THE Triumphant Challenge of a Victorious Champion, against all the Churches enemies, bodily and ghostly. It was daringly done of Goliah, 1 Sam. 17.10. when he challenged the whole Hoast of Israel. Loe here, all the Hoast of the earth are challeng'd, with all the Armies of Hell to boote, and though they should all joyne in one, here's one that defies them all. The Triumph is first more generall, in this verse and in the next. Then more particular, in the verses that come after; which I shall touch upon anone. In this verse, the Apostle triumphs, that nothing can befortun a Chri­stian to doe 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 againe, that nothing can be wanting to a Christian that shall doe 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? [...] saies the Apostle? [Page 2] what shall we say to these things? These are such things, as if all were reckon'd up, that can be reckoned up, nothing could be more said. He summes up all here that he had said before. Before, he had enumerated and reckon'd up, the severall, and singular priviledges, that Christians have an interest in. He beginnes with the lowest of them, Deliverance from condem­nation. In de 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 wee are exalted. He hath praedestinated us, (he saies) He hath cal­led us, He hath justified us, He hath glorified us; So in the v. immediatly before going. But there he stayes, hee makes a stop at that, as if when he had said that, he had said all; He had gone so high as he could goe no higher. And therefore here, by way of recapitulation, he breaks forth into this tri­umphant acclamation, [...]; what shall wee say to these things? As if he should say, This is all that can be said. More then this cannot be spoken; greater comfort then this, can­not be given. You may understand it three waies. Either by way of thankefull acknowledgement; What shall we say to these things? They be such excellent things, as wee can never bee sufficiently thankfull to God for them. Or by way of admi­ration and wonderment: what shall we say to these things! They be such wonderfull things, as wee cannot but admire and bee astonished, so often as we thinke of them. Or last of all, by way of triumph and challenge What shal we say to these things? They be such high and mighty things, as we dare challenge all Creatures, Men and Devills, to say or doe what ever they can against them; we are confidently resolved, and peremp­torily wee 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, saies the Apostle. The word If, is not to be doubtfully, but affirmatively taken. Though it have but a suppositive forme, 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 Angell from heaven preach any other Gospel, then that which wee have preacht, let him be accursed. The Apostle knew it was im­possible that an Angell 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 certaine. They are exprest 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, &c.

Or againe, 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 followes; The quis con­tra nos? who can bee 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 marke our iniquities, Quis feret? who can abide it? Ille quis, nullus; saies S ^t. 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 bee 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 denyed.

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 Hypotheticall Syl­logisme; the Major only exprest: The Minor and Conclusion conceald. Fully thus. If God be for us, none can be against us. This is the Maior part of the Syllogisme, and this you see is exprest. Then comes in the Minor, though conceald 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 Proofe: 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 Proofe 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 aske? He needed not aske 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. Looke how many wicked men there be in the world, so many we have against us. Looke how many Devils there be in hell, so many we have against us. And yet does the Apostle aske, who can be against us?

Who knowes not, that there hath beene enmity from the beginning, between the seede of the Woman, and the seede of the Serpent? Gen. 3.15. Who knowes 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 [Page 5]to this day the matter is not mended a whit; nor the world is no Changeling, but still the old quarrell 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 Hereticks; Bernard Now in the peaceable times of it, it hath beene persecuted by false brethren, and hypocriticall Professors. Even in our owne dayes a sort that have seem'd to be greatly for the Church, they have beene shamefully against it; against the spirituall glory of it, against the sincere worship of God in it, against the power of the Gospell, and the purity of the ordinances, (more for Innovation then for Reformation) though for out­ward splendour and ceremony, zealous beyond measure, to advance the pompe of it. Of her being persecuted by these three enemies, the Church may complaine as Jacob did, when he fear'd to be deprived of his three sonnes: 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 poore Church of Christ may complaine; Tyrants have persecuted me, and Hereticks have persecuted me; and now false brethren and hypocrites persecute me: What Rocks am I cast upon? what straites am I driven to? All these things are against me. And yet does the Apostle aske, 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 Devill in hell, and a faction in the world, that will maintaine warre against both. Unlesse Christ and the Devill 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 looke 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, saies 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 learne 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 [Page 6]Apostle, St. Paul himselfe after he had once taken upon him the name of a Christian, he never went without the badge of a Christian, but carried the crosse about with him ever-after, Gal. 6.17. bore the markes 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 rais'd the Citie in uproare against him; with Alexander the Copper-smith, that did all the mischiefe he could to him; 2. Tim. 4.13. 2. Tim. 4.10. Act. 13.8. Act. 14.19. Act. 16.22. with Alexander the Copper-smith, that did all the mischiefe he could to him; with Demas that revol­ted from him; with Elymas at Paphos, that withstood him; with the Jews at Lystra, that ston'd him; with the Magistrates at Philippi, that whipt 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 aske, who can be against us?

Yes; He might aske it well enough. Take S ^t Pauls mea­ning with S ^t Pauls words, and we may confidently resolve this Interrogative, into a Negative; None can bee against us: That is to say, None can be so against us, as ever to prevaile against us. They may Assault, but they cannot overcome: They may oppose, but they cannot overthrow; They may fight, but they cannot foile; 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 soule: In a word, They may beleaguer, but they cannot con­quer; Traitor-like undermine us, but not blow us up.

Premimur, non opprimimur, it is the Churches Motto; the word that she carryes in her Flag and Ensigne. As 2 Cor. 4.8. We are troubled on every side, but yet we are not distressed; we are perplexed, but yet we doe not despaire; 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 doe that: It is the Apostles Challenge here in my text. [...]? who can be against us? That is, who so, as to prevaile 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 spirituall enemies, nor bodily. Not spirituall; such as would accuse, verse 33. such as would condemne, verse 34. such as would separate us from God, verse 35. None shall be able, either to doe 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 prevaile against us. No nor any bodily enemies neither: Those that he afterward musters up. Tribulation, distresse, persecution, famine, Na­kednesse, perill, 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 doe, in stead of conquering us, we shall conquer them; nay, we shall be more then conquerours over them, saies the Apostle, through him that loves us; in the 37. verse of the chapter.

He goes a step higher yet; joynes bodily and ghostly both to­gether; bids defiance to them all, heroically resolves that none of them all shall prevaile; neither death nor life, nor An­gels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to com, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature; let them make what confederacies they can, joyne all their counsells, 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 behalfe he makes it. That's in the word [...] Ʋs; 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 pre­vaile. It is a house built upon a rock. Let the raine fall, let the windes blow, let the flouds rise, her foundation is impreg­nable, and (as the Psalmist of Mount-Zion) shall never be [Page 8]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 sayl'd in, fill'd with water, and cover'd with waves, and the passengers, Mat. 8.26. all ready to cry out, Lord save us, we pe­rish. We have had the sad and woefull experience of it, in all ages. And even of late dayes, what pressures the Church hath suffered, in most places of Christendome, how the ploughers have ploughed long furrows upon their backs, how her fields have been sowne with the bodies, & watered with blood of Gods Saints, the Goshens and Edens of it, that were sometimes as the Gardens of God, turn'd now into A­celdemaes and Golgothaes, (I would I could say that we in our owne land had not beene made to drinke deepe of this cup) whose heart bleeds not to thinke 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 prevaile; though over the persons, yet never over the cause. She shall have an Ʋbi still, a hiding place to rest in, though it be in the wildernesse. God will still reserve a remnant to himselfe, even in the worst times, that shall worship him in sincerity, and not kisse the Calves in Bethel, nor bow the knee to Baal.

Againe, Though the Churches Enemies may now and then prevaile in some places; yet like the Sea (as one saies) what they gaine in one place, they lose in another. And so the Church for her part, what she loses in one place, she gaines in a­nother. As what she lost among the Jews, when they reje­cted the Gospell of Christ, she gain'd among the Gentiles, when they received it. So what she lost in the Easterne parts of the world, she gained in the Westerne; what she lost in Garmany, she gain'd in the Netherlands; what in Italy and Spain; she gain'd in France and England. God still so provides, that what her Enemies doe against her in one place, he does for her in another; and though they prevaile against some part of the Church, yet against the whole Church (as I said) they shall never prevaile.

Nay; they shall never prevaile neither against any one mem­ber of the Church. Every childe shall inherit the same blessing [Page 9]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 faile. Peters Faith never utterly faild; Tis true, It was shaken indeede, but though concussa, yet not excussa, as Theophylact sayes, though it were shaken, it was not shiver'd; Mota, sed non amota, moved it was, but it was not removed: Coepit arescere, sed non exa­ruit; It withered at the top, but it dyed not at the roote. In 2. Tim. 4.8. St. Paul speakes of a Crowne of righteousnesse, that he sayes he knew the Lord would give him. Marke what he adds; He sayes he would not give it to him only, but to e­very one that loved his appearing. Had not every Christian this priviledge, his condition were uncomfortable. But our hap­pinesse 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 Enemie shall ever prevaile against the whole Church; I being a member of the Church, my confidence and comfort is, that none shall ever finally prevaile against me. Let's assure our selves, they shall not. Though they may prevaile over our lives, they shall not prevaile over our spirits. Though they may reproch our names, and plunder our estates, and mangle our bodies; they shall never doe any violence to our soules. No, the Devill himselfe shall never lay hand upon them, un­lesse he could pluck them out of Gods 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 be­halfe 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? saies 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 doe that. He tells you why. Because it is God that justisies us. God is the Judge of all, and it is in the [Page 10]Judges power to pronounce those that are accused, either guilty or innocent. If God being the Judge, therefore will justifie us to be innocent, no accuser can make us guil­ty.

Then in the 34. verse. Quis condemnabit? Who shall con­demne? None shal be able to doe that neither: He tells you why. Because Christ is dead and ris [...]n againe for us. Christ by his death and resurrection hath acquited us from the sen­tence of condemnation. He became surety for us, and paid the debt that we owed. The death that we deserv'd he suf­fered, and being suffered by him, it cannot be charged upon us. What ever debt I owe, my Creditour cannot condemne 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 doe that either. He tells you why. Be­cause Gods 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 perswaded nothing can separate us from the love of God to us in Christ, as the Apostle sweetly in the cloze of this chapter. If then there be none that can accuse us, none that can condemne 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 poore Church may be (as you heard before) but who ever afflicts her, none can overcome her. Enemies may rise up against her, but none of the shall prevaile against her. That is, they shall never so prevaile, 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 spoile her of Glo­ry.

I may goe one step higher yet. So far shall the Enemies of the Church be from doing any thing against her, as in [Page 11]seeking to doe against her, the shall rather doe for her. In stri­ving to be her Enemies, they shall (though against their wills) prove her best friends. What ever they intend to her hurt, it shall turne to her good. As Ioseph to his brethren, Gen. 50.20. When you thought evill against me, God meant it to my good. So God will turne that to the good of his Church, which her Enemies intend to her for e­vill. The plot that Haman laid for Mordecai, and the lot that he cast for the rooting out of the Jewes, beside the mischiefe he brought upon himselfe by it, (it was like an Arrow shot upright, that fell downe upon his owne head) it turn'd in the end to Mor­decai's greater advancement, and to the Iewes greater enlarge­ment. And so shall every thing turne, that the Enemie plots and practises, to ruine any of Gods children, it shall turne to their greater good and glory in the end. It may for the time helpe to let out some of their corrupt blood; but they shall afterward be the sounder for it. As it was with Phereus Iason in the story; one that had an Aposthem growing within his body; Cic [...] natur [...] deor: l. 3. when an Enemie 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 meanes profuit hostis, his Enemie did him a better turn, then all his Chirurgions could doe him. Gladio vo­micam aperuit; He opened the ulcer he had within him, and by o­pening it cured it.

They say vines beare the better, when they are watered with blood: So does the vine of Gods Church. The blood that has been shed in it▪ has been a deaw to water it. The more the Church has been persecuted, the more she has flourisht. Like the Camo­mill, the more you treade upon it, the thicker it growes; Nitit [...]r in pondus palma et consurgit in altum. like the Palme; the more weight you lay upon it, the broader it spreads. Non minuitur, sed augetur, saies Leo. The Church lessens not with persecution, but increases. Therefore Tertullian to the Gentiles, when they were so cruell in persecuting the poore Christians. What gaine you by all your cruelty? saies he. It is no such Bug­beare to scare us, it is rather a Baite to allure us. Quoties metimur, plures efficimur; the oftner we are mowen downe, the thicker we come up. Pharaoh found it so, when he opprest and afflicted the Israelites; The more he afflicted them, saies the text, the more they mul­tiplied and grew. Exod. 1.12. And Herod found it so after his behead­ding of Iames, and imprisoning of Peter. The fiercer he waxt, the fertiler the Church waxt, for (says the story) the word multiplyed [Page 12]and grew after it. Act. 12.24. We neede not wonder at this be­loved. No wonder that nothing can prevaile against the elect of God; nothing to accuse; nothing to condemne; 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 gene­rall part that I propounded to speake 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; Onely 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 Machabees had it afterward for their Mot­to, and put it upon their banner when they went out to their warrs. [...] 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 initiall letters of the foure words in that sentence, Mem, Caph, Beth, Jod, which are just the initiall letters of the foure syllables of their name, Macha­baei. Sufficient it is that God hath cal'd himselfe El-shaddai; a God al-sufficient. So to Abraham, Gen. 17.1. Eni, El-shaddai, I am the Almighty God; or I am God all-sufficient. All-sufficient to himselfe. All-sufficient to his Creatures. All-sufficient to save. All-sufficient to destroy. All-sufficient to doe what he will. All-sufficient to doe how he will. All-sufficient to doe more then 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 wise­dome, none like him in holinesse, 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. Traytours and Rebells, Hereticks and Tyrants, Jesuites and De­vills, [Page 13]wee 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 foure wayes. For us in predestinating us; For us, in calling us; For us in iustifying us; For us in glorifying us. And these foure wayes, by which God is said to be for us, he op­poses to those foure Enemies that rise up against us. The first, our inferiour Enemies; (as he calls him) that's Man. The second our exteriour; that's the World. The third our Interiour; that's the Flesh. The fourth our superiour; that's the Devill. That man cannot prevaile 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 Devill; 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 reade, Si deus nobiscum; If God be with us. And being so read, it may seeme to have speciall refe­rence to Christ. For Immanuel you know is Christs name; and that's as much to say as Deus nobiscum; God with us. And indeed, it is most certaine, 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 iusti­fies, and glorifies. It is in and for Christs sake, that none can accuse us, condemne us, separate us from his love. He is the fountaine 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 streames flowing from that fountaine. All our liberties, priviledges, 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 doe us, all must be acknowledged to come by Christ; and by him, praise to God must be rendred 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 himselfe to be for his Church, as in times of feare and danger, she may be bold to secure her selfe 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 severall wayes; 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 beene able to deale upon e­quall termes 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 falne out, that the Churches provision, have not beene a whit inferi­our to any of her Enemies.

But his extraordinary wayes are more remarkeable. God has many times uncouth and extraordinary wayes, such as none could ever have expected, invented, imagined, to bring his worke and purpose about, as for the peace and safety of his Church, so for the dissipation and confusion of those that have beene 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 wayes of a man please the Lord, sayes Solomon, he will make his Enemies his friends. Esau, though he car­ry the heart of an Enemie toward Jacob, yet he shall looke upon him when he meets him, with the face of a friend. The stroakes and wounds that perhaps he intended, and threatned, 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 sayes, He turned their captivity like the water of the South. And how was that? That was by the thawing of the Snow that had lyen all the winter frozen and congeald upon the tops of the Icie mountaines. When at the returne of the Spring, the heate 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 desarts of it into standing pooles. 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 beene held Captives, to relent and melt toward them, so as they licenced them to depart, and to returne peaceably into their owne land. And no lesse 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, enclined divers of those perse­cuting Emperours, Adrian, and Traian, and Severus, and others, [Page 15]out of tender compassion to recall those cruell edicts, that they had published against the poore Christians, not suffering them to be executed with such rigour, as formerly they had beene, and in the end restored peace to his Church. Pro. 21.1. He that hath the hearts of all men in his hand, can turne them, as he pleases, like rivers of waters.

2. He does it, terrorem incutiendo, by striking terror and feare in­to the hearts of the enemy, that they dare not drive on, to do the mischiefe they would doe. In Exod. 23.28. I will send the hornet be­fore thee, says the Lord, that shal drive out before thee the Hivite & the Canaanite. What Hornet was it that he meant? See the verse be­fore going; I will send my feare before thee, and will destroy all the peo­ple to whom thou shalt com [...]. The terrour and feare 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 warre against Israel, 2 Reg. 7.6. God made them heare a noyse of Chariots, and a noyse of Horses: & the very feare of this so amaz'd them, as they left all they had in their tents, and fled for their lives. 1 Sam. 18.2. Thus Saul was restrain'd from do­ing any hurt unto David, by reason of the feare that God strake his heart withall. He was afraid of David, saies the text, because he saw that the Lord was with him. And thus the Iews 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 doe many times stand in feare of those that are meaner then themselves, those who, one would think, should rather stand in feare 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, betweene the teeth of those two rockes, 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 feare 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 stretcht forth his hand against the Prophet at Bethel, commanding to lay hold on him, his hand withered and dryed up by and by, so that hee was not able [Page 16]to put it in againe. And so Theodor. hist. Eccl. l. 4. c. 17. Ʋalens the Emperor, when hee came to signe the writ for the banishment of Saint Basil, his fingers shook and shrunke up that he was not able to hold the pen. Sometime againe to the utter cutting off, 1. Reg. 13.4. and destroying of them. So when Pha­raoh and his host of uncircumcised Aegyptians, Exod. 14.25. pursued the Isra­elites at the red Sea; 2 Reg. 19.35. God strooke off their Chariot wheeles, and the Sea closed her mouth upon them, that they sunke as leade 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 Angell of God all slaine in one night, and all found in the morning so many dead corpses. Many examples you shall meet with in the Ecclesiasticall Histories, of the prodigious and fearefull judgements that almighty God sent upon persecuting Tyrants, and of the miserable ends that they came unto; by meanes 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 proceedings. Thus when Saul was pursu­ing David, 2 S [...]m. 23.27. hunting him up and downe like a Partrich upon the mountaines; God sprung up a new game for him (as one saies) set the Philistines upon the back of him, so as hee was faine to leave chasing of David, and to bend his forces against them. We want not those in our owne times that may in this example reade their owne story; men that have beene hot in the pursuing of o­thers, others that have beene 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 practises they could devise, they have endeavored the treading of them downe, and the roo­ting of them up; sodainly the wheele has turned about, and while they have beene 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 owne skins. I neede not instance in those of the Popish faction. It's notoriously well knowne, how active they have alwaies beene, specially of late yeeres, how industriously, how indefatigably they have bestir'd themselves, for the strengthening of their confederacy and advancing of their cause, making no-bodies of the Protestants or worse then no-bodies. But I hope there is a Westerne winde now blowing, that will turne their weather cocks another way.

5. He does it machinas detegendo; by detecting and disclosing [Page 17]the machinations and plots of the enemy; and so strangely bring­ing them to light, that they have been defeated, before they could be accomplisht. Thus the plots of the Aramites were discovered, even their bed-chamber secrets to the Prophet Elisha. 2 Reg. 6.12. Thus the con­spiracy of Bigthan and Teresh, two of the Kings 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 Jewes, was discovered to Queene Esther, and by a strange providence prevented. Thus the conspi­racie against Paul, Act. 23.12. by above forty men that had bound themselves with an oath and a curse, neither to eate nor drink till they had killed him, was discovered to the Chiefe Captaines by his Sisters Sonne. And thus the plot of our Gunpowder Traytours (the like whereof heaven never saw, hell never forg'd, earth never heard of) was discove­red by the writing of a letter, I know not whether more strange­ly pen'd, or strangely interpreted; but pen and tongue both guided by a Divine providence, to bring those dark things to light which (had they beene otherwise) our light had beene cover'd under per­petuall darknesse.

6. Consilia infatuando, by infatuating the counsels of the enemy, and turning their devises into foolishnesse. Thus the Lord infatuated the counsaile of Achitophel, which hee had so politiquely and so pestilently contrived against David. Certainly, had that perni­cious peece of Counsaile succeeded, the field had been halfe wonne before a blow had been given. But God that guided the tongue of Hushai, guided also the heart of Absalom, 2 Sam. 17.14. and made Hushais counsaile to prevaile with Absalom, that Absaloms treason might not prevaile against David. So what he intended for a snare to David, it proved in the conclusion a halter to himselfe.

All these waies it pleaseth Almighty God so to declare himself for the defence and protection of his Church, as while hee ap­peares 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 onely crave leave, to wind up what re­maines in a word or two of application; and then dismisse 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 [Page 18]Devill against thee, all against thee, as long as thou hast God with thee, thou needest not be dismaid; Thou hast more with thee then a­gainst thee, as Elisha said to his servant, 2 King. 6.16. be confidēt that unlesse 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 bee afraid; The Emperour bad him not bee 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 afrayd of indeed. Pone me juxta te; so the vulgar reads that text Joh. 17.3. Set me beside thee, and let any mans hand fight against me. The Prophet David heroically, Psal. 46.1. God is our refuge and our strength, therefore I will not feare though the earth be moved, though the mountaines be carried into the midst of the sea: So Psal. 27.3. Though an hoast should encample against me my heart should not feare, though warre 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 feare? The Lord is the strength of my life, therefore of whom should J be afraid? Say a thousand dangers compasse thee about: ‘Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.’

As thou hast a thousand dangers to environ thee, so God has a thousand wayes to deliver thee. What could Luther say? If all the houses in Wormes were tyled with Devils, I would not be afraid to goe thither; because he was confident he had God to goe 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 feare to betray all succours, that will succour me a­gainst all feares. 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 joyns 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 Devill might say the Creed, to as good purpose as thou. For the Devill beleeves there's a God; the Devil beleeves 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 [Page 19] spirit of comfort that shall abide with him to the end, and make him victorious in all his encounters. Nothing shall be forcible inough 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 warre with the Canaa­nites; Numb. 14 Feare not, God is with us. And Vegetius says, Ʋeget. lib. 3. cap. 3. it was the word, that the Roman Souldiers afterward cheat'd up one ano­ther with in their wars; Deus nobiscum; God is with us. Let it be your word also, when you goe forth into the field, and while you lye here in your Fort: Where ever you are, learne to doe by this text as Chytraeus reports the Emperour 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 din'd and supt at, that having it alwayes in his eye, he might alwayes have it in his minde; Si Deus nobis­cum, quis contra nos? If God be for us, who can be against us?

2. A here is a great deale 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 deale of terrour.

• 1. They can have no peace within themselves.
• 2. They can have no hope to prevaile 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 fearfull? Psal. 102.2. Hide not thy face from me, says David, nor absent thy self in a time of trouble. For God to doe that, to hide his face from us at any time, or (though a friend) to absent himselfe from us, we shall find that bad enough. But for God to looke at us with angry face, that will be ten thousand times worse. If to absent himselfe from us, be uncomfortable; to set himselfe against us, that's a great deale more terrible. As we can have no friend like God, so we can have no Enemie 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 owne consciences against us, all Creatures in Heaven and Earth against us, and all too potent, too strong for us: [Page 18] [...] [Page 19] [...] [Page 20] Mice were too strong for the Philistims; Lice too strong for the Aegyptians, when God had once set himself against them. So that's one part of wicked mens misery, They can have no peace within them­selves.

A second is; They can have no hope to prevaile against those, whom they count to be their Enemies. The wicked count all their Enemies that are Gods friends. Therfore as they set themselves against God, so they set themselves against them. But all in vaine, and without hope of successe: Psal. 2.1. Why doe the heathen rage, saith the Psalmist? Or why doe the rulers of the earth combine and take counsaile together? They doe but imagine a vaine thing. And marke the reason that he gives; They doe 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 your selves oh you people, yet you shall be broken to pieces; and gird your selves, yet you shall be broken to pieces; Take counsaile together, yet it shall come to nought, speake 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 alwayes with his Church, and when he sees how actively her Enemies bestirre themselves, how they bend their bowe, Psal. 11.2. and make their arrow ready upon the string, to shoote 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 owne net, and makes them fall into the pit that themselves have digged. How often falls it out, that the Churches deliverance and her Enemies destruction meete both together? How often that the plots which are layd for Gods children, are not on­ly disappointed, but the wicked themselves undone by the plots that they have layd? Thence those two phrases of the Scripture, they weave the spiders web, and hatch the Cockatrices egge. They weave the spiders webbe: Isa. 59.5. that shewes how vaine their attempts are. For how soone is the spiders 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 so­daine, even like a spiders web. But that's not all; It's worse then so. They hatch the Cockatrices egge: That shewes, how pernicious their attempts are, pernicious to their owne selves. For out of the egge they hatch, there springs a Viper that stings them to death. Their owne counsails and devices worke to their owne ruine. So it is a [Page 21]double evill that attends them, enough one would thinke, to cure them of their madnesse, and to take them off from prosecuting their malicious purposes, when they begin to set their hearts upon mischief; First that they are vaine in what they do; then that they are curst in what they doe. First they shall be disappointed in the circumventing of others; then the ruine that they study and me­ditate, shall fall upon their owne heads. In briefe; 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 thinke the Lord will be for us, if we be not for him? Nay, shall we thinke the Lord will be for us, when we are against him? while we side with the Devill and the world and the flesh, can we be so unrea­sonable as to presume that God will side with us? No. Remem­ber what Davids words were to Solomon; 1 Chro. 28.9. If thou seeke 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 remembred and well learnd. Sure I am; no people under Heaven have more cause to remember it and learne it then we. Never was God more for a­ny people, then for us in this land. How many eminent tokens and seales of his favour hath he printed upon us? How many mercies have we beene compast about withall? What plenty have we en­joy'd? What dayes of peace have we seene? 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 my selfe in this field, but it is too late to wander farre. I shall only exhort you to be mindefull of the du­ty we all stand engaged in. Seeing God hath been so gratious to us, let us be as zealous for him. Seeing he hath appeared on our side, let us appeare on his. And remember we cannot be rightly for God, if we be not against those, that are against God. Gods 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 Gospell, Enemies to the sincerity of his worship and to the purity of his Ordinances. None more malevolent, and [Page 22]bitter then those of the popish faction, those that are Romes fav [...] ­rites; therefore none that we should set our selves against, more then against them. We have beene faulty this way. We have com­plyed 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 her selfe a Prophetesse, to teach and to deceive many of Gods servants; and to make them drunke with the cup of her spirituall fornication. It is time to un-deceive them if we can; to plucke the cup from their mouthes, and to plucke downe her from her throne. All that are on Gods side will doe it. Who is on my side there? 2 Reg. 9.33. says John, Who? He that is on my side, let him cast downe Jezabel: So, who ever is on Gods side, let him downe with that Jezabel of Rome, downe with her Idolatries and superstitions; downe with her trumperies and vanities; downe with her Altars and Images; down with her rags and reliques. They be but Jeza­bels fragments, and let them be used, as Jezabel was used; It's time they were troden under foote, and that Dogs-meate were made of them. Helpe Royall Soveraigne to throw her downe; Helpe more and more to throw her downe, You of the honourable court of Parliament. Every one that loves the Lord Jesus Christ, helpe to throw her downe. Never let us halt (as we have done) betweene 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 speake our selves what we are, and be no more ashamed of our livery then 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 owne us, if we be not afraid to owne 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 sicknesse, 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 warre, 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 blessednesse which shall en­dure to all eternity.