The Consolations of David Applied to Queen Elizabeth

T He case with David at this time was not so hard, as to walk in the valley of the shadow of death. For the Lord was his sheephearde in open sight, and led him as a sheep of greatest care into his pastures, and they green and sweet for food, soft and easy for rest, Situated by the waters side for best refreshing in hotter countries.

Only in this verse he may seem to put the case, and considering the goodness of God sundry times to him-ward experienced, he solemnly protesteth upon the supposal, fall out what may, and though he walk and often converse in the valley of the shade of death, that is, in the middes of most gloomie and horrible dangers, he would not fear, for his hope was with God.

By the way I note: that David amidest his green pastures, where he wanted nothing, and in his greatest ease, and highest excellency, recordeth the valley of misery, and shade of death which might ensue, if God so would, and therewithal reckoneth of his safest harbor, and firm repose, even in God alone.

And this is true wisdom indeed, in fay • e weather to provide for a tempest, in health to think of sickness, in prosperity, peace and quietness, to forecast the worst, and with the wise Emite in summer to lay up for the winter following.

The state of man is full of trouble, the condition of the godly man more. Sinners must be corrected, and sons chastised, there is no question. The Ark was framed for the waters, the Ship for the Sea, & happy is the marriner that knoweth where to cast Anker. But O blessed is y ^e mā, that can take a right Sanctuary, and knoweth whereupon to rely and in whom to trust in the day of his need. I will not fear: for thou art with me.

A sheep is a simple thing to devise escape, impotent and unarmed, and fearful by nature, and therefore unable to resist danger, whereunto notwithstanding David resembling him self, voucheth boldly he will not fear, the Lord being with him.

In the whole I observe, and shall most beat upon these three things. First, the gate and conversation, the walk of the godly upon David's supposal. Though I walk. Then, his comfort he conceiveth in all his ways, I will not fear. And thirdly the ground of his confidence to be in the presence of God, For thou art with me.

The tennor of David's life, and the ways he walked are manifest in the comperts and evidences of the Bible.

In his nonage he was the least, and of least account in the family of Isai, contemned of his father, not called to the feast, and in the campe dispitefully reproached of his eldest brethren, afterward Saul envieth, Shimy raileth, Absalom rebelleth, Ahithophel conspireth, &c. These were valleys of vehement distresses, briefelye these with diverse others as you may read, collected and quoted, & I pray you do in a Sermon of thanks giving at y ^e apprehension of traitors, to wit, Ballard and Babington, and their complices.

But you will say, how saith David he would not fear: did he not fly & dissemble who he was? Or if he fled, as no doubt he did, from the spear of Saul, was it not for fear?

Fear is a quality incident to all flesh: & in this, & the like natural affections, a fixed mind, & the constant mene, is hardly obtaned. What David did is not denied, & it is granted y ^• as else when, so namely he greatly fered, whē he fled to Achis, his & gods enemy, & whē he said in a shiuering perplexity: Surely, there is scāt a strid betwixt me & death.

In this Psalm, I take it is rather vouched not what the Prophet always performed, but what in duty must be performed, and what David's purpose was to endeavor unto for the time to come. For after so many pledges of God's infinite goodness under the guidaunce of his rod, and stay of his sheep-hook, godwilling he would not fear and this is the ground-work of his affiance.

Peter in the gospel by our Savior in consideration of infirmity thorough fear denying his master, is willed after his conversion by that favorable aspect of our savior, to confirm his brethren, & to train thē in constancy: for verily god requireth settled minds, resolute men & confirmed brethren.

So upon occasions past, David found it true that he should not have been heretofore at any time, and therefore professeth, that, for the time to come, he would be no Marigold-servant of God, to open with the Sun and shut with the dew, to serve him in calmer times only, and at a need to shute neck out of collar, fearfully and faithlesly to slip a side, or shrink away.

(Good people) in all heartless imperfectiones, mark I pray you, that they, who fear every mist, that ariseth, or cloud that appeareth, who are like the Mulberie tree, that never shuteth forth, or showeth it self till all hard weather be past, who like standers by and lookers on, Neuters, and internimisters, who like Metuis Suffetius dare not venture upon, nor enter into, nor endeavor any good action of greatest duty to God, Prince or Country, till all be sure in one side, are utterly reproved by this ensample.

If the cause be God's, if the quarrel be necessary, if thy calling suitable, if it be a cross that God layeth upon thee in a matter of faith and truth, and requisite offices appertaining to piety and charity, though it be a vale of dangers, Loe, David professeth he cannot, he will not yield, he will not fear, much less despair, and hover a loofe, or let all alone as men amazed and astonished in their feminine affections.

Peter, of whom before, hearing that the shepherd should be smitten, and the sheep scattered into sundry valleys of imminent danger, notwithstanding bosteth himself that he forsooth, he would not forsake his master, and though the rest fly, he alone would endure the combat, and not relente at all.

The shepherd is smitten, and the flock indeed is scattered, the rest fly, Peter more then flieth, for he denieth; and more then feareth, for he, of all the rest, forsweareth his master. And so it fareth ever, when men cōparingly set out themselves as Giantes, in their own conceits, though it be in causes of best account. Yet in the ende they come short of their reckoning. But David buildeth upon a surer rock, then on himself.

In so many his exceeding dangers, he will not fear. Why? the Lord is his sheep-heard, no Idol, or absent sheepehearde, but ready to help: and able to succor.

In the boke of Genesis this was Jacob's comfort continually in all his viages, whether frō Canaan into Mesopotamia, or from Mesopotamia into Canaan, to and fro still, Loe, the Lord was with him.

In the six and fortith Chapter, he is willed to repair into Egypt, and expressly forbidden to fear, and the reason was, God himself would go down with him, and conduct him thither, & preserve him there.

And for that as children, which ride on reeds, are soon overtaken in their folly, so old men may become children again, and rest over much in ordinary hopes liable to sense, and probable in reason. God willeth Jacob in effect, to forsake such vain cogitations, for chief relief in the usage, as of his own experienced years, his sons place & favor with the prince, & the like, and only commandeth: Fear not Jacob, I will be with thee.

And good cause, and why should Jacob, or Joshua in the first of Joshua, or Gideon in the sixth of Judges, or Moses before these, the 4. of Exodus, or any of us all after them fear, if God be with us, as he will be, With his to the end of the world? If God be w ^t us who can be against us, effectually against us to our final destruction?

If God be with us, what can we want? he that walketh in the sun, doth he lack light? He who walketh with God by his conversation, as Enoc did, and with whom God walketh by his special grace (for there is a special respect betwixt the grace of God and a gracious life) what is there, or what can there be wanting? By the grace of God we are that we are, and his grace in his is not in vain. In his light we see light, & in his strength we are more than conquerors ghostly ever & ever bodily if it be for the good of the sufferer, and for the glory of god, for whose cause, and in whose presence, and by whose wisdom we suffer, and hold out.

The true meditation whereof (deer brethren) to the careless & godless man, is as a riddle, or a clasped book, or sealed letters, which are brought by the carier & handled of many, but are read of none, nor understood of any, save of him that of him that openeth them, and conceaueth the purport of them, and meaning of the sender.

Job (the holy man) in his loss of goods, death of children, personal extremities, wives cursed motions, and to those unwise inferences and conclusions of his friends replieth, at one time: Naked I came into the world, at another time, The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away, at another to his Wife, ô foolish woman: & to his friends, ô ye Physicians of no valu. But ever resolutly that even in death he knew that he had a living redeemer, and so thorough faith controlling his some impatiency, recognizeth, that God the redeemer of all his, was also in special his redeemer, and that it was not with God, as it may be with mā, who standing on the shore, may se a far-of their dearest friends and fellow parteners plunged in danger, and cannot help them, nor dare come to them.

When I recount the great deliverances of old, in fires, in waters, in miry caves, & dreadful prisons, of Elias under the Juniper tree, Moses in the flagges, the three children in the furnace, and of Jonah in the belly of the Fish, in the bottom of the sea, and altogether entangled, as it were, in y ^e roots of the depth, who was with him, or with the rest? or if God had not been with them, in what case had they been?

These were men as we are, and as saint James speaketh of one of them, subject to the like passions: The only difference is, they were more excellent mē in their days, and famous in their times, and therefore the rather registered as most fit examples of comfort to all posterity for the time to come.

More general are the ensamples of Israel in Egypt, and of Judah in Babylon, both which people God in his good time, remembering his mercy, and pitying their misery, did wonderfully deliver.

But there is no difference with God, to be with one or with many, to deliver some few, or greater companies. All is one with the almighty. Some difference only may be this, which is in books printed of a large or a less letter, and paper, the matter not varying at all.

When God took his people from the fiery furnace, and mierie clay, and from the vncessaunt toile of gathering straw, when he brought all Israel out of bondage, and left not an hoof behind, here the presence of God is printed as it were in Royal paper and in Capital letters. Again, when Abraham's words, Deus prouidebit, when, I say, God's providence is seen privately, and felt privately of someone, the foorm and paper are less, and the letter less, but the providence of God is the same, And yet the personage may be such that it may be more to do for one, then for many, and I conster David's case to be of this kind.

David kept his fathers sheep, and there came a Lion, and likewise a Bear, and took a sheep out of the flock. But David (far unlike some hirelings) followeth after, ventereth his life, redeemeth his sheep, and slaieth the Beast. This had been ouerhard for David to have done, had not God been with him. For he was but a youth.

Farder, when he came to the campe, and heard the vncircūcised Giāt brave the host of the living God, straight way in a monomachie, that is to say, one to one, himself alone with the Giant alone entered the cōbat, and according to Saul's wish at that time, The Lord was with him.

In process, when Saul slue his thousand, David slue his ten thousand, every Damsel could sing of the odds, even to the regreete of Saul, that sought enuiously therefore to be dispatched of David. But David ever dealt wisely in all his ways, for why, The Lord was with him, saith the text.

Now yet if David forever after should have lead only a private life, the case had been less to see to then it was afterwards upon great events ensuing. For God had a purpose to take him from the sheepfoldes, & to place him in room of his master to feed his people and guide his inheritance, so that all along God's, being with David, was immediately by him to be with his people, and with his inheritance.

For if God respect the Prince that presently is, or apparently & consequently shall be, it is the benefit of many: for the Prince is as the stomach in the body of a realm, it receiveth little for it self, but most for the rest parts of the body. All sense is from the head, all life is from the heart. The Prince is as the head and heart of his people and for the excellencye of his various properties, hath diverse resemblances.

If the root be quick the branches grow: if the foundation be sure, all the building is the surer. A scholerly recital with application herein is over easy.

And again if the foundation be as a tottering wall, or rotten hedge, or slippery soil and quick sandy, the building cannot stand.

Like Prince, like people for the most part as it is written, Jeroboam was not a sinner alone, but he made all Israel to sin. And again, Jeroboam fell away from God (like a great Oke) and Israel (some as greater arms, some as lesser branches) but all fell with him.

And contrariwise again in times of better regiment, it went better. Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the like elders that over lived Joshua.

Look to it ye rulers, but you are not the chief rulers, if skilleth not, you are rulers, less or more authority in rulers, doth not alter the nature of ruling in your degrees. And water may be pure in the spring, & corrupted in the rivers, if it be not looked to.

But God being both with the spring, and with the rivers, see, how is the land refreshed as in David's time and in Solomon's time? And to these happy ends was God with David, as with a sheep of his own pastures and with the work-manship of his own framing, to most sovereign purposes, as you have heard.

AND now to look homeward a little reflexiuely somewhat considering our own estate, even by this glass of David's example, you remember, I am sure, who she is that said, Tanquā Ouis, that she was a sheep, even in the valley of death, lead unto, & shut up in the slaughter house, and you may not forget, who he is that took the knife out of the butchers hand.

You know who she is that built upon the rock, and you know who that rock is. Who hath not hard of that morneful voice, that She had no freend, & yet comfortable in this, But God alone: for how is he frindles, that hath god for his frind? his word is a good, & a true word. Win-God, and win all.

One said, he was never less alone, then when he was left alone, I say it is true, in sense that when all men forsake us, and God alone tarrieth with us, then are we never less alone.

Good Queen Elizabeth hath found it so, and God mollified the harts of some of her foes for his mercy sake at her prayers, & raised up some others, dutifully and honorably to demean thenselves unto her grace, and one ready to die at her foot, if vilanous boldness should cause such need, and after some long seasoning of so precious a wood for an excellent building, the happy 17. day of November, 1558. cometh, and God maketh it manifest to all the world, that himself was with her in all these tempests, and then the plat-form was broken up, and the snare taken away, and a daughter of David had as great deliueraunces as ever David had, and so her own confession both then an since is a duefull and true confession, That never Prince, no never creature had ever greater.

Yet because this world is not the land of entire blessedness, everlastingly to endure, sundry unclean beasts have entered, with full entendment to stain the green and fertle pastures wherein God hath placed her, and had done so (so it might have been) if God and his Christ, the great sheepehearde of our souls had not exerted his arm, and shown himself, and stood in the gap, and driven away the Lion and the Bear, and the Popes sundry Bulls.

Verily as Elias his servant saw a small cloud by little and little growing to a greater matter: so (good countrymen) the chief servants of God in the honorable service of the realm and her Majesty by that prudency which God hath lent them, have a long time since, looking for such extremities, as the wicked world offereth espied the rising and proceedinge of a cloud to come, sometimes thickning in the North, & sometimes threatening in the West, and of late time, all the waters of the salt Ocean, and brinish natures ascendinge and leaguinge themselves together to have overwhelmed us all, but the ground and subject of their practices and complots failing them, and that only or chief Pole-star of these home-conspiracies and foreign drifts and troubles even against her own only son, being taken away, they have missed their aim, Her will and testament, mencined in her letters to Mendoza to give away the realm, to the King of Spain, could not be proved, nor that Tragical execution be executed & performed. And all these waves breaking in the fall, have swallowed up many of them, who would have devoured us: & by the providence of him that keepeth Israel, the strong horse & the proud rider, those tale ships, and furniture in them lie floating in the waters, and sink in the sea. for since we desisted to chase and persue them most of this is come to pass, to the ende cheeflie to show and declare that this was not the work of man, but the hand of God.

At their coming we had warning of thē, at their entry we had a good beginning in their passage we gained the wind, or rather God gave it us, & when they were rooted over-right us, they were displanted again. In these things, & in whatsoever else either going before, or passed since, he that seeth not the finger of God to have been, and to be with Queen Elizabeth, seeth nothing and the brightness of God shining upon her, and by her upon us, doth dazzle his sight, that he cannot see.

Wherein, the care of her majesty, the vigilancy of her honorable council, the faithfulness of nobles, courage in Captains & soldiers, with joint willingness of all English harts in the realm, were marvelous vaileable, & commendable, but except God keep all in order & except he had united us in true wisdom to forsee and in hearty rep • ntance to fly unto him, & in his strength boldly and happily to withstand these titulary conquerors, their pride might have made thē more foolish and most wicked to venter upon other men's dominions without end. Plus vltra, More, still More, was his fathers posy.

But be it that they have received no harm by our resistance, as their lovers fain, be it that our weapons have stunge them like Pliny's flies, and that for the present they do not feel what we have don by Our peccatores, by our little poor sinners, For so at first they could term our Navy & imagine of our ships, be it that God by us was not against them, yet certainly, they cannot deny and we must confess to the worlds end, that The Lord was with us, & herein we rejoice & praise his name forever more, & the more we give to God, it is most true, that the great benefit of the sea about us: w ^t in our Queen, her Council, nobles, & people's: abroad her Admiral, Viseadmirals and skillful Sea-men: or anywhere else, her forces, polisies, and helps whatsoever, shall have never a whit the less, as the widdowe had never the less, the more she gave to God's Prophet.

Wherefore (my good brethren and deer countrymen) lift up your harts, lift them up unto the Lord and praise his holy name. He that offereth praise, honoreth him with an acceptable sacrifice.

Consider then all his benefits, his old, late, and his present benefits even heaped upon our Queen, and upon us her subjects and lay them all as diverse sweetes together, to make a Levites fire of perfect thankfulness that shall never out.

When a Spanish Prince and an Italian Priest ruled England, when superstition, human devises, will-worshippings, and gross idolatry in a strange tongue overruled all, then were our goods spoiled, our flesh martyred, our bodies burnt, and our ashes scattered, and our very souls sterued.

A slight remembrance of this good delivery from these calamities is little worth and as fire of brush soon extinct, lay altogether which hath followed since, conspiracies detected, rebellions repressed and prevented, invasions diverted ever by the Lord's own doing, & still blessing embrodered, infolded, & poured down blessing upon blessing with a full horn? Truly the deliueraunces of David were but a cast of those which we feed on.

Papists, the peeuishe and worst sort of them bite the lip hereat, and hang down head not knowing, God knoweth, that their heads should be hanged up soonest specially the heads of the richest, for Lutherans and Caluinests, as well as other. Alas Cardinal Allen, whoever standeth aloof as Pirrhus post principia, cannot be always at hand with every barberous soldier, to say, This man forsooth is a Catholic.

Well, for this time hither to (God be thanked) Jacob's hand hath been strong enough to hold Esau by the heel, and if some Midwiues help out bloody Esau's forces once again, God that hath preserved us so long, will not, we hope, forsake us now.

Yet sweet words lull men a sleep, the best Remora and stay to keep them of, is an unfeigned repentance, and a general conversion, and certain determination of the whole land to serve him better thē in former time, & in all these victories, or happy successes to prescribe all to y ^e chief directer.

The Flye in the Beasts ear, or the Emmite on his horn cannot say they were they who plowed the land, and brought, about these matters.

If we have done great things, he hath don them by us, & as one said to his soldiers, if I be an Egle, you be my feathers: so if▪ Captains or Soldiers have done anything, the Lord of hosts hath been with us all in all. And as he is a foolish Inn-keeper that keepeth not a perfect remembrance of his chiefest geastes by whom he gaineth: so unwise are we, if we forget by whom we have profited, and by whom we have so greatly and so often gained,

Leah beareth one son, and calleth his name Reuben, a second son, and calleth him Simeon, and a third, and calleth him Levi. But when above expectation she conceiveth, and bareth the fourth time, she purposely calleth his name, Judah, and expressly protesteth that She will praise the Lord.

If one benefit move thee not, O England, many should, if many have not done it, yet this late deliverance passeth all others, O call it Judah, and let us praise the Lord. For any comfort save in the Lord, is like Agars water, that is soon dried up: but that sweet acclamation in the Prophet Zacherie, Grace, Grace, is the everlasting duty of our Church and common weal and the fatness of his Olives, and the consolations of his spirit, and his being with our Candle-stick is our only comfort.

Others imagine fabulous tales, and wicked hopes: fear them not: About the year of our Lord 1569. or some-what after, I read, of false news spread in Spain of a supposed great battle betwixt the Papists and Christians, wherein an Angel with a Challice in his hand, was reported to have discomfited many thousands of our Queens subjects for the which putatiue victory, there were in Spain gratulations and triumphs in the biest degree with concourse of nobles, ringings and singings, and much mad mirth, for the fortunate success against the heretics according to the meaning of the Pope-holy league, and charitable conspiracy of the convent of Trent. Belike some Mēdoza sent these news, they were so true. Sence the Spaniards themselves have had a long thirst to drink of the same cup, and out of the Challice which the Angel held then forth. And this fatal yere 88, they have sought for it in England, and they have tasted thereof in Ireland, we know, and I think all Spain would ring if not therefore, yet thereof by this time, if the king, or rather, if the holy house would suffer them.

A little thing would make fools fain now, they were so a gogge at nothing then. But proud Bennadab, must not bost, when he girdeth his harness, as when he putteth it of. But O foolish fugitiues and English Seminaries, & seedemen of these tumults, what mean you, why seek ye amity with every stranger? Even therefore God hath demonstratively taught you that your trecheries are wicked. Why go you abroad? what want you at home? Because our Queen trusteth in the Lord & in the mercy of the most high, she and we have not miscarried, and God hath been with us, and though we be not as we should be, yet, good God, make us better. They are thine open enemies. To make an ende for this time till on Tuesday next, when (God willing) according to our bounden duty we meet again, and then we shall ring for them, and sing for our selves and profess in a most certain verity, that not an Angel, but God himself had a favorable eye toward us, & an holy hand over us, and that he was as much with us as ever with any Nation, when notwithstanding all their crakes and famous Dons, and doutie Aduenteres, huge ships all to be-swathed with gables and printed vauntes, we lost by them, who are now sent home a wrong way, neither man, nor ship, nor boat, nor mast of ship. O Grace, Grace. Thanckfulnes, Thankfulness, call it Judah, and praise the Lord, the King of Kings, the God of armies and the Lord of hosts, and mighty Jehovah forever more. Amen.