' Neh. xii. 27, 28; Ps. xxx. Title, A Tsalm and Song at the Dedication of the House of David. While the ark brought the plague, every one was glad to be rid of it; but when it brought a blessing to Obed-edom, they looked upon it aa worthy of entertain- ment. Many will own a blessing ark, a prosperous truth; but he is an Obed-edom in- deed that will own a persecuted, tossed, banished ark.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIEKY DISPENSATION. 227
worship and service. Hiram shall have corn and oil, for affording materials to the building of the temple. Cyrus shall prosper and be victorious, for breaking off the yokes that were about his people's necks, and restoring of them to their Christian liberty. Egypt fared the better for entertaining the patriarchs ; God stored that country with great plenty and variety of outward blessings, because his church was to sojourn there. God blessed Obed-edom's person and possession and family for the ark's sake. The blessings that was upon Obed-edom was like the precious ointment that was shed upon Aaron's head, and that ran down to the lowest skirts of his garments. Every servant in Obed-edom's family tasted of God's noble bounty, and fared the better for the ark's sake. Let men and devils do their worst, God will cer- tainly bless their dwellings who give entertainment to his ark, to his people that desire to worship him in spirit and in truth.
0 sirs, this is and this must be for a lamentation, that there are so many ale-houses, and gaming-houses, and whore-houses, that are usually stuffed with vain persons, yea, with the very worst of the worst of men, both on the Lord's day, and on other days.i Certainly these houses are the very suburbs and seminaries of hell. Uhifuisti? Where hast thou been ? apud inferos, in hell, said Erasmus merrily : com- paring tippling-houses to hell. Doubtless they are the nurseries of all sin, and the synagogue of devils incarnate. In the above-mentioned houses, how notoriously is the name of God blasphemed, and how shamefully are the precious fruits of the earth abused ! and how many hundred families are there impoverished ! and how many thousand children and servants are there impoisoned ! and how is all manner of wickedness and lewdness there encouraged and increased ! But when, oh when shall the sword of the magistrate be turned against these con- venticles of hell ? Certainly the horrid wickednesses that are daily committed in such houses, if not prevented by a faithful, zealous, and constant execution of the laws in force, will arm divine vengeance against the land. Magistrates should not bear the sword of justice in vain ; for they are ministers of God to revenge and execute wrath upon them that do evil. By their office they are bound to be a terror to evil-doers, and encouragers of them that do well ; and oh that all in power and authority would for ever resolve against being Satan's drudges : Eev. ii. 10, ' Fear none of these things which thou shalt suffer : behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried ; and ye shall have tribulation ten days : be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.'2 The devil by his imps and instruments whom he acts and agitates, the devil by engaging the civil and the military power of the world against the people of God, should so far prevail as to clap them up in prison. The prison in this text notes, by a synecdoche, the adjuncts and conse-
' Among all the Lacedaemonians you could not have seen one drunken man among them, unless it was their slaves. The Mahometans forbid any of their sect to drink wine, under pain of death ; their Mussulmans and Darnisels [sic] affirming that there lurks a devil under every grape. [Query, 'darvishcs'? — Ed.]
' The devil in Dioclesian, say some; the devil in Trajan, say others: for he reigned next after this book was written, and was very cruel against the Christians, delivering them over to prisons and death, and all to drive them through fear from the profession of Christ.
228 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
quences— as namely, torments, punishments, and all sorts of martyr- dom. This one punishment, imprisonment, saith Brightman, doth contain prescribings,! confiscation of goods, banishments, slaughters, fires, rackings, or whatsoever exquisite torment beside, as the story teaclieth. The heathen emperors, with those wicked governors, officers, and soldiers that were under them, were the great instruments in Satan's hand, to practise the greatest cruelties upon the saints in those days. Some they cast into prisons, some they banished, multitudes they slew Avith the sword ; some of the precious servants of Christ they beat with stripes to death, others they branded in their foreheads, others were^tortured and racked. Yea, and many holy women in that day had their breasts cut ofi*, and others of them had their breasts burnt with a hot iron, and sometimes with eggs roasted as hot as could be. These, with many other torments, the people of God were exer- cised with, as all know that have read the lamentable stories of those sad times.
OhJ. But you may say, Why then is the imprisonment of the saints so ascribed to the devil, as if it were immediately acted by him ? 'Be- hold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison.'
Ans. [1.] To shew what influence the devil hath in the acting of wdcked men, so that in effect their deed is his deed, they are so sub- servient to him.
[2.] It is to shew us that the author, original, and fountain from whence all the persecutions of the saints do flow, is the devil, who was a murderer and a liar from the beginning, John viii. 44.
[3.] It is to aggravate the horribleness of this sin of persecution, as being a main piece of the devil's business, whatever the instruments are.