Ebenezer, Sermons · Part 4
Gods juſtly Nation-diſturbing purpoſes, are the bottome of their deſerved ruine.
2. For the Land, The everlaſting Mountaines, &c. Thoſe ſtrong firme laſting Mountaines of Canaan, not like the Mountaines of ſand in the deſart where the people were, but to continue firme to the worlds end, as both the words here uſed foreign and foreign, perpetuity, and everlaſting, do in the Scripture frequently ſignify. Now theſe are ſaid to be ſcattered and to bow, becauſe of the deſtruction Numb. 13. 33.of the Inhabitants of thoſe laſting hills, being many of them high and mighty ones like perpetuall Mountaines: they being given in poſſeſſion to the ſons of Iſrael, even the cheife things of the antient Mountaines, and the pretious things of the laſting hills: Deut. 33. 15.
God takes an exact foreview of his peoples portion and inheritance. Like Obſ. 10.a carefull father, he knows before hand, what he intends to beſtow upon them. Hee views it, meaſures it, prepares it to the utmoſt bounds. They ſhall not have a hayrs bredth which hee hath not alotted them: nor want the leaſt jot of their deſigned portion.
Learne to be contented with your Lot. He is wiſe alſo, who Vſe.took a view of it, and meaſured it, and found it juſt commenſurate to your good: had he known that a footes bredth more had bin needfull, you ſhould have had it. Had he ſeen it good; you had had no thornes in your Lands, no Afflictions in your lives. O how carefull, how ſolicitous are many of Gods people! how full of deſires! Oh that it were with me thus or thus! poſſeſſe your ſoules in patience: As you cannot adde too, no more ſhall any take from your proportion. He took the meaſure of your wants, and his own ſupplies long ſince. That which he hath meaſured out, he will cut off for you. He knows how to ſuit all his children.
It is dangerous incroaching for any of the ſons of men upon Gods Obſer. 11.peoples portion, lot, priviledges or inheritance. God hath meaſured it out for them, and he will looke that they injoy it. gVid. Tertul. ad Scapulamde perſecutione.Shall men remove his bounds, and land-markes, and be free? will it be ſafe treſpaſſing upon the Lands of the Almighty? will it be eaſy and cheape? will he not plead his Action with power? eſpecially ſeeing he hath given them their portion. If he hath given Seir to Edom, what doth he vexing and waſting Jacob? Shall they not poſſeſſe what the Lord their God gives them to poſſeſſe? Jud. 11. 24. He hath cautioned all the world; Kings and others in this kind: Touch not mine annointed, do my prophets no harme: Pſal. 105. 14, 15. Touch them not, nor any thing that is theirs: harme them not in any thing I beſtow on them. They have nothing but what their Father gives them, and Chriſt hath bought for them. Will a tender Father thinke you, contentedly looke on, and ſee a ſlave ſnatch away his childrens bread? If a man hath ingaged himſelfe to give a Jewell to a deare friend, will he take it patiently to have an enemy come and ſnatch it away before his face? God is ingaged to his people for all their injoyments, and will he quietly ſuffer himſelfe to be robbed and his people ſpoyled? Shall others dwell quietly in the Land which he hath meaſured for his own?
See whence the great deſtructions of People and Nations in Vſe. 1.theſe latter ages have come. Is it not for touching theſe forbidden things? The holy Veſſels of the Temple at Hieruſalem, ruined Babylon. Is not the waſting of the Weſterne Nations, at this day from hence, that they have ſerved the whore to deck her ſelfe, with the ſpoyles of the ſpouſe? helped to trim her with the portion of Gods people: taking away their Liberties, Ordinances, Priviledges, Lives, to lay at her feet. Doubtleſſe God is pleading with all theſe Kingdomes for their incroaching. They who will not let him be at peace with his, ſhall have little quiet with their own. The Eagle that ſtole a coale from the Altar, fired her neſt. I know how this hath been abuſed to countenance the holding of Babyloniſh wedges. God will preſerve to his people his own allowance, not Romes ſupplyment. This Nation hath yet itching ſingers, and a hankering minde after the inheritance of Gods people: Let them take heed, he hath knocked off their hands an hundred times, and ſent them away with bloudy fingers. O that we were wiſe, that we be not quite conſumed. Of you I hope better things, and ſuch as accompany ſalvation, yet give me leave to cautionate you a little.
1. As to priviledges and liberties of this life. Their liberties and eſtates, are not as other mens: but more exactly meaſured for their good, and ſanctifyed to them in the bloud of Chriſt. If in theſe things God hath called you to the defence and protection of his, he will expect a reall account. You had better give away a Kingdome that belongs to others, then the leaſt of that which God hath made for his Saints. Think not any thing ſmall, which God accounts worthy to beſtow on his. If he hath meted out liberty for them, and you give them ſlavery, you will have a ſad reckoning.
2. In point of Ordinances, and Chriſt purchaſed priviledges: rNero primus in Chriſtianos ferociit: …ali dedicatore damnation is noſtrae etiam gloriamur, qui enim ſcit illum intelligere poteſt, non niſi aliquod bonwn grande à Nerone damnatum Tertul. Apol.Here 'tis dangerous incroaching indeed. God exactly meaſured Canaan becauſe it was to be the ſeat of a Nationall Church. If you love your lives, if you love your ſouls, be tender in this point. Here if you meddle with that which belong not unto you, were you Kings, all your glory would be laid in the duſt. 2 Chr. 26. 18. woe to them who cut ſhort the Saints of God in the leaſt jot, of what he hath allotted to them in ſpiritualls. Is it for any of you, O ye ſons of men, to meaſure out Gods childrens portion, long ſince bequeathed them by Chriſt? Let them alone with what is given them. If God call Iſrael out of Egypt to ſerve him, ſhall Pharaoh aſſigne who, and how they ſhall go, Firſt men onelyonly, then all without their cattel? nay ſayes Moſes, we will go as God calls, Exod. 10. 26.
Was not one main end of the late tumults, to rob Gods people of their priviledges, to bring them again under the yoke of ſuperſtition? What God brake in warre, do not think he will proſper in Peace? If you deſire to thrive, do not the ſame, nor any thing like it. Take they any thing of yours, that belongs to Ceſar, the Civil Magiſtrate, reſtraine them, keep them within bounds. But if they take onelyonly what Chriſt hath given them, O touch them not, harm them not. The heap is provided for them, let them take for themſelves. Thinke it not ſtrange, that every one ſhould gather his own Manna. The Lord forbid that I ſhould overſee the Magiſtrates of England, taking away liberties, priviledges, ordinances or wayes of worſhip, from them to whom the Almighty hath made a free grant of them.
3 If in taking what God hath meaſured out for them, they ſhould not all comply with you, in the manner and meaſure of what they take, do them no harm, impoveriſh not their families, baniſh them not, ſlay them not. sNova & inaudita eſt iſta praedicatio quae verberibus exigit fidem Grego. Ep. 52.Alas your judgements, were you Kings, and Emperours, is not a rule to them. They muſt be tryed by their own faith. Are their ſouls think you more precicious to you then themſelves? You ſay they take amiſſe: they ſay no: tMagiſtrum neminem habemusmſi ſolum Deum; hic ante te eſt, nec abſcondi poteſt, ſed cui nihil facere poſſis.and appeal to the word. Should you now ſmite them? ſpeak blood, is that the way of Jeſus Chriſt? ſhould it be as you affirm, you would be puzled for your warrant. To run when you are not ſent, ſurely in this caſe is not ſafe. But what if it ſhould prove in the cloſe, that they have followed divine Directions? Do you not then fight againſt God, wound Jeſus Chriſt, and proſecute him as an evil doer? I know the uſual colours, the Common pleas, that are uſed for the inſtigation of Authority to the contrary. They are the very ſame and no other, that have ſlain the Saints of God, this 1200 years. Arguments for perſecution are died in the blood of Chriſtians, for a long ſeaſon, ever ſince the Dragon gave his power to the falſe Prophet, they have all died as hereticks and Schiſmaticks. Suppoſe you ſaw in one view all the blood of the witneſſes of Chriſt, which hath been let out of their veins, by vain pretences, that you heard in one noyſe the dolefull cry of all Paſtorleſſe Churches, dying martyrs, harbourleſſe children of Parents inheriting the promiſe, wilderneſſewandring Saints, dungeoned believers, wreſted out by pretended zeal to peaee and truth, and perhaps it may make your Spirits tender as to this point.
See the warrantableneſſe of our conteſts for Gods peoples Ʋſe 2.rights. It was Jephthaes onelyonly argument againſt the incroaching Ammonites. Judg. 11. By Gods aſſiſtance they would poſſeſſe what the Lord their God ſhould give them. If a grant from heaven will not make a firm Title, I know not what will. Being called by lawfull Authority, certainly, there is not a more glorious Employment, then to ſerve the Lord, in helping to uphold the portion he hath given his people. If your hearts be upright, and it is the liberties, the priviledges of Gods Saints, conveied from the father, purchaſed by Chriſt, you contend for, Go on and proſper, the Lord, is with you.
2. From what God did.
The works and labours of Gods people are tranſacted from them in Obſer. 11.heaven, before they once undertake them. The Iſraelites were now going to Canaan, God doth their work for them before hand They Iſa. 26. 22.did but go up and take poſſeſſion; Joſhua and Caleb tell the people not onelyonly that their enemies defence was departed from them, but that they were but bread for them: Num. 14. 9. Not corn that might be prepared, but bread, ground, made up, ready baked, ready to e at. Their work was done in heaven. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, Acts 15. 18. All that is done here below, is but the writing of a viſible copy for the ſons of men to read, out of the etenall lines of his own purpoſe.
Up and be doing, you that are about the work of the Lord. VſeYour Enemies are bread ready to be eaten, and yield you refreſhment. Do you think if our Armies had not walked in a troden path they could have made ſuch journeys as they have done of late? had not God marched before them, and traced out their way from Kent to Eſsex, from Wales to the North, their carcaſſes had long ere this, been caſt into the field. Their work was done in heaven before they begun it. God was gone over the 2 Sam. 5. 24.Mulberry trees; The worke might have been done by children, though he was pleaſed to employ ſuch worthy inſtruments. They ſee I doubt not their own nothingneſſe, in his All-ſufficiency. Go on then, but with this caution, ſearch by all wayes and means to find the footſteps of the mighty God, going before you.
The trembling condition of the oppoſing nations round about Verſe 7.when God appeared ſo gloriouſly for his people, is held out verſe 7.
I ſaw the tents of Cuſhan in affliction: The curtayns of the Land of Midian did tremble.
You have here three things conſiderable.
1. The mention of two Nations enemies of the Church, Cuſhan and Midian.
2. The ſtate and condition of thoſe Nations, the tents of the one in Affliction, and the curtains of the other in trembling.
3. The view the Prophet had of this, I ſaw it ſaith he, I ſaw, &c.
For the firſt, theſe two nations, Cuſhan and Midian, were the neigbouring people to the Iſraelites, being in the wilderneſſe when God did ſuch great things for them. Firſt Cuſhan, that is the Tentdwelling Arabians on the ſouth ſide towards Ethiopia, being as the Ethiopians of the poſterity of Cuſh (thence called Cuſhan) the eldeſt 2 Kings 19. 9. Jer. 13. 23. Joſeph Antiq. Chap. 1. Iſa. 37. 9.ſon of ſcoffing Ham, Gen. 10. 6. enemies and oppoſers of the Church (doubtleſſe) all the way down from their profane Anceſtors. Theſe now beheld the Iſraelites, going to root out their Allies, and kindred the Amorites of Canaan, the poſterity of Canaan, the younger brother of their progenitor Cuſh, Gen. 10. 6.
Midian were a people inhabiting on the Eaſt-ſide Jordan, on the borders of Moab: ſo called from their forefather, Midian the ſon of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. 25. 3, 4. Theſe obtained a temporall bleſſing for a ſeaſon, from the Love borne to their faithfull progenitor. In the days of Jacob, they were great Merchants, Gen. 37. 28. At this time in leſſe then 400 years, they were ſo multiplyed, that they had five Kings of their Nation: Num. 31. 1. Some knowledge of the true God, was retained as it ſhould ſeeme untill now amongſt ſome of them, being received by tradition from their Fathers. Moſes Father in Law, was a Prieſt of this Country, Exod. 2. 15, 16. not altogether unacquainted with Jehovah, Exod. 18 and was himſelfe, or his ſon perſwaded to take up his portion in Canaan, Num. 10. 29, 30. But for the generality of the Nation, being not heirs of the promiſe, they were fallen off to ſuperſtition and idolatry. Exceeding enemies they were to the people in the wilderneſſe, vexing them with their wiles, and provoking them to abominations, that the Lord might conſume them, Num. 25. 17.