(2.) In ordering all events to his own praise. The timing of the enemies' eruptions in several places is that which fills all hearts with wonder, and all mouths with discourse in these days. From the first to the last they had their season. Had they come together, to the eyes of flesh the whole nation had been swallowed up in that deluge. In particular let Essex take notice of the goodness of God. The high thoughts and threats of men, which made us for divers weeks
OF ESSEX COUNTY, AND COMMITTEE. 145
fear a massacre, were not suffered to break out into open hostility, until the very next day after their strength was broken, in the neighbour county of Kent. As if the Lord should have said, I have had you in a chain all this while : though you have shewed your teeth, you have not devoured; now go out of my chain, I have a net ready for you. For the armies coining to our assistance, I cannot see how we needed them many days sooner, or could have wanted them one day longer. Farther, these homebred eruptions were timely seasoned, to rouse the discontented soldiery, and divided nation, to be ready to resist the Scottish invasion : God also being magnified in this, that in this sweet disposal of events, unto his glory, the counsels of many of those, in whom we thought we might confide, run totally cross to the appearance of God in his providence. * What shall we say to these thinos? If the Lord be for us, who shall be against us?' 'All these things come forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in operation ;' Isa. xxviii. 29. Whoso is wise will ponder them, and they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord.
(3.) In controlling mighty actions. I mean giving success to his people in all their undertakings. The commander-in- chief of all the forces in this kingdom, since his sitting down before Colchester, was proffered a pass to go beyond the seas for his security. Whence is it, that he hath now the necks of his enemies, and hath given any of them their lives at their entreaty? Greater armies than this have been buried under lesser walls. Did not the niimber of the besieged at first exceed the number of the besiegers? were not their ad- vantages o-reat? their skill in war among;st men of their own persuasion famous and renowned? So that the sitting down before it was judged an action meet only for them, who could believe they should see the bow of God made quite naked. It had been possible, doubtless, to reason's eye, that many of those fictions, wherewith a faction in the great city fed themselves, of the many routings, slaughters, and destructions of the army, might have been true. Some of them, I say; for some were as childish, as hellish. In brief, they associated themselves, and were broken in pieces. High walls, towering imaginations, lofty threats, all brought
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146 A MEMORIAL OF THE DELIVERANCE
down. 'So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord: but let them that love him be as the sun, when he goeth forth in his might:' and let the land have rest for many years ; Judg. V. 31.
Use 2. This will discover unto us the bottom and rise of all God's appearances for his people; even the engaging of his own free grace. He doth not * make his bow quite naked,' according to their deservings, but his own word; not be- cause they of themselves are better than others, but because he loves them more than others. Were God's assistances suited to our walkings, they would be very uneven; but his good will is constant, so are our deliverances.
Use 3. Be exhorted to thankfulness, not verbal,' but real; not the exultation of carnal affections, but the savoury obe- dience of a sound mind. There are many ingredients in thanksgiving ; suitable and seasonable obedience to answer the will of God in his mercies is doubtless the crown of all. Look then under the enjoyment of blessings in general, to close walking with God in the duties of the covenant; and in particular, to the especial work of this your generation, and you are in the way to be thankful.
ilse 4. Be sedulously careful to prevent that, which God hath mightily decried by our late mercies, viz. mutual animosities, strife, contention, and violence, against one another,* I mean of those that fear his name. God hath in- terposed in our quarrels from heaven. The language of our late deliverance is. Be quiet, ' lest a worse thing happen unto you.' Our poor brethren of Scotland would not see the hatefulness of their animosities towards their friends, until God suffered that very thing to be the means to deliver them up to the power of their enemies. The weapons they had formed were used against themselves. Let us learn be- times to agree about our pasture, lest the wolves of the wil- derness devour us. Persecution and idolatry have ruined all the states of the Christian world.
2. Of the assertion we have spoken hitherto. Come we
» In beueficio reddendo plus animus, quam census ojieratur. Anibr. Offi. lib. 1. cap. 32.
' 'H 5ia<})a)y/tt t>;{ vus-TEiaj, rnv I'xmfnav r?? itlrrmq c-uviVTac-fV. Iron. Epist. ad Vict, apnd E'Jseb. Ifb. .5. tap. i!,'3. "IUXo'vixoi jcrTe aJfX<f)0( xai i^-nKinai iim y,ii avuxovToov Sij a-xrin'M^. Clein. Ep. ad Cor.