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enemies; for there is but that one way in the text, that can bring these enemies to anything, that is, In multitudine virtutis tuæ, In the greatness of thy power. It must be power; entreaty, appliableness, conformity, facility, patience does not serve. It must

be power, and his power; to assist ourselves by his enemies, by witches, or by idolaters, is not his power. It is power that does all; for the name that God is manifested in, in all the making of the world, in the first of Genesis, is Elohim, and that is Deus fortis, the powerful God. It is power, and it is his power; for his name is Dominus tzebaoth, the Lord of Hosts. Hosts and armies of which he is not the general, are but great insurrections, great rebellions. And then, as it is power, and his power, so it is the greatness of his power; his power extended, exalted. It is in the original, Berob, in multitudine fortitudinis, in thy manifold power, in thy multiplied power. Moses considers the assurance that they might have in God, in this, that God fought their battles (The Lord your God goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, and save you.) There was his power declared, and exercised one way; and then in this, that he had afforded them particular laws, for their direction in all their action, religious, and civil; (to what nation is God come so near? what people have laws and ordinances, such as we have?) So that, where God defends us by armies, and directs us by just laws, that is, Multitudo fortitudinis, the greatness of his

multiplied upon us.

power, his power

Now, through this power, and not without this power, this double power, law and arms, Thine enemies shall submit themselves unto thee, says our text. And then, is all the danger at an end? shall we be safe then? Not then. The word is Cacash, and cacash is but Mendacem fieri, to be brought to lie, to dissemble, to equivocate, to modify, to temporize, to counterfeit, to make as though they were our friends, in an outward conformity. And there are enemies of God, whom no power of armies or laws can bring any further than that, to hold their tongues, and to hold their hands, but to withhold their hearts from us still. So the Gibeonites

36 Deut. xx. 4.

deceived Joshua 37, in the likeness of ambassadors; Joshua's power made them lie unto him. So Pharaoh deceived and deluded Moses and Aaron; every act of power brought Pharaoh to lie unto them. I direct not your thoughts upon public considerations; it is not my end; it is not my way: my way and end is to bring you home to yourselves, and to consider there, that we are full of weaknesses in ourselves, full of enemies, sinful temptations about us; that only the power of God, his power multiplied, (that is, the receiving of his word, that is, the power of law.) The receiving of his corrections (that is, the power of his hosts) can make our enemies, our sinful temptations submit, and when they do so, it is but a lie, they return to us, and we turn to them again, In the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit unto thee.

But then, (which is our last step and conclusion) even this, that these enemies shall be forced to such a submission, to any submission, though disguised and counterfeit, is, in this text, presented for a consolation; there is a comfort even in this, that those enemies shall be fain to lie, that they shall not dare to avow their malice, nor to blaspheme God in open professions. There is a conditional blessing proposed to God's people; (0 that my people had hearkened unto me! O that Israel had walked in my ways!) What had been their recompense? This. The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto them. Should they in earnest? No truly; there is the same word, they should have lied unto them, they should have made as though they had submitted themselves; and that, God presents for a great degree of his mercy to them. And therefore, as in thy particular conscience, though God do not take away that stimulum carnis, and that angelum satana, though he do not extinguish all lusts and concupiscencies in thee, yet if those lusts prevail not over thee, if they command not, if they divert thee not from the sense, and service of God, thou hast good reason to bless God, for this, to rest in this, and to call it peace of conscience: so hast thou reason too to call it peace in the church, and peace in the state, when God's enemies, though they be not rooted out, though they be not disposed 58 Psalm LXXx. 15.

37 Josh. ix.

to a hearty allegiance, and just obedience, yet they must be subject, they must submit themselves whether they will or no, and though they will wish no good, yet they shall be able to do no harm. For the Holy Ghost declares this to be an exercise of power, of God's power, of the greatness of God's power, that his enemies submit themselves, though with a feigned obedience.

PREACHED AT COURT, AND ELSEWHERE, UPON SEVERAL OCCASIONS.

SERMON LXX.

PREACHED AT WHITEHALL, APRIL 8, 1621.

PROVERBS XXv. 16.

Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

THERE is a temporal unsatiableness of riches, and there is a spiritual unsatiableness of sin. The first covetousness, that of riches, the apostle calls the root of all evil, but the second covetousness, that of sin, is the fruit of all evil, for that is the treasure of God's wrath, as the apostle speaks, when he makes our former sins, the mother of future sins, and then our future sins the punishments of former. As though this world were too little to satisfy man, men are come to discover or imagine new worlds, several worlds in every planet; and as though our fathers heretofore, and we ourselves too, had been but dull and ignorant sinners, we think it belongs to us to perfect old inventions, and to sin in another height and excellency, than former times did, as though sin had had but a minority, and an infancy till now. Though the pride of the prince of Tyrus were ever in some tyrants, who says there, I am a god, and sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas, and am wiser than Daniel'; Yet there is a sea above these seas, a power above this power, a spiritual pride

Ezek. xxviii. 2.

above this temporal pride, one so much wiser than Daniel, as that he is as wise as the Holy Ghost. The world hath ever had levities and inconstancies, and the fool hath changed as the moon; the same men that have cried Hosanna, are ready to cry crucifige; but, as in Job's wife, in the same mouth, the same word was ambiguous, (whether it were bless God, or curse God, out of the word we cannot tell) so are the actions of men so ambiguous, as that we cannot conclude upon them; men come to our prayers here, and pray in their hearts here in this place, that God would induce another manner of prayer into this place; and so pray in the congregation, that God would not hear the prayers of the congregation; there hath always been ambiguity and equivocation in words, but now in actions, and almost every action will admit a diverse sense. And it was the prophet's complaint of old, You have multiplied your fornications, and yet are not satisfied3; but we wonder why the prophet should wonder at that, for the more we multiply temporally or spiritually, the less we are satisfied. Others have thought, that our souls sinned before they came into the world, and that therefore they are here as in a prison; but they are rather here as in a school; for if they had studied sin in another world before, they practise it here, if they have practised it before, they teach it now, they lead and induce others into sin.

But this consideration of our insatiableness in sin, in my purpose I seposed for the end of this hour; but who knows whether your patience, that you will hear, or who knows whether yours, or my life, that you can hear, shall last to the end of this hour? And therefore it is an excusable anticipation, to have begun with this spiritual covetousness of sin, though our first payment be to be made in the literal sense of the text, a reprehension, and in it, a counsel, against our general insatiableness of the temporal things of this world. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

In which words, there being first a particular compellation, tu, hast thou found it? It remembers thee, that there be a great many, that have not found it, but lack that which thou aboundest in; and invenisti, thou hast not inherited it, nor merited it, thou

2 Eccles. xxvii. 11.

3 Ezek. xvi. 29.

hast but found it; and for that which thou hast found, it is honey, sweetness, but it is but honey, which easily becomes choler, and gall, and bitterness. Such as it is, comede, thou mayest eat it, and eat it safely, it is not unwholesome; but comede sufficientiam, eat no more than is sufficient; and in that, let not the servant measure himself by his master, nor the subject by the king, nor the private man by the magistrate, but Comede sufficientiam tuam, Eat that which is sufficient for thee, for more than that will fill thee, over-fill thee; perchance not so full as thou wouldest be, yet certainly so full, as that there will be no room in thee for better things; and then thou wilt vomit, nay perchance thou must vomit, the malice and plots of others shall give thee a vomit, and such a vomit shall be evacuans, exinanition, leave thee empty; and immundum, an uncleanness, leave thee in scorn and contempt; and periculosum, a danger, break a vein, a vein at the heart, break thy heart itself, that thou shalt never recover it. Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

an

First then, for that compellation tu, hast thou found it? It is a word first of familiarity, and then a word of particularity. It is a degree of familiarity, that God hath notified himself to us in several persons; that he hath come so near to our comprehension, as to be considered not only as an universal, and infinite God, but as a father, and as a son, and opened himself unto us in these notions, Tu Pater, Tu Fili, Thou O Father, and Thou O Son, have mercy upon us. A constable, or beadle will not be spoke to so, to be thou'd, and any person in the Trinity, the whole Trinity together is content with it; take God altogether, and at highest, Tu altissimus, Thou Lord art most high for evermore*; take him from before any beginning, Tu à seculo, Thy throne is established of old, and thou art from everlasting; take him from beyond all ending, Tu autem permanes, Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end".

In which, we go not about to condemn, or correct the civil manner of giving different titles, to different ranks of men; but to note the slipperiness of our times, where titles flow into one

Psalm xcii. 8.

5 Psalm xciii. 2.

Psalm cii. 27.

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