St PAUL'S CHALLENGE, OR THE CHURCH'S TRIUMPH: In a Sermon, Preached at the FORT-ROYAL March 3. 1643. By Jer: Leech. And now published at the request both of the generous; and his much honoured friend Captain George Dipsort. EZEK. 22.14. Can thy heart endure, or can thy head be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee? LONDON, Printed by Thomas Pain, and are to be sold by Francis Eglesfield at the Marigold in Paul's Churchyard. 1644. St. PAUL'S CHALLENGE, OR The Church's Triumph. ROMANS 8 v. 31. If GOD be for us, who can be against us? THE Triumphant Challenge of a Victorious Champion, against all the Church's enemies, bodily and ghostly. It was daringly done of Goliath, 1 Sam. 17.10. when he challenged the whole Host of Israel. Lo here, all the Host of the earth are challenged, with all the Armies of Hell to boot, and though they should all join in one, here's one that defies them all. The Triumph is first more general, in this verse and in the next. Then more particular, in the verses that come after; which I shall touch upon anon. In this verse, the Apostle triumphs, that nothing can befortun a Christian to do him any hurt. The reason, because God is of his side, God is for him. If God be for us, who can be against us? In the next verse, he triumphs again, that nothing can be wanting to a Christian that shall do him any good. The reason, because he hath Christ given him; and Christ being given him, what can be denied him? He that hath given us Christ, how shall he not with him give us all things? Nothing against us? All for us? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Apostle? what shall we say to these things? These are such things, as if all were reckoned up, that can be reckoned up, nothing could be more said. He sums up all here that he had said before. Before, he had enumerated and reckoned up, the several, and singular privileges, that Christians have an interest in. He begins with the lowest of them, Deliverance from condemnation. In the first verse of the chap. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. And then he goes on, till he comes to the highest; from the state of condemnation, out of which we are delivered, to the state of glorification, unto which we are exalted. He hath praedestinated us, (he says) He hath called us, He hath justified us, He hath glorified us; So in the v. immediately before going. But there he stays, he makes a stop at that, as if when he had said that, he had said all; He had gone so high as he could go no higher. And therefore here, by way of recapitulation, he breaks forth into this triumphant acclamation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; what shall we say to these things? As if he should say, This is all that can be said. More than this cannot be spoken; greater comfort than this, cannot be given. You may understand it three ways. Either by way of thankful acknowledgement; What shall we say to these things? They be such excellent things, as we can never be sufficiently thankful to God for them. Or by way of admiration and wonderment: what shall we say to these things! They be such wonderful things, as we cannot but admire and be astonished, so often as we think of them. Or last of all, by way of triumph and challenge What shall we say to these things? They be such high and mighty things, as we dare challenge all Creatures, Men and Devils, to say or do what ever they can against them; we are confidently resolved, and peremptorily we conclude, that nothing can be against us, as long as God is for us. If God be for us, who can be against us? The words, as they lie, consist of two parts. 1. A Supposition. 2. An Interrogation. The Supposition in the first words. Si Deus pro nobis, If God be for us. The Interrogation, in the next: Quis contra nos? who can be against us? If God be for us, says the Apostle. The word If, is not to be doubtfully, but affirmatively taken. Though it have but a suppositive form, yet it hath a positive force. Commonly it is spoken, I know, of things that are questionable: yet sometime of things that are impossible; sometime of things that are indubitable Things that are impossible. So Gal 4.8. If an Angel from heaven preach any other Gospel, then that which we have preached, let him be accursed. The Apostle knew it was impossible that an Angel from heaven should preach any other Doctrine; yet he supposes a possibility, therefore expresses it by an If. And as things impossible thus; so thus, things indubitable and certain. They are expressed by an If too, which sometime carries the force of an Etsi, although. Sometime of a Quoniam, Because. If thus; That is, Although thus. As 1 John 2.1. If any man sin. The Apostle knew there was not any man but did sin: But his meaning was, that Though a man did, yet he had an Advocate to the Father, etc. Or again, If thus; That is, Seeing thus, or Because thus: As here in my Text, Si Deus pro nobis, If God be for us; That is, Quoniam Deus pro nobis; Because God is for us, Or Seeing God is for us. And so for the Interrogation that follows; The quis contra nos? who can be against us? The Apostle meant not to grant, that some might be, but rather concluded that none could be. Who can? As much to say, as None can. Like that of David, Psal. 130.3. If thou Lord shalt mark our iniquities, Quis feret? who can abide it? Ille quis, nullus; says St. Austin. That's as much to say, as None can abide it. So here, If God be for us, Quis contra nos? who can be against us? Ille quis nullus; The meaning of that is, None can be against us. As the supposition before, had the force of a Concession, implying that Gods being for us, was not a thing to be supposed only, but granted: so this Interrogation here hath the force of a Negative; implying that because God is for us, that there can be any thing against us, is not a thing to be questioned, but flatly denied. In a word; That which the Apostle would say here, is plainly this. Nothing can be against those; nothing can hurt those, with whom, or for whom God is. The words are argumentative; and the Apostles argument in them, is Syllogistically framed. We have an enthymeme here, a contracted Syllogism. God is for us: Ergo, none can be against us. Or if you will, a hypothetical Syllogism; the Major only expressed: The Minor and Conclusion concealed. Fully thus. If God be for us, none can be against us. This is the Mayor part of the Syllogism, and this you see is expressed. Then comes in the Minor, though concealed in in the text, but God is for us. Thereupon the Conclusion necessarily follows, Therefore none can be against us. This being the scope of the words, the parts shall be these. Not a Supposition and a Question, as before; but a Proposition and a Proof: Or if you please a Doctrine, and a Reason. 1. You have here a Proposition or Doctrine; In effect this; None can be against those that are Gods. 2. You have the Reason or Proof of it, Because God is on their side, God is for them. Both these we shall discourse upon; upon the Doctrine first; then upon the Reason; and having done with the explication of them, we will conclude with the use and application. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who can be against us, does the Apostle ask? He needed not ask that, you will say. If we compare number with number, we shall find more against us then for us. We have those that are openly against us; and we have those that are secretly against us; enemies against us from without, and enemies against us from within; as many against us as Christ had against him. Look how many wicked men there be in the world, so many we have against us. Look how many Devils there be in hell, so many we have against us. And yet does the Apostle ask, who can be against us? Who knows not, that there hath been enmity from the beginning, between the seed of the Woman, and the seed of the Serpent? Gen. 3.15. Who knows not, how he that was borne after the flesh, persecuted him that was borne after the spirit? And even so it is now, saith the Apostle, Gal. 4.29. As it was then, so is it now▪ It was then so, and it is now so. Now to this day the matter is not mended a whit; nor the world is no Changeling, but still the old quarrel is renewed and maintained. They that were against Christ then, are against Christ still; They that persecuted the Church then, persecute it still. In the infancy of it, it was persecuted by Tyrants; In the growth of it, it was persecuted by Heretics; Bernard Now in the peaceable times of it, it hath been persecuted by false brethren, and hypocritical Professors. Even in our own days a sort that have seemed to be greatly for the Church, they have been shamefully against it; against the spiritual glory of it, against the sincere worship of God in it, against the power of the Gospel, and the purity of the ordinances, (more for Innovation then for Reformation) though for outward splendour and ceremony, zealous beyond measure, to advance the pomp of it. Of her being persecuted by these three enemies, the Church may complain as Jacob did, when he feared to be deprived of his three sons: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, Gen. 42.36. and now they will take Benjamin away too; All these things are against me. So the poor Church of Christ may complain; Tyrants have persecuted me, and Heretics have persecuted me; and now false brethren and hypocrites persecute me: What Rocks am I cast upon? what straits am I driven to? All these things are against me. And yet does the Apostle ask, Who can be against us? Out of question, as long as there is a Christ in heaven, and a Church on earth; there will be a Devil in hell, and a faction in the world, that will maintain war against both. Unless Christ and the Devil could be reconciled, the world and the Church will never be at peace; They are strangers one to another. Christians are strangers in the world: Therefore they must look for no friendly entertainment in it, but to be used as strangers. Nay they are enemies, hating and hated one of another. The world hates me, says our Saviour, and therefore it will hate you: And it is well it does so. It's a good providence of God that the world should hate us, that so we might learn to be out of love with the world. How were the Prophets hated and persecuted in it? Joh. 15.18. How were the Apostles hated and persecuted in it? Even this our Apostle, St. Paul himself after he had once taken upon him the name of a Christian, he never went without the badge of a Christian, but carried the cross about with him everafter, Gal. 6.17. bore the marks of it in his flesh to his dying day. What ever place he came into, he met with one or other, that was against him; 1. Cor. 15.32. Act. 19.24. with Beasts at Ephesus that fought against him; with Demetrius the Silver-smith that raised the City in uproar against him; with Alexander the Coppersmith, that did all the mischief he could to him; 2. Tim. 4.13. 2. Tim. 4.10. Act. 13.8. Act. 14.19. Act. 16.22. with Alexander the Coppersmith, that did all the mischief he could to him; with Demas that revolted from him; with Elymas at Paphos, that withstood him; with the Jews at Lystra, that stoned him; with the Magistrates at Philippi, that whipped and imprisoned him; with multitudes at Jerusalem, that charged heavy and false accusations upon him; and at Rome last of all, Act. 21.28. with a Nero that beheaded him; and yet doth this Man ask, who can be against us? Yes; He might ask it well enough. Take St Paul's meaning with St Paul's words, and we may confidently resolve this Interrogative, into a Negative; None can be against us: That is to say, None can be so against us, as ever to prevail against us. They may Assault, but they cannot overcome: They may oppose, but they cannot overthrow; They may fight, but they cannot foil; They may shake, but they cannot shiver: They may wound, but they cannot kill; or they may kill, but they cannot hurt; kill the body, but not kill the soul: In a word, They may beleaguer, but they cannot conquer; Traitorlike undermine us, but not blow us up. Premimur, non opprimimur, it is the Church's Motto; the word that she carries in her Flag and Ensign. As 2 Cor. 4.8. We are troubled on every side, but yet we are not distressed; we are perplexed, but yet we do not despair; we are persecuted, but yet we are not forsaken; we are cast down, but yet we are not destroyed. So Psal. 129.1. Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say: Many a time they have afflicted me from my youth; Sed non praevaluerunt, but they have not prevailed against me. No, they shall never do that: It is the Apostles Challenge here in my text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉? who can be against us? That is, who so, as to prevail against us? Three things you may be pleased to take notice of, in the words. 1. The Persons to whom. 2. The Persons for whom. 3. The matter about what. 1. To whom, or against whom, the Apostle makes this challenge. I answer, To all the Enemies of the Church, be they who they will be. The word Tie, who, is a comprehensive word; takes in all, excepts none; neither spiritual enemies, nor bodily. Not spiritual; such as would accuse, verse 33. such as would condemn, verse 34. such as would separate us from God, verse 35. None shall be able, either to do the one of these, or the other; not sin, not Satan, not the Law, not our own consciences. Let them attempt what they will, what they can; none of them shall prevail against us. No nor any bodily enemies neither: Those that he afterward musters up. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, Nakedness, peril, sword. These though they may infest and endanger the body, threaten to make conquest of us that way; yet when they have done all they can do, in stead of conquering us, we shall conquer them; nay, we shall be more than conquerors over them, says the Apostle, through him that loves us; in the 37. verse of the chapter. He goes a step higher yet; joins bodily and ghostly both together; bids defiance to them all, heroically resolves that none of them all shall prevail; neither death nor life, nor Angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature; let them make what confederacies they can, join all their counsels, and forces together; yet they shall never be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Thus you see, who they are, against whom the Apostle makes his challenge. 2. Observe for whom, or in whose behalf he makes it. That's in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Us; who against us? Which you may either understand to be generally meant, of the whole Church; or particularly, of every Member of the Church. Against the whole Church first of all, Mat. 7.25. Psal. 125.1. none shall ever prevail. It is a house built upon a rock. Let the rain fall, let the winds blow, let the floods rise, her foundation is impregnable, and (as the Psalmist of Mount-Zion) shall never be moved. 'tis true. The Church is sometime like a Ship upon the Sea, Isai. 54.11. afflicted and tossed with tempests. Like the Ship that the Disciples sailed in, filled with water, and covered with waves, and the passengers, Mat. 8.26. all ready to cry out, Lord save us, we perish. We have had the sad and woeful experience of it, in all ages. And even of late days, what pressures the Church hath suffered, in most places of Christendom, how the ploughers have ploughed long furrows upon their backs, how her fields have been sown with the bodies, & watered with blood of God's Saints, the Goshens and eden's of it, that were sometimes as the Gardens of God, turned now into Aceldemaes and Golgothaes', (I would I could say that we in our own land had not been made to drink deep of this cup) whose heart bleeds not to think of it? Certainly in many places, the Enemies have mightily prevailed. I, but yet for all this, though they have prevailed over some part of the Church; over the whole Church they shall never prevail; though over the persons, yet never over the cause. She shall have an Vbi still, a hiding place to rest in, though it be in the wilderness. God will still reserve a remnant to himself, even in the worst times, that shall worship him in sincerity, and not kiss the Calves in Bethel, nor bow the knee to Baal. Again, Though the Church's Enemies may now and then prevail in some places; yet like the Sea (as one says) what they gain in one place, they lose in another. And so the Church for her part, what she loses in one place, she gains in another. As what she lost among the Jews, when they rejected the Gospel of Christ, she gained among the Gentiles, when they received it. So what she lost in the Eastern parts of the world, she gained in the Western; what she lost in Garmany, she gained in the Netherlands; what in Italy and Spain; she gained in France and England. God still so provides, that what her Enemies do against her in one place, he does for her in another; and though they prevail against some part of the Church, yet against the whole Church (as I said) they shall never prevail. Nay; they shall never prevail neither against any one member of the Church. Every child shall inherit the same blessing with the Mother. What Christ said unto Peter, is shall be verified upon every Disciple of Christ, Luke 22.31. Satan hath desired to winnow thee, as wheat is winnowed, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith may not fail. Peter's Faith never utterly failed; 'tis true, It was shaken indeed, but though concussa, yet not excussa, as Theophylact says, though it were shaken, it was not shivered; Mota, sed non amota, moved it was, but it was not removed: Coepit arescere, sed non exaruit; It withered at the top, but it died not at the root. In 2. Tim. 4.8. St. Paul speaks of a Crown of righteousness, that he says he knew the Lord would give him. Mark what he adds; He says he would not give it to him only, but to every one that loved his appearing. Had not every Christian this privilege, his condition were uncomfortable. But our happiness is, that what ever God or nature hath intended for the safety and conservation of the whole, shall be communicated and distributed to every part. If therefore no Enemy shall ever prevail against the whole Church; I being a member of the Church, my confidence and comfort is, that none shall ever finally prevail against me. Let's assure ourselves, they shall not. Though they may prevail over our lives, they shall not prevail over our spirits. Though they may reproach our names, and plunder our estates, and mangle our bodies; they shall never do any violence to our souls. No, the Devil himself shall never lay hand upon them, unless he could pluck them out of God's hand. He may bruise them with tentation, but he shall never bring them to destruction. God has made us invincible, though he have not made us invulnerable. So thus you see the second point; For whom, or in whose behalf the Apostle makes this challenge. In the third and last place; Observe the matter about which he makes it. About the enemies being against the Church. Who can be against us? says the Apostle. That's the challenge he makes. And how against us, he specifies in three particulars. 1. In the 33. verse. Quis accusabit? Who shall accuse Gods elect? or who shall lay any thing to their charge? None shall be able to do that. He tells you why. Because it is God that justisies us. God is the Judge of all, and it is in the Judge's power to pronounce those that are accused, either guilty or innocent. If God being the Judge, therefore will justify us to be innocent, no accuser can make us guilty. Then in the 34. verse. Quis condemnabit? Who shall condemn? None shall be able to do that neither: He tells you why. Because Christ is dead and ris●n again for us. Christ by his death and resurrection hath acquitted us from the sentence of condemnation. He became surety for us, and paid the debt that we owed. The death that we deserved he suffered, and being suffered by him, it cannot be charged upon us. What ever debt I own, my Creditor cannot condemn me in it, if he that undertakes to be my surety, have paid and discharged it. Thirdly and lastly, in the 35. verse, Quis separabit? says the Apostle. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Nor shall any be able to do that either. He tells you why. Because God's love in Christ is unchangeable, therefore nothing can separate from it. Many occasions may separate friends here, and cause a diversion of their love. John. 13.1. Jam. 1.17. But whom God loves, he loves to the end: His love is as Himself is, subject to no variation. I am persuaded nothing can separate us from the love of God to us in Christ, as the Apostle sweetly in the close of this chapter. If then there be none that can accuse us, none that can condemn us; none that can separate us from God, or God from us; we may boldly make the challenge that the Apostle here makes; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Who can be against us? Afflicted the poor Church may be (as you heard before) but who ever afflicts her, none can overcome her. Enemy's may rise up against her, but none of the shall prevail against her. That is, they shall never so prevail, as either to pervert her, or subvert her. They shall neither scare her from her profession, nor supplant her from her peace. They shall neither bereave her of her Faith, nor deprive her of the reward of her Faith. They shall neither strip her of Grace, nor spoil her of Glory. I may go one step higher yet. So far shall the Enemies of the Church be from doing any thing against her, as in seeking to do against her, the shall rather do for her. In striving to be her Enemies, they shall (though against their wills) prove her best friends. What ever they intent to her hurt, it shall turn to her good. As joseph to his brethren, Gen. 50.20. When you thought evil against me, God meant it to my good. So God will turn that to the good of his Church, which her Enemies intent to her for evil. The plot that Haman laid for Mordecai, and the lot that he cast for the rooting out of the Jews, beside the mischief he brought upon himself by it, (it was like an Arrow shot upright, that fell down upon his own head) it turned in the end to Mordecai's greater advancement, and to the jews greater enlargement. And so shall every thing turn, that the Enemy plots and practices, to ruin any of God's children, it shall turn to their greater good and glory in the end. It may for the time help to let out some of their corrupt blood; but they shall afterward be the sounder for it. As it was with Phereus' jason in the story; one that had an Aposthem growing within his body; Cich nature dear: l. 3. when an Enemy of his that thought to have killed him ran at him with his sword, it so happened in the thrust, that the sword did only prick the Apostheme; and by that means profuit hostis, his Enemy did him a better turn, than all his Surgeons could do him. Gladio vomicam aperuit; He opened the ulcer he had within him, and by opening it cured it. They say vines bear the better, when they are watered with blood: So does the vine of God's Church. The blood that has been shed in it▪ has been a dew to water it. The more the Church has been persecuted, the more she has flourished. Like the Camomile, the more you tread upon it, the thicker it grows; Nitit●r in pondus palma et consurgit in altum. like the Palm; the more weight you lay upon it, the broader it spreads. Non minuitur, sed augetur, says Leo. The Church lessens not with persecution, but increases. Therefore Tertullian to the Gentiles, when they were so cruel in persecuting the poor Christians. What gain you by all your cruelty? says he. It is no such Bugbear to scare us, it is rather a Bait to allure us. Quoties metimur, plures efficimur; the oftener we are mown down, the thicker we come up. Pharaoh found it so, when he oppressed and afflicted the Israelites; The more he afflicted them, says the text, the more they multiplied and grew. Exod. 1.12. And Herod found it so after his beheadding of james, and imprisoning of Peter. The fiercer he waxed, the fertiler the Church waxed, for (says the story) the word multiplied and grew after it. Act. 12.24. We need not wonder at this beloved. No wonder that nothing can prevail against the elect of God; nothing to accuse; nothing to condemn; nothing to separate them from his love. The Apostle gives a satisfactory reason for it here in my text: It is because God is on their side; God is for them. Which brings me to the proof of the Proposition; the second general part that I propounded to speak of. Si deus pro nobis; If God be for us; that is, Quoniam Deus pro nobis; Because God is for us; therefore none can be against us. That none can be against us, because God is for us, is a reason irrefragable. All power save Gods, is but a created power, therefore but finite and limited; Only Gods is infinite and un-limited, be-because un-created: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Damascen, The God that we have is above all Gods. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, says Cyril, The power that God has, is above all power. Now if that power be for us, that is above all power; and if the God be for us, who is above all Gods, impossible it is, that as long as we have him for us, any thing can be against us. It was part of Moses his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the song of triumph that he sung after Pharaoh and his host were discomfited in the Red sea; Who is like unto thee oh Lord among the Gods, who is like unto thee? Exod. 15.11. They say the Maccabees had it afterward for their Motto, and put it upon their banner when they went out to their wars. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mi Camocha, Baelim Jehova. Who is like unto thee oh Lord among the Gods? And thence it was, as the Hewrews report, that they had their name given them; namely from the initial letters of the four words in that sentence, Man, Caph, Beth, Jod, which are just the initial letters of the four syllables of their name, Machabaei. Sufficient it is that God hath called himself El-shaddai; a God all-sufficient. So to Abraham, Gen. 17.1. Any, El-shaddai, I am the Almighty God; or I am God all-sufficient. All-sufficient to himself. All-sufficient to his Creatures. All-sufficient to save. All-sufficient to destroy. All-sufficient to do what he will. All-sufficient to do how he will. All-sufficient to do more than he will. Having therefore such a God for us; a God almighty, a God all-sufficient; a God like unto whom there is no God; none like him in wisdom, none like him in holiness, none like him in justice, none like him in mercy, none like him in truth, none like him in power; in defiance to all enemies, bodily and ghostly, secret and open. Traitors and Rebels, Heretics and Tyrants, Jesuits and Devils, we may confidently make it our triumph and our challenge, If God be for us, who can be against us? St. Austin observes, out of the verse before-going, De verbis Apostoli. Serm. 16. that God may be said to be for us four ways. For us in predestinating us; For us, in calling us; For us in justifying us; For us in glorifying us. And these four ways, by which God is said to be for us, he opposes to those four Enemies that rise up against us. The first, our inferior Enemies; (as he calls him) that's Man. The second our exterior; that's the World. The third our Interior; that's the Flesh. The fourth our superior; that's the Devil. That man cannot prevail against us, he argues; because of Gods predestinating us. Nor the world; because of Gods calling us. Nor the flesh; because of Gods justifying us. Nor the Devil; because of Gods glorifying us. None of all these can be against us, if God be for us. In stead of, If God be for us; some read, Si deus nobiscum; If God be with us. And being so read, it may seem to have special reference to Christ. For Immanuel you know is Christ's name; and that's as much to say as Deus nobiscum; God with us. And indeed, it is most certain, that Gods being for us, it does properly and primarily come from Gods being with us. It comes originally from Christ. It is in and through Christ, that God does all those things for us, that you heard of, that he predestinates, and calls, and justifies, and glorifies. It is in and for Christ's sake, that none can accuse us, condemn us, separate us from his love. He is the fountain of all that love, with which it pleases God to embrace us. And as all the promises, so all the blessings we enjoy, they are all as streams flowing from that fountain. All our liberties, privileges, comforts, graces; all our safety, strength, peace, joy; all our preservations from dangers, supportations in dangers, deliverances out of dangers; In a word, all the good that God has done us; all the good that he intends to do us, all must be acknowledged to come by Christ; and by him, praise to God must be rendered for all; even by him that is our Immanuel, God with us; and by his being with us, so for us, as that nothing can be against us. All we have now to examine is no more but this; wherein God hath so declared himself to be for his Church, as in times of fear and danger, she may be bold to secure herself under his protection, and confidently resolve, while he is with her, and for her, none can be against her. I answer: God has abundantly done it several ways; and those both ordinary, and extraordinary. Ordinarily he has done it vires suppeditando, by supplying her with such a proportionable measure of power and strength, as she has been able to deal upon equal terms with the strongest of her Enemies, and to make her part good with them, in their hottest conflicts and assaults, for policy, for puissance, for number, for power, it has many times fall'n out, that the Church's provision, have not been a whit inferior to any of her Enemies. But his extraordinary ways are more remarkable. God has many times uncouth and extraordinary ways, such as none could ever have expected, invented, imagined, to bring his work and purpose about, as for the peace and safety of his Church, so for the dissipation and confusion of those that have been her Adversaries. 1. He has done it, animos conciliando; by meekning the hearts of her Adversaries, and by sweetly attempering them to a placid and peaceable disposition. Pro. 16.7. When the ways of a man please the Lord, says Solomon, he will make his Enemies his friends. Esau, though he carry the heart of an Enemy toward Jacob, yet he shall look upon him when he meets him, with the face of a friend. The strokes and wounds that perhaps he intended, and threatened, they shall be turned into kisses and smiles. You see what a strange way he brought the Children of Israel out of their Babylonian captivity. Psal. 126.4. The Psalmist says, He turned their captivity like the water of the South. And how was that? That was by the thawing of the Snow that had lain all the winter frozen and congealed upon the tops of the Icy mountains. When at the return of the Spring, the heat of the Sun had melted and dissolved it, it brought store of waters down into the dry places of the South, so turned the barren deserts of it into standing pools. Thus God turned the captivity of his people. He caused the hearts of those heathen Princes, Cyrus, and Artaxerxes, and the rest under whom they had been held Captives, to relent and melt toward them, so as they licenced them to departed, and to return peaceably into their own land. And no less strangely by the Christians, in the times of the primitive Church, when they had suffered long persecution under truculent and bloody Tyrants; God at last mollifyed their hearts, made them of Wolves to become Lambs, inclined divers of those persecuting Emperors, Adrian, and Traian, and Severus, and others, out of tender compassion to recall those cruel edicts, that they had published against the poor Christians, not suffering them to be executed with such rigour, as formerly they had been, and in the end restored peace to his Church. Pro. 21.1. He that hath the hearts of all men in his hand, can turn them, as he pleases, like rivers of waters. 2. He does it, terrorem incutiendo, by striking terror and fear into the hearts of the enemy, that they dare not drive on, to do the mischief they would do. In Exod. 23.28. I will send the hornet before thee, says the Lord, that shall drive out before thee the Hivite & the Canaanite. What Hornet was it that he meant? See the verse before going; I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt com●. The terror and fear with which God often strikes the hearts of his enemies it is like the sting of a Hornet, that takes away their spirit and courage from them, and makes them flee when none pursues them. Thus in Jehorams time, when the Syrians with a huge Army came to make war against Israel, 2 Reg. 7.6. God made them hear a noise of Chariots, and a noise of Horses: & the very fear of this so amazed them, as they left all they had in their tents, and fled for their lives. 1 Sam. 18.2. Thus Saul was restrained from doing any hurt unto David, by reason of the fear that God strake his heart withal. He was afraid of David, says the text, because he saw that the Lord was with him. And thus the jews were restrained, Luke 19.47. even for f●●re of the people, from laying hands upon Christ, when they would have apprehended, and put him to death. Strange to see, how great ones do many times stand in fear of those that are meaner than themselves, those who, one would think, should rather stand in fear of them; and how few in number God can make to disperse exceeding great multitudes. As Jonathan said to his Armour-bearer, when they two, and no more, creeping upon their hands and knees, between the teeth of those two rocks, that were in Bozez and Seneh, discomfited a Garrison of the Philistims; There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many, or by few. 1. Sam. 14.6. God promised his people that it should be so; that he would strike such fear into the hearts of their enemies, that five of them should chase a hundred, and a hundred of them put ten thousand to flight. Levit. 26.8. 3. He does it poenam infligendo; by inflicting some remarkable judgement upon the enemy. Sometime, for the present disabling of them; as it was with Jeroboam when he stretched forth his hand against the Prophet at Bethel, commanding to lay hold on him, his hand withered and dried up by and by, so that he was not able to put it in again. And so * Theodor. hist. Eccl. l. 4. c. 17. Valens the Emperor, when he came to sign the writ for the banishment of Saint Basil, his fingers shook and shrunk up that he was not able to hold the pen. Sometime again to the utter cutting off, 1. Reg. 13.4. and destroying of them. So when Pharaoh and his host of uncircumcised Egyptians, Exod. 14.25. pursued the Israelites at the red Sea; 2 Reg. 19.35. God strooke off their Chariot wheels, and the Sea closed her mouth upon them, that they sunk as lead into the mighty waters. So Senacherib, and his Assyrian Army, a hundred and five thousand of them, when they came to fight against Hezekiah, they were by an Angel of God all slain in one night, and all found in the morning so many dead corpses. Many examples you shall meet with in the Ecclesiastical Histories, of the prodigious and fearful judgements that almighty God sent upon persecuting Tyrants, and of the miserable ends that they came unto; by means whereof the Church enjoyed tranquillity and peace. 4. He does it cursum divertendo; by diverting the courses of the enemy, and putting them upon new occasions, to stay the present violence of their furious proceed. Thus when Saul was pursuing David, 2 S●m. 23.27. hunting him up and down like a Partridge upon the mountains; God sprung up a new game for him (as one says) set the Philistines upon the back of him, so as he was feign to leave chase of David, and to bend his forces against them. We want not those in our own times that may in this example read their own story; men that have been hot in the pursuing of others, others that have been as innocent perhaps as ever David was, and by them as much hated (I dare say) as ever Saul hated David, when by all the projects and practices they could devise, they have endeavoured the treading of them down, and the rooting of them up; suddenly the wheel has turned about, and while they have been undermining others, others have countermined against them, so as they have been forced to leave the game they were following, and to shift for the saving of their own skins. I need not instance in those of the Popish faction. It's notoriously well known, how active they have always been, specially of late years, how industriously, how indefatigably they have bestirred themselves, for the strengthening of their confederacy and advancing of their cause, making nobodies of the Protestants or worse then nobodies. But I hope there is a Western wind now blowing, that will turn their weather cocks another way. 5. He does it machinas detegendo; by detecting and disclosing the machinations and plots of the enemy; and so strangely bringing them to light, that they have been defeated, before they could be accomplished. Thus the plots of the Aramites were discovered, even their bedchamber secrets to the Prophet Elisha. 2 Reg. 6.12. Thus the conspiracy of Bigthan and Teresh, two of the King's Chamberlains was discovered by Mordecai to King Ahashuerus. Ester 2.22. Thus the plot that Haman had laid against Mordecai, and the lot he had prepared to destroy the whole nation of the Jews, was discovered to Queen Esther, and by a strange providence prevented. Thus the conspiracy against Paul, Act. 23.12. by above forty men that had bound themselves with an oath and a curse, neither to eat nor drink till they had killed him, was discovered to the Chief Captains by his Sister's Son. And thus the plot of our Gunpowder Traitors (the like whereof heaven never saw, hell never forged, earth never heard of) was discovered by the writing of a letter, I know not whether more strangely penned, or strangely interpreted; but pen and tongue both guided by a Divine providence, to bring those dark things to light which (had they been otherwise) our light had been covered under perpetual darkness. 6. Consilia infatuando, by infatuating the counsels of the enemy, and turning their devises into foolishness. Thus the Lord infatuated the counsel of Achitophel, which he had so politicly and so pestilently contrived against David. Certainly, had that pernicious piece of Counsel succeeded, the field had been half won before a blow had been given. But God that guided the tongue of Hushai, guided also the heart of Absalon, 2 Sam. 17.14. and made Hushais counsel to prevail with Absalon, that Absaloms' treason might not prevail against David. So what he intended for a snare to David, it proved in the conclusion a halter to himself. All these ways it pleaseth Almighty God so to declare himself for the defence and protection of his Church, as while he appears for her, she may boldly bid defiance to any enemies that can come in against her. And thus I have given you the Explication of my text as well as I am able. I shall now only crave leave, to wind up what remains in a word or two of application; and then dismiss you with a blessing. 1. If it be so, that while God is for us, none can be against us; all that are Gods have here a strong foundation of comfort to build upon: Let who will be against thee; the world against thee, the Devil against thee, all against thee, as long as thou hast God with thee, thou needest not be dismayed; Thou hast more with thee then against thee, as Elisha said to his servant, 2 King. 6.16. be confident that unless they can overcome God, they can never overcome thee. When Caesar was at Sea in a great tempest, the Master of the ship began to be afraid; The Emperor bade him not be afraid; Caesarem vehis, says he remember thou hast Caesar in the Ship with thee: Wheresoever we are, so long as we have God with us, there's nothing we have cause to be afraid of indeed. Pone me juxta te; so the vulgar reads that text Joh. 17.3. Set me beside thee, and let any man's hand fight against me. The Prophet David heroically, Psal. 46.1. God is our refuge and our strength, therefore I will not fear though the earth be moved, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea: So Psal. 27.3. Though an host should encample against me my heart should not fear, though war should rise up against me, yet in this I would be confident. In this? In what? He tells you in the first verse; The Lord is my light and my salvation, therefore whom should I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, therefore of whom should I be afraid? Say a thousand dangers compass thee about: Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt. As thou hast a thousand dangers to environ thee, so God has a thousand ways to deliver thee. What could Luther say? If all the houses in Worms were tiled with Devils, I would not be afraid to go thither; because he was confident he had God to go along with him. Deus meus et omnia, as he said, God mine, and all mine. Let me but make that sure, and wheresoever I become I am safe. If I can but be so happy as to apprehend that I have a propriety and interest in God, and to be assured that God is mine; though it be the nature of fear to betray all succours, that will secure me against all fears. God is a Rock to his children; what ever else we build upon, is but sand; The Salvation of those that trust in him; Therefore David joins them together, My God and my salvation, Salvation is mine, if God be mine. But then I must be able to say, he is Mine, Tolle meum, tolle Deum; take my away, as good take God away. Were it not for that possessive My, the Devil might say the Creed, to as good purpose as thou. For the Devil believes there's a God; the Devil believes there's a Christ; but that which torments him is this, that he cannot say My to any one article. Who ever can say that, and say it in Faith, he shall have that comfort given him that all the world cannot take from him; even that spirit of comfort that shall abide with him to the end, and make him victorious in all his encounters. Nothing shall be forcible enough to bereave him of it. Sicut non vincitur qui dat, ita nec aufertur quod dat. As he that gives cannot be overcome, so that which he gives cannot be taken away. I remember it was the comfort that Moses gave the Israelites when they were to have war with the Canaanites; Numb. 14 Fear not, God is with us. And Vegetius says, Veget. lib. 3. cap. 3. it was the word, that the Roman Soldiers afterward cheated up one another with in their wars; Deus nobiscum; God is with us. Let it be your word also, when you go forth into the field, and while you lie here in your Fort: Where ever you are, learn to do by this text as Chytraeus reports the Emperor Maximilian to have done. Chytraeus in Itinerario. He says, he was so taken with it, and so exceedingly admired it, as he caused it to be set in letters of Checquer-worke, upon a table that he commonly dined and supped at, that having it always in his eye, he might always have it in his mind; Si Deus nobiscum, quis contra nos? If God be for us, who can be against us? 2. A here is a great deal of comfort, for them that are Gods, so for them that have no assurance of God, no propriety nor interest in God, here's a great deal of terror. 1. They can have no peace within themselves. 2. They can have no hope to prevail against those whom they count their Enemies. 1. No peace within themselves. For granting this to be true on the the one side, that If God be for us, none can be against us; the contrary must needs be true on the other side, that if God be against us, none can be for us. Such the condition of all wicked men. They have God against them: And what can be more fearful? Psal. 102.2. Hid not thy face from me, says David, nor absent thyself in a time of trouble. For God to do that, to hid his face from us at any time, or (though a friend) to absent himself from us, we shall find that bad enough. But for God to look at us with angry face, that will be ten thousand times worse. If to absent himself from us, be uncomfortable; to set himself against us, that's a great deal more terrible. As we can have no friend like God, so we can have no Enemy like God. As it is no matter whom we have against us, if God be for us; so no matter whom we have for us, if God be against us. To say truth, all will be against us, if God be against us. Men against us, Angels against us, Devils against us, our own consciences against us, all Creatures in Heaven and Earth against us, and all too potent, too strong for us: Mice were too strong for the Philistims; Lice too strong for the Egyptians, when God had once set himself against them. So that's one part of wicked men's misery, They can have no peace within themselves. A second is; They can have no hope to prevail against those, whom they count to be their Enemies. The wicked count all their Enemies that are Gods friends. Therefore as they set themselves against God, so they set themselves against them. But all in vain, and without hope of success: Psal. 2.1. Why do the heathen rage, saith the Psalmist? Or why do the rulers of the earth combine and take counsel together? They do but imagine a vain thing. And mark the reason that he gives; They do it against the Lord, and against his anointed. The Lord will be too hard for them, and they will but kick against a throne, when they rise up against him. So the Prophet, in Esay 8.9. Associate yourselves oh you people, yet you shall be broken to pieces; and gird yourselves, yet you shall be broken to pieces; Take counsel together, yet it shall come to nought, speak the word, yet it shall not stand: and it is the same reason he gives for it; Quia Deus nobiscum, because Gods is with us. God that sits in heaven is always with his Church, and when he sees how actively her Enemies bestir themselves, how they bend their bow, Psal. 11.2. and make their arrow ready upon the string, to shoot at them, that be upright in heart, videt, et ridet, He sees them and laughs at them, breaks their snares asunder, cuts their cords to pieces, many times catches them in their own net, and makes them fall into the pit that themselves have digged. How often falls it out, that the Church's deliverance and her Enemy's destruction meet both together? How often that the plots which are laid for God's children, are not only disappointed, but the wicked themselves undone by the plots that they have laid? Thence those two phrases of the Scripture, they wove the spider's web, and hatch the Cockatrice's egg. They wove the spider's web: Isa. 59.5. that shows how vain their attempts are. For how soon is the spider's web swept away, though never so cunningly and curiously spun? So all the stratagems and attempts of the Churches wicked Enemies, though never so cunningly contrived, yet they are quickly defeated, scattered and swept away on the sudden, even like a spider's web. But that's not all; It's worse then so. They hatch the Cockatrice's egg: That shows, how pernicious their attempts are, pernicious to their own selves. For out of the egg they hatch, there springs a Viper that stings them to death. Their own counsels and devices work to their own ruin. So it is a double evil that attends them, enough one would think, to cure them of their madness, and to take them off from prosecuting their malicious purposes, when they begin to set their hearts upon mischief; First that they are vain in what they do; then that they are cursed in what they do. First they shall be disappointed in the circumventing of others; then the ruin that they study and meditate, shall fall upon their own heads. In brief; Those for whom God is, nothing shall be against them; Those against whom God is, nothing shall be for them. 3. Thirdly and lastly. Seeing while God is for us, nothing can be against us; Beloved, it we desire to have God for us, we must resolve to be for God. We must be on his side, if we will have him on ours. What said the Prophet Azariah to the men of Benjamin and Judah? 2 Chro. 25.2. The Lord is with you, while you are with the Lord. Shall we think the Lord will be for us, if we be not for him? Nay, shall we think the Lord will be for us, when we are against him? while we side with the Devil and the world and the flesh, can we be so unreasonable as to presume that God will side with us? No. Remember what David's words were to Solomon; 1 Chro. 28.9. If thou seek the Lord, he will be found of thee, but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. I would this lesson were well remembered and well learnt. Sure I am; no people under Heaven have more cause to remember it and learn it then we. Never was God more for any people, then for us in this land. How many eminent tokens and seals of his favour hath he printed upon us? How many mercies have we been compassed about withal? What plenty have we enjoyed? What days of peace have we seen? What a happy government have we lived under? What a flourishing state have we had? What a flourishing Church have we had? What a sort of mighty preservations, and miraculous deliverances have we had? It were easy for me to lose myself in this field, but it is too late to wander fare. I shall only exhort you to be mindful of the duty we all stand engaged in. Seeing God hath been so gracious to us, let us be as zealous for him. Seeing he hath appeared on our side, let us appear on his. And remember we cannot be rightly for God, if we be not against those, that are against God. God's friends must be our friends, and Gods Enemies must be our Enemies. Enemies they are to God, that are Enemies to his Church, Enemies to his cause, Enemies to his Gospel, Enemies to the sincerity of his worship and to the purity of his Ordinances. None more malevolent, and bitter than those of the popish faction, those that are Rome's favourites; therefore none that we should set ourselves against, more than against them. We have been faulty this way. We have complied too much with Rome, and connived too much at Popery. Like those of Thyatira (St. John. blames them for it) we have suffered the woman Jezabel, Revel. 2.20. which calls herself a Prophetess, to teach and to deceive many of God's servants; and to make them drunk with the cup of her spiritual fornication. It is time to un-deceive them if we can; to pluck the cup from their mouths, and to pluck down her from her throne. All that are on God's side will do it. Who is on my side there? 2 Reg. 9.33. says John, Who? He that is on my side, let him cast down Jezabel: So, who ever is on God's side, let him down with that Jezabel of Rome, down with her Idolatries and superstitions; down with her trumperies and vanities; down with her Altars and Images; down with her rags and relics. They be but Jezabels fragments, and let them be used, as Jezabel was used; It's time they were trodden under foot, and that Dogs-meate were made of them. Help Royal Sovereign to throw her down; Help more and more to throw her down, You of the honourable court of Parliament. Every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, help to throw her down. Never let us halt (as we have done) between God and Baal, away with such halting. Never let us mingle languages as we have done, the Language of Ashdod, with the language of Canaan. Away with such canting. Let's speak ourselves what we are, and be no more ashamed of our livery than we are of out service. If we be ashamed of Christ now, he will be ashamed of us another day; but he will not refuse to own us, if we be not afraid to own him. Ours he is, and ours he will be. He will be for us, he will be with us; with us in health and with us in sickness, with us at home and with us abroad, with us in the City and with us in the field, with us in peace and with us in war, with us in life and with us in death. And we at last shall be with him (if we contineu to be for him) in that glory and blessedness which shall endure to all eternity. FINIS.