fair opportunity, as a gale of wind, hath breathed upon them, behold, they live; Live? I, and come to the field, and fight against that Authority un∣der which they lay before as quietly as if they had been dead. And where can we rank these but amongst the enemies of God? They saw the Ark in its resting place, the Church reformed and flourishing, setled and establisht by the religious care of three glorious Princes; They beheld their holy Father the Pope every day more and more in disgrace amongst us; and I am half perswaded, had it not been for the turbulent and irregular zeal of some few amongst us, who think they never love Religion till they toy and play the wantons with it, his Honour had ere this lain in the dust; For when were the skirts of that Church more discover'd, when was her shame more laid open to the world by many amongst us, who for their great pains have no better reward then to be called his Shavelings? This they saw, and their heart waxt hot within them, and at last this fire kindled which is now ready to consume us. Before they whisper'd in secret; now they speak it on the house-top: before they husht up their malice in silence; now they noise it out by the drum; Enemies to the Ark, enemies to the Church, enemies to Government and Order, enemies to Peace; which par∣ticulars make up this entire sum, INIMICI DEI, enemies to God.

But now what if we see RELIGIONIS ERGO written upon their de∣signs: and that this Rebellion was raised, and is upheld, for the cause of God and Religion? shall we then call them Gods enemies, who fight his battels, who venture their lives for the common cause, for Christs Vicar, for Reli∣gion, for the Church, for God himself? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, All they intend is good. Nihil malè, sed rem sacram facio. So said Cillicon; I do no evil; I do but sacrifice, when he betrayed a City. Let us rise up in arms let us cut the heretiques throats, let us destroy them that they be no more a Nation: It is no harm at all, but an acceptable sacrifice to God, Sed quid verba audio, cùm facta videam? what are words, when we feel the smart of their blows? All this will not change their title, nor blot their names out of the Devils Kalender, out of the number of those that hate God. For a man may be an enemy to God, and yet do some things for Gods sake. And it is too common a thing in the world sub religionis titulo evertere religionem, to cry up Religion when we beat it down. The Father well said. Many good intentions are burning in Hell, Multa non illicita vitiat animus; It is true indeed: The mind and intention may make a law∣full action evil, but it cannot make an evil action good. Propose what end you please, set up Religion, the Church and God himself, yet Treason and Rebellion are sins which strike at his Majesty. No enemies to those who stroke us with one hand, and strike us with the other; who dig down the foundation, and then paint the walls. We may observe, when Reason and Scripture fail them, they bring in the Church at a dead lift; and when they are put to silence by the evidence of the Truth, then they urge the Au∣thority

of the Church, and make this word to be like Anaxagoras his M••ne in Aristotle, to answer all Arguments. The Church is their scarre-sun by which they fright poor silly souls from their faith. The Church must make good Purgatory, Transubstantiation, Invocation of Saints, &c. And in∣deed this is the best and worst Argument they have. And as they make it an Argument for their grossest errors, so they have learnt to make it an excuse for Treason, for Rebellion, for Murder. And to the Church they are enemies, because they love the Church.

Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum;

Such heart and life and bloud doth the fair pretence of the Church and Religion put into wicked men: so desperately do they fight against God under his own colours; No sin, I will not say venial, but meritorious, drawn on for the advantage of the Catholick cause.

But for all these glorious pretences, enemies they are, and Haters of God, and, to bring in the third appellation, wicked persons, not sinners of an ordinary rank, but gyant-like sinners, who fight against God with a high hand. Now there is a great difference, saith Hilary, inter impium & pec∣catorem, betwen a Sinner and a Wicked man: For every wicked man is a sinner, but every sinner is not a wicked man; Et carent impietate, qui non carent crimine, and they may be guilty of sin who are not guilty of Impie∣ty. The justest man alive falls seven times a day; but this fall is not a ri∣sing against God, not contumelious to his Majesty. But the wicked make sin their trade; nay, their Religion, Deum non ex Dei ipsius professione, sed ex arbitrij sui voluntate metiuntur, saith the same Father; They measure God, not by those lines by which he is pleased to manifest himself, but by their own perverse will. They entitle his Wisdom to their fraud, his Ju∣stice to their rebellion, his Truth to their treason. He could not have given us a better mark and character of these men. What pretend they the Holy cause, the Honour of God, the Liberty of Conscience, the pro∣moting of Religion; and these pretences make the fact fouler, and their re∣bellion more abominable, because they thwart the plain definitions, and the evident commands of God, and break his Law under colour of doing his will. Nec minoris est impietatis, Deum fingere quam negare; It is as great impiety and wickedness to frame a God unto our selves as to deny him, to feign a God who will applaud sin, countenance murder, reward rebellion, and crown treason. So that, to conclude this, these men may well bear all these titles of Enemies, of Haters of God, of wicked persons; If there were ever any such in the world, these are they.

But to drive it yet a little more home; There is not the like danger of enemies when they are sever'd and asunder as when they are collected as it were into one mass and body, not so much danger in a rout as in a well-drawn army. Vis unita fortior. Let them keep at distance one from ano∣ther, and their malice will not reach to the hurt of any but themselves; but being gathered and knit together in one band, their malice is strong to do mischief to others. The rulers were gathered together against the Lord and a∣gainst * 1.11 his anointed. Paquine renders it fundati sunt, were founded: Be∣fore they were but as pieces scatter'd here and there, but being gather'd gather'd together they have a foundation to build on. While the vapours are here and there dispersed upon the earth, they present no appearance of evil; but when they are drawn up into the ayr, and are compact, they be∣come a Comet, and are ominous and portend shipwracks and seditions, and the ruine of Kings and Common-wealths. And such a Comet hangs over us at this day in which we see many thousands are drawn together, not by vir∣tue

of the stars or any kindly heat from heaven, but by an irregular zeal and a false perswasion that they can do God no better service than to de∣stroy us. Before they were gathered together in mind and resolution; but that was but as the gathering together of a heap of stones in a field: now they are knit together as in a building: And now we may cry out with the Prophet: Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Sion: for the time to have * 1.12 mercy upon her, yea, the appointed time, is come. When God's enemies, when they who hate him, when the wicked are gathered together, then is the time for God to arise. And so I pass from their part, which is to gather them∣selves, to God's, which is to arise and scatter them. EXSURGAT DEUS, Let God arise.

By this Rising of God we may perhaps be induced to conceive that God doth sometimes sit down and sleep, and not regard us; that he is willing his people should suffer, and that his enemies should wash their feet in their bloud; that he lets loose the raines to the wicked too long, and maketh not that haste which he promiseth to help the oppressed. But this were to make him like the heathen Gods, who did meridiari, sleep at noon. Which was the reason the Gentiles never enter'd their Temples at that hour of the day, for fear of waking them. No; He that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep, but is awake at all times and hours and moments unto all the world. And the reason is manifest; Non habet in se diversitatem sui quicquid est simplex, saith Novatian well; God is a most pure and uncom∣pounded Essence, and therefore not capable of any diversity in himself; not awake to day and asleep to morrow; not fitting now, and rising anon; but everlastingly present to all the world. From him no cloud or darkness can shadow us, no secret grot or cave hide us. He hath 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, as the Greek Father speaks, an eye which cannot sleep. He seeth all things ad nudum & lucidum, naked and plain, even when they are vailed over with the darkest night. Why then is God said to arise? St. Hilary gives the reason, Per corporalem significationem spiritualis instruitur. We must upon this corporal and sensible expression, build up a Spiritual sense, and not so much consider God as our selves. He doth neither sleep nor arise, nor for∣get nor remember, nor depart nor draw near, but secundum nostrorum meri∣torum differentiam, but fits himself to the different quality of our works. When our enemies consult together against us, and are ready to prevail, then to us he is asleep: When he breaks them to pieces like a potters vessel, then he is risen. When we offend him he is absent; and when we repent, and fulfill his will, he is present with us. Whilst we are his servants, and obey him, his friends and love him, nemo officiosior Deo, none more officious and more active to help us than God; but when we dissemble with him, and call him Father, but honour him not, non est praevaricator suae perspicaciae; Though his forbearance makes us believe he sees us not, yet he is no doubter and prevaricator, nor will he betray his omniscience. His sleep is his patience, which he shews both toward the righteous and the wicked. For God is not slack in rising, as some count slackness; not slack to the wick∣ed, for vengeance hangs over their head; not slack to the righteous, for salvation is at hand. To the one he is as asleep to heap coals of fire upon his head, to leave him without excuse: to the other he seems not to be risen, that being exercised under the cross they may awake him, and long and cry for deliverance. Hoc est paululum unde pendet aeternitas; On this little space of his seeming rest depend eternity of punishment to the one, and eternity of peace to the other. God hath these pauses and intervals in all his pro∣ceedings, in his punishments, and in his deliverances; and he useth a kind of deliberation, and works as it were by the rule. When God would build up Jerusalem, he promiseth that a line should be stretched forth upon her: * 1.13

And when he would destroy the Idumaeans; he threatens, Extendetur super eam mensura, that he would stretch out upon it the line of confusion. When he * 1.14 will destroy, and when he will build, he stretcheth out a line. Which is a metaphor taken from Building: And it shews that he doth not suddenly lift up his hand to strike, nor stretch it forth to help, but applys the lines, prepareth his instruments, works by line and measure, and takes as much leasure time in destroying, as artificers do in building; he waits and ex∣pects that his Patience may make way for his Justice on the one, and magni∣fie his Mercy and Goodness on the other. How long did the Lord endure the old world, even an hundred and twenty years, while the Ark was a pre∣paring. The Amorites? till their wickedness was full? How long did ne bear with his own people, first the ten Tribes, then the other two; even till there was no hope of amendment, till the Prophets cried out, NOAH It is desperate. Now the reason of this his delay, of this his not rising at that instant we expect, is to make it manifest to the world that his wayes are not as our wayes. Therefore many times he presents himself in a shape contrary to our expectation, and doth those things which bear a resem∣blance of some repudiancie to his known and declared will, as it were on purpose to put our Faith and Constancy to a tryal, whether we will take him to be our God or no, and worship him as well in his thunder as in his still voice; or else to besiege and compass-in the wicked and obstinate of∣fendors, to shut them up in their own net, to bury them in the pit which they have made, to strike them through with their own sword, and as they have trifled with his judgments, so to deal with them as that they shall not easily know how or when they are led to destruction, or not know it till it be too late. For many times the wrath of God comes upon them, as the Psalmist speaks, when the meat is yet in their mouthes, when they feed sweetly upon their hopes and dream of victory and triumph. Thus he who promises to love and defend his children as with a shield, sometimes he handles them as if he never loved them, or had left off to love them, or would not hear and help them; and he stands as it were at a distance from them, though even at this distance he is nigh to them that fear him. Again, though he have threat∣ned to raine fire and brimstone upon the wicked, yet many times he delays, and makes as if he would not punish them; nay, he seems to cast a look of favour upon them, delayes not the blow onely that it may fall the heavier, but many times gives them those rewards which are promised to godliness, fills their garners, makes them mighty in power, crowneth them with hap∣piness; and gives them their hearts desire; but then, in this great security: upon the sudden, when their prosperity hath befooled them, when they are ready to conclude they are therefore good because they are temporally happy, he falls upon them, and makes that which was their triumph their ruine: and now he strikes them at once for all; strikes the tabret out of their hand, infatnates their counsels; makes them see that they are the poorer for their riches, the weaker for their power, the baser for their ho∣nour; and leaves them to their captain the Devil, who alwayes leads in the forefront of a rebellion; and then how fearfully and horribly are they consum'd and brought to utter desolation? Yet a little while, and the wicked * 1.15 shall not be. Nor is this unjust with God. For he doth not tell the wicked that this little while is theirs, and that they may do what they please without fear of punishment. But the wicked abuse this his long-suffering and indul∣gence, sport in this little while, though the end be death: Which should have been looked upon as an invitation to repentance. Therefore this stay, yet a little while, before God arise, this his Patience; hath its effect answer∣able to the disposition and temper of those on whom it is shewed; a bad on the repentant, and a good on the penitent sinner. For as God is said in

Scripture to laugh at the destruction of those who run on in their evil wayes, so he may seem in a manner to mock their security with his proceedings, and to use the same method in punishing which they do in offending. They defer their repentance, and he defers his punishment. He hath them in a line, and when they are run on to the end of it, he pulls them on their backs. It is the nature of Delay in other things to keep back and hin∣der proceedings which fail many times and sink to the ground in the very pause; For not to do a thing seasonably is to rob our selves of the faculty and power of doing it at all: But in Gods punishing of the wicked it is otherwise; Gravitate supplicii moram pensat, He supplies and makes up the delay in punishing with the smart of the blow when it lights. His wrath like wind, shut up long in the caverns of the earth, at last breaks forth in a tempest. His Patience makes way for his Justice. Though he seem to be asleep, and not to see what is done by his enemies, yet at the appointed time he will not fail an inch. Plures idcirco Domino non credunt, quia saeculo iratum tamdiu nesciunt, Many men think that God observes not what they do, be∣cause he presently thunders not from heaven, nor sends into the world what the Tyrant wished for in his days, some strange and unheard of calamity. Many men run on in their sin, because God sends not a fire into their bones to make them sensible of his displeasure. But de artifice non nisi artifex. Ig∣norance of God is the cause why we judge so corruptly of his Providence and Justice. Sometimes he displays it before the sun and the people, in the open destruction of the wicked; sometimes it works invisibly; and we can no more find it out then the way of an arrow in the air or of a ship in the sea: And this peradventure we may esteem a sleep: but whether secretly or openly, he doth at last make it evident that he hath set banks and prefixed a time which his enemies shall not pass. Though they work never so secretly, though they make Religion a veil to cover and mantle their designs, yet he will find them out, and strike them to the ground, even in those Meanders and Labyrinths which they made to hide themselves in. And when they are risen, and think they stand strong, and can never be moved, in an hour when they think not on him, nay in an hour when they think he hath been with them in their armies and fought their battels, and been their Lord of Hosts, he will arise as a man out of sleep, and make his sword drunk in the bloud of his enemies. We may pray for it, we may prophesy it; EX∣SURGAT DEUS, &c. Let God arise, and his enemies shall be scatter'd, they also that hate him shall flee before him. And so I pass to the effect or end of Gods Arising, DISSIPABUNTUR INIMICI, His enemies shall be scatter'd, &c.

And we need not doubt of event. For when God ariseth, there ariseth Power and Wisdom, in respect of which all the strength in the world is but weakness, and all the wisdom in the world but foolishness. A look of his is able to disperse all the Nations of the earth: What then is his Rising? In St. Hieromes time the Sun was darkned by a Tempest, and men present∣ly thought the world was at an end; and so it is with the wicked. When God begins to look up, they dive under water like ducks at every pibble that is thrown. What then will they do when he shall speak in thunders and rain down hailstones and coals of fire upon them? Look forward, and you shall see their end; They shall be scatter'd; They shall flee; They shall vanish; They shall melt away. What did Sennacherib get by advancing his banner against the City of the Lord? Even this, to preach by his statue, Let him that looketh upon me, learn to fear God. What did * 1.16 Herod get by casting Peter into prison? He was smitten by an Angel, and eaten up of worms. What did Pharaoh gain by flinging the children of Israel into the river? He brought him into his Court who deprived him of his

crown and life. The wicked are insnared in the work of their own * 1.17 hands, saith David. For this, saith Basil, is not onely inflicted as a pu∣nishment, but it is the very nature of Sin, to make a net and dig a pit for it self.

What gained those hellish Traytors in the time of the Virgin Queen, and in the time of that King of peace, King James? I am almost ashamed in this place to tell you: Nothing but an halter and everlasting ignominy and shame. Let the wicked be never so wise, yet there is a wiser than they; and let them be never so strong, yet there is a stronger than they. Do you yet doubt whether God's Rising be visible in the execution of his wrath upon his enemies? Behold then his creature up in arms with him. There is a spiritual writ of outlawry gone out against them; and every man they meet, every stone in the streets, every beast of the field is ready to become their execu∣tioners. When God riseth up, every creature is a souldier; an Angel over∣comes the Assyrians, an army of Frogs and Lice over-run Aegypt, Haylstones from Heaven destroy the Canaanites. The pouder flasheth in the faces of the traiterous pioners. Infelix exitus Haereticorum, The unhappy end of Heretiques is not so good a note of the Church as the Cardinal would make it; but sure it is an evident mark that God is risen up, and shews the EXSURGAT in Capital letters. Many glorious examples we have of God's Rising of old in Humane and Divine Histories. As the Apostle speaks, the time would fail me to speak of his leading his people out of Aegypt, his bringing them again from captivity, and the like. How many millions of his servants hath he delivered, how many of his enemies hath he destroyed, whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded? It was an observa∣tion of the Junior Pliny, Facta, dictáque illustrium virorum alia majora, alia clariora. All men have not gained credit in the world according to their desert. Some things of no great worth are very famous in the world, when as many things of better worth are less spoken of, and perchance lie alto∣gether buried in obscurity, caruerunt quia vate sacro, because they lighted not on such who would transmit them to posterity. But God is the same yesterday, and to day and for ever; the same in the preservation of his people Israel then, and the same in the preservation of his servants now; the same in these his Risings which have left no mark or impression behind them, and the same in those which are writ in the bloud of his enemies; Adjutor in opportunitatibus, an helper in time of need; a God who when we are fallen lowest, and when our enemies are even treading us down under their feet, if we trust in him, will up and arise. For, in the next place, if we weigh it well, it cannot be otherwise, the parties being so opposite, God and the wicked, that they cannot both subsist together. Either God must be dis∣armed; or his enemies be scatter'd. If then God ariseth, the dispersion of the wicked is a kind of emanation from him. For they cannot stand in his sight. And you may observe it; They seldom gather together till they are half perswaded there is no God at all. Again, the strength of the whole is not onely from the union, but from the parts, and such parts there may be as you can never collect and draw together so as to make the collection strong, but at last, though it hath been artificially wound together, it will fly to pieces: And therefore, when a greater power appears, it must needs be broken and scatter'd. What parts have smoke? But thin, and vanish∣ing ones. Vides magnam molem: habes quod videas, non habes quod teneas, saith the Father: We may see as it were a mountain of smoke: we may see it, but we cannot hold it: It may be terrible to the eye, but we cannot grasp it in our hand. And commonly such are the congregations and col∣lections of the wicked. They are but as Wax, hard in shew, but inclinable, in respect of the materials it is made of, to melt: They are like smoke, hu∣midâ,

non solidâ magnitudine, of some bulk, but of no solidity, ready to vanish and fly asunder. Their very consultations are but as smoke, the parts of them we see will scarce hang together. Lastly, their very ga∣thering together is one cause of their Scattering; as plants naturally breed that worm which destroyeth them. Do the wicked gather together a∣gainst God and his Church? This collection is one degree and approach to scattering and dissolution. For when their thought is as high as the Crown, their Head deserves to be as high as the Gallows. It is now but a lump of Wax? anon, having felt the heat, you cannot discern the form that it had. It is but smoke; and its very elevation is its dissolution: Quantò sit su∣perior, tantò faciliùs disperit; The higher it is raised, the thinner it grows, and the sooner it vanisheth: You see it lifted up, and anon you see it not at all. So then, to conclude all; Gods enemies may gather themselves toge∣ther, but they shall be scattered: they may stand out against him in some shew of opposition, but at last they shall flee: like Wax, their consulta∣tions may have some form and shape but at the fire of God's Exsurgat, at his Rising who is a consuming fire, they shall melt and be spread abroad and di∣lated, amd receive no other Impression but that of God's wrath. And we may make it our Prayer, or we may prophesy; Thus let God arise; and so let thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him, be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might.

That we may prophesy, it is most certain. For Prophetia vox Domini, saith Tertullian, Prophesy is the voice of God. Nay, without any Divine inspiration we may foretell the destruction of the wicked, as a thing as cer∣tain as if it were done before our eyes. They have their destiny in their name. If enemies to God, they must be scatter'd and perish. If this coun∣sell or this work be of men, it will surely come to nought, said Gamaliel that great Doctor of the Law. 'Tis true, Gods enemies shall perish, but not whilst they are ours, unless we make it a Prayer as well as a Prophesy. For God many times raiseth up those whom himself will at last rise against, to punish their sins who profess his name. O Assyrian, the rod of mine Anger, and the staffe in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an Hypocriticall Nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets, As if he had said, I will send the Heathen, that know me not, to punish my people in Jewry, who call upon my name. I will send the superstitious Papist to whip the hypocritical Protestant. I will make a rod to whip my people; and when that is done, I will burn it. And therefore, that God may scatter the wicked whilst they are our enemies, we must not be too bold to prophesie till we have fallen on our faces before God, and tendred these words as a prayer for our selves, and for our distressed bretheren in Ireland. And this is our duty as we are brethren, and members of that body which is one, this God commands, that we do good unto, and pray for all sorts of men, but especially those of the houshold of faith. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, was in the Ancients 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, part of their Letany, as it is of ours. They prayed for men diseased, for prisoners and captives, for men in persecution. And they prayed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, with great earnestness and intention. Pete, quaere, insta: petendo & quaerendo crescis ut capias. Let us put up our pe∣titions, let us renew them, and press them again and again, let us multi∣ply them every moment, till we come to the growth to be fit to receive that which till we pray for, till we and our distressed brethren be rid both of our enemies and of our fears. And are our Prayers of such force as to chase away our enemies? Yes St. James saith they will prevail much, if they be fer∣vent. For as our enemies are only nostris vitiis fortes, made strong by our sins, and arm'd as it were against us with our iniquity; as they fight against a

nation, not so much with their own sword, as with the luxury and pride and wantonness of that nation, (all which are our sins and our enemies weapons) so non gladiis pugnamus, sed orationibus; non telis, sed meritis, saith Ambrose; we fight against them not with sharp swords, but with strong supplications; not with weapons, but with alms and fasting, with sighs and groans. And as when we sin we put deadly weapons into their hands, so when we repent we shall disarm them. And indeed it is Repentance which kindles this heat, and makes our prayers fervent: which other∣wise will be but so many sins to help our enemies. Without Repentance our Prayers are indeed but the sacrifice of fools. For what more foolish and ridiculous quàm quod voto volumus actu nolle? then to pray for that which we will not have? to cry for help against our enemies, by our continuance in sin to increase their number? cry, Help, Lord; how long shall the wicked prevail? and yet to help them more by our transgression, then we do God by our contribution: to call upon God to fight for us, when we fight against him: to desire peace, when we are the only incendiaries? to fight it out, and pray for a blessed Commonwealth, and yet not be willing to reach forth so much as the little finger to uphold it? Certainly this noise will never a∣wake God; nor can we think he will be raised up with words, with empty, flattering, deceitful words; with words, as Job speaks, without counsel. No: If we will have our prayers make a noise to awake God, we must drop our tears upon our prayers, which we drop out of our own substance, as it were the bloud of Martyrs, saith Anastasius. And Bloud, we know, will cry and be loud. Non sileat pupilla oculi tui. Let not the apple of thine eye cease or be silent. And then we must feed our prayers with fasting. This doth nourish our Devotion, as a woman doth her child with the teat. God hath an ear to harken to our Fasting. Ostendit se Mosi jejunii colle∣gae, saith Tertullian, He shews himself presently to Moses his copartner in fasting. And after this we must adorn them with our Alms, our free-will offering, our Contribution to the work. For can we pray for that which we will not forward? And then as our prayers are heard, so shall our alms come up before God, and with an holy importunity urge and provoke him to arise; for in the midst of so many Prayers, of so many Sighs and Groans, of so many Tears, and when our Charity speaks, whose voyce is shriller than the tongues of Men and Angels, God cannot rest, but will hear from the Heavens our prayer and supplication, and maintain our cause. He will cloath us with Salvation, and our enemies with shame; that we may enter his House with joy, and his Courts with Praise; that we may sit every man under his own vine and under his own fig-tree, and may make our lives a con∣tinual holyday, singing praises to the God of our deliverance. This duty let us so perform here that after we shall have finished our course we may be admitted unto the quire of Angels, with them to praise God for evermore

We will add but one word to bring it home to our present occasion, And it will apply it self. This is a day of Thanksgiving, and here is a feast of Thanksgiving; A day of Thanksgiving for our deliverance from our outward fraud; A feast of Thansgiving for our redemption from our spiritual enemies. Let us offer up therefore sacrificium eucharisticum, a pay-offring, or sacri∣fice of payment; let us pay to God Confession and Thanks for our delive∣rance and for his mercies in both. Let us, as Jacob exhorts his Sons Gen. 43. 11. take of the best fruits of the land, of the Musick and Melody of the land, as the word signifieth; let us bring with us the fruits of the spirit, Gal. 5. 22. Love, Joy, Peace, Long-suffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith; let us bring forth fruits meet for Repentance, meet for these blessed mysteries, which will be as Musicks, even those songs of Sion which God is most de∣lighted with. For if there be a blessing even in a cluster of grapes; what

songs of praise are due to him who is the true Vine, and hath given us Wine to make our hearts glad, pressed bloud out of his very Heart, that we might drink, and be nourisht up unto everlasting Life? Let us then praise him for our deliverance this day; praise him, and not be like them out of whose snare we have escaped; not imitate their actions whose ruine we tremble at; but praise him by our Meekness and Gentleness, by our Pati∣ence and Obedience to lawful Authority. For what praise is that which is breathed out of the mouth of a Traytor? If we be as ready to spoyl others as our enemies were to devour us, our Harp is but ill strung, and our songs of Thanksgiving will be quite out of tune. Let us double our praises, and magnifie God for that which is presented to us in the Sacrament, our delive∣rance out of Hell, the destruction of our worst enemy, Sin, and our last e∣nemy, Death. Here is that Red Sea in which that spiritual Pharaoh and his Host were overthrown. And what is our Praise? To speak good of his name; This is not enough: we may do this, and crucify him: We must prayse him by obedience, by love, by sincerity, and by a lively faith; This is indeed to eat of his Body which was broken for us, and to drink of that Bloud which was shed for remission of Sins. For he that truly believes and repents, as he is sick of sin, so he is sick of love, even of that love which in this Sacrament is sealed and confirmed to us. He is ever bowing to Christs sceptre; he is sincere, and like himself in all his wayes; he makes his Faith appear in the outward man, in Godly lips and in li∣beral Hands; he breaths forth nothing but devotion, but Hallelujahs, Glory and Honour and Prayse for this great love: And so he becoms Peniel, Gen. 32. 30. as the face of God, as the shape of Christ, repre∣senting all his Favours and Graces back upon Him, a pillar engraven, with the bowels of Christ a memorial of his love Thankfully set up for ever. It is usual with the Fathers to make the Ark a Type of Christ, his Word as the two Tables, his Discipline as Aarons Rod, and the Sacra∣ment of his Supper as the Pot of Manna. EXSURG AT CHRISTUS, Let Christ arise, who is a brighter image of God then ever the Ark was. Let us take him up, but not upon prophane Shoulders, lest we dy. First, let us be Priests unto the Lord, without blemish, not blinded by the Prince of this world, not halting between God and the World, but perfect men in Christ Jesus, to offer up Sacrifices to the King of Heaven. When we receive him by a lively Faith, we may say he is risen. To this end he lifted up himself upon his cross, that we might lift up our Hearts, and so lift him up again, and present him to his Father: Who for his sake, when he sees him, as the Ark, lifted up, will bring mighty things to pass; will scat∣ter our Sins, which are our greatest enemies, and separate them from us as far as the East is from the West. And though they be as the Smoke of the bottomless pit he will drive them away; and though they be complicated and bound together as wax into a kind of body, he will melt them, and de∣liver us from this body of Death. For what Sin of ours dares shew it self when this Captaine of ours shall arise? Let God arise; that is the first verse of this Psalm; that is our Prayer: And let us conclude with the Psalm; in Thanksgiving and ascribe the strength unto God, saying, His excellency is over his Israel, to deliver them from their Enemies, and to deliver them from their Sins, and his Strength is in the clouds. O God, thou art terrible in thy holy places. The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power to his people, against the machinations of Men, and against the wills of the Devil; against sinful Men, and against Sin it self. Blessed be God. And let all the people say, AMEN.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Numb. 10, 35. 36.
• * 1.2

  2 Kings 19. 35.
• * 1.3

  Eph. 4. 8.
• * 1.4

  Job. 42. 2.
• * 1.5

  v. 6.
• * 1.6

  Num. 10.
• * 1.7

  Acts 9. and Acts 7. 51.
• * 1.8

  Psal. 105. 19.
• * 1.9

  Psal. 137 7.
• * 1.10

  Ezek. 37. 2.
• * 1.11

  Psal. ••
• * 1.12

  Psal. 102. 13.
• * 1.13

  Zech. 1. 16.
• * 1.14

  Isa. 34. 11.
• * 1.15

  Psal. 37 10.
• * 1.16

  Acts 12. 23.
• * 1.17

  Psal. 9. 16.