Sermon Upon the Wonderful Deliverance by His Majesty from Assassination, Part 2
II. The second head of discourse is to shew
By what means wise and watchful providence, discovers and defeats the deep laid designs of enemies, formed against Israel?
It's a pleasing contemplation to have the soul fixed upon the many great deliverances, which God has wrought out for Israel, and no finall accession to their delight to meditate upon the various ways he has chosen to deliver his people.
1. As suppose a Conspiracy be laid dark and deep, of which the dark night, some few dark souls and the powers of darkness are only conscious; secrecy is the life of the design, and the death of that person against whom the design is laid: Now it's the glory of God first to bring to light, and then to bring to nought such a contrivance; and tho he has various ways to discover the hidden things of darkness, yet sometimes he uses this: He puts the conscience of one or more of the Conspirators upon the rack, and torture, and forces him to delate himself and his brethren in iniquity: God keeps a key to every mans heart and conscience, and when he pleases can open it, and reveal all that hell that is within. Thus the holy God put the conscience of the Arch-Traytor Judas upon the rack, Mat. 27.4. and forced him to cry out, I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.
God never so far forsakes the most desperate wretch, but he keeps his hold, and can take faster hold of his conscience, and where he has no interest in the heart, yet there he maintains some authority.
Some have debaucht and stupisied their consciences to a prodigious degree; some to that pitch, that when they are directly subserving the cause of Hell, yet may fancy they are doing service to God, John 16.2. They have learned to setter and bind their conscience with an oath, that it shall never wince, start, or shrink from engaged secrecy; others have superadded the abusing the holy Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, to engage their zeal, perseverance, and resolution in shedding the blood and massacring the body of Man, perhaps of a Prince; and thus that which Christ instituted to be sacramentum pietatis, they impiously pervert invinculam iniquitatis, 'tis the expression of St. Austin. These wretched miscreants presume to draw in God himself to be a confederate in their villanies, and perhaps to bribe him with some share in the booty, if their lusts can spare it. N…y some have proceeded farther yet, to draw in some profligate Priests to absolve them from what ever there may be of sin in the action, for with these Debauchees Treason is none: And indeed never was any design so black and devillish, but a Priest might be found whose casuistical skill could sanctify it, or whose sacerdotal character could absolve from it: And yet when they have done all, driven the nail to the head, and clencht it, the terrors of God breaks all their bonds asunder, opens all the padlocks that were hung upon the conscience, and poor Achan is compelled to confess his sin and give glory to God, Jos 7.19.
(2.) Another way of the divine wisdom to discover and defeat the counsels of confederates in wickedness, is by raising contrary counsels and opposite sentiments among themselves. A great instance of this method we read, 2 Sam. 17.1, 2, 3. Achitophel the great Oracle of his time, whose counsels was judged as infallible and sacred as those of God himself by Vrim and Thummim: This supperfine Politician gives Absalom the most shrewd advice that could be imagined, and had it been followed, David had been a lost man; but it seems David had wisely laid in a prayer against this mans pernicious head piece, 2 Sam. 15. 32. One acquaints David that Achitophel was amongst the Conspirators and David said, O Lord, I beseech thee turn the counsel of Achitophel into foolishness. Certainly David never acted more politickly than in this thing, to oppose a weapon out of Gods own armory against the arrow which that great Statesman had borrowed out of the Devils quiver.
Now let us see how wise providence returned Davids prayer into his own bosome, and Achitophel's policy upon his own head. Achitophel had no sooner propounded his advice, but it found ready applause from the whole Council; only Absalom, that he might seem to be grave and wise, will needs hear what Hushai could say in the case: He makes a long and incoherent harrangue of I know not what difficulties in the former advice offers something next to just nothing of his own, and yet this sways the heads and hearts of the Divan, and they all cry out nemine contradicente, v. 14. The council of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Achitophel; strange infatuation! but the mystery lay here; God had appointed to defeat the good counsel of Achitophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring evil upon Absolom. And now the whole plot is blown up: Did I say the good counsel of Achitophel? Yes, the spirit of God has said it; wicked and devilish it was, first formed in the head of the old serpent, if we consider the nature and the matter, with the horrid design of it to Assassinate the King; but good it was if we consider its proportionableness to the propounded end, how well it would have reach it, but the wife God turned it in folly by foolish counter-advice, and Achitophel turned his baffle into madness, for he went away and hang'd himself; concluding that the Prince must certainly miscarry in all his undertakings, that could not distinguish between a piece of solid counsel and impertinency, so perish all thine enemies O Lord, Judg. 5.31.
(3.) Wise and watchful providence has often discovered and defeated the strongest Conspiracies, the best laid designs, by weak and despicable means: Of which I will give but one, but it shall be a most pregnant instance.
Acts 23. 12, 13. There were more than forty men that bound themselves with a vow, that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. This Conspiracy was admirably well formed, if we consider
1. The competency of the number engaged in the design: More than forty men. Forty there were, and more, but how many more the sacred historian was not informed, or however has not informed us: but forty were enough to dispatch one poor Paul, especially when it was to be acted by surprize, and a fair pretence set on foot to bring him down from the Castle to the Tribunal, from the secular to the spiritual cognizance.
2. These forty were persons of great wrath and little conscience, the fittest qualifications for Assassines that could be thought of in the world: when malice burns hot, and poor conscience is almost extinguisht, such men will stick at nothing.
3. They were inflamed with a thirst for blood, which nothing could asswage but the life of Paul. He was a prisoner already, bound with chains under the custody of the Roman Governour, will not that satisfy malice? no! they must have blood; Paul must die, or they cannot live; how they should kill him perhaps it might not be agreed, and it may be they were of the mind of the great Tyrant, Quo modo pereat parum refert, modo pereat, Die he must, die he shall, but whether by the sword or dagger, was not so material a circumstance.
4. They bind themselves with vows to perpetrate this villany, and nothing is so daring as he that makes Religion a cloak for villany: Herod cut off the Baptists head out of conscience of his Oath, tho I fear his concupiscence was stronger in him, and had more sway over him, than his Oath; but such is the force of a misguided conscience, that sometimes it hits right what the Author aimed wrong. Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.
5. It was a part of their Vow, that they would neither eat nor drink till they had slain him: And this was it that made the Conspiracy desperate: for first they must starve if they fulfil not their vow: they must break their fast with blood: Secondly, this was a rare expedient to keep their courage and malice from cooling, and if perhaps they had once begun to cool, they had not recovered their spirits before they were stone cold: so that this design was both strongly, closely, and craftily laid, and what shall now frustrate it?
It has ever been the glory of the Lord, to chuse the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, the weak things of the world to confound the mighty, I Cor: 1, 27. And the same choice God made in this case, v. 16. Paul's sisters son heard of their lying in wait, and he went and entered into the Castle and told Paul. A design discovered is half disappointed: And here's no little wonder in this disappointment. He was but a young man, foreign, v. 18. a youth, and we may wonder how a poor youth should over-hear the plot, or that he should regard or make any reflections upon what he heard, or that any credit should be given to the tale of a youth by the Governour, and above all how these Conspirators should be so open to be eves-dropt by a youth, but the thing was of God! Psal. 33. 10. Who brings the counsels of the heathen to nought, and makes the devices of the people of none effect, but v. 10. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, and the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
4. Wise and watchful providence had discovered and defeated the Conspiracies against Israel, by meer contingencies, such as have no visible connexion with, or subserviency to the ends they reach, but as the wise God over-rules them. And a famous instance of this we have, Esther 3. 12, 13. Haman had formed a plot to root out the name, and blot out the remembrance of Israel from the face of the earth. And in his policy there were many remarkables.
1. The decree was signed by the King's hand, and sealed with his ring, which according to the law of the Medes and Persians, was unalterable and irrevocable: And only to be reversed by the law of him that is the King of Kings.
2. The posts were sent forth with this decree, to prevent both flight and resistance by the poor people designed for the massacre.
3. It was dispatcht into a hundred twenty and seven provinces, wherever the Jews were dispersed; that it might be in vain for them that were persecuted in one City, to save themselves by flight into another: for into what room of the house can a man fly for safety, when the whole house is on fire all at once?
4. The decree was universal, to spare none, to destroy all, Both old and young, little children and women. Such as ordinary terms and expressions would not involve without express signification that such was his will and pleasure. What a merciful Prince was Pharaoh? whose decree only doomed the males to death; but now root and branch, the tender mother, and more tender infant, must be sacrificed to Babylonish cruelty: And left some seeds of humane pity, some reliques of commiseration might lye hid in the bosom of some few of those many millions, which might have given a more gentle consternation to the letter of the Decree, therefore 'tis expressly commanded, that without respect of age or sex, the whole people be assigned over to internecion.
5. The day is precisely set and fixt, the thirteenth day of the month Adar. Malice is a sore biting hound when he hunts for blood, and comes to pinch the prey: Oh what cries sent up to Heaven, what rivers of blood flowing upon the earth; this was to make an end in one day.
6. But the most killing circumstance remains. They were to have the spoil of the poor Massacred people for their pains; he that could murder a man should have his Estate real and personal; he that slew most had most; how cruel is malice whetted with a great Reward? How sharp were the wild Irish Skeans, when Plunder and Rapine had given them an edge? This is inflaming Malice with a bribe: I tremble to think how the lean kine in Pharaoh's Dream would have eaten up the fat, and yet perhaps have been never the fatter: that is, how the lean and hunger-starv'd wretches would have run upon the plunder of these great and rich Cities, if our wealth must have been the price of our Blood; to this pinch was the poor distressed Church reduced. Thus far Hell had gone, and now Heaven begins; thus far the wrath of men had proceeded, and now the divine wisdom interposes.
7. Esth. I. That night the King could not sleep. That night of all the nights in the year, he could not sleep: Why what was the matter? Why, nothing but this: A watchful God who neither slumbers nor sleeps, would not suffer the King to slumber or sleep: but why that night? If the King had slept that night perhaps all the people of God had been in their dead sleep before a few nights more. But still what was the Kings sleeping or not sleeping to Israel's deliverance? Well! however the King cannot sleep: find him out some divertisement, to beguile the tedious minutes of a waking night: Call for the books of the Chronicles! and why the Book of the Chronicles? where are the Jesters, the Buffoons, the Scarramuccioes? will not these afford a more pleasing entertainment? no it must be a book, and no book but that! But what makes all this for Israel's preservation? however read! and might not the reader have fallen upon another Chapter, where the famous exploits of his Ancestors were recorded, or possibly his own victories and triumphs; these might have invited a gentle slumber to crown his Temples: now providence begins to appear. The hand of God with an extended finger stood in the margin of the book directing to the very Chapter, Section, and Paragraph that he must read. The paragraph they pitch upon was a narrative how Bigthana and Tereth two of the Kings Chamberlains had conspired against the Kings life. Well, read on! And one Mordecai a despised Jew had discovered the Treason and saved the King. Surely the King reflected sorely upon this passage. What horror surprized him to think upon his late danger? What conviction, to think upon his ingratitude to his faithful, but neglected Servant and Deliverer? What anxiety to consider, what a case are Kings in that cannot know whom to trust? What thoughts must rise in his heart, how a King may discern disguised enemies from plain-dealing friends? In this hurry of meditation Providence directs him to inquire what reward had been given to honest Mordecai? and when it was answered none! he calls in waste for the next great Lord that was in waiting, commands him to give the highest mark of honour to the man, whom Haman had designed to hang upon the prepared gallows. And thus providence goes from one step to another, till the Church is delivered, and Haman the great enemy hang'd upon his own gallows; thus by a meer contingency watchful and wise providence, discovers, defeats the plots, and turns it upon the Authors heads.
(5.) Wise, and watchful Providence discovers, and thereby defeats the dark contrivances against his Israel by means as dark as the contrivances themselves; he has a privy Key that opens not only the counsels of the Cabinet, but the Cabinet of the heart, the closer, and the conscience are equally obvious to him. 'Tis a strange passage that of Solomon, Eccles. 10. 20. Curse not the King, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy Bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter. What then can be secret, or where shall a Conspirator be secure? If a crude, undigested thought, not yet formed into a purpose, or a purpose not yet modelled into a Plot may be trepann'd; if there be an eye that can see into that darkness, an ear that can hear those soft whispers, into what corners must they creep that would escape information?
But it seems there is a bird of the air, something or other that has wings that is a spie upon the thoughts, not only upon the privacies of the Bed-chamber, but the more reserved thoughts of the heart, which never yet took wind by any Overt Act: And what may this bird of the air be?
1. Some think it may be a flying rumour, which is a secret condensed into a whisper, which runs from ear to ear, upon slender conjectures which will never amount to a proof; but yet such a volatile rumour once routed a mighty Army, 2 Kings 19.7. Now these rumours entertained by persons of the same interest, tho not of the cabal, affect their hearts with hopes and fears; and these again beget suitable motions in their countenances, their looks and behaviours, which may serve to awaken jealousy, and warn a Government to look well to it self, and set all engines at work to trace suspicions till they discover more and more of the designed mischief.
2. Others think it may be some Letter (for that has wings too) which being either written in cypher, or penned in enigmatical phrase may meet with a key, that can unlock the secret: it was by such a way that the Powder Plot and the dark Vault were laid open; and God has sometimes given to Princes the spirit of interpretation.
3. But some think it may be taken literally for the winged creatures that fan the aiery regions; and we have read some stories that countenance that interpretation. There was one who having murthered his own Father, and thought he had buried his own guilt as secretly as the body, and enjoyed his indemnity for a long time: at last, a Caprice takes him to pull down all the Swallows Nests in the Chimneys of his House; and when his Neighbour askt, why he dealt so severely with his harmless Tenents, to destroy their poor Clay Cottages, when they never destroyed his grain in the Fields, and always refresht him with their Mattins and pleasant Melody? he answers in great passion, These Rascals do nothing but upbraid me with the Murder of my Father: this creates a Suspicion, that Suspicion leads to Examination, that to Confession, and that to Execution.
A perallel story we find of one Ibycus, whose wickedness was detected by the Cranes, whence the Proverb Ibyci Grues.
4. But why may we not look higher to a Superior Region, where we shall meet with winged creatures of another feather? the Angels, who are described to us with wings swiftly flying to carry the Mandates of their, and our great Lord, to execute his commissions, and sometimes to reveal the secret Will of God in those important cases, which God will have known, and cannot otherwise be known.
There is a dark note in the Chaldee Paraphrase that may give us some light into the matter: Etenim Raziel Angelus il volans in aere coeli, velut Aquila pennata & nunciat sermones in latibuto omnibus habitatoribus terrae; which carries this sense, The Angel Raziei flies continually in the region of the air, like a winged Eagle, and proclaims the counsels that are held in secret to all the inhabitants of the earth. But however that be, wise and watchful Providence has thousands of ways to discover and defeat the machinations of all his, and his Israels embittered and combined enemies; which is the second thing propounded.