An evident display of Popish practises, or patched Pelagianism Wherein is mightily cleared the…An euident display of Popish practises, or patched Pelagianisme Wherein is mightelie cleared the…

Further let us now come to that sort of wicked, with whom the Lord, albeit using the hands and help of the ungodly, doth yet justly correct his children: here also we shall show that the decree, the will, the counsel, and finally the action of God doth come in betwixt. Finally what examples of outrage, cruelty, & ungodliness, did not the Chaldees she we in Jerusalem and all Judes? who is he that lift up his hand, that stroke Judah, who (his ensign being displayed) gathered together the Gentiles unto war,¹ that with an hiss stirred up the people a far off, which brought strong and mighty waters against Judah. Let us hear the Lord him self answering by Isai.² O Assur the rod of my fury, & the staff of my wrath in their hand. I will fend him to a dissembling people, & I will command him against the people of my indignation, that he rob them as a pray, that take spoils, and give him to be trod upon as the dust in the streets.³ But what saith the Lord in Jeremiah? I will stand (saith he) and will take all the nations of the North & Nebuchadnezzar my servant King of Babylon, and I will bring them upon this land, against the inhabitants thereof, and against all these nations by the borders thereof and I will spoil them.⁴ And in Ezekiel, Woe be to the bloody city, saith he, for I will make the burning great. I will he ape ⟨p. 127⟩on much wood in kindling the fire, in consuming the flesh, in casting in spice, that the very bones may be burnt. What more? Thus saith the Lord God,⁵ behold I will pollute my Sanctuary, even the pride of your power, the pleasure of you, and your hearts desire. But I pray thee (good fellow) doth he nothing, but only forsake, or suffer idly something to be done: or doth he only moderate the issue of things, who himself inciteth the enemies, appointeth armies, leadeth the host, and bringeth even into the city, and commandeth that none be spared, kindleth the fire, and by all means doth nourish it, and finally doth prostitute the very Temple to the ravine and avarice of all the ungodly? If thou deniest this work of God, the work, I say, of God not idly looking on, but effectually working the same thing by Nebuchadnezzar, I will yet rather believe the Lord, than the false Prophet. For the Lord reasoning thus of the self thing, that is of the destruction of the City: