The Practices of Persecutors - The Master's Trumpet

Editor’s Introduction

The most devastating pandemics in recorded history were caused by a single bacterium, Yersinia pestis, a fatal infection otherwise known as the plague, or black death, and still endemic to this day in Central Asia. The infection, transmitted by the bite of an infected flea, takes about five days to incubate in people before they fall ill, and another three to five days before, in 80 percent of the cases, the victims die. Plague came to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, in 541 A.D. and eventually killed upwards of 50 million people in North Africa and Europe, perhaps half the entire population of the time. Wave after wave¹ washed over the West. The plague in the mid-1300s claimed over 200 million victims throughout Europe, which carnage led directly to the fall of Constantinople, on 6 April 1453, to the Islamic forces of Sultan Mehmed II.

The 1666 Great Plague of London took up to 100,000 lives before spending itself. After the conformist ministers fled the city, one of the Presbyterian nonconformists who remained to minister to the ill, Thomas Vincent, wrote, “Never did so many husbands and wives die together, never did so many parents carry their children with them to the grave.”² Throughout the plague year he preached each Sabbath to large crowds. Although Vincent survived the plague, seven in his own household succumbed to its ravages. As the sickness spread, London’s authorities attempted to contain the infected by quarantining them in their homes, which were marked with a red cross. Later that year, London was visited by a second major catastrophe when the Great Fire of 1666 torched much of its city center.

Plague in Edinburgh was first recorded in 1513, with mortality rates in some areas as high as 90 percent. In 1645, the worst outbreak of plague struck the city – simultaneously bubonic plague and the less common pneumonic plague, in which infection results from breathing in airborne droplets from the cough or sneeze of another infected person or cat.³ In a sermon preached in 1644, the blind preacher Archibald Skeldie told the afflicted Edinburgh congregation how Scotland was suffering the wrath of God, “by the devouring sword that hath killed many of our brethren in the North, and by the plague of pestilence that for certaine months hath continued in the South, wherewith now this Citie and the places about are fearfully threatned.”⁴ Skeldie called for a biblical perspective on life and death in which the pride of man bows humbly before the Divine power.

Although he is not well-known today, Skeldie was in his time a respected gospel Minister in Edinburgh, doubtless in part because of God’s gracious, wonderful and mighty deeds done through him during the time of plague and war. Is God not wonderful to use such a broken vessel, so feeble that he needed to be led by the hand like a child, who though blind showed how, by his Spirit and Word, God illuminates and rules his Church and conquers the world?

To look at history is to appreciate how often diseases recur, and sadly, how humans repeat the same mistakes of excessive fear and panic of disease, rather than fear of God. In the event, the plague did come north and Edinburgh was simultaneously besieged by the devouring sword of the Marquis of Montrose. With the sick quarantined to their homes, and instructed to hang a white sheet from the window, Skeldie preached, amidst plague and war, the following sermon to those few remaining alive in Edinburgh. It offers a perspective that we who are not so accustomed to death, which will come to all, do well to heed. Our hope, and peace, is in the Lord, who is infinitely kind to poor, proud, undeserving sinners. So then, whether we live or die, Christ is all, and in all. Our privilege, and duty, is to worship and serve almighty God and flee the plague of sin. Augustine, whom Skeldie quotes, says, “God for no other reason is called Almighty, but because he can do whatever he wills, and his will is most full power.”

– James A. Wanliss

Selected from: Archibald Skeldie, The Practices of Persecutors (Edinburgh, 1645), 57pp.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE MAGISTRATES AND COUNCILORS OF THE MOST FAMOUS CITY OF EDINBURGH, SIR JOHN SMITH, LORD PROVOST, ANDREW SIMSON, ROBERT ATCHISON, JOHN INGLISH, AND GEORGE WALKER, BAILIES; GEORGE SUTIE, DEAN OF GULD, AND JOHN FAIRHOLME, TREASURER, AND TO THE WHOLE CHURCH COUNCIL OF THE FLOURISHING TOWN OF EDINBURGH, GRACE HERE, AND GLORY HEREAFTER.

There is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence, saith the wise Preacher, in the third of Ecclesiastes; the truth whereof, though it be acknowledged by all, yet the fitness of the time of both is greatly mistaken by many. For there are some that think it a time to speak when they ought to keep silence, and others think it a time to be silent when they should speak. It is said in history that Acaticus, the Philosopher, while he feasted with his friends, being asked wherefore he kept silence when others did speak, he answered that it was no less difficult to know when to speak than to know how to speak. The Scripture tells us that Herod and Pilate will have Christ to speak, when he thinks it more expedient to keep silence; and the disciples will have him to keep silence lest the Pharisees should be offended, when he thinks it better to speak freely, that their faults may be reproved. The Greek rhetorician admonished his friend well that he should appoint to himself two times of speaking, one of things whereof he himself had perfect knowledge, and another of things which necessarily should be spoken, for in such things, speech is better than silence, and in all other things it is better to be silent than to speak.

One of the Roman writers relates of a senator, Blosius, that no one would have thought him wicked if he had held his peace, and any man would have thought him wise if he had spoken according to the necessities of the time.

If then the fittest time to speak is when the things that are spoken are needful to be spoken, then it is a fit time to speak when great danger is threatened and grievous trouble apprehended, for by keeping silence great scathe and damage may be sustained, and by seasonable speaking, great profit and commodity may be reaped, and timeous remedy provided. This chiefly belongs to faithful pastors who watch for the souls of people, for in the time of threatened persecution, they should speak to God by prayer, that his people may be protected, and they should speak to the people by good instruction and sound direction that they may know how to carry themselves in the time of danger and affliction, for as King Jehoshaphat first fervently prayed to God, and then comfortably encouraged the people when they were threatened with hostile invasion, so faithful pastors must not look how their speaking may offend, or silence may please the enemies of the truth and oppressors of God’s people. But how much their seasonable speaking concerns the honor of God and the safety of his people, for whom they must speak to God by fervent prayer, and to whom they must speak from God by the oracles of his Word. And therefore, most wise and worthy Councilors, as this is the practice of all the faithful pastors in this land, to speak to their people of such things as concern the present state and condition of the land, I thought it was my part not to be deficient in so necessary a duty, especially seeing by divine providence I have occasion to preach in the most eminent city, though unworthy to preach in the most obscure corner of the kingdom. Be it known therefore to your Lords that the occasion of the preaching of this sermon is to them that heard it, and the publishing of it to such as shall read it, wherein I have weakly described the cruel practices of the proud persecutors of God’s people, the occasion whereof I say was the late troubles that our nation has sustained by the violent invasion of our unnatural countryman, whose pride and ambition has so far miscarried him that he has troubled the people of God, and his own countrymen with bloody cruelty and horrible oppression. It is well known that once he did take part with the people of God against their enemies, but now contrary to the oath which he swore in his covenant, he is combined against God’s people with their open enemies, and shows himself unmindful of the love that he ought to his country, through whose bowels he passes with continual slaughter. O quantum mututatus ab illo hectore qui fuerat⁵, so powerful is pride and ambition, to make a wonderful change and alteration in the hearts of men from good to evil, and from evil to worse, until the extremity thereof be such as cannot longer be suffered but by divine justice must needs be punished. And truly, the cruel courses of this Cateline⁶ are known to the world, but what his end shall be is best known to God; one thing we know from divine truth, that the cries of the elect shall speedily be avenged. And as Augustine says, “The oppressions of the poor call for Gods vengeance, it hastens the death of the oppressor and continually troubles the ears of the Lord.”

Now I have taken the boldness to dedicate this first fruit of my weak labors to your honorable protection for diverse reasons, first because there is no preacher that can have greater or nearer relation to any people than I have to you, being the son of a citizen born in your city, bred up in your schools of learning, and by divine providence these twenty years, employed in the work of the ministry amongst you, in how great weakness is known to God and myself, but with what willingness and readiness it is known to you, my honorable patrons and the rest of my worthy citizens. Secondly, because as God of his goodness has made this city the chiefest of this nation, so has he been pleased to furnish you, the present Magistrates and Councilors, with wit and discretion, virtue and piety, which the exigency of this dangerous time requires in such as are worthy of your places, and as the tree is known by the fruits, so the eminence of these gifts shows forth itself in you by the singular care that you have to see the true religion flourish in your city, to cherish learning in all kinds of professions of divine and human literature, and, in a word, your citizens ought to be thankful to God for your singular diligence in punishing vice and advancing virtue, seeing as the Roman orator could say, “No house or commonwealth can long continue where there is no reward appointed for good works, or punishment for evil,” and one of the Latin comics could say that he did think a city well-guarded whose citizens were endowed with good manners.

These then being the reasons of the dedication of this first birth of my weak labors, which has come to the view of the world, to your honorable protection, I humbly implore your favorable acceptance for which I shall never cease to pray to God for the health of your persons, the prospering of your weighty affairs, and the welfare of your flourishing city. And so shall remain,

Your low humble servant in Christ,
to the uttermost of my power,
even until death.
Mr. Archibald Skeldie.

O God, the proud are risen against me, and the assemblies of violent men have sought after my soul, and have not set thee before them. – Psalm 86:14

The present condition and state of this our time lets us see what need we have to understand the meaning of these words, for our instruction and comfort. For as the Prophet, David, when he penned this Psalm, was persecuted by powerful and malicious enemies, from whose rage and fury he prays to God for deliverance, so we being threatened by the like hostile invasion, have need to crave by humble supplication the Lord’s gracious and favourable protection.

This Psalm is justly styled “A Prayer of David” with every petition whereof is joined a motive argument to move the Lord to hear his prayer and grant his requests. And because the royal Prophet, after his manner in the former verses, has been mixing praise with prayer, he now subjoins two motive arguments to move the Lord to grant him both the petitions which he has put up in the former part, and is to put up in the latter part of this Psalm.

The first of those arguments is taken from the consideration of the nature of his enemies against whom he prays. And the second, from the consideration of the nature of God, to whom he prays.

For amongst all things, between which may be seen any kind of opposition, there cannot be any two things found more contrary to the other than David’s persecutors and David’s Protector. His persecutors are cruel, proud, and godless atheists; his Protector is a merciful and pitiful God, slow to anger, and of great kindness and truth (Ps. 86:15; 103:8), which makes Jerome to say, “The divine nature is gentle and pitiful, more ready to pardon than revenge.” And therefore the Prophet, comparing the gracious nature of God with the wicked nature of his enemies, he more earnestly implores and more confidently expects the Lord’s help and protection against the malicious rage of his mighty enemies.

Now that we may enter upon the words of the verse, wherein the Prophet describes the nature of his enemies, both in respect of their inward disposition and outward conversation, there are four things to be expounded in order, together with the uses that arise from the consideration of them. First, how these proud men are said to arise against David. For this the Prophet uses as a motive argument to prevail with God, seeing he knows that proud men are so hateful to God. Secondly, the enemies of David were not a few, but a great number that are said to assemble themselves; and so the Prophet has more need of the help of God. Thirdly, the enemies of David were violent and cruel men, whose cruelty is manifested in seeking of his soul, to which in the next verse is opposed, the pity and mercies of God, and so this part of the argument is powerful to obtain the help of God. Fourthly, the gross atheism of the enemies of David is expressed when he says they set not God before them. No wonder therefore that God cast them behind him, as afterwards shall be declared.

In the handling of the first point, there are two things likewise considerable. First, how the enemies of David are called proud men. And what sort of pride is this wherewith they were possessed and miscarried? Secondly, what can be the reason why the proud enemies of David arise against him? And all other proud persecutors against the saints of God?

As for the first, there are two sorts of pride with which a great many of the children of men are possessed and miscarried.

The first may be called an inward pride, because though it is known to God, from whom no iniquity is hid (Jer. 16:17), yet it is not known to men, except when the mouth speaks of the abundance of the heart (Luke 6:45), for so the pride of the Pharisees was often manifested. But so long as it is not outwardly expressed, it is no wonder though it is not known to others, seeing it is hid from the man that has it, for either he no more knows that pride rules in him, than Uzziah knew that he was leprous (2 Chron. 26:20) before he was violently taken from the altar by the high priest. Or else, which is worse, he is so far from thinking this pride to be vice, which is to be avoided, that he imagines it to be a singular virtue which is to be cherished, for this is one of the miseries to which sinful men are subject in this world, that they are deceived with vice under the color of virtue.

Now we must consider that this inward pride has three branches. First, when men think either that they have the gifts and graces that they do not have, or at least, in a greater measure than indeed they have them. “If a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself” (Gal. 6:3). For as the empty vessels when they are touched sound loudest, and the barren trees lift their branches highest, so where there is least worth, there is usually a greatest conceit and opinion of worth. Hence it is that oftentimes men are puffed up with a conceit of righteousness, though they are unrighteous, as our Savior speaks of the Scribes and Pharisees, they are wise in their own conceit, when their remediless folly is manifested to others, according to the saying of Solomon, “seest thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him” (Prov. 26:12). And in a word, they are puffed up with a conceit of knowledge above other men, while they are replenished with gross ignorance of things that are chiefly to be known, like the Pharisees that counted the people cursed that knew not the law, yet they themselves understood not the meaning of the law (John 7:49). As we may read in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew’s gospel, and therefore an ancient said well, “No presumption is more hurtful than to be proud of our own righteousness and knowledge, O proud presumption! O presumptuous pride!”

2. Men are inwardly proud when (though they are gifted above others) they do not acknowledge their gifts to come from God, who ought to be praised for the bestowing of them, and served in the use of them. They find the fruit but do not see the tree from which it falls; they see the water, but do not perceive the fountain from where it flows; they find the gifts to be in themselves, therefore they think them to be of themselves and from themselves, for though they have nothing but what they have received, they boast as though they had not received. This makes them to ascribe the praise of the gifts to themselves, and to think they may use them at their pleasure. “They sacrifice into their net, and burn incense into their drag” (Hab. 1:16). As the first pride was presumptuous, so this pride is sacrilegious, because it deprives God of the praise and glory that is due to his majesty. And therefore Gregory well observed that, “He who ascribes not to God the good things that he hath received, fights against the Lord with those good things that he hath received from the Lord.”

3. Men are puffed up with inward pride when, even though they acknowledge they have received gifts from God and are daily craving benefits at his hand, yet they are filled with such a conceit and opinion of their own merits, that they think they deserve whatsoever they have received; they think the Lord no less obliged to them than they are to him. The old Pharisees thought they could purchase heaven by their own good works, “Good master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? (Luke 18:18), and so they did not need to be saved by the merits of another, who by their own merits could save themselves. The proud hypocrites are angry when they are not regarded by the Lord as they thought they should have been. “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not?” (Isa. 58:3). Greater pride than all this is found in papists. In the opinion of their merits of congruity, dignity, and condignity, and in the works of supererogation, not remembering what our Savior has enjoined his disciples to say, that when they have done all they can do, they are unprofitable servants (Luke 17:10). For even though the basest man in the world may sometime well deserve at the hands of the greatest, and the worse man at the hands of the best, yet neither the greatest nor the best man in the world can deserve any good at the hand of God, whose mercy it is that he is not consumed, and a greater mercy that my Christ’s merits he is brought to salvation, who by his own merits procures nothing but endless condemnation (Lam. 3:22). Therefore it was well acknowledged by Origen, “I hardly can be assured that there can be any work that requires reward of God according to debt, seeing even that, that we are able to do any good, or to think, or speak any good, we are enabled and furnished thereto by the gift of God.” Thus much concerning the inward pride which is not here understood by the Prophet.

I now go on to speak of the outward, which justly may be so called, not because they that are miscarried with it seem to be proud and are not, as sometimes it falls out in counterfeit humility, when men seem to be humble and are most proud; for there is greatest pride in affected humility, which made Socrates, the philosopher to say that he saw the pride of Antisthenes through the hole of his mantle.

Absalom was never prouder than in his counterfeit humility and courtesy to the people. And the pride of Caligula was well observed when he would need to serve his invited guests in proper person, which did not beseem the majesty of a prince, which makes Bernard cry out that, “Humility must needs be a glorious thing, wherewith pride itself seeks to be covered, lest if it should be seen, it should be despised.”

But it is called an outward pride because, though it is both bred and cherished in the heart, yet it cannot so lurk and contain itself there, but now and then it breaks forth in the looks of the countenance, words of the mouth, and works of the hand, so that even though in respect of the abiding of it, it is inward and known to God, yet in respect to the outbreaking of it, it becomes outward and is made manifest to all people. Now this outward pride either breaks out immediately against God, to his dishonor and offense, or else against men, to their prejudice, by disgrace, or scathe, or hurt. Pride immediately against God breaks forth four manner of ways. First, by affecting equality with God. Secondly, by seeking to be worshipped as God. Thirdly, by expressing a manifest contempt of God. Fourthly, by opposing the will of man to the revealed will of God.

First, I say, when creatures affect equality with God, which is impossible to be attained, seeing there is no proportion between the infinite Creator and the finite creature—between the creature that has a beginning and may have an end, and God, which is without beginning and can have no end. It is justly supposed that this was the sin wherefore Satan was thrown down from heaven to hell, which made a learned divine to say, “Pride was bred in heaven, but being unmindful what way it fell thence, it never could return thither.”

And truly that may be well applied to Satan, which in another sense is applied to the king of Babylon, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God… I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High” (Isa. 14:12–14).

This venom of pride did the old serpent spew in our first parents, who would need to be like God and, aspiring to a perfection which they were not capable of, they lost that perfection whereof God had made them capable, as the Latin proverb says, “The camel which seeking to have horns, did lose his ears.”

2. When creatures seek to themselves the worship that is due to God. Satan that was punished for his first pride has wonderfully been exercised in the practice of this second, for as Abimelech usurped the kingdom, which being offered, was refused by Gideon (Judg. 9:2). So, though the good angels justly refused worship when it is offered (Rev. 19:10; 22:9), the wicked spirits do crave it, though it is not offered, for in so doing, they think they greatly injure the majesty of God, with whom it was impossible to be equal. The apostle tells us that the service that was done to the idols of the Gentiles, was done to devils (1 Cor. 10:20). And no wonder that Satan seeks to be worshipped by mortal men, when he dares be so malapert as to crave worship from Christ, for which he promised him the kingdoms of the world (Matt. 4:9). Satan likewise, who tempted our first parents to affect equality with God, has taught some of their posterity to seek to be worshipped as God. History tells us of some kings and emperors that, being unmindful of their mortality and human frailty, nor considering that they were but pieces of living clay and as crawling worms in the sight of their Maker, who, though they were lifted above many men, yet were not exalted above humanity, but behooved to “die like men, and fall like one of the princes” (Ps. 82:7). Yet I say, they dared be so shameless and arrogant as to crave to be worshipped, even while they yet lived, which was done to Alexander the Great and Caligula the Emperor. Others again did not desire this honor until after their death, which was given to the Roman Emperors after the civil wars between Caesar and Pompey. Others again, though they did not crave this honor, yet did not refuse it when it was offered, as the Scripture tells us of Herod Agrippa, of whose pride and plague we read in the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, for he was not like Paul and Barnabas, who though they did miracles, would not be counted gods, and though he was trained up in the Jewish religion, he was not so well-mannered as Agesilaus, the Spartan king, of whom it is said that, when the ambassadors of Phasis, in the name of their senate, offered according to their manner to make him a god, he asked them by way of jest if any of them could make themselves gods, for they that could not deify themselves could much less deify another.

3. Men are proud against God when being ignorant of the excellency of God and the greatness of his power; they express their contempt of God by questioning his power and charging him with weakness, as though they were able to hinder him to do what he wills, and as if he were not able to hinder them to do what they will. The Syrians blasphemously said that, though the God of Israel prevailed in the mountains, he could not in the valleys (1 Kings 20:23). And Sennacherib would have Hezekiah to know that his God in whom he trusted was not able to deliver him out of his hands (Isa. 36:15).

This pride proceeds from ignorance, for if those proud men did know the Lord as he is revealed to his saints, of whom it is said, “In Judah is God known: his name is great in Israel” (Ps. 76:1), then they would acknowledge the Lord to be Almighty, with whom nothing is impossible, to whom nothing is difficult, seeing he can “do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). Thence it is that Augustine says, “God for no other reason is called Almighty, but because he can do whatever he wills, and his will is most full power.”

4. Rebellious sinners express their pride against God when they oppose their wicked will to the revealed will of God, so that even though they know what God wills them to do, they are so addicted to pleasing themselves that they will do nothing to please the Lord, but make open profession of disobedience and rebellion. This was the pride of wicked Pharaoh that said he knew not the Lord, neither would he let his people go (Ex. 5:2). Of this pride speaks Gregory, “When all other vices flee from God, pride only opposes itself to God.” But this is more clearly expressed by Augustine, when he says, “Pride is a certain presumption, when any presumes, or when a man without the fear of God dares do these things, which he knows to be contrary to the will of his Maker, namely, to commit sin, for pride is the beginning of all sin.”

Thus much concerning the outward pride, which immediately breaks out against God. Now let us speak of it as it breaks out to the prejudice and hurt of men, in which sense it must need to be taken here, when men, whose hearts are possessed with self love, and filled with a conceit and opinion of their own incomparable worth, whereby either they think all others to be their inferiors, or would have them to be their inferiors, none to be their equals, much less their superiors. When men, I say, that are so disposed, strive as they find occasion to perform in action what they have conceived in themselves in their own conceit and opinion, that is, that according to their power, they may make all others their inferiors. This outward pride breaks out against men in four manner of ways.

First, by unequal estimating of injuries, which either they do to others, or suffer from others. Secondly, by exalting themselves above others that are worthier than themselves. Thirdly, by cruel oppression of others, either by fraud or violence. Fourthly, by their disdainful carriage towards others to whom they refused to do these duties which they are bound to perform.

First, I say, in a most unequal estimating of wrongs and injuries that they do to others and suffer of others; whatever is the nature of the wrong with which they injure others, they count it so light that they think there is no cause of complaining, and say that they need to make little reparation or none at all. But when they are in any way injured by others, whether the injury is real or supposed, they cannot find sufficient words to aggrege⁷ the greatness of it, they complain without measure of the grievousness of it, and are so desirous to be avenged of it, that not a simple, but a sevenfold reparation must satisfy their vindictive humor, and cruel affection, with boasting Lamech in the fourth chapter of Genesis. All the wrongs that proud men do, in their account, are but motes and feathers, but what they suffer are talents of lead and greater than mountains. They have not learned of the heathen philosopher to speak to themselves by the light of nature, “See thou do not to another what thou thyself would not suffer, and measure another man’s mind according to thine own mind.”

2. This pride breaks out when the haughty spirits of unworthy men sets them forward by unlawful means, to exalt themselves above others, which are every way better and more worthy than themselves, like Diotrephes, which would have the preeminence (3 John 1:9). So Abimelech dealt subtly with the Shechemites, that he might rule over them (Judg. 9:2); and Sheba, taking occasion of the division of the people, caused a trumpet to be blown that he might be followed (2 Sam. 20:1). Those haughty proud spirits never look at what they deserve, but what they desire, nor to the hability⁸ of gifts which God has furnished them, but to the capacity which they conceive in their own imagination; they do not rest content with the lot which providence has disposed, but are so well pleased with the lot of their neighbors that they are always discontent with their own.

Which lets them never cease from aspiring to eminency of place and dignity above others, whereof, for the most part, they are altogether unworthy. Like the spiders that climb to the roof of the house, and flies trouble men by flying about their faces, when the honeybees abide in their hives and about their flowers until men enjoy the fruit of their labor, and like the bramble accepting the kingdom which was refused by the fruitful trees (Judg. 9:15). So persons that are unworthy of place and preferment are most desirous of honor and preferment, and to this purpose inure themselves in the favor of men, that by their means they may satisfy their pride in the attaining of their desired honor. Whereas modest and worthy Christians do patiently wait upon the calling of divine providence to whatsoever place and station God’s wisdom has appointed to bring them. This degree of pride then is so much the more considerable, because it may daily be observed in all ranks and conditions of men whatsoever.

3. Man’s pride breaks forth by unjust and cruel oppression of innocent and peaceable men, whether by secret fraud, or open violence. For when envy and ambition concur in the hearts of proud men, as they cannot with patience endure the preferment of those whom they think less worthy than themselves, so they cannot rest content unless they possess the places of others that are in greater honor than themselves, even though they may know them to be more worthy. And because they cannot win to this desired exaltation without prejudice and hurt of others, they do not care if they climb to the top of preferment by other men’s ruin and fall, for as King Saul told Jonathan his son that he would not reign if David lived (1 Sam. 20:31). So proud men assure themselves that they cannot rise unless others fall, nor live unless others die, nor prosper unless they perish, which makes ambitious men neither to care what words they speak, nor works they do, to further their ambitious designs, while they purpose to bear rule and not to be ruled, to command and not to be subject. Hence it was well observed by a learned man, “He that is ambitious is not careful to profit others, but thinks it his glory to be above others, he presumes that he is better when he sees himself superior, he speaks great things, he thinks high things, he cannot endure to be subject, he devises how to be exalted.”

For where this ambitious pride prevails in the hearts of men, it will easily break all bonds asunder whatsoever might possibly seem to restrain it. Proud Absalom breaks the very bonds of nature to compass his ambitious design. He first insinuates that his father is careless of the welfare of the people, and then he conspires the death of his father with a great number of the people. Civil bonds have likewise been uncivilly broken, for subjects have risen against their princes, and so Hazael killed his master to reign in his stead (2 Kings 8:15); others likewise by pride and ambition have been open enemies to their country, which nature teaches a man to love, as Seneca says, “not because it is great, but because it is his own.”

And yet those ambitious men have greatly troubled the peace of their country for no other reason but because they did see others preferred to themselves, which God made more respected and better beloved than them, whom therefore they did hate so deadly that, in seeking their ruin and destruction, they were the authors of great calamity that befell their country and nation.

But then it is worthily to be remarked that such unnatural enemies of their country have not escaped the hand of divine justice, but have been plagued with visible judgments in the sight of the world, for either they have perished with sudden and violent death, or by imprisonment, or banishment (a just reward for their treachery and barbarous enmity), or they have been so far from attaining their ambitious designs and projects that while they sought for honor and glory, they have incurred shame and ignominy, and while they promised to themselves wealth and riches, they were plagued with poverty, and finished their wretched lives in contempt and misery, that in them it may be observed that, as in a small space of time, they have been advanced to the height of honor, in a short time likewise, they have been redacted to extreme calamity and misery. Many such examples we may read both in the Greek and Roman histories, in the Turks and Jewish histories, some likewise in the chronicles of our neighbor nation, and more in the chronicles of our own nation, where we may read of some discontented and ambitious noblemen that were men of greater power and wealth within this kingdom than many of our noblemen, that by pride and ambition are become enemies to their nation, for to the latter sort can hardly be applied what David spoke of Doeg, when he said, “Lo, this is the man that … trusted in the abundance of his riches” (Ps. 52:7). For I verily think that the lack of this makes some of them as willful as they are. But those noblemen of whom our history speaks, though once they were men of great wealth, power, and honor, by reason of their lineage and kindred, yet as soon as raising a seditious faction within the country, or by joining with the neighboring enemies out of the country, they became troubles of the peace of their country, they did never afterwards thrive or prosper, their wealth was impoverished, their persons were plagued, their houses were ruined, their honor laid in the dust, and their posterity so extirpated, that their memory is perished. For since nature has taught man to love his country better than his life, and to count it a sweet and comely thing to die for his country, which made the noble Athenian, Themistocles, though he was unthankfully required for his service done to his country, and honorably entertained by the Persian king, the enemy of his country, yet he chose rather to die than to further King Xerxes in a course that tended to the ruin of his country. Upon the other part, I say, nature teaches a man to be greatly grieved if his country shall be troubled by others, and more to detest and abhor that he should be the troubler of it himself, seeing all such unnatural monsters are detestable in the sight of God, who as they procure the just curse and hatred of their people, so they do not escape the avenging hand of the righteous God, by whom their ambitious designs are disappointed, their honors turned into shame, and while they greedily desire the wealth of others, they lost that which they might have peaceably enjoyed themselves.

4. This outward pride breaks forth when, even though men that are proud neither seek superiority above others, nor affect equality with their superiors, yet they carry themselves disdainfully towards those that they think their inferiors, and refuse to do the duties that they are bound to perform to their inferiors by charity, to their equals by civility and humanity, and to their superiors by loyalty. This kind of pride is most usually accompanied with forwardness and contumacy with willfulness and obstinacy; such proud men usually are more willful than wise, and lean more on their own wit than to the counsel of God and men that might prove more profitable both to them and to others.

It was this pride that moved churlish Nabal to answer the servants of David so rudely (1 Sam. 25:10), that made the elders of Succoth and Penuel to refuse help and succor to Gideon’s army (Judg. 8:6). Thus pride not only proves hurtful to private men, who by their rashness and indiscretion, provoke men to anger and indignation, and to seek to be avenged of the contempt and injury they think done to them. But it proves likewise more prejudicial to many when inferiors are punished for the fault of their superiors.

That is to say, when men are in place and authority in a country or city, they lean so much to their own wit, that they despise the counsel and advice of others, not being like Naaman that heard the advice of his servant (2 Kings 5:15), or like the elders of Abel that received the advice of a wise woman (2 Sam. 20:20), but rather think that their counsel should be followed by all, and they should be counseled by no one. By such willful pride and proud willfulness, many good things are neglected which might profitably be done, and many evils are committed which afterwards proved hurtful and might well have been avoided.

Thus much for the pride with which David’s enemies were possessed. Now let us consider why David’s proud enemies arise against him, and what can be the reasons that move other proud persecutors to rise against the saints of God—the reasons are especially three.

First, because proud men of all others are most like Satan and are the chiefest subjects of his kingdom. Secondly, because proud men see some excellence in the saints of God which is not in themselves. Thirdly, because the saints of God cannot be moved to favor their wicked opinions and follow their lewd practices.

First, I say, because men of all others are most like Satan and are the chiefest subjects of his kingdom, for as the humble saints are of all other men most like God, because after their effectual calling, they are renewed to his image in holiness and righteousness, and as they only are the loyal subjects of Jesus Christ, the King of Sion, in whom they rejoice (Ps. 149:2). So seeing Satan is the first proud creature and the author of all pride that is found in creatures, so the more proud that any man is, he is the more like Satan, the author of pride. Proud men likewise are Satan’s most loyal subjects, for “he is a king over all the children of pride” (Job 41:34); to him they do most acceptable service, being led captive at his will, greatly pleasing him in the plotting and performing of their proud and ambitious designs whereby God is dishonored, his people troubled, and the kingdom of Satan is enlarged. And therefore, as Satan himself would rather tempt one of the saints of God than a thousand others, so proud men that are the slaves of Satan take pleasure to trouble the saints of God. “The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor” (Ps. 10:2), that is, by mocking and scoffing, by railing and reproaching, and by hurting them in their states and bodies as they find opportunity and occasion.

2. Because proud men see some worth and excellence in the saints of God, which is not in themselves, by reason of some eminent grace or gift wherewith God has endowed them, which not only becomes the object of their envy, but likewise the spur of their pride, when they cannot endure that another should have the good which they themselves want and cannot win, and will rather that the tree should perish with the fruit before it should stand to bear fruit; that is to say, they wish rather that the gifted men should perish and their gifts be lost, than that they should see the manifestation of God’s gift in another which they do not have in themselves. So the powerful words and mighty works of Christ make him to be persecuted by the proud rulers of the Jews, lest his fame should be the occasion of their ruin, and the Romans should come and take away their place and their nation (John 11:48). The proud enemies of David were his cruel persecutors, because they did see that God was with him, that great things were to be done by him, and that great honor was to be conferred upon him.

3. Because the saints of God cannot be moved or induced to favor the opinions of proud men and approve their doings and follow them in their wicked practices and sinful courses, for proud men do either so presume of their knowledge, wisdom, and understanding that they think they cannot err, or else they are so willful that, though they are convinced of their error, they will not be reclaimed. Sometimes likewise they are so violently set upon sinful courses that, because they look for pleasure and profit in the prosecuting of them, that they either think them to be lawful and equitable, or though they are convinced of their unlawfulness, yet they will stand to the defence of them and obstinately maintain them as if they were most agreeable to equity and reason, so that they become open enemies to all that will not walk in them, or any way disallow them. For as men that go abroad in the world and, by reason of their employment, have occasion to meet with people of diverse humors, they will sometimes meet with a sort of men that, if they can flatter them, and please their humors, ratify their words, and approve their doings, they will respect them as their brethren and their dearest friends. But if they shall find fault with their words or censure their foolish carriage, then they shall altogether abhor their company and count them the basest fools and idiots in the world. No wonder then that proud men persecute the saints of God that are so far from embracing their erroneous opinions and approving their wicked carriage and lewd conversation, that either they are openly censuring and reproving them, or else they altogether refuse to be of one mind with them in their erroneous opinions, and to walk in one way with them in their lewd and wicked courses. This is the reason for the persecution that Protestants sustain by Papists, where they live together, and this is the ground of this great combustion that is kindled in these kingdoms, for there is no other reason why the malignants are so violently set against the Covenanters, but because they cannot be of one mind and opinion with them concerning the matter of state and religion, for that which the malignants think and profess to be a means to propagate religion and settle the state of the kingdom, the Covenanters, with better reason, affirm to be the subversion of the state and ruin of religion.

Now before I come to the second thing considerable in this text, there is a use that I would gather from the former considerations, which is both for our comfort and instruction, when proud persecutors which have great power and authority among men arise to trouble the peace of the church of God by grievous oppression and persecution. Then the saints of God may boldly have recourse to God by earnest prayer in hope of a gracious deliverance from their eminent danger, and that for two reasons. First, when they consider how diversely the Lord is affected towards his saints and towards their persecutors. Secondly, when they consider the event of the insult of their persecutors.

First, I say, when they consider how diversely the Lord is affected towards his humble saints and towards their proud oppressors, for he takes the humble for his dearest friends, and the proud for his rebellious enemies. He is near to the humble, as a man is to the house where he dwells (Isa. 66:2), and a master to the student that he teaches (Ps. 25:8–9). But though he is near to the proud in the inflicting of his anger, he is far from them in the manifestation of his favor. The psalmist says, “Though the Lord is high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off” (Ps. 138:6). And therefore, Augustine says that the Lord draws near to him that is humbled, but he goes far away from him that is exalted, unless he is one whom the Lord has first humbled and afterwards exalted.

The Lord multiplies upon the humble his grace and his favor, for when they humble themselves, he promises to exalt them, and he exhorts them to humble themselves that he may exalt them (1 Pet. 5:6); they may pray to him confidently under the sense of their neediness and poverty (Ps. 86:1). And therefore, as Bernard says, great is the virtue of humility to which the Lord so easily inclines his majesty. But as the Lord compasses the humble with his favor, so he pursues the proud with his wrath and displeasure. The psalmist says that he plentifully rewards the evil doer (Ps. 54:5), for usually when he punishes their pride, he abates their power and plagues their persons. One of the heathen could say that God, the revenger, follows proud men at the back. But the Scripture tells us that the righteous Lord strikes them on the face, when he pours shame and contempt upon all that are haughty, and casts down the countenance of them that look proudly (Isa. 5:15; Ps. 18:27). And the Prophet Isaiah, foretelling the destruction of Moab, he says, “We have heard of the pride of Moab” (Isa. 16:6). And the saying of Solomon is worthy of observation, that “pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18).

2. The saints of God at such a time may confidently pray, when they consider the nature and event of the insult of the proud persecutors, how hateful it is to God, how hurtful to themselves, whom for a time it pleases; how comfortable in the end it is to the saints of God, to whom as first it seems to be fearful and terrible; for when the proud oppressors of the church of God have a purpose to trouble their peace by some grievous persecution, if they see any likelihood or probability that they can bring their purpose to pass, then such is their untimely folly, that as the proverb says, “They begin to sing the triumph before the victory, and to sell the bearskin before the bear is slain.” They threaten to execute whatever their malice can devise against the saints of God, as if their power was so strong that they could not be resisted, and their wisdom so deep that it could not be disappointed, and their purpose so sure that they could not be overturned. Now, when they thus begin to insult by blaspheming, railing, and threatening, then the saints of God betake themselves to prayer and cry, “Lord, behold their threatenings” (Acts 4:29); this prayer so prevails with God that he makes a sudden change and alteration, for when the saints of God are brought lowest, and the pride of their enemies advanced highest, then it is time for the Lord to work such a change that both declares the glory of his mercy, justice, and power. When like the nails of the wheel of Sesostris’s chariot, that which was highest in a moment becomes lowest, and that that was lowest is advanced highest. Therefore we have reason to think that, in the beginning of this combustion wherewith now these kingdoms are set on fire, many of the saints of God found matter of great comfort and a wonderful ground of hope that the enemies of the cause of Christ should not prosper, and the Covenanters should be comforted, and graciously delivered when they did hear of the untimely and foolish insulting of their proud enemies that did promise victory to themselves before they did fight and were dividing lands, distributing offices, scaring cities, and killing all that should make opposition before that either they were vanquished or invaded, for as it was a presage of the Syrians’ overthrow, when putting on their armor, they boasted as though they had put it off (1 Kings 20:11), and as it was a presage of the ruin of Sennacherib and his army when he boasted so much of his power and victory.

And as our history tells us that the huge army of Edward II of England was vanquished by a handful of our nation, who so presumed of the certainty of his victory that before he entered the country, he divided the lands and appointed the king and his nobles to several torments, and brought a poet in his company to describe his victory, who afterwards, being taken among other captives, described in verse the victory of his enemies.

In later times, we know how the army of the Spaniards was overthrown that was called “the invincible armada.” And truly the enemies of our church and kingdom may learn to know by their sorrowful experience that such untimely and proud insulting has been an evident presage of their just confusion, and a manifest foretoken to the people of God, of their unspeakable comfort and gracious exaltation, for when the pride of the wicked and the prayer of the godly come together before the Lord, the one cries for speedy justice to punish the wicked, and the other for timely mercy to compass such as put their confidence in God (Ps. 32:10), as we may see in the pride of Sennacherib, and the prayer of Hezekiah in the thirty-seventh chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah.

Now we come to the second thing considerable in the enemies of David, when he says that they assemble themselves together. The Prophet makes mention of their assembling for two reasons: first, for the glory of God’s power; secondly, that he may declare his trust and confidence, which he had in God.

First, I say, for the glory of God’s power, for the weaker that the defendant party is, and the stronger that the assailing party is, the power of the defender of the weaker against the stronger is known to be the greater; the Scripture tells us that King Ahaz, whose army was miserably foiled by the king of Israel, was greatly afraid when he heard of the coming of the kings of Syria and Israel, but then the power of the king of Ashur was greater that both defended Ahaz and vanquished his enemies. History tells us that when the city of Constantinople was hardly besieged by the huge army of Bajacet, King of the Turks, and the Greek Emperor could obtain no help at the hands of Christian princes that were at variance among themselves, he implored the help of Tamerlane, King of the Tartars, who forced the King of the Turks to raise his siege and put his army to route, and took himself captive, and so the power of the King of the Tartars was known in delivering the weak Emperor of Greece from the puissant King of the Turks. The same way the power of God Almighty is manifested when his saints and servants are brought to extremity, that they can neither help themselves nor have help from others against their many and mighty persecutors, he that manifested his power in Paul’s weakness in the hour of temptation declares his power in the protecting of his saints in time of persecution (2 Cor. 12:9), for the Lord will not deny his safeguard to his saints while they are straitened with necessity, but graciously helps them when they are redacted to greatest extremity.

Remarkable is that example of Hezekiah and his people; the army of the Assyrians was known to be great, Hezekiah was sensible of his weakness, that was not unknown to his enemy, which told him that he had neither riders for horses nor counsel for war (2 Kings 18:20), but the power of God that protected Hezekiah was manifested, not only in promising him security, but likewise in the performing of his safety in the destruction of his enemy. Hezekiah that was so weak in the sight of Sennacherib, seemed foolish in holding out a walled city against him, but he would have judged him mad if he had hazarded to come in open field against him, because he would have been like the unhappy young son of King Priamus, who would need fight with valiant Achilles. Yet the power of God was magnified, whose bridle was in the lips of Sennacherib, that he could not further go beyond his permission than a horse can go only where his rider pleases. The church of God in the eighty-third Psalm complains of the confederacy of many enemies, who not only fought the rack of God’s people, when they say, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance” (Ps. 83:4), but their pride breaks out against the Lord himself when they say, “Let us take to ourselves the houses of God in possession” (Ps 83:12), whose destruction the church craves by humble prayer, that God may be magnified in his glorious power.

2. The Prophet mentions the assembling of his enemies to declare his trust and confidence in God, for the multitude of his enemies is so far from chasing him from God that it makes him to run the more to God by earnest prayer and settled confidence, who as by his power, he is able to protect him, so by his mercy, he will compass him that puts his trust and confidence in him (Ps. 32:10), for the Prophet well knew how powerfully this argument would prevail with God, that he that is pursued by many enemies and trusts in God would be protected by the power and mercy of God. Humanity will teach men not to forsake or betray, but rather to protect to the utmost of their power those that put confidence in them and commit their lives to their care. As it is said in the history of Artaxerxes, King of Persia, which set a sparrow at liberty which fled to his bosom, and would not give it as a prey to the hawk, he uttered these words in the audience of his princes, “As I have not delivered this bird to be a prey to its enemy, so will I never deceive, but protect the man that trusts in me.” Much more, I say, will the tender mercy of our gracious Lord move him graciously to protect those that put their trust under the shadow of his wings (Ps. 36:7).

For the deep consideration and comfortable application of this, we have diverse remarkable things set down in holy Scripture.

As first, that every one of God’s saints should well observe what singular experience they have found of God’s favorable protection, which makes David not to be afraid of the multitude of his enemies, when he considers how he has been delivered from the fury and rage of his enemies.

As Basil well explains his meaning in the twenty-seventh Psalm, “Because I have received so great experience, and proof of divine help, that albeit twice or thrice so many press to overwhelm me, yet being guarded by this hope, I will withstand all those evils with invincible courage.”

2. The Lord himself has exhorted his people to trust in him with a promise of security and safety, as the twentieth of the second of the Chronicles, “Trust in the Lord, and ye shall be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” (2 Chron. 20:20).

3. If we look to the experience of his saints, it may be justly said, “none of them that trust in him shall be desolate,” because they were always delivered that trusted in him, and our fathers that trusted in him were not ashamed (Ps. 34:23; 22:5). And therefore we must not withdraw our confidence from God when we see no appearance of help at the hands of men, but so much the more rely on him, with trust and confidence, whose relief comes usually when there is least appearance. It is our part that are Christians to say, as Eusebius brings in Philo the Jew, speaking to his countrymen, when Caligula the Emperor would not hear their petition, but commanded them to avoid his presence, “We should be of good courage (said Philo) at whom Caius is angry, because of necessity divine help will be present when human help ceases.”

From the consideration of the assembly of David’s enemies, we are to remark a twofold use. First, here we may observe that albeit the enemies of David are proud, and by reason of their pride and ambition, have their mutual dissentions and emulations, yet they can combine themselves to be David’s persecutors.

This may seem the more strange and admirable if we consider the nature of proud men, insofar as they are proud, for they presume of their own worth, and think all others to be base and contemptible, they presume of their own wit, so that nothing in their estimation can be well spoken or done but their own words and their own works, or else what one way or other pleases their humors, they so look to their own honor and wealth, that they care not for the wreck and disgrace of others. It is a wonder then that in any respect they can assemble with others, that in these respects do separate themselves from all others, and yet we see that though Pilate and Herod are mutual enemies, they can be friends when Christ is crucified. And though there is mutual hatred between the Pharisees and Sadducees, they can conspire when Christ is persecuted. There was no greater confusion at the building of the tower of Babel, nor is in the Roman church amongst their religious orders, yet all of them can conspire against the profession and professors of the truth.

The reason then for the combining of the proud persecutors of the saints of God may be expressed in a plain comparison. A great king that is the commander of diverse countries and provinces, though those countries differ in their languages and in their manners, though some of them envy others’ privileges and contemn others baseness, yet being employed in a war against the king’s enemies, they can all make up the body of one army, as if they were citizens of one city; we know that persecution is the work of Satan, the king of pride; though it is performed by men that are the children of pride, the persecution of the saints is hatched in hell by Satan before it is either threatened or executed by men upon earth. This is the water that comes out of the mouth of the dragon to drown the woman and her son (Rev. 12:15), that is a fruit of the enmity between the “seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman” (Gen. 3:15). The proud persecutors of the saints of God are set to work by Satan, the king of the children of pride, about one work for one end, to destroy the kingdom of Christ, albeit it is true that wicked men that have hand in the business have their own worldly, devilish, and diverse other respects in the satisfying of their wicked humors, ambition, cruelty, and covetousness.

But to bring the application nearer home, it may be questioned, How can it be thought that all the malignant parties which persecute the Covenanters in these kingdoms do service to Satan for one end, seeing many of them make profession that all they do is for the propagation of true religion? To this, I answer, that seeing there is a great assembly of diverse sorts of persons against the professors and defenders of the truth in their kingdoms, that is to say, professed Papists and malignant Protestants. Concerning the Papists, we may justly say, they carry themselves more wisely in keeping silence than if they should speak, for it is well known to God and their own consciences, and to all that know them, that the main end of all their doings is to get liberty to profess their own religion, and to find opportunity to extirpate the Protestant religion. But the malignant Protestants do carry themselves more anti-Christian-like in the business than the Papists themselves, for we know that the name of Antichrist imports one that says he is for Christ and yet does things against Christ, so those men make profession that all their care is for the advancing of the true religion, when in the meantime, all their courses and projects tend to the ruin of true religion and erecting of idolatry and superstition. And as history relates of Didius Julianus, who succeeded Pertinax in the Roman Empire, which he attained not by the consent of the Roman Senate, but bought it with money that he promised to the pretorian soldiers; when this man after the custom of the Roman emperors would be styled the father of his country, there was a writing set on the gate of his palace by night, “Didius Julianus is not the father of his country, but the buyer and seller, and betrayer of his country.”

So those malignant Protestants who profess themselves to be furtherers of religion and defenders of their country are, by their lewd and wicked practices, declared to be enemies to the truth and traitors to their country.

The second use which hereof arises when the Covenanters of Britain and Ireland hear of the assembling of the malignant enemies from diverse quarters, there are three things which earnestly they should lay to heart. First, they should study by all means to keep peace amongst themselves. Secondly, they should hinder by all means the enemies which are in diverse places to come together into one place. Thirdly, they should entreat the Lord by prayer to be present in the assemblies of his saints, that so they may be protected against the assemblies of their enemies.

First, I say, they should carefully study to keep peace amongst themselves, that is to say, they should labor to be of one mind in the matter of religion, and in the exercise of the service and worship of God, they should mutually defend one another, according to their covenant; they should remove all excuses from them which may hinder them to advance the cause of Christ; none that have power should pretend weakness, nor that have wealth should pretend poverty, but every zealous Christian should count it his honor and happiness that God has furnished him with ability, and by his providence, offered him opportunity to honor Christ and to advance his kingdom. Christians that are called to peace in one body should let the peace of God rule in their hearts at all times, but especially when their peace is troubled by cruel persecutors (Col. 3:15). Abraham thought it not time to discord with Lot in the land of the Amorites (Gen. 13:8). History tells us that, though the Athenians and Thebans had their mutual jealousies, yet they packed up all their dissentions when they were invaded by Philip, King of Macedonia, the common enemy of the liberty of Greece. It is a lamentable matter that “the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luke 16:8). At this time, all the covenanted people of the Lord should be careful to keep peace amongst themselves, partly when they consider that usually distraction is a dolorous presage of destruction, as Eusebius, in his ecclesiastical history observes that the dissension between the eastern and the western church was the forerunner of the tenth persecution, and partly because union makes strength but division brings weakness.

There is no nation under heaven that has more reason to lay this to heart than we of this kingdom. We read that when Antonius was vanquished by Augustus Caesar, while he lay dying by his own deadly wounds, he said to Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, “It is no shame for a Roman to be vanquished by a Roman,” but truly it is the misery and dishonor of this kingdom that Scotland has been so frequently vanquished by Scots, for our history tells us that the most powerful foreign people that ever invaded this kingdom was never able to vanquish this nation without the combining of treacherous and discontented subjects amongst ourselves. Of whom it may be said, as the Greek orator spoke of the besieged Olynthians, “That while some valiantly were repulsing the enemies, others were treacherously betraying the city.”

But if we are true to ourselves and keep that peace which we have sworn in our Covenant, and is recommended to the disciples of Christ, we need the less to care for all the enemies of the cause of Christ.

2. When the people of the Lord hear of the assembling of their enemies, they should labor what in them lies to hinder them that are in several places to come together into one place. It was wisely done by the Romans to fight with the army of Hasdrubal before they joined with the army of Hannibal, for otherwise the later troubles of Italy would have been greater than the former. It is a great deal more safe to deal with the several parts of an army than with the complete body of an army, as the history of our nation tells of one of our noblemen, who with eight thousand of our people in the time of Edward I, King of England, vanquished in one day thirty thousand of the English nation that were divided in three bands, which would have been more difficult if all had been joined together. We know that as many streams may make a great river, so many hands joined together may make a strong and powerful invasion; the smallest enemy is not to be contemned because his power may grow if he is altogether neglected and despised, as Amorash, the sixth king of the Turks, told his son, Mahomet, concerning Scanderbeg, the prince of Epirus, who increased in power because he was neglected and contemned. It was well said by a Greek writer, that “whosoever contemns his enemy, brings danger to himself.”

Wise people should do with their combining enemies as Christians should do with sin, which in the beginning is to be resisted, lest afterwards it grows so strong that it cannot be resisted. It was worthily said by a learned man that “in all things he that would avoid the greatest evil, must need to extinguish the beginning of evil.”

It greatly concerns the peace and present safety of this nation to make timeous opposition to the armies of our enemies before they are strengthened by a greater faction, as Joab pursued Sheba, the son of Bichri, before he could gather a greater company (2 Sam. 20:13). And truly we have reason to bless the Lord for that singular care and diligence that he has put in the hearts of our worthy noblemen and commanders that are conservers of peace, that they have so timeously opposed the insulting enemy, that no sooner was his power increased, but as soon it decreased, like the kingdom of Zimri that lasted for a week (1 Kings 16:15).

3. When we hear of the assembling of divers people from divers quarters, our humble prayers should be to the Lord, that he would be present “in the assembly of his saints” (Ps. 89:7), that so they may be protected and defended against the assemblies of their cruel enemies. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31), and Abijah was more encouraged that God was with his people than he was afraid of the huge number of Jeroboam’s army which were against his people (2 Chron. 13:10). But while we thus entreat the Lord by prayer, we must look well to two things.

First, that we fear not excessively nor be faint hearted when we are fewer in number, seeing it is the same to the Lord to vanquish “by few as by many” (1 Sam. 14:6), according to the frequent passages that we read of this purpose in the book of the Judges, and in the books of the Kings.

Secondly, though by God’s providence our number is greater, yet we must not lean to the strength of man, but to the help and assistance of God; for neither the greatness of number nor the goodness of a cause for which they fight will make a people prevail against their enemies that have greater confidence in their own strength than in the help of God.

I verily think that when Jehoshaphat was threatened by his enemies, he could have raised a greater army, nor all the kings that were his enemies, such a number that I think all the princes of Europe combined could not bring the like number to the field, and yet he says, “Lord, we know not what to do, but our eyes are towards thee” (2 Chron. 20:12), for as he knew that he was threatened by his enemies, without the Lord’s approbation, so he knew that though he had a greater number, he might be vanquished by the Lord’s permission. Chariots and horses may run to the battle, but the Lord of hosts gives victory, therefore he implores the help of the Lord and puts his trust and confidence in him, by whose only assistance and power the greatest number may be vanquished, as well as the least, and without whose help and assistance, the greatest number may be vanquished by the least. But if we shall find access to God by prayer, then whensoever we are threatened by our enemies, we may look for protection and deliverance, according to the observation of David, “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me” (Ps. 56:9).

Now let us speak of the third thing considerable in the enemies of David; he calls them violent and cruel men that seek after his soul, where we are to observe that the enemies of God’s saints and servants may well be called violent and cruel, and that in three respects: first, in respect of their affection; secondly, in respect of their words; and thirdly, in respect of their actions.

First, I say, in respect of their affection, for the hatred they bear to the saints of God, as it is unjust in respect to the ground of it, and deadly in respect to the project, so it is irreconcilable in respect to the continuance of it. First, I say, it is unjust in respect to the ground of it, for they hate the saints of God for the excellent graces which they see in them. Cain slew his brother, Abel, “because his own works were evil and his brother’s good” (1 John 3:12), and therefore one said well, “If the brightness of the saints did not shine, the envy of the wicked should not arise against them.”

Next, it is deadly in respect to the project of it, for wicked men desire the utter ruin of the saints of God, and that not of a certain number, but of all the godly without exception, for as the cruel Emperor Caligula wished that all the Romans had but one head that he might strike it off at one blow, so the desire of the wicked is that the saints of God might perish from the earth. The confederate nations will have Israel to be rooted out of memory; that they be not a nation (Ps. 83:4). Haman would have all the Jews to perish in one day. Diocletian and Julian the apostate had a purpose to root out the name of Christians from under heaven. Lastly, their hatred is irreconcilable in respect to continuance; Cain will not be reconciled to his brother, even though the Lord offers himself to take up the matter (Gen. 4:6). Esau lays up in his heart the hatred of his brother until the death of his father (Gen. 27:41). For this cause, they are not only called enemies, but likewise foes (Ps. 27:2), because their enmity is altogether implacable, and their seed, like that of Amalek, is irreconcilable.

2. They are violent and cruel in respect to their words, whereby sometimes they express how they despise and contemn the saints of God, as Nabal spoke of David. Sometimes they threaten to execute the extremity of their rage and fury, as did Sennacherib against Hezekiah, and sometimes they burden the saints of God with calumnies and reproaches, as Shimei railed against David. In all which respects, they are said to speak cruelly, and their words are compared to a great scourge, and to sharp arrows, to burning coals, and to the venom of asps, for as any of these things can grievously hurt man’s body, so the cruel words of violent men do greatly grieve and afflict the hearts of the saints of God (Ps. 27:12; 120:4; John 15:20).

3. They are called cruel and violent in respect to action, and so their cruelty is best seen by some and felt by others, for when they are permitted by the Lord to afflict his saints, they express all manner of cruelty that can be devised or executed without regard to sex or age, or quality of persons. Therefore it is that in holy Scripture they are called troublers, oppressors, persecutors. Troublers, because they do not allow the saints of God to live in peace and quietness, but frequently give them occasion for grief and sorrow, under the sense whereof they are forced to complain to God (2 Thess. 1:6).

They are called oppressors by reason of the manifold injuries which they do to the saints of God without any cause of occasion; they do to others what they would not be content should be done to themselves. And they are called persecutors, partly because, though they find not opportunity at the first to execute their malice, yet they diligently seek occasion and wait until they find it, and partly because they invade the saints of God as savage beasts do set upon their prey, to which they are compared by the Prophet David in the twenty-second Psalm.

The Turks’ history tells us that Bajacet, the fourth king of the Turks, by his countrymen was called Gilderin, which signifies lightning, because in a great battle, which his father, Amorath fought against the Christians, he broke in with a part of the Army so fiercely and terribly, as if it had been thunder and lightning. But there is a word in the text which is not to be lightly passed over, seeing it includes more than at first it would seem to do, for when the enemies of David are said to seek after his soul, there are two things included.

First, that the harm which David’s enemies would do to him is not a light, but a grievous hurt. Secondly, that they wish not only the death of David’s body, but likewise the destruction of his soul.

First, I say, that the hurt and injury which they wished him is not a light harm which easily may be comported with and soon repaired, but a great and grievous hurt which can neither be endured or repaired. This is not like other kinds of hurt that sometimes is done to men by men. King Saul threatens that the oxen of the Hebrews shall be cut in pieces, which do not follow him to war against the Ammonites (1 Sam. 11:7), and cruel Nahash will put out the right eyes of the citizens of Jabesh (1 Sam. 11:2). Pontius Pilate will scourge Jesus and let him go (Luke 23:16). But the enemies of David seek after his soul; they will not only spoil him of his wealth and honor, but likewise of his life; they are set against him as the Pharisees were set against Christ, that would have him put to death (Luke 23:21). And as the Jews were against Paul when they said, “It is not fit that he should live” (Acts 22:22); and as history tells that Charles, Duke of Anjou, was so cruelly set against Conradin, King of Cicily, that the proverb went through the world, Vita Caroli mors Conradini: The life of Charles was the death of Conradin, he should not live except he died. And so the Scripture tells us that the life of David was sought by his enemies, both by secret plots and open violence, which not only makes him to say that his enemies would swallow him up (Ps. 56:1), but likewise he compares them to savage beasts, which when they set upon a man do not simply bite him until he bleeds, neither do they take away one of his members, but they do not leave him until he is dead and have eaten their pleasure of his carcass; therefore he said that his enemies come upon him to eat up his flesh (Ps. 27:2).

2. It imports that the enemies of David not only desired the death of his body, but likewise they wished that his soul might perish forever, the like example of matchless cruelty we shall hardly find in profane history; for sometimes we read of men that have wished the death of their enemies and yet afterwards have lamented their death. As it is said of Alexander the Great, that wept over the dead body of Darius, King of Persia. Sometimes though they lament not their death, yet they will cause them to be buried, as Jehu would have done to Jezabel (2 Kings 9:34); and as it is said that Hannibal, the famous Carthaginian captain, caused the Roman consuls to be honorably buried, whom he had valiantly vanquished; sometimes they will not allow them to be buried, which was the despite that Caesar used against the army of Pompay, who was vanquished in the fields of Pharsaly. Albeit as one said well, that is base hatred that goes beyond death.

The Scripture tells us of the base and barbarous despite of the Chaldeans that did open the graves of the Jews, and scattered their bones upon the earth. The writers of the Indian histories relate that many of these nations have a custom to eat their enemies which they take in the war, and to make musical instruments of their bones. One example we read amongst the pagans, who in his book that he writes against his enemy, whom he dare not name, he not only wishes many bodily miseries to befall him, but likewise, that his soul may be tormented in hell with endless pain.

We read in the Gospel that the Jews think not enough that Christ should die, unless he is crucified, because so they thought his soul would perish by dying a cursed death. But if it is asked how may it be known that this was the despite of David’s enemies against him, I answer briefly in this plain comparison, if one man shall desire another to go from one place to another in a way that he knows to be full of robbers and savage beasts, out of all question he desires him to die. So the enemies of David did not only banish him from the house of God where he was most desirous to dwell, but likewise they bid him go and serve the gods of the Gentiles in the twenty-sixth chapter of the first of Samuel, that by committing idolatry, he might perish eternally; and therefore he magnifies the mercy of God, who in this respect delivered his soul from the lowest hell (Ps. 86:13). A twofold use may be made of this point.

First, Christians should have a singular care not only to look to their words and ways that they show no signs of cruelty, but likewise that the spirit of cruelty is not harbored in their hearts, but rather that they may study to meekness and the exercise of mercy, and that for four reasons. First, because so we are taught by the word of God. Secondly, because cruelty makes men like Satan. Thirdly, in respect to our union with God. Fourthly, in respect to divine vengeance, which is the reward of cruelty.

First, I say, because Christians are taught by the Word of God to flee cruelty and follow mercy, and that by no less example than God their Creator and Christ their Redeemer: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (Luke 6:36); and, “learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matt. 11:29). We justly think that both the religion of the papists and the religion of the Muslims cannot be a good religion, seeing their religion teaches them the practice of cruelty, and to force people with fire and sword to embrace it, whom they cannot persuade by their arguments, even as Ambrose speaks of the carriage of the Arians in his time towards the Orthodox Christians, “Whom they cannot deceive by word, they cry that they are to be killed by the sword; they indict cruel and bloody laws with their mouth, they write with their hand, and think that their laws can command faith unto men.”

But the Christian and true religion, which is grounded in the Word of God, is known to be a good religion, because it enjoins the hatred of cruelty and love of mercy, and will have no one to be forced by violent compulsion, but rather persuaded by powerful preaching, and evident arguments from divine truth, that men may acknowledge and embrace the truth, according to the worthy saying of Tertullian, “It is not the part of religion to constrain religion, which men should willingly receive, and not by force, seeing the sacrifices of the Lord are required of a willing mind.” Howbeit, it cannot be denied but although the Lord only can persuade the heart, yet when the professors of the truth have to do with heretics and schismatics and profane persons that live amongst them but do not walk with them in the unity of faith and in the way of godliness, refusing to be informed, and hating to be reformed, such may be constrained by human laws to use the means of the true religion, that either their souls may be saved, or their impiety may be restrained, that it does not prove scandalous to the people of God, and so the Scripture tells us that, when Josiah, in the reformation of the people of the Jews, renewed the covenant between God and his people, “he caused all that were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand to it” (2 Chron. 34:32), albeit we have reason to think that many of them were affected to idolatry in their hearts. But Papists and all other enemies of the truth, who think rather by rigorous persecution than by right information, to bring people to their erroneous profession, thereby they declare to the world the cruelty and falsehood of their religion.

And therefore, whosoever is delighted with the exercise of cruelty, and is averse from the works of mercy, whatever profession he makes of the true religion, he has not found the converting power of the gospel of Christ, seeing, though he has the voice of Jacob, yet he has the hands of Esau, together with the cruel heart of Esau (Gen 27:22).

2. Because meek and merciful men are most like God, who glories in his mercy, so fierce and cruel men are most like Satan, who delights in cruelty, to whom is given the name of a destroyer in the twentieth chapter of the Revelation, because he takes pleasure to destroy the creatures of God, so that when he cannot extend his malice to men, he is content to exercise his cruelty on beasts, as the gospel tells us of the legion of devils that drowned the swine.

3. Because our happiness stands in a union with God, and the nearness of our access to God, augments our blessedness, according to the saying of the psalmist, “Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest to approach unto thee” (Ps. 65:4). Cruel men can have no society or fellowship with God, who abhors the blood-thirsty (Ps. 5:6), for amongst all things that can be presented to the mind or senses of man, there is not any two things so contrary to another as the merciful Creator and the cruel creature.

4. Because albeit cruel and malicious men for a time may get liberty to exercise their fury, yet in the end they shall not escape the vengeance of God, which is the just reward for their cruelty. Amongst the pagans, Hercules and Theseus were famous that subdued and punished cruel men by whom many had been injured and oppressed. And shall it not much more concern the glory of God’s power and justice to render to cruel men the reward of their cruelty? It was observed by Plato the Philosopher that “there is no man upon earth so severely can take vengeance on his enemy as the Lord God uses to take vengeance on such as oppress poor men.”

This vengeance of the Lord sometimes executes by the hand of man, which did make Adoni-bezek to acknowledge the justice of God (Judg. 1:7), albeit it often falls out that men whom God uses as instruments of his justice, do not look to the glory of God, but to satisfy their own vindictive humor. “Woe to thee that spoilest … when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled” (Isaiah 33:1). The Meads and the Persians were no less cruel to the Chaldeans, nor they had been to the people of God, but more frequently the Lord plagues cruel men by his own immediate hand, with visible judgments in the sight of the world, to the glory of the power and justice of God. We read in the history of the Macabees that the bowels of the cruel Antiochus were tormented, who had caused the bowels of others to be tormented; and in the Jewish history we read of the punishment of cruel Herod the Great, for his cruelty, as well as his own children, as against the nobles and people of the Jews. The Scripture likewise tells us of the condign punishment of the wicked Jehoram, King of Judah (2 Chron. 21:8–19). And in the sea of histories, it is related of the cruel and bloody Attila, King of the Huns, who was never moved with tears of any, to show mercy or pity, but as he delighted in the shedding of human blood while he lived, he was overtaken by the vengeance of divine justice in his greatest triumph, in his marriage day, for he was choked with his own blood, which did flow abundantly from diverse parts of his body, until his wretched life was finished. There are infinite examples both in ecclesiastical history and in the Book of the Martyrs, of the just punishment wherewith the cruel persecutors of the saints of God in all ages have been plagued; therefore it was worthily observed by Cyprian, “We are sure and confident that what we suffer shall not be unrevenged, and the greater the wrong of the persecution be, so much the more just and grievous shall be the revenge, which God shall take on the persecutors.”

The second use which here is to be observed, whensoever we hear of the cruelty of wicked men against the saints of God, in any place of the world, and when we ourselves are threatened with their cruel hostility, then we should put up our humble prayer to the Lord our God, that if he will chastise us for our sins and offenses, he would do it with his own hand, and not give us up to the will of our enemies. For David wisely chose to fall into the hand of God rather than into the hand of men. Thus we should pray, for two reasons. First, because no favor towards the saints can be expected at the hands of their persecutors; secondly, because God, to whom the saints pray, is both willing to hear and able to help.

First, I say, because no favor but extreme cruelty to the people of God may be expected at the hands of the cruel enemies of God and his people, as Jeremiah speaks of the King of Babylon, which did show no mercy to the people of the Jews. The Scripture compares persecution to a flood of water, for as a flood of water is not like an ordinary river which runs along in its own channel, but altogether overflows bank and brae, and violently carries away whatsoever it overtakes, so persecution is not like an ordinary war between two nations that can give and take reasonable quarters as occasion is offered, but persecution passes the bounds of humanity and breaks the bonds of nature, and commits outrageous cruelty that human sense abhors, the committing whereof makes the ears to ring, the flesh to quake, and the heart to tremble, so that the mind of man will abhor the remembrance of it with grief and sorrow.

We need not to call to mind the ancient examples of cruelty that are registered in ecclesiastical history, seeing of latter times we heard of the Spanish Inquisition, and that which has been used in the prison houses and pillories of England, while as the tyranny of the prelates advanced to that height that it could not stand; and that these years bypassed have been more than barbarously practiced by the Irish Rebels against the saints and servants of God. All this should make us draw near to God by humble prayer, that we are not exposed to the cruelty of our enemies, especially seeing as Solomon says, “the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel” (Prov. 12:10). For whatsoever favor cruel persecutors offer to the people of God is always upon conditions that are worse than death. For as wizards and witches, when they cure men’s bodies of diseases, bring greater hurt to their souls by the use of unlawful means, whereby they draw guilt upon their consciences, and as that cruel Antiochus in the seventh chapter of the second book of the Macabees, not only would have spared the mother and her seven sons, but likewise would have advanced them to wealth and honor, if they would have forsaken the law of their God and become idolaters. So the malignant party will offer both peace and preferment to the Covenanters that will break the Covenant, to which they have sworn, and join with them in their unlawful courses and wicked proceedings that merely tend to the overthrow of true religion and erecting of idolatry and superstition.

2. Because our Lord to whom we pray is not like Baal, that neither could hear nor help his worshipers, for our Lord is willing to hear and able to help, and as he hears us when we pray, so he is able to grant our requests. For truly the case and condition of the saints of God were miserable if the might of their enemies was answerable to their malice, and their power to their purposes. But as our Savior said to Pontius Pilate, they have no power over God’s saints but what is given them from above (John 19:11). The Lord first breaks down the hedge, and then the wild boar of the forest pills the bark of the vine that the Lord has planted (Ps. 80:12–13). It is a worthy saying of Chrysostome, “Wicked men cannot always hurt the saints of God when they please, but when the Lord grants them a time to hurt them, that he may provide a crown of glory for his saints and servants.”

The Lord that did send Sennacherib to threaten Hezekiah, who came not up without the Lord (2 Kings 18:25), did likewise put a bridle in the lips of Sennacherib, that he was not able to hurt Hezekiah as he cruelly purposed, as then the proudest persecutors without God’s permission are not able to trouble his saints, so he can limit their power and disappoint their purpose, and turn their rage to his praise, that his saints that are preserved from the fury of their enemies may acknowledge their help to come from God that made the heaven and the earth, and heartily bless the Lord that has not given them to be a prey to their teeth (Ps. 124:6, 8).

Now come we to the last particular considerable in the enemies of David, who did not set God before them; this is to be understood in a threefold respect. First, in respect to their different purpose from the purpose of God in troubling the saints of God. Secondly, because they are not directed by the light of God. Thirdly, because they forget God while as they do not consider his divine properties.

First, I say, the proud enemies of David and all the cruel persecutors of God’s saints set not God before them, in respect to their different purpose and intention from the purpose and intention of God, while by God’s permission they are instruments of the trouble of God’s saints, for as in the crucifying of Christ, the purpose and intention of the Jews was to destroy him, but the purpose of God was that Christ might be glorified and his elect redeemed. So when the saints of God are persecuted, the purpose and intention of God is either that he may be glorified in the exercise and trial of the faith and patience of his saints, as in the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, or else that like a loving and wise father, he may chastise his children by the rod of the wicked for the sins wherewith they have offended him, that they may repent and turn to him, as we may read in the book of the Judges, in which respect Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God; but the purpose of the persecutors is either altogether to dishonor God and destroy his people, whereof God’s open enemies make their boast in Psalm 83, or else they do carry themselves like some knavish servants that work their master’s work to their own advantage, and to their master’s prejudice, as we may read in the parable of the unjust steward in the sixteenth of Luke’s gospel, for they altogether so respect themselves by doing their own will and seeking their own honor, that they have no regard at all to the pleasing of God or advancing of his honor. For while they persecute the saints of God, they do not care how God is dishonored and displeased, providing they themselves may be honored and well-pleased by satisfying their wicked humors and accomplishing their cruel projects, and so they do not set God before them, because they do not serve the Lord, but themselves.

2. Because, though sometimes they think they are doing service to God, yet they are not directed by the light of God, but by a preposterous zeal, which is without knowledge (Rom. 10:2); they are like some foolish servants that, while they think the work they are working will please their master, it greatly will offend him and provoke him to anger. They are like Joshua and his princes that made covenant with the Gibeonites, but asked not counsel of the Lord (Joshua 9:19), for our Savior says that they that persecute his disciples shall think they do service to God (John 16:2); and he well says that it shall be according to their thinking and not according to truth, for doubtless they neither consider rightly whom they do persecute, nor for what they do persecute them; they do not consider that they do persecute God with his servants. Ananias said to the Lord that Saul the persecutor had a warrant from the high priest to bind all that called upon the name of the Lord (Acts 9:14), but Jesus himself testifies from heaven that he was persecuted when his saints were persecuted (Acts 9:4); nor do they consider what they persecute them for, even for such things as should make them to love and cherish and respect them, for they persecute them for righteousness’ sake (Matt. 5:10), and for the name of Christ (Luke 6:22), and for the profession of the truth, which they call heresy (Acts 24:14), and for walking in the way of godliness, which they count superstition and vanity, and therefore as our Savior says in the gospel, “If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him” (John 11:9); so when a man is led by the direction of the light of God, he is convoyed safely and walks securely, but when he is not led by the direction of God’s light, it is no wonder though he miscarry so fearfully that he thinks that to be service done to God which is most offensive to the majesty of God, seeing they are not enlightened by the Spirit of truth, but led by the light of misinformed conscience, which is not proper light, but darkness.

3. They set not God before them, because they do not remember God as they ought; they are of the number of the people that forget God (Ps. 9:17), seeing they do not consider the presence, nor the justice, nor the power of God, for otherwise they would dare not persecute nor oppress his saints, but rather would strive to gain their love and favor by profiting them to the uttermost of their power, seeing such is the sympathy between Christ and Christians, that what evil or good is done to them, he thinks it done to himself, as in the twenty-fifth of Matthew.

First then, I say, they consider not God at all, where presence from whose sight nothing can be hid, and in whose sight all things that men do “are naked and opened” (Heb. 4:13). The light of nature teaches man to know this which made one of the heathen to say, “Truly there is a God who sees and hears all that we do.” But all men make not a right use of this light, for such is the gross atheism wherewith the hearts of the persecutors of God’s saints are replenished, that they say with themselves, God does not see them, neither will crave a reckoning of them (Ps. 10:11), which either they think to be so, or indeed would have it so, but then their folly appears, as the psalmist says, “He that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Ps. 94:9), even according to the philosopher’s rule, “Whatsoever makes a thing to be such, itself must be more such,” nothing can lurk from his sight who is the fountain and author of sight. Next, they remember not the justice of God, who certainly will revenge and cannot but revenge the wrongs that are done to his servants, “It is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you,” says the apostle (2 Thess. 1:6), and our Savior tells that the cries of the elect which night and day are sent up to their heavenly Father shall quickly be avenged (Luke 18:7). Lastly, they consider not the power of God, who is able to protect his weakest servants, and to punish their strongest enemies; he is not like Rehoboam, that for the stoning of his servant, was not able to punish the Israelites (1 Kings 12:18), but rather like David, who for the wrong done to his servants, did grievously plague the Ammonites. And therefore, both Scripture and history tells us that the persecutors of God’s saints, neither by their greatness nor multitude, could escape the avenging hand of the Lord who is Almighty, and Augustine says, “By doing what he wills, not by allowing what he wills not.”

The use of this point which Christians should make stands in this, their singular care should be both in the works of their Christian and particular calling, to set God always before them (Ps. 16:8), to which four things are required. First, that he look to the will of God as the rule of his actions. Secondly, that he look to the glory of God as the end of his actions. Thirdly, that he be led by the light of God’s word and Spirit. Fourthly, that he remember God in his divine properties.

First, I say, that they look to the will of God as the rule of their actions, “And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy” (Gal. 6:16), but this includes two remarkable things.

First, that a Christian should so look to God’s pleasure that he should have no regard to man’s pleasure; that is to say, as he must not do anything offensive to God, though thereby he should please man, so he must not omit anything that may please the Lord, though by doing of it he should greatly offend man. There is a remarkable example in ecclesiastic history to this purpose, of the worthy Christian Theodosius, the first emperor, who when by open proclamation he had forbidden the Egyptians to sacrifice to Nilus, the god of the River Nile, which had been their yearly custom by their superstition, which had continued for many ages. It so fell out that the next year after that the River Nile did not water the land of Egypt by such abundance as it usually did, for which when the superstitious people began to murmur, as though the reason for it had been the neglect of their usual sacrifice, the governor wrote to the Emperor that he would look timeously to the matter and consider what might be the event, as if he would have desired him to revoke his former edict, and to give way to the superstitious people to sacrifice to Nilus, lest they should rebel. But the worthy Emperor answered him that he would not permit a thing to be done to the offense of God for the pleasure of men, and he would rather that men should be offended before the Lord should be displeased. It would have been good for Joab if he had so deeply considered the matter of Uriah, if he had not offended God to please his king (2 Sam. 11:21); it was better considered by Peter and John, who willed the Jews to judge whether it was better to obey God than men (Acts 5:29). For seeing no one can serve two masters, it is the best and wisest course to serve the best and worthiest Master, according to the saying of Gregory, “How can it be required of you that you all should give a like service to masters that are of an unlike name,” that is to say, mortal men and the eternal God.

It would be good that this was deeply laid to heart by many malignants that trouble the peace of the saints of God, that they might look more to the pleasure of their heavenly than their earthly king, for so should they do more acceptable service to God and more profitable service to their king.

Secondly, it includes that he that does the will of God and makes it the rule of his actions should not be desirous to conform God’s will to his will, but rather to study to conform his will to God’s will. For if this should be the carriage of servants towards their earthly masters, much more ought it to be towards God, their heavenly Master, whom Augustine brings in thus speaking, “He shall be my servant who is ready not to hear what he wills, but to will what he hears.” Which a Christian must carefully look to, not only in the abstaining from things that ought to be avoided, but likewise in doing this that ought to be performed; the one because they are forbidden, the other because they are commanded by the Lord, for thereby a Christian gives testimony of his sincere obedience in the sight of God, according to the saying of Augustine, “He that is truly obedient does not consider what sort of thing is commanded, but with this he is only content that it is commanded.”

2. That a Christian may set God before him, it is not only required that he look to the will of God as the rule, but likewise that he look to the glory of God as the end of his actions, for in this is the fidelity and sincerity of the servants of God manifested, who shall obtain their Master’s approbation in the day of their reckoning, for then a Christian may be said to look to the glory of God as the end of his actions, when he so zealously tenders the honor of God, that he will not do anything to dishonor him, though thereby he should make never so much profit and commodity, neither will he omit anything whereby God should be honored, though by doing of it, he should incur both injury and ignominy. We read of the servants in the parable of the talents that they so respected their master’s honor that they rendered into his hands both the talents they had received and those they had gained, committing the distribution of their rewards to their master’s discretion. Happy is that Christian that can say with Christ that in finishing the work which God has given him to do, he has glorified God upon earth (John 17:4), for he may be well assured that as they that dishonor God shall come to shame, so they that honor him shall be honored by him (2 Sam. 2:30). “If any man serve me, him will my Father honour” (John 12:26), says our Savior in the gospel, upon which words Augustine says, “So shall the Father of Christ honor the servant of Christ with that great honor, that he may be with his Son, neither shall his happiness at any time fail or fall away.”

3. He that sets God before him must be led by the light of his Word and Spirit, for the Word of God is a light to our feet and a lantern to our paths (Ps. 119:105). It gives light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death (Luke 1:79). The Prophet David entreats the Lord to teach him his ways and to lead him in a right path, because of his enemies (Ps. 27:11). The Scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is the unction that teaches us all things (1 John 2:27), and leads us in all truth (John 16:13), which is not to be understood of extraordinary but ordinary revelations, when he makes us to understand the true meaning of the written Word of God, that we may flee the evil which is to be avoided and follow the good which is enjoined and commanded.

4. He that sets God before him must remember God in the fore-named properties, in this ubiquity, justice, and power; he must consider God is always present to take notice both of the inward and outward conversation of men, whether it is good or evil. Therefore Augustine says that “God is all an eye which sees all things, all hand who works all things, and all foot who walks everywhere.”

He must likewise remember that the righteous Lord will neither allow the evil doings of men to be unpunished, nor their good doings unrewarded. Of the one, the church says in the book of Lamentations, “The Lord is righteous, for I have rebelled” (Lam. 1:18), and of the other, the apostle says, “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love” (Heb. 6:10). Lastly, he must remember the power of the Almighty God, whereby he does whatsoever he wills in heaven and earth (Ps. 135:6), and can do all that he can will without impediment, according to the saying of Tertulian, “To be able with God is to will and not to be able, is not to will.”

Whereby likewise he can punish sinners for their iniquity, not withstanding their greatness amongst men, and the multitude wherewith they combine in the course of sin, by which power likewise he protects his saints in their greatest danger and difficulty, and comforts and strengthens them in their greatest trouble and calamity, and satisfies their desire exceeding abundantly (Ps. 91:1; Col. 1:11; Eph. 3:20). Now there are three reasons why a Christian should carefully labor thus to set God before him.

First, because amongst many other differences, this is one most remarkable between the elect and the reprobate, between men in the state of nature, and in the state of grace. Spiritual men like David set God always before them (Ps. 16:8), but wicked and worldly men like the enemies of David, do not at all set God before them, but live in the world without hope and without God (Eph. 2:12), and by their carriage, declare to the world that they are void of the fear of God (Ps. 36:1), but when Christians set God before them, this is an evident note of their effectual calling, whereby they are turned from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18), and translated from the power of darkness unto the kingdom of the Son of God (Col. 1:13), and are called out of darkness unto the marvelous light of Christ (1 Pet. 2:9).

2. If we consider the happiness of such as set God before them, and the misery of those that do not set God before them, the happiness of the one appears in this, that as they set God before them, so he sets them before him. For in all reciprocal offices between God and man, that is, in those things which are mutually done by God to man and by man to God, the Lord is always the preceder and beginner, so that a man by the performance of his part, may certainly know that God performs his. There is mutual love between God and his saints, but God first begins, as the apostle John says, they that love God may know that they are beloved of God (Prov. 8:17). God has chosen that man for his portion, who chooses God for his portion (Ps. 73:26). And God seeks us before we can seek him (Jer. 29:13; Ps. 119:176). And whosoever sets God before them by doing his will and seeking his honor, by following his light and remembering his properties, the Lord sets them before him by a high esteem of them, by tender and earnest love towards them, and by a fatherly and provident care about them. “I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me” (Isa. 29:16). But the misery of the other is answerable great, for it may be said of them, as the Latin comic says of harlots, that they fear not God, and God regards them not.

For as they have no purpose to advance God’s glory, so God has no purpose in their safety, and as they will not hear God when he calls on them in their prosperity, so he will not hear them when they call on him in their adversity (Prov. 1:26), and as they contravene God’s revealed will when they lived upon earth, so he crosses their will when they are tormented in hell, which they testify by gnashing of their teeth, which makes Bernard to say that “in vain they shall will, which never shall be, and in vain they shall nill, which ever shall be.”

And in a word, as they were careless to walk as in his presence, so they shall be forever banished from the presence of God and glory of his power (2 Thess. 1:9).

3. This is required in respect to our spiritual walking, for Christians must not walk like the Gentiles which know not God (1 Thess. 4:5), but rather like Zechariah and Elizabeth in all the commandments of God (Luke 1:6); this is called a walking worthy of the Lord, a walking in the Spirit, and after the Spirit, a walking with God, as did Enoch, and before God, as Abraham was enjoined (Col. 1:10; Gal. 5:25; Rom. 8:1; Gen. 5:24; 17:1). Now there is no possibility that anyone can so walk unless he sets God before him, for this indeed shall make him know the way wherein, the manner how, and the end towards which he ought to walk, that in all these respects he may make conscience of his walking in the sight of God by walking in his commandments with a perfect heart, from strength to strength towards Zion (Ps. 84:7), where he shall see the Lord of Hosts, and by walking worthily of the Lord, pleasing him in all things, he may be fruitful in good works and increase in the knowledge of God (Col. 1:10).

To which heavenly and holy disposition, God of his infinite mercy bring all our souls, for the sake of Jesus, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all praise, honor, and glory, world without end, Amen.

Footnotes

1
Costas Tsiamis et al., Epidemic waves of the Black Death in the Byzantine Empire (1347-1453 AD), Le Infezioni in Medicina, n. 3, 193-201, 2011. ↩︎
2
Alexander Gordon, Vincent, Thomas, in Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography, 58, (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1899), p. 363. ↩︎
3
David Maclean, Lost Edinburgh: The Great Plague of 1645, The Scotsman, 24 March 2014. ↩︎
4
Karen Jillings, An Urban History of The Plague: Socio-Economic, Political and Medical Impacts in a Scottish Community, 1500-1650 (New York, 2018), ↩︎
5
“How changed is Hector from what he was”; these are Aeneas’ words when Hector appears in his dreams not like the powerful hero he used to be, but covered with blood (Virgil, Aeneid, II, 274). (ed.) ↩︎
6
Lucius Sergius Catilina (108-62 BC) was a Roman patrician, soldier and senator best known for the second Catilinarian conspiracy, in which he plotted to overthrow the Roman Republic. A reference to the Scottish general James Graham, 5th Earl and 1st Marquis of Montrose who sought to subdue Scotland on behalf of Charles I. (ed.) ↩︎
7
aggrege – aggravate, to make graver ↩︎
8
hability – quality or expertness. ↩︎

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