Twenty-One Sermons on Amos 1

THE PREFACE TO THE CHRISTIAN READER.

THese Sermons were provided for the Pulpit, not intended for the Press. Yet, since I live in a prodigal age of the world, wherein too many with their unprofitable, if not obscene Pamphlets, do run to the Press, as a horse to the battle, and are entertained with applause; I have the more willingly now published them to thy view. Thou wilt say: There is already great store of Sermons abroad; more than we can well use. I deny it not. Yet to the fullness of this Sea I add more, and repent not. Is abundance a burden to thee? If thy soul may be fed with variety, as well by the eye as by the ear, hast thou any reason to find fault? But weak stomachs may surfeit at the sight of too much. Let such favor their eye-sight. They may easily look off, and please themselves with their old choice. There is no reason that their daintiness should prejudice that profit, which others might reap from this abundance. We that are called to be laborers in the Lord's Harvest, must resolve with the Lord of the Harvest. His resolution was, I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. Our day is our life time; the only time for us to work in. If now, in this our day time, we will instead of working, only treasure up knowledge in our hearts, as that Hoarder in the Proverbs did his Corn in his storehouse; or will wrap up the gifts, wherewith God hath blessed us, in waste Papers, as the slothful servant in the Gospel did his Talent in a Napkin; the night will come upon us and we shall not work. Suffer us therefore, while it is our day, to work. Our work consisteth in the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel is preached as well by writing as by speaking; as well by p • n as by tongue. The word spoken, for the time is most piercing, but the letter written is of most continuance. I shall account it my happiness, if I may do good both ways. My place in that worthy Foundation, whereof I am an unworthy member, wearing me out in the reading of Humanity, now the fourteenth year, hath hindered me from doing that good I wished to have done, the one way by my speaking by my tongue. If the other way, by my writing by my pen, I may redeem the time past, and by these my poor labors may do some good, not only to them, among whom I first sowed this seed, but also to other Congregations of my Country, I have enough. If (dear Christian) thou find in these my Sermons the same things iterated, marvel not thereat; I have my Prophets warrant for it. He in this first Chapter repeateth the same things five times over. May not I after his ensample do it once or twice? I must profess unto thee (good Christian) that my chief intent in this Commentary is the destruction of sin. If to any of the learned, I seem to have failed of my purpose, my earnest desire is, that they will be pleased to take the pains to amend it. The rest, who to this poor labor of mine shall afford their gracious and favorable good liking, I heartily entreat to help me with their godly prayers, that this work and whatsoever else of like kind I shall hereafter attempt to publish to the censure of the world, may wholly redound to the glory of God, and good of his Church. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, sanctify thee throughout, that enjoying the peace of thy conscience in this world, thou mayest hereafter have full fruition of that eternal peace of God in Hea •• n.

THE First Lecture.

ONE of the Pharisees in the Gospel, as if he were unwilling to be ignorant in so weighty a matter, as is man's salvation, in a tempting manner asked Christ this question: Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Our Savior for answer put forth another question, and said, What is written in the Law, how readest thou? Luk. 10.26. Where we may note that the Law is written for man to read, that so he may be instructed, what he is to do in discharge of his duty towards God.

The rich man in Hell, prayed Abraham that ••• rus might be sent unto his fathers house to testify unto hi • 〈◊〉 brethren, lest they also should come into that place •• torment. To whom Abraham answered, They have Moses a •• 〈◊〉 Prophets▪ 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 let them hear them, Luk. 16.29. The parable teacheth us thus much, that unless we delight in hearing the word preached, we shall never attain to the means of escaping eternal torments. Two notable uses of the word of God, Reading, and hearing; They lead man as it were by the hand to the very point of his felicity. For what more blessed than to possess eternal life? Yet was the Pharisee taught, that by reading of the law li • e eternal might be purchased. And is it not a blessed thing to be freed from Hell torments? Yet was the rich man told by Abraham, that his five brethren by hearing of Moses and the Prophets, might be saved.

It was a settled opinion of old, though uttered in fullness of time by our Savior, that a man liveth not by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The truth of which is confirmed by the practice of godly men in former ages. I will not trouble you with many instances. Many and excellent were the revelations which God gave unto the Prophet Daniel, yet notwithstanding all them, as himself witnesseth cap. 9.2. he omitted not the reading of the Prophecy of Jeremiah. Much doubtless for the spiritual food of his own soul: yet for our ensample also, that we should be conversant in the Scriptures too. It was a worthy commendation which Luke gave the Beroeans, Act. 17.11. for that as soon as they had heard the word preached by S. Paul, they diligently conferred the scriptures, to know whether it were so, or no; and thereby confirmed themselves in the truth which they had heard. This their zeal and diligence, should stir us up also, for the confirmation of our faith upon the hearing of the word, to search the scriptures. That great heathen Lord, Queen Candaces Eunuch: as he was riding on the high way in his chariot, did read the Prophet Isaiah, and the Lord of heaven had regard unto him for it, Act. 8.28. So Daniel by reading, the Beroeans, and the Eunuch by reading and hearing of the word, were spiritually fed, and nourished unto everlasting life.

To these holy exercises both of reading and hearing the scriptures, the scriptures are full of exhortations, fit for all estates: for Vnbeleeuers, that they would search the scriptures, because in them they think to have eternal life, and they do testify of Christ, John. 5.39. for Believes; that besides other parts of their spiritual armor, they would take unto them the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, Eph. 6.17. for young men; that they would rule themselves after the word of God, and so cleanse their ways, Psal. 119.9. for all men, that they would meditate in the law of God day and night, Psal. 1.2.

Now, that the scriptures, the sword of the spirit, the word and law of God might be much used to the dividing asunder of the soul and the spirit, of joints and marrow, it was decreed in a council of Nice; that no house should be without the holy Bible: which S. Agustine also intended, saying: Nec solum sufficiat, quod in Ecclesia diuinas lections auditis, sed etiam in domibus vestris, aut ipsi legite, aut alios legentes requirite. Let it not content you to hear the holy scriptures read unto you in the church only: but in your houses also at home, either read them yourselves, or cause other to read them. Vtinam omnes faceremus quod scriptum est: scrutamini scripturas. It is ^e Origen's: Would to God we all did as it is written, search the scriptures. Chrysostom saith, Comparate vobis biblia animarum pharmaca, seculares: Ye lay m •• get you Bibles, for they are medicines of your souls. Whereof the godly and first christened Emperor Constantine was well persuaded, who therefore gave commandment that the Bible should be written out, and sent abroad into all the kingdoms, countries, and cities of his dominion. And what other might the persuasion of king Adlestane here in England be, when he caused the Bible to be translated into the English tongue, that all might read it?

The much preaching and often reading of God's holy word in the congregations of this land in the days of her, whom of late you loved, Queen Elizabeth, have set up and established her never dying praises. And is not God much to be blessed for our good Josiah, our most dread Soueraign, King James? His heart is from above replenished with a religious zeal to free the passage of God's most holy Gospel. His desire to have God sincerely worshipped throughout this land, is made known by the good order he hath taken to set before you, and all other his liege people, God's word, if possible, in greatest purity. Let God be with the workmen, I mean, the Translators of the old and new testaments; Let God be with them in their holy labors; and let the remembrance of our King for it, be like the composition of the perfume that is made by the art of the Apothecary.

Hitherto (beloved) I have by way of preface exhorted you to the reading and hearing of God's word; and I doubt not of your obedience to it. Yet if any of you shall except against the reading of it for the hardness of the phrase, being of the Eunuchs mind, Act. 8.31. that you cannot understand what you read except you have a guide; let it be your comfort, that his Majesty in giving his royal assent to those laudable Canons, and Constitutions Ecclesiastical, agreed upon in the late ^k Synod at London, hath by the 45. and 46. canons, provided guides for you, such as are soberly, and sincerely to divide the word of truth to the glory of God, and the best edification of his people.

And now it being my lot to be sent unto you, to you I bring an inestimable pearl, the word of the Lord, which the Prophet Amos saw upon Israel. In dividing it, I promise you in the words of Paul, 2 Cor. 12.19. by the help of God, to do all things for your edifying. Wherefore (beloved) give • are I beseech you, with reverent regard and attention to the word of the Lord, as it is written, Amos 1.1.

This first verse we may call the title of this book, or the preface unto it. It yieldeth to our considerations sundry circumstances.

• 1 The Prophets name, Amos.
• 2 His former condition of life, He was among the heardme • .
• 3 The place of his usual abode, Tekoa.
• 4 The matter or argument of his Prophecy, implied in these words, The words which he saw upon Israel.
• 5 The time of his Prophecy, In the days of Uzziah, King of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

Amos] Epiphanius in his book of the lives and deaths of the Prophets, holdeth this Amos to be Isaiah’s father. To which opinion a learned and late Divine Danaus seemeth to give his assent. But S. Jerome is against it, and so are most Interpreters; so also is Drusius in his sacred observations, lib. 4. cap. 21. And worthily. For as much as the Hebrew writing of these two names, the name of Isaiah’s father, and this our Prophets name, is evidence and proof sufficient, that they were not one but two names: and consequently not one but two men. Again Amos the father of Isaiah, is by interpretation fortis, & robustus, stout and valiant, but Amos our Prophet is Onustus, a man burdened and loaden; or auulsus, one that is separated from others. These diverse interpretations of these two names, the name of Isaiah’s father, and this our Prophets name, is evidence and proof sufficient, that they were not one, but two names, and consequently not one but two men. Besides Amos our Prophet is in the ancient monuments of the Hebrews surnamed a stutter • r, stammerer, or maffler, as Drusius noteth upon my Text. We find not any such surname given Isaiah’s father. Therefore our Amos is not Amo • the father of Isaiah. From our Prophets name let us come t • • s condition of life, and vocation, expressed by himself in these words, Who was among the heardmen.

There are two sorts of heardmen: the one is of such as do use the feat and trade of graziers, or are sheep-masters; such as have under them in pay other heardmen, and shepherds. In this sense Mesa King of Moab, 2 King. 3.4. is called a heardman, or shepherd; and is registered to have rendered to the King of Israel an hundred thousand lambs, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. The other sort of heardmen, is of such as are hired to keep cattle, to see to their feeding, and safety: such we properly call heardmen, or shepherds, and such a one was Amos our Prophet: witness himself, cap. 7.14. I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets son, but I was a heardman, or shepherd. You see now his former condition of life, profession and vocation; see also the place where he lived.

At Tekoa ] This town Epiphanius ascribeth to the land of Zebulon: R. David to the inheritance of the sons of Aser: but S. Jerome (whom with the rest of the expositors of this book I choose to follow) placeth it in the tribe of Judah, six miles southward from Bethlehem. Adrichom in his description of the holy land saith it is two miles from Bethlehem. More or less; its not much pertinent to my present occasion. For the place it self: Tekoa is 2 Chron. 11.6. rehearsed among all those strong Cities which Rehoboam built in Judah. Beyond the City Tekoa (as Saint Jerome observeth) there was not any little village, no not so much as a cottage; only there was a great wilderness, called 2 Chron. 20.20. the wilderness of Tekoa; a fit place for a shepherds walk. Here Amos for a time led a shepherds life. At length God separated him to carry his word against Israel. Which is the fourth circumstance of this verse, the matter or argument of this prophecy, implied in these words.

The words of Amos which he saw upon Israel ] The Hebrew manner is to call sermons, words; as Ierem. 1.1. The words of Jeremiah. And Eccles. 1.1. The words of the Preacher. And Haggei 1.12. The words of Haggei. And Luk. 3.4. The words of Isaiah. By these words we understand sermons; the sermons of Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, Haggei, and Isaiah. So here the words of Amos, are the sermons of Amos.

Which he saw] this adiection showeth that these words of Amos were committed to him, by that kind of prophetical instinct, and motion, which is termed vision, as Arias Montanus observeth in his common disputes of the prophetical books. Indeed vision is one of the kinds of prophecy: In which regard (as Saul's servant beareth witness, 1 Sam. 9.9.) Prophets were in the old time called seers. Well then doth Drusius expound this place; The words which Amos saw ] that is, the words which God did disclose or reveal unto Amos in a vision. These words which Amos saw ] this vision, or prophecy was concerning Israel, upon, or against Israel. ]

Upon Israel] Israel was a common name to the 12. tribes which issued out of Jacob's loins; and was so from the beginning of Saul's reign to the end of Solomon's. After whose death a rent was made in the kingdom. Jeroboam son of Nebat seduced 10. tribes. Rehoboam Solomon's son could keep with him but two. Thus of one kingdom, Israel, were made two: Judah and Israel. A strange division. Israel divided from Israel: ten tribes from the other two. Two tribes, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, continued in their obedience to the house of David: the other ten forsook it, and fell away. The two tribes, Judah and Benjamin (called but one tribe, 1 King. 11.13. because of the mixture of their possessions) these two tribes settled in their faithfulness and obedience to the seed of David, are in holy Scripture called sometimes Judah, sometimes Benjamin, sometimes Jerusalem, sometimes Zion, sometimes the house of David. The other ten tribes which fell away from, and forsook their rightful King, and holy religion, have in like sort their diverse appellations: Bethel, Bethaven, Samaria, Iesreel, Joseph, Ephraim, Jacob, Israel. These are the names in the sanctified writings of the holy Prophets appropriate to signify the 10. revolted tribes: Israel you see is one of them; and that is the Israel in my text. Thus was Amos by the holy spirit deputed, and directed with his message peculiarly, and properly, to the kingdom of the 10. revolted tribes; the kingdom of Israel. Some mention is made of Judah incidently, and by the way; but the scope of the prophecy is Israel. The time, which was my last circumstance, followeth.

The time is set down in general, and in particular. First in general, thus.

In the days of Uzziah, &c.] Uzziah, or Ozias, called also Azarias, 2 King. 14.21. succeeded his father Amazias in the throne of Judah. This he did in the 27 ^th year of the reign of Jeroboam in Israel, as appeareth 2 King. 15.1. That same Jeroboam (that you may distinguish him from a former King of the same name) is called in my text Jeroboam the son of Joash. Hereby we see in general, the time of his prophecy; which is more particularly set down in the last words, two year before the earthquake. ] He meaneth that same notable and famous earthquake, mentioned also Zach. 14.5. Ye shall fly (saith he) like as ye fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah King of Judah. In what year of Vzziahs reign this earthquake happened, it is not to be collected out of holy scripture. Flauius Josephus, Lib. 9. antiq. Iudaie. cap. 11. saith that this earthquake happened then when King Uzziah usurping the Priests office went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense. Ribera disproues Josephus his judgment; and saith that the earthquake happened within the fourteenth year of the reign of Uzziah. Some do hold it was in the 22 ^th year; And the Hebrews (whom Funccius followeth in his Chronology) do ascribe it to the 25. year. For my part I say not in what year it happened. Why should I speak where the holy spirit is silent? It is out of doubt that there was such an earthquake, in the days of Uzziah, witness the Prophet Zechariah: two years after Amos had begun this prophetical function; witness Amos here in my text.

Thus (dearly beloved in the Lord) have I briefly run over the exposition of this first verse: let me now upon it build some doctrine, for the building up of our selves in our holy faith. You will be pleased to remember with me, that Amos of a heardman or a shepherd became a blessed Prophet to carry a terrible word, and fearful message from the living God, to the King, Nobles, Priests, and people of Israel. The doctrine to be grounded hereupon, I deliver in this proposition;

Vile and despised persons, I call such, as to the world, to human wisdom, and to the eye of reason are of no price, esteem, or worth. Such as Joseph was, when he kept sheep in Canaan with his brethren, and was by them sold to the Ishmaelites, Gen. 37.2, 27. Such as Moses was, when first he was cast into the flags, Exod. 2.1. Such as David was while he meddled with sheepfolds, and followed the ewes great with young, Psal. 78.70. Such as were Peter, Andrew, James, and John, while they busied themselves about mending of nets, and catching of fish, Matth. 4.18.21. These, Joseph, Moses, and David, shepherds; Peter, Andrew, James, and John, fishermen, vile and despised in the account of the world, were chosen by the wisdom of the great God of heaven, one to be a ruler in Egypt; another to be a leader of God's people; the third to be a King; the rest to be Christ's Apostles.

Hear now a word of eternal verity, and full of comfort. You shall find it, Psal. 113.7, 8. The Lord who is high above all nations, and glorious above the heavens, he raiseth the needy out of the dust, and lifteth up the poor out of the dung, to set him with Princes. S. Paul's discourse touching this point is more large and spacious. You shall find it, 1 Cor. 1.27, 28. God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, and the weak things to confound the strong, and vile things, and things despised, and things which are not, to bring to naught the things that are. The reason of God's dealing thus in the advancement of the foolish, weak, vile, despised, needy & poor, to places of dignity, is expressed, 1 Cor. 1.29. It is, that no flesh should rejoice in his presence, that is, that no man should glory before the Lord. In this reason are two things worthy our religious considerations, as Musculus well observeth. For hereby our God first suppresseth and beateth down the pride of flesh, and takes from it all glory of wisdom, power and nobility; and secondly, whatsoever glory there is of wisdom, power and nobility, he doth claim and challenge it for his own peculiar. Thus have you (dearly beloved) the confirmation of my doctrine. The doctrine was:

Be patient, I beseech you, while I point at some uses of it.

The first use is to lift up our minds to the contemplation of God's good providence. Poor shepherds and fishermen God exalteth and advanceth into the highest places of dignity in Church and common-wealth. Hereby we know that neither Empire nor Kingdom, nor place in them of dignity, priority, or preeminence, Ecclesiastical or politique, is gotten by the industry, wisdom, wit, or strength of man: but that all are administered, ruled, and governed by the deputation and ordination of the highest power, God almighty.

A second use is to stop blasphemous mouths, such as are evermore open against heaven, with Epicurus, and Diagoras, and their adherents, to affirm that the God of heaven, in as much as he is absolutely blessed, is not to trouble himself with cares for this lower world: that it standeth not with God's majesty to care for the vile, abject, and despised things of this world. This impious rabble, and Satan's brood, do think that all things below the Moon are ruled by their blind Goddess Fortune and by Chance.

Here must I beseech you, to let your hearts be joined with mine in the consideration of God his sweet, and never-sleeping care and providence over this lower world.

Let us not suppose our God to be a God to halfs and in part only; a God above, and not beneath the moon: a God upon the mountains, and not in the valleys; a God in the greater and not in the lesser employments. The holy scriptures do teach us, that our God examineth the least moments and tittles in the world, that we can imagine, to a handful of meal; to a cruse of oil in a poor widows house, to the falling of sparrows to the ground, to the feeding of the birds of the air, to the caluing of hinds: to the clothing of the grass of the field; to the numbering of the hairs of our heads: to the trickling of tears down our cheeks. Why then are we troubled with the vain conceits of luck, fortune, or chance? Why will any man say, this fell unto me by good luck, or by ill luck? by good fortune, or by misfortune? by good chance, or by mischance?

We may and should know, that in the course of God's providence all things are determined and regular. This is a sure ground: we may build upon it.

The fish that came to devour Jonah, may seem to have arrived in that place by chance; yet the scripture saith, the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, Ion. 1.17.

The storm it self which drove the pilots to his straight, may likewise seem contingent to the glimpse of carnal eyes; yet the Prophet saith, I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you, Ion. 1.12.

The fish which Peter took might seem to have come to the angle by chance, yet he brought in his mouth the tribute which Peter paid for his Lord and for himself, Mat. 17.27.

By the diversity of the opinions among the brethren touching the manner of dispatching Joseph out of the way, we may gather, that the selling of him into Egypt, was but accidental, and only agreed upon by reason of the fit ariuall of the merchants while they were disputing and debating what they were best to do: yet saith Joseph unto his brethren, you sent me not hither, but God, Gen. 45.8.

What may seem more contingent in our eyes, than by the glancing of an arrow from the common mark, to strike a traveler that passeth by the way? yet God himself is said to have delivered the man into the hand of the shooter, Exod. 21.13.

Some may think it hard fortune, that Ahab was so strangely made away, because a certain man having bent his bow, and let slip his arrow at hap hazard, without aim at any certain mark, struck the King: but here we find no luck, nor chance at all, otherwise, than in respect of us, for that the shoot •• did no more than was denounced to the King by Micah fro • God's own mouth before the battle was begun, 1 King. 22.17.

What in the world can be more casual than lottery lyet Solomon teacheth that when the lots are cast into the lap, the providence of God disposeth them, Prov. 16.33.

See now, and acknowledge with me the large extent of God's good providence. Though his dwelling be on high, yet abaseth he himself to behold us below. From his good providence it is, that this day we are here met together, I to preach the word of God, you to hear it, and some of us to be made partakers of the blessed body and blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Let us pour out our souls in thankfulness before God for his blessing.

You are now invited to the marriage supper of the lamb; everyone that will approach unto it, let him put on his wedding garment. A garment nothing like the old rags of the Gibeonites which deceived Joshua, Ios. 9.5. A garment nothing like the suit of apparel which Micah gave once a year to his Levite, Iud. 17.10. A garment nothing like the soft clothing worn in kings courts, Mat. 11.8. But a garment something like the garment of the high priest, which had all the names of the tribes of Israel written upon his breast, Exod. 28.21. For this your garment is nothing else but Christ put on, in whose breast and book of merits are written and registered all the names of the faithful: but a garment something like Elias Mantle which divided the waters, 2 King. 2.8. For this your garment is nothing • lse but Christ put on, who divideth your sins and punishments, that so you may escape from your enemies, sin and death: but a garment something like the garments of the Israelites in the wilderness, which did not wear: 40. years together they wandered in the desert, and yet saith Moses, neither their clothes nor their shoes waxed old, Deut. 29.5. For this your garment is nothing else but Christ put on, whose righteousness lasteth forever, and his mercies cannot be worn out.

Having put on this your wedding garment, doubt not of your welcome to this great feast-maker. If any that heareth me this day hath not yet put on his wedding garment, but is desirous to learn how to do it; let him, following S Pa •• his counsel, Rom. 13.12. cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: let him walk honestly as in the day, not in gluttony and drunkenness, neither in chambering, and wantonness, nor in strife and envying: let him take no thought for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts of it: so shall he put on the Lord Jesus.

Lift up your heads you gates, and be you lift up ye everlasting doors, that a guest so richly appareled may come in, and sup with the King of glory. And the King of glory vouchsafe so to clothe us all, that those gates and everlasting doors may lie open to us all. So at our departure from this valley of mourning, we shall have free and easy passage into the city of God, where our corruptible shall put on incorruption, and our mortality shall be swallowed up of life. Even so be it, (blessed Father) for thy well-beloved son Jesus Christ his sake, to whom with thee in the unity of the holy spirit, be all praise and power, might and Majesty, dignity and dominion for evermore. Amen.

THE Second Lecture.

IN my former Sermon upon the first verse of this chapter (beloved in the Lord) I commended to your religious considerations five circumstances.

• 1 Touching the Prophets name: It was Amos, not Amos Esaies father, but another Amos.
• 2 Concerning his former condition of life: He was among the heardmen, that is, he was a heardman or shepherd.
• 3 Of the place of his usual abode: At Tekoa; a little village in the confines of the Kingdom of Judah, beyond which there was not so much as a little cottage: only there was a great wilderness, called 2 Chron 20.20. the wilderness of Tekoa: a fit place for a shepherds walk.
• 4 About the matter or argument of this prophecy, implied in these words: The words which he saw upon Israel. Then you heard that Amos was by the holy spirit deputed and directed with his message peculiarly, and properly to the 10. revolted tribes, the kingdom of Israel.
• 5 Of the time of the prophecy, which I told you was set down in that verse generally and specially.
  • 1 Generally; In the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel.
  • 2 Specially: Two years before the earthquak • .

After my exposition given upon those five parts of that text, I recald to your remembrances, that Amos of a heardman, or shepherd, became a blessed Prophet to carry a terrible word and fearful message from the living God to the king, nobles, priests, and people of Israel. Thereupon I commended to you this doctrine:

That doctrine proved, I recommended to you the uses of it. The first was to lift up your minds to the contemplation of God's good providence. Poor shepherds and fishermen God exalteth and advanceth into the highest places of dignity in church and common wealth. This might persuade you that neither Empire, nor kingdom, nor place in them of dignity, priority or preeminence, ecclesiastical or politique, is gotten by the industry, wisdom, wit, or strength of man, but that all are administered, ruled, and governed by the deputation and ordinance of the highest power, God almighty.

The second was to stop blasphemous mouths, such as are evermore open against the God of Heaven, to affirm, that all things below the moon, are ruled by their blind goddess fortune and by chance. Here my desire was, that your hearts might be joined with mine in the consideration of God's most sweet and never sleeping care over us in this lower world: that we would not suppose our God, to be a God to halfs and in part only, a God above and not beneath the Moon, a God in the greater and not in the lesser employments.

To this holy meditation I exhorted you, taught by the holy scriptures, that our God examineth the least moments & tittles in the world, that you can imagine, to a handful of meal, to a cruse of oil in a poor widows house; to the falling of the Sparrowes to the ground; to the feeding of the birds of the air; to the caluing of Hinds; to the clothing of the grass of the field; to the numbering of the hairs of our heads; to the trickling of tears down our cheeks. Thus far as God's holy spirit assisted me, I led you the last time. Now let it please you with patience and reverence to give ear to the word of God, as it followeth, verse. 2.

In this verse I commend unto you two general parts:

• 1 A preface to a prophecy: And he said.
• 2 The prophecy it self: The Lord shall roar from Zion, &c.

In the prophecy, I must further commend unto you 3. things:

• 1 The Lord speaking: He shall r • are and utter forth his voice.
• 2 The place from whence he speaketh: from Zion and Jerusalem.
• 3 The sequels of his speech. They are two;
  • 1 Desolation to the dwelling places of the shepherds: The dwelling places of the shepherds shall perish.
  • 2 Sterility and barrenness to their fruitful grounds: The top of Carmel shall wither.

The first general part, the preface to the prophecy I must first speak unto. And he said] He, that is, Amos: Amos the heardman, or shepherd, whose dwelling was at Tekoa. He said; what said he? Even the words which he saw upon Israel, that is, he spake the words of God committed to him, by that kind of prophetical instinct and motion which is commonly termed vision: the words of God, which were disclosed or revealed to him in a vision; Amos spake, but his words were God's words.

Here (dearly beloved) we may learn whence the holy Scriptures have their sovereign authority. Their authority is from above, even from the Lord, whose name is Jehovah, whose throne is the heaven of heavens, and the sea his floare to walk in, the earth his footstool to tread upon, who hath a chair in the conscience, and sits in the heart of man, and possesseth his secret reins, and divides betwixt the flesh and the skin, and shaketh his inmost powers, as the thunder shaketh the wilderness of Cades.

This powerful and great Jehovah, God almighty, spake in old time to our fathers by the mouth of Moses, Exod. 4.12. and in the mouths of all his Prophets, Heb. 1.1. Know this, saith S. Peter in his second epistle, 1 ch. ver. 20. That no Prophecy in the Scripture is of any private motion. Mark his reason, ver. 21. for the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost. Hence sprang these usual and familiar speeches in the books of the Prophets: The word of the Lord came unto me: The Lord God hath spoken: Thus saith the Lord; and the like.

This Lord, who thus spake in old time by his Prophets, did in fullness of time, when he sent his Son to consummate, and perfect the work of man's redemption, speak by his blessed Evangelists, and Apostles. This appeareth by the faithful promise made them, Mat. 10.19. Take no thought how, or what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you what ye shall say. It is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. It must stand for truth in despite of all the powers of darkness, which is recorded, 2 Tim. 3 16. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; The whole Scripture, and every parcel thereof, is given by inspiration of God, and hath inward witness from that Spirit, which is the author of all truth.

Hence ariseth this true position: Scriptura est authentica regula tum fidei, tum vitae nostrae: The word of God, which by an excellency we call the Scripture, is an infallible rule both of our faith, and also of our life. And another posi • ion followeth hereupon: The authority of holy Scripture is greater, than the authority of the Church.

Our observation here may be: Since such is the worth of holy Scripture by reason of the author of it, as that it is the perfect rule for our faith, and life; and is of greater authority than the Church, it must be our part to take heed unto it, to hear it, and to read it with reverence, obsequie, and docility.

This worth, dignity, and excellency of holy Scripture, which is God's holy word, now commended unto you, yieldeth a very harsh and unpleasant sound to every Popishly affected ear, and may serve to condemn the Romish Church of impiety, and sin for her neglect, and contempt of so inestimable a treasure. How little they esteem of God's wri • ten word, the word of life, and sole food of our souls, the grave and learned Brenz in his preface upon Jacobus Andreas against Hosius, makes it plain unto us, while he tells of the crying out against the holy Scriptures, as if they were blind, and doubtful, and a dumb schoolmaster, and a killing writ, and a dead letter, yea, and if it may like those reverend fathers, no better than Aesop's fables.

Now lest Brenz may be thought to charge them wrongfully, be patient I beseech you, while I show you out of themselves, how they harp upon this blasphemous string.

A Cardinal of great name in his time, Hosius the Popes Legat, and President of the Council of Trent, in his book De expresso verbo Dei, saith, as some have thought, of himself; as others, in the person of Zwenkfeldius. It is but lost labor that is spent in the Scriptures: he gives this reason; for the Scripture is a creature, and a poor kind of outward element. Ludonicus Maioranus, a Canon of the Church of Lateran in Rome, in an oration of his pronounced at Trent, said, the Scripture is as it were Dead Inke. The Bishop of Poitiers in a speech of his at the same Trent, spake to like purpose: The Scripture is a dead and a dumb thing. And think ye was Eckius more modestly conceited, when he called the Scriptures the black gospel, and inken divinity? or Pighius, when he called the Scriptures dumb and speechless judges, like unto a nose of wax that is easily molded and fashioned what way soever you will? or Harding, or Staphilus, who spake of the Scriptures, as of mischievous and poisonful books, if so they be committed to the view of the common people in a vulgar and known language.

But all these blasphemers are long since dead and gone. Is their blasphemy dead and gone with them? No: that sticks fast by their posterity, as a leprousie that will not be cleansed.

In the Colloquie held at Ratisbone of late, Anno 1602. between the Ministers of the Augustine confession and Papists, when it was alleged Scripturam esse normam fidei, that Scripture is the rule of faith; it was answered by a Jesuit, hoc esse fontem omnem heres •• n: that this was the fountain of all heresy: as M. Willet makes relation in his answer to the libellers Introduction. It may be he means the Jesuit Tannerus whose foul, reproachful, and dishonorable speech against the holy Spirit, the author of holy Scripture, is set down by Hunnius in his historical narration of that Colloquie at Ratisbone: Nulla, nulla, nulla vnquam fuit haeresis, quae ex sola Scriptura sufficienter resutari potuit. A speech vehement enough, Never, never, never was there any heresy sufficiently refuted, only out of Scripture. He r • quires their imagined infallible authority of their Church to be joined.

There was another Jesuit at the same Colloquie, by name, Gretserus, of no less impudency, & egregiously blasphemous. For when it was alleged that the holy Scripture, or the holy Ghost speaking in the Scripture, is the highest and the infallible Judge of controversies of religion, this Gretserus, as one possessed with the spirit of contradiction, utters this proposition: Neque Scriptura sola, vt est verbum Spiritus Sancti, neque ipse Spiritus Sanctus vt loquitur per Scripturam, est iudex supremus, & infallibilis controuersiarum religions: Neither the holy Scripture, as it is the word of the holy Ghost, nor the holy Ghost himself, as he speaketh by the Scripture, is the supreme and infallible Judge of controversies of religion. This he undertook to prove by experience. Behold, saith he, we stand before the face of this Judge (with that he rose up, and took the Bible in one of his hands, and struck it with the other) we stand (saith he) before the face of this Judge. See now, I am here. (I use his own words, as they are set down by David Rungius, in his description of the forenamed Colloquie) Ecce adsum: behold now I am here, let the holy Spirit judge me if he can by this Scripture: let him condemn me, if he can, by Scripture; the holy Spirit cannot judge me by Scripture; he cannot; let him do it if he can: he cannot condemn me by Scripture. Increpet te Deus Satan: Gretser, we doubt not, but that the Lord hath, or will rebuke thee.

Dearely beloved in the Lord, Scholars can tell you of Brontes, Steropes, Pyracmon, Polyphemus, and others of that rabble of Cyclops, and Giants, who made a head, and banded themselves together, to pluck Jupiter from out his throne. Behold in this Jesuit, Vere Cyclopicam audaciam, as great impudency, as ever was seen in any Cyclops face; that a man by profession a Christian▪ and among Popish Christians of the precise sect, a sanctified Jesuit, should challenge to a single combat, God Almighty, who would think it?

Some that were at the Colloquie at Worms, An. 1557. have often remembered in their common talk a new, insolent, and unheard of assertion, maintained by the Papists; Sacram Scripturam non esse vocem iudicis, sed materiam litis, that the holy Scripture is not a Judges voi • e, but rather the matter of strife and contention. It was indeed a strange assertion, and by a cons • quent, striking God himself, the author of holy Scripture. Yet you see, it is by our modern Jesuits this day matched, forasmuch as with their impiou • assertions touching holy Scripture, they do directly strike the holy Spirit.

It is an old saying, Ex vngue Leonem: A man may know a Lyon by his claw. Surely, let men of understanding consider the audaciousness, impudency, and fury of railing, with which those Jesuits beforenamed have been thoroughly replenished, they must acknowledge and confess, that those Jesuits were guided by the Spirit of lies, and blasphemies. You already see the readiness of Popish Doctors to tread Scripture under foot, and to do it all the disgrace they can. Yet give me leave, I beseech you, by some instance to show the same unto you.

The instance which I make choice of, is God's soueraignety over the Kings and Kingdoms of this world. Kings and Kingdoms are wholly and alone in the disposition of the Almighty.

A truth included within the general doctrine, commended by S. Paul to the Romans, chap. 13.1. All powers that be, are ordained of God: acknowledged by Elihu, Job 34.24. God shall break the mighty, and set up other in their stead: expressed in the prayer of Daniel, chap. 2.21. God taketh away Kings, and setteth up Kings: proclaimed as in the Lord's own words, Prov. 8.15, 16. By me Kings reign, by me Princes, Nobles, and Judges do rule. This truth hath 3. branches, displayed in so many propositions by Lipsius in his politique aduertisements, Lib. 1. c. 5.

• 1 Kings, and Kingdoms, are given by God.
• 2 Kings, and Kingdoms, are taken away by God.
• 3 Kings, and Kingdoms, are ordered, ruled, governed by God.

All three are further made good in the infallible evidence of the written word of God.

The first was: Kings, and Kingdoms are given by God. Thus saith the Lord of Saul's successor, 1 Sam. 16.1. I have provided me a King among the sons of Ischai: and of the revolt of the ten tribes, in the rent of the kingdom of Israel, 1 King. 12.24. This thing is done by me: and of the victories which Nebuchadnezzar was to get over the King of Judah, and other his neighbor Kings; the Kings of Edom, of Moab, of the Ammonites, of Tyre, of Zidon, Ier. 27.6. I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babel, my servant. It is true which we learn, Psal. 75.6. Advancement is neither from the East, nor from the West, nor from the wilderness. Our God is judge; he alone advanceth. You see now it is plain by holy Scripture, that Kings and Kingdoms are given by God.

The second was Kings and Kingdoms are taken away by God. That God's hand is likewise exercised in the removal of Kings, and translation of kingdoms, its well known, as by the above-cited texts of Scripture, so by divine examples, whereof I might make along recital, would I remember you out of Gen. 14. of the fall of those Kings delivered into the hands of Abraham; out of Exod. 14. and 15. of Pharaohs overthrow in the red sea, out of Dan. 4. and 5 of Nabuchadnezz • r and Belshazzar his son dispossessed of their crowns: and out of other places of the divinely inspired word of like patterns. Its plain without any further proof, that Kings and Kingdoms are taken away by God.

The third was, Kings, and Kingdoms, are ordered, ruled governed by God. For proof hereof I need no more, but remember you, of that which I recommended to you in the beginning of this Sermon, even of the wonderful extent of God's care and providence to the least & b • sest things in this world: as I said to a handful of meal; to a cruise of oil in a poor widows house; to the falling of sparrows to the ground; to the feeding of the birds of the air; to the caluing of hinds; to the clothing of the grass of the field; to the numbering of the hairs of our heads; to the trickling of tears down our cheeks. Shall God care for these vile and base things? and shall he not much more order, rule, and govern Kings, and kingdoms?

Now (beloved in the Lord) you see by the evidence of holy Scripture, that Kings, and kingdoms, are wholly and alone in the disposition of the Almighty. Give care I beseech you, while I show you how this doctrine, and the holy word of God whereon it is grounded, is in popish religion neglected, disgraced, trodden under foot.

Rome's chiefest champion, Cardinal Bellarmine in his fifth book De Rom. Pontif. cap. 7. doth exempt Kings and kingdoms from the disposition of the Lord of heaven, notwithstanding the eternal truth in the holy Scriptures. This he doth in four positions.

1. Princes if they go about, averter populum à fide, to avert their people from the faith, (the faith of the Church of Rome) then by the consent of all, they may and must be dispossessed of their scepters and regalities.

2. If the Christians in times past deposed not Nero, Diocletian, Julian the Apostate, Valens the Arian (and other like tyrants) id fuit quia deerant vires temporales Christianis, it was because they wanted power, and force, and were not strong enough for that attempt.

3. Christians are not bound to tolerate a king that is an infidel; or a King not a Papist.) Not bound to tolerate him? Nay, saith Bellarmine, they must not tolerate such a one cum euidenti periculo religions; if the toleration of him be an evident danger to their religion.

4 De iure humano est, quod hunc aut illum habeamus regem: It is by the law of man, that we have this, or that man to be our King. This last position is formerly avowed by the same author in the same book; but in the second Chapter, with opposition and disgrace to the sovereignty of the Lord of hosts. D minium non descendit ex iure diuino, sed ex iure gen • ium. K ngdomes and dominion are not by the law of God, but by the law of nations. It is an impious, blasphemous, and atheologicall assertion.

From these positions of the great Jesuit, by a necessary inference do follow these two conclusions.

1 That the Papists would most willingly deprive our most gracious Sovereign of his royal throne and regality, if they were of force and power so to do.

2 That all subjects of this land, may stand in manifest rebellion against their King, because he is no Papist. Both which are summarily acknowledged by his royal Majesty in his excellent speech the 5. of November last: The Romish Catholics by the grounds of their religion do maintain, that it is lawful or rather meritorious, to murder Princes or people, for quarrel of religion. By the grounds of popish religion, it is lawful, yea meritorious for Papists to murder Kings, which are not Papists. You see his Majesty's royal acknowledgement of impiety in the grounds of Romish religion. You will not doubt of it, if you rightly esteem that same late, thrice damnable, diabolical, and matchless plot, conceived in the womb of that religion, with a full resolution to consume at once our pious King, and this flourishing kingdom.

You perceive now, in what contempt and disgrace the popish faction holdeth the holy Scriptures, the written word of God. The written word of God expressly requireth obedience unto Princes, as placed in their thrones by God's sole authority. But the Popish religion maintaineth rebellion against Princes, as placed in their thrones by man's sole authority. Which will you follow? the holy word of God, or the doctrine of the Romish Church?

Beloved, remember what I told you in the beginning of this exercise; though Amos spake, yet his words were God's words; remember that God is the author of holy Scripture: and then for his sake, for the authors sake, for God's sake, you will be persuaded to take heed unto it, to hear it, and read it with reverence, obsequie, and docility.

We, the branches of the same vine, that bare our predecessors, to whom by deuolution the sacred Statutes of the eternal God, the holy Scriptures are come, must esteem of them all for God's most royal and celestial Testament; the oracles of his 〈◊〉 •• nly 〈…〉 • led counsels, milk from his sacred 〈◊〉 , the 〈◊〉 • pledge of his favor to his Church▪ the light of our 〈◊〉 , • oy of our hearts, breath of our nostrils, 〈…〉 of our hope, gro • nd of out love, 〈…〉 future blessedness.

Behold the value and price of the words, which Amos saw upon Israel, which God willing, with all my diligence, and best pains, I will expound to you hereafter, as occasion shall be ministered.

Now le • us p • wre out our souls in thank • uln • sse before the Lord, for that he hath been pleased this day to gather us together to be hearers of his holy word, and partakers of the blessed Sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, thereby to confirm our holy faith in us. We thank thee therefore, good Father, and beseech thee more and more to feed us with the never perishing food of thy holy word, that by it being made clean and sanctified, we may in due time have free passage from this valley of tears to the city of joy, Jerusalem wich is above, where this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and our mortality shall be swallowed up of life. So be it.

THE Third Lecture.

VPon the preface to this prophecy [these words, and he said ] my last lecture was bestowed: wherein because whatsoever Amos, the heardman spake, was the word of God, I endeavored to show forth the worth, dignity, and excellency of the word of God, commonly called by the name of holy Scripture. A point that yieldeth a very harsh and unpleasant sound to every popishly affected ear, as then at large I made plain out of popish mouths, and practice. Order now requireth, that I go on to the next general part of this text, to the prophecy it self. The first point therein to be recommended at this time unto you, is the Lord speaking.

The Lord shall roar, and utter his voice ] wherein I desire you to observe with me, who it is that speaketh, & how he speaketh.

Who speaketh? It is the Lord.

How speaketh he? He roareth, and uttereth forth his voice.

First of him that speaketh: He is in the Hebrew text called Jehovah; which is the honorablest name belonging to the great God of Heaven. Much might be spoken of it, would I apply myself to the curiosity of Cabalists and Rabbins; as that it is a name not to be pronounced, or taken within polluted lips; that it is a name of four letters in all tongues and languages; and that these four letters in Hebrew, are all letters of Rest, to signify unto us, that the rest, repose, and tranquility of all the creatures in the world, is in God alone; that it is a powerful name for the working of miracles, and that Christ and Moses had by it done great wonders.

But my tongue shall never enlarge that which my soul abhorreth, such brain-sick, superstitious, and blasphemous inventions. Yet this I dare avouch before you, that there is some secret in this name. It is plain, Exod. 6.3. There the Lord speaking unto Moses saith: I appeared unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of a strong; omnipotent, and all-sufficient God, but by nay name Jehovah was I not known unto them. I unfold this secret. This great name Jehovah; first it importeth the eternity of God's essence in himself, that he is yesterday, and today, and the same forever, which was, which is, and which is to come. Again, it noteth the existence, and perfection of all things in God, as from whom all creatures in the world have their life, motion, and being, God is the being of all his creatures; not that they are the same that he is, but because of him, and in him, and by him are all things. And last of all it is the Mem • riall of God unto all ages; as himself calls it, Exod. 3.15. the memorial of his faithfulness, his truth, & his constancy in the performance of his promises. And therefore whensoever in any of the Prophets, God promiseth or threateneth any great matter, to assure us of the most certain event of such his promise or threatening, he adds unto it his name, Jehovah.

Instead of this Hebrew name Jehovah, the most proper name of God, the 70. Interpreters of the Old Testament do everywhere use 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Greek name, a name of power, well •• iting with the living, true, and only God. For he hath plenum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The power and authority which he hath over all things, is sovereign, and without controlment. He that made the heavens, and spread them out like a curtain, to clothe himself with light as with a garment, he can again clothe the heaven with darkness, and make a sack their covering. He that made the sea to lay the beams of his chamber therein, and placed the sand for bounds unto it by a perpetual decree, not to be passed over, howsoever the waves thereof shall rage and roar; he can with a word smite the pride thereof. At his rebuke the floods shall be turned into a wilderness, the Sea shall be dried up, the fish shall rot for want of water, and die for thirst. He that made the dry land, and so set it upon foundations, that it should never move, he can cover her again with the deep as with a garment, and so rock her that she shall reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man. So powerful a God may well be named from power, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the absolute Lord, ruler and commander of all things.

This name of power, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , fitly put for the Hebrew name Jehovah, commonly rendered in our English tongue, Lord, is in the writings of the Apostles simply, and absolutely, (if the learned have made a just calculation) ascribed unto Christ a thousand times: and may serve for sufficient proof of the deity of Christ. For it imports thus much; that Christ the engraved form of his Father, sitting at the right hand of the Majesty in the highest places, is together with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the author and governor of all things; and in a very special manner, he is the heir of the house of God, the mighty protector of the Church.

Christ, the only begotten Son of God, he is the Lord: yet so, that neither the Father, nor the Holy Ghost are excluded from dominion. The Father is Lord, the Holy Ghost is Lord too. For in all the works of God ad extra, (so we speak in the schools; but to speak more vnderstandingly to your capacities) in all external works, each person of the Trinity hath his operation.

Yet so that a common distinction • re observed. For these external works of God do admit a double consideration, either they are begun without the Divine persons, and ended in someone of them: or they are both begun and ended, without the Divine persons. The works of God begun externally, and ended in someone of the persons, what are they? They are such as was the Uoice of the Father concerning Christ, This is my beloved son: a voice formed by all three persons, yet uttered only by the Father. They are such as was that Dove, descending upon Christ, at his baptism: a Dove framed by all three persons, yet appropriate only to the Holy Ghost. They are such as were the body and soul of Christ: a body and soul created by all three persons, yet assumed only by the son of God.

This is that obvious, and much used distinction, in school divinity: I • ch •• ti • e, & termin ••• e. I thus expound • t. In these now named works of God, the voice that was spoken unto Christ, the Dove that descended upon Christ, the body and soul of Christ, we are to consider two things: their beginning, and their end. If we respect their beginning, they are the works of the whole Trinity, common unto all, but •• spect •• their perfection, and 〈◊〉 , they are •• I 〈◊〉 common, but hypostatical and personal for so the voice is the Fathers • one; the Dove is the Holy Ghosts alone; the reasonable soul, and human flesh, are the Sons alone.

Besides these there are other works of God, as begun, so ended also extra personas; externally: and they are of two sor • s: either supernatural (such I call the •• raculous works of God;) or natural; such as are the creation of the world, the preservation of the same, and the government of it. All these works of which kind soever, whether miraculous, or works of nature, are common to the whole Trinity. The Father worketh, the Son •• worketh, and the Holy Ghost worketh, as in doing of wonders; so in creating all things, in preserving all things, in governing all things. Whereupon followeth that which before I affirmed; that as the Father is Lord so the Son is Lord, and the Holy Ghost i • Lord also. So the Lord, whom I commend unto you fo • the speaker in my text, is the Unity in Trinity, one God in three persons, God Almighty, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Before I go on, to show you, how he speaketh, I must make bold upon your patience, to tell you of some duties, necessary duties, to be performed by us towards him, as Lord. God is the Lord, we are his servants. The duties we ow • him in this respect are three: to obey him, to serve him, to profit him.

The first duty required of us, is obedience unto God his word, laws and commandments. This duty whosoever performeth, shall easily perform the second duty, to wit, faithful service, with all care and diligence to do whatsoever work it pleaseth God to employ him in: and shall not leave undone the third duty, but shall do good, and be profitable unto the Lord.

All these duties were well discharged by our first parent Adam. As long as he was invested with his robe of innocence, he was perfectly obedient, a faithful servant, and profitable to his Lord.

Now if it will be doubted here how a man should be profitable to God, thus I answer: That God's riches do consist in his glory, and therefore if his glory be increased and enlarged, his advantage is procured. The parable of the talents, Mat. 25.14. confirmeth this point. The parable is there plainly delivered unto you. The meaning of it is; that God giveth us his graces to this end, that we should use and increase them for his advantage. Yea God there compareth himself to a covetous usurer, • o greedy of gain, as that he reapeth, where he sowed not, and gathereth where he scattered not. By all means he laboreth to gain glory to himself.

Eliphaz in the 22. chapt. of Job verse. 2, 3. seemeth in word to thwart, and cross this doctrine. For saith he, may a man be profitable unto God? Is it anything to the Almighty, that thou are righteous? Or is it profitable to him, that thou makest thy ways upright? I answer, that God indeed is not so tied to man, but that he can set forth his glory, without him, or his righteousness; yea he can glorify himself in the unrighteousness, and destruction of man: yet I say, that to stir up man to holiness, it pleaseth God in mercy to count only that glory gained, which is gained by the obedience of his servants. And therefore I say again, that Adam in the state of his innocence was perfectly obedient, a faithful servant, and profitable to his Lord.

But alas, man once beautified with innocence, with holiness, and with the grace of God, is now spoiled of his robes; the Queen once clothed with a vesture of needle work wrought about with divers colors, is now str • pt of her jewels: and the soul of man once full of grace, is now robbed of her ornaments, & rich attire. My meaning is, that man once able to present himself spotl • sse, and without blame before the lamb, is now fallen from that grace.

The Preacher, Eccl. 7.20. doth assure us that there is no man just in the earth, that doth good and sinneth not. So much doth Solomon's question import, Prov. 20.9. Who can say I have purged my heart? I am clean from my sin? O, saith Eliphaz unto Job cap. 15.14. What is man that he should be clean? and he that is borne of a woman that he should be just? Behold, (saith he) God hath found no steadfastness in his Saints, yea the heavens are not clean in his sight; how much more is man unsteadfast, how much more abominable, and filthy, drinking iniquity like water? When the Lord looked down from heaven, to see whether there were any child of man, that would understand, and seek God, Ps. 14.2. could he find any one framed according to the rule of that perfection, which he requireth? He could not. This he found, that all were gone out of the way, that all were corrupt, that there was none that did good, no not one.

So sinful is man in his whole race: sinful in his conception; sinful in his birth; in every deed, word, and thought, wholly sinful. The actions of his hands, the words of his lips, the motions of his heart, when they seem to be most pure and sanctified, yet then are they as unclean things, and filthy •• uts, Isaiah 64.6. So that that which is spoken of cursed Cain, Gen. 4.14. may in some sense be applied to man in general; that for his sin he is cast forth from the presence of God, and is now become a fugitive, and a vagabond upon the earth.

I will not prosecute this point of man's nakedness any farther. By this which hath been spoken it appeareth plainly, how unfit man is, to fulfill those good duties required of him by his Lord God. For his first duty, instead of obedience he continually breaketh the commandments of his God, in thought, word, and deed. For his second duty, instead of waiting upon God to do him service, he serveth Satan, sin, and his own corrupt desires. For his third duty, instead of bringing any advantage of glory unto God, he dishonoreth him by all means, leading his life as if there were no God.

You have seen now the miserable and wretched estate of man, by nature the vassal, and slave of sin: with whom it fareth, as it did with Pharaohs servants when they had sinned against their Lord, Gen. 40. You know the story, how Pharaohs chief Butler was restored to his former dignity, when as the Baker was hanged.

These two servants of Pharaoh, may resemble two sorts of men exiled from paradise, and from the presence of God, because of their sin, to live upon the face of the earth, as it were in a dungeon full of misery; namely the reprobate, and the elect. For the reprobate; as they live, so they die in this dungeon, and do die eternally; but the elect, they are pardoned, and restored to their former dignity, and enabled by Christ their redeemer, and reconciler to God, to perform their duties to their Lord, their duties of obedience, of faithful service, and of profitableness; to obey the commandments of God, to perform whatsoever service is enjoined them, and to procure advantage of glory to their Lord.

Beloved, I doubt not, but that all we, who are now religiously assembled in this place, are the elect of God, chosen by him in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blame before him in love: yet I fear me, should we enter into our own hearts, and examine our selves, how we have walked in dutifulness towards him; our best course will be to run unto him with a Peccanimus in our mouths. Lord we have sinned against heaven and before thee, and are not worthy to be called thy servants.

By the first branch of our duty we are required to be obedient servants, but we have been hard offace, and stiff hearted, a rebellious of-spring like unto our fathers. By the second branch of our duty we are required to be faithful servants; but we have made a covenant with uncleanness, and iniquity, to serve them. By the third branch of our duty we are required to be profitable servants; but when we should have put our Lord's money to the exchangers for his greater vantage, we have hid it in the earth. Lord enter not into account with us, we cannot answer thee one of a thousand.

Now (dearly beloved) suffer a word of exhortation, let the remembrance of your holy duties by you to be performed to the Lord your God, be like the composition of the perfume that is made by the art of the Apothecary, sweet as honey in your mouths, and as music at a banket of wine. Be it unto you as bracelets upon your hands, as chains about your necks, as frontlets upon your faces, as earings in your ears, as beautiful crowns upon your heads; let it be written in your hearts as with a pen of iron, or point of a Diamond, never to be razed out.

Shall I deliver this your duty unto you in blessed Paul's words? In blessed Paul's words this is your duty, to walk worthy of the Lord, Coloss. 1.10. To walk worthy your vocation, Ephes. 4.1. To walk as children of the light, Ephes. 5.8. To walk in newness of life, Rom. 6.4. To walk in love, Ephes. 5.2. To have your conversation as it becometh the Gospel of Christ, Phil. 1.27. To behave yourselves honestly towards them that are without, 1 Thess. 4.12. To walk honestly as in the day, Rom. 13.13. If you take thought for your flesh to fulfill the lusts of it; if your eyes are blind • with love of pleasures; if you have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, you are out of the way, and do much fail in the performance of your holy duty.

And to keep you the better in the right way, let me plainly tell you out of 1 Cor. 6.9. and Ephes. 5.5. That neither Idolaters, nor the covetous, nor extortioners, nor thieves, nor adulterers, nor fornicators, nor buggerers, nor wantons, nor drunkards, nor railers, shall have any inheritance in the kingdom of God. Have not some of us been such? yet to such there is ministered a word of comfort, 1 Cor. 6.11. First is our accusation, Such were some of you: then followeth our comfort, but ye are washed, but ye are sa • ctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of God.

Is this true beloved? Are we washed, and sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of God? why then; resolve we to follow S. Paul's advice, Phil. 4.8. Whatsoever things are true, and honest, and just, and pure, and do pertain to love, and are of good report: if there be any virtue, or praise, resolve we to think on these things: think we on these things to do them, and we shall well perform our holy duties to our Lord. Thus far of my first note touching the speaker, who speaketh. Now followeth my other note; How he speaketh?

He shall roar, and utter his voice] The metaphor of roaring with reference unto God, is frequent and much used in holy Scripture. You find it as here, so Ierem. 25.30. joined with the voice of the Lord: The Lord shall roar from above, and thrust out his voice from his holy habitation. And so again, Joel. 3.16. where you have the very words of my text: The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem. You shall find it without any mention of the Lord's voice, Hos. 11.10. The Lord shall roar like a Lion: when he shall roar, then the children of the West shall fear. You shall find it with application, Amos 3.8. The Lyon hath roared; who will not be afraid? The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophecy?

S. Jerome acknowledgeth this metaphor to be very fit out of Amos his mouth, for as much as it is fit for every man to use in his speech such examples and similitudes, as are most familiar to him in his own art, daily course, and trade of life. Its fit for a sea faring man, to compare his heaviness to a tempest, his loss to a shipwreck, his enemies to contrary winds: fit for • soldier, to tell of his sword, his buckler, his coat of male, his launce, his helmet, his musket, his wounds, his victory: fit for a husbandman, to be talking of his oxen, his kine, his sheep, his grounds. Not unfitly then doth Amos our Prophet, sometimes a shepherd, one that kept his sheep in the waste wilderness of Tekoa, where many a time he had heard the Lions roar, compare the terrible and dreadful voice of the living God, to the roaring of Lions.

The Lord shall roar] By this hyperbolical form of speech the holy Spirit convinceth us of stupidity, and dullness, as unable to entertain any admonition from God, except he speak unto us after an extraordinary manner. For this reason, even for our dullness sake▪ is God herein my text compared to a Lion.

He shall roar] The meaning of this phrase is opened by the next words; He shall utter his voice. It will be no lost labor to consider how God an incorporeal, and spiritual essence, deuoid of such parts of nature, by which we are enabled to speak, may himself be said to speak; and utter a voice. That he spake it is well known to them, to whom the Scriptures are not unknown. He spake with Adam, Eve, and the serpent: with Noah, with Abraham 8. times, with Isaac, with Jacob, with Moses, and the Prophets; with Christ, and the Apostles. But how he spake, that is disputed of by the ancient and learned Fathers.

S. Basil is of opinion that the Prophets did not at all with their outward ears hear God speaking to them; but that the word of the Lord is said to have come unto them, because their minds were illuminated, and their vnderst • nding enlightened by the shining of the true light in great measure, readily to conceive what God would have revealed, and faithfully to publish it according to the will of God.

S. Agustine enquiring how God spake with Adam and Eve, writeth to this purpose. It may be, God talked with them as he talketh with his Angels, by some internal and secret means, as by giving light to their minds and understandings: or it may be, he talked with them by his creature; which God useth to do, two manner of ways: either by some vision to men in a trance: so he talked with Peter, Act. 10. or else by presenting some shape, and semblance to bodily senses. So God by his Angels talked with Abraham, Gen. 18. and with Lot, Gen. 19.

S. Gregory most accurately handleth this question to this sense: God speaketh two manner of ways.

1. By himself, as when he speaketh to the heart by the inward inspiration of the holy Spirit. After which sense we must understand that which we read, Act. 8.29. The spirit said unto Philip; go near and join thyself to yonder chariot: that is, Philip was inwardly moved, to draw near and join himself to the chariot wherein the Ethiopian Eunuch sat, and read the Prophecy of Isaiah. The like words we find, Act. 10.19. The spirit said unto Peter, Behold three men seek thee: the meaning is the same: Peter was inwardly moved by the holy Spirit to depart from Joppa, and to go to Cesarea, to preach unto the Gentiles to Cornelius and his company. Where we may note thus much for our comforts, that whensoever we are inwardly moved, and do feel our hearts touched with an earnest desire, either to make our private requests unto God, or to come to the place of public prayer, or to hear a sermon, we may be assured that the Holy Spirit, God by himself speaks unto us.

2 God speaketh to us by his creatures Angelical, and other, and that in diverse manners.

1 In word only, as when no form is seen, but a voice only is heard: as John 12.28. when Christ prayed, Father, glorify thy name; immediately there came a voice from heaven; I both have glorified it, and will glorify it again.

1 In deed only: as when no voice is heard, but some semblance only is objected to the senses. S. Gregory for illustration of this second way of God's speaking by his creatures, bringeth for example the vision of Ezekiel 1.4. He saw a whirlwind come out of the North, with a great cloud, and fire wrapped about it, and in the midst of the fire the likeness of Amber. All this he saw; but you hear no mention of any voice. Here was res sine verbo; a deed, but no voice.

3 Both in word and deed; as when there is both a voice heard, and also some semblance objected to the senses: as happened unto Adam presently after his fall: He heard the voice of the Lord walking in the Garden, Gen. 3.8.

4 By shapes presented to the inward eyes of our hearts. So Jacob in his dream saw a ladder reach from earth to heaven, Gen. 28.12. So Peter in a trance saw a vessel descend from heaven, Act. 10.11. So Paul in a vision saw a man of Macedonia standing by him, Act. 16.9.

6 By shapes presented to our bodily eyes. So Abraham saw the three men that stood by him in the plain of Mamre, Gen. 18.2. And Lot saw the two Angels that came to Sodom, Gen. 19.1.

6 By Celestial substances. So at Christ's baptism a voice was heard out of a cloud, as also at his transfiguration upon the mount, This is my beloved son, &c. By Celestial substances I do here understand not only the Heavens with the works therein, but also fire, the highest of the elements, and the Air next unto it, togeher with the winds and Clouds.

7. By Terrestriall substances. So God to reprove the dullness of Balaam, enabled Balaam's own Ass to speak, Num. 22.28.

8 Both by Celestial and Terrestriall substances, as when God appeared unto Moses in a flame of fire, out of the midst of a bush, Exod. 3.2.

You see now how God of old at sundry times, and in diverse manners did speak to man: either by himself, or by his creatures: and by his creatures many ways: sometimes in word, sometimes in deed, sometimes in both word and deed; sometimes in sleepings, sometimes in watchings; sometimes by Celestial substances, sometime by Terrestriall, sometimes by both, Celestial and Terrestriall.

To make some use of this doctrine; let us consider, whether God doth not now speak unto us, as of old he did to our forefathers. We shall find that now also he speaketh unto us by himself, whensoever by the inspiration of his holy Spirit he moveth our hearts to religious and pure thoughts; and also by his creatures: sometime by fire, when he consumeth our dwelling houses: sometime by thunder, when he throweth down our strong holds: sometime by heat, sometime by drouth, sometime by noisome worms, Locusts, and Caterpillars, when he takes from us the staff of bread; sometime by plagues, when in a few months he taketh from us many thousands of our brethren; and sometime by enemies, when he impouerisheth us by war.

All these, and whatsoever other like these, are God's voices, and do call us to tepentance. But as when there came a voice from heaven to Christ, John. 12.28. the people that stood by and heard, would not be persuaded that it was God's voice; some of them saying that it thundered, others that an Angel spake: so we, howsoever God lays his hand upon us, by fire, by thunder, by famine, by pestilence, by war, or otherwise, we will not be persuaded that God speaks unto us; we will rather attribute these things to nature, to the heavens, to stars and planets, to the malice of enemies, to chance, and the like.

As perverse as we are, there is a voice of God, which we cannot but acknowledge to be his, and at this time to be directed unto us. Mention of it is made, Heb. 1.2. In these last days God hath spoken to us by his son. The Gospel of Christ is the voice of God. It is the voice of God, the rule of all instruction, the first stone to be laid in the whole building: that cloud by day, that pillar by night, whereby all our actions are to be guided. This Gospel of Christ, and voice of God, calls us now to obedience.

O the crookedness of our vile natures! Our stiff necks will not bend. God speaketh unto us by his Ministers, to walk in the old way, the good way; but we answer like them, Ier. 6.16. We will not walk therein. He speaketh to us by his watchmen, to take heed to the sound of the trumpet; but we answer like them, Ier. 6.17. We will not take heed.

Turn us good Lord unto thee, and we shall be turned. Good Lord open thou our ears, that if it be thy holy will, either to Roare unto us, or to speak with a milder voice: either to come against in judgment, or to visit us in mercy; we may readily hear thee, and yield obedience: and as obedient children receive the promise of eternal inheritance. So when the time of our separation shall be, that we must leave this world, a place of darkness, of trouble, of vexation, of anguish, thou, Lord wilt translate us to a better place, a place of light where darkness shall be no more; a place of rest, where trouble shall be no more; a place of delight, where vexation shall be no more; a place of endless and unspeakable joys, where anguish shall be no more. There this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and our mortality shall be swallowed up of life. Even so be it.

THE Fourth Lecture.

IN my last exercise I entreated of the Speaker. Now am I to entreat of the places from whence he speaketh; expressed in two names: Zion and Jerusalem.

The Lord shall roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, &c.

Zion] I read in holy Scripture of two Zion's. The one is Deut. 4.48. a hill of the Amorites, the same with Hermon. Moses there calleth it Zion, by the figure Syncope; the right name of it is Sirion; and so recorded, Deut. 3.9. The other Zion, is the Zion in my Text; mount Zion in Judah, upon the • op whereof was another mountain, Moria, upon which stood the Temple of the Lord. Before it was called the Tower or Fort of Zion. It was a fortress, a bulwark, a strong hold, and place of defense for the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land against their enemies. Against these Jebusites King David came with a warlike power, speedily surprised their fort, built round about it; dwelt in it; and called it his own City, as appeareth, 2 Sam. 5.9.

This is the city of David, so much mentioned in the sacred books of Samuel, the Kings, and Chronicles. To this his own City mount Zion, David accompanied with the Elders, and Captains of Israel, brought the Ark of the Lord with shouting, with cornets, with trumpets, with cymbals, with viols, with harps; as is plain by the story, 1 Chron. cap. 15. and 16. Now began the holy exercises of religion duly to be observed in this city of David: mount Zion was now the place of the Name of the Lord of boasts.

Hitherto belongeth that same excellent description, and commendation of mount Zion, Psal. 48.1, 2, 3. Mount Zion lying northward from Jerusalem, is fair in situation. It is the city of the great King; the city of God; God's holy mountain; the joy of the whole earth. In the palaces thereof God is well known for a sure refuge. In this city of David, the holy mount Zion, the Lord of hosts, whom the Heavens, and the Heaven of Heavens are not able to contain, is said to dwell, Psal. 9.11. not that he is tied to any place; but because there were the most manifest, and often testimonies of his residence; Thus is Zion taken literally.

It is also taken spiritually, by a Synecdoche, for the Church, Spouse, and Kingdom of Christ, as Psal. 2.6. where God is said to have anointed his King over Zion, the hill of his holiness. Zion there is not to be understood the terrestrial Zion by Jerusalem, but another Zion; elect, and spiritual; not of this world; holy Zion; so called for the grace of sanctification poured out upon it, even the holy Church of Christ: whereto do appertain the holy Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the universal multitude of believers throughout, not only Israel, but the whole world. Zion in this signification is obvious in holy Scripture. To which sense by the daughters of Zion, in the Psalms of David, in Solomon's song, in the prophecies of Isaiah, and Joel, you may understand the faithful members of the Church of Christ.

There is yet one other signification of Zion. Its put for Heaven, as learned Drusius in his notes upon my text observeth. The like observation is made by Theophylact, and Oecumenius commenting upon Heb. 12.22.

Now the Zion in my text, from whence the Lord is said to roar, to speak terribly, and dreadfully, is, either the Temple upon mount Zion by Jerusalem: or the Church of Christ, whereof Zion is a type; Zion the holy one of Israel, whose walls are salvation, and gates praise: or the Heaven of Heavens, the most proper place of God's residence.

Jerusalem.] Of old this city was called Salem, as Gen. 14.18. when Melchizedek, King thereof, brought forth bread and wine to refresh Abram, and his followers. Afterward it was possessed by the Jebusites, and named Iebus, Judge. 19.10. Peter Martyr in 2 Sam. 5.6. from both these names I • bus, and Salem, supposeth that by the change of a few letters, Jerusalem hath had her name; and not from the mountains called Solymi, as some do conjecture, but err: for that the mountains Solymi were in Pisidia, not in Judea. Many were the names of this city. Some of them Benedictus in his marginal note upon Joshua, chap. 10. nameth in a distich,

In this distich 9. names of this one city are couched together; Solyma, Ierosolyma, Jerusalem, Iebus, Salem, Bethel, Helia, Luza, the holy City. Drusius obseruat. sacr. lib. 14. cap. 21. noteth that Jerusalem did consist of two parts: the one was called, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the lower city; the other, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the higher city. This higher city was Zion, or mount Zion, whereof you have already heard, and was diversely termed, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the city of David, the fort, the fort of Zion, the tower of Zion.

But I come not to preach names unto you. Will you hear of the honor of this city? they that were alive when Jerusalem flourished to have numbered her towers, to have considered her walls, to have marked her bulwarks, and to have told their posterity of it, might have made a report scarcely to have been believed. This we know by Ps. 48.4, 5. When the Kings of the earth were gathered together, and saw it; they marvelled, they were astonied, and suddenly driven back. Thus is Jerusalem taken literally.

It is also taken spiritually for the Church; either militant here on earth, or Triumphant in heaven. For the Church Militant, Psal. 128.5. Thou shalt see the wealth of Jerusalem all thy life long. And for the Church Triumphant, Gal. 4.26. Jerusalem, which is above, is free. The Catholic Church, Militant, and Triumphant, is called Jerusalem; because Jerusalem was a type thereof.

Jerusalem was a type of the Catholic Church in sundry respects.

1. God did choose Jerusalem, above all other places of the earth, to dwell in. So the Catholic Church, the company of the predestinate, God hath chosen, to be a peculiar people unto himself.

2. Jerusalem is a City, compact in it self, by reason of the bond of love, and order among the Citizens. So the faithful, the members of the Catholic Church, are linked together by the bond of one Spirit.

3 Jerusalem was the place of God's sanctuary, the place of his presence, and worship, where the promise of the seed of the woman was preserved till the coming of the Messias. Now the Catholic Church is in the room thereof. In the Catholic Church we must seek the presence of God, and the word of life.

4 In Jerusalem was the the throne of David. So in the Catholic Church is the throne, and scepter of Christ; figured by the Kingdom of David.

5 The commendation of Jerusalem was the subjection, and obedience of her citizens. The Catholic Church hath her citizens too, Eph. 2.19. and they do yield voluntary obedience and subjection to Christ their King.

6 In Jerusalem the names of the citizens were enrolled in a register. So the names of all the members of the Catholic Church are enrolled in the book of life, Revel. 20.15.

You see now what Jerusalem is literally, and what spiritually. Literally, it is that much honored City in Jude • , the City of God, even the sanctuary of the tabernacle of the most High. Spiritually it is the holy Church of Christ: either his Church Militant on earth, or his Church Triumphant in Heaven.

Now the Jerusalem in my text, from whence the Lord is said to utter his voice, is either Jerusalem in the literal, or Jerusalem in the spiritual understanding: it is either Jerusalem the mother City of Judea; or Jerusalem the Church of Christ, Militant upon earth; or Jerusalem above, the most proper place of God's residence. So that Jerusalem here is the same with Zion, an Exposition of Zion. The Lord shall roar from Zion, that is, in other words, The Lord shall utter his voice from Jerusalem.

Mark I beseech you, (beloved in the Lord, ) The Lord shall roar, not from Dan, and Bethel, where Jereboam's calves were worshipped; but from Zion the mountain of his holiness: and he shall utter his voice, not from Samaria, drunken with Idolatry: but from Jerusalem, the city of truth, wherein the purity of God's worship did gloriously shine. We may take from hence this lesson:

To speak more plainly. This is the lesson which I commend unto you:

That I may the more easily persuade you to come unto, and to frequent this place, this house of God, his holy Church, and Temple, I bring you a guide. This guide is a King, and leads you the way, the blessed King David. I beseech you mark his affection, Psal. 84.1. O Lord of hosts, how amiable are thy tabernacles? My soul longeth, yea and fainteth for thy courts. Mark his love, Psal. 26.8. O Lord I have loved the habitation of thine house, and the place where thine honor dwelleth. Mark the earnestness of his zeal, Psal. 42.1, 2. As the Hart brayeth for the rivers of water, so panteth my soul after thee O God. My soul thirsteth for God, even for the living God; when shall I come, and appear before the presence of God? Let this holy King, King David, be the pattern of your imitation.

Beloved, you must have an earnest love and desire to serve God in the assembly of his Saints: you must much esteem of the public exercise of religion. It is God's effectual instrument and mean to nourish, & beget you to the hope of a better life. In what case then are you, when you absent yourselves from this, and the like holy assemblies: when either you come hither carelessly, or else do gracelesly contemn this place. Here is Zion, here is Jerusalem; here God speaketh to you in the language of Canaan: and here may you speak to him again with your own mouths.

It is every man's duty, the duty of everyone that loves God, to come unto God's house, his house of prayer. In this respect thus saith the Lord, Isaiah 56.7. Mine house shall be called the house of prayer for all people. For all people: there is no difference between the Jew and the Grecian, between the bond and the free, between the male and the female; for our Lord, who is Lord over all, is rich unto all that call upon him; Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

To imprint this sentence in your hearts, it is repeated unto you, Mat. 23.13. Where Jesus Christ to the money-changers, and dove-sellers, whom he found in the Temple, useth this speech, It is written, mine house shall be called an house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves. Junius his note upon the place is good: Qui domo Dei non vtitur ad orationis domum, is eo deuonit, vt speluncam latronum efficiat eam: Whosoever useth not the house of God for a house of prayer, he cometh thither to make it a den of thieves. Let us take heed (beloeed in the Lord) whensoever we come unto the Church, the house of God, that we be not partakers of this sharp censure.

Ecclesiastes chap. 4.17. giveth a profitable caveat, Take heed to thy feet, when thou • nterest into the house of God: intima • ing thus much; that of duty we are to enter into the house of God. Though the Temple in Jerusalem and all the worship in ceremonies, that was annexed to it, are taken away; yet is Solomon's caveat good for us still, Take heed to thy feet when thou enterest into the house of God. For we also have God's house, where he is chiefly to be sought, and worshipped; even in every place appointed by public authority for public assemblies.

Wherefore, I pray you, hath God given his Church some Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, some Pastors, some Teachers? Is it not as we are taught, Ephes. 4.12. for the gathering together of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edifying of the Body of Christ? See you not here a forcible argument, and evident proof, for this your public meeting? There is, Matth. 18.20. a special promise of a blessing to light upon you, as oft as you shall come to this place; and thereof the author of all truth assureth you: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. O weigh, and consider this. If you love, and would have the society, fellowship, and company of your sweet Savior, Jesus Christ, you must frequent this place, hither must you come. Know this; you cannot be right worshippers of God in private, if you refuse, or neglect to frequent this public assembly, the Zion, the Jerusalem, from whence God is pleased to speak unto you.

Much then, very much to blame you, whosoever do for none, or for small occasions absent yourselves from this pl • ce, this house of God, at appointed times, where and when your public prayers should be as it were a public renouncing of all sects, and society with idolatry, and profaneness; an acknowledgement and confession of the true God, and a public sanctification of God's holy Name to the glory of God.

The time was, and I dare avouch it, Act. 21.5. when all the congregation of Tyre with their wives and children, bringing S. Paul out of the town to the sea shore, kneeled down with him and prayed. Shall we in these days find this zeal among Christians? I much doubt it; and am persuaded, men will be ashamed, in imitation of those Tyrians, to kneel down in an open place, to pray unto God publicly.

I will not rub this sore; I know somewhat, and you know more than I, how backward many of you have been, from doing God due service in this place. Shall I say, you have dishonored him, some by irreuerence, some by much absence, some by willful refusal to be made partakers of the blessed Communion of the body and blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? I think, should any one of you invite your neighbor to sup with you, but once, and he refuse it, you would take some displeasure at him: and shall God Almighty, the mighty creator of Heaven, of Earth, and of all you, that hear me this day, invite you many times to come, and sup at the table of his blessed Son, and you refuse it? Believe it? he cannot take it well.

It is no indifferent or arbitrary thing, to come, or not to come to the Lord's table. Come you must of duty; though of duty you are first to examine yourselves. Whosoever therefore willfully refuseth to come, he sinneth very grievously, as a learned Divine well noteth.

1 Because he contemneth not any human, but a divine edict, the express commandment of the Lord of life: Do this in remembrance of me.

2 Because he little esteemeth the remembrance of Christ his death, by which we are redeemed.

3 Because he neglecteth the communion of the body, and blood of Christ.

4 Because he showeth himself to be none of the number of Christ's disciples.

I beseech you (dearly beloved) lay up these things in your hearts; let this day be the beginning of your reformation; resolve from henceforth to perform your due obedience to God in this place; to pour forth your prayers before him, to hear his holy word, and to frequent the Lord's table; where by faith in his death and passion, you may receive many a gracious blessing: forgiveness of your sins, your reconciliation with God, the death of iniquity in you, and the assured pledge of eternal life.

I have now by occasion of Zion and Jerusalem, the place, from whence God will speak unto you, exhorted everyone of you in particular to come to the Church. I pray you note this to be but a part of your duty. It is not enough for you to come yourselves to the Church; you must solicit and exhort others to come likewise. Fathers must bring their children, Masters must bring their Servants. For old and young should come.

My warrant for what I say, I take out of Joel 2.15, 16. Call a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, gather the elders, assemble the children, and those that suck the breasts. Mark I beseech you. Children, and such as suck the breasts must be assembled. You must have the spirit of resolution, to say with Joshua, chap. 24.15. I, and my house will serve the Lord.

Your duty is yet further extended beyond your children, and servants; to your neighbors, and also strangers, if they come in your way. This we may learn out of the prophecies of Isaiah, Micah, and Zacharias. First, Isaiah 2.3. The faithful shall say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Again, Micah. 4.2. You shall find the very same exhortation made by the faithful, and in the same words: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of th • L • rd, to the house of the God of Jacob, &c. The Prophet Zacha • y, chap. 8.21. for sum, and substance speaketh the same thing: They that dwell in one town, shall go unto another, saying, up, let us go, and pray before the Lord, and seek th • Lord of hosts, I will go also.

Thus far of the place from whence the Lord speaketh, expressed by two names, Zion and Jerusalem.

THE Fifth Lecture.

OF the speaker, and place from whence he speaketh, I have heretofore spoken. Now proceed we to the sequels of the speech, which shall for this time be the ground of my discourse.

The dwelling places of the shepherds shall perish.] So do the words sound for their substance. Yet after the letter in the original, and Hebrew copy, we are to read otherwise: the fruitful or pleasant places of the shepherds have mourned. Let us briefly take a view of the words, as they lie in order.

The dwelling places.] So is the Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 englished not unfitly. For though properly it signifieth fruitful and pleasant fields, and pastures; yet because shepherds did use in the wilderness, near unto such fields and pastures to erect themselves little cottages and cabins, that they might be at hand to defend their harmless sheep, from savage and ravenous beasts, it may here well be englished, the dwelling places.

The dwelling places of the shepherds.] In my first lecture upon this prophecy, I told you there were two sorts of shepherds. In the first rank, I placed sheepmasters; in the second, their servants. Among the first sort of shepherds was Mesa King of Moab: who 2 King. 3.4. is called a shepherd, and there registered to have rendered to the King of Israel an hundred thousand lambes, and an hundred thousand rams, with the wool. The other sort of shepherds, is of such, as are hired to keep sheep; to see to their seeding & safety. Such we properly call shepherds, and such are the shepherds in my text. It followeth.

Have mourned] The text is so; the meaning is; shall mourn. This enallage or change of the time, of the time past for the time to come, hath its reason from a truth contained in a saying of the Schoolmen, Apud Deum non est tempus: God is beyond times limits. He was when time was not; and shall be when time shall be no more. Its common with the Prophets to speak of a future thing, as of a thing past, or present. A learned ^a Grammarian doth well express the reason; quia Prophetia ipsorum tam certa est ac si spectatores rerum futurarum in praesenti omnia fieri cernere • t. The prophesies in the old time, which came not by the will of man, were of as great certainty as if the Prophets had been present spectators of the things to come.

The sweet • inger of Israel, to show God's promise made for the encouragement of the man, that loveth to live a godly life, saith Psal. 1.3. He hath been like a tree planted by the rivers of waters. He hath been, that is the text; the sense is, he shall be like such a tree. Jacob in the 48. of Gen. ver. 22. thus blesseth Joseph: I have given thee one portion above thy brethren. I have given thee, that is the text; the sense is, I do, or will give thee. In Hosea 10.5. we read thus, The people of the Calf of Bethaven have mourned over it. The text is, have mourned; the sense is, shall mourn. So here my text is, The dwelling places of the shepherds have mourned: the sense is, they shall mourn.

Shall mourn] Mourne? How can dwelling places mourn? Even as the earth can mourn. The lamentations & mournings of the earth are eternized with holy Prophets pens. With Isaiah’s pen, chap. 24.4. For the sins of the people the land lamenteth and fade • h away: and again, chap. 33.9. For the sins of the people the earth mourneth and fainteth. With Jeremiah's pen, fi • st, chap. 4.28. For the sins of Judah the earth shall mourn; again, chap. 12.4. For the wick • dnesse of the inhabitants shall the land mourn; a third time, chap. 23.10. because of oaths the land mourneth. W th Ioels pen, chap. 1.10. for si • ne the land mourneth. With Hosea's pen, chap. 4 3. because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in Israel, eu • ry one breaking out by swe • ring, by lying, by killing, by steal • ng, by whoring blood touching blood, therefore shall the land mourn.

Lamentation, and mourning, proper p • ssions of the reasonable creature, are by a translation ascribed to the Earth; to note either that she is ill favored, and out of fashion for lack of dressing; or that men for her desolation do lament, and mourn, as D • usius lib. 1. quaest. Hebr. qu. 27. observeth out of S. Augustine. Suitable to the mournings of the Earth, is the mourning in my text: the dwelling places of the shepherds shall mourn ] It is a translation from living things to things without life; from shepherds to their dwelling houses: The dwelling places of the shepherds shall mourn, that is, the shepherds themselves shall mourn, when they shall behold the spoil, overthrow, and desolation of their dwelling houses. Our English reading then for the sense is good, The dwelling places of the shepherds shall perish.

You see now the desolation of the dwelling places of the shepherds. Will you have the reason of it? Look back then to the but-now cited places of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, for the reason, why the earth is said to mourn. The reason is the same for the earths mourning, and the mourning of the shepherds dwelling houses: even sin and iniquity. Whence you may learn this lesson:

This point I might at large demonstrate & make plain unto you, by the ruins of time: by the ruins of the old world of Sod • me, Gomorrah, and their sisters; of Babel; of the first, and second Temples; of the Eastern Churches; of the Abbeys, and Monasteries of this land. But for this present I will content myself only to deliver unto you, and that briefly, a few brief notes for your further instruction, and meditation.

Is it true? Are si • ne and iniquity means to lay waste, & make desolate all manner of buildings? Why then (beloved) you must acknowledge and confess, that the crying sins of your forefathers have been the cause why God's own house, and Chapel among you, is become waste, and desolate. This meditation concerneth some of you specially: you among whom God sometimes had his Zion, and Jerusalem, his house of prayer, and sacred Chapel. O it is a fearful judgment of God upon you, that he hath removed his kingdom, and your candlestick from among you. But you will lay this blame upon your forefathers. I cannot excuse them. Yet must I tell you, that except ye amend your lives, a worse thing may befall you.

And you (beloved) who have your dwelling near unto this House of God, the place of assembly for his Saints, will you match your neighbors in sin, and iniquity; and not fear their punishments? When first I beheld, and considered the condition of this House, wherein we are now assembled, it seemed to me that desolation had begun to set her foot here. What else could yourselves think of, or hope for, as oft as you beheld her decayed estate?

Such Churches as this, if any be so bad as this, within this Realm, may give some occasion to that same scandalous assertion, of one of our English fugitiues beyond the seas: that the Churches in Turkey are m • re sumptuous and stately, then ours in England. Of ours he saith, that they are turpes, sordidae, immundae; foul, unclean, & sluttish. To persuade you to repair her decayed places, I would it were within the compass of my Rhetoric. Yet let me propound one question unto you, Hag. 1.4. Is it time for yourselves to dwell in your sciled houses, and this house to lie waste? Consider your own ways in your own hearts, and give your answer unto God.

A second note for your further instruction, and meditation followeth. Is it true? Are sin and iniquity means to lay waste & make desolate all manner of buildings? How then is it, that our dwelling houses do yet stand, and flourish? Our sins, and iniquities, are exceeding impudent, and saucy; they are ascended into the presence of God, and do stand like Satan among his children before his face. Yet for all this impudency, and sauciness of our sins and iniquities, God is pleased to suffer our dwelling houses to be in safety. The consideration of this point may stir us up to a grateful agnition, and acknowledgment of God's singular bounty, and longanimitie. It is out of the bounty of the Lord that the earth, since the time it first was cursed for the fall of man, doth to this day yield f • uit in abundance for the use of man. That our possessions, habitations, dwelling houses, and Churches are not laid waste, and made desolate, it is to be ascribed to God's long sufferance, and long animitie. Of which I shall (God willing) anon speak more fully, when I shall have considered the words of the second sequel, or consequent of God's speech, which are: The top of Carmel shall wither.

The top of Carmel] There were two hills of this name, as S ^t Jerome teacheth; both in Judea; the one in the southern climate of that country where on Nabal the husband of Abigail did dwell, 1 Sam. 25.2. the other near unto Ptolemais, towards the sea coast, upon which Elias prayed for rain, 1 Kings 8.42. S ^t Jerome seemeth to doubt; which of these two Carmels our prophet here intendeth. But Ribera resolveth for that Carmel, which was near unto Ptolemais, because it did appertain to the lot of the ten tribes, against whom Amos in this book prophecieth.

This Carmel was a hill of much fatness, and fertility: whereupon it may, as proverbially, be taken for any such place. S ^t Jerome writing upon Isaiah. 16. saith, it is the Scriptures idiom, and proper form of speech evermore to compare the rich hill Carmel, to fertility, and abundance. One of the Hebrew Doctors saith, that Carmel is a general name for all fruitful arable fields, and vineyards. A great Hebrician saith, that because the hill, Carmel, had by it a valley of exceeding feracitie and fruitfulness, therefore Carmel is appellatiuely taken for any place set with corn, trees, or vines; and specially withstanding corn, with new & fat wheat while it is in ear: though another Hebrician of like note, affirmeth that because Carmel collectiuely signifieth standing corn, or new wheat yet in the ear, therefore a certain region in the province of Canaan of extraordinary fertility (as also a hill, & city there) was called after this name Carmel. Whatsoever Carmel be in this place, whether a proper name, or an appellatiue, out of doubt it betokeneth a place of much fruitfulness. Following the stream of expositors, I am of opinion, that Carmel in my text, is that same fruitful mountain of Judea by Ptolemais.

The top of Carmel] A place fit by reason of the woods there to lurk, and lie hid in; as is plain by Amos, 9.3. Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search, and take them out thence.

The top of Carmel] In the Hebrew it is the head of Carmel. The head, or top of Carmel, is the Scripture phrase, to express whatsoever is best in Carmel. By the like phrase we say Caput vnguenti, the head or the top of the ointment, to signify the best of the ointment.

The top of Carmel] Pagnine thus translateth it, vertex loci fertilis: the top of the fruitful place. And Junius thus: prostantissimum aruorum: the best of the fields. Both Pagnine, and Junius, do take Carmel here for an appellatiue, and not for a propper name.

The top of Carmel shall wither] shall wax dry, or be dried up. That is, where most fruitful fields, and pastures are, there shall be a defect, and want of necessaries for man's life.

Thus have you the exposition of this last clause. Now be patient, I pray you, while from hence I commend one lesson unto you. It is this:

I speak it more plainly.

For proof of this point, you will be pleased to hear the evidence of the holy Spirit, given in the word of life, Deut. 28.20. Thus saith the Lord: because of the wickedness of thy works, whereby thou hast forsaken me, the Lord shall smite thee with blasting, and with mildew: the Heaven which is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee, shall be iron: instead of rain, the Lord shall give thee dust and ashes, even from heaven shall it come down upon thee until thou be destroyed.

In the 2 chapter of Hosea, and the 5 verse, because Israel had plaid the harlot, and done shamefully, departing from the Lord, thus saith the Lord: I will take away from Israel my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, & will recover my wool, & my flax, which I lent her, to cover her shame. Mark I beseech you, the manner of the Lord's speech, my corn, my wine, my wool, my flax; they are none of ours, they are all the Lord's. The Lord hath lent them us to serve our turns, and necessit • es: if we abuse them to idolatry, or profanes, he will take them from us, & recover them again unto himself.

In the 4. Chapter of Hosea, and the 3. verse, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land; but every on breaketh out by swearing, by lying, by killing, by stealing, by whoring, and blood toucheth blood, thus saith the Lord: the land shall mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall be cut off, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and also the fishes of the sea shall be taken away. If so, what good then comes to you from Carmel, from your best & most fruitful grounds?

In the 8. chapter of Hosea, and the 7. verse, because Israel transgressing the covenant of the Lord, and trespassing against his law, had sown the wind, thus saith the Lord: they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; the bud shall bring forth no meal; if so be it bring forth, the strangers shall devour it. If so, what profit then can we, matching Israel in their most grievous transgressions, & trespasses, expect from Carmel, our most fruitful, and pleasant fields?

The wisest King that ever sacred writ made mention of, hath this saying, Prov. 13.25. The belly of the wicked shall want. True great Solomon. The belly of the wicked man shall be empty. His Carmel, the very best of his possessions, shall yield him little profit.

To make an end of this discourse, I would I could write it in your harts, what the sweetest singer, Psa. 107.34. delivereth unto you, touching this point: it is worthy your best remembrance: A fruitful land God turneth into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. This one place (had I troubled you with no more) would have been a pregnant, and sufficient proof of my propounded doctrine. What fruit can you look for out of barrenness? And by this one place you see, that God turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, for the w • ckednesse of them that dwell therein. You must then acknowledge the lesson commended unto you to be good, and true; namely, that for the sins of a people, God will make their Carmel to wither; that for the sins of a people, God will make best grounds to yield them little, or no profit.

Now let us see, what use we may make of this doctrine for our further instructions.

A first use, is to admonish such as do dwell in delectable, pleasant, well watered, and fruitful places, that they boast not overmuch of their fertile, and sweet possessions: since there is no land so d • lectable to the eye, or fruitful to the purse, but it may be turned into a wilderness. If for our sins God shall come against us in the fierceness of his wrath; we shall be as Sodom, and like unto Gomorrah: our land shall burn with brimstone, and salt; it shall not be sown, nor shall bring forth; neither shall any grass grow therein. O Lord, deal not with us after our sins, neither reward us according to our iniquities.

A second use, is to warn rich men, the richer sort among you, that weighing rightly the power of Almighty God, by which he maketh the top of Carmel to wither, & turneth your fruitful fields into barrenness; you will beware of insolency, and contain yourselves in modesty, and submission. Know this; there is no man hath a foot of ground, or never so small a possession to dwell in, but he hath it at God's hand; and upon this condition; that he keep his statutes, and commandments. Which if you disobey, contemn, and cast behind you, assure yourselves, your riches are none of yours, you are not the right owners of them but mere usurpers. The Lord of hosts will send an host of enemies against you.

Art thou rich in money? thou art in danger of thieves art thou plentiful in h • ush • ld stuff? thou are in danger of fire: hast thou much gold? the rust doth venom it, and thee: is thine apparel gorgeous? the moth will eat it: hast thou store of cattle? rottenness may cōsum them: is thy maintenance by husbandry? blastings and mildewes will hinder thee, the palmer worm, will eat thy fruits, that which the palmer worm shall leave, the grash • pper shall eat; that which the grasshopper shall leave, the canker worm shall eat; and that which the canker worm shall leave, the caterpiller shall eat. So many, and many more enemies can the Lord of hosts send to fight against you; if you hate to be reformed, and cast his commandments behind you.

A third and the last use of my propounded doctrine, is, to stir up myself, and all you that hear me this day, gratefully, and thankfully to recount the mercifulness, patience, and long sufferance of our God. Our sins have deserved it at his hands, that he should make the top of our Carmel to wither; that he should make our best grounds to yield us little or no profit; that he should smite us with blasting, and mildew; that he should make the Heaven over our head, brass; and the Earth under us, iron: that instead of rain, he should give us aust and ashes; that he should take from us, his corn, his wine, his wool, his flax, and whatsoever good thing else, he hath lent us for our use. All this, and much more have our sins deserved: and yet God withholdeth from us his revenging hand. O the depth of the riches of the mercifulness, patience, and long sufferance of our God.

Yet stay ye so • n • s of Belial, and imps of Hell; ye wicked ones, who serve under Satan's Banner. God's mercifulness, patience, and long sufferance, is to you very small advantage. S. Basil treating upon the words of the covetous rich man, Luk. 12.18. those words: I will pull down my barns, and build greater, tells you that God his goodness, extended to you in your fields, or elsewhere, bringeth upon you in the end the greater punishment.

True great Basil. God his justice goeth on 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , slowly, and in order. Long before thy time was this lesson learned in Natures school. Valerius Maximus who lived under Tiberius Caesar, recounting some of the sacrileges of Dionysius, clearly carried with frompes, and mockeries, saith, Lento gradu ad vindictam sui diuina procedit ira: the wrath of God proceedeth to the execution of vengeance, with a remiss & slow pace; but evermore, as he well addeth, tarditatem supplicij grauitate compensat: it recompenseth the slackness of punishment, with the heaviness thereof.

I will not weary your religious ears with profane, though fit sentences for this argument, out of Horace, Tibullus, Lucan, & Plutarch; nor with those well known prouerbs, Dij lenti, sed certi vindices, Dij lane os pedes habent: Tacito pede, and Cunctabundus naturâ Deus. From Natures school I recall myself to the God of Nature; who though in his word of eternal truth he proclaimeth himself 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a God slow to anger, and is for such acknowledged by the never failing testifications, and reports of divinely inspired Prophets and Apostles: is notwithstanding in the same word noted to recompense the iniquity of the Fathers into the bosom of their children after them.

It must stand ever good: Quo tardius, eo grauius, that the longer God is before he punisheth, he punisheth so much the more grievously. Though for a time he be pleased to hold his tongue, and to walk as with woollen feet; yet at length shall we, or our posterity, find by woeful experience, that he hath a rod of iron ro rule us, yea, and to break us in pieces, like potters vessels.

Wherefore (dearly beloved in the Lord) while God is pleased, to withhold from us his own hand of Justice, & to stretch over us his other of Mercy, to the blessing of us in our fields in our cattle, in our store, let us not be wedded to the hardness of our own hearts; let us not dwell in our old sins, nor heap new upon them, lest so we treasure up unto our selves wrath against the day of wrath.

Let us rather even now, while it is now, cast away all works of darkness, and put on the armor of light: let us take no further thought for our flesh to fulfill the lusts of it. Let us walk no more, as formerly we have done, in gluttony, in drunkenness, in chambering, in wantonness, in strife, in envying, in deceit, in falsehood, in vanity; but let us walk honestly as in the day; and put we on the Lord Jesus. Whatsoever things are true, & honest, and just, and pure, and do pertain to love, and are of good report; if there be any virtue, or praise, think we on these things. Think we on these things to do them, and we shall not need to fear any de olation to our houses, or barrenness to our grounds; our dwelling houses shall not mourn, or perish; the top of our Carmel shall not wither; our fields shall bring forth increase unto us. For God, even our own God, shall give us his blessing God will bless us to pass the time of our pilgrimage here in peace, and plenty; and when the day of our separation shall be, that we must leave the earth, a vale of tears, and miseri • , he will translate us to Jerusalem above, the place of eternal 〈◊〉 , and felicity, where this corrup • ible shall put on incorruption and our mortality shall be swallowed up of life. So be it.

THE Sixth Lecture.

THough in this prophecy there be mention made of Judah, yet was Amos by the holy spirit deputed, and directed with his message peculiarly and properly to the ten revolted Tribes, the kingdom of Israel. The mention that is made of Judah, is made but incidently, and by the way. The scope of the prophecy is Israel, as I shown in my first Lecture.

If Israel be the scope of this prophecy, how cometh it to pass, that the Prophet bestoweth the residue of this chapter, and a part of the next, in making rehearsal of foreign nations, their transgressions, and punishments? Why doth he acquaint Israel with his burdensome prophecies against the Syrians, the Philistines, the Tyrians, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites? why doth he not rather discharge his function, and duty laid upon him? and check the Israelites, & terrify them, and reprove them for their evil deeds?

The reasons why Amos, sent of purpose with a message to the Israelites, doth first prophecy against the Syrians, & other foreign nations, are three.

1 That he might be the more patiently heard of his country-men the Israelites. The Israelites seeing their Prophet Amos so sharp against the Syrians, and other their enemies, could not, but with more quiet hear him, when he should prophesy against them also. Consolatio quaedam est, afflictio inimici: some comfort it is to a distressed natural man, to see his enemy in distress likewise.

2 That they might have no cause to wonder, if God should at any time come against them in vengeance, seeing that God would not spare the Syrians, and other their neighbor Countries, though they were destitute of the light of God's word, and ignorant of his will.

3 That they might the more fear at the words of this prophecy, when they should see the Syrians, and other nations, afflicted, and tormented accordingly.

Here might they thus have argued? Will not God spare our neighbors, the Syrians, & the rest? Then out of doubt he will not spare us. They silly people never knew the holy will of God, and yet shall they be so severely punished? How then shall we escape, who knowing God's holy will have contemned it?

From the reasons why Amos first prophecieth against foreign nations, & then against the Lord's people Israel, I come now to treat particularly of his prophecy against the Syrians, verse. 3, 4, 5.

Wherein I commend to your Christian considerations three parts.

• 1 A preface, proeme, or entrance, verse. 3. Thus saith the Lord.
• 2 A Prophecy, in the 3, 4, & 5. verses For three transgressions of Damascus and for four, &c.
• 3 A conclusion, in the end of the 5. verse, Saith the Lord.

The preface, and the conclusion do make for the authority of the prophecy, verse. 3. and 5.

In the prophesy these parts may be observed.

• 1 A general accusation of the Syrians, verse the 3. For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four.
• 2 A protestation of almighty God against them, I will not turn to it.
• 3 The great sin, by which they so offended God: their extreme cruelty, verse 3. They have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.
• 4 The punishments to be laid upon them for such cruelty.

These punishments are here set down generally, and specially.

• Generally verse. • he 4. I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
• Specially verse. the 5. I will break also the bars of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant of Bikeath-auen: & him that holdeth the sc • pter out of Beth-eden, and the people of Aram shall go into captivity unto Kir.

Thus saith the Lord] It is a very usual thing with the Prophets, so to begin their special Prophecies, to let the world understand, that they feign nothing out of their own brains, but that whatsoever they speak they have received it from the spirit of the Lord. Thus saith, not Amos, but in Amos the Lord. The Lord, the powerful Jehovah of whom you heard at large out of my third lecture upon this chapter.

Thus saith the Lord] the powerful Jehovah, who made the heavens and spread them out like a curtain, to clothe himself with light as with a garment; & can again clothe the heavens with darkness, and make a sack their covering: who made the sea, to lay the beams of his chamber therein, & placed the sands for bounds unto it, never to be passed over, howsoever the waves thereof shall rage, and roar; and can with a word smite the pride thereof: at his rebuke the floods shall be turned into a wilderness; the sea shall be dried up; the fish shall rot for want of water, and die for thirst: who mad the dry land, and so set it upon foundations, that it should never move; and can cover her again with the deep, as with a garment, and so rock her, that she shall reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man.

Thus saith the Lord] This powerful Jehovah, whose throne is the heaven of heavens, and the sea his floare to walk in, & the earth his footstool to tread upon, who hath a chair in the conscience, and sitteth in the heart of man, & possesseth his secretest reins, and divideth betwixt the flesh & the skin, and shakest his inmost powers, as the thunder shaketh the wilderness of Cades.

Thus saith the Lord.] Hath the Lord said, and shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not accomplish it? Balaam confesseth as much unto Balak, Num. 23.19. God is not as man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he should repent. Indeed saith Samuel (1 Sam. 15.29.) The strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not as man, that he should repent. All his words, yea all the titles of his words are yea and Amen. Verily saith our Savior, Matth. 5.18. Heaven and earth shall perish, before one jot, or any one tittle of God's law shall escape unfulfilled.

Thus saith the Lord] Then out of doubt it must come to pass. Hereby you may be persuaded of the authority of this Prophecy: and not of this only, but of all other the Prophecies of holy Scripture; that neither this, nor any other Prophecies of old, is destitute of divine authority. This point touching the authority of holy Scripture I delivered unto you in my second lecture, and therefore have now the less need to spend time therein. Yet a word or two thereof.

God almighty spake in old ime to our fathers by the mouth of Moses, Exod. 4.12. and not by the mouth of Moses only, but by the mouths of all his Prophets, Heb. 1.1. and 2 Peter 1.20. Know this that no prophecy in the Scripture is of any private motion. He giveth the reason hereof ver. 21. for the prophecy in old time came not by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost. Hence sprang those usual and familiar speeches in the books of the Prophets; The word of the Lord came unto me; the Lord God hath spoken; and this in my text, Thus saith the Lord. This Lord, who thus spake in old time by his Prophets, did in fullness of time, when he sent to consummate, and perfect the work of man's redemption, speak by his blessed Evangelists, and Apostles.

This appeareth by the faithful promise made unto them, Matth. 10.19. Take no thought how, or what ye shall speak; for it shall be given you, what ye shall say. It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your father, that speaketh in you. It must stand ever true what is recorded, 2 Tim. 3.16. the whole Scripture (and every parcel thereof) is given by inspiration of God, and hath inward witness from that Spirit, which is the author of all truth.

Here may you note the harmony, consent, and agreement, of all the Prophets, Evangelists, and Apostles, from the first unto the last: not one of them spake one word of a natural man in all their ministries; the words which they spake, were the words of him that sent them: they spake not of themselves, God spake in them. Whensoever were the time, whatsoever were the means, whosoever were the man; wheresoever were the place, whatsoever were the people, the words were the Lord's.

Thus saith the Lord] How then dare we, potters cla • , lift up our hands against him, that fashioned us? How dare we absent our selves from his house of prayer, where God in and by his holy word speaketh unto us? How dare we, when we are come to this place, behave our selves carelessly, negligently, irreverently?

But I will not at this time press you any further with this point, having heretofore in my fourth lecture occasioned by the Lord's roaring out of Zion, and uttering his vow from Jerusalem, exhorted you in many words, to the due performance of your dutiful service of God in this place. For this present, I will only give you a taste of the sweetness of the word of the Lord, conveyed unto us by the ministries of his sanctified Prophets, Evangelists, & Apostles. It is the Lord's most royal and celestial testament, the oracles of his heavenly sanctuary, the only key unto us of his revealed counsels; milk from his sacred breasts; the earnest and pledge of his favor to his Church, the light of our feet, joy of our hearts, breath of our nostrils, pillar of our faith, anchor of our hope, ground of our love, evidences, and deeds of our future blessedness.

Thus far the preface, proeme, or entrance, making for the authority of this prophecy; Thus saith the Lord.

Now followeth the prophecy against the Syrians: wherein I commended to your Christian considerations four things

• 1 The general accusation of the Syrians, verse. 3. For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four.
• 2 The Lord's protestation against them, verse the 3. I will not turn to it.
• 3 The particular sin, by which the Syrians had so offended God, verse the 3. They have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.
• 4 The punishments attending them for this sin; set down generally, and specially.
  • Generally verse 4. I will send a fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben-hadad.
  • Specially verse. the 5. I will break also the bars of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant of Bikeath-aven: and him that holdeth the scepter out of Beth-eden, & the people of Aram shall go into captivity unto Kir.

Order requireth that I begin with the first part; the accusation of the Syrians, verse 3.

For three transgressions of Damascus and for four] This Damascus was a very ancient city, built, as some conjecture, by Eliez • r, the steward of Abraham's house, who was surnamed Damascus, Gen. 15.2. The first mention of this city is Gen. 14.15. Others holding the name of this city to have been more ancient than Abraham, do attribute the building of this city to Huz, one of the sons of Aram, Gen. 10.23. Whereupon Dama • cus was called also Aram, as S. Jerome witnesseth. Whatsoever were the antiquity of this city, it is plain by Esa. 7.8, that it was the Metropolitan, and chiefest city of Syria.

I need not tell you what Louis Vertomannus, a gentleman of Rome, saw in this city about some hundred years since; as the place where Cain slew Abel; the place where the body of the Prophet Zechariah lay; the tower wherein S. Paul was committed to prison; and the like: that would be beside my purpose. For the present know ye, that Damascus was the Metropolitan, and chiefest city of Syria; whence by a figure, the figure Synecdoche, it is here in my text, put for the whole country of Syria. By this figure Synecdoche in the name Damascus, our Prophet here threateneth all inhabitants in the country about Damascus; he citeth all the Syrians to appear before the tribunal seat of Almighty God, because they had unjustly troubled and vexed the city Gilead. But of this hereafter. Now let us see, what is meant by the three transgressions, and four, here mentioned in the general accusation of the Syrians.

For three transgressions, and for four] The word Transgressions, signifieth, whatsoever detestable thoughts, words, or deeds may be conceived, uttered, or acted against God's law, our holy faith, and Christian duties. These three transgressions of Damascus, are in the judgment of Arias Montanus, the same with the three transgressions of Azzah, and of Tyrus, and of Edom, and of Ammon, and of Moab, and of Judah, and of Israel, so often repeated in this and the next chapters, namely, the vain worship of strange God's, whoredoms, and murders. The fourth, saith he, is added in the text, even their barbarous cruelty: They threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron.

For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four.] S. Jerome expoundeth these words, as if the Syrians of Damascus had dealt cruelly against the people of God, not once, or twice only, but also a third and fourth time, to this sense: if the Syrians had persecuted my people, but once, or a second time, I should have pardoned them; but now when they have not ceased a third, and fourth time, to practice their cruelty upon my chosen people, even to thresh them with threshing instruments of iron, shall I not visit for these things? is it not time that I beat them with rods? is it not necessary that I turn from them the countenance of my clemency?

For three transgressions of Damascus, and for four.] Some refer these three, and four transgressions, to three, and four generations; thus: though God useth to forbear, and pardon men's sins to the third and fourth generation, yet in the fourth he will undoubtedly execute his vengeance. Some others do ma • e this sense of these words: God useth to remit, and to forgive any man his sins for thrice; but f the fourth time he sin likewise, there is no hope of remission. According to that which we read, Job 33.29. All these things will God work twice or thrice with a man, that he may turn back his soul from the pit, to be illuminated in the light of the living. Twice, or thrice, will God chastise us for our sins; but if we sin the