Chap. 16. Showing the Third Good Effect of the Saints' Piety

3. THE third Good effect of the Saints Piety, was, God rewarded it, verse 17. And they shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my Jewels. The reward is threefold. 1. Gods owning them; they shall be mine, says the Lord of Hosts: where observe.

- 1. The Person speaking, the Lord of Hosts. - 2. The Reward it self, they shall be mine.

1. The Person speaking, the Lord of Hosts. This is too great a word to be passed by in silence. God is often in Scripture stiled, Dominus exercituum, the Lord of Hosts, Psalm 46:11. Isaiah. 1:24. That is, he is the Supreme General, and Commander of all Armies and forces, and gives Victory to whom he will.

Why is this Name,The Lord of Hosts given to God?

Not that God needs any Hosts to protect himself, or Suppress his enemies. Earthly Princes have Armies to defend their Persons from danger, but God needs none to help him: he can fight without an army. God puts strength into all Armies; other Captains may give their Soldiers Armour, but they cannot give them Strength: but God does, Psalm 18:39. You hast Girded me with strength to battel. Why then is God said to have Hosts and Armies if he needs them not.

1. It is to set forth his Soveraign Power, and Grandure: all Armies and Regiments are under his command.

2. It is to shew us that though God can effect all things by himself; yet in his Wisdom he oft useth the Agency of the Creature to bring to pass his will and purpose.

What are these Hosts or Armies of which God is the Soveraign Lord?

1. God has an Army in Heaven, Angels and Arch-angels, 1 King 22:19. I saw the Lord sitting on his Throne, and all the Host of Heaven standing by him. By the Host of Heaven is meant the Angels; they being Spirits are a Puissant Army, Psalm 103:20. Ye Angels which excell in Strength. We read of one Angel who destroy'd in one Night an hundred fourscore and five thousand, 2 King 19:35. If one Angel destroy'd such a vast Army, what can a Legion of Angels do? a Legion consisted of six thousand six hundred sixty six, says Hesychius: how many of these Legions go to make up the Heavenly Host!

2: The Stars are Gods Army, Deuteronomy 4:19. These were set in Battalia and fought against Gods enemies, Iudg. 5:20. The Stars in their courses fought against Sisera. That is, the Stars did charge like an Army, raising Storms and tempests by their influences, and so destroying the whole Army of Sisera. 2. God has Armies upon earth.

- 1. Rational. - 2. Irrational.

1. Rational, Hosts of men: these are under Gods command and conduct, they stir not without his Warrant: the Lord has the managing of all Martial affairs: not a stroke is struck, but God orders it: not a Bullet flies but God directs it.

2. Irrational, God can raise an Army of Flies, as he did against King Pharaoh, Exodus 8:24. An Army of Worms, as he did against King Herod, Acts 12:23. O what a Lord is here who has so many Hosts under his Pay and conduct!

Let us Dread this Lord of Hosts: we fear men who are in Power, and is not that God to be adored and feared who acts pro arbitrio. He does what he pleaseth in the Armies of Heaven and earth, Daniel 9:35. His Power is as large as his will, Job 23 13. What his Soul desireth, even that he does. The Ephori had Power over the King of Sparta; the Tribunes over the Roman consuls; much more has God a Soveraign Power over all. He poureth contempt upon Princes, Job 12:21. He threw the Proud Angels to Hell. God can with a word unpin the Wheeles and break the Axle tree of the Creation. Gods Power is a Glorious Power, Colossians 1:11. And herein it appears Glorious, it i never spent or wasted. Men while they exercise their strength, weaken it. But, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, Isaiah. 40:28. Though God spends his Arrows upon his enemies, Deuteronomy 32:23. yet not his strength. O then tremble before this Lord of Hosts, Remember (O hard-hearted sinner!) how many ways God can be revenged on you. He can raise an Army of diseases against you in your body: he can set the humours of the body one against another, he can make the heat dry up the Moisture, or the Moisture drown the heat; he can Arm every Creature against you, the Dog, the Boar, the Elephant. He can Arm Conscience against you, as he did against Spira making him a Terrour to himself: O dread this Lord of Hosts.

If God be the Lord of Hosts, let us take heed of hardning our Hearts against God. It was the saying of Pompey that with one stamp of his Foot he could raise all Italy up in Arms. God can with a word raise all the Militia of Heaven and Earth against us: and shall we dare affront him? Job 9:4. Who has hardened himself against him, and prospered? Such as live in the open breach of Gods Commandments harden their Hearts against God; they raise a War against Heaven, Job 15:25. He strengtheneth himself against the Almighty. Like Warriors, who Muster up all the forces they can, to fight with their Antagonists: so the sinner harnesseth, and strengthens himself against Iehovah, Ver. 26. He runneth upon him, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers. Bucklers anciently had one great boss in the middle with a sharp pike in it to wound the adversary. The flagitious sinner encounters the God of Heaven, and runs upon the thick bosses of his fury, which will wound mortally. The Wicked do as Caligula, who challenged Iupiter to a duel: but who ever hardened himself against God and prospered? will men go to measure Arms with God? Job 40:9. Hast you an Arm like God? God is Almighty, therefore can hurt his enemies; and he is invisible, therefore they cannot hurt him. Who can fight with a Spirit? God will be too hard for his Enemies at the long run, Psalm 68:21. God shall wound the head of his Enemies, and the hairy scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his trespasses. Julian hardened his Heart against God, but what got he at last? did he prosper? Being wounded in Battle he threw up his blood into the Air, and said to Christ, Vicisti Galilaee: O Galilean you hast overcome, I acknowledge your Power whose Name and truth I have opposed. How easily can God chastise Rebels? Exodus 14:24. In the morning-watch God looked to the host of the Egyptians through the Pillar of fire, and troubled their host. It needs cost God no more to destroy his Proudest adversaries, than a look, a cast of the Eye. 'Tis better to lye Prostrate at Gods feet, and meet him with tears in our Eyes, than Weapons in our hands: we overcome God, not by resistance, but by Repentance.

If God be the Lord of Hosts, let us be so wise as to engage him on our side, Psalm 46 11. The Lord of Hosts is with us. Great is the Priviledge to have the Lord of Hosts for us. 1. If the Lord of Hosts be on our side, he can discover the subtil plots of Enemies. Thus he detected the Counsel of Achitophel, 2 Samuel 17:16. And did not the Lord discover the Popish conspirators both in the Powder-Treason (that Catholick villany) and of late, when they would have subverted Religion and Laws, and like Italian Butchers have turned England into an Akeldama or Field of blood? If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, now may England say, when men rose up against us, they had swallowed us up quick.

2. If the Lord of Hosts be on our side, he can bridle his Enemies, and lay such a restraint upon their Spirits, that they shall not do the mischief they intend, Genesis 31:39. It is in the Power of my hand to do you hurt (said Laban to Iacob) but the God of your fathers spoke to me saying, take heed you speak not to Iacob either good or bad. Laban had power to do hurt, but no heart. When Balak called upon Balaam to curse Israel, God so dispirited Balaam that he could not discharge his thunderbolt, Numbers 23:8. How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? He had a good mind to curse, but God held him back.

3. If the Lord of Hosts be for us, he can help us, though means fail, and things seem to be given for lost. When Gideons Army was small, and rendred despicable, then God Crowned them with Victory, Iudg. 7:2, 22. When the Arm of Flesh shrinks, now is a time for the Arm of Omnipotency to be put forth, Deuteronomy 32:36. The Lord shall repent himself for his Servants when he sees their Power is gone, and there is none shut up or left. The less of man is seen, the more of God.

4. If the Lord be on our side he can save us in that very way in which we think he will destroy us. Would not any have thought the Whales belly should have been Jonahs Grave? but God made the fish a ship, in which he sailed safe to shore. Paul got to Land by the breaking of the ship, Acts, 28:44. God can make the adverse Party do his Work; he can cause divisions among the Enemies, and turn their own Weapons against themselves, Isaiah. 19:2. I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians.

5. If the Lord of Hosts be on our side, he can make the Churches affliction a means of her Augmentation, Exodus 1:12. The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied. The Church of God is like that Plant Gregory Nazianzen speaks of, which lives by dying, and grows by cutting. Persecution propagates the Church: the scattering of the Apostles up and down, was like scattering of seed, it did tend much to the spreading of the Gospel, Acts 8:1.4.

6. If the Lord of Hosts be on our side, he can alter the scene and turn the ballance of affairs when he pleaseth, Daniel 1:21. He changeth times and seasons. God can remove Mountains which lye in the way, or leap over them. His Power is uncontrollable: he can bring Harmony out of discord. He who brought Isaac out of a dead Womb, and the Messiah out of a Virgins Womb, what cannot he do? The Lord of Hosts can in an instant alter the face of things. There are no Impossibles with God: if means fail he can Create. 'Tis therefore high prudence to get this Lord of Hosts on our side. Romans 8:31. If God be for us, who can be against us? And if we would engage God to be on our side,

1. Let us be earnest suitors to him, exercise Eyes of Faith, and Knees of prayer. Jeremiah 14:9. And in prayer let us use Joshua's argument, Josh. 7:9. What will you do to your great name? Lord, if the cause of Religion lose ground, how will your name suffer! Popish Enemies never prevail, but they Blaspheme.

2. Let us put away iniquity out of our Tabernacles, Job 11:14. Sin is not worth keeping: who would keep a Plague-sore? Let us discard and abjure our sins; And then the Lord of Hosts will be on our side, and as a Pledge of his favorable presence, he will entail the Gospel, that Crowning blessing, upon us and our posterity. So much for the Person speaking; the Lord of Hosts.