Gods free mercy to England presented as a precious and powerful motive to humiliationGods free mercy to England presented as a pretious and powerfull motive to humiliation

Thirdly, The manner how God hath brought about these mercies is so rare, as that we may not only say (as David to the Woman) Is not the hand of Joab in all this? but we may certainly conclude, The hand of God is most conspicuous in all Englands mercies; Never since the first day of the creation of the world, when God brought light out of darkness, hath God more appeared in the works of his providence in bringing good out of evil, than in these last years, wherein he hath suffered the enemies of the Church and State to dig pits, and then he hath caught them in the pits that they themselves have digged; In the net which they bid is their own ⟨p. 11⟩¹foot taken; the wicked is snared in the works of his own hand. Higgaion. Selah. As Christ whipped out the buyers and sellers by a whip made of their own cords, which they brought to tie their beasts withal; so God hath whipped out the enemies of this Church and State, by whips of their own making; He hath taken them by their own iniquities, and hath held them with the cords ²of their own sin: Goliath is killed with his own sword; H•man hanged upon his own G•llowes: All that our enemies have done these many years hath been but as the weaving of a spiders web, ³and the hatching of Cockatrice eggs, for they have consumed their bowels by what they have weaved, and they are destroyed by the eggs which they have hatched; God hath delivered us not only by little means, by unlikely means, but by contrary means; he hath brought unity out of division: The endeavours to divide the Nations of England and Scotland, have been the means of their farther union: (we have indeed a saying, Omne malum ab Aquilone; but we may well turn it, and say, Omne bonum ab Aquilone, for Scotland hath been the cause of a great deal of good to England) God hath brought liberty out of oppression: If things had not been so bad, they would not now have been so good; if mans wickedness had not been so evident, Gods goodness had not been so transparent; God hath made our enemies Preservatives, to be their Destructives, and hath ruinated them by what they thought to be established; their very rising hath been their ruin; and by endeavouring to bring themselves too high, they have overgrasped themselves, and almost lost all; In all those things wherein they dealt proudly, God was above them: