Verfe 7 1. Out of a natural fierceneffe of evil nature, apt to do mifchief, and hafty to execute it. 2. Cut of a covetous defire to enrich themielves, making no confcience to invade the goods of their neighbours. 3. Out of an ambitious and proud defire, longing to pofleffe a land that is not theirs. Doth God approve these unchristian defires in this idolatrous and wicked nation? We lay and believe that God hateth wickedneffe, neither fhall evil dwell with him. Yet for the action of violence. God feeth his people of the Jews for contempt of Religion, and for corruption of Juftice, and for violence to one another worthy of punishment, he holdeth them worthy to be punished with violence, and therefore he firreth up a violent nation against them. He feeth that they live by oppreffion, and therefore he fendeth oppreffours to ftrip them out of all. He feeth that they live in unbridled licentiousneffe, and there fore he taketh away their liberty and fendeth them into captivity; he findeth them unworthy of the land which he gave them, and therefore he giveth it away to ftrangers, and putteth their enemies into poffeffion thereof. Confider all this as malum panis, the evil of punishment, and But confider how the Chaldæans work in this affaire, and on them. Their judgement and their dignity shall proceed from them felves. That which they feek is a project of their own, they know not what God would have done, and as they advise not with him, nor understand that he stirreth them, they acknowledge nothing to him, as it followeth, for they thank their own god for the victory. You do now fee Gods good end, and their evil, and in this one action; and Saint Augustine faith, Deus quafdam voluntates fuas utique bonas implet, per malorum hominum voluntates malas. Vide Whitak. contra Camp ratione 8. From hence it cometh that they, which fulfilling the Will of God, God, which they know not, do fulfil their own Will, which they aime at, have no reward of their service, but rather are after punished for the fame, as Hugo de Sancto victore, faith. Quoniam non fua voluntate, ad implendum dei voluntatem di- De Sacra rigunt,fed occulta ipfius difpofitione. menti PC. And thus doth Mafter Calvin teach men, in those places 4.c. 15. which Campiara doth flanderously traduce to this paradox, that God is author of fin. M The title is Deum ite impiorum opera iti, & animos flectere ad exequenda fuajudicia ut purus ipfe ab omni labe maneat. It fufficeth that wee fee the intention of the Chaldæans evil, for that condemneth them, and his judgement upon them, which followeth in this chapter, doth prove, that their intention make their whole fervice corrupt, fo that though it pleased God that evil was done against the Jews, they did not please God that did execute the fame. The rule is true, that all evil actions are juftly judged by the intentions of their Agents, good actions are not fo. For every good intention will not juftifie an action to be lawful as in Rebecca and lacob her fonne, it was a good intention to seek the bleffing which God had decreed, but the act whereby it was attained,was meerly unlawful, But an evil intention is fufficient to corrupt any action, though it carry never so fpecious a fhew of good. Jacobs fonnes went about a good action, to draw the Shechemites into a conformity with the Hebrews in Religion, the intention of the Shechemites, which made them embrace the motion, was the enriching of themselves by this correfpondencie, the intention of Jacobs fonnes was to betray them to death, and God punished them both the Shechemites with death, the fonnes of Jacob with their fathers curfe. And the Chaldæans punished the Jews, and fought therein the glory of God only, and gave him the praise of their victory, of whom they borrowed the power of their strength they had been blameleffe: but their hands concurred with the juft will of God, their hearts did not, yet God is juft in employing them. The rule therfore is, that he that willeththe same thing which L 2 1,Inft. 18. s Pet.4.1. Ufe Godwilleth,& doth the fame thing which God would have done finneth, except he willeth and doth the fame thing, in the same matter and for the fame end which God projecteth. Let the fame mind be in you that was in Chrift Jefus, arme your felves with the fame mind. That mind is an armour against the wrath of God; we know we cannot displease him, fo long as there is an harmonie of our mind with his; that mind is an armour against the revenge of men, for if we be abundant always in the work of the Lord, we Eph.4.23. know that our labour is not, cannot be in vaine in the Lord; for we must be renewed in the spirit of our mind, we must not be like the axe and hammer in the hand of the artificer, which knoweth not who ufeth it, nor what he doth, nor why; we are living inftruments, and our minds must let our hands awork, we muft know what we do, for whom and why, or elfe our work is against our felves. We do nothing, but as God doth guide the hand, fo he frameth the heart and affections to it, if he do not alfo enlighten our understandings and apply our minds to it, we are carried as bruic beafts, we are not led as men. So then I leave thofe Chaldæans,though the armies of God at this time, and doing the will of God ignorantly,yet for the corruption of their intention culpable, and in as ill cafe as they whom they perfecute and overcome. * All the injuries that we do by word or deed to our brethren, they are done with Gods privity, he knoweth thereof, he dif pofeth them to their punishment who fuffer by us, or for the ex ercife of their patience, or the tryal of their charity to them that hurt them, or their conftancie in obedience to him mid Let us not fo much confider what good God doth work out of us to them, as what evil breedeth in our heart, and fo no thank to Iofephs brethrent that he is the fecond man in A a glo zotla geng 200 gipt.s All the fat of the land of Gohen and the fweet exchang of their pinching famine for a fwelling plenty, will not ftill the clamo 小 rous accufing voice of their guilty confcience, for the finne of their evil intention against their brother; for as foon as their fa ther died, their fear revived, they doubted that Joseph would revenge that fault. The The old word was animus cujufque,is eft quifque, every mans mind is himfelf, and so when David faith of the just man: the floods of many waters fhall not come near him it is expounded it shall not come so high as his mind to the difquieting thereof: it fhall not come fo high as his faith to the weakning TRANG thereof. Remember this when you pray, fiat voluntas tua, thy will be done; that you defire of God not only a correfpondence with his hand, that you may do that which he would have done, but correfpondence of Will that you may do it for the fame caufe. 3 0 1. { 2. How far the punishment shall extend. 1..2 40 The full Conqueft is fet forth, verf. 6. 3 They hall murch through the bredth of your land to poffeffe the dwelling places that are not theirs.v 9. They shall come all for violence, and shall gather together the captivity as the fand. Wherin is defcribed a full poffeffion of the land of the Jews, and a deportation of the people, a lofle even of the birth-right and the bleffing. Divifp.783 ..... The land of Canaan is called the land of promife, for God promiled it to Abraham, and fwore to him that his feed fhould, inherit it, but by way of Covenant which had reference to their obedience of the law of God, for fo Mofes forewarned them... If thou forget the Lord thy God, &c. I teftifie unto you this day, yee shall furely perish, as the nations Deut.8,194 which the Lord destroyeth before you; foyee shall perish, because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. [. And Mofes faith unto them. Behold I fet before you this day, Deut. 11.. ableffing and a curse. 25. Bleffing, if you obey the Commandments of the Lord, f Now God is free of his promife and oath that he made to them, for they have difobeyed him, they have corrupted their ways, they have contemned and flacked the Law of God, therefore they have forfeited their eftate in that good land,and their perfons.s perfons ftand obliged to the punishment of their difobedience. The leffon is, that all the promises of Gods favour to men, are not abfolute but conditional, and are referred to the obedience or disobedience of men. For man is mutable. Godis unchangeably juft, he must not, he cannot favour difobedience, his love goes not in the blood, but in the faith of Abraham. Israel the pofterity of Abraham is no more to him then the posterity of Canaan who had his fathers curfe, except that Ifrael do ferve him better then they do. He hath told them fo by Mofes, for feeing there was no merit in them to deferve his love at firft, and no means for them to continue his love, but their obedience, that failing, they are to him as heathens. Chrift teacheth us, that if any be wilful, and will not obey the Church, he must be to us as an Heathen and a Publicane, we can never excommunicate fuch ex communione charitatis, out of the communion of charity, for as much as in us lieth we must have peace with all men, and we must never hide our felves from our own ficfh, and we must do good unto all men, but we may, we muft exclude them, ex Communione Ecclefia, from the Communion of the Church, we must not admit them to our Congregations, nor esteem them members of the Church till they be reconciled. Religion is the knot of true union that knitteth us to God, that uniteth us to one another, that once diffolved, farewel fair weather, we must turn all into chiding and reproof, and as the Apostle faith, come to them with the rod. We must complain of them to God, and awake his Juftice upon them. So that if we would keep our land from invafion and depopulation, our perfons from captivity and deportation, our goods from direp tion and deprecation, let us ferve the Lord in feare and obedience, in holineffe and righteoufneffe before him all the days of our lives. 2. The punishment fhall extend to a proud triumph, which is expreft. v. 1o. They shall fcoffe at the Kings, and the Princes fhall be afcorne to them, and they shall deride every strong hold This is another of Gods rods: he punifheth the defpifers with fcorne and contempt, as you heard out of Obadiah: Be hold |
